****** Official Unofficial Patriots/Rams Postgame Observations Thread ******

[Deus Irae]

From Zolak:

huge step backwards today

could see cuts before tuesday (got that impression from BB earlier in the day, and this is a courtesy)

lack of energy, team going through the motions

Burgess was busting his ass at times tonight, but he's not big enough

Burgess and TBC were the ones giving the most effort tonight

Don't read anything into Maroney not playing

 

[Rob0729]

Heard the BB presser while driving home from the game. Man, was he PISSED.

Really, the only good news was that this game didn't count. That's it.

Actually, I think in some weird way part of Belichick loves games like this. First, it doesn't count. Second, it is a game he can use to force the team to become more focused.

Not that I think we will see the same results, but back in 2004 Belichick used an embarrassing loss to the Bengals where the Pats starters got out played by the second string as a way to spark the team and the team didn't lose again until Pittsburgh in midseason and only one other time after that.

I think Belichick hates that the team played so poorly, but I think he likes that he can use this game as a teaching tool and motivator.

 

[Zeus]

From Zolak:

huge step backwards today

could see cuts before tuesday (got that impression from BB earlier in the day)

lack of energy, team going through the motions

Burgess was busting his ass at times tonight, but he's not big enough

Burgess and TBC were the ones giving the most effort tonight

Don't read anything into Maroney not playing

BB was incredulous when one of the media nitwits asked why Maroney didn't play - Belichick's response was "We never had the ball."

 

[pherein]

This this was far and away the most one-sided one point loss in the history of football.

Yes and when you break down that 1 pt that you lost by to the Rams, using geometry, the distance between the percentages can equal infinity. So basically you lost by infinity.

 

[Deus Irae]

Yes and when you break down that 1 pt that you lost by to the Rams, using geometry, the distance between the percentages can equal infinity. So basically you lost by infinity.

 

[pherein]

lol, excellent I spit up my goats milk

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Blow it up

 

[Deus Irae]

From Darius Butler:

I played like HOT GARBAGE tonight! WTF!!! #Pissed

Twitter / Darius Butler: I played like HOT GARBAGE ...

 

[Deus Irae]

Another note:

I was worried about Crumpler coming off of last season. He was too heavy, and he was clearly slowing down. So far this year, though, he seems to be in better shape which seems to have helped his speed, and he's really helping out there on the field. That catch he made tonight was very impressive.

 

[HEY BRO! WHAT UP?]

BB was incredulous when one of the media nitwits asked why Maroney didn't play - Belichick's response was "We never had the ball."

BB is still being a dipsh*t and not answering the question. Why isn't Maroney playing? It's not a difficult question.

 

[Keyser Söze]

From Darius Butler:



Twitter / Darius Butler: I played like HOT GARBAGE ...

and so did his twitter butt buddy McCourty. He had that nice "coverage" on a deep ball but he got lucky, didn't look for the ball. The defense was celebrating after that play, acting like they hadn't been abysmal.

 

[SCPatBoy]

The defense will again be the death of this team again this year!
I mean TBC and Burgess on the outside might be one of the most underwhelming OLB duo in the NFL.

Butler is a BUSTer. Real miss there, several CB's taken after him in the draft look alot better.

In the end we might have a little improvement at ILB, but our OLB and Secondary will be suspect again and I think our DL will be worse.

Our offense will be good enough to get us into the playoffs, but our defense won't be able to get us deep into the playoffs!

 

[PatsDeb]

Forget "The Jets Suck." We suck. We made a rookie QB look like a Pro Bowler. Why can't we find a pass rusher. GRRRRRR. Okay, I'm done. Luckily it didn't count and we have 2 more weeks to straighten everything out.

 

[wdkantro2]

I hated hearing Zolak on the sidelines say that there was no fire in the defense "walking around, coming in and out of the huddle, etc." I hope the leadership issues from last year are resolved, but who knows. I feel like our vocal guys (Meriweather, for one) are a little immature and our guys who have great attitudes (Sanders for one) are quiet and "lead by example" guys, unlike the Bruschi's and Rodneys of the past that were both vocal and "get it." I also loved Moss not celebrating a 60+ yard TD catch. I hope our DBs were watching, who celebrate incompletions that they didn't even cause.
Very unimpressed with Guyton today too, and I have been one of his biggest supporters. For a guy who we're counting on as a 3rd down, passing situation player, he sure looked lost in coverage...although it was his first game back.
In all, just a major lack of discipline on defnese today. I will chalk a lot of it up to the vanilla defense. If the coaches aren't going to put a lot into gameplanning for this game, how do they expect the players to put forth their absolute best?

 

[ctpatsfan77]

Butler is a BUSTer. Real miss there, several CB's taken after him in the draft look alot better.

Cassel's 2008 preseason says hi.

 

[PatsDeb]

Awesome pic.

 

[Metaphors]

BB is still being a dipsh*t and not answering the question. Why isn't Maroney playing? It's not a difficult question.

Absolutely correct. Belichick should give the Bengals as much notice as possible how he plans to use his running backs for week #1.

Or maybe Belichick can trade Maroney information to the Bengals for Antonio Bryant information plus the Bengals 2nd round draft board next year (can upgrade to the 1st round draft board if Maroney's information turns out to have dramatic overtones).

 

[Keyser Söze]

"I don't know"

"We just didn't play well"


Riveting presser Bill. Even more so than usual. LOL

 

[Keyser Söze]

First, There is always a silver lining in every cloud.

It may be hard to find that silver lining in this particular cloud, but there really was one..... it happened when the gun sounded to end a nightmare.

Well, maybe not a nightmare, but a really, really bad dream.

OK, yeah, there were some silver linings...Gronk of course being the big one, along with Tate, the fact that Brady finally threw a deep post to Moss instead of those useless sideline fly patterns, Spikes was in for almost the whole game and while not spectacular, did very well for a rook and has a great future ahead of him..... Those were some of the silver linings in a game in which the coaching staff was the cloud.

I am no expert, in fact far from being an expert, but whatever their plan was offensively tonight was nothing better than a high school game plan... and defensively, man, they just couldn't care, so it seemed. And that, IMO, falls back on the coaching staff and what they apparently, did not put into the plans for this game.

As I, and some others stated in the game thread, they have got to get the hell out of that spread formation on 3rd and short yardage. Going into the spread, with Brady back in the gun takes 50% of the guesswork out of the minds of opposing defenses. On 3rd and 2, for example, there is no reason not to be under center. It opens up a tremendous amounts of possibilities. In the spread, with the shotgun, the opposing defense knows, for the most part what is coming. There is no fakery, no deception, nothing.

It's time for bullcrap play calling like that to end....period.

In either case, thwere were a few silver linings. Not many, but the ones that they did have were solid and because they came from some of the kids, it has a good future in the offing for them, and the team. Hopefully that future begins on September 12th.

16 minutes of offense is not acceptable, not at all.

But, the Colts only had 22 tonight and gave up 59 points..so all is not all bad.

I am sure that Colts fans are probably echoing pretty much what we havesaid tonight.

Play calling was horrid last season, I don't see why anything will change. That's on Bill for sticking with O'Brian.

 

[HEY BRO! WHAT UP?]

The defense will again be the death of this team again this year!
I mean TBC and Burgess on the outside might be one of the most underwhelming OLB duo in the NFL.

Shouldn't shock anybody.

Butler is a BUSTer. Real miss there, several CB's taken after him in the draft look alot better.

This would be a huge disappointment as I had high hopes for him.

In the end we might have a little improvement at ILB, but our OLB and Secondary will be suspect again and I think our DL will be worse.

I agree their ILB could have some improvement, but their OLB's are one of the worst in the league. Also, the Pats go from one of the best D-lines in 2008 to one dumb trade and one serious injury to one of the worst D-lines in the league.

Our offense will be good enough to get us into the playoffs, but our defense won't be able to get us deep into the playoffs!

I agree. Their defense can't be counted on, but their offense can't close games out when they have a lead.