Deus Irae

I just thought I'd toss out a few of my observations based upon last night's game. It's a long list, so I'll keep the opening short.

1.) Jamal Williams owned Koppen and destroyed the O-line

2.) Mr. Neal, we need you back at right guard, and hurry

3.) Sammy Morris: 10 carries for 26 yards. Maroney's not the problem

4.) Randy Moss has to make those plays.

5.) Dave Thomas, spend your hours learning how to block.

6.) Matt Cassel, 2 quick reads only. After that, it's time to run.

7.) Josh McDaniels, WTF was that play calling during the "and goal" series?

8.) D-Line.... 0 knockdowns?

9.) BB, it's well past time to call Seau and Law. Seau especially...

10.) I still think they should have taken the O-lineman rather than Mayo.

11.) Deltha O'Neal? The Rookie Wheatley? Time to call Fernando Bryant back in for another look.

12.) Rodney looks as if he's lost a full step during the offseason.

13.) Bruschi looks as if he's lost a full step during the offseason

14.) It's tough to see the whole field on TV, so this may already be happening, but this team needs to use Gaffney as the #1 option on occasion.

15.) Why the hell is this team still so pass oriented without Brady?

16.) The team that used to win on heart and a refusal to back down from anyone seems to have gotten all too comfortable backing down from opponents this season.

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"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
- Marcus Aurelius

Wendel

The one where he was wide open in the endzone and Cassel threw it out of the back left of the endzone?

The one where he had his man clearly beat, but then had to go from running, to completely stopping (Second week in a row), thus allowing his man to make the deflection due to a horribly underthrew ball from Cassel?

Or the one where the guy covering him pulled on his arm, thus making a catch impossible?

Good to see you didn't think Cassel was worthy of comment.

Yeah it's strange when a offense that includes Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Jabar Gaffney is pass oriented.

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The Lawfirm

272 Yards (5 TDs)

BelichickFan

Moss is looking alright but uninspired for sure; can't say I blame him.

It was Tom Brady playcalling - IOW, playcalling you can do with Brady at QB. We have Matt freaking Cassel, 1st and goal from the 1 I'm running 4 times and I said that BEFORE 1st down was run.

40yrpatsfan

Good points - can't think of too many I'd argue with.

To me the biggest problems are on defense, and a lot of it is about scheme more than personnel. BB has never been about pressuring the QB, but more about bend don't break. I think in today's NFL your game plan needs to be a lot more about disruption. With zero touches on the QB last night, it shows that it wasn't in the plan to pressure Rivers. Either that or our front 7 is vastly overrated.

On offense, we are moving the ball about as well as I could have hoped. The execution in opponent's territory on big plays has not been there yet. For us to compete with the Chargers and Colts, we need to put up 30, and that boils down to a few plays per game. We score TD's on the underthrow to Moss and the 1st and goal fiasco, that's 14 points and a whole different game.

BradfordPatsFan

I think your answer to #15 may be found in #3.

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Deus Irae

I agree, but I'd much rather the team focus on trying to get a running game than focus on trying to get a passing game, because it SHOULD be easier for this line to run block for Maroney/Morris/Jordan than to pass block for a 5 game 'rookie'. If it means that they need to scrap the zone blocking, so be it.

__________________
"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
- Marcus Aurelius

MoLewisrocks

I think it was the answer to #7 as well. And lets face it, had we run 4 times and failed the server would have overloaded with WTF use is Cassel threads...

#11 and #12 didn't seem to be a problem until week #5 (except in week #3 but that was the wildcat phenomenon everyone has had fits dealing with).

I think a lot of the trouble on defense last night was scheme oriented as we played to stop the things SD abandoned this week because they weren't working in the first 5 weeks.

dtbrks

Did rivers even get touched during the game? i don't think he did.
That's bad

Deus Irae

Play action with the way Williams was killing Koppen was just a stupid, stupid call right there. I'm normally a fairly stout defender of McDaniels, but that was just a terribly called series. Morris wasn't able to get it done in that game, so there was no 'fear' factor.

__________________
"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
- Marcus Aurelius

ALP

10 for 26???

and does that count the couple of good runs at the end when we got the TD?

if so, man ohh man did our running game die

we just didnt want to win this game as badly as SD, and that spells defeat in the game of football

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Last time I lived in New England the Pats became a Dynasty

Then I moved away and they haven't won since

...now I'm moving back, and a Lombardi I predict