It's 1am, I missed most of the game & I need answers. Where are the summaries.

I missed most of the game at a poker tournament, and what I saw gave me only impressions. I had hoped that when I finally got home, I read some game summaries and catch up. No such luck, so here are my questions. Hopefully some of you will answer them for me.

1. I got the impression that the the DL and front 7 was particularly effective against the run. The 3 & 1, followed by the 4th and 1 stops were particularly gratifying. However I don't know the reason for the success. Who worked with the starting DL. Were the Pats blitzing

2. I also got the impression that the DL was generating some good push, but again I don't know who and I don't know why

3. I particularly want to know about Dominic Easley and Malcolm Brown. How did they play. Have they let loose Easley yet to make any explosive plays. BTW- I thought I saw Jones in the middle on one play.

4. The secondary also looked like they were making a lot of plays on pass plays. Who was out there and how did they look. Were they going with 3 safeties a lot, or with 3 CB's in the nickle? Right now I'm feeling pretty good about that questionable secondary. They looked very competitive, even on some of the completions.

5. How was the coverage overall on ST's. I happened to catch the first drive before I left, and the coverage was poor on that punt. Did it improve over the course of the game?

6. It looked like Brady had time in the pass game most of the time, even though he had to step up a lot. He seemed to have had time to throw the ball. Is this correct?

7. The running game seems to need the most work. Anyone have some ideas why? Is the OL getting any Push? Are the RB's not being aggressive enough? Is the problem with the TE's or FB?

Commentary from a weak position:

a. Not having Edelman, Gronk, and LaFell are obvious problems for Brady. But I think the real problem is Brady not having a running attack because he's had to deal with the 3 rookies in the middle. Given Jackson's size and Mason's drive blocking experience, it is a little disappointing that we haven't been able to get some push, especially up the middle. Andrews could be the problem. Obviously it's never ideal to have an UDFA rookie starting at C between 2 fourth round rookie G's

b. I'm hoping Wendell and Stork are back for the Giants and the run game gets some work.

c. I saw the Dobson play where the defender came down with the ball after the hit the ground. I don't know what happened except that Dobson beat his man deep and went up hard for a heavily contested ball and came down with it. I heard later he had another deep pass from JG. Right now Dobson is a convenient whipping boy now that Boyce is off the scene. A whipping boy just like Edelman and Amendola have been so often on this board, so he's in good company. .

d. I think I'm gonna like this defense. It looks like the sum of the group is going to be a lot better than the individual parts.

e. Anyone really worried about the offense long term. I wouldn't be surprise to see much of the same sort of inconsistency through the first 4 games, much like we did last season. Not having so many of the WR's available this off season has been very disappointing. It's been a long time since Brady has been able to go into a season with most of his WR's intact. Unfortunately most of them have not been able to STAY intact, so much of this camp has been wasted.

OK, its almost 1:30 and I'm running out of gas here. I eagerly await your replies. Oh, BTW- I won the tournament.



6.

In regards to the defence:

My take is having the starting lbs in the mix made the biggest difference from the past two weeks. Mayo looked like his usual self, as did Hightower. Collins seems much more confident and decisive in his reads, and seems much more violent in the trenches (cam is lucky he didn't get carried of the field on that sneak). There was a very noticeable drop off when the second string lbers hit the field.

Sheard seems as advertised. I saw nink drooping deep in coverage, chandler did a great job setting the edge. Easley was disruptive rushing the passer, but struggled getting that energizer bunny to the turf (as did anyone else in his vicinity). From a pass rush perspective, I saw a good amount of disrupted pockets but not enough disengaging.

Brown and butler got the start at outside cb and both looked good. The pass coverage evaporated when they went to a zone look and the 2nd string lbers got picked on. Mayo and Collins had great zone coverage on one of the goalline pass attempts.

Brady's 2nd pick was on a pass into zone with two receivers. Not sure who's brilliant idea that was.

O line seemed to get decent push, but Bolden saw a lot of time with the starting offense. Things picked up when blount and lewis hit the field in the second half. Have I mentioned in loving me some Lewis?

Andrews looked better than I expected in pass pro, but needs work run blocking. Mason struggled in pass pro, but looked better than the last few weeks.

The dobson pick was just a great vet play by the safety. Switch the jerseys and let's see who says the wr blew it. I don't know if it was the pass or the route, but Dodson seemed to slightly break in away from coverage and was spun around trying to catch the pass on his outside shoulder (underthrown a bit as well). That didn't help. While he should have caught it, the other guys get paid too. The long ball he caught he had the corner beat by 3 steps up the sideline, and JG underthrew him a bit (which also prevented a big hit from the safety, I'd have to watch again to claim a perfect ball had any chance of beating the safety as week).

Wayne looked sluggish and confused. Confused is fine, but his speed and quickness worry me on the limited views I saw.

I agree that I think this defense will impress.

There's my discombobulated memory dump from half paying attention. And just in case I haven't mentioned it:

WTF IS DEVELIN DOING ON THE GOD DAMN FIELD WITH 6 MINUTES TO GO IN A MOTHER ****ING PRESEASON GAME?

Just when I thought Hooman may actually be shown the door...

manxman2601 said:

Tarell Brown looked terrific as the nickel and Bradley Fletcher was more than a competent #2.

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Just a small nitpick, but Brown started on the outside, opposite Butler. I don't know if he eventually moved to the slot or not, but he looked serviceable on the outside--even good.

supafly said:

Just a small nitpick, but Brown started on the outside, opposite Butler. I don't know if he eventually moved to the slot or not, but he looked serviceable on the outside--even good.

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Are you sure? Everything I saw in game and on twitter said otherwise. It might have been for the first few snaps, but I'm pretty sure Brown was playing nickel more often than not.

Note, I'm just going by my recollection, you could well be right.

supafly said:

Just a small nitpick, but Brown started on the outside, opposite Butler. I don't know if he eventually moved to the slot or not, but he looked serviceable on the outside--even good.

Click to expand...

this is the first defensive play:



I'll try and look at the others and see what percentages they each had.

OK. Just through the first ten snaps there's a definite pattern. When the Patriots are playing base, Brown is CB2 on every play (4), when the defence is in nickel, Brown moves to the slot and Fletcher comes in to play the outside guy, again on every snap. Bearing in mind BB's post game comments about Fletcher being more suited to playing outside, I suspect this is how things will look on day one barring any trades, pickups etc.

I just finished watching the game for a second time and you know what...it was a freakin' preseason game.

We have a lot of very good players..a rich middle class if you will. And we lost Develin. Sucks.

This team looks like it's got an attitude.

Other than that, Ken, you can probably get 100 opinions of what happened last night but the fact is, one more dress rehearsal before the bullets start flying for real. Judging from how a lot of the subs played, I'd say keep Gronk and Eds away from the field until the Thursday night opener and get the backups reps. We're goingf to need them to perform if the way the injuries are piling up for everybody is any indication.

manxman2601 said:

OK. Just through the first ten snaps there's a definite pattern. When the Patriots are playing base, Brown is CB2 on every play (4), when the defence is in nickel, Brown moves to the slot and Fletcher comes in to play the outside guy, again on every snap. Bearing in mind BB's post game comments about Fletcher being more suited to playing outside, I suspect this is how things will look on day one barring any trades, pickups etc.

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Thank you, manxman. Much appreciated.

Easley is who really stood out to me. He is explosive. Im glad he's finally healthy, cuz he adds a dimension this team needs. If he can give us that type of production Aaron Donald gave the Rams last year watch out.

Sheard looks like another great Mike Lombardi find in FA. I think hes gonna compliment Jones and Ninko really well. Tarell Brown looks like a gamer also. And i feel very comfortable with Malcom Butler as our CB1.

Im loving the aggressive front 7 though. I hope thats the game plan going into the regular season.

1. Dobson looks like a guy who knows he isn't going to be on the 53

2. Front 7 look good now - they are only going to get better as the season progresses - it'll be great to finally have the reps shared at the DE position (perhaps even at OLB).

3. Garopollo looks like the real deal at QB - esp when you consider the tripe that is starting currently across the NFL (and esp in our own division).

4. Tarrell Brown appears to have locked down the RCB opposite Butler - he plays tight coverage and displays good ball skills.

5. Chandler is going to be a real handful once Gronk is on the field - both guys can split wide - double mismatch time.

6. Running game looked awful - when our running game is bad it is awful - there is penetration on almost every play with OL getting walked back into the RB on a regular basis. Having said this, the running game will get better as the young/inexperienced line gain some chemistry together - a huge deal - and probably bigger than people realise.

Running game sucks right now, but inexperience line play and no blount does not help.

Plus points:

Front 7 looks like it could be really good. The three man rotation of Jones, Nink and Sheard is going to be good. Easley looks to be getting back his old explosiveness and Brown is coming on well. Plus Mayo looked good - that LB core will be a real strong point if they stay healthy

Depth: I think we have some decent depth across the team. Last two weeks we have come back well and I think it shows to the strength of our 2s and 3s.

Jimmy G: He's been pretty good in pre-season bar a couple of bad decisions. I feel confident he can manage the offense if Brady is out.

3rd down RB: Between White and Lewis we will be absolutely fine there. Could even become a really big strength of ours.

Minus points:

Offensive line: Rookie guards showing some expected growing pains. We really haven't been able to run the ball at all. Blocking from the whole line has been disappointing - more so on running plays then pass protection. We have struggled to move the ball.

Secondary: There is going t0 be a fairly large drop off from last year, no two ways about it. Against the likes of Carolina we will be fine but I worry about how we will play against some of the better WR crews. Butler, as positive as he's been, is still going to have games where he doesn't play well and we have yet to work out the CB2 spot - probably Brown's. Again, expect some bumps early in the year.

Players in danger of getting cut: Aaron Dobson, Hooman, Logan Ryan. Although lack of depth/injuries might save them all.

Overall we will be fine when we get Gronk et al back, although I can see us having struggles in the early few weeks of the season, especially against Buffalo and NY defensive lines. I expect us to beat the Steelers opening night though.

Random thoughts:

1. The Carolina Panthers drop the ball. #16 - Cory Brown makes Bill Buckner look like Mr. Spock applying the Vulcan Death Grip. If he could catch a pass, the Panthers blow out the Patriots. The defense dropped two pick-six interceptions thrown by Garoppolo.

2. Garoppolo looked great to me. Early in camp, he held onto the ball too long and danced like Gregory Hines. Last night, he hit his drops, threw with confidence and got the ball out like a starter. The two dropped interceptions were the fault of the receivers in both cases. I'd love to see him with the starting receivers and backs. Maybe the Steelers game will give us a look unless Judge Berman mans up and does the right thing.

3. Dobson looked rusty to me. The catch that turned into the Tillman interception was a) a nice catch of a poorly thrown pass, and b) the wrong call by the refs. He was on his back and touched by the defender with the ball in his possession. It should have been a completion. Yeah, I'm a homer. Sue me.

4. Dont'a Hightower looked skinny to me. Time away from the weight room showed dramatically. He played well, and will get better as he builds his upper body strength. I love the linebacking corps of Collins, Mayo, Hightower, Ninkovich and Flowers. All but Flowers can play MLB which means Matt Patricia can move these guys all over the opponent's formation. Good freakin' luck blocking those guys.

5. The O-line looks like a fire drill, but so does every other team's starting line. Tune into the other games. The defenses are ahead of the offenses the way pitching owns hitters in Spring Training. By game 4 this line will be cooking with gas. With Wendell back, DeGuglielmo will settle this situation down like he did in 2014. I think Marcus Cannon will not make the 53, sadly. He's a good guy who overcame a lot to get here.

6. Reggie Wayne won't make this team. He looked to me like he was running in a swimming pool.

7. Brady's 2-minute TD drive had me seeing unicorns and show ponies. Scott Chandler's catch was a thing of beauty. Two TE sets with Gronk in key situations is going to cost defensive coordinators their jobs this year.

Should we be taking up valuable server bandwidth posting summaries for a Pink Hat fan who can't be bothered to watch the games?

PatsWickedPissah said:

Should we be taking up valuable server bandwidth posting summaries for a Pink Hat fan who can't be bothered to watch the games?

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Careful, he won big yesterday - always be nice to people with winnings.

Ken is lot bigger than I. Going into hiding right now...

I like Tarrell Brown and I would say he has some versatility. He is solid on the outside and may be even better in the slot. Whether it be Brown or McClain/Ryan in the slot, I think it makes Fletcher better on the outside and less of a liability.
I'm more curious about Dobson. I want to give him the 4th preseason game before making a definitive decision. I expected him to be rusty so maybe he wasn't that bad. What is everyone's thoughts on Reggie Wayne?

Holy crap Dominique Easley

85777AF4AB1249424650258571264_331e0f867da.4.6.909782945434546976.mp4

Edit:

This is a better link because the video loops. you'll want to see this play more than once.

https://vine.co/v/eIhl7bEbmnv

manxman2601 said:

Holy crap Dominique Easley

85777AF4AB1249424650258571264_331e0f867da.4.6.909782945434546976.mp4

Edit:

This is a better link because the video loops. you'll want to see this play more than once.

https://vine.co/v/eIhl7bEbmnv

Click to expand...

i wasn't expecting easley to contribute much this year because he's pretty much a rookie. if he makes plays like that they our D-line is going to be nasty.