It's not all black and white - New England Patriots Forums

BostonBullit · 01-20-2010, 05:02 PM

All through the season and now in, what is for us anyway, the offseason I've been reading the posts of forum members who know what "the problem" was for the team. These posts inevitably deteriorate into religious debates and sometimes even go downhill from there. I would like to take a minute to add my opinion, which amounts to nothing more than that - an opinion - about what the key factor was that resulted in the (relatively) bad season for the New England Patriots. The key factor was all of the things that you all have been debating over and over on this board.

Was it the failings of the coaching staff? YES
Was it the failings of the "front office" in drafting and FA? YES
Was it the decision to trade away veteran talent? YES
Was it poor play by key members of the team (through injury or otherwise)? YES
Was it the lack of pass rush? YES
Was it lack of play making by the WR core? YES
Was it poor play in the secondary? YES
Bad O-Line play? YES
Bad play calling? YES
Was it lack of effort/heart by the players? YES

everyone can go round and round debating if Seymour would have helped this season, what would have happened if Galloway had worked out, if AD had been the play maker we thought he would be, if Rodney and Teddy hadn't called it a career but make no mistake, this season was a complete breakdown of the Patriots machine at ALL LEVELS.

I know, I'm crazy...how can I call a 10-6 division winning season a complete breakdown? well I can and I did. There was about 15mins total during this season that the team played as a team and looked the way we expect while doing it; the rest of the time some piece - or multiple pieces - of the machine where breaking down. games where the offense puts together a good game and the D craps out. games where the D gets it going and the O sputters. looks like we have a pass rush and all of the sudden there's no coverage. O and D look good and they're giving up plays on special teams. at almost every point of the season something was going wrong and as much as you (that's the royal YOU) want to pin it down to your pet peeve issue you can't; it's more complicated than that.

I'm still a Patsfan, I still have faith the ship can be righted, but it's not going to be as easy as plugging a guy in there or getting a bit more out of a guy over there. I feel they have talent at most positions, young talent that needs work in a lot of places (O-line, DB, DL, WR, ST) but talent none the less; regardless of how bad some of them looked last season. I just hope I'm right.

I'm done venting now.

***Box_O_Rocks*** · 01-20-2010, 05:21 PM

"Complete breakdown." No. A failure to put it all together? Seems more likely. Four first time position coaches. Two first time coaches. Two new coaches from outside the system. A coordinator-in-training. A Defensive Coordinator on the rebound from prostrate surgery over the summer. A depth failure at OLB and WR. An apparently unplanned turnover on the D-Line. Key injuries - as opposed to massive injuries. Etc. The season was painful, uncoordinated, and rightly should have been below .500 at the end - it's good to be a New England Patriots fan in the Krafty Bob era.

***Deus Irae*** · 01-20-2010, 06:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Box_O_Rocks

"Complete breakdown." No. A failure to put it all together? Seems more likely. Four first time position coaches. Two first time coaches. Two new coaches from outside the system. A coordinator-in-training. A Defensive Coordinator on the rebound from prostrate surgery over the summer. A depth failure at OLB and WR. An apparently unplanned turnover on the D-Line. Key injuries - as opposed to massive injuries. Etc. The season was painful, uncoordinated, and rightly should have been below .500 at the end - it's good to be a New England Patriots fan in the Krafty Bob era.

You left out the cumulative effect of a failure to replace top shelf talent, poor decision making by the front office and poor decision making by the head coach.

robertweathers · 01-20-2010, 07:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Box_O_Rocks

An apparently unplanned turnover on the D-Line.

Regarding Seymour? How was that unplanned?

***Box_O_Rocks*** · 01-20-2010, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by robertweathers

Regarding Seymour? How was that unplanned?

Did you expect him to be traded after a full training camp? Bill Machiavelli may have planned the entire thing on the flight back from Buffalo and before he'd even combed the wind swirl out of his curls, but more likely the trade developed in the latter part of preseason after he'd seen how his team was developing.

Patspsycho · 01-20-2010, 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Box_O_Rocks

"Complete breakdown." No. A failure to put it all together? Seems more likely. Four first time position coaches. Two first time coaches. Two new coaches from outside the system. A coordinator-in-training. A Defensive Coordinator on the rebound from prostrate surgery over the summer. A depth failure at OLB and WR. An apparently unplanned turnover on the D-Line. Key injuries - as opposed to massive injuries. Etc. The season was painful, uncoordinated, and rightly should have been below .500 at the end - it's good to be a New England Patriots fan in the Krafty Bob era.

You forgot the most important part.. a QB coming back from major knee surgery.

Disco Volante · 01-20-2010, 08:04 PM

Everything is black and white, here.

If you win the Super Bowl, you're perfect.

If you don't win the Super Bowl, you suck and it's time to rebuild.

emoney_33 · 01-20-2010, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Box_O_Rocks

"Complete breakdown." No. A failure to put it all together? Seems more likely. Four first time position coaches. Two first time coaches. Two new coaches from outside the system. A coordinator-in-training. A Defensive Coordinator on the rebound from prostrate surgery over the summer. A depth failure at OLB and WR. An apparently unplanned turnover on the D-Line. Key injuries - as opposed to massive injuries. Etc. The season was painful, uncoordinated, and rightly should have been below .500 at the end - it's good to be a New England Patriots fan in the Krafty Bob era.

I miss this kind of rationality