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I am kicking myself in the ass this afternoon because I was gong to do a pre-gasme thread in which I was going to predict the Pats would score more than 30, improve their run defense by half and win this game by more than 2 TD's. Now if I hadn't been so lazy, I could be patting myself on the back for the rest of the day.....and well into tomorrow. ; ) OK! Here we go.
1. The the biggest key to this game was the OL. For the fourth game in a row the OL has incrementally improved. And in this game the first OL not only didn't allow a sack, they didn't allow a hit, and I would be willing to guess the number of "hurries" could be counted on one hand.
It' might be no coincidence that this is the first week in the past month that they haven't faced one of the better DL's in the league, but the most important thing is that they are improving and can only get better. It also didn't hurt that the RB's averaged 4.5ypc today. Nice Job, Googs.
2. Brady was simply OUTSTANDING. I swear to god when he broke out of the pocket to extend that Pass play to Gronk on the GL, it was as fast as I've ever seen him run
He now has 14 TD's and no picks in the last 4 games. And he's making a LOT of talking heads look very, very, VERY foolish. Hard to believe his amazing 85% completion rate would have been that much better if he hadn't been the victim of 3 bad drops. Even more incredible was his 12 yd/completion number. It's fair to say, therat the dink and dunk era is officailly over. (though we migh see a return next week)
3. I got all bent out of shape this morning railing at those calling for us to trade Vincent Jackson, or anyone else looking for a WR to add to this group. We are averaging over FORTY points per game over the last month. Adding Jerry Rice himself, wouldn't improve on that number by much. I have never understood why some fans think that #1 WR's will solve ALL of a team's problems. Right now the Pats have more "good" WR's than they need. Adding some 31 year old, high priced WR who has never worked in a system anything close to the one they run here makes no sense at all......but still the call continues.
4. Brandon LaFell has far exceeded my expectations. Orignally I hoped he'd be an adequate 3rd option with some size in the red zone. Instead he's turned into Brandon La Beast over the last 3 games. He's NOT an elite WR's, but the 2 elite WR's who WERE on the field today didn't match his production COMBINED.
5. The front 7 did a much better job defending the run this week cutting the rush yardage by close to half. It still wasn't great, but consider this. When the Pats lost Kelly, Wilfolk, and Mayo last season it took SEVERAL games before the run defense solidified. BTW- it solidified enough that in last season's playoffs they ended up being tied for first in run D (88ypg) I expect it will continue to improve.
6. It wasn't consistent pressure but 4 sacks is a good number. Better than the 2 I would have been OK with.
7. It looked like Patricia was very creative in designing some rush and pass blitzes. He's going to have to continue doing so over the next few weeks since the Pats are so bereft of great individual pass rushers. Now instead of a couple of guys with grea individual sack totals, it will be more a "sack by committee approach.he ru
Again its important to look at history. In every year from 2001 - 2007 the Pats were among the leaders in team sacks, YET, it wasn't until 2007 did they manage to have a single individual have double digit sacks (Vrabel 12). While its great to have great individual pass rushers, you don't NEED them. The athletes we have have are good enough to create the pressure we need by scheme rather than individual skill.
Like I said, Im not saying I wouldn't like Ware and Miller on my team, but like we saw today, you can create pressure through good scheming. Its not ideal, but it can be done.
8. Dom Easley looked better today. He had a half sack and several pressures. Moore also got some extended play and had a forced fumble as well as as a half sack. I like this kid the way I liked Buchanon. He can give you a speed rush, but can be a liability against the run. He really needs a year in an NFL weight room, but the snaps he's getting because of Jones' injury will be invaluable down the road.
9. Browner improved, but he's not there yet. I expect better from him as the year goes on. You can see he CAN be effective against big WR's a Clearly it would be a mistake to have him on any so called quick slot types. It should be big guys like Jefferies, or TE's
BTW - does anyone agree that Browner's PI looked a lot less egregious on the replay than it did live. And do any of you agree that on the illegal contact call that cost McCourty his pick, if Revis had made similar contact it wouldn't have been called. I really hope they let both sides play next week.
10. Real nice job ST's groups today. It shouldn't go unnoticed. Nice job, OB
11. Jimmy G looked decent in his brief 3 for 3 stint (I didn't see the sack but it wasn't against the first OL) He continues to develop, but I would caution anyone who thinks that he's even close to being ready to run an NFL offense. Brady wasn't ready his first year, coming from one of the top college programs in the country and running a pro-style offense; E. Illinois isn't even close That being said be just might be the best back up BB ever drafted even if I don't want to have to have him win a game this year.
12. JGray wasn't perfect, but as good as we could have expected. When he picked his hole and committed he was very effective. When he hesitated like he did on the GL, he wasn't. SO ulitimately it was a great first game for Jonas, great production, but a number of teachable moments. Some one should tell him he's not Shane Vareeen He does't have the quickness to patiently wait for holes to appear.
13. Saying Gronk was superb is a kin to having a keen sense of the obvious. But what impressed me the most about Gronk today was his massive blocking skills in the running game. Gronk was excellent driving players off the OL and turning them creating some huge holes. Its NOT just Gronk's receiving skills that make him the most impactful offense player who isn't a QB, its the fact that he could be the best blocking TE as well. Now that THIS area of his game is starting to come around, his impact will really come into play ever more.
14. It should be noted that a lot of the Bears' offensive production came after the game was in true garbage time.
15. One of the things I was going to write about in my pregame thread, was it was my belief that regardless of how the game turned out, win or lose, the Mediots and talking heads will never think its enough. They will ***** and moan that we gave up too many yards or didn't score enough or....something. Well I could be wrong on this one, but I don't think so. But if they are going to whine, they are going to have to be pretty creative about it.
OK let the discussion begin
1. The the biggest key to this game was the OL. For the fourth game in a row the OL has incrementally improved. And in this game the first OL not only didn't allow a sack, they didn't allow a hit, and I would be willing to guess the number of "hurries" could be counted on one hand.
It' might be no coincidence that this is the first week in the past month that they haven't faced one of the better DL's in the league, but the most important thing is that they are improving and can only get better. It also didn't hurt that the RB's averaged 4.5ypc today. Nice Job, Googs.
2. Brady was simply OUTSTANDING. I swear to god when he broke out of the pocket to extend that Pass play to Gronk on the GL, it was as fast as I've ever seen him run
He now has 14 TD's and no picks in the last 4 games. And he's making a LOT of talking heads look very, very, VERY foolish. Hard to believe his amazing 85% completion rate would have been that much better if he hadn't been the victim of 3 bad drops. Even more incredible was his 12 yd/completion number. It's fair to say, therat the dink and dunk era is officailly over. (though we migh see a return next week)3. I got all bent out of shape this morning railing at those calling for us to trade Vincent Jackson, or anyone else looking for a WR to add to this group. We are averaging over FORTY points per game over the last month. Adding Jerry Rice himself, wouldn't improve on that number by much. I have never understood why some fans think that #1 WR's will solve ALL of a team's problems. Right now the Pats have more "good" WR's than they need. Adding some 31 year old, high priced WR who has never worked in a system anything close to the one they run here makes no sense at all......but still the call continues.
4. Brandon LaFell has far exceeded my expectations. Orignally I hoped he'd be an adequate 3rd option with some size in the red zone. Instead he's turned into Brandon La Beast over the last 3 games. He's NOT an elite WR's, but the 2 elite WR's who WERE on the field today didn't match his production COMBINED.
5. The front 7 did a much better job defending the run this week cutting the rush yardage by close to half. It still wasn't great, but consider this. When the Pats lost Kelly, Wilfolk, and Mayo last season it took SEVERAL games before the run defense solidified. BTW- it solidified enough that in last season's playoffs they ended up being tied for first in run D (88ypg) I expect it will continue to improve.
6. It wasn't consistent pressure but 4 sacks is a good number. Better than the 2 I would have been OK with.
7. It looked like Patricia was very creative in designing some rush and pass blitzes. He's going to have to continue doing so over the next few weeks since the Pats are so bereft of great individual pass rushers. Now instead of a couple of guys with grea individual sack totals, it will be more a "sack by committee approach.he ru
Again its important to look at history. In every year from 2001 - 2007 the Pats were among the leaders in team sacks, YET, it wasn't until 2007 did they manage to have a single individual have double digit sacks (Vrabel 12). While its great to have great individual pass rushers, you don't NEED them. The athletes we have have are good enough to create the pressure we need by scheme rather than individual skill.
Like I said, Im not saying I wouldn't like Ware and Miller on my team, but like we saw today, you can create pressure through good scheming. Its not ideal, but it can be done.
8. Dom Easley looked better today. He had a half sack and several pressures. Moore also got some extended play and had a forced fumble as well as as a half sack. I like this kid the way I liked Buchanon. He can give you a speed rush, but can be a liability against the run. He really needs a year in an NFL weight room, but the snaps he's getting because of Jones' injury will be invaluable down the road.
9. Browner improved, but he's not there yet. I expect better from him as the year goes on. You can see he CAN be effective against big WR's a Clearly it would be a mistake to have him on any so called quick slot types. It should be big guys like Jefferies, or TE's
BTW - does anyone agree that Browner's PI looked a lot less egregious on the replay than it did live. And do any of you agree that on the illegal contact call that cost McCourty his pick, if Revis had made similar contact it wouldn't have been called. I really hope they let both sides play next week.
10. Real nice job ST's groups today. It shouldn't go unnoticed. Nice job, OB
11. Jimmy G looked decent in his brief 3 for 3 stint (I didn't see the sack but it wasn't against the first OL) He continues to develop, but I would caution anyone who thinks that he's even close to being ready to run an NFL offense. Brady wasn't ready his first year, coming from one of the top college programs in the country and running a pro-style offense; E. Illinois isn't even close That being said be just might be the best back up BB ever drafted even if I don't want to have to have him win a game this year.
12. JGray wasn't perfect, but as good as we could have expected. When he picked his hole and committed he was very effective. When he hesitated like he did on the GL, he wasn't. SO ulitimately it was a great first game for Jonas, great production, but a number of teachable moments. Some one should tell him he's not Shane Vareeen
He does't have the quickness to patiently wait for holes to appear.13. Saying Gronk was superb is a kin to having a keen sense of the obvious. But what impressed me the most about Gronk today was his massive blocking skills in the running game. Gronk was excellent driving players off the OL and turning them creating some huge holes. Its NOT just Gronk's receiving skills that make him the most impactful offense player who isn't a QB, its the fact that he could be the best blocking TE as well. Now that THIS area of his game is starting to come around, his impact will really come into play ever more.
14. It should be noted that a lot of the Bears' offensive production came after the game was in true garbage time.
15. One of the things I was going to write about in my pregame thread, was it was my belief that regardless of how the game turned out, win or lose, the Mediots and talking heads will never think its enough. They will ***** and moan that we gave up too many yards or didn't score enough or....something. Well I could be wrong on this one, but I don't think so. But if they are going to whine, they are going to have to be pretty creative about it.
OK let the discussion begin
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