Game Thoughts: Nice Little Bounce Back Week Edition

The offense is just brady and edelman right now. And maybe to some extent vereen. Gronk is not fully back yet , and ridley is still building confidence. All other WR and TE positions are in a flux and they are still trying to figure out their best 11 to play . So growing pains are to be expected on offense but with brady out there, they will figure it out .
I was happy the defense settled today regardless of the opposition and that is the group i want to see consistency from going forward.

supafly said:

To take it one step further, pretty much no team is as good as they looked the week before, and very few teams are quite as bad as they looked the week before.

Just to give some examples---every single prediction I saw this week was for TEN to easily beat DAL. That made absolutely zero sense to me. DAL clearly wasn't as bad as they appeared last week, and TEN certainly wasn't nearly as good as they looked.

The same goes for Miami's big win, and their odds of repeating that on the road + NE's poor showing and the odds of them continuing that disastrous play.

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my favorite saying, never as good as you look, never as bad as you look

Archeryaddict12 said:

The passing game will pick up and be potent with gronk, vereen, the Pygmy receivers and then Dobson, KT and lafell. This has a potential to be dynamic when Tom is in control and in sync. Add wright also. They will start stringing it together

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I'm more iffy than confident on the fate of the passing game achieving the kind of potency expected from the Patriots. But the reasons you list are solid and I do like your optimism

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.

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Devey and Chung were awful today. Devey, God Damn son. Somebody chart out the runs inside the tackle right. The only successful plays I remember included a pulling cannon or overload...

ISO: iapatsfan

Looks like he stopped posting after the Pats went up 10-7 and never looked back.

Brady_to_Moss said:

217 yards against. 4 INT. 6 sacks. It's a great start minus week 1.

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With 80 of them coming on that 4 minute opening drive. So after the adjusment to that opening drive only 137 yards giving up.

hwc said:

We must have watched a different game. In the first half in Miami (when the game was hardly out of hand), the Pats had 14 running plays (including two WR end arounds to Edelman) vs 29 passing attempts. That's not exactly a balanced attack.

Today's first half was 16 running plays vs 10 passing plays. The run wasn't very effective (just 3.4 yards per carry in the first half), but the Pats stuck with it.

Belichick said in his press conference that more balance on offense was one of the major goals for this week. He obviously saw that Brady was going to get killed if the team didn't get more balanced. I don't think that's a controversial observation.

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The numbers yesterday were skewed by an one yard TD drive. But I never said that they were just as balanced last week. I said they tried to run the ball.

It isn't controversial to say they are trying to be balanced. It is just stupid that they are trying to take the ball out of Brady's hand because he is some kind of liability as you are suggesting.

I thought the win was well deserved. The defense looked great after the first drive where they fell victim to the mis-direction plays. Nice to see so many defensive plays. Even Mayo had a nice behind the LOS stop.

Offense did what it needed to do to win, but I am wary of the Brady and Edelmen show. The Patriots will need to incorporate more of their receivers to beat good defenses.

BTW, I forgot to mention this. We saw why the Pats didn't draft Codarrelle Patterson yesterday. The guy has some freak physical skills, but he is a horrible route runner.

SVN said:

The offense is just brady and edelman right now. And maybe to some extent vereen. Gronk is not fully back yet , and ridley is still building confidence. All other WR and TE positions are in a flux and they are still trying to figure out their best 11 to play . So growing pains are to be expected on offense but with brady out there, they will figure it out .
I was happy the defense settled today regardless of the opposition and that is the group i want to see consistency from going forward.

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Don't forget it wasn't until game 5 of last season before Gronk was playing every snap. Would expect the same kind of easing in; perhaps even a little faster this time around.

More concerned with the disappearance of Amendola (19 snaps) which may point to an undisclosed injury. Lafell isn't really an issue as he contributes with "blocking as WR" and in ST as well.

I think Develin is morphing into the best FB we ever had. He is getting better at stoning the filling LB, and caught two difficult passes out of formation.

we really couldve used Kenbrell Thompkins over lafell/amendola. He was the only receiver last week outside of edelman/gronk/vereen to show any chemistry with brady(I think he had 4 catches?). Dobson clearly is still rusty and it should take a couple games for him to get in sync and Gronkowski is still being eased back into action

Amendola's non-numbers in this game might be inflated by the relative lack of passing plays and then the clear lead in the second half..

That being said, we are seeing far less short passes into the middle this year than we are used to. Curious whether this is a trend or just due to the nature of how the first two games went..

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.

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Just a hair before the ball arrived at Edelman's hands, the defender got in a quick grab of Edelmans jersey at his right shoulder. If not for that, Edelman might have been able to extend enough to make the catch. It clearly wasn't a bad throw.

RIpats88 said:

we really couldve used Kenbrell Thompkins over lafell/amendola. He was the only receiver last week outside of edelman/gronk/vereen to show any chemistry with brady(I think he had 4 catches?). Dobson clearly is still rusty and it should take a couple games for him to get in sync and Gronkowski is still being eased back into action

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Was very surprised to see Thompkins deactivated. He appears to be the 2nd most trusted WR of Brady's next to Julian. 22 pass attempts isn't a great sample to judge looks and degree to which guys were open but I can't recall one attempt to Lafell and only one to Amendola. I agree with the above that its Edelman and Gronk with the first looks and I would much rather see Dobson and Thompkins with Lafell sitting regardless of ST role.
I also liked Brady's press conference and the sour demeanor. He said the right things but he was upset which makes me think he and the receivers are going to work their tails off this week.

primetime said:

I think there are a number of posters on this board who miss (and possibly joined the bandwagon during) the days of 2007 and have Manning envy, where they want Brady to throw 40 times a game and complete 30 of them for 5 TDs every single game like the old days. Winning comes after stats. Overly worried about media and Brady's legacy rather than the Patriots actually winning games. I'll admit (and I think we all will) to having those biases at times, as well, so it's certainly something I can empathize with.

I thought the play calling was good today. Short and medium passes to supplement a smashmouth running game where they fed Ridley early and often. If anything, I thought replacing Ridley for Bolden for a drive when he was riding a hot hand was the most questionable offensive call of the day, but you want to keep your thunder RB fresh later in the season I suppose.

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This is actually the formula I have been wanting from the Patriots for many years now. Dominating defense, superb special teams in all phases, and controlled, efficient passing. We all know that Brady can get it done in the 2-minute drill if he needs to. I want them to not need him to throw 50 times a game in order to win. I like him throwing 20-30 times at most. If nothing else, it reduces the number of hits and the wear and tear on his body.

RIpats88 said:

we really couldve used Kenbrell Thompkins over lafell/amendola. He was the only receiver last week outside of edelman/gronk/vereen to show any chemistry with brady(I think he had 4 catches?). Dobson clearly is still rusty and it should take a couple games for him to get in sync and Gronkowski is still being eased back into action

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IDK, the Pats were in their heavy set for most of the game with six linemen. That means they only had two WRs on the field at once. That is why Edelman got so many targets.

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.

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Good post Rob.

I especially liked the Troy Brown comparison to Edelman, who IMO is the best PR man in the NFL... by far.

It seems like the Pats recover from bad plays and penalties better than any team can.

When I was asking the Pats to run more, I didn't mean on 3rd and 8. It was nice to see them sticking with the run game more though.

Patrick Chung still stinks.

I thought I read here from someone that the Vikes STs were going to dominate the game. Woops.

How about those Browns and our old pal Brian Hoyer? Until the Pats were born the Browns were my team.

The biggest turnoff in watching games is the officiating. I actually turned off the Steelers/Ravens game last week because of them.

Steven Ridley makes more out of less than any back the Pats have. Too bad he couldn't be more involved in the passing game.

DeFENSE!... DeFENSE!... DeFENSE!

How about those kids from Rutgers. Gotta love those Scarlet Knights (I think that's what they call themselves).

I wonder if the Jets would take Revis back now.

Gost is longer and more accurate than Adam.

It doesn't appear that the tighter rules on the defenders doesn't apply to them when they cover Gronk.

Rob0729 said:

BTW, I forgot to mention this. We saw why the Pats didn't draft Codarrelle Patterson yesterday. The guy has some freak physical skills, but he is a horrible route runner.

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That was always the skivvy on Patterson. He didn't seem like a good fit with the Pats, no matter how tantalizing his skill set. Besides the obvious attraction of a 4-for-1 trade in a draft where the Pats had only 5 picks to start, I applaud BB for having the discipline to stick with players who were better fits.

Now Keenan Allen, OTOH ...

1960Pats said:

Patrick Chung still stinks.

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I'm no huge Chung fan, but I'm curious what you saw in that game that makes you say this? I didn't really notice Chung at all, which is A-Okay by me for his standards. Chung is a guy who usually makes the tackle and is decent in run support, but you don't want him covering any deep parts of the field. I noticed him on a few tackles and didn't see him get burnt at all (most likely because they kept him from those assignments). I can't think of anyone on the defense today (aside from Skinner) who stunk.

SacPete1 said:

Was very surprised to see Thompkins deactivated. He appears to be the 2nd most trusted WR of Brady's next to Julian.

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If you look at the offensive snaps, they ran very few plays where there were 3 wrs active. I believe KT is only utilized in those formations (he is a sort of intermediate/short route possession receiver), and so BB probably thought that it wasn't worth it to activate him.

Lafell has more situational value than KT (redzone target etc and can be a problem for certain teams to deal with in the slot).

My guess is that the choice between Lafell/KT/Dobson is gameplan specific (pick two) depending on how good our OL is playing, Gronks play, and who the corners are that we matchup with.