The Official Post game thread

[ivanvamp]

Originally Posted by grux

1. Ravens were the better team today. They were more physical and didn't play to lose.
2. Talib - I would only sign him if he takes a BIG home town discount. He just can't stay on the field.
3. Welker - The pats have a tough decision but my gut feeling is he is gone. The drop today was brutal.

Welker had 8 catches for 117 yds and a TD and took an absolute beating today. Yes, he had one enormous drop, but otherwise he was a stud today.

The reasons, IMO, the Pats lost:

1. Terrible red zone offense. 6 trips inside the 25, 4 inside the red zone, and a total of 1 TD out of that? Abysmal.

2. Awful, awful clock management to end the first half. Could have had 7, settled for 3. Big difference between 17-7 and 13-7, b/c at 13-7 if the Ravens score a TD they have the lead. Came back to bite them for sure.

3. Injuries. Losing Talib was HUGE. Ridley's injury directly and immediately led to a gigantic turnover that made it an 8-point lead for Baltimore. Not his fault....dude got knocked out. But it still mattered a ton.

4. Turnovers and bad luck. The Pats had two key turnovers (not counting the last one that didn't really matter). One on a freak knock out play where Ridley's arm and the ball hit his knee, not the ground, and the other on a tipped pass (naturally!). But down 3-0 in the turnover department (2-0 when the game was still in doubt)....you just can't do that and expect to win.

I thought for the most part they did a pretty good job against the run (Ravens had 3.7 ypc), but Flacco was terrific.

I don't ever want to see in this or any other fans' forum the notion that the Pats have a decisive advantage at QB. Not because Brady isn't, on the whole, better than the guy on the other team, but because in any given game, the other team's QB very well may have a really good game and Brady may not. We've seen it enough now to know that that's a very real possibility.

Well, time to regroup, have a good draft, get a better defense, and hope that the injuries don't pile up again at the wrong time.

[randomk1]

Originally Posted by patsinthesnow

It's time to say **** it and draft a speedy, tall, 1st round WR.

I hope Bolden can beat out Ridley for the starting job, talk about overrated.

Please resign Talib

Time? People have been saying that since forever. We had the corpse of Deion Branch starting ffs.

Boldin bullying our DBs was miserable to watch.

Talibs value to the D is huge. We have no depth outside of him and Dennard,McCourty. Rest are JAGs.

And as usual - no passrush once again.

It's a different season but all the same problems emerged from the past.

Welker's ******* drop was the turning point in this game again. I've defended him being clutch but no longer.

[PatriotSeven]

Not really in the mood to pick our team apart. We just stunk it up as a whole. I just feel like getting drunk.

And I probably won't even watch this Superbow. I could care less about either one of these two teams. At least Atlanta would have given me someone to pull for.

I need to step away from football for awhile now. Grrr....Oh well, our fan base is still full of winners in my book. Great season with a sad ending guys.

[TheBostonStraggler]

Originally Posted by coolguy

The patriots are soft on both sides of the field and they need a image change.

It's better to not speak and have one suspect you're a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. This was not a physically out performed day for the Patriots. Both lines did a relatively good job of holding their own. Joe Flacco came up big, Tom Brady didn't. There is the reason for this game. You would have to have been watching The Real Housewives of Atlanta to have missed this obvious conclusion.
And before you open your mouth again make it even worse, fans owe a lot to Brady for the things he has done for the franchise. Today just wasn't one of them. Get over it.....

[Sciz]

As we found out tonight, using your resources to upgrade your coverage and pass rush doesn't really matter if those players aren't on the field. Not a whole lot you can do about that.

[jbb9s]

technically no, not exactly. When Talib went down, Balt went to 3 wides then someone named Cole had to play and that was the weakess.

Also, being shut out in the 2nd half? That is embarrassing. Pats offense sets records in the regular season and plays like crap when it matter most at least starting in the 4th of the Colts AFCCG, the two superbowls and of course today. thats why they lost, not b/c of Talib.

[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?

[Brady_to_Moss]

Suggs already taking about the pats being pricks ect. Here we go...

[Stoke city patriots]

I'm so deflated, it's 3:10 in the morning and I'm too pissed off to sleep!

Such a flat performance. I can't actually believe we came out and gave that piece of **** performance!

Bottled it.

[The Beast]

A discouraging loss for sure, but we'll be back and better next year. A healthy Gronk, a healthy Talib, a healthy Jones and this game might've been a lot different and if we have those next year we are even better. We also made too many crucial mistakes (drops, penalties, time management etc.) and the Ravens took advantage of them and outplayed us. Oh well onto next year and go the 49ers.