New England Patriots Thread Mod Warning Post #253

eagle eye

After a few hours to think about things I remember seeing something similar to this a couple of years ago at the start of the season. 2014 was the season and we won the Suoerbowl. We looked godawful in three of the first four games and came away 2-2. We then went and thumped the 4-0 Bengals.

I hope it's something like that this year where players are not fully wound up to prevent injury.

The bye week that season was week 10, this year it's week 11.

bruschi

Havent had the appetite to watch it back in full yet. But I'm not going to get too downtrodden just yet. Poor result, but after I over reacted to that Kansas defeat in '14, I'll never do it again. That time what pushed me over the edge was the lack of offence options and Kenbrell Thompkins was then cut who I thought was looking good. It's similar now, albeit 4 years older Brady. If this is the end, so be it, but I still think there is fight left in the team. Despite the deficiencies all around, it is still good enough to be challenging.

You can look at the Jags results in one of 2 ways, that they actually are pretty sh!t with the ball, or they embarrassed our defence. They have their own issues either way and so do most teams in the AFC in particular.

Hazys

They didn't look great last night on either side of the ball. It's still early only week 3 so i'm not freaking out yet.



Lose against the Dolphins on Sunday at home and then i'll go into full panic mode.

Itssoeasy

When was the last time the patriots fan base went in to full on panic mode ? 2001 ?

Hazys

17 years ago today this happened

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St9u238ipRE

So before anybody gets too upset about the Pats performance so far this season, its good to reflect on the 17 year run we've been on.

AbusesToilets

I think folks are being overly optimistic tbh. I hope they come back with a vengence next week and go forth from there but I'm not seeing it.

The team is desperately low on talent at the moment. We lost 3 blue chippers on offense in Amendola, Cooks and Lewis, in addition to Mitchell. We haven't replaced them, with our hopes riding on a 32yr old Edelman coming back after blowing out his knee, and praying Josh Gordon can have a total life turn around.

The Defense is a shambles. No speed, no ability to generate pressure consistently, can't stop the run and getting torn apart across the middle. The gameplan to beat us is straightforward now. Isolate our LBs against speedy players, gash us on crossing routes. Long drives to keep Brady on the bench.

I'm not seeing where we turn this around just by trying harder. That's not going to make Hightower faster or McCourty capable of covering WRs. We lose next week and I don't see us taking the Division.

Hazys

LB Bentley and RB Burkhead both placed on IR...fcuking disaster

Hopefully one or both can come back at some point but they'll be missing a minimum 8 weeks and the ways things are going, we might be out of contention by then

JaMarcus

Jesus. Didn't even realise Bentley was hurt. Says a lot that he seemed to be already one of our better players on defence.

AbusesToilets

For the love of Crom, this has been a grim week. I really hope McDaniels pulls the thumb out on Sunday. We're just going to have score and score and score to have any chance this season. Any word on when Hollister is apt to be back?

JaMarcus

That's 6 out of our 9 draft picks on IR by my count.

bruschi

JaMarcus wrote: »

That's 6 out of our 9 draft picks on IR by my count.

without knowing the exact details of each individual one, are some of those strategic that a minor knock has put them on IR so instead of having to cut them for not making the roster, safer just to go on IR, keep them for the year and reassess again next season?

Shedite27

bruschi wrote: »

without knowing the exact details of each individual one, are some of those strategic that a minor knock has put them on IR so instead of having to cut them for not making the roster, safer just to go on IR, keep them for the year and reassess again next season?

Presume they get paid for IR season yeah?

bruschi

Shedite27 wrote: »

Presume they get paid for IR season yeah?

Wouldnt be exactly up to speed on the full details, but my understanding is yes, they do and the money still counts towards the salary cap. base salary paid and just the performance bonuses not given.

JaMarcus

bruschi wrote: »

without knowing the exact details of each individual one, are some of those strategic that a minor knock has put them on IR so instead of having to cut them for not making the roster, safer just to go on IR, keep them for the year and reassess again next season?

Yeah I imagine so. But the fact remains that we lost a lot of talent in the offseason, and we're now in a position where we're without most of our draft class (through injury, or not being deemed good enough this year) to help fill that gap. Our free agent/trade signings have hardly stepped up to the plate either. Clayborn in particular has been disappointing for me.

I just think our biggest problem this year is the lack of depth all over the team, which hurts even more when - on a man-for-man basis - it looks like we lost a lot more talent than we brought in this offseason. It's already evident on offence without Edelman, and it was evident on defence the last 2 weeks when Chung and Flowers went out.

I've no doubt we'll improve and I still expect us to win the AFC East. But we also seem to be in much more frail position re: injuries which will of course happen.

BizzyC

Rishard Matthews released by Titans...
He's a decent enough talent, could be a decent pickup and replacement for Mitchell...

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

Trading Cooks is looking worse every week. Rams got a bargain.

j8wk2feszrnpao

Baring a crazy 2nd half, we are 2:2.
Not sure how much it’s about the Pats or the Fins. Fins have done nothing well, awful in every aspect, even punting.
Jordan might be getting some attention, but everyone else on offense has stepped it up.
It’s been the return of the D from the first game. But tough to tell who they are yet based on what the Fins have done.

eagle eye

The return of Flowers has made a huge difference on D. Van Noy is now free to do what he does best.
Big improvement in rushing the ball, Michel running with a lot more conviction and confidence. Gordon looks dangerous even though he has only one catch.
Can't wait for next week and the return of Julian.

j8wk2feszrnpao

I know Bills philosophy, but get Brady out, please!

BizzyC

Big improvement yesterday on both sides of the ball, but still worried about our inconsistency.....which team will show up next week?
Receiving corps starting to look a lot better; with Julian back, Dorsett starting to get production and Gordon coming more into the playbook we can expect the double coverage on Gronk to begin easing off a bit and freeing up our schemes a lot more.
My biggest concerns now are on D....as bad as the Fins were yesterday, we still didn't get much pressure up front.

BizzyC

edit: duplicate post

eagle eye

BizzyC wrote: »

Big improvement yesterday on both sides of the ball, but still worried about our inconsistency.....which team will show up next week?
Receiving corps starting to look a lot better; with Julian back, Dorsett starting to get production and Gordon coming more into the playbook we can expect the double coverage on Gronk to begin easing off a bit and freeing up our schemes a lot more.
My biggest concerns now are on D....as bad as the Fins were yesterday, we still didn't get much pressure up front.

Last year was a 2-2 start with losses to Carolina and Kansas. We made it to the Superbowl.

j8wk2feszrnpao

BizzyC wrote: »

My biggest concerns now are on D....as bad as the Fins were yesterday, we still didn't get much pressure up front.

We played a lot of DB's and the coverage was really good. It resulted in a lot less rushers, but they did an ok job.
Way too early to judge the D yet. The Fins were awful on offense, Tannehill was terrible. We may see games like weeks 1 and 4, but there will probably be games like 2 and 3 as well for the rest of the season.

bruschi

a nice win. played well and Dolphns were stinking. Hard to really put any sort of emphasis or analysis on it when you win a blowout like that. but still good to get confidence back up and Michel to be having an impact.

AbusesToilets

I hope we continue tonuse White for rushing downs going forward. He's serviceable there, and it also helps to disguise the play design.

Dorsett made some nice catches, good to see him staying involved.

I hope Gronk isn't seriously hurt. It must be incredibly frustrating for him getting jammed out of the game constantly.

Hazys

How bad did the Gronk injury look like? Was at the game so I didn't even know he got injured until today.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of worry about Gronk in the media, so i'm guessing its minor and he'll play Thursday.

FastFullBack

TOss Sweep wrote: »

I usually don't do pre-season games but I will throw this out there to any Pats fan flying over for regular season who wants to tailgate. If I am at the game and you want to tailgate let me know you are more than welcome to join.

Is this offer still open TOss Sweep? My borther and I are heading over for the Chiefs game and would love the authentic tailgate experience. Thanks

Hazys

Low key big game tonight.

If we lose we go 2-3 facing one of the best teams in the league who tore us apart last season. So by week 7 we could be 2-4 which would be a disaster.

ELM327

Pats improve every year after the first 4 games. Someone wrote earlier that we've gone 2-2 6 times in the first 4 games, and won the superbowl 3 of those 6.

Not concerned about it too much, I'm expecting a win against IND. Especially if the running game from the last game continues. Really impressed by white in the run.

j8wk2feszrnpao

It's a home game tonight, on a short week for both teams. We've looked far better in our two home games, and badly struggled in both away.
Hoping the D can improve to a consistent level. The offense should look good with Edelman back, hopefully Gronk fit, and continue to allow Gordon ease into the system.

eagle eye

Yeah, I'm expecting a big performance tonight. I think Belichick would have liked to not have the players at full speed until this week but previous results meant we had to win last week.



Anyways I'd expect us to go 6-0 or at worst 5-1 before the bye week.

eagle eye

A really nice performance tonight with a little blip in the middle. Brady looks as good as ever. The return of Edelman looked to really improve the offense.

So many players I love watching and tonight Devin McCourty had a very nice game.
Gilmore oozes class, love watching that guy every week.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

Those 2 interceptions were very unlucky. Iirc it's at least his 3rd interception this season from dropped passes.

BizzyC

Encouraging performance from the Offence, Michel running the ball well, Brady finding production from multiple sources now...
Defence looked ok last night, but the Colts didn't really have a lot of weapons to worry about. The single performances there were the best aspect of it, McCourty, Chung, Gilmore all looking good.

AbusesToilets

I was a bit disappointed tbh with the defense. They weren't have a lot of success rushing against a very depleted Colts OL. Secondary showed up well for the most part.

eagle eye

AbusesToilets wrote:

I was a bit disappointed tbh with the defense. They weren't have a lot of success rushing against a very depleted Colts OL. Secondary showed up well for the most part.

There wasn't many times where they sent them after the QB. Last night was a man marking assignment night from what I seen.

Hazys

BizzyC wrote: »

Encouraging performance from the Offence, Michel running the ball well, Brady finding production from multiple sources now...
Defence looked ok last night, but the Colts didn't really have a lot of weapons to worry about. The single performances there were the best aspect of it, McCourty, Chung, Gilmore all looking good.

Which one? Because Devin looked awful and he's looked awful all season, its been very concerning. He was getting picked on and torched by TEs all night.

Sorry to pick out the one negative in last night's performance.

BizzyC

I think it's rough to blame a McCourty on the TE success, from what I saw the success came primarily from crossing routes against zone coverage. If he bites too hard on it too early, something else deep will open up.
In those cases, Safeties are reliant on the LB getting enough depth to help take away the throw underneath and force a slower ball they can come down on.

j8wk2feszrnpao

Really big game at the weekend, if the Chiefs win then have a 3 game lead on us, and favs for home adv in the playoffs.
Playing at home could be key, given how we've done on the road so far.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

Can't see us winning, but then again it wouldn't be first time I've said that and we've gone onto win.
Kansas are on fire and I think they'll win comfortably.

j8wk2feszrnpao

Big Pussy Bonpensiero wrote: »

Can't see us winning, but then again it wouldn't be first time I've said that and we've gone onto win.
Kansas are on fire and I think they'll win comfortably.

I can def see us winning, esp at home.
I still don't have massive faith in the defense, but the offense looked itself last week. I know the Colts were missing players, but they still left at least another 2 TDs out there.
The Kansas offense has been on fire, but their D hasn't.
Has the makings of a high scoring shootout.

BizzyC

I think Kansas take this one.
Their O has too many weapons for us to matchup against, I think it will be a shootout but their D will have more stops than ours will and that will make the difference.

eagle eye

We do what we did last week. Leave four guys on the line and just cover every receiver.

dh1985

eagle eye wrote: »

We do what we did last week. Leave four guys on the line and just cover every receiver.

KC are a long way ahead of the colts offensively. They can run the ball too which the colts are weak at.
This is a massive game. Would imagine even after a couple of seasons having past that belicheck is stil hurting from that hiding by the chiefs back in '14. Ok we went on to win the superbowl that year but that was an embarrassing loss thats hard forgotten

Christy42

eagle eye wrote: »

We do what we did last week. Leave four guys on the line and just cover every receiver.

I have Hunt on my fantasy team so this works great for me.

If you go man coverage you will also need some on the QB. Mahomes can run.

It will not be easy to shut them down. Even the Jags struggled. As mentioned their defense also has issues so should be a good match!

Hazys

Big win

eagle eye

Yeah, offense has got it going again but the D was awful for most of that game.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

Delighted to have been wrong, and what a games as well. The O looks so different with Edelman and Gordon. It has essentially given us 3 more weapons as it frees Gronk from the double team on every play. Hightower also played very well after all the criticism he got in recent weeks.

A few notable stats after last night (stolen from reddit):

Brady becomes the winningest player in NFL history, now ahead of Vinny by 1.

Brady is now 96-1 in regular season when ahead at home at HT. Only loss was last year vs the Chiefs.

We also now have a 12 game winning streak against teams with a better record, 1 more breaks the record.


Crisis looks to be over but as was said above our D looked woeful last night, albeit against an incredible offence. We also have still yet to win away this season and next week we have a tough game at the Bears followed by a game in Buffalo.

j8wk2feszrnpao

Defense not a surprise. There isn't a single pro bowl talent in the D. They were up against an impressive offense, but considering the Chiefs were only on the field for 24mins and Mahomes missed a number of open targets; it could have been a lot worse.

Happy with offense. They also left some points out there; that Chiefs defense sucks as well. Thought we over ran the ball. I know it chewed up clock, and we mainly ran it well; but it just meant we were in 3rd down a lot of times.

Overall a good win. The offense showed what it is, but so did the D.

BizzyC

What a shootout!
Good to see Michel running the ball well and Gordon getting more involved in the pass game.
I had expected our D to give up 36+, I just thought the KC D would do a better job then they did.
We really need help in the front 7, once again no sacks... our coverage is being hung out to dry on every passing play.