2012 Surprises/Disappointments

[Kontradiction]

Chung had a fine 2010 and a decent tail-end to the 2011 and 2012 seasons.

His problem is that hes always hurt and quite frankly I question his football IQ. Seems to make the same damn misakes over and over again...

Let's keep his tail end of 2012 in perspective. The Pats played the Jags and the Dolphins. Not exactly two high powered offenses with HOF quarterbacks. Pat "just a second too late to the play" Chung still sucks against the pass. Decent against the run, bad against the pass.

Dennard is the surprise to lead all surprises this year.

 

[Get it shawtaay]

If you believe that replacement level OG play is a sufficient to substitute for top 3 guard play, when healthy, then sure.

If you believe that we're ever going to get top 3 guard play out of Mankins again, then sure.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Let's keep his tail end of 2012 in perspective. The Pats played the Jags and the Dolphins. Not exactly two high powered offenses with HOF quarterbacks. Pat "just a second too late to the play" Chung still sucks against the pass. Decent against the run, bad against the pass.

Dennard is the surprise to lead all surprises this year.

Overall, I agree on Chung but making plays is making plays and hes made a few since being reinserted into the lineup.

 

[JackBauer]

If you believe that we're ever going to get top 3 guard play out of Mankins again, then sure.

There's no reason to believe we won't.

 

[Kontradiction]

Overall, I agree on Chung but making plays is making plays and hes made a few since being reinserted into the lineup.

Every player in the NFL is capable of making plays if the quarterback is throwing the ball right to him like Henne did. Doesn't change the fact that Chung is still god awful against the pass and that McCourty (assuming health) should take over his role at safety in the starting line-up once the playoffs roll around.

 

[IllegalContact]

I'd say chung was a failure, too early to call bequette anything with PT hard to come by at that position.

edelman is a disappointment, because he teases with ability, then gets hurt

dowling is a failure, fletcher is a failure even though I love the guy 10 times zero is still zero

Surprises
Steven Ridley
Ryan Wendell
Michael Hoomanawanui
Rob Ninkovich
Brandon Spikes
Alfonzo Dennard
Brandon Deaderick
Jermaine Cunningham
Justin Francis

Disappointments
Pat Chung
Kyle Arrington
Trevor Scott
Jake Bequette
Daniel Fells


Failures
Sterling Moore
Ron Brace
Visanthe Shiancoe
Greg Salas
Bobby Carpenter

Share your thoughts?

 

[SeymourTrophies]

There's no reason to believe we won't.

I wish I shared your optimism. Standard wear and tear with the catalyst of powering through injuries such as a torn ACL would imply, particularly at Mankins' age, that it's only going to be downhill from here. Thankfully, the rotation has been effective so far, though no one has played the level of 2007-2010 (ish) Mankins.

 

[ATippett56]

fletcher is a failure even though I love the guy 10 times zero is still zero

Dane Fletcher torn his ACL in the first preseason game. Besides, Dane Fletcher did not cost the New England Patriots a draft selection since he was an UDFA.

 

[ATippett56]

dowling is a failure

Glass-IR Dowling?

 

[ATippett56]

edelman is a disappointment, because he teases with ability, then gets hurt

Julian Edelman was a 7th round draft pick, a quality punt returner, and a contributor on special teams.

7th round draft pick = cheap labor

 

[JackBauer]

I wish I shared your optimism. Standard wear and tear with the catalyst of powering through injuries such as a torn ACL would imply, particularly at Mankins' age, that it's only going to be downhill from here. Thankfully, the rotation has been effective so far, though no one has played the level of 2007-2010 (ish) Mankins.

Mankins is only 30 years old. Given the typically long NFL lifespan of interior linemen, I see no reason to believe he won't return to form when healthy (as Bedard pointed out, we're already seeing this as he returns to full speed).

 

[brdmaverick]

Surprises
Edelman - hes shown enough to play the slot in 2013

Agree whole-heartedly. After all, most of us were chalking up two WR slots to special teamers (Edelman and Slater). Little did we know that one of those spots would produce an actual WIDE RECEIVER. In fact, I miss Edelman out there. He provided spunk and was certainly a better option than Deion Branch.

 

[EwanSellars]

biggest surprise
Francis
Dennard
Jones huge start
The defense in the 2nd half of the season

Biggest disappointments
Ghost's missed kick
injuries slowing players down (Jones, Edelmen, hernandez, Gronk)
arrington, chung

 

[ctpatsfan77]

They tried to make Edelman take over the Welker spot, but he broke his hand celebrating a touchdown...then he came back, played a few more games and broke his foot. If ever Edelman was going to take over the Welker role, it was when it was spoonfed to him this season.

Just a reminder: it's not like Welker always starts every game. Even last year, he didn't start against Dallas.

 

[patfanken]

I just wanted to add to my list of biggest disappointments the fact that there are still too many Pats fans who think that Devin McCourty didn't play well at CB this season, despite the fact all the statistical data that comes from stat sites like Football Outsiders, Cold hard Football facts, PFF, etc.

This reminds me of how long it took (years) for Tom Brady to lose the "game manager" label that was put on him early in his career. McCourty had a down year in 2010, which I believe was due to a combination of having to play more man coverage after a lifetime of playing zone, having a lot of very good passes made on him even when he had decent coverage, and then losing confidence which affected his play.

But whatever the reasons were, the fact is his play at CB improved greatly and the stats back it up. Its time for the fans to recognize it too. Now I don't know if CB is even in McCourty's long term future, because he'd done such a nice job at FS. Maybe its just me, but I think he should be recognized for what he accomplished at CB as well. He is by far the most valuable DB on this team.

 

[Bman12]

I am incredibly dissapointed in Patrick Chung this year.

 

[JMC00]

I thought Brandon Lloyd would make more of an impact down the field. I know people don't like it when he's called a disappointment. He's still effective but he isn't who I was hoping he was.

What were you expecting from the 3rd-4th and sometimes 5th option? Go look at some of the other teams 3rd or 4th receiving option I doubt they put up Lloyd's numbers. Also don't forget that the Pats were the #2 in rushing attempts in all of the NFL.

Lloyd was brought in to be the outside receiver that can pick up a first down (50 of his 74 rec were first downs). How about the 49ers game when Welker, Hernandez and the running game was contained and Lloyd had an all time game and would have had more if it wasn't for an illegal shift and being interfered with in the end zone.

 

[JMarr]

Surprises:
Woodhead: Keeps getting better. Meet the new Mr. Clutch.
McDaniels: Done a excellent job so far. No fist-pumping histrionics vs. the Broncos after the game. He still had some maturing to do and hopefully learned from his mistake of going to Denver.
Denard: Stepped right in as a rookie and played like a 5 year vet with impressive press coverage ability and very few mistakes.
Love: Absolutely solid all year. I don't care that we could have a quicker, better pass rusher playing his position


Disappointments
Special teams: Lordy, what happened??
Shianco: nuff said.
Pryor: lools like another Brace/Crable whirlpool warrior. Was hoping he would be able to contribute on the D-line. Short of bodies there now and our FA track record pickups there has been poor for the most part.

 

[The Brandon Five]

Disappointments
Special teams: Lordy, what happened??

Word.

Shianco: nuff said.

I forgot about him. Freaking waste of that in-season IR designation. I bet Edelman could have made it back for the playoffs if that hadn't already been wasted.

 

[1%er]

Surprises:
Woodhead: Keeps getting better. Meet the new Mr. Clutch.
McDaniels: Done a excellent job so far. No fist-pumping histrionics vs. the Broncos after the game. He still had some maturing to do and hopefully learned from his mistake of going to Denver.
Denard: Stepped right in as a rookie and played like a 5 year vet with impressive press coverage ability and very few mistakes.
Love: Absolutely solid all year. I don't care that we could have a quicker, better pass rusher playing his position


Disappointments
Special teams: Lordy, what happened??
Shianco: nuff said.
Pryor: lools like another Brace/Crable whirlpool warrior. Was hoping he would be able to contribute on the D-line. Short of bodies there now and our FA track record pickups there has been poor for the most part.

Danny Woodhead is not much of a surprise IMO he is a solid 3rd down back for us.

Regarding the getting better comment his stats say a different story.


2010 - 14GP, 926 TYDS, 5.6YPC, 11.1AVG, 6TD
2011 - 15GP, 508 TYDS, 4.6YPC, 8.7AVG, 1TD
2012 - 16GP, 747 TYDS, 4.0YPC, 11.2AVG, 7TD

He had a terrible season last year so it may appear that he has improved but in reality his best season was by far his first.