Amendola

Most likely the lack of pass protection from the line is dictating the ball come out quickly and (sensibly) Gronk and Edelman are his first reads.

Our system schemes so that certain WRs are more likely to get open and Brady knows where to look first but you can't predict the defense so Brady has to go through progressions, look who is open and and read the coverage and hope his we knows where to go from there so he can meet the football. Kenbrell is open on almost every play if you watch, or is in a position to easily separate once ball is thrown. Problem is he doesn't have the rapport and chemistry with him or Dobson yet feel confident they will be where the ball is. All offenses utilise this chemistry more than any offense as opposed as set routes that leave it up to the WR to her separation from his route and only make small adjustments from the designed routes. Whereas patriots use advanced adjustments from the original route and read the same thing ad Brady reads for the best place for the ball to go. Chemistry is more important than raw explosiveness and ball skills. It helps Brady throw the WR open nut he must have a great rapport with Brady. Its the reason a player must learn and know the system and have a very strong rapport with Brady to succeed. Whereas other offenses a new player can step in run some universal routes and have a 200 yard game but it takes all training camp to learn to contribute in patriots offense. Once the chemistry is there it can confuse the defense but when they lack WRs Brady has to adjust for each WR til he learns the offense. Brady doesn't trust younger WRs as much yet

50-yard-line said:

Why would anyone ask you when they can read your 753,000 posts on the subject?

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This right here is such a load of crap in my opinion. There are 8 posters who regularly take issue with what I say about Amendola, so if 8 posters quote my posts and I have the human courtesy to respond to them of course I am going to have the most posts on the subject. Essentially if you breakdown by poster interaction you are just as active on the Amendola subject as I am you just do not have as may posters quote your posts.


I disagree with those articles, because Amendola has done jack **** with the targets he has received, so if he only catches 3 of 6 targets for a measly 16 yards, I do not think he deserves more targets, I would rather Brady throw to Thompkins, Dobson, or Vereen who have done more with their opportunities than Amendola or LaFell.

Bottom line, NO ONE IS DISAGREEING WITH YOU regarding Amendola not living up to his contract expectations. You continue to try to make it personal against him, and that's flat-out annoying as all hell. And even when others point out the obvious - if he's open and not targeted, he's still doing his job; if he's in there on running plays and making his blocks, he's still doing what he's being asked to do - you take it personally.

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First he is not doing what he is asked to do, he was asked to play like a $5.7M WR and be the primary target, that is the role he had when he started here in 2013, and he performed himself out of the starting lineup and lost Brady’s confidence in him. He did that, not the Patriots, not Brady, and not the OL. The blocking thing is such a falsely, he is hardly ever on the field for running plays and with the exception of a screen pass he has never been out in front leading a block. If he was such a great blocker as posters suggest he would be out there for running plays, because they put LaFell out there for running plays with Edelman.


I do not take Amendola personally, I find the Tebow Esq. behavior of his supporters on this board to be annoying, I do not like excuses, and that goes for any player, it just happens that Amendola is the leading receiver of excuses on this board so he gets my attention. If it was another player receiving endless excuses and buck passing I would have the same reaction.

This hasn't got anything to do with JE or even with DA regarding my concerns, or what each player is making (which is the STUPIDEST Boston-media non-stop argument ever for liking or not liking a player). Players get the best contracts they can manage - of course. And management weighs the cost (and the sunk cost) against replacement value. At this point, I have no doubt that DA will be asked to take a pay cut or be cut after this season, unless something dramatically changes.

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I doubt they will even ask him to take a pay cut, they will just cut him and probably Arrington too this offseason, neither have lived up to 50% of their contracts.

I'm more concerned with the bigger implications. Edelman was great in the first half against Miami. They adjusted and he was shut out in the second half. You need more than one WR and a tight end to have the kind of offense that can succeed in the playoffs against good defenses.

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Brady threw most of his passes 15+ yards down the field in the second half, almost all of them in fact, in comeback mode, he was targeting outside receivers downfield, Edelman was not shut down as much as the Patriots were not able to run their offense.

Can you find me one article or clip of a decent analyst/sportscaster claiming that DA isn't getting open?

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Getting open when the defense does not see you as a threat is not surprising, and looking open can be different than actually being open, but most importantly being open and being where Brady expects you to be are 2 very different things.

Coach42 said:

Most likely the lack of pass protection from the line is dictating the ball come out quickly and (sensibly) Gronk and Edelman are his first reads.

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I thought about that, but if that's the reason, why is Brady throwing the ball 40 yards downfield on 3rd and 2?

I do think that the pressure in the Miami game contributed to Belichick's decision to scale back the passing calls and go ground 'n pound.

hwc said:

I thought about that, but if that's the reason, why is Brady throwing the ball 40 yards downfield on 3rd and 2?

I do think that the pressure in the Miami game contributed to Belichick's decision to scale back the passing calls and go ground 'n pound.

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If you air the ball out like he did on the play that you're referring to, the QB doesn't have to sit in the pocket for very long. The ball spends a ton of time in the air.

Good point. And, I guess the silver lining in that play was that the QB didn't get sacked.

I understand the allure of the home run ball, but when a passing offense is struggling as badly as the Pats' is, I would like to see converting a few first downs as a top priority.

There is a fine, sometimes a fine line between WR production. Sometimes its a result of elite physical talent and size like terrell owens randy moss and young chad Johnson, sometimes its mostly the system and qb and rapport with the qb with a little talent mixed in like with Julian edelman. Sometimes its an equal amount of both physical talent and and explosiveness and a great rapport with a threat qb like Marvin harrison had with Peyton manning. Amendola never had great talent. He was supposed to have enough shiftiness and craftiness and a hard worker to build a rapport great rapport with a great qb to produce like Edelman is. However even though he had that great game with Brady, he has lost the trust and rapport with Brady, maybe he has lost Brady's trust and respect through a failure to work hard in the off season and in practice. He came from a bad team. Amendola like Edelman can't cost off natural talent. He needs to work hard in conditioning and practice and work at top flight chemistry with his qb. Just maybe he doesn't care as much after getting played. I'm not saying for sure but for some reason he has lost his QBs trust. There clearly is something going on with his rapport with Tom Brady, he isn't where he should be. Why is it Brady can drop passes in the bucket to Edelman to where he doesn't have to leave his feet yet is off with Amendola.

Neither Amendola or Edelman is the kind of WR you can trade and they can catch 9 passes for 150 yards after a week with the new team and QB. They need that edge of top flight chemistry and rapport with their QB and system. If Amendola is lost within the system and rapport with Brady and or has lost Tom Bradys trust it is on Amendola for not working on his craft and rapport with Brady. The team had full intention of him being the slot and the GU they scheme to help get open and make reads and adjustments on the fly to execute a pass.

So you can, B6, with a snap of your disgruntled fingers, excuse Julian Edelman's disappearing act as "the Patriots were not able to run their offense" but anyone pointing out that perhaps Amendola wasn't targeted in the AFCCG for the same reason, or because of Denver's scheme, or because of Brady throwing to a covered Slater instead (yes, DA was wide open on that play, just over the 1st down marker) is clearly just making excuses. Do you even think about what you type when DA is the subject?

Every one of the people taking you to task over DA has said flat out that he's not worth his contract at this point. Why is that Tebow'esq? it's not, but you need it to be perceived as such to excuse your own behavior.

You don't know what he is being asked to do, nor do you know whether or not he is doing that from play to play.

Step back and consider this quot e of yours: "Getting open when the defense does not see you as a threat is not surprising..."

Seriously? Is this Pop Warner football? A professional defense will just let the Pats second leading receiver from last year, who averaged more YPC than their leading receiver and had the a similar completion rate to their leading receiver from last year run open? Thinking what? That he's just going to drop the damned ball? That' s simply nuts.

"and looking open can be different than actually being open,"

Stealth cornerback? Who knew?

"but most importantly being open and being where Brady expects you to be are 2 very different things."

And that might be that case, but given the Buffalo Game, the Miami game at the end of last year, the AFC Divisional game, and the other games YOU pointed out earlier in the thread, I'm having a hard time figuring out how such a problem came out of nowhere. Nor have I seen Brady freaking out at him over on the bench. You are simply presuming facts not in evidence to support your agenda.

They may well cut Amendola, or Arrington (who had a couple of pretty great tackles the other day, including a beautiful diving one that save a huge gain from Patterson, who had beaten Ryan). Amendola, more likely, in my opinion. I think it a shame and a waste.

As to the rest, my activity...I recall way back in the 80's when I was working for a company that began tracking phone calls. My wife was having some issues at home with the little ones one month and early after the month-end reports came in, my boss called me in to complain that I was getting too many personal calls. I guffawed - then he showed me the log. Oops. It was an intervention.

So for giggles I went through this thread, quickly (admittedly) and did a count. This is my 8th post, probably too many, i agree, although I was trying to respond to NEW information like the breakdowns, and to the wider discussion of what the lack of production outside of two receivers might mean for the Patriots (I think it will be disastrous if it holds, for whatever reason it's happening). At the risk of appealing to authority (and I admit, it's a pretty crappy authority), I'll note that Boston writers covering the Pats have been making a note of Amendola being open and not getting the ball since Volin remarked that Brady clearly didn't trust DA in the AFCCG last year. I thought Volin way off base, considering the week before when Amendola had played a large role in Colts game, but now more are chiming in with equal incredulity - something doesn't seem right here, whether it's scheme, progression, lack of time, missed routes, whatever. And it's not just with DA...it's with every receiver not named Edelman or Gronkowski. No one else has gotten into the flow of the offense at all. Even Brady is remarking that it's a problem - again, for whatever reason.

So I've got 8 posts...you've got 52, and that's if I didn't miss any in a page-to-page scroll. 52 - that's like one out of every 5.5 posts. And almost, if not, all take the same horse and beat it again. Call it "human courtesy" if you want, but to me it looks like a rather unhealthy obsession.

And for the record, I am quite often guilty of sticking up for athletes, unless the issue is one of attitude/effort.

If someone can point me to the posts that are pimping Amendola I would love to see them.

Danny Amendola or ......

Brandon Tate
Taylor Price
Jeremy Ebert
Joyce Boyce
Jeremy Gallon

Ivan said:

If someone can point me to the posts that are pimping Amendola I would love to see them.

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Go down the hall. Take a left. Take a right right after the restrooms. 3rd door on your left.

Patriot Missile said:

Go down the hall. Take a left. Take a right right after the restrooms. 3rd door on your left.

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In that case i will pass..........

No team would ever let a WR run free, however, everybody knows some WRs get less attention than others do. Making it easier to get open.

Coach42 said:

Most likely the lack of pass protection from the line is dictating the ball come out quickly and (sensibly) Gronk and Edelman are his first reads.

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Yeah, I mentioned that as a reason why the passing game has relied so heavily on Gronk and Edelman so far. And I think that, at the very least, it's certainly the biggest reason for it. Other reasons could be a lack of trust or just the way Brady goes through his progressions on any given play.

As long as Minitron remains healthy, then ToughGlass becomes an over-paid redundancy. He will need
to agree this offseason to a massive pay cut or just get cut and be replaced by a WR with the size &
speed to keep Safeties honest & away from the inside greatness of Gronk & Edelman.

PatsFan2 said:

Exactly, any Team with the assemblance of a good Defense just have to Double both and let the no-names beat you.

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Let me get this straight. Brady is throwing to Edelman and Gronk when they are open. You want him to throw to other receivers. So you conclude the way to beat the Patriots is to double those 2, so they are covered and therefore force Brady to throw to other receivers who are open because Edleman and Gronk are being double teamed?
Do you see how illogical this is?

Seems pretty logical to me. It's Belichick's style on defense: take away what the other team likes to do. In Sunday's game, I saw at least two occasions where Brady tried to jam the ball into heavy coverage to Gronk or Edelman, while other receivers were single-covered.

AndyJohnson said:

Let me get this straight. Brady is throwing to Edelman and Gronk when they are open. You want him to throw to other receivers. So you conclude the way to beat the Patriots is to double those 2, so they are covered and therefore force Brady to throw to other receivers who are open because Edleman and Gronk are being double teamed?
Do you see how illogical this is?

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Hmmm.

What is the first job of a defensive game plan? Is it not often to take ONE top threat out of the game, and limit the opportunities of the opposing offense?

mgteich said:

Hmmm.

What is the first job of a defensive game plan? Is it not often to take ONE top threat out of the game, and limit the opportunities of the opposing offense?

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My point was that his argument was that Brady should do it for them.
If they best way to beat the patriots is to make Brady throw to other receivers why would you criticize Brady for NOT throwing to other receivers?
The logic is screwed. That was my point.

AndyJohnson said:

My point was that his argument was that Brady should do it for them.
If they best way to beat the patriots is to make Brady throw to other receivers why would you criticize Brady for NOT throwing to other receivers?
The logic is screwed. That was my point.

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I get it now.