Official Patriots/Falcons Post Game Thread

[crypto]

Originally Posted by WhiskeyBreath

No. It's not how many points they beat them by. The Falcons were in this game until very late.

Bearing in mind your stance that score isn't the determining factor, on my TV the Falcons didn't accomplish squat after the first quarter. The Patriots were in control from then on out and if they'd converted just one of their red zone attempts to a TD it would have been a 20-point game.

I.e., I completely disagree.

[Angry Man]

I think this week's game was a nice move in the right direction even with the red zone mishaps. Tom was getting more and more confident during the second half. I feel that it can only get better from here. Defense was pretty good today as well.

[BradyMoss812]

Was Galloway in any of the plays in the second half?

Don't remember seeing him at all out there.

[BritPat]

Originally Posted by crypto

Bearing in mind your stance that score isn't the determining factor, on my TV the Falcons didn't accomplish squat after the first quarter. The Patriots were in control from then on out and if they'd converted just one of their red zone attempts to a TD it would have been a 20-point game.

I.e., I completely disagree.

Spot on. Only poor hands stopped the Pats winning that by four scores.

[mosi]

This offense is still at 60%. Even so, they had >400 yards of offense and controlled the game for close to 40 minutes. Just imagine what it will be like by the end of the year.

[BradyFTW!]

Still didn't get enough pass rush for my liking, the coverage was awesome so it all worked out fine, and we dominated TOP anyways. Fantastic performance by the secondary.

Not too worried about the Wilfork injury- IMO he's pretty overrated across the board, but especially in a 4-3. The way I feel about losing him is probably pretty similar to how most of you felt about losing Seymour: it's certainly not ideal, but we can more or less replace him with what we already have on the roster, so that's that.

Joey Galloway is awful. Up until this game, I was part of the "let's give him some time" crowd, but he's lost Brady's trust, and there's just no excuse for being as bad as he was today.

GREAT job by the offensive line. They were flat-out awesome today. On that first fourth and one conversion, I think they might have pushed the line of scrimmage back a full yard and a half/two yards. Brady had all day.

RBs were great today. I hope Maroney's ok, because he was running great, and we need him to be the feature guy so that we don't wear Taylor out before we need to (I want Taylor at 100% for the playoffs). Morris was great on passing downs too, although his pass blocking is suspect enough that it worries me a little.

Another great game for Watson. With Brady getting his legs back and Welker out, we need Watson, and to his credit he's stepped up very well IMO.

Atlanta's defensive line was awful. Maybe Jerry was more important than we realized, because we absolutely abused the Falcons at the LOS.

Brady's still missing throws that he should make- consistently throwing the ball high, but, like with the Buffalo game, he seemed to get more comfortable as the game went on. He made a few on-the-money deep throws late in the game, even ones that weren't caught, and I was almost as relieved to see those as I would have been to see long catches. IMO, When Brady will be back is a matter of when, not if.

We gotta improve in the red zone, but with Brady, Moss, Watson and Baker on the team, I'm not too worried.

Shutting down Tony Gonzalez was huge. Anyone catch how we played him? Was tough to tell watching the game streamed online. I saw meriweather on him on a few plays, but other than that I don't know what the plan was..

I'm not sold on the Falcons as being a particularly good team. They're alright, definitely, but what do they do well? They certainly couldn't stop the run or run the ball, and since I'm not sold on the Pats being good against the run (especially without Wilfork), for now I figure that the Falcons just aren't that great. Pumped about the Ravens game for next week- this one's going to be good, and we need to beat these #2 teams from 2008 to keep pace with the Jets (who, as a bonus, looked pretty bad today. If not for Tennessee's special teams being downright pathetic, they lose that game).

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

Originally Posted by pwes

The Defense is great. I dont think these guys are getting teh credit they deserve. Brady was better today but the recievers are still out there. I dunno what is going on with them. I thouht the Oline was solid as well.

BIGGEST problem is that damn redzone offense. for the love of god. I know we won today but too many times going down the field for a field goal. It's aggrivating to watch.

+1

Defense has looked good overall for two games now, hope the OL plays like that all year, running game good. So Brady is still maybe a little rusty but still acts like it matters which I love. Galloway reminds me more and more of Doug Gabriel.

[AndyJohnson]

Excellent game against a good team. This is the way we have won games in SB seasons.
I think this is the best secondary we have had since the last time we won a SB.
The run D just looks like a whole bunch of guys busting their butts to play team run D, again like the SB years.
Brady is just about there, I saw the moving within the pocket with purpose today. He is just a tad inaccurate, which no doubt is coming from missing an entire year.
We are totally dominating time of possession (due to both offense and defense) even with the near miss misfires.

[crypto]

I agree it could be as good as the one we had in '04 if Mayo comes back and the rest stay healthy.

I don't think it will be that good if the play calling doesn't get more creative. They did blitz more this game, but right now Pees, or whoever makes the calls, is still not up to par with 03-04.

[DaBruinz]

Anyone else find it interesting that after Wilfork went down, the Pats turned to Pryor and not Brace?

Something that I noticed was not as much zone blocking by the offensive line and more in-line blocking. Mankins pancaked the DT opposite him at least twice today.

Galloway and Edelman both made key drops today.. And so did Moss.. Reality is that all the receivers need to work with Brady. And that means if Brady has to show them, individually, the way he did with Caldwell, then that's what it means. Brady also needs to adjust some to them..

It was good to see the Pats get Baker involved in the passing game and Matthews in the running game. Matthews is a beast and they need to have him leading the way MORE for everyone. Including Maroney.