The few bad decisions

Fencer · Jan 19, 2015

The Patriots didn't make many bad decisions in their shellacking of the Colts, but we can still talk about the few exceptions. My thoughts start:

1. Brady very rarely runs in the open field. So we shouldn't be surprised that he slightly misjudged the first down marker and slid just short of it.

2. Hypersquirrel is enthusiastic and mobile. Ball security isn't as top-of-mind for him as we might perhaps wish. Fortunately, he's lucky in terms of retaining or regaining the ball, or else makes his own luck in that regard.

3. Brady sometimes forces the ball to Gronk and relies on him to make plays. Gronk is a great, great receiver, but he doesn't have Randy Moss adaptability to the flight of the ball, and anyhow he tends to be in patterns where a mis-thrown ball can easily turn into an INT.

4. An attempted bomb by the franchise QB late in the fourth quarter with a huge lead -- why??

PatriotSeven · Jan 19, 2015

Fencer said:
The Patriots didn't make many bad decisions in their shellacking of the Colts, but we can still talk about the few exceptions. My thoughts start:

1. Brady very rarely runs in the open field. So we shouldn't be surprised that he slightly misjudged the first down marker and slid just short of it.

2. Hypersquirrel is enthusiastic and mobile. Ball security isn't as top-of-mind for him as we might perhaps wish. Fortunately, he's lucky in terms of retaining or regaining the ball, or else makes his own luck in that regard.

3. Brady sometimes forces the ball to Gronk and relies on him to make plays. Gronk is a great, great receiver, but he doesn't have Randy Moss adaptability to the flight of the ball, and anyhow he tends to be in patterns where a mis-thrown ball can easily turn into an INT.

4. An attempted bomb by the franchise QB late in the fourth quarter with a huge lead -- why??

On point 1, he didn't misjudge, he protected himself from getting clobbered.

Fencer · Jan 19, 2015

PatriotSeven said:
On point 1, he didn't misjudge, he protected himself from getting clobbered.

If he'd known how close he was to the line, he would surely have found a way to cross it, perhaps by some kind of dive/roll.

meatface · Jan 19, 2015

these are some very trivial points

PatriotSeven · Jan 19, 2015

Fencer said:
If he'd known how close he was to the line, he would surely have found a way to cross it, perhaps by some kind of dive/roll.

No he seemed to me to be pretty ok with not getting there and just went down. He made the right decision too. He hardly slid, was more of dive down to the ground. I don't want Tom trying to burst through 2 defenders, and play like Blount or other stupid quarterbacks who have done that only to get hurt. The only time I would be ok with something like that is if the game was truly on the line, and at that point, it was hardly on the line.

patsfan-1982 · Jan 19, 2015

brady has been great two weeks in a row but if I have to nitpick that is twice he has thrown the ball on a line for INT's when he has a 6.6 TE who can jump out of the stadium if he throws them high they are TD's and not INT's but like I said I am nitpicking

Fencer · Jan 19, 2015

patsfan-1982 said:
brady has been great two weeks in a row but if I have to nitpick that is twice he has thrown the ball on a line for INT's when he has a 6.6 TE who can jump out of the stadium if he throws them high they are TD's and not INT's but like I said I am nitpicking

The whole purpose of this thread is to pick nits.

Mark12 · Jan 19, 2015

patsfan-1982 said:
brady has been great two weeks in a row but if I have to nitpick that is twice he has thrown the ball on a line for INT's when he has a 6.6 TE who can jump out of the stadium if he throws them high they are TD's and not INT's but like I said I am nitpicking

Also, how many drops have we had in the two games? Aside from those horrible INTs, Brady has been almost flawless. If he plays this well in the SB and wins MVP, this will, undoubtedly, cement his legacy as the GOAT.

IllegalContact · Jan 19, 2015

#3 it was a bad throw......the decision to make the throw was ok

Clonamery · Jan 19, 2015

Fencer said:
The whole purpose of this thread is to pick nits.

You win.

Oswlek · Jan 19, 2015

Underthrow of Edelman on what should have an easy TD. Also threw short on Vereen's terrific catch.

Tom is going to have to take better care of the ball in two weeks. No more giving away free points and taking points off the board. This one was particularly egregious because NE pretty much had the game won already if they went up three scores and Gronk was never open. There was no need to try and squeeze that thing in there, just dump it down to the RB for the 3 yards and play another down.

DarrylS · Jan 19, 2015

Is this Felger "foreplay"..

stinkypete · Jan 19, 2015

Mark12 said:
Also, how many drops have we had in the two games? Aside from those horrible INTs, Brady has been almost flawless. If he plays this well in the SB and wins MVP, this will, undoubtedly, cement his legacy as the GOAT.

Agreed. It is worth noting that this is the first time Brady has put together 2 consecutive big games in the playoffs since 2006. It gives me a much better feeling than 2007 or 2011 where Brady followed a monster divisional round game with a meh performance in the AFCC.

The point of Brady forcing throws to Gronk is a valid one. This is the second consecutive game that Brady has left points on the field late in the 1st half after forcing one to Gronk. You can't do this against Seattle, and I expect Belichick will show these plays repeatedly during meetings.

TBR · Jan 19, 2015

That forced pass to Gronk has gotta go. Off the top of my head, I can think of 5 INTs that were forced to Gronk this year.

Last night vs Colts
vs Ravens before the half
vs Chargers before the half
vs Colts before the half (week 11)
vs Lions

makoute · Jan 19, 2015

TBR said:
That forced pass to Gronk has gotta go. Off the top of my head, I can think of 5 INTs that were forced to Gronk this year.

Last night vs Colts
vs Ravens before the half
vs Chargers before the half
vs Colts before the half (week 11)
vs Lions

There were two against the colts back in week 11.

TBR · Jan 19, 2015

makoute said:
There were two against the colts back in week 11.

I know but just 1 was forced to Gronk. The other was a long bomb to Tyms.

"It was basically a punt" like the media says for Luck.

PatsDeb · Jan 19, 2015

IllegalContact said:
#3 it was a bad throw......the decision to make the throw was ok

Disagree. Gronk was double-covered and Brady was forcing it. He should have looked elsewhere or thrown it away. He cost us at least 3 points there and the Colts took it the other way for their only score of the game. At the time it was a momentum changer, but luckily it did not matter and Brady more than redeemed himself. He seems to have one of these bad throws per game lately, all when targeting Gronk. He needs to be patient in getting him involved in the game and wait until he is open or at least single-covered. He's got to correct this for the Super Bowl where I suspect points will be at a premium.

IllegalContact · Jan 19, 2015

my nits to pick are:

- even though the call was questionable, wilfork did not have draw the unnecessary roughness call
- the manner in which they handled the drive at the end of the half left something to be desired
- calling that pass toward the end of the game that got brady leveled was pretty high on stupidity

that's it for me........the pats executed and that's all they had to do in this game

Tunescribe · Jan 19, 2015

Fencer said:
The Patriots didn't make many bad decisions in their shellacking of the Colts, but we can still talk about the few exceptions.

Whatever makes you "happy."

brdmaverick · Jan 19, 2015

Oswlek said:
Underthrow of Edelman on what should have an easy TD. Also threw short on Vereen's terrific catch.

That's a great point, we ended up scoring on that drive so this play will be overlooked. You are right though, that was terribly underthrown. Hopefully we can chalk that up the weather, but the weather didn't really seem to effect any of his other throws.

The few bad decisions

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