Didn't See the Game; What Won't I Get From the Box Score?

Sadly, wasn't able to watch the latest demolition. Obviously it was a huge rout (heard the stat this morning that the 3 snow games lately--yesterday, Tenn, and AZ, the Pats have outscored their opponents 109-0 in the FIRST HALF).

--Did the defense look dominant or did the Bears look inept? (Same difference?)

--Pats didn't score much in the second half, but seemed to have long drives, so that's fine. Saw Brady was sacked a couple times then Hoyer came in, assume Brady's fine? (Surprised Hoyer didn't a few snaps last week.)

--Anything anyone noticed you wouldn't see in the box score? How'd Fletcher look?

--Last, somewhat unrelatedly, heard Cris Carter this morning say how the Pats are "having more fun than other teams." Cracked me up--thought of that poll, "what coach you want to play for?" These guys never get it--fun isn't screwing around eating cheeseburgers on reality tv. It's playing dominating football, working, and crushing your opponents.

two things from the game that stuck out to me were edelman showing great speed in the punt return game. (even though one got called back.) And the bears going to sleep on the last play of the first half when branch jogged for about 60 yards for a TD. in the second half, cutler had that same deer in the headlights look sanchez had last week.

The Pats looked dominant on defense for the most part, but there were a lot of ineptness on the Bears' part too. When you got Jay Cutler in gunslinger mode, you are going to look inept.

The Pats' offense seemed to be more conservative in the second half especially in the red zone. Not exactly surprising considering the score and the weather conditions.

Fletcher played well at times and poorly others (he blew the Edelman punt return TD). He had a couple of huge plays and disapeared on others.

As for Carter, he is moron. When teams win especially big, they have fun. When you lose, you aren't. I swear if I didn't know he was a HOF caliber WR, I would wonder if he knew anything about the game. He is horrible.

You might not notice that we have a new force at DE: Eric Moore!

McCourty left with a rib injury and didn't return. Don't want to scare ya though, who knows if he was just kept out because of how out of hand the game got.

Brace also left with a head injury and didn't return.

The defense looked dominant and forced the Bears in stupid plays. It was a good performance from whistle to whistle.

According to Branch in the post game presser, the last play of the first half where we scored a TD on the bears sleeping D was supposed to have been a knee. Brady overcalled it with a play and scored. Personally I think Brady did that because he was a little mad about Edelman's TD getting pulled back from a holding call just before it.

Haley said:

According to Branch in the post game presser, the last play of the first half where we scored a TD on the bears sleeping D was supposed to have been a knee. Brady overcalled it with a play and scored. .

Click to expand...

What!?! That's insubordination. We better get more than a 3rd from the Vikings when we trade him.

TheGodInAGreyHoodie said:

What!?! That's insubordination. We better get more than a 3rd from the Vikings when we trade him.

Click to expand...

"Brady traded to Vikings for Brady and 2 first round draft picks"

...oh wait. They fired Childress already, shoot.

aluminum seats said:

Sadly, wasn't able to watch the latest demolition. Obviously it was a huge rout (heard the stat this morning that the 3 snow games lately--yesterday, Tenn, and AZ, the Pats have outscored their opponents 109-0 in the FIRST HALF).

--Did the defense look dominant or did the Bears look inept? (Same difference?)

--Pats didn't score much in the second half, but seemed to have long drives, so that's fine. Saw Brady was sacked a couple times then Hoyer came in, assume Brady's fine? (Surprised Hoyer didn't a few snaps last week.)

--Anything anyone noticed you wouldn't see in the box score? How'd Fletcher look?

--Last, somewhat unrelatedly, heard Cris Carter this morning say how the Pats are "having more fun than other teams." Cracked me up--thought of that poll, "what coach you want to play for?" These guys never get it--fun isn't screwing around eating cheeseburgers on reality tv. It's playing dominating football, working, and crushing your opponents.

Click to expand...

General response. It was kind of hard to tell, given that the conditions were so awful.

My sense was that those were conditions where it was difficult to make a play -- it was hard to throw the ball accurately or to cut nimbly -- but that, once a play had some momentum it wasn't easy to stop (if that makes sense). A good example was the Brady to Branch touchdown at the end of the first half. It was a long throw by the standards of the day but, once Deion had some separation, he was gone. Deion's not a great sprinter these days but no one could get close to making a play on him.

So, in general, the Pats looked great. Brady was at his best. He threw the ball hard, tight and accurately and made great decisions/had great options. The catching was good to great (Welker) to amazing (one catch by Tate). Benny ran hard but was stopped at the LoS fairly often and they clearly weren't the conditions for Woodhead (though he did some good things). The D wasn't dominant, since they didn't stuff the run, but the pass defense was excellent, they showed a lot of energy and they hit like steam trains. The turnovers were EARNED. Even I could see that McCourty was awesome.

Graham made field goals in awful conditions (one went pretty much like a banana) but he couldn't get power and distance on his kick-offs. I think that the team really does need to do something about this. But, that's an easily fixable problem, I should have thought (surely there must be a kick-off guy out there to use a roster spot on).

After BJGE's first run went nowhere, I thought, "well, that won't work today." Next thing you know he's running through gaping holes. Only a fool like LdT would think this is a "finesse" team.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, there was some very Merry Weather:



And we gave the other team some hugs to make sure everyone stayed warm:



And don't miss Edelman's return for a TD. That won't show in the box score since it got called back for holding:

Edelman was a return beast on punts, but that was probably aided by the weather. I think that, because we had the same problem with their returners, who ripped of a couple of 40 yders.

Offense played good, against a team living of its famous defense, but in all honesty, Bradys INTless streak should have ended yesterday. The bears , and especially Urlacher, deflected like 4 passes and then dropped them because of the icy weather. But man you take what is given so freely. When he wasnt trying to throw over #54 TomTerrific was money again.

Tate made an extraordinary catch on his other completion (not the TD, which was also sweet) flying through the air for a one armed catch of the overthrown ball, and holding possesion when he came down.

The game itself was never close, but I would say the bix score bears that one out.

Kulko said:

Edelman was a return beast on punts, but that was probably aided by the weather. I think that, because we had the same problem with their returners, who ripped of a couple of 40 yders.

Click to expand...

One thing that doesn't show in the box score: Ninkovich catching Hester from behind to save a kick return. Not quite Vinatieri-Herschel Walker, but a nice play.

Uncle Rico said:

One thing that doesn't show in the box score: Ninkovich catching Hester from behind to save a kick return. Not quite Vinatieri-Herschel Walker, but a nice play.

Click to expand...

That's the kind of little thing you don't get in the espn highlights & stuff, but it gives you a real feel for how the team is progressing. (Of course, 81-10 does that too. )