Game Thoughts: They're dropping like flies edition

• These injuries are concerning. The Pats are painfully thin at some positions. They are going to have to line up TEs at tackle if they lose anymore linemen... What? They did at times today? Hopefully Cannon and Jackson will be back soon. Vollmer will likely be back next week, but who knows. Lewis is a big loss, but the return of LaFell will minimize the blow.
• I gotta give it to Coach Gooch, Josh, and the rest of the coaching staff. This o-line is decimated more than I can ever remember and Brady was only hit once and sacked another time while the Pats rushed for 161 yards and a TD. I know Blount made some plays on his own, but when you have lost both your LTs, your starting RT, starting RG, you have your starting center from last year playing RT, and your most experienced player on the o-line is Josh Kline; I gotta give them credit for a spectacular job.
• Gotta hand it to the defense. Another very good game. Yes, they were aided by some bonehead drops by Washington that probably would have made it a much closer game, but they also made a lot of plays on their own especially in critical times.
• Not to complain about the game day thread (ok, I am about to), but I am getting tired of Logan Ryan bashing in there. One of biggest pet peeves is when people have made up their mind about a player and ignore everything good they do and then whenever they make an occasional bad play, they pile on complaining that player shouldn't be starting and they are awful. It is the Matt Light Syndrome. Ryan has been mostly solid and consistent this season. Better than Browner. Yet, he gives up on play in a game for 15 yards and people want to string him up. I just don't get it. The funny thing he has been more consistent in some games than Butler and everyone kisses Butler's ass for giving up a big play but being right with the receiver, but kill Ryan when he does the same thing. Not busting on Butler who was great today and most of the season, just pointing out how fans feel about each and since he is the Super Bowl hero he is treated different for the same level of play.
• I gotta say Justin Coleman is coming into his own. I felt he got burnt too much early in the season, but he has becoming far more consistent in recent weeks. Right now I think the Pats have a solid top three CBs, but I am concerned if any of them go down.
• I think Freeny did a pretty good job replacing Collins, but you can definitely see the difference in this defense with him and without him. Kinda funny to say on a day where the Pats only gave up 3 points before garbage time, but the pass rush was almost no existent for long stretches without him. The center of the field definitely had more openings. The guy is just so versatile and can cover so much of the field that losing him is like losing two to three players.
• Remember when there was concerns about the Pats' run defense early in the season? The Pats have given up 52 total yards and 2.0 YPC on the ground the last two games. Right now the Pats have the best run defense in the league.
• It is amazing that it took until week 9 in the season for Brady to throw his first real INT. Horribly stupid pass, but I can't believe it took that long.
• It still amazes me how much this offense can morph to whatever they need to match up against their opponent. Three games ago, Brady was the leading rusher with 12 yards. Today they pounded Washington into smithereens with Blount for 129 yards and a TD. And Brady still passed for 299 yards and two TDs.

Rob0729 said:

Here we go:

• These injuries are concerning. The Pats are painfully thin at some positions. They are going to have to line up TEs at tackle if they lose anymore linemen... What? They did at times today? Hopefully Cannon and Jackson will be back soon. Vollmer will likely be back next week, but who knows. Lewis is a big loss, but the return of LaFell will minimize the blow.
• I gotta give it to Coach Gooch, Josh, and the rest of the coaching staff. This o-line is decimated more than I can ever remember and Brady was only hit once and sacked another time while the Pats rushed for 161 yards and a TD. I know Blount made some plays on his own, but when you have lost both your LTs, your starting RT, starting RG, you have your starting center from last year playing RT, and your most experienced player on the o-line is Josh Kline; I gotta give them credit for a spectacular job.
• Gotta hand it to the defense. Another very good game. Yes, they were aided by some bonehead drops by Washington that probably would have made it a much closer game, but they also made a lot of plays on their own especially in critical times.
• Not to complain about the game day thread (ok, I am about to), but I am getting tired of Logan Ryan bashing in there. One of biggest pet peeves is when people have made up their mind about a player and ignore everything good they do and then whenever they make an occasional bad play, they pile on complaining that player shouldn't be starting and they are awful. It is the Matt Light Syndrome. Ryan has been mostly solid and consistent this season. Better than Browner. Yet, he gives up on play in a game for 15 yards and people want to string him up. I just don't get it. The funny thing he has been more consistent in some games than Butler and everyone kisses Butler's ass for giving up a big play but being right with the receiver, but kill Ryan when he does the same thing. Not busting on Butler who was great today and most of the season, just pointing out how fans feel about each and since he is the Super Bowl hero he is treated different for the same level of play.
• I gotta say Justin Coleman is coming into his own. I felt he got burnt too much early in the season, but he has becoming far more consistent in recent weeks. Right now I think the Pats have a solid top three CBs, but I am concerned if any of them go down.
• I think Freeny did a pretty good job replacing Collins, but you can definitely see the difference in this defense with him and without him. Kinda funny to say on a day where the Pats only gave up 3 points before garbage time, but the pass rush was almost no existent for long stretches without him. The center of the field definitely had more openings. The guy is just so versatile and can cover so much of the field that losing him is like losing two to three players.
• Remember when there was concerns about the Pats' run defense early in the season? The Pats have given up 52 total yards and 2.0 YPC on the ground the last two games. Right now the Pats have the best run defense in the league.
• It is amazing that it took until week 9 in the season for Brady to throw his first real INT. Horribly stupid pass, but I can't believe it took that long.
• It still amazes me how much this offense can morph to whatever they need to match up against their opponent. Three games ago, Brady was the leading rusher with 12 yards. Today they pounded Washington into smithereens with Blount for 129 yards and a TD. And Brady still passed for 299 yards and two TDs.

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• These injuries are concerning. The Pats are painfully thin at some positions. They are going to have to line up TEs at tackle if they lose anymore linemen... What? They did at times today? Hopefully Cannon and Jackson will be back soon. Vollmer will likely be back next week, but who knows. Lewis is a big loss, but the return of LaFell will minimize the blow.

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  I have to wonder if this will force BB to finally go outside the system in order to restock the OL. Of course it would help to know when Cannon and Jackson's return will be. BTW- think about this. The Pats had only ONE offensive lineman of the 5 who started the superbowl on the field yesterday....and he missed almost all of training camp, and ended the game playing a position I don't think he ever played before in the Pros or in college.

• I gotta give it to Coach Gooch, Josh, and the rest of the coaching staff. This o-line is decimated more than I can ever remember and Brady was only hit once and sacked another time while the Pats rushed for 161 yards and a TD. I know Blount made some plays on his own, but when you have lost both your LTs, your starting RT, starting RG, you have your starting center from last year playing RT, and your most experienced player on the o-line is Josh Kline; I gotta give them credit for a spectacular job.

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  Like I said, at the end of the game the Pats didn't have an OLman who had started more than 13 NFL games

• Gotta hand it to the defense. Another very good game. Yes, they were aided by some bonehead drops by Washington that probably would have made it a much closer game, but they also made a lot of plays on their own especially in critical times.

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  Solid game by the defense, not spectacular, even though they were missing their most impactful player. Didn't like the lack of pressure we got when we blitzed. Didn't like having another garbage time TD scored. Still we will probably be in the top 5 in scoring D even with all the garbage time points allowed. In the end, for all our complaints and worries before the season started, I don't think the most optimistic of us thought the defense would be this good.

• Not to complain about the game day thread (ok, I am about to), but I am getting tired of Logan Ryan bashing in there. One of biggest pet peeves is when people have made up their mind about a player and ignore everything good they do and then whenever they make an occasional bad play, they pile on complaining that player shouldn't be starting and they are awful. It is the Matt Light Syndrome. Ryan has been mostly solid and consistent this season. Better than Browner. Yet, he gives up on play in a game for 15 yards and people want to string him up. I just don't get it. The funny thing he has been more consistent in some games than Butler and everyone kisses Butler's ass for giving up a big play but being right with the receiver, but kill Ryan when he does the same thing. Not busting on Butler who was great today and most of the season, just pointing out how fans feel about each and since he is the Super Bowl hero he is treated different for the same level of play.

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  Perfectly said. The biggest concern with the CB's is if one of the 3 go down. The biggest surprise for me is how much man we are playing. At the start of the year I thought we'd play more zone to protect our young, small, and inexperienced CB's. Evidently Matty P had a lot more confidence in them that we did.

• Remember when there was concerns about the Pats' run defense early in the season? The Pats have given up 52 total yards and 2.0 YPC on the ground the last two games. Right now the Pats have the best run defense in the league.

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  Getting better with every game. The biggest surprise for me is Alan Branch. The man has made at least on impact play in each of the last 4 games. Much more athletic and disruptive in the middle that I remembering him being last season. Anyone know of any reason what we never saw this last season, or did we just miss it.

• It is amazing that it took until week 9 in the season for Brady to throw his first real INT. Horribly stupid pass, but I can't believe it took that long.

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  We see so many bad throws each week, but it is still a shock when Brady makes a mistake. We have become SOOOOO spoiled.

• It still amazes me how much this offense can morph to whatever they need to match up against their opponent. Three games ago, Brady was the leading rusher with 12 yards. Today they pounded Washington into smithereens with Blount for 129 yards and a TD. And Brady still passed for 299 yards and two TDs.

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  Can you have imagined how effect this offense might have been with their starting OL and their 2nd most dynamic offensive threat.

smg93 said:

The O Line really did step up. As you mentioned, I think Josh helped them out too by having a more conservative run based game plan which for this week at least worked since WSH was not very good against it.

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VectorPrime said:

Brady never seemed in sync all game. A lot of overthrows in the flat. It was odd.

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patfanken said:

The biggest surprise for me is Alan Branch.

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amazinPats said:

And with Brandon Browner leading the charts with penalties plus a media meltdown in the Saints' lockerroom, who would have realized that our Logan Ryan would constitute an upgrade?

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PScottman said:

I would counter the change was mostly his uneasiness with the OL...especially the second half. The mind is a terrible thing, even the GOAT can allow doubt to enter his consciousness when the only guy protecting his blindside was likely selling cars a few weeks earlier.

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AQPE said:

One thing I've been wondering about for quite a while with the Pats is whether BB has a more conservative approach with "dinged" players than you see with other teams. Maybe its just that I really only focus on what the Pats do but I notice a lot that they rarely will play someone listed as questionable during the middle of the season. In contrast I see other teams getting their "big names" back in there ASAP - for example, Mangold with the Jets. I just think that BB takes the leverage he has when the team's competitive position is favorable, as it is right now (and as it has been almost every year the past 15 years - good grief!) to get guys some extra rest and rehab and let guys lower on the depth chart a chance to get in some meaningful time. Just another little part of what makes this guy and his organization superior to the Rex Ryans and Gary Kubiaks of the league, to name just two.

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NormZauchin said:

I think Brady purposely threw the interception in order to show what a good tackler he is. He knows Belichick likes players who can do more than one thing.

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PScottman said:

Hicks to me has been as impactful. Silinga's snaps have cratered all because Hicks has earned them. He sheds blocks much more easily than Silinga and has better burst. Add to the growing impact of Brown and our DT depth is, to me, even better than last year!

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Rob0729 said:

I am getting tired of Logan Ryan bashing in there. One of biggest pet peeves is when people have made up their mind about a player and ignore everything good they do and then whenever they make an occasional bad play, they pile on complaining that player shouldn't be starting and they are awful. It is the Matt Light Syndrome. Ryan has been mostly solid and consistent this season. Better than Browner. Yet, he gives up on play in a game for 15 yards and people want to string him up. I just don't get it. The funny thing he has been more consistent in some games than Butler and everyone kisses Butler's ass for giving up a big play but being right with the receiver, but kill Ryan when he does the same thing.

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Tunescribe said:

You suggest Brady is seeing ghosts.

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