Of the course of my writing career, I've been able to learn from some of the best in the game during one-on-one discussions, film review and coaching clinics. I've been behind the scenes with the Texans as they gameplan for an opponent, watched film with the likes of Bill Belichick, Bill O'Brien, Paul Alexander, Jim McNally, Bob Wylie, Rod Rust, Ron Jaworski, Greg Cosell and a host of others. I've just tried to be a sponge and accumulate any insight they've shared, and then I've tried to pass it on to my readers.
In this series, I'll try to answer questions BSJ members have about certain things they don't understand about football — from the simple to the complex.
First installment: An overview of the Patriots' complex passing offense. From there, we'll dive into each part more extensively:
The Patriots' passing offense, if executed correctly, is almost unstoppable in the hands of a quarterback like Tom Brady.
“I’ve played in a lot of different offenses,” well-traveled quarterback Brian Hoyer told me in Houston between stints with New England. “(The Patriots’) system is a hybrid of all of them. It’s very intricate, but if you have guys who can do it well, it’s the best. And if, in that offense, you have the best QB ever to play the game? Well.... ”
An enormous amount falls on the quarterback's shoulders. It starts with the “alert” system, in which most play calls are essentially two-in-one. There’s the original call, plus an alternate that gets put into motion if the defense aligns a certain way. Brady yells, “Alert!” to make the switch. In New England there are also “look” passes: run plays that are converted to quick dump-offs, should Brady see a corner playing well off a receiver. (Most offenses now include some form of this — some even dress it up with the fancy RPO moniker, run-pass option.)
But what truly separates the Patriots’ system is the extensive combination of receiver route adjustments, based on the defense or a defender’s positioning, that all pass catchers have to know. Most offenses include a few options routes. New England’s offense is built on them.
“At times, there are four decisions that a receiver needs to make after the snap,” said Patriots receivers coach Chad O’Shea. “That’s one advantage of our offense: We give players the flexibility to take what the defense gives.”
Why is it so complex to some players who have flamed out?
On most plays, every eligible receiver is expected to be able to see what the quarterback sees and adjust his route, depending on the defense. Here’s a rundown of the different types of route modifications New England runs:
ROUTE CONVERSION
If a play is designed for, say, a comeback route (or a hitch) and the defender is playing in press man instead of the anticipated zone coverage, a receiver might convert his route to a fade down the sideline.
SIGHT ADJUSTMENT
If a receiver recognizes his defender — usually a safety — is coming on a blitz, he’ll adjust his route. A vertical route might adjust to a slant, getting the receiver open more quickly in the void the safety just created. This is different from a hot route, which most teams use against edge blitzes.
CHOICE ROUTE
Referred to by some teams as a “two-way go,” this usually occurs with a tight end or outside receiver. In essence, if the defender plays you inside, you break outside. If there are two split safeties in the middle of the field (termed “middle of field open" — MOFO in the New England playbook), a receiver may split them; against one safety (“middle of the field closed,” or MOFC), the receiver would stay in the seam.
OPTION ROUTE
This almost always involves the slot receiver playing off the defense. Against a zone, for example, he’ll sit down for a short pass. Against man coverage, he could break right, left or go deep depending on the positioning and the skills of the man in coverage. For example, if the defender plays outside leverage (aligns on the outside shoulder of the receiver), the receiver would break inside.
______________________________
The magic of the system boils down to receivers interpreting a defense the exact same way — and as quickly — as the quarterback. They both have to be cognizant of the defense and what it's showing. Ultimately, that would put the receiver exactly where the QB expects.
If you see Brady and the intended receiver off on a play, it's almost always the receiver's fault.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever met anyone who reads coverages as quickly and correctly,” former offensive coordinator Charlie Weis once told me about Brady when we were sitting at his house in Florida. “(When I was there), you could count on one hand the times he saw something incorrectly. He’d come over to the sideline, and I’d say, ‘They were in quarters coverage.’ And he’d say, ‘But they were moving to (cover) five.’ You’d go back the next day, watch the film, and you could see what he saw.”
Making things even harder for players on today's Patriots is the sheer volume of material that has been layered on since those nascent days under Weis (who, to be fair, didn't exactly invent the whole scheme — he built on a system that New England assistants Ron Erhardt and Ray Perkins created in the 1970s and then brought to the Giants, where Weis learned it in the early '90s).
When Weis left for Notre Dame, in his playbook, he had 50 individual routes, 29 two-man routes, 11 three-man combinations and four miscellaneous routes. Later, Josh McDaniels took over as offensive coordinator and put his spin on the playbook, as did O’Brien after McDaniels left to coach the Broncos in ’09. (McDaniels returned to run New England’s offense in ’12.)
When O'Brien arrived in Houston last year, his first Texans playbook included 109 individual routes, 110 two-man combinations, 67 three-man concepts and 44 miscellaneous routes. “Charlie installed (this offense),” says Hoyer, but “from seeing old call sheets, watching old film, it was very toned down. Now, it’s nowhere near where it was in 2000, with the alerts and all that stuff. Brady ... is constantly adding stuff.”
Coming tomorrow: Film breakdowns of individual parts of the passing offense.