OFFICIAL POST-GAME THREAD - PATS v. Ravens

Watching some highlights this morning: On the Edelman pass ... he did a great job of ever so slightly stepping forward as if starting a run upfield. Just enough. Dude is definitely the carrier of the "Troy Brown: Football Player" torch.

Brit patriot said:

I agree to an extent, but when you have someone calling Hightower a 'bum' then you know some people would be more rational when Judgement day comes!

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Trying to make sense of vented frustration is a complete waste of time.

It surely looked the part at the moment.

IllegalContact said:

Trying to make sense of vented frustration is a complete waste of time.

It surely looked the part at the moment.

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Oh, i was having a nervous breakdown at 14-0 and I was finished at 28-14! I am glad BB has created a team that has a stronger mind than me!

Brit patriot said:

Oh, i was having a nervous breakdown at 14-0 and I was finished at 28-14! I am glad BB has created a team that has a stronger mind than me!

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If you are indeed British, you'd think you'd have a stronger sporting constitution given how **** most of your national sides are.

Does anyone else agree with some of us that the terrible Brady pick early in the third when we were tied at 14 was because we had stopped running and the Ravens were playing pass all the way. That's why their middle linebacker, I think called a Mike, dropped back so fast in the center of the field. Does anyone else agree with us that running the ball should be figured more prominently next week?

IllegalContact said:

At the moment those posts were made, they made sense.....the reason for frustration was obvious...... Beats the hell out of expertise based on 20/20 hindsight

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Playing poorly or not you can still believe in this team, they have earned it. There are far too many frontrunners in this fanbase and that's where almost all of the crying comes from. And it wasn't illogical fanboy thinking, I was still thinking they would win when they went down 14 for the second time because the Ravens were showing no ability to slow down Brady and the Patriots defense has can great track record late in games. It was scary, no doubt, but this team has excellent character and they dont quit.

Big props to those at the game, they really hung in there and backed them to the hilt, those online, not so much.

The reason I like this team to win it all is that is has something magical, good team chemistry. It must be why we have all these Rutgers guys!

State said:

Does anyone else agree with some of us that the terrible Brady pick early in the third when we were tied at 14 was because we had stopped running and the Ravens were playing pass all the way. That's why their middle linebacker, I think called a Mike, dropped back so fast in the center of the field. Does anyone else agree with us that running the ball should be figured more prominently next week?

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No I don't agree. The decision was sound, Gronk got behind zone, that's a textbook brady decision against the Tampa 2. It was just a flat throw. Simple.

The game plan was to spread them out. That was a sound decision. They will almost assuredly run more. The Colts is a no brainer. The gameplan could be similar against the Broncos as they have an elite Run D. I wish they had run Blount/Vereen out of the gun a little more tho.

Facts that may only interest me;

1) Come next Sunday Tom Brady will have played in more conference championship games AFTER turning thirty years old (5) than before he was thirty (4).

2) If the Pats score 23 points or more, they are 13-0 in the playoffs (BB era). If they score less than 23 points, they are 5-7 with four of those victories coming 01-04…. It seems obvious that if you score more points, you win but 23 seems to be the magic number in recent years….

3) In the Belichick/Brady era, the Patriots have won 9 playoff games by a touchdown or less. Six of those were from 01-04 and since then there are three, the game in SD were Troy Brown stripped the potential game clinching interception, the Ravens game where the kicker missed the game tier and yesterday. Hopefully we are getting back to the 01-04 mentality…

4) The Pats had 29 first downs yesterday, second most in playoff history (behind 31 vs Tebow’s Broncos and tied w SB 38 vs. Carolina.

5) In 12 years of playoffs, Brady has had only two “one and done” years meaning 83.3% of the time, they win their first game…. A certain Nationwide-endorsing Chicken Parm eating QB has had 8 out of 13 “one and dones”. Food for thought as you watch today and 5/8 losses were at home.

6) The 408 passing yards were the most in Pats playoff history.. In 23 playoff games, the Ravens had never given up more than 320 passing yards (Pats 2012 playoffs) until they gave up the 408 passing yards yesterday.

7)The Ravens have caused a turnover in ALL 23 playoff games and multiple ones in 17 of those games. They are 2-4 in the one turnover games, 13-4 in multiple turnovers caused games. In contrast, the Pats have caused turnovers in 22/27 games in the Belichick /Brady era and they are 13-1 in multiple turnovers caused games.

8) In the 9 games from 2001-2004, the Pats defense caused 25 turnovers . In the 6 games from 2010-12, they only caused 3 turnovers. The good news, in the last three playoff games, the Pats have caused 6 turnovers (4 vs Indy and 2 yesterday)

9) Believe it or not yesterday wasn’t the Pats worst rushing performance in a playoff game. In the debacle that was SB 20 vs the Bears, they rushed for 7 yards…I actually thought it was less…

West Philly Patriot said:

No I don't agree. The decision was sound, Gronk got behind zone, that's a textbook brady decision against the Tampa 2. It was just a flat throw. Simple.

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Agree completely. If Brady hits Gronk in stride that's a TD. Brady wasn't just pissed he cost them 7 and big time momentum, he was pissed he missed a golden opportunity as well. But that's why he's the GOAT, he brought them all the way back plus a little more. The throw to LaFell was a thing of beauty.

The Ravens came in with the #6 defense in points allowed (18.9 per game) and the #8 defense in yards allowed (337 per game).

The Patriots, despite no running game at all, scored 35 points (16.1 more than the Ravens allow on average) and had 422 yards of offense (85 more than the Ravens allow on average).

In other words, a VERY impressive performance by the Patriots' offense yesterday against a very, very good defense.

Patsfanin Philly said:

Facts that may only interest me;

1) Come next Sunday Tom Brady will have played in more conference championship games AFTER turning thirty years old (5) than before he was thirty (4). ...

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Nice AFFCG for Brady in 13 years (I'm excluding '08). Just amazing.

West Philly Patriot said:

No I don't agree. The decision was sound, Gronk got behind zone, that's a textbook brady decision against the Tampa 2. It was just a flat throw. Simple.

The game plan was to spread them out. That was a sound decision. They will almost assuredly run more. The Colts is a no brainer. The gameplan could be similar against the Broncos as they have an elite Run D. I wish they had run Blount/Vereen out of the gun a little more tho.

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I was thinking at the time, since it was something like first and 15 after a penalty, not to get greedy and run the ball. Our tendency when in the hole is to have Gronk bail us out, something the Ravens were obviously ready for.

A simple draw play in a play like that where the linebacker has promptly vacated his spot will get seven or more yards if the guy gets beyond the line of scrimmage. I think Tampa 2 was big in the 90s with smaller, fast LBers. Run at em when they expect us to pass.

That's why going to other guys like Hooman and Amendola was so brilliant on McDaniels's part. We just have too many weapons, as I said in the game thread when we were 14 points down.

I jacked to see my man Tim Wright to have a big game next week.

State said:

Does anyone else agree with some of us that the terrible Brady pick early in the third when we were tied at 14 was because we had stopped running and the Ravens were playing pass all the way. That's why their middle linebacker, I think called a Mike, dropped back so fast in the center of the field. Does anyone else agree with us that running the ball should be figured more prominently next week?

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the pick brady threw was not needed. He tried going for it all . Amendola was wide open 5-10 yards down the middle and would at least made a 5-10 yard gain after the catch

State said:

The reason I like this team to win it all is that is has something magical, good team chemistry. It must be why we have all these Rutgers guys!

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I have to agree with this. Generally speaking championship teams tend to have a defining moment, and IMO yesterday's game was one of those. They became the first team m in playoff history to overcome two 14 point deficits in one game. That takes balls and character. Nothing will be too daunting for them from here on out, and no deficit will be to much to overcome, that's a quality you really want at this point in the season.

how about some love for the hooman??? just shows how deadly the two tight end sets are...
tim wright isn't a TE, which is why he barely plays

Here are the PFF grades for 3 of the QB's yesterday.

Cam Newton 0.0
Tom Brady -0.4
Joe Flacco -3.2

Why do some people take that site's grades seriously again?

State said:

Does anyone else agree with some of us that the terrible Brady pick early in the third when we were tied at 14 was because we had stopped running and the Ravens were playing pass all the way. That's why their middle linebacker, I think called a Mike, dropped back so fast in the center of the field. Does anyone else agree with us that running the ball should be figured more prominently next week?

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I always think they should run more, but I don't care when they win.

IllegalContact said:

Trying to make sense of vented frustration is a complete waste of time.

It surely looked the part at the moment.

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I hadn't been that frustrated since the non-call on Gronk at the end of the Panthers game two years ago. It really did look last night like the league wanted the Ravens to move on.

I've noticed many of the most natural instincts here (as I did at the end of the game thread, where I jumped in right after the game....)

Game-day instinct: a bunch of blamethrowers, pick your target, don't even notice we won the damn game

In this thread, generally much more intelligent: The instinct to analyze and categorize - about 99% of what can be usefully said about football, and I am not pooh-poohing it. It should be done.

But as an old 50-something guy I've been seeing something intangible this year, which I hope continues through February. It is the only story-line this year to me:

WILL. TO. WIN.

"Mental toughness," etc. This is also a team, not a collection of talent. I see here "individuals stepping up and making big plays." Absolutely true. But everybody has each other's back. NOBODY quits down by 14... EVERYBODY is looking for the opportunity to get that 14 back. Sometimes they're looking too hard, ahem, so we've had flags this year (looking through the lens of this last game, the explanation that suggests itself is "hmmm what if Revis doesn't hold on that called-back interception... is it still an interception?")

I'll add that Healthy Gronk makes a huge difference, and as always, God help us if he goes into the SB less than healthy. Meh. Maybe.

The word from after Week 4 was TRUST... here's a breakdown of TRUST... if you don't have Gronk open one play you'll have Hooman. If you don't have Edelmensch you'll have Amendola (!). And on and on it goes. All the way to "If we have to trust Kline... we'll play faster and cope, and God willing, Kline will rise to the occasion."

This is a complete team, the most complete team for a decade. TRUST is perfect for this team and it allows you to dig out as a team and win as a team. I was proud of TFB and Belichick for setting a couple of minor records... but what were we really seeing from the lessons of 07? It felt a lot like a collection of proud record-setting guys on an FU tour, divorced from the reality that the other guys get paid too... the distractions proved too much, and a team they shouldn't have let get close beat them.

That year you had the feeling that if we fell behind, OMG don't know if we can do it. Not like you ruled it out, mind you. This year the feeling is, oh we're down 2 TDs? We've seen that before.

You remember that commercial with TFB screaming "60 minutes!"? This year he doesn't have to scream that, it's built into this team's DNA. This is a special bunch for that one reason: NO QUIT.

Okay thank you that is my from-the-gut "analysis" which is a repeat of what I've said in all the other threads. Much respect to the stat guys and the breakdown guys... sometimes I've been that guy.

But this year is an intangibles-will-to-win/find-a-way-to-win/no-quit year. That's what's special. A guy WILL step up.... a part of the team WILL shine through when needed. Coaching will succeed by the end (ahem, clock management wasn't superb to say the least at the end, but let's give McD props for the flea flicker, right?)

I have a ton of worries about what could derail this team, but I choose to ignore them for the time being. We're on to the Broncolts. We're on to the Broncolts. We're on to the Broncolts.

Much love to my Patriots brothers and sisters across the board and across the country... this is a morning of unicorns and rainbows and I feel like I'm going to go crap a cupcake.

Two more games - maybe they won't be heart-stoppers like this, hope not. And I sure hope we come out on the right end of those two games, heart-stoppers or not.