Deus Irae

1.) I'm assuming that Welker was struggling due to the blow to the head. That's the only thing that makes sense to me. The play where he stopped on a pattern led to an interception on a throw to Moss. That's not typical Welker behavior, and that changes the game.

2.) If Moss holds onto the ball during that first drive, the Patriots are up 7-0 in the first quarter, rather than coming up empty after the missed FG attempt, and that changed the game.

3.) Fred Taylor's last run came at 11:17 of the 3rd quarter. BJGE was the man after that. That changed the game, because:

4.) BJGE and Morris are runners who really can't threaten the edges of a defense consistently. That limits them, and opposing teams can play accordingly.

5.) Connolly seems to be getting help on a lot of plays. That's got to have an effect on playcalling/protection.

6.) Hernandez had 6 receptions and looked good running the ball, but he needs to improve his blocking skills.

7.) Was Gronk being well covered, or was Brady just not really looking for him? I couldn't tell. I'll have to go back and look after I get a copy of the game.

8.) I wanted more bubble screens, more motion for Moss and Welker, and more double tight end runs on the perimeter. My not getting them does not mean that the offensive coordinator called a bad game. The offense struggled with execution, not playcalling.

9.) Warren looked good on those two sacks. It's clear, though, that the only DE that has any chance to stand up against the run is going to be Brace. Something needs to be done there, or good running teams are going to hurt the Patriots all season long.

10.) Sanchez threw no picks because the Patriots defenders couldn't cover for crap after the first drive. Corners, safeties, linebackers.... hell, probably the bus driver... all struggled with coverage.

11.) The officials gave some home cooking on the PI calls. The questionable calls went against Butler, but not against Cromartie. While not using them as an excuse (these things happen and the calls were at least understandable) these calls definitely influenced the outcome of the game in favor of the Jets. The Poole interception could have been ruled PI against Cromartie, for example, and the game's completely different if that had happened.

12.) Perhaps now, those people who raged at Dean Pees because of the "10 yard cushion" can start to understand that it's Belichick behind that system.

13.) I thought Cunningham flashed on a couple of occasions, but this team should never have broken camp with this group of OLBs. Which leads to:

14.) Ninkovich instead of Woods continues to seem like a bad decision, IMO.

15.) Westoff did a nice job of preparing the Jets special teams for Tate & Co.

16.) Butler had position on that play in the endzone, and he should have jumped for the ball and gotten the interception, so looking for the offensive PI was a cop out.

17.) Brady looked tremendous early on.

18.) Brady seemed to develop the 'binky' mentality in the second half. Either the lesser lights stopped getting open, or Brady needs to break that habit.

19.) Justin Keller just got open again.

__________________
"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

jmt57

The RB situation was on I've been thinking about as well as Welker's situation, but you bring up a lot of other great points.



Excellent post-game observations.

Deus Irae

Follow up, an interesting comment from Brady, particularly for those who've been bashing the offensive coordinator:

Patriots-Jets: 5 thoughts from after the game

__________________
"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

CheerforTom

I agree that the penalty calls made Butler look much worse than he actually played. He didn't have a great game, but I don't think he deserves all the ire he's getting from fans right now.

He certainly didn't deserve to be blatantly made fun of by Edwards... twice. Thanks for the non-call on that second one by the way refs.

Deus Irae

Thank you for the kind words.

__________________
"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

Fencer

On Butler's first of two PIs on the same series, an excellent play would have been for him to get the INT, and a solid play would have been for him to break it up. The whole thing happened because the ball was a bit underthrown.

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"To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness." -- Oscar Wilde

Patjew

Thanks for the lucid observations, DI. Hard to argue with much if any of that.

I actually take solace if these problems are due to execution rather than systemic. In other words I pray that today's outcome is due to sucking rather than the coordinators.

Keeping the faith.

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Drink like a beast.


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IcyPatriot

good post and I'll just remark on this one because it's one I remarked on all game long. We really got killed in the ST's play today. Even when it seemed Tate had a seam it would close quickly. They prepared for us well and they won the ST's play. I had the feeling that every score would be earned from hard work ... we never seemed to get the chance for some easy points. No easy points from St's and no easy points from turnovers were key for the jets.

AndyJohnson

If you blot out the receiver from the play, Butler looks like a receiver going to catch the pass. That should never be pi. But when there is contact, whether or not the official is in position to see what happens is a crapshoot. The rule of thumbshould be if you dont have a good angle to see it, its a non call, but unfortunately a bad angle usually distorts it into looking like pi when it isnt

Deus Irae

Yeah.... I was going to mention the turnover battle, but I figured that was one that would be pretty universal and I was going long enough in the post already. It's very tough to win games when you're -3 in the turnover battle.

__________________
"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