Game Thoughts, Patriots loss at Baltimore

[ctpatsfan77]

I wasn't impressed by flacco. He used the old peyton technique throw it deep until you get a flag. I wish we would do the same. Just throw it to slater or anybody deep and tell them to just jump into the defender like 6 times.

Knowing these refs, they'd actually have called OPI on such a play. Or maybe rule an incomplete pass that hit the turf before bouncing into a defender's hands as an INT.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

On your first point: I think the only people who didn't have fun watching last nights game were Pats fans. The rest of the audience saw a competitive, entertaining game with marquee players on both sides that came down to the wire.

On your second point: I think that's a useful perspective. They make more than their share of bad calls, but they just seem out of control of themselves and the game too often. The Jets-Dolphins game made Pats-Ravens look like a brilliantly officiated game.

Ratbird fans (I know a few) weren't too thrilled with it either. . . .

 

[ForThoseAboutToRock]

* According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Patriots and Ravens combined for 13 penalty first downs, which set a NFL record. The old record was 12 last done by the Ravens and Lions on Oct. 9, 2005.

Hey, neat.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Three thoughts:

1) The sky isn't falling, as the Patriots played pretty well for most of last night on both sides of the ball. If we're looking for a competitive team that will be in the hunt for the Division Title until late December, we have it in what we saw last night against a team we knew was good and, indeed, last week against an opponent that was much better than heralded.

2) But executing on "every drive but the last two" (on both sides of the ball) isn't going to win the Conference, let alone the Super Bowl. They have to start winning close games again to do that.

On their last two drives last night, the Pats moved the ball a total of 51 yards (20 on Baltimore Penalties!) and took just 4:32 off the clock; on their last drive, TB was one for four for 11 yards plus a sack.

On their last two drives, the Ravens moved the ball 126 yards (including a net 17 yards from penalties, 27 on McCourty, which was clearly a penalty, net of 10 for Offensive Holding).

3) If we're going to blame the Replacement officiating, it's going to be a long, long season. Every team is dealing with it and last night's officiating was far from yesterday's worst from that perspective.

Or, as Tom Brady put it after the game: "We just don't play well when we need to...Certainly, we've got to play our best when it means the most, and we need to start winning close games."

 

[pwes]

On your first point: I think the only people who didn't have fun watching last nights game were Pats fans. The rest of the audience saw a competitive, entertaining game with marquee players on both sides that came down to the wire.

This is absolutely not true. I belong to several Message boards and fans all over are outraged by what happened last night. They don't care about the outcome but they care about how it was achieved. And yes even Ravens fans are upset about how the game was called even though they won. Ray Lewis is complaining about the calls and THEY WON! No one enjoyed that game at all.

 

[PatsFan2]

1. This one of the most ridiculously poor officiated games I have ever seen.
2. I know I am in the minority, but overall I thought McCourty had a really good game with some bad plays. That first INT drop was a great play by him and just broken up by the receiver. Yet fans are killing him for it. I thought for the most part when he covered Smith he shut him out of the game. The Smith TD on him should have been offensive pass interference. He also got a phantom penalty on him too.

No McCourty drinking kool aid for me Rob...he stone single handedly cost the N.E. Patriots the game last night. That's exactly how he played last year a completion waithing to happen...he is terrible and will be BENCHED soon enough. Peyton Manning will be licking his chops playing catch with him. Mark it down Devin in DONE!:bricks:

 

[Rob0729]

No McCourty drinking kool aid for me Rob...he stone single handedly cost the N.E. Patriots the game last night. That's exactly how he played last year a completion waithing to happen...he is terrible and will be BENCHED soon enough. Peyton Manning will be licking his chops playing catch with him. Mark it down Devin in DONE!:bricks:

Devin is the best CB they have good or bad. Sorry, but Arrington has a better shot at being benched because he is the one who did play horrible last night.

Also, McCourty didn't single handily cost the Pats' the game. No one did.

As for Peyton, he needs to worry about being more than an average QB at this point. The guy completed 50% of his passes yesterday. He got over 300 yards, but much was in garbage time (the Texans were up 31-11 in the fourth) and because the fact he threw 52 times.

 

[randomk1]

Devin had a decent game till the 4th qtr.

His dropped INT pissed me off the most. It wasn't a hard play to make and it could've really ended the ravens hopes.


Now at 1-2 i don't feel all that comfortable going to buffalo.

 

[PatsFan2]

Devin is the best CB they have good or bad. Sorry, but Arrington has a better shot at being benched because he is the one who did play horrible last night.

Also, McCourty didn't single handily cost the Pats' the game. No one did.

As for Peyton, he needs to worry about being more than an average QB at this point. The guy completed 50% of his passes yesterday. He got over 300 yards, but much was in garbage time (the Texans were up 31-11 in the fourth) and because the fact he threw 52 times.

Mid way last year Devin was not playing CB i am sure you KNOW that, there was a reason ie...Plays or lack their of like last night. BB have made mistakes before...mark it down the McCourty experiment at CB will be over soon enough we have more CB's with guts on this Team and Devin is not one of them. There was a reason why our pass Defense was ranked DEAD LAST last year. Rob, Devin is simple not that goood last night is not a abberration...but the norm in reference to him.

 

[NinjaZX6R]

His dropped INT pissed me off the most. It wasn't a hard play to make and it could've really ended the ravens hopes.


Now at 1-2 i don't feel all that comfortable going to buffalo.

That was just...wth.

 

[everlong]

I'll skip the ref stuff that's been covered.

McCorty dropped two interceptions. Smith made a nice play on one of them but he had both firmly in his hands and dropped. He was flat out awful even omitting the Smith push off.

Arrington falls down missing a chance for a game over interception. He got torched deep and had some legit penalties.

Josh McDaniels:

Turned Gronk into Daniel Graham with a 2/21 performance. I'm sorry I don't care what the Ravens were doing you need to get this guy involved so the defense has another playmaker to account for.

He runs Danny Woodhead 15/34. WTF? He was 6/20 game one and 8/18 game two. He had one reception for 9 yards so it's not like he was lighting them up there. He's a marginal pass blocker. Ridley's numbers were that much better but he was also in there in rushing sets where the Ravens were keying on the run. Maybe give him some draws and he breaks one.

Besides the reverse which killed a drive some of the other play calling just didn't make sense. The play calls down by the goal line where they settled for FGs and that last drive where they would have killed the clock were so frustrating.

The offense again with a chance to kill the clock could not do so. They cannot run when the other team knows they will.

The D-Line got zero pressure against Flacco.

The linebackers did not honor their gaps and were getting sealed again and again. Mayo and Hightower both filled the wrong hole many times.

503 total yards for the Ravens. This defense finally played an offense that can both run and pass and they failed the test. I think they'll continue to improve but epic fail. Yes the refs prolonged drives but still.

 

[Rob0729]

Mid way last year Devin was not playing CB i am sure you KNOW that, there was a reason ie...Plays or lack their of like last night. BB have made mistakes before...mark it down the McCourty experiment at CB will be over soon enough we have more CB's with guts on this Team and Devin is not one of them. There was a reason why our pass Defense was ranked DEAD LAST last year. Rob, Devin is simple not that goood last night is not a abberration...but the norm in reference to him.

So you think Belichick will bench his best CB because the experiment is over?

Sorry, I don't know what game you were watching, but Arrington was getting picked on a lot and getting burnt a lot and a heck of a lot more than McCourty. If McCourty sucked last night, Arrington was an unmitigated disaster. Arrington has struggled the last two games and McCourty has mostly been good with some bad plays last night.

Based on how they are playing this year, if Belichick benches McCourty for Arrington and Dowling, I would suspect that he is tanking the season to get Matt Barkley to replace Brady. McCourty is worlds better than either Arrington or Dowling this year.

And last year was last year. Arrington was decent last year and McCourty struggled. Not this year though.

 

[DaBruinz]

Great football game to watch, except for all the breaks for phantom and real penalties after the refs lost control in the early going.

The statistic that jumped out of the box score to me was the Patriots did not hit the QB once nor did they record a sack. The Ravens' use of Rice was excellent, offensive line did a great job and Flacco was decisive.

The Pats didn't record a sack because the one they did get was over-turned was when Spikes was called for a hold even though PITTA was the one holding Spikes jersey..

Also, Harewood was holding Wilfork or Love all game and it went uncalled.. Oher was doing the same thing with Jones. Ninkovich was actually getting doubled quite a bit.. The RT would hold him and then either the TE, RB or FB would chip him as well..

 

[aluminum seats]

Arrington was decent last year and McCourty struggled. Not this year though.

Not this year what? McCourty's not struggling? And I'd still put Arrington in the "decent" category, in as far he's playing about as well as you'd expect him to (the interception total last year was fluky). McCourty is a constant target.

 

[PatsFan2]

So you think Belichick will bench his best CB because the experiment is over?

Sorry, I don't know what game you were watching, but Arrington was getting picked on a lot and getting burnt a lot and a heck of a lot more than McCourty. If McCourty sucked last night, Arrington was an unmitigated disaster. Arrington has struggled the last two games and McCourty has mostly been good with some bad plays last night.

Based on how they are playing this year, if Belichick benches McCourty for Arrington and Dowling, I would suspect that he is tanking the season to get Matt Barkley to replace Brady. McCourty is worlds better than either Arrington or Dowling this year.

And last year was last year. Arrington was decent last year and McCourty struggled. Not this year though.

Arrington would have caught those two balls that hit "McStonehands" right in the mitts the QB couldn't have thrown them any better. McCourty was making Ravens WR's look like Megatron and Andre Johnson last night. The 2011 McCourty showed up last night and that's not good. There is no upside to McCourty game what we are seeing is what we are going to get. Thank goodnees BB kept quite a few. Put me in the anybody but McCourty fan club he now reminds of Laurence Maroney my most HATED Patriot player.

 

[jnug]

Those that are defining Devin's play at CB last night as "good" or "adequate" or "solid" or whatever are actually describing poor CB play without knowing it.

You cannot as a CB make plays as poorly as some of the plays Devin made and be good or adequate or solid. At a certain level the spectrum of plays you make defines your game. Good CB's do not make plays as bad as the bad plays Devin made....really good CB's never make plays that bad, never mind in multiples in one game.

With that Devin was not the worst Pats CB on the field last night.

BB no longer has playmakers in his secondary. His schemes put players in position to make plays but he no longer has players that can make them. What do these CB's need...the ball to stick in their face mask in order to make an Int?

You can just depend on schemes and defensive systems so much. Particularly in critical spots, plays and playmakers win or conversely lose games. Bill needs to stop being stubborn about the lack of athletes particularly in the defensive secondary in favor of his schemes. This is especially true in a league that now favors passing and offense, that allows offensive gazelles to run free in your secondary. You need the kind of playmaker that does not trip over his own two feet when the opposing QB just lays the ball in his hands. That is not what we have. We have guys that can barely stay upright as the ball approaches. Ball handling skills....these guys don't appear to have shoelace tying skills.

Finally we need to stop playing offense at the end of games like we are satisfied with leaving the game in the hands of our defense. When you have the ball and the lead and the ability to put the game away, you have to put the game away! This league favors offense now. It rewards offensive aggression not offensive passivity. Therefore it favors you when you have the ball. You cannot give it up at the most critical part of the game without getting something accomplished. We don't run time. Worse than that we don't score points. We don't put the game away.

This is not about Brady, about Ridley vs Woodhead or Julian vs Wes. It is not even about McD vs O'B. This is a philosophical approach to the game that simply is not effective given the rules changes and the emphasis on offense that we have now. You simply cannot accomplish nothing on offense at the most critical point in the game and then turn the ball over to the other team's offense and expect your defense to stand up to that as often as we do. You can maybe do it against the scrub teams in the league but any decent team will more than likely kick your butt for ya'.

 

[DaBruinz]

Three thoughts:

1) The sky isn't falling, as the Patriots played pretty well for most of last night on both sides of the ball. If we're looking for a competitive team that will be in the hunt for the Division Title until late December, we have it in what we saw last night against a team we knew was good and, indeed, last week against an opponent that was much better than heralded.

2) But executing on "every drive but the last two" (on both sides of the ball) isn't going to win the Conference, let alone the Super Bowl. They have to start winning close games again to do that.

On their last two drives last night, the Pats moved the ball a total of 51 yards (20 on Baltimore Penalties!) and took just 4:32 off the clock; on their last drive, TB was one for four for 11 yards plus a sack.

On their last two drives, the Ravens moved the ball 126 yards (including a net 17 yards from penalties, 27 on McCourty, which was clearly a penalty, net of 10 for Offensive Holding).

3) If we're going to blame the Replacement officiating, it's going to be a long, long season. Every team is dealing with it and last night's officiating was far from yesterday's worst from that perspective.

Or, as Tom Brady put it after the game: "We just don't play well when we need to...Certainly, we've got to play our best when it means the most, and we need to start winning close games."

Sorry, but you are 100% wrong on the call on McCourty. He never touched Smith. No way it should have been called. Even Chris Collinsworth said that he couldn't see McCourty touch Smith during the entire play.

Yesterday's game was, by far, the worst officiated game this season. BAR NONE. And it was the worst officiated game since the Steelers/Seahawks SB a few years back..

 

[12ClutchFactor]

I had a similar thought. Smith could have pretty much done anything to get free for a catch and it wouldn't have been called.

Doesn't really mean that people thought the refs were there to "help" the pats last night though.

On the contrary, I'm certain that there is a lot more pro wrestling to the NFL than some think. The NFL is a product there to make money. They run the league in whatever way will generate the most profit and attention. All of these ironic or "magical" storylines that occur every season don't just happen. The NFL puts quite a bit into designing the story lines and creating scenarios that will play out like a novel.

A lot of the play on the field is still legitimate, but other factors that go into it from the league side, including the officiating, are definitely discussed and designed before any of the players step onto the field.

I think as more people realize that there is quite a bit of story line choreography going on, the NFL will have to ease up on it a bit to not turn fans off to the "game."

 

[DaBruinz]

No McCourty drinking kool aid for me Rob...he stone single handedly cost the N.E. Patriots the game last night. That's exactly how he played last year a completion waithing to happen...he is terrible and will be BENCHED soon enough. Peyton Manning will be licking his chops playing catch with him. Mark it down Devin in DONE!:bricks:

WOW. You clearly didn't watch the game last night. McCourty didn't cost the Pats the game singlehandedly. That is your uneducated bias talking.

I can point to numerous other plays that had more effect on the game. Including the Pats poor playcalling on the last drive and the poor clock management with under 2 minutes to play.

 

[DaBruinz]

On the contrary, I'm certain that there is a lot more pro wrestling to the NFL than some think. The NFL is a product there to make money. They run the league in whatever way will generate the most profit and attention. All of these ironic or "magical" storylines that occur every season don't just happen. The NFL puts quite a bit into designing the story lines and creating scenarios that will play out like a novel.

A lot of the play on the field is still legitimate, but other factors that go into it from the league side, including the officiating, are definitely discussed and designed before any of the players step onto the field.

I think as more people realize that there is quite a bit of story line choreography going on, the NFL will have to ease up on it a bit to not turn fans off to the "game."

Another post from you and another conspiracy theory that is laughable. I'll do myself the favor of blocking your garbage from now on.