A dominant defensive performance coming…and why Brady has to maybe be a little smarter

[BradyBranch39]

here it is. i think your interpretation is right--he's going for the ball, so they allowed the contact.

Ball in air, Dola shoved with both hands:

 

[mgteich]

Let's be clear.

Belichick and Brady are FURIOUS at the terrible performance against Philly, including their won performances.

This WILL NOT happen again this week. I agree that an outstanding defensive game by the patriots is likely.

To be blunt, if the patriots don't play better, there will be consequences for the players involved. And where is that returner from a couple of weeks ago?

BOTTOM LINE
We are playoff team with lots of folks injured, and some just coming back from injury (Collins and Amendola). Hopefully Coleman and Hightower will be back this coming week.

Folks here seem to think that it is a given that Gronk and Edelman will come back, and be contributing at near 100%. Maybe that will happen, although it seems extremely unlikely. And no, just having Gronk on the field is NOT enough.

 

[bbobbo]

Ball in air, Dola shoved with both hands:

View attachment 11507

7 frames earlier, ball in hand, contact already initiated within 5 yards of LOS. no DPI.

from the nfl rulebook:

Section 4 - Legal and Illegal Contact with Eligible Receivers
Article 1. Legal Contact Within Five Yards

Within the area five yards beyond the line of scrimmage, a defensive player may chuck an eligible receiver in front of him. The defender is allowed to maintain continuous and unbroken contact within the five-yard zone, so long as the receiver has not moved beyond a point that is even with the defender.

 

[Ivan]

While I agree with the OP the Patriots receivers, LaFell in particular, have to catch the ball. Brady has had more drops than any QB in football and it isn't even, close. They need to execute better in every phase of the game, particularly receiving.

 

[bigballas]

here it is. i think your interpretation is right--he's going for the ball, so they allowed the contact.

also Chandler is still engaged when Brady is about to get killed and forced the throw to Amendola...

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

I think the essence of what you are saying is correct. With the current status of the team, let a solid D hold down the Texans scoring with no risky throws/TOs on O (and for god's sake no STs slip ups). If we have to punt more then it is what it is.

I think this formula is a winner while the team slowly returns to its potent more offensive state.

 

[VectorPrime]

here it is. i think your interpretation is right--he's going for the ball, so they allowed the contact.

Ugh, seeing Chandler break wide open is painful. Brady was hit about a tenth of a second after releasing the ball but he still should have seen him instead of staring Amendola down.

 

[zipster9]

When he holds the ball much longer than he wants to, he seems to force the ball..
The 2nd/3rd tier WRs cannot get open in time.


Which is why Edelman was the blanky (as was Welker) ...

 

[robbomango]

I always hear this about TB not trusting the newbies but I rarely see it, he threw Keshawn Martin the ball 8 times and 1 critical time at the end of the game when he was tightly covered. I've seen him throw to newbies cold off the bench in big moments. He threw a ball to a tightly covered undrafted rookie Thompkins to win that game against the Saints, he threw a bomb to Slater in the PO's, Tiquan Underwood, Dobson, Solder or whoever else is on the field.

That narrative is way overblown IMO, especially after a loss. When he threw the pic against Washington it was "Why's he throwing to that JAG(Underwoodf 2011) in a critical moment?" on another week it will be "why's he locking in on that guy". I see him throw to whoever's on the field, B Lloyd, Hooman, Develin, Chandler, Gronk, Martin, Tim Wright, obviously your playmakers get the bulk of the batch but they're supposed to. Hell I believe he even threw a couple of passes Harpers way at the end of the Denver game after the dreadful muff'd punt.

Someone will watch a replay and say "Look this guy was open, TB just avoided him like the plague, he doesn't trust him". The games going a hundred miles per hour, you don't catch everything, he didn't even look Chandler's way on the INT, pass rush got to him. He looked right, then straight and threw it when he saw penetration. I think he spreads the ball around just fine personally, it's just this crazy vertical game I'm sceptical of....

 

[50-yard-line]

I saw it similar like Butler's SB interception. If you are going for the ball, they allow the contact. But I did not see Brady INT as closely as you did and have deleted the game from my DVR like an ex-girlfriend's text message.

Watch it again - it's listed on another thread here. I missed it, too, until I saw the reply. The guy went after Amendola, not the ball, with the ball in the air.

 

[BradyBranch39]

7 frames earlier, ball in hand, contact already initiated within 5 yards of LOS. no DPI.

from the nfl rulebook:

That's crazy-- I never knew that technicality. I bet our defenders wouldn't get the benefit of that!

 

[aluminum seats]

I think in the wake of all the catastrophic blunders on Sunday (and maybe it’s a good thing they were all compressed into one game) the pretty decent job by the defense sort of got lost.

The defense allowed 7 points per half, which is pretty much going to get the job down 99 percent of the time. Collins is back, and hopefully Hightower (and Easley) are back for Houston. There’s nothing so stabilizing as a great defensive performance, which is what the Pats need. A strong, clean, stable game. It’s similar to when a baseball team is reeling, a dominant pitching performance just settles everything the hell down.

The Pats are playing the Texans, led by Brian Hoyer. Their leading rusher last week was Chris Polk. I think this defense is going to come up absolutely huge on Sunday night.

That’s actually the only thing I was going to say, but I did want to make a point on this recent perplexing trend of Tom heaving the deep ball so much. (And this isn’t a McDaniels thing, the ball’s in Brady’s hands and he makes the decisions on his throws).

Tom Brady is, of course, a great quarterback. But he’s not perfect. I said two weeks ago that Brady was going to have to guard against impatience—to not feel that since this offense was effortlessly putting up 35+ earlier in the season it has to continue. It’s essential to understand every aspect of a game situation….he used to be masterful in that regard, and I think he’ll get back to it.

Let’s take a journey back to a simpler time…when the very idea of the Patriots being IN the Super Bowl was sort of mystifying…

The Patriots were big underdogs to the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI. The Patriots won (you may recall.) Led by Tom Brady, here’s how the Pats’ offensive series went that game:

Punt
Punt
Punt
Punt
TD (right before half, starting field position Rams’ 40 off fumble)
Punt
Punt
FG (starting field position Rams’ 33 off interception)
Punt
Punt
FG

Brady threw for less than 150 yards. No picks. Super Bowl winner.

OK this is getting long. Anyway, point being Brady has to take what’s there. If it’s not there, punt. Any drive that ends with a kick is a good drive (doubt we’ll see another punt blocked this year). Skills players are coming back. Let this excellent defense play. Win games. Lather, rinse….repeat.

Just wanted to say that was pretty much exactly the kind of game--defensively and offensively--that I was talking about.

 

[Joker]

so...stock tips? anything I can use to feather my little nest?

 

[aluminum seats]

so...stock tips? anything I can use to feather my little nest?

Nope, just basically worthless info here

 

[oldrover]

Just wanted to say that was pretty much exactly the kind of game--defensively and offensively--that I was talking about.

 

[JarOfMayo51]

I doff my cap to you Sir

 

[denverpatsfan]

Nice job on the prediction.

 

[50-yard-line]

Spot on - well played!