PATRIOTSFANINPA

I feared this earlier this week but still couldn't fathom NE losing this one,I had them winning by just 9 but not losing.

The back of my mind kept thinking this could be one of those classic trap games with the team not only due for a home opening day loss but the fact that I watched the Arizona/Seattle game in its entirety last week and the Cardinals defense is almost as formidable as SFs and with a raw OL,that was recipe for possible disaster.

I don't care what anyone says about the team thinking about the Cardinals this week.....I can almost guarantee you that deep down, the team had been looking forward to the rematch with Baltimore next week and may have underestimated a NFC conference team with a backup QB starting and preparing for the main threat Fitzgerald who they DID handle well....the rest not so much.

If you think trap games are B.S.,I can respect that,but I believe the team may have got caught with thier pants down and Arizona benefitted from it with a little luck at the end to boot.

Not to mention that this was a team Brady had not played since 2004 and even then the Roster was much different.

I do believe the team is much more comfortable in playing against an opponent they know pretty well next week.

I don't expect the offense to look like the keystone cops again,this weekends game will be a barn burner......with a MUCH better prepared Patriots team.

I do not expect the Patriots to come out next week looking as lost as they did today.....win or lose in Baltimore next week,you will get a better effort.

PP2

The one thing that really supports your theory is Welker, who mentioned today that the team didn't have any good practices in the past week.

IllegalContact

With the leadership and experience of this team, if that's the case, someone should be fired

The harsh reality is that this team went into the season ill prepared at OL the way they were ill prepared at WR in 2006

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“ I think good coaches will coach with the personnel they have, and if you only have one (good) linebacker, you’re not going to play a 3–4. ”
—Hank Bullough, who installed one of the first 3–4 defenses with the New England Patriots.

Sciz

Arrington, Mankins, and Gronkowski also had comments referring to last week's practices. Sounds like Belichick got on them post-game or something like that.

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Brady_to_Moss

this reminded me of the browns game 2 years ago and buff last year..hopefully no more "trap" games

PATRIOTSFANINPA

I really think the defense that is very young and some of the offense that is young and with older veteran additions this year is still not ready this early in the year to go week to week playing as well as they did last Sunday.

When you have a younger overall team you will have inconsistency as we saw today.....it is expected.

Personally I think the Patriots were a little overconfident and when Arizona came out and pushed them around they looked befuddled.....when you are a 14 point favorite in week 2 and with an undefeated home opening record,it happens sometimes.

MoLewisrocks

I'm not buying the trap game. Defense played outstanding game. Offense may have struggled in practice (Mayo wasn't buying his guys practiced poorly), but some of that may have to do with Josh forcing issues. Then when you lose Hernandez out of the gate everyone is messed up. I think that's what we saw, along with an OL that is just overmatched at this juncture with Waters and Light gone, Connolly being held out, Vollmer rotating... Maybe if Aaron doesn't go down they manage to pull it off. But losing him just exposed some really glaring weaknesses which seem to have been by choice and avoidable.

Patradomous

Another trap game was Balt. they lost too. Big win last week with the Pats on deck playing a non conference team.
If you bet those situations over the years and going forward you would have won a bundle.

PP2

It's possible for just one half of a team to suffer a trap game (in this case, the offense) and the other half function just fine. This has happened many times before.

And you are not taking into consideration what a few players have said about practice, as well as the very poor, un-Bradylike QB rating, Brady put up.

Sicilian

This is the youngest team BB has ever coached. A few veterans who have been there and done that aren't going to keep a rookie/2nd year team from getting ahead of itself. That's how those veteran's GOT that experience... they got humbled when they were young too.

That said, the thing is most of the poor play happened on offense, where there IS more veteran leadership. The defense played pretty well.