****** Patriots v. Dolphins post game thread ******

[ivanvamp]

In no way is the Texans and 49ers at home back to back murderers row....

Niners lost on the road to a Rams team the Pats beat 45-7.

 

[larryo]

Kept seeing #64 leading the pack in the run game that last drive. Congratulations to Donald Thomas. What a drive!

 

[SVN]

Niners lost on the road to a Rams team the Pats beat 45-7.

really about matchups. cant compare games like that.fins lost 35-3 or something to Tennessee.

 

[Uncle Rico]

really about matchups. cant compare games like that.fins lost 35-3 or something to Tennessee.

Division games are different animals too.

 

[Bonzo]

Kept seeing #64 leading the pack in the run game that last drive. Congratulations to Donald Thomas. What a drive!

Oh man - that drive was a thing of beauty! Great to see the O go out and seize a W late in the 4th Q. (And by largely attacking the strength of the opposing D, no less!)

The game was tighter than many anticipated, but I don't recall any time in Q4 where Miami had both possession of the ball and a 1-score deficit (save for maybe the onside attempt); in that sense, the Pats maintained firm control of the game thanks to a complimentary effort late.

 

[RhodyPatriot]

Pretty ugly game but a good win since the Pats don't do well in Miami in December.
Ridiculous offensive game plan most of the day. McDaniel is going to get Brady killed one of these days.
Uh Joshy, the Fins are not the '85 Bears. It is Ok to establish the run before the 4th qtr.

 

[jsull87]

it's one of those "the grass is always greener" type of scenarios but geez watching the steelers ravens game you can't help but notice how quick the steelers receivers are in comparison to the Pats.

They just seem to be intermediate to deep threats every play. That then gets the corners playing off and gives guys like Batch easy throws to the flat for 4-5 yards every 4th play.

Will definitely be looking at FA/Draft for that field stretcher to complete the danger of this Offense.

Great win today tho that should give McD some confidence we can run it when needed and the other coaches and players some confidence that when the O isn't fully in sync we can still put wins together against a Div opponent who was playing us tough from the opening whistle.

 

[stcjones]

Thank you....I think the Pats sandbagged a little on defense today...they could have decapitated Tannehill with the blitz any time they wanted to

No offense Joker....But if the Pats "COULD" have decapitated Tannehill with the Blitz at "ANY TIME"...they WOULD have done it....I think the doofin OL played very well overall

 

[mgteich]

We won. We clinched the division. If Edelman plays next week, we will have escaped without injuries. We beat the only team that beats us in December. What else should we ask for?
==========================
The defense played very, very well. Scott and Gregory were excellent pickups.

The offense played poorly, given how good our offense is. The last drive was indeed a thing of beauty, not seen in New England for awhile.

Gostkowski isn't a very good kicker this year. Compare him to the BALT kicker who has a string of 28 from within the 50. Our coverage teams continue to be among the best.
==========================

 

[stcjones]

He sure didn't see Ridley wide open in the flat. He never does. Or maybe that was another play. Just wish he would toss it to Ridley once in a while when he's wide open after pass protection.

This. Riddler was wide open on that play..and where the heck is Vereen/woodhead on those set up play action dump offs out of the backfield or to the flat???? McD/Brady needs to get vereen/RB's more involved in the passing game....the guy did well in college with that and as we all know is very shifty and quick.....Tom generally looks for the bigger gain and tries to force it in there rather than taking what the D gives him....like the RB safety valve passes!!!

 

[Joker]

No offense Joker....But if the Pats "COULD" have decapitated Tannehill with the Blitz at "ANY TIME"...they WOULD have done it....I think the doofin OL played very well overall

OK ..so I was wrong...Mayo just happened to blitz and bury Tannehill forcing the FG and essentially end the game. All those other plays they didn't blitz that led to Dolphin scores prove the Pats suck and this was a horrible win and a terrible way to clinch the division and a complete disaster winning down there in December for the first time in Patriot history and Brady sukked and Lloyd was horrible and Gostkowski missed another kick and McDaniels called a terrible eight minute 4th quarter drive that strangled the life out of the HOME FIELD HOME CROWD Dolphins...yep...the Dolphins played GREAT...they are quite a dangerous team playing from behind for all 60 minutes....I just hope things get even worse next week

 

[stcjones]

You know though, as painful as it was to watch McD abandon the running game from approx 2nd qtr to the early 4th quarter.....that was probably part of their strategy. Same as bringing in Vereen that late in the game.....but did so while he was COMPLETELY fresh!....brilliant. Emphasized the running game when the D was pretty gassed....NOT a horrible strategy in hindsight

An ugly win for sure. For whatever reason Miami in Miami often produces these difficult to watch games where the Pats look like thier going to beat themselves rather than Miami beating them.
Brady played poorly for most of the game and McDaniels had another one of his terrible early season like games. Virtually ignoring the run for 3 quarters was sheer idiocy! Especially with Brady clearly not on his A game.
This game reminded me a lot of the early early season games, where we left points all over the field and let the other team stay close. However, even though we did leave points on the field and had both our QB and OC have poor games, we still won. If this game was played in September, there is a good chance we'd have lost it.
The team is mentally stronger now than it was at the beginning of the year and a win on the road in Miami is always a beautiful thing.

That last New England drive was a thing of beauty.

 

[VrabelJr]

Have you ever noticed that when BB goes up against a first-time QB, the defense tends to be very, very vanilla?

Young QBs of the present are much different than young QBs of 5-10 years ago. These days they are taught how to handle blitzes by taking the easy completion before the pressure gets to them. It's much harder on a Rookie QB if you only send 4-5 rushers and make them figure out the coverages instead.

 

[VrabelJr]

OK ..so I was wrong...Mayo just happened to blitz and bury Tannehill forcing the FG and essentially end the game. All those other plays they didn't blitz that led to Dolphin scores prove the Pats suck and this was a horrible win and a terrible way to clinch the division and a complete disaster winning down there in December for the first time in Patriot history and Brady sukked and Lloyd was horrible and Gostkowski missed another kick and McDaniels called a terrible eight minute 4th quarter drive that strangled the life out of the HOME FIELD HOME CROWD Dolphins...yep...the Dolphins played GREAT...they are quite a dangerous team playing from behind for all 60 minutes....I just hope things get even worse next week

Nothing much to say about this post other than you're an idiot :/

 

[larryo]

This. Riddler was wide open on that play..and where the heck is Vereen/woodhead on those set up play action dump offs out of the backfield or to the flat???? McD/Brady needs to get vereen/RB's more involved in the passing game....the guy did well in college with that and as we all know is very shifty and quick.....Tom generally looks for the bigger gain and tries to force it in there rather than taking what the D gives him....like the RB safety valve passes!!!

He's the anti captain checkdown Sanchez. It's not even in his mind to throw that pass. He's throwing down field. We'll see. I think he'll start implementing that pass. I hope so anyway.

 

[aluminum seats]

It never amazes me how people find things to get pissy about here.

Hell, we're far from perfect. But no-one in this league is.

Would I like an all encompassing juggernaut.

Yeah. I'd also like an evening with Baby spice too.

Baby spice? Are you posting from 1992?

 

[VrabelJr]

In terms of the running game, I thought it was obvious Woodhead/Vereen would be more useful in this game than Ridley before this game even started. Against a front 7 that is diligent in setting the edge you don't want a decisive back like Ridley because the holes you're counting on won't be there. And even when those holes are there, they aren't open for very long. You need slash-and-dash type RBs who can make plays on their own.

 

[Anteros]

shalise manza young â€@shalisemyoung
Welker tied Jerry Rice for most 10+ catch games all-time (17)...he also passed Rice for most 10-catch, 100-yard career games (16)


Where does he rank on dropped TD's?

Seriously? After having a stat like that dropped on your head you still manage to find a negative? Good Lord.

 

[tombonneau]

Baby spice? Are you posting from 1992?

LOFL. Post of thread. Baby Spice.

 

[DaBruinz]

I missed the 2nd half because I was in the ER for dehydration due to illness.

Haven't seen it mentioned but Cannon took snaps at RG as well as RT today. He more than held his own at RG for the two series he was out there.

Sucks about Edelman getting hurt.

Gaffney should be able to be signed and he is done his suspension. But he needs to be healthy.

Hernandez had 1 bad drop. The other one would have been an amazing play.

I don't know what it is about the Patriots going down to Miami and having tough games there. Yes, they are a division rival, but the Pats always seem to make it harder than they have to.

I read some of the thread and saw people whining about Lloyd's production. He's right around where he should be, in all honesty. Particularly considering how hard it is to earn Brady's trust.

Saw people saying stuff like "this is why you can't 'RELY' on turnovers". I have news for you. The Patriots don't RELY on turnovers for anything. They go out and make things happen. They had 3 Forced Fumbles in the 1st half. Granted, the Phins recovered 2 of them, but the Pats have been doing this consistently now.

This was a typical Divisional game, imho. Tough. Hard fought.

The issues going forward will be the health of Mankins, Gronkowski, Vollmer, Connolly and Edelman. The Pats need 3 of the 5 to be healthy going into the play-offs.