Game Thoughts: Who really gives a crap edition, it is only preseason

Ok, let's face it. Most of what we saw last night really doesn't mean much of anything (at least to us) and we have no idea what Belichick and his staff were looking for and what they were trying to achieve. But I figured I'd give a game thoughts anyway.

• All we heard the last two weeks was Jimmy Garoppolo was a complete disaster and how he looked lost, the game at the pro level was too fast for him, and he was making horrible decisions. Where was that guy last night? Yes, he was playing against scrubs (but isn't he doing that in practice too?). I saw a guy who was poised, making good decisions, had a quick release, was able to improvise a bit, and was on target.
• I know I am in the minority, but I think Mallet could actually do ok in the NFL in the right system. Just not the Pats' system. I think if this was 1990, he would be a solid QB. He really is a throw back to the era of Bledsoe type of QBs. The only teams I can think of who play that type of offense still are probably Pittsburgh and Baltimore. He could be backing up Roethlisberger or Flacco next year.
• Impressed with Malcolm Butler. Actually knew very little to nothing about the guy going into last night. He is displaying skills that can't be taught. Great instincts. Heady player. The question is can the Pats carry him on the roster, the one spot where the Pats have a glut of players is CB. They can carry him the first four games while Browner is on suspension, but after that who knows?
• Brian Tyms turned my head too. But after a several year love affair I had with the idea of Bam Childress being a legitimate NFL WR, I am holding back my enthusiasm about the guy.
• Roy Finch looks like he has the burst and talent to make an NFL roster, but his hands tell a completely different story. For a guy fighting for a roster spot, you can't put the ball on the carpet like he did. Maybe the first time in the NFL spotlight got the best of him, but he has an opportunity to be a returner on this team but not if he can't hold onto the ball.
• I was disappointed in Logan Ryan. I don't think he played as bad as others on game thread did, but I was hearing great things about him in camp. Whatever good he was doing in camp didn't show up last night.
• Tavon Wilson made the most of his time of the field last night. Hopefully, he is turning a corner.
• We have had a lot of bad preseason announcers around here. I still cringe when I think of broadcasts with Jerry Glanville, Don Criqui, and Randy Cross. That said, they are All World broadcasters compared to Dan Roche and Christian Fauria. Some times I wonder if Roche was watching the same game we were. Ridley rushes for two yards when the Pats were on the 20 and Roche says that he rushes to right around the 25 yard line (apparently give or take 3-4 yards). The Washington kicker misses a field goal and he calls it good. I know that this is preseason and the teams run vanilla offenses and defenses, but that doesn't mean Fauria has to do vanilla color commentating. Oh and Perillo and Hart are just useless. They added no value whatsoever.

It's a sad commentary on the situation when the performances of everyone on the broadcast, Roche, Fauria, Perillo and Hart were worse than the performance of the football team. The latter two bloodless drones sitting in some studio and offering occasional lazy observations was downright embarrassing.

Jackson 2 said:

It's a sad commentary on the situation when the performances of everyone on the broadcast, Roche, Fauria, Perillo and Hart were worse than the performance of the football team. The latter two bloodless drones sitting in some studio and offering occasional lazy observations was downright embarrassing.

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Well said my friend.

Rookie CBs that can tackle and cover are few and far between. I hope Bill throws Butler in the wolves next week vs. Cooper or Maclin.

A few of my own thoughts to add to the thread:

1) I went into this game hoping to see some polish on Mallett's game. I wasn't concerned with stats or big plays or any of that, I wanted to see him lead the huddle, look comfortable, and basically look in control. Obviously he was anything but. You might be right Rob, it may be the system. He may be overthinking everything and it's giving him some bad habits. I'm going to reserve judgment on him though until he gets another game in. How these players improve (or don't) week to week is more important to me than how they look in preseason week 1.

2) The same will go for Garrapolo and Tyms. They looked good against the bottom of the Washington barrel, but I'll need to see a bit more before I start making any depth chart changes.

3) Browner was one of the few "starters" on defense who played today, and I thought he looked exactly like I pictured. Got a probably deserved IC penalty (at least according to the new emphasis), then went out the next play, got in the receivers face, threw him aside and blew up a run toss in the back field. That's what we're going to get out of him this year: Some really exciting physicality and some frustrating penalties. I'm okay with that.

4) One last player I noticed a few times was Darius Flemming. Hard to rate the defense as a whole with so many starters out, but I thought he flashed some good plays and decent tackling. Interesting to keep an eye on him in the battle for a backup LB spot, especially since a few posters here have noted his play in practice as well.

Jackson 2 said:

It's a sad commentary on the situation when the performances of everyone on the broadcast, Roche, Fauria, Perillo and Hart were worse than the performance of the football team. The latter two bloodless drones sitting in some studio and offering occasional lazy observations was downright embarrassing.

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Not to mention I don't think either of them even looked at the camera the whole time. They could not have looked more disinterested in what they were doing.

Mallett did not play well last night, but I put most of the blame on the OL. I want to see what he can do when he isn't fearing for his life on every step back to throw.

Was at the game last night and Mallett looked rushed, very poor decision making, locking onto receivers everything was low.
OL needs work as Solder looked inconsistent(disappointing) When is the light gonna go off and he get it??
Liked What I saw from Browner.
Realize it was garbage time and all scrubs but Garoppolo looked decent, liked the long ball.
Lafell, Thompkins, Boyce= blah
But no injuries so lets move on
Did find it amusing that BB gets the extra point rule implemented then goes for 2 after TD.
Just a brief synopsis, add to it what you want agree/disagree if you want

My only real big disappointment was Logan Ryan. I also heard that Solder didn't play well which may be even more concerning. However it is still way too early for much concern.

I agree that Flemming played well, liked what I saw out of Wilson and Chung. Tymes was amazing.

Kind of disappointed in Boyce's performance. KT was decent. LaFell was solid. Ryan played poorly. All the running backs were uninspiring...probably due to the OL being almost all backups.

Mallet was awful, just awful.

Personally I'm disappointed. The Ryan Mallett for a 1st just dropped to an early 2nd

I could not watch the game the way I wanted due to a unstable stream and also having to do some things at the same time, by the half of 3rd quarter I could watch the game without distractions.

Well I'm not gonna read much into this game, it was a disaster most of the time, nothing worked well apart from Garopollo who really impressed me, a pass that caught my attention was a short pass to Tyms, I think it was the first pass of a drive in the 4th quarter, with his back against the wall, he dropped back, the pocket was closing and he found the right spot and completed the pass without any pressure, really calm. Man it's to early to read anything but I liked what I saw from a posture / pressure standpoint.

Not ruling Mallett out already, I think he is a guy who needs lots of reps, he doesn't have that star some QBs have, if he wants to succeed, it will be through hard work, and in case Brady goes down, I would give him a shot at first. But I say one more game like last night and next season (or even in this season) he will be fighting for a backup role again and deep in any given depth chart, forget the millions of a top backup QB,.

Patriot Missile said:

Personally I'm disappointed. The Ryan Mallett for a 1st just dropped to an early 2nd

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In 2025 perhaps?

Even though it's early on and you definitely don't want to hit the panic button in the first preseason game, Solder's shaky play looks like it's still going to be something to watch. He seems to still have trouble handling bull rushes. I was hoping to see him bulk up and build his upper body strength for that but he hasn't and, to this point, it continues to show.

Solder has played terribly in every preseason game. I suspect that he needs to study his opponent to compete at a high level. Plus, he was going up against an elite pass rusher, he probably would have had some help in the form of a chipping RB

Nunchucks said:

Solder has played terribly in every preseason game. I suspect that he needs to study his opponent to compete at a high level. Plus, he was going up against an elite pass rusher, he probably would have had some help in the form of a chipping RB

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Also in the form of Mankins being next to him, who didn't play last night. I'm hoping to see better things from Solder than we saw last night, but there are a lot of factors that go into it in preseason. How he adjusts in week 2 will give us a better idea I think.

Yeah, thenly one who had a worse night than Mallet was Dan Roche. There would be a flag on the play and he wouldn't even say anything about until they were about to resnap. Then there was a time e said BB was still talking to Finch about his fumble but Finch was back on the field.

KontradictioN said:

Even though it's early on and you definitely don't want to hit the panic button in the first preseason game, Solder's shaky play looks like it's still going to be something to watch. He seems to still have trouble handling bull rushes. I was hoping to see him bulk up and build his upper body strength for that but he hasn't and, to this point, it continues to show.

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He can't bulk up- that's the problem, this kid has had trouble adding muscle for years now. He and Wendell were the weak spots in the oline last year and nothing is going to change until bill recognizes what everyone else sees. Both solder and Wendell need to be replaced - I was never sold on solder, despite all the hype that he was getting on this board. Reiss reported all week that solder had trouble in 1 on 1s with brian orakpo.

TommyBrady12 said:

He can't bulk up- that's the problem, this kid has had trouble adding muscle for years now. He and Wendell were the weak spots in the oline last year and nothing is going to change until bill recognizes what everyone else sees. Both solder and Wendell need to be replaced - I was never sold on solder, despite all the hype that he was getting on this board. Reiss reported all week that solder had trouble in 1 on 1s with brian orakpo.

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Solder was fairly solid last year. He is just like Matt Light. He can shut down his opponent all game and then give up one sack and people kill him for being a turnstile.

Ok, now I heard everything. Gresh is praising Roche for throwing in a Seinfeld reference in about Garropolo. He said that he was shocked that no one on the broadcast picked it up. Maybe because everyone on the broadcast were trying to tune him out just like everyone watching the broadcast at home.