Originally Posted by 1BoltFan Here4Fun

A wildly immature team. That about says it.

I don't think Eric Parker muffed a punt all year long. I'm still trying to understand why he didn't jump on that ball and curl up like a baby. What a goat he was - 2 catches for 24 yards, a muffed punt and 3 dropped first downs... meanwhile, Caldwell torches his ex teammates. As a Charger, he fumbled the ball on the 20 with a minute to go against the Jets...

The biggest gift you didn't mention was the defensive calls inside 2 minutes of the first half. It boggles the mind that Wade Phillips will play a pressure defense for the entire first half and then fall into playing a straight up prevent in the final two minutes. He's done it for his entire coaching career.

I think the Charger coaches are about to lose their jobs. Yesterday's coaching was appalling.... ouch, ouch ouch.

Originally Posted by Patfandango

Thanks Owslek: I always enjoy your posts. I agree with most of what you said, but i disagree with the C+ grade. The Pats played their hearts out against a very talented if poorly coached team. The fumbled punt and interception are clear examples of poor situational football and not mistakes that you will see the Pats of the Belichek era make more than once (see Gabriel, Doug). I think we were overmatched most of the day in all three phases. This was SD's game to win except for Troy's play that is one of the most extraorninary palys I've seen on a football field. Unless he strips the ball and we recover, there was no other chance to win that game IMO. In my mind it was more impressive that the Tuck rule, which i would count as lucky (though the following drive we anything but luck). You are correct that we could not stop LT in a clock killing role and even Schottenheimer couldn't screw that up. The OL played well but the pressure was there all day and I think that led to poor accuracy in the pasisng game.

Originally Posted by Oswlek

* I think SD out-thought themselves. NE never stopped LDT (more on this later) yet it seemed the sequence went something like this: LDT for 11/ LDT for 5/ Rivers incomplete/ Rivers incomplete. I think that they went out of their way to not play "Marty-ball" and that was what killed them in the end.

Originally Posted by mosi

What is interesting is that Brady has never lost in an indoor stadium.

Originally Posted by Ghost of Ben Dreith

I keep hearing that the Bolts out muscled the Pats on both sides of the ball. That wasn't the game I saw. I thought our OL was outstanding in this game. We had some success in the run (not much...some), and kept Tom up and comfortable most of the day. I also thought the Defensive front 7 played well also. Remember, all the rushing yardage the Bolts put up would not have been there had a lesser RB than LT been hauling the mail. LT did it all year just about every game. He is more responsible for that than any physical dominance of of our front 7 by the Bolts OL.

The first half MVP of the Bolts was the punter! That was a bigger factor than the Bolts defense. You know that had to put a crimp in the play calling early in the game before players got into the flow.

That the Bolts only put up 7 points early on with all that field position is a great indicator of how well our front 7 held up. There is not anywhere near as big a talent differential as people seem to think.

Originally Posted by Oswlek

It was a mistake to pull back on the pressure, but the pass to Gafney on 2nd and 17 (which was in the face of an all out blitz) took a little of the wind out of their sails. I think that they just figured that their from 4-5 could get enough pressure to hold NE at most a FG.

Having never played pro football (or college for that matter) I don't know how much the coaches could have impacted SD's immaturity, but I thought that, aside from straying from LDT, their plan of attack was sound.

Originally Posted by BelichickFan

Tommy's bad game was, indeed, mysterious. The chances of it happening next week are small, though, given :

- He plays great on turf
- He rarely has two bad games in a row
- He's comfortable against the Cover Two
- He's Tommy Brady and he's a big game QB

Originally Posted by Ghost of Ben Dreith

I keep hearing that the Bolts out muscled the Pats on both sides of the ball. That wasn't the game I saw. I thought our OL was outstanding in this game. We had some success in the run (not much...some), and kept Tom up and comfortable most of the day. I also thought the Defensive front 7 played well also. Remember, all the rushing yardage the Bolts put up would not have been there had a lesser RB than LT been hauling the mail. LT did it all year just about every game. He is more responsible for that than any physical dominance of of our front 7 by the Bolts OL.

The first half MVP of the Bolts was the punter! That was a bigger factor than the Bolts defense. You know that had to put a crimp in the play calling early in the game before players got into the flow.

That the Bolts only put up 7 points early on with all that field position is a great indicator of how well our front 7 held up. There is not anywhere near as big a talent differential as people seem to think.

Originally Posted by MrBigglesWorth

I don't think the pats could run the ball at all, which is why they went to the shotgun exclusively second half. if anything they gained the bulk of their rushing right before halftime with kevin faulk draws.