BillyV's Blog

Sorry for being repetitive.  In my last post, I wrote about how the Green Bay Packers completely abandoned the running game, resulting in a loss to the Giants in the NFC Championship.  Now I'm going to say the same thing about the New England Patriots.  In the second half of the Super Bowl, they ran just 6 times, and threw the ball 34.   No wonder Tom Brady got hammered, harried and hurried every time he went back to pass.  As I've tried to say so many times in relation to Andy Reid and the Eagles, if the other team doesn't have to worry about you running the ball, they're going to pin their ears back and give you a relentless pass rush, and they're going to beat you.

I know the Patriots have been a pass-heavy offense all year.  In fact, whenever someone has disputed my argument about the importance of running a balanced offense, the Pats are the team they've pointed to.  But New England usually had some semblance of a running game with Laurence Maroney, and they knew when and how to use it.   But the Giants shut down Maroney in the first half, and then pinned back those ears as Bill Bellichick played right into their hands by giving up on the run.  

Giving up on the running game is just giving up on winning.  You can go away from it for awhile, but at some point, you have to come back, keep the defense honest.   A smart defensive coordinator, such as Steve Spagnuolo of the Giants, will not let you get away with passing every down.  A good pass rusher--and the Giants have several--will make you pay for passing every down.

That's true even against a New England team with a passer like Tom Brady throwing to Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Donte Stallworth.   It's certainly true of the Eagles, who had an injured Donovan McNabb throwing to an unimpressive corps of receivers this year.  Again, I hope Andy Reid was paying attention to the lesson to be learned from the Super Bowl, the conference championship, and the other playoff games.  No matter how good you may think you are, you still have to run the ball and keep the defense honest.