Idle thoughts - not so idle tonight

[Gwedd]

I woke up quite happy this morning. I saw the team that I had hoped would show up, that had the potential many saw but were afraid would be lost in "rookie" mistakes.

This team had a high energy level, and a physicality to it that was just PUSHING the Bengals line back time and time again.

I am so looking forward to watching tonight's game and then our visit to Jersey this weekend.

 

[BlueThunder]

Points left on the field and lots to work on with both Offense and Defense.

But, for the first real game of the season, OUTSTANDING.

BB gets to pick apart the weaknesses and players get to work on correcting their mistakes.....great tuneup for the Jets.

Usually have letdowns after a dominating win but with the next game being the J-E-T-S Pats should be pumped.:rocker:

 

[IllegalContact]

The offense was disappointing? They had one punt. Granted it was in a bad spot, but every one of their other drives was productive. They were really only stopped a few times; the Faulk drops aren't going to happen usually. Even the second Faulk drop, that was a very encouraging play -- as suspect as the play-calling was most of last year, it was great yesterday, with that being a great example, a perfect blitz-killing play that Brady just made a bad throw on (he back-shouldered Faulk a little when he should have led him).

The best thing about yesterday, to me, was Taylor. He looked terrific. There was a second-half play where he bulled about 7-8 yards for a first down where he looked like the old Fred Taylor. He was breaking a lot of tackles and hitting the hole very hard. If we have that kind of runner the whole year, this offense is going to be nasty.

in terms of points left on the field, yes. in terms to the playcalling in the 3rd quarter that led to a 3 and out and the bengals putting up 14, yes. with the youth of this defense, the pats offense will need to control the ball better.

the difference in the game was a defensive TD and a special teams TD. things you can't count on on a weekly basis.

the bengals defense was rather poor yesterday. with the weapons tha pats have, they should have produced more on offense

 

[Synovia]

the difference in the game was a defensive TD and a special teams TD. things you can't count on on a weekly basis.

You're making the mistake of assuming the game would have completed identically if those things hadn't happened.


BB clearly took the foot off the gas. The Bengals scored, but they took off tons of time doing it.




You also can't count on young DBs dropping 3 or 4 INTs in one game every week.

 

[Patpartizan]

Sometimes I forget how lucky Pats fans are to have such a great person as Tom Brady as our QB. It was reinforced yesterday as Brady exited the field and gave handslaps to 10 or 12 miltary people near the tunnel entrance. He stopped and came back to hit the one hand of the guy he missed, total class.

 

[GAC660]

Although I don't post that often, I have been reading Patfankens's "idle thoughts" for a long while. Not only are his posts the most informative and sensible it draws informative and sensible responses from other very knowledgeable members of this forum. I watched the game yesterday at Beef O'Brady's here in the Tampa area and I told many Patriot fans about this site and I mentioned Patfanken's posts specifically. I'm hoping the real Pats fans join and contribute, I'm going to make a contribution right now. Keep up the great work all of you knowledgeable posters!

 

[upstater1]

I've been to Okie once. The people there are great, very friendly and kind. In fact, too friendly and kind. For you Okie folks, when you see a dark-haired northerner walking to an 8 am interview, and the roosters just crowed for the first time that morning, and he's looking morosely into his coffee with a half-****-eyed look and little granules of sand in his eyes, you do NOT have to say "GOOD MORNING!" in the most lilt-y singsong voice you can muster with a huge smile on your face, and the women with their rather nice-looking big blue eyes opened wide--expecting a return good morning from the grumpy northerner!

This event was repeated about 15 times each morning.

Other things I remember: the dead grass is known as yellow grass. The red soil is filled with iron, and once it gets on your clothes, it just doesn't come off, that's why you see all these little kids running around after school in sweats with big red splotches on them that make you think there's some kind of festival going on, and then there are a lot of McMansions from big oil people far across town from the shotgun shacks, and the bars are huge--like barns--and the town of Stillwater was named not because the water was rather stagnant, but because there was still some water there in that town.-

 

[BradyManny]

4. On their last offensive play, the Pats, Brady had Faulk WIDE open in the flat when he tried to force the ball into Welker.

I noticed that, but I wouldn't worry about it. Brady saw Faulk on that play and chose not to go there - if I had to guess, they treated that play as "practice" and we're specifically working on a certain play. Maybe he just wanted to get it to Welker, thinking each rep he gets is a step forward. Who knows. Either way, the play was utterly meaningless, and the team seemingly treated it as a practice play.

 

[Sicilian]

in terms of points left on the field, yes. in terms to the playcalling in the 3rd quarter that led to a 3 and out and the bengals putting up 14, yes. with the youth of this defense, the pats offense will need to control the ball better.

the difference in the game was a defensive TD and a special teams TD. things you can't count on on a weekly basis.

the bengals defense was rather poor yesterday. with the weapons tha pats have, they should have produced more on offense

I'll give Gost the miss on the 50+ yarder, but we've come to expect him to get the 40-45 one that he missed. With that, the offense would have scored 27 points, even though they were playing a soft defense that was designed to make the Bengals take 6 or 7 minutes to score in the 2nd half. Also, since ST got the TD to open the half, the offense was potentially robbed of a meaningful drive to add to those numbers. Same thing with the pick-six. Adds a TD to the score, but keeps the offense off the field.

Have we really become so spoiled as a fanbase that an offense that an offense that puts up 24 (should have been 27) points in a blowout overall and only has to punt ONCE is "disappointing"?

 

[Uncle Rico]

Funny tweet from Ochocinco:

Headed to lift weights to get the soreness out, can't even look to the left thanks to Merriweather, great hit though, i need a neck brace

I remember the hit. Meriweather POPPED him.

Chad Ochocinco (OGOchoCinco) on Twitter

 

[NYCPatsFan]

Like most here I really didn't know what to expect. The D had looked pretty pathetic in the last 2 exhibition games, while the offense looked pretty good. Plus Cinci was coming into this game with a lot of fire power on both sides of the ball. ........

Nice summary, thanks!

Did you get the impression that the D notched it down in the second half? Some other poster - experienced poster if I remember correctly - in a similar thread mentioned that BB was careful not to show everything and seemed to switch to a relatively vanilla mode in the second half.

 

[Synovia]

I'll give Gost the miss on the 50+ yarder, but we've come to expect him to get the 40-45 one that he missed.

He didn't miss a 40-45 yarder.

He missed a 47 yarder, and a 56 yarder. Neither one of those are gimme kicks. Neither one of those are even kicks that are hit more often than not.

 

[Gwedd]

He didn't miss a 40-45 yarder.

He missed a 47 yarder, and a 56 yarder. Neither one of those are gimme kicks. Neither one of those are even kicks that are hit more often than not.

He might have made the 47 yarder, but if you watch it in replay, you can see a gust of wind start to bend the ball away right after it gets airborne. There's a nice spin to the ball, which, if the wind had died off a second earlier, might have bent it back inside the left upright. It just sailed over the tip of it, though.

The problem with any kick is the shape of the ball. Those curved surfaces play h3ll with any sort of wind, and no matter how often you practice, every kick is different. A light breeze can be offset by the spin of the ball, end over end, and the speed it's moving through the air acts similar to a gyroscope. However, once you get some gusts or a stronger wind blowing, then all bets are off. You end up leading the target like when trap shooting, and praying that when you offset the kick to allow the wind to push the ball back where you want it to go, that the wind doesn't suddenly die off.

There is so much that has to go right when kicking. It's as much art as science.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Although I don't post that often, I have been reading Patfankens's "idle thoughts" for a long while. Not only are his posts the most informative and sensible it draws informative and sensible responses from other very knowledgeable members of this forum. I watched the game yesterday at Beef O'Brady's here in the Tampa area and I told many Patriot fans about this site and I mentioned Patfanken's posts specifically. I'm hoping the real Pats fans join and contribute, I'm going to make a contribution right now. Keep up the great work all of you knowledgeable posters!

I'd appreciate info on places to watch the Pats in that area. Bought property outside Bradenton on the coast where I'll be this winter. Won't have a TV for a couple weeks and then no local Pats broadcast.

 

[IllegalContact]

You're making the mistake of assuming the game would have completed identically if those things hadn't happened.


BB clearly took the foot off the gas. The Bengals scored, but they took off tons of time doing it.




You also can't count on young DBs dropping 3 or 4 INTs in one game every week.

sure you can. that is until they start making those INT's

I'm not assuming anything. the simple fact is the offense produced some unforced errors and allowed themselves to have a 3 and out after the defense gave up a long drive. against the bengals, they could have at least gotten a few first downs.

the offense was OK given who they were playing. I will admit the OL played very well. but with the time he had, brady could have done better

 

[Synovia]

sure you can. that is until they start making those INT's

I'm not assuming anything

YES, you are. By stating "the difference was a pixk 6 and a special teams touchdown" you're assuming that the gameplan didn't CHANGE after those things happened. It did.

 

[40yrpatsfan]

sure you can. that is until they start making those INT's

I'm not assuming anything. the simple fact is the offense produced some unforced errors and allowed themselves to have a 3 and out after the defense gave up a long drive. against the bengals, they could have at least gotten a few first downs.

the offense was OK given who they were playing. I will admit the OL played very well. but with the time he had, brady could have done better

I think for game 1, with several of your weapons being rookies (or basically a rookie such as Tate), the offense did pretty good. The misfires to Faulk cost us points and won't happen very often.

The Bengals are not the Bills or the Browns, but a good team with a top defense that won their division and swept Pitt and Baltimore last year. You're not going to beat them 45-0. Our O got 24 points off them, would have had more except for the Faulk miscues, and ran a picture perfect drive to start off the 4th qtr and put the game away. Way better than last year's offense.

 

[A.C Vegas]

Funny tweet from Ochocinco:



I remember the hit. Meriweather POPPED him.

Chad Ochocinco (OGOchoCinco) on Twitter

That hit was awesome and I love Ochos response he knew it was a fantastic hit and congradulated him

 

[Bostonian1962]

I agree with much of the input regarding this game's pros and cons. I agree with those that have the lack of pass rush still as a con. That first sack in the beginning of the game ended up being the only one.

Let's hope it improves the more experience they get under their belts.

 

[QB12]

no insult intended,Sooner...I'm just...a joker...BUT...I stopped in Tulsa once back in the 70's on the way to LA by car...so anyway, I'm starved and I see this so called "Italian" restaurant...<insert Twilight Zone theme>...I go in and order an antipasto and spaghetti...the waitress, who had to be an extra from the Grapes of Wrath yells out to the cook "one ANTI -PASSTOE and spagottie with PARMESIAN cheese..."...yeah, I ate it it, I paid,,,and I left. The next time through I ate barbecue in Arkansas and drove straight across the entire state. I always wondered though, where the hell do you go swimming in OKLA???

still a mystery to me today

Italian food? In Oklahoma? Like soul food in Provo.