Bedard film review :Pats vs Bengals

[Fencer]

Gronk is still a shell of himself. Amendola has been horrible. LaFell is a WR3/WR4. Wright is still learning the system. Outside of Edelman, this may be the worst group of receivers/TE in the NFL right now. That's not anywhere near "fine". It should improve moving forward, but let's not kid ourselves about what's out there right now.

Edelman plus a recovering Gronk plus an already effective newcomer Wright plus a collection of other pieces seems fairly near "fine" to me. That said, once again our three best receivers seem to be two TEs and a natural slot receiver, with a RB also up there in the rankings.

 

[AzPatsFan]

Much of Brady's frustration is because of offensive personnel decisions and Scar's retirement

- true

They are still running Patriots offense for dummies
They obviously didn't know what the heck they were doing when they traded Mankins
Where are his weapons?

They should improve every offseason, instead went a giant step back

I disagree.

It is no secret that Belichick has emphasized rebuilding the Defense. It needed it the most, as even a cursory look at the Defense and Offense ratings over the past few years can attest.

The Offense has had less investment because it needed less. It has a been Top3 for three of the past four past years.

But it has NOT been neglected. In turn, the OTs have been replaced, with high picks. The RBs have been replaced. The TEs have been replaced and even augmented again this year re-replacing APerp. The WRs were rebuilt last season. Now the interior line is being renewed this season. The WRs and TEs were augmented this season again too.

I will admit that Belichick did not draft a DIVA headcase Superstar at WR. That is good in my book. The only one he had a shot at, Corderelle Patterson is dumber than Granite and a jailbird in waiting.

The players added to the Offense are not all Superstars, merely good players. One Tackle has been to a Probowl. One is a 1300 yard/season RB, who is still on course for another 1100 yard season. It includes the GOAT TE, with as many TDs as Megatron. It includes a 1000 yard/ 100 catch WR, who is close to setting the all time, NFL, Punt Returner record.

Frankly this talk of "no weapons" is bovine pasture patties !

It has as much substance as the Felgeresqe gasbag emanations that the Team is torn with hatred, and they all "hate their coach", that Kraft is cheap and incompetent, and Belichick can't coach anymore.

Belichick pondered the trade for Mankins, fully recognizing the disruption. But he chose to help Brady, re-filling the TE "hole", giving him back his TE and receiving TE weapons, as more important, even though he had to eat $8 million in Dead Money for Mankins.

Anyone with a modicum of football common sense knew that renewing three positions on the Offensive line simultaneously, would take multiple games to accomplish, at least 4, and maybe 8 games, assuming the talent is there. BB drafted replacement talent for two positions and assumed veteran Cannon would make a fine starter at Left Guard.

There has been some disappointments and successes, as you would expect.. Stork is now established as the new big, and talented, tough Center. But the veteran conversion of talented reserve OT, Marcus Cannon to LG, did not go well.

Unexpectedly, Solder has had problems at LOT, where he has played much better in prior years. And Flemming at RG, had to be aborted due to injury. Maybe for the time being.

OTOH, Connolly has adapted to LG, and Wendell has played adequately at RG, We shall see when a big DT comes to town, like Dareus, Ngata or Suh,who have given Wendell fits.

The Offensive line has started to come together. We are 3-2, and tied a top the AFCE, and have beaten an AFC power thoroughly.

 

[AzPatsFan]

Bill looks longterm. Bill doesn't want Patriots to go into tank when Brady leaves. Bill wants to be strong when Tom leaves, whereas Broncos don't have any QB behind Manning and are all in.

"All in" is just not the way Bill thinks

On that we both can agree, unanimously.

 

[Mike the Brit]

Good point. It might actually have been a good plan for Edelman to go to where he was more open short of the marker, and rely on his wiggle to get the first down, but I have trouble imagining how that policy could be baked into the offensive scheme; the QB can't be expected to see it as the WR does to that fine level of detail.

From just watching him over the years (but this year especially) that seems to be JE's way of playing. He'd rather get the ball firmly in his hands and stick his nose in for a couple of yards than try to muscle his way to a catch at the marker. That makes a lot of sense to me -- and it ought to be something that he and TB have down between them.

 

[AzPatsFan]

Personnel hasn't been up to snuff, so they've gone back to basics. Usually, this is week 1 stuff, we're now in week 5

When you stop and think. the only players on Offense here for two years or more are a pair of RBs, one WR, one TE, and four Offensive linemen, three of whom are/were playing different positions. And Brady.

I agree that the Offense is basic, but you have to crawl before you walk or run. It is still 11 games until the Playoffs, and despite the blather, they are atop their division.

 

[Kontradiction]

With their recent track record in the draft, yes, Bill needs help.

I think this is obvious. Bill has his hits on draft day since Pioli departed. But he also has a good amount of "WTF was THAT!?" style misses. Tavon Wilson in the second round was just brutal. Harmon the next year one round later was almost as big of a reach. Not sure if Bedard's theory is correct about Caserio (I'm not privy to that info personally), but he does need a guy there he trusts to tell him to chill out in case he wants to go full ****** again in that style. Both Wilson and Harmon, as a lot of us said at the time, could have waited until the 6th round. If they weren't around, it wouldn't have been that big of a loss at all.

 

[Galeb]

That show downright sucks. They used be halfway decent , but cant listen to Mazz anymore the guy is utterly clueless.

Have since gone back to listen to Dale and Holley

Holley has declined dramatically over the years. Still preferable to Felger and Mazz, who I will tune into for specific guests. I usually listen to music on the way home these days.

 

[reflexblue]

I would really like to know which "journalists" have access to the Pats' draft board rankings and war room discussions.

I doubt its very hard for someone like bedard to get this information from BB's staff that were once in the room on draft day and saw what went on. Like Dimitof for example.

 

[Galeb]

I doubt its very hard for someone like bedard to get this information from BB's staff that were once in the room on draft day and saw what went on. Like Dimitof for example.

It's also quite possible that Bedard is just taking what other media members have said as gospel. Like most in the media, Bedard has a tendency to do that.

 

[ATippett56]

I think this is obvious. Bill has his hits on draft day since Pioli departed. But he also has a good amount of "WTF was THAT!?" style misses. Tavon Wilson in the second round was just brutal. Harmon the next year one round later was almost as big of a reach. Not sure if Bedard's theory is correct about Caserio (I'm not privy to that info personally), but he does need a guy there he trusts to tell him to chill out in case he wants to go full ****** again in that style. Both Wilson and Harmon, as a lot of us said at the time, could have waited until the 6th round. If they weren't around, it wouldn't have been that big of a loss at all.

To this day, Glass-IR Dowling takes the cake in the WTF category.

 

[Mcp1982]

Not sure I agree on Dowling. He was considered a late 1, early mid 2 type talent by many. Injury risk is what it is, sometimes you get a Gronk, sometimes a Dowling but the talent was there. On the other hand, not many people had even heard of Tavon Wilson or Duron Harmon, let alone had them being drafted in an early round. That was just BB being the dumbest smart guy in the room

 

[Deus Irae]

Not sure I agree on Dowling. He was considered a late 1, early mid 2 type talent by many. Injury risk is what it is, sometimes you get a Gronk, sometimes a Dowling but the talent was there. On the other hand, not many people had even heard of Tavon Wilson or Duron Harmon, let alone had them being drafted in an early round. That was just BB being the dumbest smart guy in the room

Look at Dowling in the context of Wheatley.

 

[Mcp1982]

Not sure I follow the Wheatley comment. You mean in terms that they both sucked?

 

[Deus Irae]

Not sure I follow the Wheatley comment. You mean in terms that they both sucked?

Wheatley was another "injury" CB. It was that double dip that I was referring to.



But, take a look at what NE was doing at CB during that time.

2008 - Wheatley (injury, size)
2009 - Butler (overall play, size)
2010 - McCourty (man coverage)
2011 - Dowling (injury)


Out of that group, only one has been a success, and he had to move to safety to find his niche.

 

[Danger Zone]

I'd Dislike this post, but I'm afraid of the consequences.

You're welcome to Dislike my posts. My snark is worse than my bite.

 

[captain stone]

In my opinion, Jordan Devey does not belong in the NFL and Marcus Cannon is strictly an offensive tackle.

I'd still like to see Cannon given a long look at RG, but absolutely not at LG.

 

[supafly]

The Offensive line has started to come together. We are 3-2, and tied a top the AFCE, and have beaten an AFC power thoroughly.

If they can get out of Buffalo on Sunday afternoon with a win, they'll be 4-2, in first place of the division, and with 3 straight games in Foxborough ahead.

That'd be a fairly good place to be in, all things considered.

Of course, that is a very big "if," but we'll all have our fingers crossed that things will continue moving in the right direction.

 

[supafly]

I'd still like to see Cannon given a long look at RG, but absolutely not at LG.

Yeah, the left side experiment was a failure from the start in my opinion. That one was a shocker to me.

 

[PatsBoy12]

And the Pats were 4-5 on the road last year. This is a young team and it shows when they get out of Gillette. Maybe they'll take their energy and anger with them to Buffalo - and if so, they will win handily over a pretty good Buffalo team.

They were 4-4, but point taken, 50. They haven't fared well so far this season on the road either. That's a bit scary, especially if we cannot get homefield in the playoffs.

 

[PatsBoy12]

Felt McDaniels called an excellent game. Kept the Bengals off balanced. Exploited the seams.

I was saying this very thing the whole game. It didn't look like the Bengals had any idea what to do defensively at times. Their players were lining up incorrectly and they were biting hard on play action almost the whole game. It was a very good thing to see, especially considering the obvious noise we've been hearing all season so far.