Game Thoughts: Thank God We Don't Have to Rehash the Snow Bowl Anymore Edition

scott99 said:

Then that's BB's fault. He knew that was one of this team's weaknesses and didn't address it, in fact he weakened the line by making a trade.

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He drafted o-line in the 2nd and 4th rounds.

fightingirish595 said:

theres just not a lot of talent there, im not so sure its the coaches

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If it's a lack of talent, who do we blame for that?

hwc said:

He drafted o-line in the 2nd and 4th rounds.

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3rd and 5th rounds.

DefenseRules said:

If it's a lack of talent, who do we blame for that?

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belichick the gm, that has nothing to do with coaching,

The chicken littles need to calm down. A win is a win.

hwc said:

He drafted o-line in the 2nd and 4th rounds.

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Great, and maybe in 5 years they'll be ready. This O-line needs help NOW, not guys who won't be ready for years.

scott99 said:

Great, and maybe in 5 years they'll be ready. This O-line needs help NOW, not guys who won't be ready for years.

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Or maybe they will be ready in a few weeks. Flemming has shown some good things and Stork helped to stablize the o-line a bit in the second half today.

Rob0729 said:

Or maybe they will be ready in a few weeks. Flemming has shown some good things and Stork helped to stablize the o-line a bit in the second half today.

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Good points and I agree. I'm not sure why they thought Devey should be the first guy off the bench when Wendell got hurt? He wasn't all that impressive during the preseason. He seemed kind of raw to me. Oh well, it is what it is.

Beating a dead horse but the biggest issue is Solder. We expected growing pains while the interior line was sorted but Solder has been getting his ass handed to him weekly. We drafted this guy to be a franchise LT and he's never looked anything close, well it's his 4th year and I haven't really seen any improvement if anything I've seen regression.

IMO, the only offensive player to deserve a solid grade today is Julian Edelman. I didn't see too many other standout performances. Honestly, I don't know where the Pats go from here on offense. I'm afraid that this is what it looks like when hall of fame QBs reach the fourth quarter of their careers. Still flashes of brilliance, but week in and week out, the o-line, the receivers, and the running backs are never good enough any more. Just not enough talent around them.

Jordan Devey does not belong in the NFL.

As for Nate Solder, talk about regression.

Brady_to_Moss said:

Stuck in parking lot.

Good: jones, Chung played well. And i liked Hightower today. D came up big when it needed it. Was huge

Badline. Needs to change. Dobson? Is he hurt? Idk. And revis...we expect him to give up nothing so when he does..we all call for his head. Not deep passes getting beat on

A W is a W so i will take it.

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Chung has magically looked good in coverage.

hwc said:

IMO, the only offensive player to deserve a solid grade today is Julian Edelman. I didn't see too many other standout performances. Honestly, I don't know where the Pats go from here on offense. I'm afraid that this is what it looks like when hall of fame QBs reach the fourth quarter of their careers. Still flashes of brilliance, but week in and week out, the o-line, the receivers, and the running backs are never good enough any more. Just not enough talent around them.

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Are you being facetious? Or sarcastic?

ThatllMoveTheChains!!! said:

Chung has magically looked good in coverage.

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I forgot to mention him. I have been one of the lone voices who felt Chung would be good this year in limited play. He has played far more than I expected he would and he hasn't been bad. A few blown coverage, but he has been mostly solid.

Devey starting is really puzzling...what DOES he do well? He's like a bigger Wendell without the run blocking ability.

Solder seemed to be on a different offensive page from the play call a lot...and by a lot, I mean at least five times that I charted. Is it Solder or the coaching?

Arialgg said:

Are you being facetious? Or sarcastic?

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Neither, unfortunately. This is what it looked like in Miami at the end of Marino's career. It's what it looked like at the end of Favre's career. Heck, it's even what it looked like at the end of Bledsoe's career.

He's taking a beating in the pocket, so it's certainly not all on Tom Brady, but he's not making a lot of plays. He's not making anyone around him better right now. I actually don't think he'll last the season with the beating he's been taking.

hwc said:

Neither, unfortunately. This is what it looked like in Miami at the end of Marino's career. It's what it looked like at the end of Favre's career. Heck, it's even what it looked like at the end of Bledsoe's career.

He's taking a beating in the pocket, so it's certainly not all on Tom Brady, but he's not making a lot of plays. He's not making anyone around him better right now. I actually don't think he'll last the season with the beating he's been taking.

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See that is where you look foolish. This is nothing like the end of Marino's career. Marino was a big arm Qb who lost his big arm at the end of his career. That is why his offenses looked like crap.

Also, Favre had a career year his second to last year of his career.

BTW, Brady did complete 64.8 % o his passes today. It isn't as bad as you make it.

scott99 said:

We are VERY lucky to be 2-1. Championship teams need to be lucky too, but we are depending on luck more than talent to even get to the playoffs. I really don't see a playoff team here.

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I get the criticisms against the team overall, but don't see how you can arrive at this conclusion. IMO we outplyed them by at least the seven point difference. Squandered opportunites inside the 5, one was partially due to a bad snap on third and goal, huge break for Oakland. I'd say Oakland was slightly luckier today. Two and One seems about right at this point.

Overall the biggest worry obviously has to be the OL and not just the interior. Although I expect improvement from Gronk/Vereen/Dobson actually playing, we'll go nowhere if we don't improve and stay consistent there. Stork is going to be a huge key as the season wears on because Devey and Wendell should be nothing more than emergency backups.

hwc said:

It would take quite the psychic to see signs of this offense putting things together. That was a dreadful performance at home against the worst team in the NFL.

It also -- I might add for the benefit of everyone calling me names last week -- was EXACTLY the same offensive production as the Minnesota game, minus the turnovers and blocked FG.

It is what it is. Right now, the new England Patriots offense is a 1 TD, 3 FG per game squad.

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The offense is definitely having some growing pains, but they were a curious series of playcalling from 1st and goal inside the 3 and settle for a FG and a Gronk drop from having 8 extra points.

It would have been 3 TDs and one FG had a few things changed.

IMHO the biggest issues are the o-line play and penalties.

Rob0729 said:

See that is where you look foolish. This is nothing like the end of Marino's career. Marino was a big arm Qb who lost his big arm at the end of his career. That is why his offenses looked like crap.

Also, Favre had a career year his second to last year of his career.

BTW, Brady did complete 64.8 % o his passes today. It isn't as bad as you make it.

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That 64.8% also includes a throwaway incompletion to end the game. He easily could have ended 24 for 36 which is brings him up to 66.7%