New England Patriots Thread Mod Warning Post #253

Shedite27

Yeah I'm not as confident as others on here sound. I think we've overachieved (particularly on offence) to get to 7 wins, whereas Ravens, Chiefs and Bills have underperformed, to get to 7, and Titans will have Henry pack for playoff times. I still think we'll be underdogs against any of those at home (and probably Chargers/Bengals on the road.

Getting to the playoffs in Mac's first season would be a great achievement in itself

Mr. Guappa

We've been lucky with injuries so far as well. The next 4 games will tell a lot - if we can go 2-2 over that stretch I'd be happy, and with Dolphins and Jags after that, our final two games are very winnable. 11-6 would be a great effort for the season.

AbusesToilets

I think the lack of explosiveness in the passing game could hurt us, still feels like we're not getting enough out of the TEs. It was good to see Smith get involved more, want more of that.

BizzyC

A very good performance yesterday I thought.

The Titans may have been missing Henry, but they still have a very good D. We moved the ball well through the air, got a couple of scores and no turnovers. Defensively, we able to allow them to run the ball, knowing they needed to pass to keep up on the scoring.

If they get Henry back in time for the playoffs they could be a different beast, 200+ yards rushing with him in the game would usually lead to a lot more scores for them.

eagle eye

Gotta say that Kendrick Bourne is turning into a superstar in New England. I never seen that coming when we signed him, I thought he was just depth at the position.

el Fenomeno

Looks like Dugger is going on the Reserve/Covid list and will miss Monday against Buffalo.

That's a huge loss.

DJ_Eoghan

Massive loss if that's the case, particularly as we don't really have depth there because we play so much big nickel. Next man up would be Justin Bethel, or probably more likely Jalen Mills making the switch to safety. Either way, the drop-off would be significant. Still an outside chance he could play Monday if he's vaccinated, has no symptoms and has 2 clear PCR tests.

Shedite27

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118254333#Comment_118254333

We've seen a lot of these cases end up spreading around a area of the team too. If DB's eat lunch or work out together, there might be more victims

el Fenomeno

#1 seed going into tomorrow night's game. Huge game.

eagle eye

It was a huge game, now it's massive.

el Fenomeno

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118275704#Comment_118275704

Actually just to correct you on that, it was massive. Now it's gigantic.

eagle eye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118277670#Comment_118277670

😁

Cannot disagree with that!

eagle eye

Belichick, McDaniels, Bricillo, Harris, Stevenson, our Offensive line and our whole Defense can all take a bow.

A Belichick masterclass in bad weather football executed by everybody.

el Fenomeno

That was as impressive a regular season win as Belichick has ever cooked up. I prefer having won like this than having blown them out. That's a special, special victory.

paulie21

Bills head to Tampa next week while we have our bye. Come on Tommy Boy

BizzyC

Has anyone done the math on the 1 seed for next week?

Chiefs, Titans, Ravens could all catch up to us at 9-4 next week, who will have take the top spot?

DJ_Eoghan

We would by virtue of best in-conference record, which is why we're no 1 now.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

Phenomenal stuff by BB to get us to this position with this group. 3 wins from remaining 4 games will see us take the #1 seed (home to Bills and Jags, away at Colts and Bills).

eagle eye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118286405#Comment_118286405

Slightly wrong. Home to Bills and Jags, away to Colts and Dolphins.

ArmaniJeanss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118286405#Comment_118286405

@ Dophins as said.

But I don't see how 3 wins could be enough as that would bring us to five defeats, and any of the three teams who currently have four defeats could run out. (Which is probably unlikely but it sounded like you you were saying that 3 wins would be definitely #1 seed).

Also (and annoyingly) I think if the defeat happened to be against Buffalo then they would have the primary 'record in division' tie-breaker on us, though hopefully they lose at Tampa first.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

Apologies, but yea on both counts, Phins away rather than playing the Bills a 3rd time and I overlooked the fact we've played a game more. But if we match or better the records of the Titans, Ravens & Chiefs, and don't lose to the Bills, then we definitely take the #1 seed.

Slightly more complicated but 3 wins should still see it happen. Our conference record is 7-1 as it stands, of those 3 the Titans have the next best conf record of 5-3.

The other teams would need to win their 5 remaining games, which I don't see happening. The Titans (on a 2 game losing streak, 1 of which was the Texans) have a shot though; their toughest game is at the Steelers. The Ravens have a nightmare finish and the Chiefs have to visit both the Bengals and Chargers.

StringerBell

Phenomenal, only caught the game today. Absolutely loved it, great galvanising outing for the D too.

Judon had jokes after, praising everyone, bar Mac he said cause all he really did was hand the ball off 🤣

Didn't think it was possible for BB to impress me any more than he has to date but **** me he's on track

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

Very disappointing last 2 weeks but overall still optimistic about the post-season. IMO there's no team that would comfortably beat any other team that are currently in the playoff spots (Chiefs, Titans, Colts, Ravens, Bengals, Bills). I'd add the Chargers to that list too and the Dolphins on their current winning streak are a bit of a dark horse. It's easily the most wide open AFC in years with every team having very obvious flaws.

DJ_Eoghan

It’s shows how tight it is this year when 2 weeks can change your perspective on the entire season. We’ve gone from win out for a no 1 seed to havin to win out to make a wild card. I’ve been worrying about this phins game for a few weeks as they have a long history of throwing a spanner into our ambitions. I think we can give any team a game, but I do worry that we’ve been flat. We’ve admittedly played two very good teams, but I just felt in both games that we were manhandled in both trenches. I also think there’s a bit of rookie qb syndrome kicking in e.g. teams have enough tape now to know what Mac likes and doesn’t like, and are forcing him to do more of what he doesn’t like. That’s no criticism of Mac, it happens to all rookie qbs at some stage.

eagle eye

Our problem is young players in key positions which is always going to be a problem against good defenses. I'm very happy with how the season has gone and its next year I'm really looking forward to.

I'm waiting for my last Christmas present to arrive, the missus bought me a no.10 jersey but it didn't arrive on time. I told her it doesn't matter and I'm really looking forward to having it.

StringerBell

Fizzle out of a season really, but in all honesty if you'd offered me this position at the beginning of the season I'd have been very happy.

Some really good encouraging signs for the future, anything extra would have been, and still will be a bonus this year.

Very happy with how it's gone overall, came up short the last couple of weeks, hopefully can finish strong now.

paulie21

Adrian Phillips has agreed a new 3 year deal

el Fenomeno

The majority of plausible scenarios have us as with a road trip to either Buffalo or Cincinatti in the playoffs. Small chance we have a home game against the Bills, but would need the Jets to beat them next week which is hard to see happening.

eagle eye

Yeah it's very unlikely the Bills lose to the Jets.

Personally I'd rest all the starters next week. I'd rather be fresh in the playoffs facing the Titans than tired facing whoever the fourth seed is.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

Nice result & performance today even if it was the Jags. Good to see receivers stepping up too.

Also it was nice of the Titans to all but bury the Phins' playoff hopes. From a very quick look at the standings, with 2 spots left, the Chargers and Raiders are both ahead of the Dolphins and play each other next week. The Colts, also ahead, visit the Jags next week to wrap up their spot.

And lastly, nice to see the Chiefs be knocked off the top spot too, hopefully now the Titans do the business next week too. Probably the only matchup I definitely wouldn't like in the playoffs would be at Arrowhead.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118408295#Comment_118408295

Assuming we finish 5th (the only scenario where we finish 6th is if we lose and Colts win by my reckoning) we play seed 4.

ATM it's the Bills and will be them if seeds 2-4 win next week (#2 Chiefs, #3 Bengals, #4 Bills).

We play the Bengals if they lose and Bills win - with the Chiefs result irrelevant (#2 Chiefs/Bills, #3 Chiefs/Bills, #4 Bengals)

And we play the Chiefs if both the Bills and Bengals win - both have the head-to-head over the Chiefs (#2 Bengals, #3 Bills, #4 Chiefs).

If we finish 6th then we play the 3 seed (see above).

But if the Bills lose, all bets are off. We could take the #1 seed if other results go our way, or we could still finish as low as #6.

The Bills are the least likely teams to lose this weekend however, at home to the Jets. The Bengals game is essentially meaningless. I wouldn't be upset if we rested most of our starters next week either; win or lose it's highly likely we're going to either the Bengals or Bills. If the Bills do end losing though it could cost us a home playoff game.

StringerBell

Bill has tied Don Shula now with most 10 win seasons of all time.

Gonna be a sad day when that man steps away.

eagle eye

I honestly believe when Bill steps away that it'll be Vrabel taking over if neither of Stephen or Brian is ready to.

Speckydodge

Bills are really hot and cold this season and the jets are playing decently last few weeks. I have a feeling that game is gonna be close.

So will ours in likelihood.

Play the starters it's good experience against a good D , and some players are still gelling on this team.

eagle eye

You play the starters then you go on the road tired if the Bills win.

You play the backups and enter the playoffs fresh there's a chance you have a home h

game in the divisional round and a fresher team than most.

It makes no sense to me to play the starters and risk injury.

ArmaniJeanss

If (big if) Broncos have beaten Chiefs and Texans have beaten Titans, then #1 seed is still in play. I think in that case you have to play the starters. With the flexibility to withdraw them depending on how the Bills/Jets game is going. Be useful to engineer a situation where our game is 10/15 minutes behind the Bills game to maximise information.

If, as is likely, either Chiefs or Titans have won then backups probably is the best play.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

The only way anything changes big for us is if the Bills lose at home to the Jets. Would rather we rested players tbh given those odds. And even if they do lose and we win, unless the other 3 teams lose also we wouldn't get the bye.

Shedite27

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118441052#Comment_118441052

It's the same argument every year. If you play your starters and they get injured you made the bad decision (eg the year Wes Welker did ACL). If you rest them and lose first round of the playoffs you made the bad decision (examples pretty much every year. No win situation for the head coach.

I play the players, escpecialy for first half. I expect the Bills have beaten the Jets by then anyway, so we'll know our fate

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118442868#Comment_118442868

I agree, except this year we don't barely have anything to lose by resting players.

el Fenomeno

So if the Raiders win, we travel to Buffalo.

If the Chargers win, we travel to Cincinatti.

Speckydodge

A tie means Cinnci too

BizzyC

That was a bit of a ****-show from the D last night.

Aside from the 2 turnovers on offence, we killed ourselves with penalties - twice on punts to give them a 1st down.

There also seemed to be somewhat of a lack of effort from the D, on multiple plays I saw guys give up and start walking when the play moved away from them, or normally good tacklers taking bad angles.

CMcsporty

Belichick uses the Dolphins game as a Vitamin D supplement

Effectively it was a bye week and they will squeeze the life out of the Bills. Jones might even be let throw the ball 5 times.

On to Cincinnati

eagle eye

Yeah, no doubt that those players didn't put in a full week.

I like our chances against the Bills.

BizzyC

Well that was half-expected.

I thought that our D was looking old & tired towards the end of the season, and I was worried about containing Josh Allen....I did not expect it to go THIS badly though...

Our D-line was poor, linebackers poor, DBs had no chance given how long Allen had to pass the ball....

I cant really put any blame on the Offense for this one, from kickoff they were chasing the game which took away their DNA of being a power running team and forced them to chase the scoreline.

Still, time for optimism. Back into the playoffs after 1 season out of them, Offense is in good shape for next season and Mac will have another off season to grow in command of it.

We really need to look into our front 7 on D, linebacker in particular.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

I suppose we never really had the players to make any sort of extended postseason run. I did have a little bit a hope considering every team in the AFC looked like they had an obvious weakness, but that Bills teams will be very hard bet if they can perform like that in the next few games.

Still though, a very positive season and I don't think many people could argue with that. We got hot for a while there, winning 7 games in a row - some against quality opposition - before, for whatever reason, the bye week killed our momentum. It was very strange seeing - the defence especially - just not play well after the bye. It's usually a sign of good coaching that teams play well after a bye week which makes it all the more strange.

Mac Jones is obviously the biggest positive after that season. He looks like a franchise QB but I'll hold off judgement for another couple of years. Year 2 for him will be the litmus test as is with most rookie QBs. Hopefully BB and Bob see that we have potentially a 3/4 year window with Mac on his rookie contract and they load the roster the best they can. I don't see Mac taking the 'team friendly' deals that Brady took.

I have honestly no idea what BB's intentions are regarding retirement, but he will be 70 for next season. The oldest HC in NFL history was 72 (not counting a 73 year old interim HC) just to give an idea. All the more incentive to be going gung-ho for the next couple of seasons.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

https://twitter.com/rapsheet/status/1482716229387403268?s=21

BB confirmed coming back next year so at least no speculation about his retirement.

eagle eye

We had a bunch of young players with no playoff experience this year. I'm happy with our season although I'd have been happier if we were more competitive against the Bills.

Anyways looking to the off-season, we need to fix the right side of the offensive line. We need to pay JC Jackson or get somebody to replace him. We need a wide receiver, I don't ever want to see Agholor in a Patriots uniform again. We have Meyers if we resign him, we have Bourne who looks very good too but there's some special talent in free agency this season with Allen Robinson and Chris Godwin as the big ones and then a bunch that includes Mike Williams, Michael Gallup and Emmanuel Sanders.

Shedite27

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118487321#Comment_118487321

Yeah JuJu too. Would love them to go after one of them. Even someone like Kirk at arizona

el Fenomeno

We have a big, big gap to fill.