BB didn't "throw away HFA"

The problem was more how they went about it. It was half and half. The gameplan was incredibly vanilla. If it was about minimizing injuries, play the backups. I assume Garoppolo can hand the ball off somewhere close to Tom's level.

If you have Tom and Gronk in, play to win. If you're looking to minimize injuries, why bother playing your biggest offensive weapons at all?

BennyBledsoe said:

The problem was more how they went about it. It was half and half. The gameplan was incredibly vanilla. If it was about minimizing injuries, play the backups. I assume Garoppolo can hand the ball off somewhere close to Tom's level.

If you have Tom and Gronk in, play to win. If you're looking to minimize injuries, why bother playing your biggest offensive weapons at all?

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I think he was trying to put the team in the best position to win a game, and by keeping Brady/Gronk in there, that was seen as giving us the best opportunity. Unfortunately, it didn't work out too well.

supafly said:

I think he was trying to put the team in the best position to win a game, and by keeping Brady/Gronk in there, that was seen as giving us the best opportunity. Unfortunately, it didn't work out too well.

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My take/guess is this, based on what I saw. The Patriots sought to accomplish three things in that game, but not sure in which order.

1. Win
2. Avoid injuries and rehab players with basic assignments (not full throttle)
3. Tuneup offensive line and get Jackson comfortable

Unfortunately, their commitment to winning was compromised by the other goals. It looked as though they thought the game would be fairly easy and the Dolphins would roll over. They did try to win even at the risk of injuries after things started spiraling out of control, but it was too late and suddenly Miami was relishing in knocking them down a peg.

Tragic mistake...there is just no way you can watch that game and think their play calling early on was solely focused on beating that week's opponent, which is what it should have been.

If Pittsburg holds on to the football, we're playing at home last night and BB looks like a genius- resting players and still getting HFA.

ViperGTS said:

I was watching the 30/30 on the Bills. At one point one of the Bills said they were playing someone. They were having a bus game. Meaning the Bills were toast and wanted to get out of there. Their opponent did something. That something pissed them off because they felt disrespected. They went on to win the game.

BB did that in the Philly game. They got the same response. So that would have given them HFA. Didn't know it at the time but still no reason to do unnecessary things.

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Fairy tales and invented narratives using hindsight sure are great.

BB didn't do anything to lose the game against the Eagles, the weird obsession of people with the dropkick is bizarre. We couldnt stop Bradford multiple times on third and long and the ST **** their bed multiple times.

That loss had nothing to do with giving up 10 freaking yards on a dropkick especially if we had the Eagles two plays later at a 3rd & 9+.

But whatever stick with your narratives.

luuked said:

Fairy tales and invented narratives using hindsight sure are great.

BB didn't do anything to lose the game against the Eagles, the weird obsession of people with the dropkick is bizarre. We couldnt stop Bradford multiple times on third and long and the ST **** their bed multiple times.

That loss had nothing to do with giving up 10 freaking yards on a dropkick especially if we had the Eagles two plays later at a 3rd & 9+.

But whatever stick with your narratives.

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You completely don't get it do you? It gave them something to get fired up over. You are a fool to think it didn't. They were lifeless before, they were not after. 3-9 would not have been completed had they just kicked it off. That extra focus allowed those completions. They had done ZERO offensively before that point.

ViperGTS said:

You completely don't get it do you? It gave them something to get fired up over. You are a fool to think it didn't. They were lifeless before, they were not after. 3-9 would not have been completed had they just kicked it off. That extra focus allowed those completions. They had done ZERO offensively before that point.

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So they were not fired up by the dropkick immediately and ended up facing a third and long from the very spot we kicked to. And then on third & 10 miraculously, suddenly out of nowhere momentum flooded their bodies and gave them the confidence to complete a 20 yard pass?

Ok.. sure..

How about the Eagles made a play on third and long and gained some confidence on which they built on. I know it doesnt fit the narrative how it was all arrogance that lost the game not repeatedly poor execution in big moments.

ctpatsfan77 said:

I've seen a number of posts today claiming that BB either "threw away HFA" or "didn't value it" or what have you.

In reality, it's not as simple as BB deciding "he didn't want" HFA. He was actually faced with a difficult choice: trying to maximize the likelihood of reaching the Super Bowl, while doing two things:

• Minimizing the number of injured players entering the playoffs
• Maximizing the likelihood of winning HFA

Unfortunately, those two goals were at odds with one another. For example, he could have played Edelman in Miami, but what if he got injured and missed the playoffs?

If the injuries hadn't mounted as badly as they had, and you still saw what happened the last two weeks, then I think the idea that BB doesn't care for HFA would be much easier to sell. But that wasn't really what was happening.

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The Patriots looked like an episode of The Walking Dead down the home stretch of the season. Playing guys who were dinged up wouldn't have achieved much than risk injury.

In reality, the constant roster churning due to the injuries led to a lack of cohesion that reared its head against the Broncos today. Some guys like Lafell and Chandler fell off the map during the offensive shuffling and never regained their flow. The o-line just isn't talented enough to compete with Denver. Let's not kid ourselves - Denver went out and spent the farm to get the defensive front to pressure Brady like the 2007/11 Giants and the Ravens teams of yore.

While Denver might get destroyed by Carolina -- as that team looks like a force -- they deserve credit for making the moves necessary to unseat the Patriots. Now, the question becomes whether the Patriots counter by being aggressive in the free agent market. Last time we did that with Revis/Browner we won a Super Bowl.

We suck on the road in the playoffs. It's all about home field

ctpatsfan77 said:

I've seen a number of posts today claiming that BB either "threw away HFA" or "didn't value it" or what have you.

In reality, it's not as simple as BB deciding "he didn't want" HFA. He was actually faced with a difficult choice: trying to maximize the likelihood of reaching the Super Bowl, while doing two things:

• Minimizing the number of injured players entering the playoffs
• Maximizing the likelihood of winning HFA

Unfortunately, those two goals were at odds with one another. For example, he could have played Edelman in Miami, but what if he got injured and missed the playoffs?

If the injuries hadn't mounted as badly as they had, and you still saw what happened the last two weeks, then I think the idea that BB doesn't care for HFA would be much easier to sell. But that wasn't really what was happening.

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He could have played it straight in the Philly game.

MainePatsFan26 said:

The Patriots looked like an episode of The Walking Dead down the home stretch of the season. Playing guys who were dinged up wouldn't have achieved much than risk injury.

In reality, the constant roster churning due to the injuries led to a lack of cohesion that reared its head against the Broncos today. Some guys like Lafell and Chandler fell off the map during the offensive shuffling and never regained their flow. The o-line just isn't talented enough to compete with Denver. Let's not kid ourselves - Denver went out and spent the farm to get the defensive front to pressure Brady like the 2007/11 Giants and the Ravens teams of yore.

While Denver might get destroyed by Carolina -- as that team looks like a force -- they deserve credit for making the moves necessary to unseat the Patriots. Now, the question becomes whether the Patriots counter by being aggressive in the free agent market. Last time we did that with Revis/Browner we won a Super Bowl.

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I agree, we oft refer to the adage that the game is won in the trenches.. while the trenches on the D side were formidable, the trenches on the O side were woefully inadequate.. if I was a personnel guy on the Pats would look at making the O line better than they have been..

Fortunately Brady did not get hurt, there were so many injuries for so many guys it was continual mix and match, time to do away with the "Cannon Experiment" and need to find some adequate O line backups..

The Chandler we saw this year was not the same guy who played for Buffalo in the past, the LaFell we saw this year was not the LaFell of last year.. to many instances of guys getting nicked and not playing to their potential..

Can nitpick and blame BB for this or for that, but as much as I hate to lose, we have gone to the AFC championship 5 years in a row.. that is a good run.

All the questions you ask point to arrogance and some coaching failures

PatriotSpy said:

it isn't necessarily the personnel decisions as it relates to the guys you mentioned, it's just, why play Brady in Miami if the o-line is depleted? Why the stupid decisions against the Eagles? Why throw the ball with Brady when you're up big in the 4th quarter? Why put him at risk there but go all conservative against the Broncos and Dolphins and Jets? I understand the o-line is a factor but still anything can happen. The philosophy used in his decision making sometimes is off the wall.

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MainePatsFan26 said:

Now, the question becomes whether the Patriots counter by being aggressive in the free agent market. Last time we did that with Revis/Browner we won a Super Bowl.

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That might be one of the stupidest correlation/causation statements in the last few days. Time to leave you all to your knee jerk reactions..

stcjones said:

All the questions you ask point to arrogance and some coaching failures

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By the way. If you start on another of those rampages where you go and click on a disagree for everyone that has a divergent opinion at the very least have the courtesy to ****ing reply to that comment and explain your position. Just downvoting everything makes you look like a little angry kid.

supafly said:

The fact that he continued to use our team's 2 biggest stars in Brady/Gronk tell me all I need to know about Belichick's thoughts on trying to win one of the last two games.

Unfortunately, it didn't work out.

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He tanked the Miami game. Period. 18 straight off tackle runs to Jackson regardless of playing Brady and Gronk was about keeping things as safe as possible. It came back to bite him and us in the arse. It cost us a trip to the SB to be honest. If this Denver game was played up here, it would have been over at half time and we would have been heading to SF. I'll never understand why he tanked that game.

PatriotSpy said:

carolina was 15-1 and heading to the super bowl and they lost kelvin benjamin, their best receiver before the season began. Injuries happen. back in the day here it was next man up. Now it's omg so and so got injured, season over or omg, let's not go into our two minute offense to get some points before a half.

make with what you got, man up and go out there and let's quit making excuses. This is the NFL, injuries happen.

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https://www.mangameslost.com/wp-con...m-Games-Missed-to-Injury-VS-Team-Wins-new.png

You are once again trivializing and making uninformed, wrong comparisons.

We were by far the most injured team, with by far the most impactful injuries among all teams. Take a look where the other Championship Game opponents are on this plot. Belichick and Caserio should have been in the running for Coach and GM of the Year for building a roster that can overcome this.

End of 2015 NFL Regular Season Games Missed Due to Injury January 4, 2016 - Man-Games Lost

But then again most probably you are one of those morons that would rather have Charlie Weis on the sideline just because it fits another correlation/causation narrative.

The_Riddler said:

He tanked the Miami game. Period. 18 straight off tackle runs to Jackson regardless of playing Brady and Gronk was about keeping things as safe as possible. It came back to bite him and us in the arse. It cost us a trip to the SB to be honest. If this Denver game was played up here, it would have been over at half time and we would have been heading to SF. I'll never understand why he tanked that game.

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Well, obviously he had some type of plan that involved playing his two biggest stars, and attempting to win it in some fashion, unless you believe that he lost on purpose.

I think he was hoping to get the run game going, while hoping that we could hit a few key passes and play tough defense. Unfortunately, it didn't work out. If he was playing to "tank" it as you say, he wouldn't have used Brady and Gronk.

I really wish we got homefield but Denver deserved it. They beat more playoff teams than us like GB, KC, Pats, Bengals, and Vikings. I think it's amazing the pats earned a bye with all the injuries. Has anybody ever had more offensive line combinations? Great job by the coaching staff dealing with all the injuries when most teams would fold.

PatriotSpy said:

Why the stupid decisions against the Eagles?

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What stupid decisions ?

Lets take away the the shiny, red herring that is the dropkick and name me one more stupid decision in that game ? Did Belichick tell Chung to play off coverage and allow a 3rd & 10 completion for over 20 yards right after the kick ? Or did he decide to get a punt blocked before the half ? Or did he decide to allow a punt to be returned for a TD ? Should Belichick trip opponents in the future to prevent plays ?

Enough with those knee jerk reactions.. you are all searching for excuses everywhere to explain a loss that is easily explained by a poor individual performance of a lot of players on the offense. But I guess it is easier to talk about shallow stuff than actually delve deeper and discuss why the OL had issues with the Denver front or how Denver was able to keep coverage up so well on our quick receivers.

No lets talk about not kicking field goals, or choosing to receive instead. Why are we not talking about how BB should have changed his hoodie earlier ? After he changed we played better in the second half and only gave up FGs. Clearly he ****ed this game up by choosing the wrong one at the beginning.. am I doing this right ?

DarrylS said:

Can nitpick and blame BB for this or for that, but as much as I hate to lose, we have gone to the AFC championship 5 years in a row.. that is a good run.

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It has been a remarkable run. It also sucks that it took 5 conference championship appearances that resulted in failure 4/5 times. Lots of wasted potential and hype. We should have at least one more title and at least one more appearance in the SB out of that.