Buffalo Post Game Thoughts (Merged)

[mayoclinic]

Thoughts on the Game

I missed the first half of the game but saw most of the second half. Some thoughts:

1. I think this was a great outcome for us ... much better than a 38-10 shellacking of the Bills. We were rusty, we are young in many areas, we missed a lot of opportunities and made some mistakes, and we still came out with the Win. Plus Brady and company had to pull together and show what they were made of in the end. I think this win will help the team much more down the road than the lopsided game most people were expecting.

2. I tried to follow the game day thread to catch up on what I had missed. I must say, my impression is that there are a lot of people on the site who are all gloom and doom. The comments were extremely negative up to the last 2 drives, even when I saw a lot of good things. A lot of whining and crying, and not just by the trolls. A lot of doom and gloom, over what would have at worst been one early season loss. The fact is, if we had lost this game I still think we would have gotten a lot of benefit out of it. It reminded me of 2003 when we lost badly to the Bills in the opener. I think it's good that we opened with a lot of warts - I'll be much more curious to see how we look in December and January.

3. BB is going to be all over this team this week.

4. The Jets fans are going to go wild this week thinking their team is the greatest thing since sliced bread and we were lucky to eke out a win. I am expecting a totally different performance next week in New Jersey.

5. I was very pleased to escape with no major injuries. I didn't see Mayo's knee injury in the first quarter, but as he went out under his own power I'm hoping it's minor, and that he was kept out as a precaution.

6. I thought the defense did well overall tonight, especially given Mayo's absence. Guyton filled in pretty decently, though he is no Mayo. I saw a lot more swarming defense than I did last year, and much more aggressive play from the secondary. We held the Bills to 286 years total offense, and I don't think the defense would have been to blame for a loss. I was very happy with what I saw from the secondary, and Meriweather looks like a stud. Comments on the gameday thread seemed worried when the Bills got the ball back with 50 seconds, but from what I could see the defense was jacked up and wanted to show that they could rise to the occasion.

7. I thought that the penalties on Wilfork and Adalius Thomas were totally bogus. Wilfork's sack was completely clean, nothing below the waist. In the AD sack, the ref blew the whistle late and Edwards was still fighting. It's hard to blame the players for continuing to give effort under that situation, even if it wasn't the smartest play in the world. Both penalties kept scoring drives alive that should have been stopped.

8. I was a bit taken back at how well Buffalo ran the ball against our defense. While Mike Wright played a great game, I hope to see more of Ron Brace and Wilfork together in the near future.

9. Our offense put up 440+ yards total offense, but left a lot to be desired for most of the game. We had trouble finishing drives, the play calling left much to be desired, and we abandoned the running game too quickly. Brady was rusty, but looked like himself at the end. Having to pull the game out may have been the best medicine possible in terms of getting back the real Tom Brady. Watch out for the rest of the season.

10. I was surprised that Chris Baker wasn't more involved. I think next week we will see Brady use more options. If Ben Watson actually can consistently make catches like he did on the last 2 drives, then he will be a major weapon.

11. My biggest concern from what I saw was the offensive line, particularly Matt Light. Poor protection resulted in a lot of short passing plays. The run blocking continues to be poor. Maroney ran better than I've seen in a while, but didn't have much room to work with.

12. Except for Gost's FG miss, ST seemed outstanding. LoMo had a big return, the punting game was solid, McKelvin was kept in check. And the bottom line is, when the game was on the line and TB needed the ball back one more time, the ST found a way to get it back. Can't ask for much more than that.

All things considered, I'm ecstatic with this result this early in the season. I'd much rather have a physical team that can pull out clutch wins when it counts than a one-sided offensive powerhouse which bulldozes opponents 90% of the time but struggles when the going gets tough. As long as Mayo's injury isn't serious, I think we'll be in great shape in the long run.

 

[HEY BRO! WHAT UP?]

Re: Thoughts on the Game

Aside from the D scaring the crap out of me, the poor play of the O-line is making the Pats offense take forever to score. Light was getting owned by whoever the Bills lined up on his side. However, he did pull it together late into the game. Light better get it together because Vollmer played well in limited duty.

 

[Rob0729]

Game Thoughts

1.) The one unit that played exceptionally well is the special teams. Other than the missed field goal, the special teams were near perfect.
2.) I an encouraged by the last quarter play, but this team still needs a lot of work. Why can't the defense play with this sense of urgency earlier in the game. At least unlike last year, they put stifling pressure on the QB when they absolutely had to.
3.) That said this defense definitely needs work.
4.) Brady and Welker are still not 100% on the same page. Missing Welker all preseason definitely hurt tonight. Luckily it didn't kill them, but if Welker completed that 3rd down conversion in the first half, this game might not have been all that close.
5.) The officiating was horrible for both teams. The Brady rule was improperly called even if Wilfork actually hit him below the knees. He was not on the ground before he lunged at him which was required for the rule. His other roughing the passer was BS also. The TO offensive pass interference was BS too.
6.) Remember it is the first game and the first game is alway the game that looks to be the biggest fluke type of game. I don't know if the the Bills were as good as they looked for most of the game or the Pats were as bad as they looked the first three quarters.
7.) Matt Light will be thankful the day he never has to line up across from Aaron Schobel ever again. Light isn't as bad as some make him out to be, but he is ten times worse than his haters makes him out to be when he faces Schobel.
8.) Liked the way Maroney ran tonight. I wish they gave him more reps.
9.) Kudos to Watson for a great game. Hopefully this is a sign for things to come.
10.) The Bills gave a far better fight than we expected. My hats off to them.
11.) Ian, I have been quite about the server issues prior to tonight, but you gotta fix this thing. I donate $18 a year to you (something I don't do for any other entertainment website I visit) and I expect to be able to come here on gamedays to post and see other people's posts. It is unacceptable that the server cannot even handle a Sunday gameday where the Pats are off. It is even worse when it is out during the game and hours after. You really need to get this fixed.

 

[patchick]

Re: Thoughts on the Game

1. I think this was a great outcome for us ... much better than a 38-10 shellacking of the Bills. We were rusty, we are young in many areas, we missed a lot of opportunities and made some mistakes, and we still came out with the Win. Plus Brady and company had to pull together and show what they were made of in the end. I think this win will help the team much more down the road than the lopsided game most people were expecting.

I'm with you. Pulling out a gutsy win like this is a great way to get a team with a ton of new parts to gel. And being behind the eight ball led Tom Brady to find his inner...Tom Brady.

11. My biggest concern from what I saw was the offensive line, particularly Matt Light. Poor protection resulted in a lot of short passing plays. The run blocking continues to be poor.

How about the lack of pass rush for 3 1/2 quarters? On the flip side, the overhauled DB corps showed me some things, Bodden in particular. And once everybody shook the rust off, the offense had that feeling to it. All in all, a good game.

But the huge question mark is Mayo. Crossing all available fingers and toes...

 

[JackBauer]

Re: Thoughts on the Game

I agree with your entire post. Meriweather looked great, IMO.

Guyton really impressed me. I don't think you can really expect great things from an OLB forced to man down the middle, but I thought he did well enough considering the circumstances.

 

[Rob0729]

Re: Game Thoughts

P.S. I hope Mayo isn't hurt too badly because we really need him. Here is what Doctor Peter King tweeted tonight about him and he was dead on about Troy Palumalu's injury:

Mayo's injury looked like right knee hyperextension when engaged with Bills O-lineman. Didn't look terrible.

Peter King (SI_PeterKing) on Twitter

 

[Joker]

Re: Game Thoughts

Wilfork hit him in his WAIST...worst call of the season so far

 

[cmasspatsfan]

Re: Thoughts on the Game

11. My biggest concern from what I saw was the offensive line, particularly Matt Light. Poor protection resulted in a lot of short passing plays. The run blocking continues to be poor. Maroney ran better than I've seen in a while, but didn't have much room to work with.

I thought his name was Todd Light, at least according to Gruden :banned:

The D looked better later in the game, its going to take time for them to play together as a unit with all the new faces. Hopefully, like the 01 super bowl team D they play better at the end of the year.

 

[WhiZa]

Re: Game Thoughts

P.S. I hope Mayo isn't hurt too badly because we really need him. Here is what Doctor Peter King tweeted tonight about him and he was dead on about Troy Palumalu's injury:



Peter King (SI_PeterKing) on Twitter

The knee was bent when his foot got twisted. It look more like a twist of the knee then a hyper-extension.

 

[WhiZa]

Re: Thoughts on the Game

The OL at the end of the game looked much better. I am not sure how much of that was from Brady being more focused and getting the ball out quicker or from them just getting their act together.

 

[unoriginal]

Re: Thoughts on the Game

Good observations. I'll add a couple:

1) Vince Wilfork had a bad game tonight. A bunch of times his penetration allowed 1 offensive lineman to steer him out of the play, freeing up another interior lineman to block Guyton. We lost a lot of yardage by losing the battle in the middle. Somebody needs to hold the fort in there and occupy some blockers.

2) The entire defensive line needs to get better at sniffing out screens. Good 4-3 teams have defensive linemen who can feel out screens with their hands and none of our guys have this skill yet. In a 3-4 base this doesn't need to be a point of emphasis because you have 4 linebackers who can see the screen develop and run after it. Compared to years past its looked like we've had 1 fewer player on the field against screens because ever since Preseason Game 1 4 guys have been charging upfield with their heads down after the QB.

3) We can't run without a fullback. Somebody needs to be found who can line up in the backfield and erase the one DL who doesn't get reached every run play so we don't end up with a guard rolling on the ground while Ryan Denney swallows Maroney 3 yards in the backfield. That guard should be doing better things like finding a linebacker he can block.

 

[Patspsycho]

Re: Thoughts on the Game

The OL at the end of the game looked much better. I am not sure how much of that was from Brady being more focused and getting the ball out quicker or from them just getting their act together.

It was a combination of Brady starting to really step into his throws and the Bills DC dumb enough to start dumping blitzes when pressure up the middle was doing the trick. Brady was just picking them apart on the last two drives..

 

[Patspsycho]

Re: Thoughts on the Game

I do want to give our secondaries an outstanding grade.

Evans and TO numbers: 0 TD, 5 catches 71 yards.. (Moss has a total twice that at 141 yards).

They did not give up a big play. Zero thrown TDs. I am really encouraged by the maturity of Meriweather.. got to love the hard hitting that Bodden brought tonight.

 

[paranoia]

Re: Game Thoughts

It was a great win, I think they will have to play better next week though.

 

[Easywolf32]

Re: Game Thoughts

I thought our D was worse than last year. I liked Merriweather and I think Bodden and at times Wilfork. We have SERIOUS issues at the linebacker position and Defensive line. I also thought our OL looked horrible in the start but came through in the end.

Anyone here actually though replacing a younger Harrison, Bruschi, Vrabel and Seymour was going to be easy? I wish we had Samuels and Hobbs too still, there's just too many gone now. Tom and the offence looked good in the end, not sure how Watson pulled that off......

Maroney ran great in the start too, well not great, but very good. Faulk was good too.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Re: Thoughts on the Game

i wish i could be as delighted as the OP. I'm happy we won but I wouldn't use ecstatic to describe how I feel; wiped out, relieved, drained...yes, but ecstatic no.

put it this way. i'm sure glad we were playing the Bills tonight and not the Steelers or even the Jets team that showed up yesterday; the D was able to make the plays it had to make and then we got the "break" we needed after the "oops" INT and a couple of bad calls for roughness. like the great player Brady is and the money team the Pats are, they were able to turn the KO fumble into a win.

this was a game that the Pats had to get out of their system...and there will probably be more like it before the ship is fully righted. i just hope we're as fortunate as we were tonight.

i have no doubt that TB will be his old self, the O line will have settled down and the D will have gelled by by week six or so. until then i think we have some rocky sailing...not to say they won't be 6--0, just that it might not be for the faint of heart.

 

[Kontradiction]

My postgame thoughts

This would not get posted in the other thread, so I'm going to give it a try in a new thread. Mods, you can merge if you want. I want to do an analysis of the game from top to bottom...

1. Brady: Gotta start here. In the first quarter and a little into the second, I thought Brady look skiddish when facing the Bills pass rush. He was getting rid of the ball early (example - the quick pass to Welker that never failed was thrown too quickly and dug into the ground) and his timing seemed to be off on passes that he had to deliver quick because of the rush and lack of blocking. About midway through the second quarter, he began to settle in. He was hitting his short and intermediate throws with success and began to step up into the pressure. In the third quarter, he began hitting his longer passes down the middle, his footwork looked a lot better than it did in the second half, and he was bouncing/moving around in the pocket with more confidence than he did in the second half. The drives stalled, of course, and we still hadn't seen him attempt anything over the top. By the 4th quarter, we began to see the Brady that we all remember, capped off by two beautiful passes over the top to Watson for TDs... one for the tie, one for the game winner. I believe that if we had the 4th quarter version of Brady for the entire game, this wouldn't have been close and we could have hung 34+ on the Bills. That game tying drive was a thing of beauty. Now let's hope Brady has shaken the rust for the test he and the offense will face next week. If the 4th quarter was any indication, he has. 53 passes was still way too many to attempt, though.

2. WRs and Tight Ends: What else can I say about Moss? He was incredible tonight. He was being double covered and still managed to be all over the field. He was huge in terms of moving the ball and you can tell that he's glad to have Brady back. I thought Welker started out a little slow but began to catch fire in the 2nd quarter as well. This can be attributed to the time he missed in preseason though. You could actually SEE him and Brady develop their rapport together. Galloway was non-existant. I wonder if it was because he was being double covered or if he just still does not have a grasp of the playbook. However, with the preseason and tonight, I'm beginning to fear that this was not a good free agent pick up and that perhaps keeping Gaffney or getting in on the Nate Washington bidding might have been the better ideas. However, it's still a long season to go and BB saw something in Galloway that earned him a roster spot with this team so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now. I saw Baker throw some good blocks in but, outside of one catch, he was a non-threat in the receiving area for us tonight. Watson was great for us tonight. It looks like he's finally healthy and he made two key catches for us in the end zone at the end of the game as well as clutch catches during the drive that put us within striking distance. I really can't say enough for what he and Moss did for this offense and Brady's confidence tonight.

3. RBs: The running game looked great in the first half... not so much in the second half. However, I will address that when I go over what I saw from the OL. In the entire game, I wasn't that impressed with Fred Taylor. He looked pedestrian at best. He still runs north-south well, but that's about it. I was REALLY impressed with Maroney in the first half. He was finding hole after hole (finally!) and blowing through it. However, in the second half, the holes stopped opening and O'Brian called 95% passing plays as the OL shifted to run blocking mode. People think Maroney dances, but I only see him do that when there aren't any holes to run through. When there are, he's as explosive as any back in the NFL. Faulk was Faulk catching everything underneath that went his way. He was key for a couple of third down conversions and looked good on draw plays.

4. OL: The OL didn't look good at all in pass protection in the first half. As a matter of fact, they looked terrible... particularly Matt Light. If they play all year like they did in the first half, Brady will be dead by midseason. I know Light was going up against Aaron Schobel, but he has to do a better job than what he did. I'm not sure if it's his age or what, but he has to pick up a speed rusher better. It wasn't all Matt Light though. Nobody on the OL did a great job at pass protection in the first half. The Bills were generating pressure from everywhere. In run protection for the first half, they finally looked great. Holes were getting opened left and right and Maroney was going for 10+ yard gains. In the second half, it was the complete opposite with the pass protection looking awesome and the run blocking looking horrible. Perhaps the pass protection problems in the first half can be attributed to Brady holding the ball for a little longer than usual due to rust but, to be honest with you, I didn't notice a difference from half to half. Regardless, they have to do a better job in both areas for this offense to be effective this season.

5. Defense: I thought the defense played alright throughout the game. I won't over compliment them, but I won't **** on them either. The four man front was getting some push toward the QB throughout the night, but had a TON of trouble stopping Fred Jackson. Not to mention we're already missing Seymour as quite a few long gains went off what would have been his side of the line. When I saw those gains happen, Jarvis Green was typically playing the position. The LB corps didn't look great after Mayo went down. I really hope he's okay because Guyton looked raw at times out there. A.D. didn't do much outside of the sack of Edwards. The pass rush from both the DL and the LBs were all but nonexistant (outside of a couple of instances at most) throughout the night until we really needed to get a rush in the 4th. By the way, welcome back Tully Banta-Cain. I was very impressed with the secondary though. Bodden and Butler looked great out there. Both Bodden and Meriweather were laying the wood on multiple occasions and Meriweather nearly came up with a pick. On top of that, they nearly shut down T.O. for the night and I don't believe Lee Evans had any catches (though I could be wrong). Great stuff from the secondary. Hopefully it continues into next week.

6. Penalites: Normally, I wouldn't address this, but I feel the need to tonight. Were the refs blind out there? There were several calls that went both against us and Buffalo tonight. However, since I don't care about Buffalo I'll only go over our's. First was the Wilfork "Brady Rule" hit on Edwards. Are you f'n kidding me? Not even close, refs. That drive should have stalled right there and, on top of that, Edwards should have been called for Intentional Grounding since his pass wasn't close to a receiver.

On top of that, and this is for all you Bills fans and Pats haters out there who will no doubt say we got lucky in this game tomorrow, the Bills shouldn't have even had a chance to score that touchdown. That call on A.D. for slamming Edwards was B.S. Edwards was still trying to scramble out of the sack and A.D. simply cranked back and brought him down. That drive should have ended RIGHT THERE and the touchdown should have never happened. As I see it, the football gods agreed with me because instant karma came back to the Bills on that one with McKelvin's ill advised return and subsequent fumble of the ball. Game over.

All in all it was a great game to watch. My blood pressure went through the roof but I'll survive it. Next week when we play the Jets can honestly go either way. If the team from the first half shows up, we're going to get our lunch handed to us. If the team from the second half shows up, we're MORE than capable of beating the Jets and going 2-0 for the division lead. I just hope it's the latter because I've been dying to see us pay back the Jets for the game last year.

One more thing, just to give you guys a reason to laugh at me. I broke my middle knuckle on my right finger when Fred Jackson scored that touchdown. It's had ice on it since that play and I've only since taken the ice off to write this long winded post. Hope you enjoyed.

 

[DaBruinz]

Re: Thoughts on the Game

3) We can't run without a fullback. Somebody needs to be found who can line up in the backfield and erase the one DL who doesn't get reached every run play so we don't end up with a guard rolling on the ground while Ryan Denney swallows Maroney 3 yards in the backfield. That guard should be doing better things like finding a linebacker he can block.

Every time Maroney got the ball, after the 2 draw plays early, there were at least 2 Buffalo defensemen in the backfield. I was astounded by this. And that included when they brought Vollmer onto the field and had Light report as an eligible receiver.

I'd like to add another observation. From what I saw, Galloway wasn't getting any separation. Now, he was covered by McKelvin alot. But I was surprised the Pats didn't have him adjust and try running some deeper slants.. or running a slant underneath Welker running an out.

 

[Easywolf32]

Re: Game Thoughts

2.) I an encouraged by the last quarter play, but this team still needs a lot of work. Why can't the defense play with this sense of urgency earlier in the game. At least unlike last year, they put stifling pressure on the QB when they absolutely had to.
3.) That said this defense definitely needs work.
7.) Matt Light will be thankful the day he never has to line up across from Aaron Schobel ever again. Light isn't as bad as some make him out to be, but he is ten times worse than his haters makes him out to be when he faces Schobel.
8.) Liked the way Maroney ran tonight. I wish they gave him more reps.

10.) The Bills gave a far better fight than we expected. My hats off to them.
11.) It is even worse when it is out during the game and hours after. You really need to get this fixed.

I love these points man, especially the first 2.

 

[AzPatsFan]

Re: Thoughts on the Game

I wanted to say the critical play in the game was delivered by none other than Pierre Woods. His strip fumble of the returner and tearing the ball out let the Pats get the ball back when they absolutely had to have it.

So much for all the *****ing in the pre-season. I also noticed he had two tackles for loss.