What we learned/know about the Patriots with 7 games to go

[ALP]

So, we recently came off a whooping at the hands of the cleveland browns...and we demolished the previous best team in the NFL yesterday

-if you thought BB had lost it, go back and watch this game; his defensive prowess is still alive and well, its just lacked the tools...now the tools/players are here, and so is BB's returned creativity

-blitzes are coming from anywhere, coverages are all different, safeties are doing different things...the parts are all coming together

-and if you still dont believe me, check out polamalu in the game, the guy was CLUELESS as to what was going on on the field, i have NO idea how or what BB could have done to keep Troy, a TOP safety in the nfl today guessing all game long, but he had him not only guessing, but guessing wrong...polamalu really took himself out of each play single handidly, we didnt even have to account for him at time; Troy's recap? 2 tackles....thats it

-Tate is improving, i think we will provide us a deep threat, but it will take the rest of the season to prove consistent

-if Brady throws taht deep ball to the EZ a little more to the corner, i think Tate has it for a long TD....he had his man beat

-Tate needs to keep working on his hands....i dont know if its his concentration that he drops easy catches, but these drops should stop

-Branch is healing up, and also getting more familiar...it seemed every catch he had was after he was 5 yds away from the defender....he can still gain separation

-BJ continues his strong running, behind a very good O-line this past game, not the best catching back out of the backfield, but serviceable

-so far its been one back or another, whcih is good, when woody struggles, BJ does well and vice verca...very good for the future

-I dont recall using the FB a lot this past game, more TE's, and sammy is really slow...seems like this will be his last year, we need Taylor back as the power/big/change of pace back to complement the aforementioned UDFA's

-The O-line played spectacular...good job by connoly filling in nicely, guess its easy to play gaurd on either side more so than tackle

-I would like to sign mankins, but not if its to something too high...the guy is good, but only 1/5 of the O-line

-not sure if anyone saw this, but i think later in teh game on a pass play Light took his man, and flipped him...beautiful pancake

-welker is missing moss eh? sure didn't seem like it this game....8 catches, 89 yards

-guess now we should talk about Gronk...the guy came to play...he knew he held a lot of the blame for waht happened in Cleveland, and so did the rest of the team (as seen from the post game comments of the Pats Players), and boy did he prove something...not sure how his blocking was, but as a pass catcher the guy reminds me of Witten from Dallas...and that IMO, is a VERY good comparison

-so far this season its been either hernandez or Gronk as main pass catching forces..now I want to see a game where they both have good days

-mandatory rep for Alge here, not much as a pass catcher, but thats not what we need, his blocking was great and imperative, as shows by the telecast itself...also had that onside Kick recovery, not sure why he stopped running, but great catch none the less

-i noticed Levoir was inactive this game...who was our backup tackle???

-now on to the GOAT: TFB; he had a horrible game against Cleveland..we all knew it...he knew it, he admitted it, and he came back with a force, i think two of his throws were off....2 out of 42...incredible, and most were so on the money its scary, a lot like what manning looked like earlier in the year, and a lot like what we all have been waiting quite a while to see

-Brady's best game in a while, loved the heat in his mannerisms during the game

-i hate it when a game is unfairly judged...it really pisses me off, and last nights game was horrendus by the refs; calling only blatand holds and only against NE, calling PI where there shouldbe none, calling every single ticky tacky play possible, and calling NO personal foul calls except the ones they just HAD to call....i wish we dont see this crew EVER again

-the cheap shot artists on the steelers are also getting annoying...harrison had a few, clark had that one on wes...the ball hits the ground and AFTER the hit comes...late hit; the hit on edelman after a fair catch...late hit; the hit on brady that was called...late hit; the pileup on Brady after his sneak TD was disgusting, as is the perfect photo of Troy trying to decapitate brady after the guy has been laying on the ground for a minute

-Chung, Chung, Chung, people have made allusions to harrison...its way to early yes, but the similarities are incredible...the defense just cahnges when chung is playing...a LOT like harrison, were were almost undefeated with him, but have horible performances w/o him (still spite teh titans for that shot to his knee that stripped us of a SB)

-Rob Ninkovich, if thats how the worst starter in the league plays...please oh please keep it up

-Crable??? am i seeing things??? finally on the field...good job my friend

-did not notice cunningham, anyone know why?

-Guyton, if only you played like this the other 8 games...great on coverage, finally doing what you're supposed to be doing

-well, mayo had a nice game, and at least one TFL...the special plays are coming little by little

-McCourty is such a good corner, better in man than coverage still, other teams have picked up on the fact that the route he defends worst is the comeback...and teams are running it a lot against him, the colts love that route, so hopefully Devin's ready for it this week

-Some VERY nice open field tackles this past game, Chung again should be mentioned here

-Edelman doesn't look like welker on these punt returns, hopefully he will start to soon, seems to be close

-Tate should be about ready to break another one for a TD, against the colts would be nice

-the steelers started their drives from some good field positions last game, need to minimize those

-I'm jittery about Graham...hopefully just first game jitters for him, because i really really really want him to be able to kick a last minute FG (why do so many kickers in the NFL suck? ie. folk, reed)

-the Zoltan continues his performance, as bad as Ingram was of a pick, Mesko is making up for it

-worst thing of this season? the raiders waking up...their playmakers are coming alive...hopefully their spurt ends, nothing personal, but i want a top 10 pick....probably wont happen anymore, but a guy can wish

-our Run D...amazing against a very strong running vikes O, horrendus against CLE, back again for a strong showing against PITT, who likes to run, and CAN run, shows taht we CAN stop the run (at least so long as the RB is not built like a LB)

-our pass D...i have not noticed arrington much, not in a negative way, he had great coverage to cause the 1st punt by the steelers on their first drive

-where do we stand? we have the best coach in football, a defense that is improving every week, and offense that is getting its sh*t together, and a ST that is a work in progress, and a QB that is heating up now

we are improving...so long as we keep doing that, I'm happy, and quite confident, lets welcome the colts, and send them home closer to .500, without any injuries on either side, and with a better officiating performance than we saw at heinz field (if you want to call that officiating)

 

[FloridaPatsFan]

Wow ALP....quite a post...enjoyed it...thanks.

The other thing I noticed was there were a lot of plays where Steelers were getting up REAL slow after a play. I thought the Patriots on both sides of the ball were really laying the wood...

I say the Steelers got up this morning feeling like they got hit by a truck and saying to themselves..."Uh-oh....The Patriots are for real"

 

[TBradyOwnsYou]

Branch gets a ton of seperation, but what is his YAC avg?

 

[mgteich]

1) Ojinnaka was our backup OT.

2) Mankins is only 20% of our OL. Light is only 20% of our OL. And the percentage is lower if you count at least one TE as part of the OL.

So???

Ask Brady how much he thinks Light and mankins are worth to the offense.

So, we recently came off a whooping at the hands of the cleveland browns...and we demolished the previous best team in the NFL yesterday

-if you thought BB had lost it, go back and watch this game; his defensive prowess is still alive and well, its just lacked the tools...now the tools/players are here, and so is BB's returned creativity

-blitzes are coming from anywhere, coverages are all different, safeties are doing different things...the parts are all coming together

-and if you still dont believe me, check out polamalu in the game, the guy was CLUELESS as to what was going on on the field, i have NO idea how or what BB could have done to keep Troy, a TOP safety in the nfl today guessing all game long, but he had him not only guessing, but guessing wrong...polamalu really took himself out of each play single handidly, we didnt even have to account for him at time; Troy's recap? 2 tackles....thats it

-Tate is improving, i think we will provide us a deep threat, but it will take the rest of the season to prove consistent

-if Brady throws taht deep ball to the EZ a little more to the corner, i think Tate has it for a long TD....he had his man beat

-Tate needs to keep working on his hands....i dont know if its his concentration that he drops easy catches, but these drops should stop

-Branch is healing up, and also getting more familiar...it seemed every catch he had was after he was 5 yds away from the defender....he can still gain separation

-BJ continues his strong running, behind a very good O-line this past game, not the best catching back out of the backfield, but serviceable

-so far its been one back or another, whcih is good, when woody struggles, BJ does well and vice verca...very good for the future

-I dont recall using the FB a lot this past game, more TE's, and sammy is really slow...seems like this will be his last year, we need Taylor back as the power/big/change of pace back to complement the aforementioned UDFA's

-The O-line played spectacular...good job by connoly filling in nicely, guess its easy to play gaurd on either side more so than tackle

-I would like to sign mankins, but not if its to something too high...the guy is good, but only 1/5 of the O-line

-not sure if anyone saw this, but i think later in teh game on a pass play Light took his man, and flipped him...beautiful pancake

-welker is missing moss eh? sure didn't seem like it this game....8 catches, 89 yards

-guess now we should talk about Gronk...the guy came to play...he knew he held a lot of the blame for waht happened in Cleveland, and so did the rest of the team (as seen from the post game comments of the Pats Players), and boy did he prove something...not sure how his blocking was, but as a pass catcher the guy reminds me of Witten from Dallas...and that IMO, is a VERY good comparison

-so far this season its been either hernandez or Gronk as main pass catching forces..now I want to see a game where they both have good days

-mandatory rep for Alge here, not much as a pass catcher, but thats not what we need, his blocking was great and imperative, as shows by the telecast itself...also had that onside Kick recovery, not sure why he stopped running, but great catch none the less

-i noticed Levoir was inactive this game...who was our backup tackle???

-now on to the GOAT: TFB; he had a horrible game against Cleveland..we all knew it...he knew it, he admitted it, and he came back with a force, i think two of his throws were off....2 out of 42...incredible, and most were so on the money its scary, a lot like what manning looked like earlier in the year, and a lot like what we all have been waiting quite a while to see

-Brady's best game in a while, loved the heat in his mannerisms during the game

-i hate it when a game is unfairly judged...it really pisses me off, and last nights game was horrendus by the refs; calling only blatand holds and only against NE, calling PI where there shouldbe none, calling every single ticky tacky play possible, and calling NO personal foul calls except the ones they just HAD to call....i wish we dont see this crew EVER again

-the cheap shot artists on the steelers are also getting annoying...harrison had a few, clark had that one on wes...the ball hits the ground and AFTER the hit comes...late hit; the hit on edelman after a fair catch...late hit; the hit on brady that was called...late hit; the pileup on Brady after his sneak TD was disgusting, as is the perfect photo of Troy trying to decapitate brady after the guy has been laying on the ground for a minute

-Chung, Chung, Chung, people have made allusions to harrison...its way to early yes, but the similarities are incredible...the defense just cahnges when chung is playing...a LOT like harrison, were were almost undefeated with him, but have horible performances w/o him (still spite teh titans for that shot to his knee that stripped us of a SB)

-Rob Ninkovich, if thats how the worst starter in the league plays...please oh please keep it up

-Crable??? am i seeing things??? finally on the field...good job my friend

-did not notice cunningham, anyone know why?

-Guyton, if only you played like this the other 8 games...great on coverage, finally doing what you're supposed to be doing

-well, mayo had a nice game, and at least one TFL...the special plays are coming little by little

-McCourty is such a good corner, better in man than coverage still, other teams have picked up on the fact that the route he defends worst is the comeback...and teams are running it a lot against him, the colts love that route, so hopefully Devin's ready for it this week

-Some VERY nice open field tackles this past game, Chung again should be mentioned here

-Edelman doesn't look like welker on these punt returns, hopefully he will start to soon, seems to be close

-Tate should be about ready to break another one for a TD, against the colts would be nice

-the steelers started their drives from some good field positions last game, need to minimize those

-I'm jittery about Graham...hopefully just first game jitters for him, because i really really really want him to be able to kick a last minute FG (why do so many kickers in the NFL suck? ie. folk, reed)

-the Zoltan continues his performance, as bad as Ingram was of a pick, Mesko is making up for it

-worst thing of this season? the raiders waking up...their playmakers are coming alive...hopefully their spurt ends, nothing personal, but i want a top 10 pick....probably wont happen anymore, but a guy can wish

-our Run D...amazing against a very strong running vikes O, horrendus against CLE, back again for a strong showing against PITT, who likes to run, and CAN run, shows taht we CAN stop the run (at least so long as the RB is not built like a LB)

-our pass D...i have not noticed arrington much, not in a negative way, he had great coverage to cause the 1st punt by the steelers on their first drive

-where do we stand? we have the best coach in football, a defense that is improving every week, and offense that is getting its sh*t together, and a ST that is a work in progress, and a QB that is heating up now

we are improving...so long as we keep doing that, I'm happy, and quite confident, lets welcome the colts, and send them home closer to .500, without any injuries on either side, and with a better officiating performance than we saw at heinz field (if you want to call that officiating)

 

[ALP]

Wow ALP....quite a post...enjoyed it...thanks.

The other thing I noticed was there were a lot of plays where Steelers were getting up REAL slow after a play. I thought the Patriots on both sides of the ball were really laying the wood...

I say the Steelers got up this morning feeling like they got hit by a truck and saying to themselves..."Uh-oh....The Patriots are for real"

yea, i got a little carried away, didn't realize how long it was until after i posted it

but you are right, we were hitting, both offense and defense

also i would say branch's YAC right now would be pretty low, his primary route seems to be the comeback, which usually if timed correctly doesnt allow for much YAC

 

[TruthSeeker]

Chung is very noticable, Our defense seems to have a slight swagger with him in the lineup. They also seem to hit harder. The defense, AND Chung, are still a work in progress though. Three TD's in the 4th are scary, need to be eliminated.

Tate is going to be a good receiver for us, a David Givens with speed.

Welker looked like Welker.

Gronk, is a beast, that's all that needs to be said. Love how Crumpler helped him earlier in the week get over the Browns game, and Brady seem to say, "Here ya go kid, forget last week, you're gonna be a star, here's the ball" Legendary comback performance by the kid.

 

[signbabybrady]

Chung is the man...he seemed to get a little banged up and add that to the knee he was already dealing with and lets hope he is feeling OK this week. We will need him for the Colts. IMO he is our Best DB.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Nice post.

Branch looked like he's at full speed, can't ask for much more seperation than that. Same with Welker. I think Edelman is still bothered by something though, other than one return against SD he's been one of the few disappointments this year. Tate is improving, a little frustrating at times but I think he's going to pan out for us.

I'd like to see a more consistent return game, other than 2 return TD's it seems our starting position has been rather poor off kicks. Other than that, it's very hard to complain about anything the team has done this year.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

-i noticed Levoir was inactive this game...who was our backup tackle???

Ojinnaka.

-Tate should be about ready to break another one for a TD, against the colts would be nice

Luckily, Colts coverage of STs has historically been one of their weaknesses (in the 2007 game the refs tried to give them, their best start on KOs was worse than the worst start the Pats had).

-the Zoltan continues his performance, as bad as Ingram was of a pick, Mesko is making up for it

Ingram turned into a pumpkin this season, but was good last season, and I do not fault the Pats one iota for taking him.

-where do we stand? we have the best coach in football, a defense that is improving every week, and offense that is getting its sh*t together, and a ST that is a work in progress, and a QB that is heating up now

And yet the Pats' 7-2 record is all smoke and mirrors.