What an up and down game. Shouldn't expect anything else against a Divisional Rival that has a lot of TALENT at RB(Jackson and Spiller) and it's receivers (Chandler, Johnson and Jones). Just wish that people would remember that they have talent and that talented players can make plays. Would help the chicken littles to stop from over-reacting.
Spiller and Jackson are excellent, particularly when the defense is spread out defending the pass. CJS was one of my rare college football binkies so it's bittersweet to see him show his talent.
The play that almost cost the Pats the game was the 1st and goal from Buffalo's 2 yard line in the 4th quarter that they tried to quick snap. Hello. It's late in the 4th quarter and your TRYING to run time off the clock. Let the Buffalo defense get set. LET time run off the clock. So what if they stop you on 1st down. It runs the time down to the 2 minute warning OR it forces Buffalo to use a time out. Either way, it puts you in the driver's seat.
Strongly agree. Punching it in on the goal-line didn't go well today, but Ridley is a great weapon.
I don't understand why the Pats played so much ZONE today. They had so much success with the MAN coverage against the Rams and with Gregory back, they could have move McCourty back to CB opposite Dennard and been better off for it. And I attribute much of the issues that Dennard had today with not playing in press coverage...
The Pats secondary is so new to Belichick's zone defense that they've not really had time to acclimate to it. Nor has there been much in the way of continuity back there because of the injuries.
Hard to tell on the screen, but it did seem like they kept on with a strategy that Buffalo had an answer to
I really hate how McDaniels rotates the RBs. So many times, it just stunts the momentum that the team builds up. Not only that, it sends a clear signal to the defense that the new RB is gonna be the one getting the ball.
Quite right. Was it just coincidence that Ridley was so much more successful than Vereen? I don't think so.
The Pats didn't run enough play-action or enough screens today.
Sounds plausible, but hard to tell from the TV angle.
Woodhead had a great game, but them sitting him on the bench in the 4th quarter didn't make sense to me. Should have had him out there instead of Branch, IMHO.
The play-calling after the fumble recovery on the 1 yard line was a head scratcher. You've got a RB in Ridley who has been tearing it up, us him.
Respectfully disagree. Having the QB in the shotgun in the endzone should be a good strategy for a team that's confident in its short-passing game. Welker's drop was awful.
The defense, for all its faults, pulled another one out today with two timely turnovers. The fumble and recovery on the Pats 1 yard line and then the interception by McCourty in the endzone. The two forced fumbles give the Pats 16 on the year to go with 10 interceptions. The Pats have recovered 12 of the 16 forced fumbles.
But I still don't know how Buffalo came up with that last one. Did they really?