First Half Thoughts - New England Patriots Forums

Triple-T · 09-13-2007, 01:03 AM

I finally got a chance to watch the game and figured I'd share my thoughts:

Offense:
Welker looks like a little bit...excitable. He opened up so well, running and cutting very quickly, catching seamlessly and then dancing into the end zone, but then seemed to get so jazzed up and started trying WAY too hard. First he had the horrible drop to force our only punt of the day. Then he does the one hop punt pick-up with a jet defender right in his face. Don't know what exactly he was thinking there, but it looked scary. Overall though, he's incredible. I can't see him not having a huge season.

Maroney started awesome and I think forced the jets to stack against the run. By doing so, the jets really started to control him, but I think that is what really opened the passing game for us. He's going to be really good.

Moss is scary good. His first catch, he forced the DB to trip and get wide open. Then that sideline catch where he quickly plucked it out of the air. Simms commented that Brady threw it right behind the DBs head, so that the guy never saw it coming. Since Moss is so tall he watched it all the way in. Beautiful.

Brady. Brilliant.

Offense of line was outstanding. The one time Brady got hit, he still had tons of time to wait for the coverage to open and make a clean throw and completion.

I saw the Pats only stop themselves. The jets did almost nothing. Offense is much better than last year. Completely dominating.

Defense:
Oh Adalius. If you had caught that pass that hit your hands, you first stat as a patriot would have been a pick-6. Sorry you didn't get it, but I have a sneaky feeling you will get a couple anyways.

D-Line. What can I say. The line I EXPECTED to look like the #1 D-line in the NFL looked EXACTLY like the number #1 D-line in the NFL and without Seymour. It's almost not fair. Pioli must have cheated.

DBs looked ok. Pennington is definitely short passing pretty well. I'm guessing this will improve considerably with so many new or returning players compared to last year.

Linebackers had a nice easy time. They ran free and did a hell of a job, save for that mismatch on Coles TD out of the backfield. Kind of strange...it was almost like the jets knew our scheme and coverage and took advantage of it. Like they KNEW what we were going to do. Oh well, I won't hold it against the linebackers.

General:
In light of the scandalous affairs of the last few days, I was definitely pre-occupied with the notion of the Pats having cheated by stealing the jets signs(legal) via videotape on the sidelines (very very VERY illegal). I tried to find clues, but wasn't really seeing anything, until I realized how it was done. Clearly the Pats recorded the footage , interpreted it at half time, went back in time and gave it to themselves on the Pats first offensive drive, because MAN OH MAN did the Pats do whatever they wanted as if they knew EVERYTHING the jets were going to try. I knew Belichick was still a genius.

As a further proof to my theory on how the Pats did it, it became painfully obvious that the video footage was the whole key to the game on the second Pats touchdown of the half. When they saw the jets sideline call for the play, "Vilma keep looking in the backfield and forget to cover Ben Watson as he runs a pass pattern right up the middle past you", they knew what it meant, because they had seen it called on tape at the half. Having this knowledge, the Pats called their play, "Ben Watson run a pass pattern right up the middle as Vilma looks in the backfield for a Maroney run, because the jets have to overload to stop him." Obvious result. Touchdown. Pats are cheaters. Done and DONE!

Great first half. Can't wait to watch the second.

***ctpatsfan77*** · 09-13-2007, 08:59 AM

Right now, any post involving actual football content deserves a BUMP, in my view.

But to address your comments on the Welker-bot, it seemed to me like a combination of two very different feelings:

(1) At times, it looks like Welker felt he had to keep the Pats in the game single-handedly.
(2) At times, it seemed like utter shock that he was actually you know, playing on a good team with a real QB who could take advantage of his skills.

[Take a look at the picture from which I made my avatar, which comes from his jaunt into the endzone; look at his face, and then look at his feet.]

PatsFan37 · 09-13-2007, 09:56 AM

Thanks TTT. One of the best games the Pats have played and hardly any football discussion. It's disgusting. We're better than that, here at patsfans.com. But it's difficult to keep a football thread on the first page.

I like the spelling of 'offense of line'. Certainly that's where a lot of the offense was generated.

I know the D kept them to 14 points, which is especially low for an away game against a playoff team with some big play talent, but the O was the story. As you said, they only stopped themselves, the Jets had no answers. Hanson saw more time as a holder, even starting halfway through the game, than as a punter.