Could it be this simple: inexperience and lack of practice.
 

Yesterday our starting defensive backfield totalled less that 8 years NFL experience, Cromartie and Bell alone have 16 years experience. Our defensive team as a whole is one of the youngest in the league. No matter how good Hightower and Chandler are, they are still rookies. There is no Rodney Harrison back there on field coaching the DB's...

Offensively we have a new "starting" RB, and we are down three pro bowl starters from '11 on the O line.. Light, Waters and Mankins. We have a new O coordinator, even though he is known to this team, and his philosophy is different. We have a new wide receiver, Lloyd.

Brady may not be as comfortable with all these new guys, and the defensive backfield does not have experience... there is also a focus, because of the CBA on younger players rather than experienced players(bottom line). An uncomfortable HOF QB and a very inexperienced defense equals very tentative, uneven play..

Last week it was noted that the practices leading to the jets game were not "padded" and there was no hitting. Have heard Troy B. speak of how previous to the new CBA, there were 24-35 padded practices prior to the first exhibition game.. and now there are about 24 prior to the first regular game. The CBA also dictates how many padded practices a team can have during a season, so it is not about how a team is hurt or beat up.. it is dictated by the CBA.

So our young DB's only experienced walk throughs last week which seems to impede their development.. essentially the games become padded practices and games all rolled into one.

This may be contributing to the phenomenon as to why so many teams are below .500 in the AFC.. it may just be this simple; many "immature" players on the team and no ability to get better on the practice field..

re: Could it be this simple: inexperience and lack of practice.
 

That is a great point, after watching the DB's run around like the key stone cops last week in seattle i think you may be on to something.

re: Could it be this simple: inexperience and lack of practice.
 

Yes, I think that is part of it. Its inexperience of the players but also inexperience with playing with one another. Think on this. Yesterday's Oline was Solder, Thomas, Wendell, McDonnell and Volmer. That's pretty crazy.

re: Could it be this simple: inexperience and lack of practice.
 

I would say that inexperience and lack of continuity may indeed have a large part of the less than stellar execution by this team thus far. It also leads me to be cautiously optimistic that the team will improve week to week and be much better at the end of the season rather than being doomed to failure as many others have predicted.


In regards to the lack of padded practices per the new CBA I would think that would result in more sloppy play in the NFL as a whole; it should not affect the Pats more than others since all teams are in the same boat in that regard.

re: Could it be this simple: inexperience and lack of practice.
 

My only issue with this is calling it "simple." It's definitely a young team, with a bunch of rookies/2nd year guys we're hoping can contribute. So there's no question that's a factor. There's a few more things going on, but that's one of them.

re: Could it be this simple: inexperience and lack of practice.
 

I am becoming more and more convinced it is a scheme issue.

re: Could it be this simple: inexperience and lack of practice.
 

Bill Belichick could have signed Landry and Bell. He chose not to.

re: Could it be this simple: inexperience and lack of practice.
 

I posted this exact thought after I got back from the game yesterday....too much taking punches and not enough delivering them.

re: Could it be this simple: inexperience and lack of practice.
 

That is not mutually exclusive from the OPs point. This scheme requires a great deal of communication and experience to execute both on offense and defense.

re: Could it be this simple: inexperience and lack of practice.
 

That has to be a huge part of it.