Immediate Game Thoughts - Texas Two Step Edition

[Rob0729]

Here we go:

• The Texans' offense was exposed tonight in my opinion. You take away the run and Schaub can't perform. He is too reliant on the play-action. He can't make decisions fast enough when he doesn't have that extra second that he gets when defenses bite on the play-action.
• Finally, they unleashed Mayo. I always thought he was a very good player, but never a playmaker. They are finally taking the reigns off of him and he is becoming a monster.
• I haven't been nearly as impressed with Talib as others have so far this season... Until tonight. He did a great job on Andre Johnson. He virtually took him away himself.
• I think they need to find another punt returner because I think it affected Welker tonight in the passing game.
• So much for all the media talk that the Pats lost faith in Lloyd and that Brady doesn't even have any confidence in him to look at him. I thought it was another ignorant media creation and Lloyd proved it tonight.
• The Pats might be the most complete team in the NFL right now. Their defense is worlds better than it was at the start of the season.
• Welcome back Stallworth. Nice to see you have a huge reception for a TD.
• I think Gronk may be back next week and that is scary for the rest of the league how good this offense can be when he returns.
• Brady may have locked up the MVP tonight. Another performance like this next Sunday and they can start engraving his name in the award.

 

[Simple Jack's Brother]

I was really happy to see them sign Stallworth over Branch this week. Obviously he knows the system pretty well still, and he still has wheels, which help opens up the underneath routes, even if it's not every single play. Glad to see him make that great catch tonight on that bomb.

Good lord, as a defense, what do you do when Gronk gets back?!:bricks:

 

[BananaRepublican]

Good lord, as a defense, what do you do when Gronk gets back?!:bricks:

Buy a few extra rolls of four ply?

 

[mayoclinic]

Good lord, as a defense, what do you do when Gronk gets back?!:bricks:

Aside from his receiving skills, can you imagine doubling Vollmer and Gronk on Watt?

 

[BananaRepublican]

[*]Welcome back Stallworth.
[*]Brady may have locked up the MVP tonight.
[/LIST]

I felt good for Stallworth. He's had a rough road. Now he's fully back and they have a deep outside threat besides Lloyd (who took advantage of blown coverage to get WAY behind his defenders.) Geezuz, what a fake by Brady and the guys. I mean that sucked in everybody including the camera man.

I think Tom did what he needed to do to keep pace with Peyton and taking a step over Watt but I don't think it's possible that there will be any clear cut winner until the the lights go out after week 17. It looks like a three way dead heat to me. Perhaps Watt's voltage dimmed a bit tonight due to circumstances, but there's a long way to go.

 

[Rob0729]

I felt good for Stallworth. He's had a rough road. Now he's fully back and they have a deep outside threat besides Lloyd (who took advantage of blown coverage to get WAY behind his defenders.) Geezuz, what a fake by Brady and the guys. I mean that sucked in everybody including the camera man.

I think Tom did what he needed to do to keep pace with Peyton and taking a step over Watt but I don't think it's possible that there will be any clear cut winner until the the lights go out after week 17. It looks like a three way dead heat to me. Perhaps Watt's voltage dimmed a bit tonight due to circumstances, but there's a long way to go.

Although I think the MVP is a bit of BS, but it is national games like this that seal MVP wins in close races. Brady ate apart which was supposed to be one of the best defenses in the league with the DPOY on a national stage in what was billed as the game of the season against the two best teams in the AFC if not the league.

I really don't care if Brady wins it or not (although I would be happy for him if he did), but it performances like this that wins MVP awards.

BTW, Watt never had a chance at MVP ever. MVP is a QB and RB award, but almost never by another position especially a defensive position. The last time a QB or RB didn't win the award was 1986 when Lawrence Taylor won the award and he is one of two defensive players to win the award ever (Alan Page was the other in 1971). Also, only one other player won the award who wasn't a QB or RB (Mark Mosley a placekicker in 1982). Watt is the DPOY, but he never had a shot at MVP. I doubt he will get any votes.

EDIT: Jerry Rice did win the Pro Football Writer's MVP, but never the AP MVP which is recognized as the official MVP. But I guess you can claim Rice won too.

 

[MoneyFX]

Agreed. It's hard to believe that the Patriots didn't even have Gronkowski. No matter if anyone gets injured, other players step up in the offense. This team is clicking on all cylinders. Lloyd is a great receiver for this offense, it's just that there are a lot more other targets and it may feel that Brady just hasn't looked his way much the last few weeks. Adding Stallworth is good, a guy that can haul in a long pass or two every game wouldn't hurt (a la Joe Morgan).

If you compare the Patriots team of the first several weeks of the season (to the first Jets game) to the team of the last 4-5 weeks, they are two different animals.

The secondary has stabilized with McCourty at safety and Dennard/Talib at the corners. Earlier in the year, they were giving up too much big pass plays. The offense actually scores late and puts games away. Earlier in the year, the offense would somehow struggle to score late in games.

 

[jsull87]

I know it doesn't mean anything in the scheme of things. But i really want Brady to win this MVP.

No int's vs SF and i think it's his for the taking.

I am really just hoping for no more injuries so we can be firing on all cylinders come the Playoffs.

 

[RelocatedPatFan]

That's a good thought on Welker.

While, I'm not sure if it affected his ability to catch the ball, Welker is taking some big time hits and I'd prefer to keep him fresh for the post season. Several times, you could see Welker get up real slow (those cumulative hits may be taking its toll and you know Welker isn't going to complain).

 

[Bhelmet]

Great game - great D effort. Just hope it does not come at too high a cost with Talib/Dennard.

 

[shmessy]

Here we go:

• I think they need to find another punt returner because I think it affected Welker tonight in the passing game.

THIS. Multiplied by 100.

BB, just get anyone else please. WW is too important to the offense to dissipate him on PR's. Last night was a stark example.

As the game wore on, you could see him fading, fading, fading and dropping, dropping, dropping. Don't screw up a great weapon.

 

[ThatllMoveTheChains!!!]

I thought PA was used incredibly well last night. I believe that in the thread about sticking with the running game there was some talk about going 5 wide being as effective against a ferocious pass rush like the Texans have. This game seemed to prove the exact opposite; when such teams see that they can simply pin their ears back, attack the QB, and just play tight press coverage.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Good stuff Rob.

Definitely agree with you guys on Welker, whatever the hit may be on going to the next guy down on PR, it's still worth lessening the workload because something was clearly off with him in the recieving game. I also get worried with DMC on KR. Wish we'd see Vereen fielding returns for both units or even Chung now that he has no important role defensively.

 

[PatsSox363804]

Every time the Texans play an elite offense that offense puts up a ton of points so the Pats scoring in the 40's wasn't terribly surprising. What was surprising was the lull in the middle of the game, credit the Texans for making some adjustments after being down 21-0 and staying competitive until Brady found Stallworth for the long TD.

The defense was the story last night to me. They flat out dominated the 2nd ranked scoring offense and only got 1 turnover. If you had told me we'd hold the Texans first string offense to 7 points I would have thought we were +4 in turnovers but they just slammed the door on third and fourth down last night. Hard not to get excited about it but need to temper expectations and just focus on SF Sunday Night, another huge game.

 

[mayoclinic]

I thought PA was used incredibly well last night. I believe that in the thread about sticking with the running game there was some talk about going 5 wide being as effective against a ferocious pass rush like the Texans have. This game seemed to prove the exact opposite; when such teams see that they can simply pin their ears back, attack the QB, and just play tight press coverage.

That was my point in that thread. The Pats kept the Texans' off balance at the beginning of the game by establish the run. Even in the second drive, though they through it 5 times and ran it only once, they had established it once. The TD in that drive came on a beautiful play action that wouldn't have worked if they hadn't so convincingly established the running game, so even though that was a pass play they used the rushing game to set it up. But then there was a long stretch when they just went to the spread and passed on first down out of the shotgun, and the Texans started to tee off. Except for the bomb to Stallworth, I didn't think the Pats were nearly as effective during that stretch of the game, and it made me a bit nervous. Houston's secondary wasn't that great, but I did have a few shudders thinking of the comeback loss to Buffalo last year when the same kind of thing happened.

 

[deters]

Every time the Texans play an elite offense that offense puts up a ton of points so the Pats scoring in the 40's wasn't terribly surprising. What was surprising was the lull in the middle of the game, credit the Texans for making some adjustments after being down 21-0 and staying competitive until Brady found Stallworth for the long TD.

The defense was the story last night to me. They flat out dominated the 2nd ranked scoring offense and only got 1 turnover. If you had told me we'd hold the Texans first string offense to 7 points I would have thought we were +4 in turnovers but they just slammed the door on third and fourth down last night. Hard not to get excited about it but need to temper expectations and just focus on SF Sunday Night, another huge game.

I think that "lull" was more on the Pats than the Texans. We got cute and seemingly kept throwing down the field instead of running plays to move the chains. It didn't help that we got a few bad calls in that stretch. Instead of trying to kill the clock and just grind them down, it seemed like the Patriots were going for the jugular.

 

[ay-yo]

- big Vince played a fantastic game and was making plays right out of the gate. His post game interview was awesome

- Mayo played a very good game. He forced Shaub to get rid of the ball before he wanted to on several occasions. Mayo has really improved as a blitzer. He's learned to delay and let O-lineman move to their assignments before exPloding through the open lane to the qb. Before it seemed he was too obvious when he was going to blitz and was easily blocked. Credit Mayo for continuing to work at his craft as all great players do.

- Talib played really well when he was in. he didn't shut out Andre but he won enough battles that we could leave him 1 on 1.

- McCourty at FS is looking better and better every game. Not only his ability to not let WR's get behind him but it seems like he does a very good job of getting everybody on the same page.

- Hightower made a few nice plays. At the same time he was responsible for Foster on the McCourty pick I believe and he instead ran to cover the wrong guy. It's not the end of the world. IMO he's had a better rookie year than Spikes did.

- In a couple years when Jones, Hightower, Spikes gain experience and Mayo and Nink continue to improve this front 7 is going to be scary.

- best defensive performance since idk when

 

[Rob0729]

One thing I forgot to mention which isn't 100% Patriots related is that Jon Gruden might have called his best game last night as a color commentator. Not really saying much because I find him unbearable, but he limited the ball washing of every player more than I ever seen and he also didn't pull out too many irrelevant stats to make a point.

 

[BradyManny]

With the media ballwashing in full force, the only way Peyton Manning doesn't win the MVP is if he has a bad game against the Ravens this week and runs over a pack of newborn kittens on the way out. Manning by no means deserves it to this point having lost to the only three good teams he has played, and been outscored a combined 89-31 in the first three quarters of those games, but let's not let facts get in the way of a good story.

The Patriots are the most complete team in the league right now, and its scary for the rest of the league that they are this good even with one of the three best players on the team absent.

 

[ay-yo]

How bout some offensive thoughts:

- Brady was on top of his game tonight. His run for a first down got every single Pats fan / player / coach fired up. When you give him easy throws b/c defenses bite on PA it's not even fair. Brady is still the best in the business.

- I agree with Mayoclinic and deters that the offensive 3 and outs had more to do with us getting away from what was working than the Texans making solid defensive plays / adjustments.

- last week we ran PA on back to back plays. First Hernandez got a huge gain and then Brady got sacked on first and goal from the 2. I was pretty pissed at the time thinking what stupid defense would fall for PA twice in a row? Answer: Houston. After a nice completion on PA to Hernandez we went PA again and hit the long Td to Lloyd. I guess it can work although I'm still not sold on the idea of two straight PA plays. I'd be interested to hear others thoughts on this.

- I love our collection of RB talent. Each one of them is a valuable player.

- although Watt was disruptive I think the O line played well. Sometimes you have to concede that one of, if not THE best DL is going to make plays. The rest of the HOU DL was very quiet.

- 2 consecutive weeks of the offense making big time scoring drives to keep us in control in the 2nd half / 4th quarter. Very exciting that we're getting better at a (former?) weakness.