One of McD's best called games this season?

[BradyManny]

Anyone else agree? Asides from a few telegraphed rushing plays which were destined for negative yardage, I think he called one of his best games this season. I think the last few games, he was held back a) b/c of the lack of TEs b) b/c there's no reason to go all out scheme wise against teams you can beat with a half-arsed effort. He opened up the playbook the other nite, and made some great calls, went deep at the right times, called screens at the right time, mixed rushing plays as well as they have all season. I thought the offense was exciting and dynamic as it's been all season (which truly says a lot given what we've witnessed) - really clicking, and at the right time.

 

[richpats]

Absolutely. He was able to breathe life into the running game by lining Maroney up wide and shifting him to the backfield at times in the 2nd quarter. Subtle but effective.

 

[maverick4]

I totally disagree, I think he was horrible.

His play-calling was below average, he made horrible adjustments and called plays that consistently lost yards or made it hard for Brady or got Brady hammered.

He was bailed out by the fact that Tom Brady is the GOAT, Moss is top 5 all time, Welker is a stud, and the entire offense is so talented that no matter what play is called, even if it's a bad playcall, the talent can overcome bad plays.

 

[Swingline747]

Respectfully disagree. Play calling caused us to be in way too many 3rd and long situations. Just how many times did Welker or Faulk get the ball on a 3 yard dump and then have to grit out the next 5-8 yards to pick up the first. Several of those plays by Welker or Faulk weere could have easily come up a a couple yards short of 1st down thus killing drives or putting the Pats into a risky situation of having to go for it on 4th. I give credit to the Giants D and even more credit to the determination of Welker and Faulk . . . but I would have liked to see the playbook opened up a bit more.

 

[maverick4]

and even more credit to the determination of Welker and Faulk . . . but I would have liked to see the playbook opened up a bit more.

I totally agree and forgot to add that to my post above.

Aside from a few amazing individual plays by Faulk and Welker to make all kinds of jukes and moves to get first downs, we wouldn't have won the game.

We had way too many 3rd and longs and also way too many 3-and-outs, basically McDaniels doesn't know how to exploit what a defense is doing, he keeps getting bailed out by the ridiculous talent on the team.

 

[BradyManny]

I totally disagree, I think he was horrible.

His play-calling was below average, he made horrible adjustments and called plays that consistently lost yards or made it hard for Brady or got Brady hammered.

He was bailed out by the fact that Tom Brady is the GOAT, Moss is top 5 all time, Welker is a stud, and the entire offense is so talented that no matter what play is called, even if it's a bad playcall, the talent can overcome bad plays.

There were a few poorly designed run plays, but that's pretty much it. There was some shaky execution that cost them a couple of first downs, Watson had some drops, Brady [under pressure both times] overthrew Moss (and under threw another one) on a third down for what would've been a first. If they execute on those plays, the team literally would not have punted once, and probably gets a couple more TDs, which is about as effective an offense can get, considering it already put up 38.

 

[cstjohn17]

. . . but I would have liked to see the playbook opened up a bit more.

I agree that the play calling was good and proper adjustments were made. The coaches can't throw blocks, it was obvious early on the the offensive line was over matched. They ran the ball enough that the Giants had to respect Maroney enough to pay attention. They used Watson to chip Strahan and scored 38 points on the road in a hostile environment.

Opening up the playbook, I don't know if that means going deep more but I don't think the protection allowed for anything more than a 5 step drop, by the time deep patterns would be open Brady would be dead. As it was he had to duck under and avoid the rush just to complete 7-8 yard passes.

Worst game of the year by far for the O Line, there were injuries but in the past the transition from starter to sub has been more subtle. Not to mention Light was abused by Usi. The team was also short staffed at TE, Watson can block on the move but when lined up in-line he gets driven back.

I agree with the statements about Brady, he made chicken salad out of chicken sh-t. It is kind of like when a baseball manager goes to a reliever, if the reliever does his job the manager looks good, if the reliever coughs it up then the manager looks like a moron.

 

[richpats]

Guys the Giants D played really well Saturday for the most part. Their pressure would eat any other QB alive. The Pats had 2 backups on the O-line and no Kyle Brady. Still scored 38 and Brady had guys to throw to all night. Their red zone D early was tough, that's the only reason it was close.

 

[BradyManny]

Worst game of the year by far for the O Line, there were injuries but in the past the transition from starter to sub has been more subtle. Not to mention Light was abused by Usi. The team was also short staffed at TE, Watson can block on the move but when lined up in-line he gets driven back.

I agree about the OL. I said in a thread this season, they've gone from underrated to mildly overrated. Maroney took a lot of criticism in the middle of the season for some ineffective running, and the OL deserves some of the blame for that. Likewise, a lot of the credit that goes the OL's way should actually be directed at Brady's insane pocket presence. Mankins is probably the only true Pro Bowler in the bunch, Koppen is on the fringe, Light is solid and the right side is adequate but upgradeable.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with the OL's play, I think everybody is, I just think any discussion that revolves around how "underrated" the Pats OL is, needs to involve the fact that Brady avoids a lot of sacks and makes a lot of passes just as the rush comes. He hangs in there until the last possible moment.

 

[chrisfx811]

I wasn't impressed by the play calling either.
I agree that Faulk & Welker saved a number of drives with individual efforts.
Stallworth wasn't used as much, imho, as he could be.
The Pats don't seem to work the middle of the field enough with Donte who will get more YAC, than they do Moss, who is sure handed, but not keen on evading tackles over the middle.

I'm starting to think the o-line is just not that effective at run blocking. Maybe it's their schemes, or the extra guys defenses have in the box for the pass rush, but it seems like they get shed too easily.

I thought Brady did a better job of not forcing the ball to Moss as he had done in previous weeks, especially when he gets a lot of time to throw.

Although, the Giants only got 1 sack, they did get a lot of hits on Brady, but they've got one of the best pass rushes in the NFL.

 

[xmarkd400x]

38 points is a pretty good night. I am not an analyst by any means, but I felt like the Patriots were getting the job done on offense. Defense, on the other hand.... who knows?

 

[richpats]

38 points is a pretty good night. I am not an analyst by any means, but I felt like the Patriots were getting the job done on offense. Defense, on the other hand.... who knows?

Not to hijack the thread and talk D but Belichick is using a rope-a-dope D this year. 10 of NE's games were within 10 points at halftime, and in those games the D always does better in the 2nd half. The Giants game was classic "rope-a-dope". Eli looked phenomenal early on, embarrassing in the clutch. Same with Boller, Feely, heck even Peyton Manning.

 

[BradyManny]

Not to hijack the thread and talk D but Belichick is using a rope-a-dope D this year. 10 of NE's games were within 10 points at halftime, and in those games the D always does better in the 2nd half. The Giants game was classic "rope-a-dope". Eli looked phenomenal early on, embarrassing in the clutch. Same with Boller, Feely, heck even Peyton Manning.

Good point, and the philosophy extends to the offense as well. Some of those rushing plays that were designed to fail, well maybe they weren't necessarily designed to fail on purpose - but they do cause the LBs and or DBs to think they can anticipate the run and attack it for a loss. Later, we line up in the same formation (ie, i-formation, one WR, Moss) and use play action out of it. That's how Moss got wide open on the ball Brady underthrew/he dropped (the play before the record breaking TD pass/catch).

The idea being, they run those rushing plays, and maybe they succeed, or maybe they don't succeed, but either way - they're setting up the D to use play-action effectively later on.

 

[jays52]

I think the playcall was pretty good. Not his greatest, not his worst. I think the pop passes were well timed. I liked the counter trey they ran. I think that's the first time they've run that. It's highly conducive to Maroney's running style (btw, anyone else STOKED to see Maroney hitting the holes hard the past two weeks?!). They set up the PA well. I like they way the exploited the bracketing on Moss. I would have liked to see more crackbacks, whams and the like to slow down the ends but maybe that's a function of being Brady-less. There is, however one thing I would like to point out that is becoming increasingly apparent as the weeks go by.

There's a common theme with many of our opponents this year that has been overlooked. It is impossible to rush all out for 60 snaps. Flat out impossible. Teams come in these games hyped out of their minds, playing 1,000 miles an hour. By the fourth quarter, they're done. That's why we have been seeing elite speed-rush teams (Indy and NY for example) being a nightmare for the first part of the game. Then suddenly, the blocking seemingly materializes by osmosis. We're wearing teams out. This is why I have come to favor an initially conservative playcall. Allow their rushers to come like raped apes, run the draws or 25/24 delays on them all day. Run pop passes and bubblescreens to force them into persuit (again, wearing them out). Then, open the long stuff up once you have them gassed. I'm feelin this strategy and offense lately.

 

[BadMoFo]

Did anyone read the gameday thread? See how many posters were critical of his playcalling. Make up your ****** minds.

 

[richpats]

Did anyone read the gameday thread? See how many posters were critical of his playcalling. Make up your ****** minds.

I was at the game. I didn't like all the 3rd-and-longs, but some nights are like that.

 

[BadMoFo]

I was at the game. I didn't like all the 3rd-and-longs, but some nights are like that.

People were complaining about not enough screen passes when we ran a bunch of them to Welker. **** we can't run screen passes on every play.

 

[richpats]

There's a common theme with many of our opponents this year that has been overlooked. It is impossible to rush all out for 60 snaps. Flat out impossible. Teams come in these games hyped out of their minds, playing 1,000 miles an hour. By the fourth quarter, they're done. That's why we have been seeing elite speed-rush teams (Indy and NY for example) being a nightmare for the first part of the game. Then suddenly, the blocking seemingly materializes by osmosis. We're wearing teams out. This is why I have come to favor an initially conservative playcall. Allow their rushers to come like raped apes, run the draws or 25/24 delays on them all day. Run pop passes and bubblescreens to force them into persuit (again, wearing them out). Then, open the long stuff up once you have them gassed. I'm feelin this strategy and offense lately.

That's exactly what I was thinking in the 2nd half, even down 28-16. Our opponents seem to become "self-aware" that they could beat the Pats and they are totally unprepared for it mentally. It's like "we're winning by 12- NOW WHAT?" They just want the game to end there.

 

[jays52]

That's exactly what I was thinking in the 2nd half, even down 28-16. Our opponents seem to become "self-aware" that they could beat the Pats and they are totally unprepared for it mentally. It's like "we're winning by 12- NOW WHAT?" They just want the game to end there.

Yep. I think it's partially a function of being over-hyped, and partially a lack of big-game experience. Add to the fact that the offensive linemen we have are outstanding technicians. They will force defensive linemen into poor technique and/or taking more steps than necessary. Over three quarters and 40 or so snaps, this will really wear a guy down. If your game is explosion and speed, you're done the second your legs wanna give. Technique is the first to go when you're tired, followed closely by speed. This is why I would rather face a speed team this season.

 

[richpats]

This is why I would rather face a speed team this season.

I think the Colts qualify