Idle thoughts - the insomniac edition.

Just a few thoughts after watching the game and reading some of the comments.

1. Overall I was very happy with the first offensive group. In fact all 3 offensive groups played relatively well. My biggest concern going into this game was the OL And even though they kept running guys in and out of the line up, like commuters going through a turnstile, The OL gave Brady plenty of time (1 hurry I hit, and helped generate a running attack that accumulated over 250 yds

2. The media pukes want us to believe that all the movement going on with the OL is because the Pats aren't happy with certain players or their performances. I disagree. BB is simply trying to discern what he has and how versatile they are.

With a talented team roster spots are at a premium. At MOST, BB will keep only 9 offensive linemen, and it could be as few as 8. So EVERY one of them better be able to play at least 2 positions. It wasn't perfect, but I felt the OL took a step forward tonight.

3. Yes there was obviously a miscommunication between Maneri and Brady on the pick 6, with Maneri taking the blame. However I think Brady has some explaining to do as well. I want to know why Brady was throwing to a TE who split wide as his first choice on first down. IIRC, Brady was unhurried and never looked anywhere else. Some how I have to believe when Steve Maneri is your TE lined up wide, he SHOULDN'T be your first choice for a running a post snap read route.

4. I was once again impressed with the fact that once again our WR's consistently were beating their men deep. IIRC, Amendola, Edelman, Tyms, and Boyce all had at least a step on his man on various routes. I find it exciting because we haven't seen this kind of deep threat since Randy Moss was roaming opposing secondaries. What's even more exciting is that its not just one guy. Edelman made a beautiful cut to create separation on his deep route

5. I think everyone should be a lot more comfortable about the LaFell signing. Not an ace, but a solid NFL WR, who seems to be picking up the offense well

6. As you know I have been a big Josh Boyce supporter. But its getting harder and harder to ignore what Brian Tymes is doing. If it continues I don't see how Boyce can remain on the roster when Tymes comes off of suspension. I think its less about what Boyce IS doing wrong, and more about what Tymes is doing right. Its likely that the the Pats are going to keep 6 WRs and based on what we've seen in the first 2 games, Tymes has to be considered one of the top 6 along with Edelman, Amendola LaFell, Thomkins, and Dobson. It should be starting to become apparent that an area that was once considered to be one of the big problems is becoming one of an embarrassment of riches.

7. Harder to evaluate the defense. I was pleased to see the run D much improved. The first group gave up one 12 yd run by McCoy, but held him to 7 yds combined on his other 5 rushes. That's a great job against the best OL in the game and a truly elite RB

8. The Eagles QB's dropped back 34 times and COMBINED had only 6 incompletions. That's not what I had in mind given the supposed strength of our secondary. Coverage was tight on a lot of throws. So I'm not that concerned, but it needs to get better.

9. I don't blame Chung for that TD vs Ertz. I blame more the defense that forces him into such a physical mismatch. His coverage wasn't bad, he was just a victim of what Gronk does all the time in the end zone.

10. I know its redundant but it can't be stated enough. The league's attempt to mandate a Peyton Manning Superbowl win is truly ruining the game. So many calls were so marginal it was ridiculous, and interpreted inconsistently. They blew the call on the Eagle TD. I thought the replay clearly showed the ball on the ground before it bounced up. The replay clearly showed Ridley's knee down on the "fumble" and on one play and Eagle defender's hand merely brushed a Pats WR and the Pats were awarded an undeserved first down instead of having to punt. a few series later a Philly defender and a Pats receiver were both creating a lot of contact deep downfield and there was no call at all.

Tonight there were 10 offensive TD's tonight. Most on drives that were aided by penalties. Can you imagine what's going to happen when offenses really get in a rhythm and everyone starts playing ALL their starters. It won't be long before 100 point over/unders start to become common place.
Its a disgrace.

11. Robert White completely underwhelmed tonight, though Roy Finched "popped". Also missing in action was shane Vareen. But for every Shane Vareen, there's a Jimmy Devlin. I told you to watch out for his receiving for a few weeks now.

12. Before the Jimmy G hyped gets too out of hand and the mediots over react to the fact he got in before Mallett and had 2 TD's. Remember he WAS only 6 of 12 and his TD to LaFell could have just as easily been picked off, as well as one of his incomplete screen passes.

I think he's progressing quite nicely, but lets get real here. The kid is just a few weeks away from playing for Eastern ILL.

13. I thought Mallett's day was more impressive, given who he had to play with.

14. Special Teams where especially bad, though Roy FInch was an exception.

15. One good thing about the pick six and the penalties, it gave Brady more snaps to work with the offense and still get off the field before the first quarter ended.

I partially blame Brady as well, Ken. Good point. No doubt about it.

I also agree with the toning it down on JAG. While he may look a bit further ahead than we'd have thought at this point, let's not run too far with the "Mallett will be cut" rumors. Although anything is possible, I would find that hard to envision. Then again, Belichick has proven that he's willing to take a gamble in the past....

I think it's a combination of Boyce not progressing enough + Tyms looking good. Just my opinion. Let's not forget that Boyce was far from being involved last season until the injury situation occurred. He was completely lost. While he's definitely improved on that this preseason, it may not be enough to win a spot past week #5 when Tyms returns from suspension.

The whole penalties thing is troubling, if the preseason is supposed to be some type of "dress rehearsal" for the regular season, why would they accentuate things that will not be accentuated during the season??

It makes no sense, once you turn something on difficult to turn it off... the penalties almost made the game unbearable to watch, reminded me of a MLB game...

The whole thing is idiotic, it was not broke so do not fix it...

DarrylS said:

The whole penalties thing is troubling, if the preseason is supposed to be some type of "dress rehearsal" for the regular season, why would they accentuate things that will not be accentuated during the season??

It makes no sense, once you turn something on difficult to turn it off... the penalties almost made the game unbearable to watch, reminded me of a MLB game...

The whole thing is idiotic, it was not broke so do not fix it...

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This league is in danger of taking the most popular game in the country and making it unwatchable. Hard to imagine this continuing in the regular season, but who knows?

patfanken said:

3. Yes there was obviously a miscommunication between Maneri and Brady on the pick 6, with Maneri taking the blame. However I think Brady has some explaining to do as well. I want to know why Brady was throwing to a TE who split wide as his first choice on first down. IIRC, Brady was unhurried and never looked anywhere else. Some how I have to believe when Steve Maneri is your TE lined up wide, he SHOULDN'T be your first choice for a running a post snap read route.

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That was the first thing I asked as the pick 6 was still in progress. Who did he throw to? I agree with your take here. Maneri takes the bigger share of the burden, but Brady shouldn't be let off the hook.

11. Robert White completely underwhelmed tonight, though Roy Finched "popped". Also missing in action was shane Vareen. But for every Shane Vareen, there's a Jimmy Devlin. I told you to watch out for his receiving for a few weeks now.

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I thought Vareen had a couple of nice receiving plays early on actually, and he showed some speed beating the Philly defender to the sideline beyond the first down marker. If I recall, one of his plays may not how shown up on the stat sheet due to a Philly penalty, but I can't recall if BB declined it or not.

12. Before the Jimmy G hyped gets too out of hand and the mediots over react to the fact he got in before Mallett and had 2 TD's. Remember he WAS only 6 of 12 and his TD to LaFell could have just as easily been picked off, as well as one of his incomplete screen passes.

I think he's progressing quite nicely, but lets get real here. The kid is just a few weeks away from playing for Eastern ILL.

13. I thought Mallett's day was more impressive, given who he had to play with.

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As excited as I am about Jimmy G, I'm inclined to agree. I still love seeing how well he is progressing, but the numbers don't lie, 6/12. However, I did like that on one of those incompletions, he had the presence of mind to dump the ball, rather than try to force the play along the sideline.

It's hard to imagine how Mallett could be cut at this point. He had a nice bounceback effort after a tough week. Three QBs is a real possibility in my very humble opinion.

15. One good thing about the pick six and the penalties, it gave Brady more snaps to work with the offense and still get off the field before the first quarter ended.

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That was my thought as well, and even provided the opportunity for Jimmy G to get some work in against Philadelphia's #1 unit.

If Maneri did indeed run the wrong route, how can you blame Brady? Unless you know what the play called was and what the Pats were trying to do, it's really impossible to know. Maybe Brady did make a mistake, but if Maneri ran the right route, it certainly would not have been an INT.

Vereen had a couple of nice blocks which is an important part of what he's in the team for.

Wouldn't worry about the Philly completion percentage either, when the starters were in they didn't do much against the Pats defense and it is only pre-season, wait until real gameplans come into play although there isn't going to be much on the new Dolphins offense apart from it's fast.

Dunno. There were 2 defenders in the area of Maneri, one inside and the other outside. There had to be better options for Brady as he was not rushed.

Devlin is our possible "move TE". Not great but more serviceable than I'd thought. Better than the stiffs we've had here. That goes for Maneri as the blocking TE.

OL was a <can't say it> fire drill. But it was because BB was testing for versatility and he was also shuffling OLs in as blocking TEs.

Boyce has to be happy Tyms is suspended 4 games.

Not a fan of Finch on the roster. So-so on KRs makes him just like every other KR contendah. He has that unique cut at speed capability but his limitations blocking and up the middle make him too limited vs the others. I hope White was having his period last night because he underwhelmed.

Galeb said:

If Maneri did indeed run the wrong route, how can you blame Brady?

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For the reasons cited above. Brady's job is to select the receiver that is most likely to result in a completion and a first down. Zeroing in on a TE split wide who has been with the team for a few days, on a route that is very dangerous if not timed well, wasn't a good choice. He's the vet, he's the guy who knows the system, he's responsible for knowing his personnel grouping and making wise choices.

betterthanthealternative said:

For the reasons cited above. Brady's job is to select the receiver that is most likely to result in a completion and a first down. Zeroing in on a TE split wide who has been with the team for a few days, on a route that is very dangerous if not timed well, wasn't a good choice. He's the vet, he's the guy who knows the system, he's responsible for knowing his personnel grouping and making wise choices.

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We don't know what Brady saw. He may have seen a size mismatch that he thought Maneri could exploit for RAC, or may have seen a formation that would shut down the other routes. We simply don't know the play and what the Pats were trying to do. Brady may* have made a mistake, but that assumption simply can't be made with the amount of information we have been given.

Don't forget these are preason games. Season games the intent is always to win the game. In preseason the intent is to give guys practical experience and to evaluate the players and decide who to keep. Winning isn't even an afterthought.

Brady looked Razor sharp this game. He showed tremendous accuracy, throwing balls with good zip. His pocket awareness and movement was also very good. If he stays healthy and the O-Line performs, Brady is going to have a monster year.

DarrylS said:

The whole penalties thing is troubling, if the preseason is supposed to be some type of "dress rehearsal" for the regular season, why would they accentuate things that will not be accentuated during the season??

It makes no sense, once you turn something on difficult to turn it off... the penalties almost made the game unbearable to watch, reminded me of a MLB game...

The whole thing is idiotic, it was not broke so do not fix it...

Click to expand...

Here's my take: Everyone's complaining (including the two talking heads in the booth) about the penalties and how the refs will "dial it back" when the regular season starts. That's NOT what I took away from the discussion.

I understood the refs comments about throwing fewer flags in the regular season as indicative that, by then, the teams will understand what the league wants emphasized and be acclimated to that. By throwing lots of flags every time they see hands to the face or illegal contact during the pre-season, all these players will figure it out and NOT be so prone to instinctively do that, and thus there WILL be fewer penalties.

As with limiting helmet-to-helmet hits last season, this season the league wants to try and change player behaviour regarding hands to the face and illegal contact. So you use the pre-season for that. It gives you 5 weeks, along with the TC to throw lots of flags so that the players "get it". I've got no problem with that. It's how the league functions. It's what Goodell has told the refs, based upon the directions/advice of the competition committee. As coach would say: "It is what it is."

These are supposedly pretty smart football players. They ought to be able to figure it out. Thus, we'll see fewer flags as a result of their changed behaviour, rather than the refs intentionally throwing fewer flags.

Anyway, I'm not upset by it. It's pre-season, the games don't count, and most of the first-team players aren't even on the field so much. I can live with it, as I'm just happy to be feeding my Patriots/NFL Jones.

patfanken said:

3. Yes there was obviously a miscommunication between Maneri and Brady on the pick 6, with Maneri taking the blame. However I think Brady has some explaining to do as well. I want to know why Brady was throwing to a TE who split wide as his first choice on first down. IIRC, Brady was unhurried and never looked anywhere else. Some how I have to believe when Steve Maneri is your TE lined up wide, he SHOULDN'T be your first choice for a running a post snap read route.

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I have a bone to pick with this. Not that I want to dump on Maneri who was just signed on Sunday so it would be unfair to make him the whipping boy.

First, there was no checkdown on the play, and it was a timed play which means it was the play called in, and so rules out Brady making a bad choice. It was, simply put, testing what Maneri could do in that scenario and he simply flunked it.

Brady read the coverage perfectly and threw the ball exactly where it should have gone with a bracket coverage developing (out). Maneri turned into the teeth of the coverage, not away from it.

betterthanthealternative said:

For the reasons cited above. Brady's job is to select the receiver that is most likely to result in a completion and a first down. Zeroing in on a TE split wide who has been with the team for a few days, on a route that is very dangerous if not timed well, wasn't a good choice. He's the vet, he's the guy who knows the system, he's responsible for knowing his personnel grouping and making wise choices.

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Not if it's a timed play that doesn't involve a checkdown. This one didn't. It was barely a three step drop throw with no read.

It was the called play.

Reasonable. Wish I hadn't deleted the game so I could check. It's not beyond the staff to call a play to test a player's readiness to serve.