The agitated Post-Game thread

I don't mind the breakdowns of whose-fault-which-thing-was, and I don't even mind the "see? See? Brady is in decline!" observations. All of those will become verifiable predictions or ho-hum overreactions dependent on future events over a season. I agree with Joker, that Brady can't get hit that many times on a weekly basis - although we knew that O-line had big potential for trouble.

HOWEVER, the biggest fact of week 1 is that it's week 1.

Yes, your New England Patriots are 4th place in the AFCE. Raise your hand if you think they're staying there. Now put it down. You're just embarrassing yourself.

The level of "problem" here isn't predictive just yet of a 2-14 season, folks - or even of a 10-6 season.

It's week 1. It's week 1. It's week 1.

Do we really have to spend the rest of the week on new-longtime-pats-fans suicide watch?

The only roughing call that MIGHT have been legit was Hightower's, but even that was borderline and easily could've gone uncalled; it was a great textbook-style hit. The Chandler Jones flags were atrocious. For heaven's sake he's taller than the damn quarterback, it's practically impossible for some of those hits not to be "high." Why can't the damn refs use their experience and intuition to discern intent on some of these plays?

The first half the Offense was pretty creative and looked good.

The second half was the polar opposite, it's like they thought the game was won and they switched to a vanilla offense so the league didn't see everything in week one. Horrible idea but that's how it looked.

The offensive line was terribad. I mean, seriously, it was a complete and utter joke. Brady was sacked 4 times but faced pressure nearly every play. Our defense could not stop a damn nose bleed. Revis was burned by Wallace a couple times and although he made a couple good plays, we expect more form him.

Special teams was garbage.

Brady, during the few times where he did have enough time without someone in his face, sucked. He is one dimensional and was trying to force the ball to Gronk, and a couple times to slow as Lafell, who could not seem to get any meaningful seperation. Oh and what the heck is up with Brady airing it out to a double covered Julian Edelman, like edelman is a giant or something. The dude is only 5'10"(that's being generous btw), why would you force a ball to him in double coverage???. I acknowledeg that Edelman was our best player today but that is not saying much for this team.

What happened to our Defensive line, I mean Big Vince is supposed to clog the center lane and be a big time run blocker, they ran all over us, it was pathetic.

I really hope this was just an anomaly and is not a sign of things to come. I really think our Defensive line and our defensive backfield will be better than this going forward but let us look at the facts here:

Our Offensive line could not keep Brady protected for any meaningful amount of time against 3 backup linebackers....THREE BACKUP LINEBACKERS!!!

We were not playing the Seahawks here man, this was the Dolphins. This team has no real pass rush, they will not be in the top 10 in terms of sacks, QB hits, QB hurries by the end of the year. The Dolphins we saw today are an average football team at best, quite possibly below average, and they embarrassed us.

Losing Scarnecchia is a big deal and was quite evident from the start of the game till the end. While I don't want to say losing mankins was what caused this, it definitely did not help that O line. We took an O-line that was suspect last year and undoubtedly, one of the weaker ones in the NFL and made it worse.

TB12 can not take this kind of abuse going forward. He will not make the season and that is a fact.

Someone else already said this and I agree with him...Brady is making me nervous too. Gronk aint your Binky Tom....You better get your *** in check and start trusting other receivers this year.(statement made not necessarily from this game, but more a culmination of work over the last few years) We are growing tired of you not throwing to some perfectly capable receivers because you don't trust them and you have a personal man crush on your injury prone binky boy.

Oh and btw, Wendell sucks plain and simple. So does Connolly. They both made Mankins look bad last year. mankins had mistakes of-course, but those two clowns compounded those mistakes monumentally...Wendell better not start next week or I will be breaking something too.

Oh and to you BB but sniffers who are calling us whiners just because we are upset at the pathetic show put on yesterday, we remember that game in 23 when they lost 31-0 to the bills and then beat the same Bills 31-0 later that year, we remember that the Pats won a SB that year, but guess what...this ain't 2003 and this team has demonstrated no grit like the 03 team did. We played against 3, not one, not two, but THREE backup linebackers and the fish still beat our o-line like a red-headed step child.

DaBruinz said:

No, it hasn't. Only people with no concept of what QB Pressure truly is have been making those claims and they've been wrong the entire time. Sorry Snake Eyes. It's the same old broken record garbage when something doesn't go the Pats way. Everyone INSTANTLY knows what's wrong and makes the claim that "it's been going on for year".

A few years ago, people claimed the O-line sucked at run-blocking, yet it was the best run-blocking unit the Pats put out there under Belichick. But, because they don't man-handle an ALL-PRO DE in Wake and a damn talented DE in Miller, it's "the O-line continues to suck like it has for years" BS..

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We've seen the offense stall in the playoffs because the receivers can't beat press coverage and the O-line allows Brady to be pressured, that has been a consistent theme for many years. Instead of waiting until that playoffs before imploding we're doing it in the opening game, we're ahead of schedule

DaBruinz said:

Yep.. Never ANY pressure.. That's why they had more sacks last year than any time during Romeo's tenure... They also had more pressures and hurries last year as well. But people like yourself over-look that fact because you're so intent on believing you know more than guys who have 30+ years of experience and won 5 Championships while going to the Championship game 8 times, 6 times with the same team..

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You leave one VERY important stat out of this here man. How many defensive snaps did it take to get those 48 sacks? Only the Eagles and Vikings played more defensive snaps last year than the Pats. Sacks is not the best indicator in terms of good pass rush,

Defensive snaps:

Vikings: 1150 snaps and 37 sacks
Eagles: 1132 snaps and 41 sacks
Patriots: 1118 snaps and 48 sacks

what separates the best teams in terms of sacks to the worst you ask? yes, it is 1 sack per game on average. The bears had the least with 31(on 1021 defensive snaps) while Carolina had 60 sacks on 975 defensive snaps).

The pats also played against the fins, the jets, and the bills twice each last year and how many rookies was that you ask????? MANY...Christ, the dolphins had the worst O line in the league and we got to play them twice...(We had 7 sacks in the first two games of the season vs the Jets and Bills and I am too lazy to do even more research for you to disprove your idiotic BB fanboy statements)

Edited after some research...Almost 1/2 our sacks(20+) last year came against the Bills, Jets, and Dolphins).

When does the DC start taking some of the blame. I have very little confidence in him. They run it down our throats and he makes no adjustments at all.

PatsFanInVa said:

I don't mind the breakdowns of whose-fault-which-thing-was, and I don't even mind the "see? See? Brady is in decline!" observations. All of those will become verifiable predictions or ho-hum overreactions dependent on future events over a season. I agree with Joker, that Brady can't get hit that many times on a weekly basis - although we knew that O-line had big potential for trouble.

HOWEVER, the biggest fact of week 1 is that it's week 1.

Yes, your New England Patriots are 4th place in the AFCE. Raise your hand if you think they're staying there. Now put it down. You're just embarrassing yourself.

The level of "problem" here isn't predictive just yet of a 2-14 season, folks - or even of a 10-6 season.

It's week 1. It's week 1. It's week 1.

Do we really have to spend the rest of the week on new-longtime-pats-fans suicide watch?

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This game is reminiscent of the Bills game in week 1 of 03. We just traded a vet, went up against a charged up home team and got schooled. That year turned out okay though.

There is a lot of talent on this team and we don't have knuckle heads who can disrupt the locker room. There is no way Belichick will allow this team to play the way it did next week.

Whenever Brady is throwing the ball 50 + times the Patriots are in trouble.
Agree completely with the commentary regarding McDaniels.
Highly unimpressive as an "adjustments" coach and always has been.

Guys who are on my poop (trying to be appropriate and not say ****) list


Time to misdirect my rage over losing a game to a team that we often split with.

1) Brandon LaFell. Didn't help near as much as he hurt. The hit across the middle was Welker-esque BS but at least Molly Welks has the good sense to try to time the hit with when the ball has been caught.

2) Dave Gugliamoaniononoinoino. For the mortal sin of not being Dante who would have found a way to keep that OL from being a sieve.

3) Jamie Collins. Love the kid but he whiffed on so many tackles of Moreno that my wife died of alcohol poisoning. Just kidding, my wife is alive and kicking it's just my kids who drank themselves to death.

4) Revis. Hey, when Mike "I run in straight lines" Wallace owns you like he's got some Stevie Johnson DNA in him do me a favor and don't look around like someone else ****ed up even though you where there and got your hand on the ball.

5) Bill Belichick. Cause when it comes down to it a failure in the trenches on both sides of the ball to that degree lands on the coach's head like a 38 year old married MILF.

I disagree that McDaniels and Belichick didn't make adjustments. The adjustments didn't work. Hooman was in the game a lot in the second half blocking and he got turnstiled a few times and whiffed on one block all together.

People incorrectly think the Pats don't do adjustments. They do all game long. When they work, the coaching staff gets no credit. When they don't, they get all the blame.

The Pats had a lot of games last year where the offense struggled in the first half and won the game in the second half because of adjustments and play on the field. So it clear that the Pats can and do make good adjustments in games.

I did not think Belichick and McDaniels (or Patricia) had a good game coaching, but to put all (or most) the blame at their feet is silly. I actually think that they did too much adjusting on offense. They were mixing and matching the o-line way too much yesterday. They need to pick five guys and let them get some continuity.

jmt57 said:

Dink n dunk passing game. Every year we embarrass some teams with it and look very impressive while doing so. But then it gets completely shut down against better defenses. Today it worked for the first half, and then the Dolphins made adjustments to shut it out in the 2nd half. It looked too easy for Miami to stop, and their 3 starting LB's weren't even playing in the 2nd half. This is very worrying. The passing game hasn't evolved in the past couple years, and if anything, it's devolved since the glory days of the 2-TE sets a couple years back.​

In the second half the Dolphins mostly only played two linebackers, so if anything the Pats should have responded by running the ball rather than passing. And in terms of laying blame on the short passing game - i.e., dink n dunk (or zip and zap, a more positive name when it works), that wasn't the issue - the problem in the passing game was not enough pass protection, not short pass routes. More long pass routes would have simply resulted in more sacks, hits, pressures and hurried throws.

If anything there should have been more 'dink n dunk', not less. If the OL could not pass protect enough to set up a screen pass, then how in the world could they be expected to hold their blocks long enough to complete a long pass?

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I agree that they should have run more in the second half when the Dolphins primarily played nickel. And off a running game, I thought maybe more max protect passing plays sending 2 receivers out on routes would have been better. At the very least, Brady would have had time. It was what Weiss used to do against great pass rushes. And he used to move Brady and the pocket around as well.

we have an OL that looks very suspect.....and a QB with no mobility

we lack an outside/vertical WR who can go up and snatch the ball.......and we have a QB whose deep/vertical ball is his weakness (this excludes dobson.....time will tell)

bad combos

revis didnt look like jets revis.....still early
im not sure we have the personnel for 3-4.....specifically the ends
if kelly does well this year its gonna make BB look bad

still really early.....things will probably get better

Strange I thought Brady was the one being pampered by the league according to the other fan bases. Brady got hit like 100 times with no flag, Tannehill gets a flag on like all 3 times he gets hit...

condon84 said:

This game is reminiscent of the Bills game in week 1 of 03. We just traded a vet, went up against a charged up home team and got schooled. That year turned out okay though.

There is a lot of talent on this team and we don't have knuckle heads who can disrupt the locker room. There is no way Belichick will allow this team to play the way it did next week.

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Agreed - this was one game...we have been here before. no need to panic, but questioning the readiness of our offensive line is normal behavior after yesterdays fiasco. I mean, I don't think that is something you can "coach up". Wendell and Connolly were risks last year IMO, they made Mankins look bad due to their poor play.(Again, my opinion). I do not think it was the other way around. Their best offensive lineman was traded two weeks before the season for crap...What good is that salary cap space if we don't use it anyway. We need help on O-line now..we can not afford to wait, unless all of you want to see Jimmy G at the helm in our very near future.

having Aaron Dobson inactive was pretty dumb IMO. we couldve used him this game. Hopefully he is active next week and it was just due to not having much practice time this off-season. He is better than lafell. who didnt show me anything in the pre-season or this last game.

I thought the playcalling was predictable. Run on first, run on 2nd then pass on 3rd, or substitute run on 2nd to a screen pass....they were very vanilla in the 2nd.

jmt57 said:

Got to save this prediction for future reference.

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Please do. I've got 7-9. Before the season I had 9-7. In an era of speed kills on offense and defense, the Pats put together one of the slowest teams in the NFL. In the game yesterday, the speed difference looked like varsity vs. JV.

It was something I thought about when Mayo got his sack. One of the guys I was watching with was screaming at the TV for Mayo to just bring Tannehill down, and in my head I'm thinking, "I bet if he really pulls him to the ground he'll get flagged for driving into the ground or something." It has to be in these guys' heads. After three calls on marginal (though technically illegal) plays, it's no wonder QB's slip out of as many sure sacks as they do.

MrNathanDrake said:

Brady's arm strength and deep ball at this point in his career are suspect. I hope we can write it off as week 1 jitters, but it showed a lot last year too. He missed an open deep ball to Edelman late in the game. At times he was throwing to nobody. Was it miscommunication, or fearing the pass rush?. Either way its not a good sign. I suspect BB and McDaniels know Brady's arm strength is declining and that's why they're forced to run a dink and dunk offense.

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I disagree with this part. I already said it on another post but I didn't see Brady overthrowing Edelman on the pass you are talking about but the QB and the WR not being on the same page about the exact read on that route.

Brady expected Edelman to continue running and wanted to hit him in stride and Edelman thought that he would lead him to the outside. Look at the reaction Brady had immediately after the throw. To me this is not frustration about an overthrow but him being disappointed because Edelman did something else than he expected (see http://gfycat.com/AgedWigglyChuckwalla).

The throws that seemed like they were going to nobody were to a big extend again plays where people were not on the same page.

When you look at the plays where the OL protection held up and the receivers were on the same page you saw him throwing lasers as well as nice deep balls (see Edelman catch in the first half).

I want to stress again that I don't want to absolve Brady from all the blame but I just hate the continuing narrative about his bad deep ball/arm strength. At the very least based on yesterdays game this is simply not true.

DaBruinz said:

The issue is not with the level of talent and the playermakers this team has. It is with your inability to evaluate them with any sense of non-bias "Chicken Little" hatred. It's always the same with you. Everything always sucks. YOU know better than Belichick.

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It's not a matter of knowing better than BB. It's using your eyes to see that team A is much faster than team B. I'm sure the Pats have some hard working, high-character guys. They can't help they're just not as athletic as the guys they're playing against. The Patriots were dominated by a less than mediocre Miami team. If you re-watch that game, you'll see, with a decent QB, Miami should have won by 40.