idle thoughts - instant reaction

Ken,
I was waiting for your idle thoughts and was surprised I didn't see a comment about how Doug Marrone made some major coaching mistakes. I'm not even talking about challenging Ridley's down by contact when the Patriots recovered the ball.

He seems to be running the hurry up offense for it's own sake. When he should have run time off the clock, his quick playing gave the Patriots more plays. They had 89 plays -- I think that matches the 89 plays they had against the 49ers last year and ties the most in franchise history. And, this was not a stellar offensive efforts.

I don't think that has been mentioned.

Thoughts are, we need gronk and Dobson. The rookies will get better with time and the defense looked pretty good.

First off wow we should have killed them that game was way to close. The defence was ok for most of it. Second we need to hold onto the ball we can't be giving up turnovers. the defence I thought played ok but still the pass rush needs alot of work we are givien them way to much time. Amendola I thought played very well for his first game in a pats jersey, he had a few very nice catches. Even thought there was alot of ups and downs this game a win is a win.

Awesome as usual, a couple of things that jumped out for me.

Hooman - #47 - he just plain sucks, he can't block at all

Blount - Wow, that kick return at the start was one of the worst things I have ever seen, I thought it was Wilfork out there

Clutch catches - Amendola & Edelman made some sick catches

Overall offense - looked forced and out of sync, I expect this to improve

Great post as always Ken! I only disagree with the Ridley subject. It wasn't just one fumble, he had a borderline fumble early on which was challenged (looked very close and I'm not sure if they were certain he was down or if it wasn't conclusive enough to overturn). But he was already iffy and then he had the major goof. Plus not only did he fumble, it seemed like he didn't even try to recover it or stop the Bills but I'd have to watch it again. Unfortunately I do have to agree with you on Blount though, he looked awful today. I didn't watch much of preseason but he supposedly looked good, well I dunno what happened since because he definitely does not look good enough to take any meaningful reps. Hopefully Bolden can supplant him soon.

Gotta admit... the Bills version of the Shout song is pretty cool. That song >>>> Sweet caroline....

Anyway as great as Vereen was today I would hope that fumble didn't cost Ridley his job.....

patfanken said:

OK, so here we go.

3. I don't think BB should have bench Ridley for the entire game, Sure sit him down for the rest of the half, but not for the entire game. The Bills didn't sit down Spiller after his fumble, nor would most teams sit down their top RB after a fumble. Especially when essentially the ground caused the fumble when he slipped. Brady's fumble was just as egregious and I didn't see anyone calling for him to sit down.

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Ridley fumbled twice in a half. How can you keep handing a guy the ball who you can't trust to hang onto it, no matter what the circumstances? I'd use him sparingly against the Jets -6 to 8 carries- and see how it goes.

Watching today I kept thinking to myself there's no reason why the Patriots cannot replicate the Packers shifty Wide Receivers of Cobb and Nelson with Amendola and Edelman.

Getting a healthy Gronkowski back is going to be an injection for this team. The amount of room that is going to create for Amendola/Edelman/Vereen to operate in is going to be unfair.

I'm not too concerned with the rookies. They played as if it was their first proper game of NFL today. It also didn't help that there was a heap of uncalled holding penalties.

The Patriots got the win, a win in the division. That's all that matters in the wash up.

Joker said:

If they let this Smith doofus just sit there all night throwing seams to Winslow uncontested, I'll puke. I'm going to this game. I hope THEY show up. Nice post Ken, as usual. You certainly have an even temper and I appreciate that in a person.Wish I could say the same about myself.

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Well then, get ready to puke because the pats are not going to rush smith like the bucs did today. they will rush 4 and 'force him to make mistakes' .
Iam tired of this pass rush as well. Brady got drilled by their D line today. We hardly blitzed. Probably very worried about the bills speed.

OFFENSE - THE KIDS

Thompkins and Sudfeld were really bad. The OL ending up looking bad primarily because Thompkins couldn't run a correct route (so many, may times).

Boyce was invisible. Dobson was inactive.

The kids will get better. In the meantime, we can hope for some health from Gronkowski and that we sign or re-sign a TE.

We couldn't run a hurry-up, because the kids couldn't handle it. The hurry-up requires no error football and the ability to improvise.

THE RUNNING GAME
looked pretty good, especially after the change at RB.

THE DEFENSE
was very good indeed. Vellano gave Wilfork some rest, a real plus.

BOTTOM LINE

There are a lot of positives for such an awful game. The negatives are very focused: Ridley and the rookie receivers. Every one else played well enough to win by 3+ touchdowns.

mgteich said:

OFFENSE - THE KIDS

Thompkins and Sudfeld were really bad. The OL ending up looking bad primarily because Thompkins couldn't run a correct route (so many, may times).

Boyce was invisible. Dobson was inactive.

The kids will get better. In the meantime, we can hope for some health from Gronkowski and that we sign or re-sign a TE.

We couldn't run a hurry-up, because the kids couldn't handle it. The hurry-up requires no error football and the ability to improvise.

THE RUNNING GAME
looked pretty good, especially after the change at RB.

THE DEFENSE
was very good indeed. Vellano gave Wilfork some rest, a real plus.

BOTTOM LINE

There are a lot of positives for such an awful game. The negatives are very focused: Ridley and the rookie receivers. Every one else played well enough to win by 3+ touchdowns.

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I think Vellano was an unsung hero today. He subbed for both Wilfork and Kelly at times all game and more than held his own. Will definitely be a key to keep both the older DTs fresh and healthy all season. We cannot afford either guy to go down and having Vellano in the rotation has thus far been a positive thing.

3 QB pressures...zero sacks...rookie QB...THAT is HORRIBLE.

..hey kid!...we're not going to blitz a LB ,safety OR Corner all game...we're going to sit back and wait for you to make a mistake...uh...before WE do...oh wait....

Name me another NFL team that plays as vanilla as OURS....and let me make a analogy to the sweet science...many of the greatest fighters in the world have been COUNTERPUNCHERS....or bend-don't-breakers. If your counter is a hand the size of a midget's that weighs[/size] less than three feathers, guess what...counterpunching WILL NOT WORK!!!~

HIT THE QB!!!!

What was the deal with Wendell and his snaps today? I hope that isn't going to be a problem...

Joker said:

Ridley before he fumbled...Sudfeld on the INT..a number of slips by the LB's driving forward...that field was total shiite.The thing is, THEY had to play on it too.

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if THEY knew the field was wet THEY probably had longer cleats to give them traction.

giants david wilson just fumbled, i wonder if coughlin will bench him. that's another coach that loathes fumble-prone RBs.

sb1 said:

What was the deal with Wendell and his snaps today? I hope that isn't going to be a problem...

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i know, they were all at Brady's feet.

TommyBrady12 said:

if THEY knew the field was wet THEY probably had longer cleats to give them traction.

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I'm not going to complain...it's their field. If it was us and we pulled the same thing I'd call them sauckers too.If you're slipping change shoes at the half.

DefenseRules said:

After what I saw today, I have come to the conclusion that no game is going to be easy for this team this year. I don't mind being wrong though.

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1st game.

What did the 1st game of the 2003 season tell you?

THAT is the only thing that tempers my disgust...first games mean squat ...it's the next few games...if things keep going the way they did today that's a definite trend...and we have zero info to make any evaluation one way or the other right now. Cutting down mistakes ALWAYS has benefits and that's what I want to see against the Rats