KillEM

I'll start off by saying the team isn't all that bad. If it weren't for Cassels horrible red zone efforts when it was 17-3, it wouldve been a close game. He had wide open receivers, he could've even ran it in himself. Instead he elected to do what he always does when he gets nervous... tuck his head in his chest and fall to the ground. WTF? Just horrible. Easily the worst NFL QB I've seen in a loooong time. It shouldve been 17-10... at that point. We lose some easy points in the red zone... huge momentum shift... kills our teams confidence in Cassel... next thing you know it's 24-3. Then Cassel throws a horrible INT right to one of the SD players.


Anyways, onto some random thoughts.......


Meriweather, Mayo, Sanders were the only players on defense that looked decent.


Even Gostkowski missed a FG. I love his kick offs but I still don't have too much faith in his field goal kicking. He's not automatic like Viniteri.


Vrabel looks TERRIBLE this year. He's over paid and is one of the main reasons our defense can't get any type of pass rush. Patriots seriously need to consider CUTTING him if they can find a better option in Free Agency (Dansby?).

Bruschi and Harrison - Old. Need to retire. Rodney's blown a few too many coverages. Yeah he has alot of tackles.... but so does Dhani Jones.

Deltha ONeal looks like he enjoys getting burned. What's with his half ass efforts to break up the pass vs. Vincent Jackson? They need to put Wheatley in ASAP. It was as if Deltha wasn't even on the field.

Cassel - just a pathetic QB really. He'll never be good. No accuracy. Holds the ball way too long. Can't find his wide open receivers. Under throws Moss more often than not. Sure, his numbers aren't too bad... but anyone would put up those numbers if they were only throwing 5 yard passes to Welker and Faulk. Face it, he sucks. I've known this since preseason and I was shocked he even made the team. It's Belichecks fault... for not signing a veteran QB.

Mayo - was all over the field. Looks good most of the time. Has his bad moments like all rookies, but overall a very promising prospect.

Meriweather - the only guy who can cover in our secondary. Almost had another pick.

Our defense is a year or two late in rebuilding and it's really starting to show. Belichecks refusal to draft LBs and CBs in the past is the reason this D is getting ***** on. We havent won a SB since we let go of Ty law(CB) and Willie McGinest(OLB). Both were 1st round picks. Yet up until this year BB refused to pick any LB's despite our corps being so old... did he think Bruschi and Vrabel would magically get faster as they got older? We should've been grooming replacements for them already and should have some young dogs ready to step in for them at this point.
Instead we have Crable, who is not ready at this point. And we still need to use another pick on an ILB to replace Bruschi.


The 2006 draft REALLY hurt the team. A mega bust in Chad Jackson whom we traded up to pick when we couldve had Brandon Marshall or Greg Jennings with our original pick. And Laurence Maroney, an injury prone change of pace back... the type of player you can pick up on day 2 of the draft.

Logan Mankins - as good as he is... let's be serious... it was a HUGE reach and we probably could've got him with our 2nd round pick. I'll be dissapointed if we throw around BIG TIME money to him this offseason.

Teams are going to continue giving up those dinky screen passes to Welker and Faulk. Who cares if we pick up a few small gains when they're beating us by a huge margin.

Moss - doesn't want to play with Cassel. Simple as that. Cassel's success rate on passes over 10 yards is horrible.

maverick4

Logan Mankins is horrible at pass protection, I followed him all game and was surprised at how bad to mediocre he is. A few times he completely picked up the wrong guy and let a guy fly in behind him.

ctpatsfan77

Vinatieri isn't automatic, and hasn't been in a long time. The Pats wouldn't have even tried for the FG with Vinatieri, tonight or in the SB.

SF was planning to pick him at #33.

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"Momentum was quickly snatched away by New England, who once again proved that any Patriot, at any moment, can make a play." —Inside the NFL, Packers v. Patriots

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WhiZa

The game plan tonight was to stop LT and Gates and then pressure Rivers. All the blitzes were up the middle so Vrable wasn't given much of a chance to do anything to get to the QB.

How do you not mention Koppen. He was much worse then Mankins tonight.

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KillEM

Maybe so, but Vrabel has looked terrible all season long. And by Patriots standards, he's being over paid.

Agree on Koppen, but he was manned up on one of the best NT's in the game so I cut him a little slack.

Any proof to this? As far as I remember, Mankins wasn't close to being the top ranked OG in that draft and was projected to be a mid round pick. That's why everyone was blown away when he was drafted. Not because he's an OG, but because he wasn't even the top ranked OG on anyone elses board.

maverick4

Everyone will see from this season just how horrible and predictable Josh McDaniels is at playcalling. I can already guess over half of his plays now and where the ball is going, opposing defenses must know as well

skri65

Are you serious. He hadn't missed a kick all season till now and he was pretty darn good last year as well.

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"The Colts shock and awe offense ... was shockingly awful." - quote from NFL Game Of The Week (2005 div vs Indy)

HEY BRO! WHAT UP?

All good points, the 2006 draft turned out to really kill the Pats. However, Mike Nolan came out and said he was going to draft Mankins had he fell to them with their first pick in the second round. Also, I'm glad to see Merriweather getting his hands on more passes than last season. As far as him almost having another interception, I'm glad he dropped it because the Pats would have been backed up at their 10 yard line or so. I would rather take my chances with the opposing team punting it.

WhoaDirty

I thought under pressure tonight Cassel looked better than he had previously. He is still holding on to the ball too long (this line is not playing as well as last years), but he took off a couple times tonight, when two games ago he would have taken the sack.


He missed a 48 yarder, cut him some slack, he is perfect otherwise.


Wheatley got burned several times. O'Neal obviously didn't play well tonight, but Wheatley is a rookie and it showed on several plays tonight.

I love the kid but I wish he could have made a rookie mistake on a play when he wasn't supposed to be covered Gates in the endzone.

ctpatsfan77

I would feel worse about it if it had been the tipping point, but the Pats were not going to win this game the way they played, so chalk it up as a learning experience for Mayo.

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"Momentum was quickly snatched away by New England, who once again proved that any Patriot, at any moment, can make a play." —Inside the NFL, Packers v. Patriots

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