Thoughts on the game and a good, long look at this team...

[alvinnf]

I would call it a draw, Eric Smith is a pretty good player nothing special, kind of like Merriweather. Also call Bodden and Sheppard a draw.

Going further is not just the overall player by player analysis but the impact players at each unit.

Jenkins is head and shoulders the best defensive lineman on either roster.
Revis is the best CB on either roster.
Rhodes is the best safety
The combo of Harris, Scott, Thomas, Pace is vastly superior than the Patriots.

They are just a more talented defensive unit with a better scheme. Next time around the Patriots will be that much wiser and hopefully can make some adjustments.

These two teams are playing completely different style of D. I don't think it's fair or accurate to suppose one's talent over another.

 

[chillinvillin]

How the hell is throwing the football 40+ times and abandoning the ran easing brady in....?

I think its oubvious Brady is a bit skittish out there because of his knee. Yes, hes throwing 40+ a game, but hes throwing a majority to the short and intermediate routes. By doing so he is getting the ball out quicker and protecting his himself (most notably hes protecting his knee.) and thats what I mean about the play calling easing brady into the game..

 

[JackBauer]

I would call it a draw, Eric Smith is a pretty good player nothing special, kind of like Merriweather. Also call Bodden and Sheppard a draw.

Going further is not just the overall player by player analysis but the impact players at each unit.

Jenkins is head and shoulders the best defensive lineman on either roster.
Revis is the best CB on either roster.
Rhodes is the best safety
The combo of Harris, Scott, Thomas, Pace is vastly superior than the Patriots.

They are just a more talented defensive unit with a better scheme. Next time around the Patriots will be that much wiser and hopefully can make some adjustments.

I just straight up don't agree. Meriweather >>>> Smith, and Rhodes is pretty overrated. I think I'd even take Meriweather over Rhodes. No joke.

Sheppard isn't that good anymore, from what I've seen this year, Bodden is clearly better.

Jenkins is also overrated. When healthy, he's dominant, sure, but he's got crappy conditioning and can't stay healthy (not to mention keep up his performance over the span of an entire game). He didn't do anything, from what I could see, today.

I do agree that the Jets have a better scheme. I don't think they're necessarily more talented. The Patriots D has been underperforming for some time now. That's coaching, IMO.

 

[Garbanza]

I agree with this 100 percent.

Two plays in particular. The THIRD time they decided to run the same EXACT short pass to Edelman on 2nd and 10, which got stuffed, making it third and 11. Creative guys, really.

Also: Morris' run on third down which was stuffed by Ellis. Seriously, did anyone not see that coming from a MILE away?

The play calls are no different than last year. Th exececution was better and the defenses weren't collapsing the pocket so quickly last year. That is the difference. I thought Faulk was fine, Morris is just the same, Taylor has good field vision and Maroney still sucks.

The Jets defense is far more aggressive than ours and the y have a shut down corner in Revis. The Patriost do not. Bodden is good - but he's not Revis good.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

The next few weeks become really huge for this team. We need to turn things around in a hurry because if we don't we have 1-3 staring us dead in the eye.

Brady wasn't near his '03-'04 self let alone his '07 self. The defense has been better than I thought in the first two weeks that is a good sign, because I only expect them to improve. But fact is this team revolves around Brady and he needs turn it around quick. I think he will.

 

[cstjohn17]

I just straight up don't agree.

I do agree that the Jets have a better scheme. I don't think they're necessarily more talented. The Patriots D has been underperforming for some time now. That's coaching, IMO.

Well we disagree, that much we agree on. IMO the Jets are more talented and have a better scheme. The Patriots play a pretty vanilla scheme with pretty good talent (not good, not very good and not superior).

 

[JackBauer]

The play calls are no different than last year. Th exececution was better and the defenses weren't collapsing the pocket so quickly last year. That is the difference. I thought Faulk was fine, Morris is just the same, Taylor has good field vision and Maroney still sucks.

The Jets defense is far more aggressive than ours and the y have a shut down corner in Revis. The Patriost do not. Bodden is good - but he's not Revis good.

Uh, the playcalling is clearly not the same. In case you hadn't noticed, McDaniels is no longer the OC. They apparently think it's still possible to run a 2007 style of offense, despite the fact that Brady is clearly not able to function at that level at this point in time.

You're one of the irrational, facts-be-damned Maroney haters, so I'm not even going to take the bait. I'll just tell you that you're wrong. If you thought Morris was fine and Maroney sucked, you just straight up cannot be helped.

 

[JackBauer]

Well we disagree, that much we agree on. IMO the Jets are more talented and have a better scheme. The Patriots play a pretty vanilla scheme with pretty good talent (not good, not very good and not superior).

The Pats held the Bills to ~280 and the Jets to ~250 total yards.

If that's reflective of pretty good talent (not good, not very good and not superior), I'd really like some of what you're smoking.

 

[rtunstal]

It has been along time sense I posted, but does anybody remember when the rat first took over the D was very vanilla until, the D said let them lose, and they were really good blitzing and everything, That is why the rat was made a head coach, but Dan pee on me please sucks, he is to afraid to lose the dogs until he does this D will never be that great. It seems that BB doesn't trust him enough to let him do that.

BB needs to either take control and let pee on me please go, or this D will always be on the field, they can not stop any body on 3rd down where is this great scheming guru that we all came to love. and please do not tell me its all the new guys on D, the giants, Pittsburgh, ravens, and even the jets have brought in allot of new players and they seem to have no problem. this is BB not having any confidence in Dan, and now his new OC, he needs to put more into his D like he use to and give tom some time to get back is confidence and run the dam ball for fn sake or bring back crennal so he can concentrate on the Offense, becuse this has gone on to long.

 

[cstjohn17]

The Pats held the Bills to ~280 and the Jets to ~250 total yards.

If that's reflective of pretty good talent (not good, not very good and not superior), I'd really like some of what you're smoking.

Get off it, the Bills gave that game away. Where was this vaunted D in the 2nd half against the Jets and a rookie QB? They were back peddling and missing tackles up and down the field. The defense is not that talented. The Jets WRs are among the worst in the league but when they needed to complete a pass they were wide open.

Maybe some of the young players grow into their roles but as whole the defense is severely void of any play makers. They are average, just average.

 

[JackBauer]

Get off it, the Bills gave that game away. Where was this vaunted D in the 2nd half against the Jets and a rookie QB? They were back peddling and missing tackles up and down the field. The defense is not that talented. The Jets WRs are among the worst in the league but when they needed to complete a pass there were wide open.

Maybe some of the young players grow into their roles but as whole the defense is severely void of any play makers. They are average, just average.

If they are "average," I'll expect to see them ranked in the 15-18 range. We'll see, won't we?

 

[SVN]

if brady is struggling so much...why not run the ball more with the zillion RB's we have ? something i cant understand brady throwing 47 times. maybe they wanted to score quickly and give their defense a chance to play from ahead....:confused2:

 

[gmtaxi27]

As bad as the Pats played I have to think the Jets had a big part of it.

I was at the game and was watching the Moss/Revis matchup closely, and it wasn't close. Revis totally shut him down. He is hands down the best corner in football, and is big reason the Jets defense is the real deal.

It did bother me to see Moss quit on quite a few plays. I am not sure if it had any affect on the plays, but it can't help.

I know you guys are putting this on Brady, and he was bad, but he didn't have many guys open today. Even when the Jets blitzed. They left the corners open, but Brady couldn't get the ball there in time.

 

[PittPatriot]

That said, with how horribly this team played today, they were still a TD away from tying it up. For opposing fans, mark my words: Brady WILL get his bearings under him, Welker WILL return, and Mayo WILL be back. This team WILL be a force to be reckoned with down the line.

I agree with you on all of this. This team is a work in progress....and I have no doubt they can run the tables even as a #6 seed if needed.
Unfortunately, the issues we had as a dominating team in 2007 still exist today. Teams with good D-Lines give us problem with 4-5man rushes.
We seem to get stuffed when the other team knows we will be running. The mid/late 4th Quarter stuff on 3rd and 2 is an example. The 4th and 1 sneak that Brady fumbled, recovered, but we converted due to encroachment.
Last week I complained we couldn't get off the field on 3rd Down, but this week it seemed the Jets converted more on 2nd down (over half their 1st downs)...maybe that's an improvement. But, all things considered, these team will make its run as the season wears on and the likes of Mayo return.
This time with the green dot will be good for Guyton's overall development.

 

[bat55w]

The defense is not great but that is not the problem with this team. Poor coaching and a skittish Brady has the whole offense out of rythm. Moss is one of the best receivers in the game, if they are playing him one on one he should dominate that player no matter how good he is. Sorry, but a piss poor game plan lost this game and poor offensive execution was the result of a poor game plan.

 

[mgteich]

I generally agree with you comments. I'd add a few things.

A) The only reason we are not all over Brady is because he is Brady. I agree that the OL and wide receivers played plenty well enough to win.

B) I certainly expect Brady and the offense to be fine by mid-season, but we won't win it all with much better coaching on the offensive side of the ball. Palmer and Peyton took a long time to get back. Brady has simply show that he is human and he needs time, coaching and better game plans to win.

C) Baker is inconsistent, but the total TE play is fine. Sometimes Baker is hot, sometimes Watson. That's fine.

Kontra did a great job with his observations. I'll add a few things:

1.) When the defensive line can't get pressure, it exposes the back 7 against both the run and the pass. Anyone who didn't understand why so many of us didn't like the Seymour trade should probably get it now.

2.) Sanchez can't complete passes outside the numbers except on screens or when he runs to shorten the distance, yet the Patriots allowed him to get throws downfield inside the numbers. That's just terrible scouting or piss-poor execution.

3.) Brady was terrible today, and it wasn't the fault of the line, the receivers, the officials or anyone else besides Brady. He was skittish behind the line, he was making poor reads, he was making poor throws, and he either needs to not run out of the pocket and take a sack/inc or to run out of the pocket with authority. Sadly, the mental game doesn't look like it's up to dealing with heavy blitzing, and it's not even really ready for a regular season game. I hope he can clear the cobwebs in a hurry, or this team is in some trouble.

4.) Brady has been bailing his receivers out for years. It would have been nice to see his receivers bail him out today. Edelman, Galloway and Moss all blew plays they could have and, at least arguably, should have made.

5.) This team is SSSSSSSSSSSLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWW on wide running plays, and I'm not talking about the running backs. I'm talking about the QB making the handoff, and the O-line pulling.

6.) Drunken monkeys throwing darts at a board could have come up with a better play combination than the untitled offensive coordinator did today. That may have been the poorest called offensive game since the early days of Charlie Weis.

7.) That punt on 4th down was a mistake. They should have gone for it. That's not revisionist history. I was saying it at the time.

8.) Baker looks slow off the line when he's not in the redzone. It's as if he's only got a 5 step burst.

9.) Did Kevin Faulk age 3 years in one week? Maybe it was just part of the general crappiness, but he looked old and slow today. I can see why Maroney was taking his touches early on in the game.

10.) As a general "wrap it up" rant.... This Patriots team let a good, but overrated, defensive team with a horrible quarterback beat it today, and they would have lost last week had they not been able to get a turnover on special teams. 0-2 is probably what they deserve to be, and if they don't pull their heads out of their asses, the Patriots could certainly lose to Atlanta and Baltimore, at home, and be facing a 1-3 start to the season.

 

[italia44]

It has been along time sense I posted, but does anybody remember when the rat first took over the D was very vanilla until, the D said let them lose, and they were really good blitzing and everything, That is why the rat was made a head coach, but Dan pee on me please sucks, he is to afraid to lose the dogs until he does this D will never be that great. It seems that BB doesn't trust him enough to let him do that.

BB needs to either take control and let pee on me please go, or this D will always be on the field, they can not stop any body on 3rd down where is this great scheming guru that we all came to love. and please do not tell me its all the new guys on D, the giants, Pittsburgh, ravens, and even the jets have brought in allot of new players and they seem to have no problem. this is BB not having any confidence in Dan, and now his new OC, he needs to put more into his D like he use to and give tom some time to get back is confidence and run the dam ball for fn sake or bring back crennal so he can concentrate on the Offense, becuse this has gone on to long.

welcome back............however,your spelling and punctuation,make this a difficult read.

 

[patsfan-1982]

will this is as good as it gets with the D under 20 points and under 300 yerds

yes still no real passrush and still give up some big 3rd downs but its going to be like that all year long no real passrush and they will give up some big 3rd downs

with or with out mayo this D will not get any better then this

but they did play good a nuff to win

the runing game was good we just need more of it

we fond out today that brady is human and so has every team in the NFL they stoped being scared of brady and moss they fond out the O line is bad and they can throw brady off he's game by hiting him

brady will get better and the O will put up more then 9 points

but right now this is not a SB team and i dont think they will be this year they will have a hard time makeing the playoffs

 

[mayoclinic]

will this is as good as it gets with the D under 20 points and under 300 yerds

yes still no real passrush and still give up some big 3rd downs but its going to be like that all year long no real passrush and they will give up some big 3rd downs

with or with out mayo this D will not get any better then this

but they did play good a nuff to win

the runing game was good we just need more of it

we fond out today that brady is human and so has every team in the NFL they stoped being scared of brady and moss they fond out the O line is bad and they can throw brady off he's game by hiting him

brady will get better and the O will put up more then 9 points

but right now this is not a SB team and i dont think they will be this year they will have a hard time makeing the playoffs

254 yards total offense and 16 points given:

1. Excellent field position by the Jets.
2. Recent loss of Seymour (by trade).
3. Recent loss of Mayo (by injury).
4. Defense still learning how to play together and adjusting to their roles.

Is this as good as it will get? I don't know for certain, but I don't think so. I'm hoping that as they get more experienced with the system and more comfortable together, as the rookies develop, and when Mayo comes back that we will see more. My biggest concern is not the players but the overly passive approach which the coaching staff seems to favor.

 

[ramon]

The Pats played a crappy game and still only lost by 7 on the road

while missing 3 of their 4 best players (Seymour, Mayo, Welker)