The Million Dollar Question.
 

Are we going to continue to make the same stupid mistakes or have we finally learned our lesson?

In my mind the future of this season rides on the answer.

What's most frustrating about the game against Seattle is that those of us who watched the game know we could have come out of the toughest stadium in the league to play in, having blown out the top defense in the league. Instead we leave with a 1 point loss. That game went from SERIOUS statement & PUTTING THE LEAGUE ON NOTICE to `We need to fix a LOT of things` about this football team and being PUT ON NOTICE ourselves.

I want to remind everyone that last year we lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Giants in back to back games. Our secondary against the Giants was even more horrid than it sometimes looked tonight against Seattle. In fact, that game burned the name "Sergio Brown" into my brain forever.

But I saw great defensive strides in that game against the G-men, enough to make me honestly believe that we were still highly capable of a Superbowl appearance last year.

The sky is not falling. I don't only watch Patriot games. I watch a lot of them. Is there a Patriot fan on this forum that can honestly tell me that they've watched Baltimore against the Eagles, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Dallas, and is SCARED of that football team? Is anyone of the mindset that we CANNOT beat Houston who was torched by the Packers tonight and struggled against the Jets on Monday Night Football?

I'm not scared of either of them. Not in the slightest.

We have now suffered three losses by a GRAND TOTAL of 4 points.

Can ANY 3-3 team say the same?

That is a few minor adjustments away from being a 6-0 football team. Remove the uncharacteristic, amateurish situational football that denied us an easy FG before the end of the 1st half, and two stupid plays that killed 2 excellent drives with turn overs, and right now, instead of talking about a loss, we're talking about how the Patriots put 40 points around the necks of the greatest defense in the league, in their own stadium.

At 3-3, New England could be the best kept secret in the NFL.

We've seen the evidence on the field. We KNOW this team can carve through any defense in the league. We know our defense can create opportunities for our offense to score more points.

Everything seems to me to be riding on whether or not our coaching staff is going to get serious.

I'm not a head coach in the NFL. If put in charge of the Patriots tomorrow my head would probably start spinning 10 minutes into the job.

But I do know we should of went for that field goal with 6 seconds left.
I do know on 3rd down and 1, on a drive where we were carving through the Seattle defense, we should have ran the ball and picked up the conversion, instead of challenging their defensive backs trying to go to Branch on a 20 yard pass down the side line.

I do know that this team is not invincible and you cannot play football games as if the other team has zero chance to do anything. We're a very good team. Potentially a great team. But not so great that we can play with that level of arrogance against a defense like Seattle's.

We know that.

So why doesn't Belichick and McDaniels?
More importantly, do they know it now?

If they don't, I already know how the season ends - with us watching something completely stupid and totally unnecessary ending the Superbowl hopes of the 2012 Patriots.

P.S. Fire our secondary coaches immediately.

Re: The Million Dollar Question.
 

Luckily we have a coaching staff that takes the season one game at a time, and isn't going to emotionally overreact to who is "on notice" in week 6.
We probably have the most humble coaching staff in the NFL,so I really doubt we have lost some close games because they are so arrogant they screw up on purpose to see if they can win anyway.
Reread your post. YOU are arguing this team is great, yet a one point loss created the need to fix a lot of things. If Brady had thrown the last pass of the 1st half at Welkers feet and we got 3, or if the Seahawks didn't score on their last drive, we wouldn't need to fix those many things?
I think you need to separate what the team needs to do to reach its goal, and what it needs to do for you to feel good about bragging rights in week 6. Ultimately your post simply laments that you don't have those bragging rights.

Re: The Million Dollar Question.
 

Humble?
Man, I'm as much a homer for Belichick as the next guy but humble isn't a word I would use to describe him.

The end of the 1st half says a lot. How many people here were watching at home and saying with 6 seconds left "just kick the field goal."?

I do think this team is potentially great.
But when I watch some of the decisions that have been made during games, I think some people on the sidelines think it's invincible and the opposition is completely helpless.

Just about every team in the NFL would of ran one of our running backs to get the 1st down when Brady threw the interception in Branch's direction.

Almost all of them.

So why didn't we?

And I don't think this is an isolated event. I think that play was typical of this teams decision making sometimes.

Re: The Million Dollar Question.
 

Im with ya grasshopper ... we always have to be the smartest kid in class .. always got to get cute ... :mad:

Re: The Million Dollar Question.
 

Well that is because you have decided to attribute and attitude that isn't there to his actions.
Humble. Has he EVER bragged or trash talked? After every loss, he singles himself out as needing to do better.

What does that have to do with arrogance? It was the right decision, because there was enough time to run a play and try to get a TD.
Are you suggesting that since you at home thought the FG was the right thing, that means you know more than BB who actually practices the scenario? Who is arrogant?

That is a figment of your imagination. I can't even imagine what kind of decision you think would indicate the coaching staff thinks it is invincible and the opposition is helpless. That is just nonsensical.

What are you talking about? Passing the ball is arrogant?


A) You are making something up, then calling it fact.
B) We have Tom Brady.

But lets get this straight.
2nd and 5 at the +48 half way through the 3rd quarter, leading 20-10 and you think almost every team in the NFL would call a run, and throwing a pass is arrogant?
Even you can't believe that,

Of course it was. Brady was tearing them up, it was 2nd and 5 in + territory. Of course you are more apt to throw than run there. Apparently though any play that is poorly executed should have been forseen by the coaching staff in your mind.
So good result = good coaching, and bad result = arrogance in your world?

Re: The Million Dollar Question.
 

they should have taken a time out earlier (i think it was the 30 second mark, they ended up eating too much clock after that).

BUT, they still had enough time for 1 play for a TD, and a field goal try if that didnt work. the problem was the intentional grounding by brady, not the coaching. Brady had gronk open in the back corner, but even if he didnt have enough time for that, a throw to either sideline leaves 1 second left...with no grounding.

passing the ball wasnt the problem. hell for years thats all the patriots did and no one really complained because it worked. the problem was the pass. it was terrible. not only are you throwing to branch who has a much larger defender on him, and he cant gain separation, but brady didnt place the ball well at all, it was practically right to the DB.

I am not opposed to this.

Re: The Million Dollar Question.
 

That isn't what I'm talking about. The Patriots always do their talking on the field. Remember when Anthony Smith (or whatever his name was) guaranteed a Steelers victory and Belichick and Brady targeted him for touchdowns all day long? This has been the MO of the Patriots for a long time. There's a thousand examples of him making a point to humiliate teams on the field. I don't know why you would even raise this as an issue of contention.

I'm not knocking them for it. I love them for it.

But there's a time and place.

No, it was the wrong decision, evident by the fact that if we would of just kicked the field goal (like probably everybody thought we should have done AT THE TIME) we would of won the football game by 2 instead of losing by 1.

Six seconds against the statistical best defense in the league? A team that sacked Rodgers 8 times and held him to zilch? A team that hadn't given up more than 16 points in a single game, holding Dallas to 7 and the Packers to 14? It seems pretty obvious that after wasting the 40 seconds we had, you just kick the field goal and go into the half with a ten point lead.

New England's offense will score its touchdowns.

But with our horrendous secondary, we can't scoff at the idea of a free three points, especially when time and time again that 3 would have won us our games.

So you think that despite us averaging about 250 rushing yards our previous two games, while playing the best defense in the league, with very talented defensive backs, it's better to lob one down the sidelines to a covered Branch on 3rd and 1 instead of just send in Ridley or Woodhead to pick up the fresh set of downs?

You don't see a problem with this decision making at all?

You do realize we weren't playing the Bills, yes?.

Re: The Million Dollar Question.
 

Their execution and just plain alertness was bad, but i can't believe anyone was arguing against going for a TD when we had plenty of time.

Poor use of time outs and poor execution. You'd be crazy to give up a chance at four more points.

I'm concerned about the secondary, mostly about health, since we don't have a lot of depth, but we just need to work harder and not take plays off in a fog. That includes Mr. Brady, of course.

If our secondary is competent, we should be able to gel as a very talented team on both sides. Our chemistry seems decent too. No time to panic, play better, make the playoffs and play our best ball when it counts, hopefully.

Re: The Million Dollar Question.
 

Looking into the future, seeing the result, then changing strategy to fit that. isn't evidence, it's time travel.

Re: The Million Dollar Question.
 

I assume you are talking about the next to last drive that went 3 and out and consumed all of 24 seconds because the Seahawks used two timeouts. One first down and the Patriots win 23-17.

That series was Ridley right, Ridley left, and the five wide set in a hurry up with the incompletion to Branch. The Seahawks had their base defense on the field, so the call made sense. A third running play was a possibility but not a sure thing. Brady just didn't throw a good pass. No one's fault really.

The running game was not dominant against that defense on Sunday. The Patriots weren't getting 4+ yard gains in any one place throughout the day, but they had close to 400 yards passing. I think the call was logical.

I would have liked to see play action on that play with Woodhead in the backfield.

The Seattle loss, to me, keeps coming down to leaving two chip shot field goals on the field, and the five long plays by the Seahawks for 45+ yards including the pass interference on the halfback option. All of them came in a Patriots base defense when the passer had time to set his feet and heave it down the field. The lack of pressure on the quarterback was an issue. And this one is on the defensive backs who couldn't make a play on the ball because they were out of position. The Seattle receivers made nice catches but none were of the amazing variety like we see with Brandon Lloyd.

If you want to beat the Patriots, go deep. We'll see a lot of this the rest of the season.