NE@BUF post-game (over)reaction thread

I ain't got no worries. It was week 1. Week 1 is usually ugly for all teams. Moreover, we haven't seen Boyce or Dobson or Gronk yet.

this was a pretty typical Pats game vs a rookish QB.

The game was a bit ugly but you saw a bunch of young guys getting a lot of catches, to backs rushed for 5+ yards per carry.

Overall the offense looked like its going to keep on trucking, Defensively a bunch of good plays,

Overall a solid first game.

Blount sucks.

Activate Washington, deactivate Blount.

To put things in perspective, KT had more yardage then any Bills receiver, and Ridley more yards then Spiller. Credit the D for that.

A lil early for the self destruct button on O however.

Sfpat said:

Only concern was the total lack of pass rush. Manuel had all day to throw and rarely had to step up to avoid the rush. Jones was a non-factor

Click to expand...

I think part of that was designed. They seemed to want to keep him in the pocket and make them beat them with his arm. The one play the DEs played it trying to get around the tackles Manuel took it for 25 rushing yards.

Key stat(s) of Week 1

Other than the score, of course.

From Y! SPORTS

Average gain per play was similar for both teams. But the Patriots had a LOT more plays, hence a lot more time of possession. How does this make sense?

I think the key stat was 3rd down conversions:

• 11-20 for the Pats
• 4-13 for the Bills

That kept the chains at least somewhat moving.

Note similarly that the Pats had 5 scoring drives while the Bills had only 2, although none of the Pats' drives were particularly long.

Weird stat of the game is that the Pats' longest TD drive was 32 yards.

Re: Key stat(s) of Week 1

Fencer said:

Other than the score, of course.

From Y! SPORTS

Average gain per play was similar for both teams. But the Patriots had a LOT more plays, hence a lot more time of possession. How does this make sense?

I think the key stat was 3rd down conversions:

• 11-20 for the Pats
• 4-13 for the Bills

That kept the chains at least somewhat moving.

Note similarly that the Pats had 5 scoring drives while the Bills had only 2, although none of the Pats' drives were particularly long.

Weird stat of the game is that the Pats' longest TD drive was 32 yards.

Click to expand...

I liked this WEIRD STAT:

Buffalo Punt Returns NOYDS AVG LG TD
-------------------- 0 / 0 / 0.0 / 0 / 0

Click to expand...

Say what you want about Allen's shanks & low avg, but he put most of his punts either out the side or inside the 10 with enough hang-time for the cover team to make a play.

Re: Key stat(s) of Week 1

They ran a league high amount of plays without really running the warp speed hurry up extensively. That's impressive if you think about it.

The Patriots let the Bills off the hook with their self-inflicted errors as they pretty much dominated them on both sides of the ball. Buffalo's lucky they only lost by 2 instead of by 20.

Re: Key stat(s) of Week 1

Another stat that I thought would make a difference; the broadcast showed that the Pats had 6 or 6+ plays of 20+ yards yesterday at one point.

Checking the game log; I only saw 5 (2 runs / 3 pass):

TB-DA for 24 yds
SR off LG for 20 yd
TB-KThomkins 20yd
SV -middle for 21 yards
TB-JE for 35 yds

(but also 2 19 yarders: SV left side run and TB-SV 19yd pass)

Buffy on other hand had 0 20+ yard plays.
(although they had 5 18/19 yd plays; [4 pass 1 qb scramble]).

So does that stat mean we have improved our Deep threat Offense and our Deep Threat Defense (or just that Manuel isnt there yet to get it deep and take advantage)?

Re: Key stat(s) of Week 1

Fencer said:

Other than the score, of course.

From Y! SPORTS

Average gain per play was similar for both teams. But the Patriots had a LOT more plays, hence a lot more time of possession. How does this make sense?

I think the key stat was 3rd down conversions:

• 11-20 for the Pats
• 4-13 for the Bills

That kept the chains at least somewhat moving.

Note similarly that the Pats had 5 scoring drives while the Bills had only 2, although none of the Pats' drives were particularly long.

Weird stat of the game is that the Pats' longest TD drive was 32 yards.

Click to expand...

This is even better when you look at total first downs they only gained 15 all game while we gained 26. Our TD drives consisted of 3 first downs total

Re: Key stat(s) of Week 1

Gumby said:

Buffy on other hand had 0 20+ yard plays.
(although they had 5 18/19 yd plays; [4 pass 1 qb scramble]).

So does that stat mean we have improved our Deep threat Offense and our Deep Threat Defense (or just that Manuel isnt there yet to get it deep and take advantage)?

Click to expand...

Small sample size, but it means, so far, they have indeed improved in those areas, especially on defense in defending the big plays that plague them in recent years.

The Bills' offense is as explosive as it gets in the AFC and the Patriots contained them - limiting Manuel to check downs and mostly screens. Manuel certainly has the arm talent to threaten a defense deep and he tried to look for plays down the field but there wasn't any separation against the Patriots' corners. The Bills were simply shut down.

Re: Key stat(s) of Week 1

Time of possession Pats 37... Buffalo 22
Number of offensive plays.. Pats 89.. Buffalo 61

ATippett56 said:

Blount sucks.

Activate Washington, deactivate Blount from kickoff returns.

Click to expand...

Thats better!

As for the game! It was very ugly! Brady looked a little off, but I think that is mainly down to the pass rush and his receivers slipping!

Ridley is obviously a concern, but thinking about it, is he getting stutter feet as a hesitation after how the AFCCG ended for him?

Defence had some slip ups, but they looked good! Especially the run D! Few 'big' runs, but was there anything over 10 yards?

EDIT: Another thought, not only was TFB clutch on that final drive (with DA, JE and SV) but also the clock management was brilliant!

Re: Key stat(s) of Week 1

DarrylS said:

Time of possession Pats 37... Buffalo 22
Number of offensive plays.. Pats 89.. Buffalo 61

Click to expand...

The key stat is Buffalo sustained one real scoring drive.

Little things I noticed yesterday

Apologies if these points have been discussed already. This is my first chance to check out the board since the game, but I wanted to see if anyone else noticed these little things that I found odd.

First, it felt like almost every snap from Wendell out of the shotgun was coming out low. Not fumble-height low, but just low enough that if Brady was counting on a timing pattern, it would throw it off by just a half second (which with inexperienced receivers, is all it takes to miss the window).

Second, I can remember about twenty instances of Patriots players simply slipping and falling while running. Not just the receivers either, but offensive linemen, etc. I didn't see the Bills having this issue at all. Was it a case of the Bills being more familiar with their field? At first I thought it might be the youngsters over thinking things and losing concentration on their footing, but it was guys like Solder, Ridley, etc who shouldn't be having that problem. Anyway, just thought it was strange.

Re: Little things I noticed yesterday

I noticed the slipping by the skills people, I wonder if there was a problem with the shoes used by theplayers

Re: Little things I noticed yesterday

patsfan13 said:

I noticed the slipping by the skills people, I wonder if there was a problem with the shoes used by theplayers

Click to expand...

It was a HUGE factor in the first half -- in Ridley's ugly fumble, Sudfeld's here-you-are INT, a major Thompkins miss, and more. But I thought I saw less slipping and sliding in the second half, as if they'd changed shoes at halftime. My imagination?

On Wendell, not only were his shotgun snaps low, but there was the botched goal-line quick snap, and others have noted that he was giving away the snap timing with a head bob. Strange stuff from a returning starter.

I think if you put these two "little things" together, they were very big things indeed. They accounted for all 3 turnovers and pretty much shaped the whole story of the game.

Re: Little things I noticed yesterday

I noticed the low snaps in a big way. We were commenting on it at my house. Also, as someone else said, Wendell has this weird head snap right before he snaps which allows the other team to tee off at the same time he snaps the ball. I was wondering why they don't use Dan Connelly as the center, now that he is back from injury. As I recall, he did a great job there before he went down last year. Can't believe he lost his job to what we saw yesterday.

Didn't notice the slipping as much except for on the Ridley fumble where he clearly slipped and had his feet go out from under him. Also, as I recall, Buffalo's field has a crown in the middle, and I was wondering if that contributed to the many drops, especially by Thompkins, yesterday. Things seemed a little "off" on timing and there were balls going off the fingers of receivers (including Sudfeld on that INT).

Glad we got the win despite a bunch of mistakes. I am wondering how things will go on Thursday if Amendola is out, and whether the D will go after the QB more.

Question About The Block To The Back Penalty

I was confused by the call. The ref announced as "After the catch, illegal block to the back, offense. 10 yard penalty from the spot of the foul, remains 2nd down".

The "remains 2nd down" is what seems weird. Since it was clearly after the catch (and announced as such), doesn't the down count at that point and shouldn't it have become 3rd down?

I've seen plays where a play yielded a 1st down but there was a holding call downfield. The result is usually 1st down for the offense with the ball spotted 5 yards from the spot of the foul.

Why was this different?

It was butt-yugly, but it was a Division win on the road in week one.

Did we see some stuff about which we might be worried? Sure.

Should we be worried? Not yet.

It's a long season and a tough schedule. One of the (very few) benefits of not getting to the SB is that the NFL/TV gods don't feel a need to showcase your team in a couple of tough games in weeks one and two...I'll gladly take Buffalo on the road and the Jests at home in weeks one and two.