Curran:Patriots left peeved and proud after loss

Galeb said:

I have listened to Bedard breakdown several games that I have watched. I have identified his weaknesses and also made note of his strengths. He is one of the few journalists that offers much of any insightful analysis these days. Has there been another analyst who's weekly interviews generate multiple threads giving commentary every week?

As I have said before, Bedard is one of the best in the biz right now, but that is more of an indictment on the current media talking heads and fans than a credit to Bedard himself.

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So it's based on your expertise at evaluating film breakdown? Okay, that's what I was thinking. I'm not judging but let's be clear on what we're using as a measuring stick. You're setting yourself up as someone who can judge the difference between someone who has a true understanding and someone that sounds like they do.

Galeb said:

If Unoriginal (I think that is his name) posted a breakdown that conflicts with my viewpoint, I would take another, hard look at my conclusions. Would love to hear him chime in.

I'm not sure I am in the minority. I've gotten a number of "agrees" in this thread and others when I mentioned that the Pats lost in trenches. Although there were some who have posted about the Pats bad line play in other threads, none have yet posted here.

I agree that game planning had a significant effect on the play of the two lines. That said, the players still have to execute. Brady moved well and got of the ball very quickly and was still consistently pressured. The DL got pushed around, but the Pats LBs were excellent in stopping the run.

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We're on to San Diego.

fnordcircle said:

You're playing a team that is terrible against the run AND scores the most points in the league. Which means that they're often up big on other teams which forces those teams to abandon the run. Which, to me, means they're quite possibly worse against the run that the stats indicate.

And then we went in and went pass heavy. I really feel like if we had committed to the run more we would have won that game going away.

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Actually, it's the opposite. Teams don't run because they need to pass to catch up. Green Bay is likely *better* against the run that the stats indicate.

If they meet the Pack again (in the SB) the gameplans will be different. I think the best way to play Rogers is to have you DE's contain so he can't escape to the sides and send extra pressure up the middle. To many plays Rogers had more then 4 seconds to make a play. On O the Pats needed to establish the run and set up their play action.

TruthSeeker said:

Actually, it's the opposite. Teams don't run because they need to pass to catch up. Green Bay is likely *better* against the run that the stats indicate.

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Perhaps, but even DVOA had them as below average.

It looked to me as if NE expected to have more success and didn't have a top shelf backup plan. Of course, it is always tough to gauge when dealing with so many moving parts, but that was my impression.

TomPatriot said:

It was a good call. The play was there. There was single coverage on Gronk, who has about 5 inches and 5o pounds on that corner. Timing between Gronk and Brady was a bit off and Clinton-Dix jammed 3 times and then covered well. The third jam might have been illegal contact but still good corner play.

They ran the prior two plays and no one else was open on that pass play.

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I know Gronk was the best option on that play, my contention is that that play call was not the best given the circumstances. With that amount of time remaining, I wanted to see them take their time. This isn't results based, I said so at the time. I also was hoping they would do something a little quicker on 3rd down to make it a manageable 4th. Either you're playing for the final drive or you're not.

Chandler Jones is a difference maker. If he's on the field yesterday, the game would have been much different.

Hard to beat a very accurate mobile quarterback when you can't initiate any pressure.

Raymond said:

If you don't know, the Indy game was a bigger game.

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That post about Brady not winning a "big game" puts way too much emphasis on the QB being responsible for the outcome of a particular game. It's a team game, and last night the Patriots played a complete football team on the road. Completeness emphasizes the quality of the head coach and the football operation as a whole. The QB is very important but not sufficient to win a game in the NFL. You could put Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady on the Raiders, Jaguars, Jets or Buccaneers, but they wouldn't beat complete teams nor have winning records.

From what I've seen so far this season, there are four complete teams: Patriots, Packers, Broncos, Seahawks. It's interesting to me that Pete Carroll is a big factor in the completeness of a top ranked NFL franchise. Exiling Percy Harvin to the Jets was a huge step for the Seahawks and Carroll. He's really grown.

The Eagles, Cowboys and Cardinals are close. The Eagles and Cardinals were complete teams until their starting QBs went on IR. The Dallas Cowboys are a pretty complete team from looking at their roster, but their owner's dynamic with the head coach and the football staff make the Cowboys fatally flawed. If Jerry Jones were to go into seclusion someplace and let the football guys do their jobs, the Cowboys would be formidable.

Todd Bradley said:

Hard to beat a very accurate mobile quarterback when you can't initiate any pressure.

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They got lots of pressure. Rodgers was pressured quite a bit of the time that I saw, sacked 3 times (and had a 4th nullified by a Browner penalty), and hit 5 more times. He escaped a number of times when I thought he would go down.

The Pats clearly made a decision to try to contain instead of attacking. Within the context of that gameplay they succeeded in getting pressure about as much as can be realistically expected. I agree Jones would have helped (obviously), and I think they could have been a bit more aggressive with Hightower and Collins pressuring the A gaps, but I think you are overstating things a bit.

goheels22002 said:

From what I've seen so far this season, there are four complete teams: Patriots, Packers, Broncos, Seahawks.

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It certainly looks that way, and those should be the favorites for the conference championships at this point, though we've seen many times in the past that other teams can crash the party.

I am gald brady took this loss tough...he is a true chanpion and wants to win every week

mayoclinic said:

They got lots of pressure. Rodgers was pressured quite a bit of the time that I saw, sacked 3 times (and had a 4th nullified by a Browner penalty), and hit 5 more times. He escaped a number of times when I thought he would go down.

The Pats clearly made a decision to try to contain instead of attacking. Within the context of that gameplay they succeeded in getting pressure about as much as can be realistically expected. I agree Jones would have helped (obviously), and I think they could have been a bit more aggressive with Hightower and Collins pressuring the A gaps, but I think you are overstating things a bit.

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I think that Jones may have been able to stop some of those scrambles for first downs as well. Jones adds a lot of speed to the DL, he could catch Rodgers..the other guys...not so much

AndyJohnson said:

Which are the only 2 that matter.
Any regular season that results in HFA throughout is a perfect regular season, i.e. it is impossible to accomplish more. (Obviously the health going into the postseason matters but thats not a measurable thing)

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Agreed, Johnson. With one more big goal looming...Da Lahmbahdi!

Armen Da Pats Fan said:

Agreed, Johnson. With one more big goal looming...Da Lahmbahdi!

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But first goal. HFA. Then we can go talk SB...maybe

Galeb said:

I would argue that the coverage downfield played more of a factor in forcing Rodgers to run for first downs. The score differential was deflated by GB receivers dropping multiple easy touchdowns.

• GB had 478 yards of total offense vs 320 for NE.
  
• Greenbay had 35:35 TOP vs 22:35 for NE
• GB was 10/17 (58%) on 3rd down vs NE 4/10 (40%)

This was not an evenly matched game. That said, give credit to NE for keeping it as close as they did.

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Why didn't you include any redzone stats?

glm said:

Why didn't you include any redzone stats?

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Because the small sample size was tainted by a couple of dropped, easy TDs.... as has already been discussed.

Here are your stats:
Like 7 8
Dislike 0 53
Agree 4 8
Disagree 0 84
Funny 3 7
Winner 0 8
Useful 0 0

Looks like a dummy alt account to me.

fnordcircle said:

You're playing a team that is terrible against the run AND scores the most points in the league. Which means that they're often up big on other teams which forces those teams to abandon the run. Which, to me, means they're quite possibly worse against the run that the stats indicate.

And then we went in and went pass heavy. I really feel like if we had committed to the run more we would have won that game going away.

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I actually felt during the game that they were so worried Rodgers would put up big numbers quick that they were trying to match point for point rather than stick to a game plan. They should have pounded away but were concerned about getting back to even as quickly as possible. Next time will be different if they meet again, that team can be run on and if Fleming is back we may see quite a bit of the jumbo package.

Galeb said:

Because the small sample size was tainted by a couple of dropped, easy TDs.... as has already been discussed.

Here are your stats:
Like 7 8
Dislike 0 53
Agree 4 8
Disagree 0 84
Funny 3 7
Winner 0 8
Useful 0 0

Looks like a dummy alt account to me.

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Excuses, the Patriots defense executed in the red zone.

And using my stats to seem superior on an internet message board

glm said:

Excuses, the Patriots defense executed in the red zone.

And using my stats to seem superior on an internet message board

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I feel superior to no one. I was simply revealing the true nature of your account.

glm said:

Excuses, the Patriots defense executed in the red zone.

And using my stats to seem superior on an internet message board

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Let's keep those smilies where they belong.....