Game Thoughts: Nice Little Bounce Back Week Edition

Although I was upset about last weeks' loss, I wasn't pressing the panic button and I will not get too high this week. But here we go:

• What a difference a week makes. Last week, people were talking about whether the Pats are frauds. Now they look like contenders again. I think even if the Vikes had Peterson, I think this game would have been lopsided. The Pats were just far more polished this week and playing more like the team we though they were going to be.

• There was a lot of discussion this week about how people thought Chandler Jones was misused. Some disagreed, but most said it was clear he was. I think today proved that theory was correct. Jones switched from DE to OLB and he became a monster today. Two sacks and tons of pressures. He was living in the backfield. His pressure caused a couple other sacks that were made by others. This is the Chandler Jones we were looking for since he came in. If he plays like this for the rest of the year, he could be in the discussion for DPOY.

• Donta Hightower has found his position. He is clearly best suited to be an OLB in the 3-4. Two weeks in a row, he is getting consistent pressure on the QB.

• After a bad game last week, the o-line has a great bounce back game. They did use a lot of snaps with a sixth o-lineman, but they held up well against a good d-line. They didn't do nearly as much rotating of players and that definitely helped.

• Who was Matt Cassel's leading receiver in terms of yards today? Devin McCourty.

• The Pats have caused seven turnovers in two games. This defense has been very opportunistic.
• I wasn't thrilled with the idea of the 3-4 defense because of the Pats' personnel, but if they can play like they did today I could warm up to it. It definitely helps the pass rush.

• I don't know how the Pats do it, but they go from Troy Brown to Wes Welker to Julian Edelman. They always seem to find stud slot WRs.

• I liked that they seemed to be more easing Gronk into it this week after forcing it to him last week. A lot more safer and outside throws. All him to get a little more fluid and confident in his knee.

• We finally saw the Revis we were expecting. He didn't follow one receiver all game. But when he did, he shut them down.

• With an impressive game by Logan Ryan, I am excited about the depth the Pats have at CB. I think when they go to two deep safeties, they will be able to put Ryan there and Dennard at CB.

• All week we heard about Patterson and people wondering how the Pats were going to stop him, but I never understood it. He is not a great receiver at this point and he can be dangerous in the running game, but without Peterson not so much.

• Although I would like to see other receivers step up, I think the game plan limited how many balls other receivers would get. A lot of big personnel and players in to block.

• Ridley is such a violent runner. I hope the fumbling problem is corrected because he can really soften up a front seven.

• I killed the coaching last week, but I gotta give them credit for fixing most of the problems in a week's time. It will be interesting to see if these fixes are lasting beyond today.

- I applaud the decision to take the ball out of Brady's hands and pound it with the running game. It's ugly. It's not very effective. But, it's the only way the Pats have won a game in quite a while.

- They need to take the long sideline pass out of Brady's playbook. Randy Moss is not streaking down the sideline. Those are nothing but drive killers.

- Brady seem to have a new motto: throw to the covered receiver.

So I gather Brady didn't play well? I didn't get the game here, though I was following along in the game thread and keeping track of the score. I saw they had a dreadful start but McCourty's INT seemed to right the ship. I heard Gronk is still playing tentatively?

Lot's of good stuff in this game.

McCourty & Mayo making some big plays in the beginning. I recall how people talk about them not being playmakers, but Mayo was everywhere and diagnosing things pretty quickly. Hard to understand how he is underrated more by fans than national media.

The turnovers were there last game too and hopefully will be al lseason long. But the difference was making plays to stop the opposing offense.

Logan Ryan seems streaky, but he does a wonderful job undercutting/jumping receivers on short routes. While he didn't get an int on those plays, he had broke up some passes (his best one coming last year intercepting Manning).

Ridley. Saw him using 2 hands on the ball in most situations where the contact was coming. Good for him and let's hope he keeps thinking that way.

I'd be interested in hearing a breakdown of Devey. Maybe the switch to RG suits him better (couldn't be worse than last week, but he managed to keep his starting role so coach sees something good there).

Bella*chick said:

So I gather Brady didn't play well? I didn't get the game here, though I was following along in the game thread and keeping track of the score. I saw they had a dreadful start but McCourty's INT seemed to right the ship. I heard Gronk is still playing tentatively?

Click to expand...

Brady didn't play bad. It just wasn't one of those games where the Pats had a big passing performance.

Rob0729 said:

Although I was upset about last weeks' loss, I wasn't pressing the panic button and I will not get too high this week. But here we go:

• What a difference a week makes. Last week, people were talking about whether the Pats are frauds. Now they look like contenders again. I think even if the Vikes had Peterson, I think this game would have been lopsided. The Pats were just far more polished this week and playing more like the team we though they were going to be.

• There was a lot of discussion this week about how people thought Chandler Jones was misused. Some disagreed, but most said it was clear he was. I think today proved that theory was correct. Jones switched from DE to OLB and he became a monster today. Two sacks and tons of pressures. He was living in the backfield. His pressure caused a couple other sacks that were made by others. This is the Chandler Jones we were looking for since he came in. If he plays like this for the rest of the year, he could be in the discussion for DPOY.

• Donta Hightower has found his position. He is clearly best suited to be an OLB in the 3-4. Two weeks in a row, he is getting consistent pressure on the QB.

• After a bad game last week, the o-line has a great bounce back game. They did use a lot of snaps with a sixth o-lineman, but they held up well against a good d-line. They didn't do nearly as much rotating of players and that definitely helped.

• Who was Matt Cassel's leading receiver in terms of yards today? Devin McCourty.

• The Pats have caused seven turnovers in two games. This defense has been very opportunistic.
• I wasn't thrilled with the idea of the 3-4 defense because of the Pats' personnel, but if they can play like they did today I could warm up to it. It definitely helps the pass rush.

• I don't know how the Pats do it, but they go from Troy Brown to Wes Welker to Julian Edelman. They always seem to find stud slot WRs.

• I liked that they seemed to be more easing Gronk into it this week after forcing it to him last week. A lot more safer and outside throws. All him to get a little more fluid and confident in his knee.

• We finally saw the Revis we were expecting. He didn't follow one receiver all game. But when he did, he shut them down.

• With an impressive game by Logan Ryan, I am excited about the depth the Pats have at CB. I think when they go to two deep safeties, they will be able to put Ryan there and Dennard at CB.

• All week we heard about Patterson and people wondering how the Pats were going to stop him, but I never understood it. He is not a great receiver at this point and he can be dangerous in the running game, but without Peterson not so much.

• Although I would like to see other receivers step up, I think the game plan limited how many balls other receivers would get. A lot of big personnel and players in to block.

• Ridley is such a violent runner. I hope the fumbling problem is corrected because he can really soften up a front seven.

• I killed the coaching last week, but I gotta give them credit for fixing most of the problems in a week's time. It will be interesting to see if these fixes are lasting beyond today.

Click to expand...

FWIW, there were at least some plays today when they had him playing 3-4 DE.

Bella*chick said:

So I gather Brady didn't play well? I didn't get the game here, though I was following along in the game thread and keeping track of the score. I saw they had a dreadful start but McCourty's INT seemed to right the ship. I heard Gronk is still playing tentatively?

Click to expand...

Gronk caught some good balls in traffic (using his body well) and it helped the team. Still, he feels more like a hooman in the passing game than Gronk. But, he'll improve every week and I'm confident he'll be 95%+ Gronk by mid season (ok wishful thinking, but certainly back to being a top TE). Didn't really catch him as a blocker, so no comment in regards to that.

Brady is starting to look like late career Dan Marino. Trying to do more than he has to. Going for the long ball on 3rd and 2 instead of dumping off to somebody and moving the chains. Staring down receivers. Forcing every throw to Edelman or Gronk. He needs to lower his expectations and start being a little more effective game manager.

hwc said:

Brady is starting to look like late career Dan Marino. Trying to do more than he has to. Going for the long ball on 3rd and 2 instead of dumping off to somebody and moving the chains. Staring down receivers. Forcing every throw to Edelman or Gronk. He needs to lower his expectations and start being a little more effective game manager.

Click to expand...

Come on! Let's not overstate things. Brady completed 68.2% of his passes today. He just only threw 22 times.

He stared down Gronk once. The deep ball pass was just a bit off. He never forced a throw to Gronk or Edelman that I can remember today.

rochrist said:

FWIW, there were at least some plays today when they had him playing 3-4 DE.

Click to expand...

That is no different than last year where he played some plays at DT. He mostly played OLB today though.

Rob0729 said:

That is no different than last year where he played some plays at DT. He mostly played OLB today though.

Click to expand...

Agreed that he mostly played OLB, but I'm not so sure about the DT thing. These were plays today where he was definitely playing the classic 3-4 DE role, he didn't even try to rush the passer. Whoever was outside of him standing up did that. I'll have to look again to see who it was, might have been Hightower. But Jones engaged his man, held him up and played the gaps to both sides of the player he was engaging. Correct me if I'm wrong, but my impression was that when he lined up as DT last year, he was rushing the passer.

Rob0729 said:

Come on! Let's not overstate things. Brady completed 68.2% of his passes today. He just only threw 22 times.

Click to expand...

Agreed. The coaching staff took the ball out of Brady's hands and the the offense didn't cost them the game as it did last week. I think that was a smart decision by the coaching staff and a direction that will likely continue.

hwc said:

Agreed. The coaching staff took the ball out of Brady's hands and the the offense didn't cost them the game as it did last week. I think that was a smart decision by the coaching staff and a direction that will likely continue.

Click to expand...

Please go away. Stop with this crap.

If that deep ball had been thrown to Dobson, Tyms, or even Amendola it would have been complete.

rochrist said:

Agreed that he mostly played OLB, but I'm not so sure about the DT thing. These were plays today where he was definitely playing the classic 3-4 DE role, he didn't even try to rush the passer. Whoever was outside of him standing up did that. I'll have to look again to see who it was, might have been Hightower. But Jones engaged his man, held him up and played the gaps to both sides of the player he was engaging. Correct me if I'm wrong, but my impression was that when he lined up as DT last year, he was rushing the passer.

Click to expand...

No, there were times last year where he played 3-4 DE in the base defense.

PatriotReign said:

If that deep ball had been thrown to Dobson, Tyms, or even Amendola it would have been complete.

Click to expand...

It was thrown to Edelman, though. It wasn't a bad throw, and it wasn't a bad play by the receiver. It was an incompletion. Sometimes that happens, you just miss by a few inches. It was a decent enough playcall, and the Patriots had enough of a cushion at that point to take the risk, and if it didn't work pin the Vikings deep. Which is what they did. Can't score on every drive.

primetime said:

It was thrown to Edelman, though. It wasn't a bad throw, and it wasn't a bad play by the receiver. It was an incompletion. Sometimes that happens, you just miss by a few inches. It was a decent enough playcall, and the Patriots had enough of a cushion at that point to take the risk, and if it didn't work pin the Vikings deep. Which is what they did. Can't score on every drive.

Click to expand...

I fiully understand. It was more of a response to HWC who said Brady had a bad game.

PatriotReign said:

I fiully understand. It was more of a response to HWC who said Brady had a bad game.

Click to expand...

I didn't say Brady had a bad game. I said that the coaching staff largely took the ball out of his hands, which, IMO, was a smart strategic decision. He was going to get killed if he kept dropping back 59 times like last week. I think running and running and running was smart. Don't let the offense lose the game. Let the defense win it.

If you recall, the games the Pats won down the stretch last year were the games where they pounded and pounded and pounded with Blount. The games they tried to win throwing and throwing and throwing were disasters.

hwc said:

I didn't say Brady had a bad game. I said that the coaching staff largely took the ball out of his hands, which, IMO, was a smart strategic decision. He was going to get killed if he kept dropping back 59 times like last week. I think running and running and running was smart. Don't let the offense lose the game. Let the defense win it.

If you recall, the games the Pats won down the stretch last year were the games where they pounded and pounded and pounded with Blount. The games they tried to win throwing and throwing and throwing were disasters.

Click to expand...

This is pretty standard in the NFL. The probability of winning a game where you attempt 40 or more passes is very low. Causality in this case goes in both directions - on one hand, you're making your offense one dimensional. On the other, you're probably throwing a lot because you're already losing.

primetime said:

This is pretty standard in the NFL. The probability of winning a game where you attempt 40 or more passes is very low. Causality in this case goes in both directions - on one hand, you're making your offense one dimensional. On the other, you're probably throwing a lot because you're already losing.

Click to expand...

I agree. That's what has been so frustrating with the Pats continuing to play all-pass all-the-time like it's still 2007, when their 37 year old QB is getting killed in the pocket. Brady got hit something like 8 times last week. How long do you think he'd last at that rate? Defenses have been teeing off on Brady for several years now. Small ball is one way to counter that.