The Official Post game thread

[Tunescribe]

Originally Posted by Joker

They had zero pass rush and yet...did YOU see any blitzes until the 4th quarter??? I saw a corner blitz that came form twnety yards away and a safety blitz, otherwise...vanilla... have yet to watch the tape but it was like they weren't even ready tro play defense tonight

That's why losing Talib had a domino effect on the entire defense. You lose the one guy who can play tough man-to-man (allowing someone else to blitz), and everything goes into semi-prevent mode. It shouldn't have to come to that but it does because of inadequate defensive backfield depth. Arrington is not going to get it done. Gregory is just a JAG. Dennard is just a rookie but did OK -- not great.

We also lost Kyle Love early, and I don't think Chandler Jones played. Wilfork was not a force tonight. Nobody else on the d-line did anything except for brief flashes by Ninko. The linebackers can't do it all themselves.

[Claremonster]

Originally Posted by mb6592

What has happened to unflapable playoff Brady?

Age, kids and a b*i*t*c*h* on the side.

What a bad way to end the year. Terrible attempt all around. Unexcusible.

The Ravens deserve to go to the superbowl. They simply were better at pretty much everything, as much as I hate saying it.

[doesntmatter1]

Once again our OFFENSE let us down. Dropped passes killed us and there were no where near enough screens called in this game.

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

I felt like Han Solo watching this game..."I have a bad feeling about this."

The feeling started early as the Pats shut down Baltimore's offense in the 1st quarter, but the Pats just couldn't capitalize. The 3-0 lead after one seemed like one huge lost opportunity to take command of the game. Even though Baltimore scored to take the lead, the Pats responded quickly to retake the lead and after getting the ball back late in the half, they seemed poised to put themselves in great position...

...then Hernandez didn't get out of bounds. Then Brady scrambled for a few, never called timeout and did an awful job getting the team to the line to run another play. It took BB to call a TO (and avoid any possible false start/illegal motion penalty in haste to snap the ball and runoff the clock a la the Seattle game) to set up the disappointing FG. That was the most deflating 2-minute drive that resulted in points that I can remember.

After stopping Baltimore's opening possession of the 3rd, it seemed imperative that the Pats score. How many wasted opportunities could the Pats withstand before having to pay for them? Pats were driving, then on 3rd down Welker drops the easy 1st down conversion and thanks to the wind, the Pats had to punt from otherwise long FG range. Of course Baltimore scored to take the lead. The game was starting to shift.

Pats get the ball back and desperate to regain momentum, convert a 3rd and 2 to Woodhead...but holding on Solder wiped it out. The ensuing 3rd and 12 went nowhere and back the ball went to the Ravens, who of course drive the field and score for the 8pt lead. You just knew the missed opportunities in the 1st half and the blown 3rd downs this quarter were going to be killers.

Then things went to poop after Ridley got popped. That was the "this game is about over if the D can't cover for that" moment. And Baltimore scored again. Even then, I still held out hope they could pull off the comeback and after the Pats got deep into Ravens territory the longshot comeback seemed real. Then Brady's pass got batted straight into the air to the Ellerbe and that was pretty much all she wrote. Any chance after that was in the miracle category.

Flacco played superbly in the 2nd half and his OL did a great job giving him time to hit those huge 20+ yarders. It took a halftime adjustment to do so, but he did a great job taking advantage of Talib's absence. His play magnified the blown chance just before the half and the nightmare 3rd downs in the 3rd quarter; When the other team is executing, you have to execute and the Pats didn't. It cost them the game. You could feel it throughout.

Regards,
Chris

[DocHoliday]

Hard to say it, but wished we hit hard enough to take out players to at least somewhat make up for the hits our own players take.

By the fourth quarter Welker was limping around and Vereen was running scared.

[crypto]

Originally Posted by deters

he's so good he dropped 2 critical passes. one because he is too short and the second because he hands turned to stone on a easy pass.

he also made multiple critical plays and if that ludicrous tipped interception hadn't happened and the pats had come back to win then you would have been praising him to no end for that 30-something-yard reception he made. give it a rest jesus

[Armstrong12]

Ravens deserved it. no harm done, this frenchise is still d best in the nfl and i hope this years loss and last years will bring the passion and the fire in TFB's eyes once again cause he ( and thr entire team with him) seem to lose it. Id rather not to talk about x's and o's cause i dont find it useful, i consider our loss as a more mental (although our high powerd O sucked and our D kept being suckish) one. I hope for a vetter season next year and most imporently: GO PATS.

[BoTown]

Post-game insomnia. This game had too much of a 2010 season playoff loss to the Jets feel to it, in that the Pats got smacked around and didn't fight back. This isn't like visualizing Plaxico catching the ball in the end zone, or Welker dropping the SB clinching first down, but it still sucks. This is the unfortunate cost of wanting the Pats to win so bad, that when it's over and they fall short, it's a recovery process.

[TriplecHamp]

Originally Posted by Armstrong12

Ravens deserved it. no harm done, this frenchise is still d best in the nfl and i hope this years loss and last years will bring the passion and the fire in TFB's eyes once again cause he ( and thr entire team with him) seem to lose it. Id rather not to talk about x's and o's cause i dont find it useful, i consider our loss as a more mental (although our high powerd O sucked and our D kept being suckish) one. I hope for a vetter season next year and most imporently: GO PATS.

If blowing a lead to the Colts, Losing the biggest game in franchise history, sitting out an entire season after that, losing to the ravens at home in his first playoff game back, losing to the hated Jets a year later then losing in the SB again to the same team that cost us a perfect record didn't "bring the passion and fire back" nothing ever will. I don't think the Passion and fire ever left though.

The way I look at it this team is constructed to win games throughout the regular season. Everything we do is opened up by TB and the short-intermediate passing game. YAC is essential to moving the chains for us and when we can affectively do all of this we can run the ball well. Its somewhat telling how many times we throw the ball on 2nd/3rd and short situations. Theres a saying about running the ball when the whole stadium knows you're going to and still getting the yardage needed and without Gronk this team can't do that. This offense is so complex (from the outside at least) that Im not even sure I understand exactly whats going on most of the time but I do understand that Since Moss left, we haven't had a single receiver that can consistently go up and make the contested catch, demand attention down the field and beat man coverage.

The window Brady has for error is probably the smallest in all of football. He can't "let his go go up and make a play" he can't "put it in an area". The teams we have seen deep in the playoffs have closed those air tight windows down by being physical with our receivers and sitting on the shorter throws. As much as the team will point the finger on "poor execution" and as true as it may be, we all know that much more goes into winning and losing than execution. You watch Peyton Manning throwing to a pair of 6"3+ wideouts, I don't think Flacco has a receiver under 6ft, I KNOW Matt Ryan doesn't have a receiver under 6ft. Kaepernick has Yactree, Davis, Walker, Moss. I wouldn't say were a finesse team, we can certainly run the ball effectively against some teams (others not so much) But we are most certainly finesse when it comes to throwing the ball and defending the pass for that matter.

[JoeShmoe]

Originally Posted by BadMoFo

Really, I think Brady played scared and dumb. That run at the end of the half was horrid, and the one where he ran into the ref looked like he was using the ref to protect him. He needs to either throw the ball away or run like a man.

Also, as much as I like Welker, he better lower his asking price. He's not gonna get what he wants here, especially when he had two crucial drops in consecutive playoffs.

As much as I like the hurry up, there are moments when we need to slow it down. On our first drive of the game, we had a third and two and we tried to catch them off guard by running it. Really?

I'd agree with this, Brady just flat out had a bad day, starting with missing Welker deep when he was wide open to constantly trying to fit the ball into tight windows.

But I also think the play calling suspect we should have got a second TE involved in the passing game or used Vereen a little more. And throwing the ball on those 3rd and shorts, just ground and pound. Also in hindsight we should have gone for the those 4th downs when on the Ravens 35/40

Just disappointing execution and vanilla play calling when it really mattered