Official Patriots-Chiefs Postgame Thread

[resdubwhite]

I know the game was over. But how about that Vereen kid?

[ensoul]

Not too much to complain about. Rough first half for the offense and Brady took a little bit of a beating. Second half was like night and day for the offense. The D played well all game for the most part.

Realistically this win still does not tell you much about this team as they beat up a very weak Chiefs team.Tyler Palko showed the world why he keeps getting cut from team to team.

[PatsSox363804]

Good win in the sense that we should beat that team every time we play them given the rosters but the offense can't keep having bad first halves, that will come back to bite us at some point if it isn't corrected. Lked what I saw from vereen, hopefully he gets in some more games. Also nice to have a pass rush in obvious passing situations again. Once Spikes, McCourty, and Chung are healthy I want to see how this defense looks now that we have some semblance of a pass rush.

[condon84]

Great win fellas. Our defense is coming along. I like the improvement that they've shown each week in the red zone. Arrington's ball awareness is fantastic. And Andre has been a gift from the football gods it seems. Anderson has looked pretty good rushing the passer. These guys up front are getting it done. Our secondary, even with all the moving parts, have looked better and better each week. When Chung and McCourty come back, I think we'll really see the benefits of being able to give these young guys playing time especially when we play teams where we have to have a lot of DBs on the field.

Our offense looked flat coming out in the first half. That's two weeks in a row now that that's happened. Luckily, our defense picked us up and held the fort. I don't know what it is, but our OL has been struggling as off late. A Mankins false start has been an all too common occurrence. And in general, he has not played up to his level. It seems most of his mistakes are mental. Speaking of which, he should have gotten a personal foul on that late hit late in the game. Don't know what he was thinking, but it looked pretty cheap. Clearly after the play was over.

Glad to see a little bit of Cannon and Vereen. Vereen looked great in those few chances he had to run.

Big kudos to Edelman for his performance last night.

[PatsWickedPissah]

Originally Posted by DaBruinz

I mentioned this in the game thread..

Also, whichever mod closed the Edelman, you are a perfect example of someone over-reacting. There was no reason to close it and it just goes to show how over-reactionary you all are getting.

That thread shoulda been left open.
Folks who start stupid cut so-and-so threads that are later proven idiotic deserve to be ridiculed. Were that allowed to happen we'd likely have less dumb cut X threads.

[BradyManny]

My very quick thoughts...

1) The offense needs to execute for 60 minutes. I place a lot of blame on the OL, to be honest. Teams are often dropping a lot into coverage and no one is open - yet the pressure isn't all coverage sacks. I see Vollmer & Wendell (or Connolly, whichever center is in there), really really struggling. Mankins is playing really undisciplined ball and has derailed drives with his stupid penalties.
2) Our defense is unquestionably making strides. I know we played the worst QB in the league last nite, but its hard to ignore the trend of the defense's results.
3) Our special teams had been very quiet until last nite. When we were winning championships, it took all three units. And it might again.
4) The wide receivers aren't getting separation. With the exception of the 50 yarder to Gronk, there just aren't open receivers, and Brady is required to make pinpoint throws. When he has time, he makes them, when he doesn't, it's off the mark. The difference between this offense and say the 2007 offense, or the Packers offense now, is simply the windows in which the QB has to throw the ball. Again, I attribute some of it to how defenses are playing us with their coverage.

[upstater1]

I'm not only interested in seeing Chung, McCourty and Spikes come back, but also Fletcher.

We're not getting great production from Guyton and Tracy White.

Also want to see what Price and Vereen might give us.

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

I think the end of the first half was typical of what's expected against a bad team: Busted coverage TD, turnover, FG...boom, 10 points like that. After the slow start, you wondered when the deluge of points would begin as it was only a matter of time, but it eventually came.

The 2nd half showed the importance of good OL play. The screens also helped slow down the KC rush. BJGE had a great 3rd quarter. Edelman put the game out of reach with his punt return. The D had a field day against Tyler Palko and his weak arm. The 7 picks for Arrington this year make him noticeable from a stats leaderboard perspective, but he's also playing well as it's not all just lucky bounces. Since the soft coverage fiasco against Pittsburgh, the Pats have played much more aggressively in the secondary and they look much better for it.

On the negative side: What's up with Vollmer? I know he's recovering from a back issue, but there's at least one play a game where he gets beaten one-on-one horribly, killing drives and more importantly killing Brady. Get Solder back in there. Kid was doing well early on.

Regards,
Chris

[Patsfanin Philly]

Originally Posted by NinjaZX6R

I love Kyle Love now. And I think it was vs an ex Colts guard.

I think he was auditioning to be the lead blocker in goal line situations...Either that or he still thinks of Lilja as a Colt with no love lost....

[PatsWickedPissah]

Chris,
It looks to me like every once in a while Herr Vollmer spaces out and leaves a rusher unblocked. Lats night and in the Jets game with the 2 point safety. I've seen them all do this on occasion. It's human. Mankins almost got Brady killed a a couple games ago when uselessly assisting Light and letting a guy come right up the pipe unblocked smashing Brady. That said, it's happening with Vollmer too often.

The OL seemed very confused in their blocking schemes at first, almost as if the opposing DC knew the methodology and schemed the ideal antidote.
And Brady compounded the problem a couple times when his alarm timer failed to go off and he held the ball too long.