Bedard: Loss to 49ers could pay off for Patriots

[hambone1818]

There's no doubt in my mind that brady would have won have won the game if the special teams and defense didn't fail him.

Brady to me is that damn good.

He had the ball in his hands with 3 minutes left to tie the score. You can blame the defense and special teams all you want but they held for most of the second half and allowed the offense to claw their way back after a horrid first half. On that drive with 3 minutes left Brady went 1-for-4 for 9 yards and badly overthrew Welker (I believe it was him) on fourth down.

None of this is meant to fault Brady, he was amazing during the comeback and his second pick was not his fault (though he did throw into tight coverage). But the defense played as well as the offense did during the comeback, it makes no sense to me why you won't recognize that.

 

[mosi]

This game was just like the Steelers game as last year. The Pats got their asses kicked. Simple as that. You learn from it and move on. The road is now harder but honestly, who cares. I have more faith in team that played three playoff games, two on the road, winning the superbowl anyway...

 

[coolguy]

He had the ball in his hands with 3 minutes left to tie the score. You can blame the defense and special teams all you want but they held for most of the second half and allowed the offense to claw their way back after a horrid first half. On that drive with 3 minutes left Brady went 1-for-4 for 9 yards and badly overthrew Welker (I believe it was him) on fourth down.

None of this is meant to fault Brady, he was amazing during the comeback and his second pick was not his fault (though he did throw into tight coverage). But the defense played as well as the offense did during the comeback, it makes no sense to me why you won't recognize that.

Couldn't you also say that the quick score demoralized the team and they couldn't recover?

 

[ThatllMoveTheChains!!!]

Re: Bedard:This loss could pay off for Patriots

Well his column dealt with the defense, and how they were exposed. You brought up the TD that came immediately after the score was tied up but that was largely a failure on the part of special teams. I understand you need to be successful in all three phases to win the NFL but he was talking specifically about the defense...my argument is that they actually played a good game but it gets lost in the shuffle because they had to defend from terrible starting positions all night---five drives that started inside field goal range.

The part that absolutely kills me is he says, literally in the same sentence, that it simultaneously gets harder to play offense and easier to play defense when you have a lead. These are two completely opposing statements; how anyone with even a grade school education could be this stupid/blind is beyond me. Somehow the 49ers game is evidence of this... because their defense played at its best when up by 28, I mean 21, I mean 14, I mean...

 

[hambone1818]

Couldn't you also say that the quick score demoralized the team and they couldn't recover?

Sure, you can absolute argue that and I wouldn't disagree. But again, the point of the article--and I thought this thread--was that the defense was exposed last night. My contention is that they were constantly on their heels in the first half because of turnovers and were unlucky in many instances that fumbles didn't go their way (and the PI against Talib, again I think it was a bad call). I didn't see a defense that got exposed, I saw one that minimized damage when you consider starting field position for the Niners, stepped up huge for most of the second half and had one major gaffe at a critical time.

 

[Steve102]

Couldn't you also say that the quick score demoralized the team and they couldn't recover?

Watching you talk to Kontra and Deus, I can't help but think this:

 

[coolguy]

Watching you talk to Kontra and Deus, I can't help but think this:

I didn't know you can watch people talk on a forum..........Can you share that technology with the rest us?

 

[Steve102]

I didn't know you can watch people talk on a forum..........Can you share that technology with the rest us?

No, I am too French, as you've eloquently pointed out. It doesn't change the knife/gun fight analogy.

 

[coolguy]

sorry but

 

[Kontradiction]

How do you know they would have scored? They had more than enough chances to put points on the board before the brady onslaught.

In a couple of instances, they were doing this one thing called "driving".

 

[goheels22002]

None of this is meant to fault Brady, he was amazing during the comeback and his second pick was not his fault (though he did throw into tight coverage). But the defense played as well as the offense did during the comeback, it makes no sense to me why you won't recognize that.

The second interception - the one to Aaron Hernandez less than 30 seconds after Hernandez was the recipient of a helmet-to-helmet hit from Dayshaun Goldson - absolutely was Brady's and McDaniels' fault. Hernandez got nailed. They should have pulled him off the field to talk with the medical staff. And Brady should have thrown the pass to somebody else.

That play really upset me because the very next play was the strike to Crabtree between Gregory and McCourty to make it 31-3. The Pats were driving and that interception was avoidable.

If a Patriots player gets nailed like Hernandez was, they must stop the hurry up and make sure the player is all right. We won't know for a couple of days if there was longer term damage to Hernandez, but that one was a huge mistake.

 

[PatriotSeven]

but the 49ers didn't score off all of them.

Scoring off turnovers is only half the pain.

The other half is the 4 opportunities taken away from you to score.

 

[Reckedtrek]

Hopefully they are done with the TO's now.

And it's been a problem all year. :bricks:

Be aware of knee jerk reactions.

 

[coolguy]

In a couple of instances, they were doing this one thing called "driving".

If the turnovers never happened and the game was tied let's say 21-21 with 6:47, then what happens?

The patriots were dominating the 49ers until the kickoff return and 1 second touchdown. Turnovers at that point didn't matter because they overcame the mistakes.

 

[Patradomous]

The article has some points. If you had told me that the Pats would score 34 points I would have told you that they'll win by ten. Brady can carry you playing like that against the Jets and Bills of the world. But real contenders will kill you.
Maybe it will help them if they are humbled going forward, thats all we got today.

 

[BradyFTW!]

The article has some points. If you had told me that the Pats would score 34 points I would have told you that they'll win by ten. Brady can carry you playing like that against the Jets and Bills of the world. But real contenders will kill you.
Maybe it will help them if they are humbled going forward, thats all we got today.

Our running backs can't lose the ball on our side of the field twice in the third quarter, essentially spotting the 49ers two scores.

There was a lot that went wrong in that game, but the Vereen/Ridley fumbles were the real killers. You can't beat a team like the 49ers by handing them points.

 

[Kontradiction]

If the turnovers never happened and the game was tied let's say 21-21 with 6:47, then what happens?

The patriots were dominating the 49ers until the kickoff return and 1 second touchdown. Turnovers at that point didn't matter because they overcame the mistakes.

You're willfully missing the point now.

 

[coolguy]

You're willfully missing the point now.

The point is brady's comeback with 6:47 made those turnovers void.

It was the kickoff return + 1 second td and the 4th and 2 (even though i loved the call) that cost the pats the ball game.

They overcame so much just for the defense to fail in the end.

How come no one here brought up just how bad the defense was on those 4 touchdowns.
That randy moss touchdown was way too easy.

 

[JoeSixPat]

Hopefully someone teaches our offense how to handle the ball in inclement weather conditions between now and the playoffs.

It's a funny shaped ball and cow skin gets slippery when wet - that's not the Patriots fault.

Compare how they did compared to the 49ers in the same conditions and you'll see they did a better job - in the 49ers case that funny shaped ball happend to bounce their way more often. It happens.

All that being said, if you gave me a choice of playing a home game in similar conditions to Sunday night, or an away game in better conditions, I'll take the away game in good conditions.

All of those panicking about playing on the road or not having the bye might want to look at last night's game to remember what home games in January can be like - and they also might want to look at the most recent years of Super Bowls to determine how many championships have been won by 6th seeds and how many by #1 seeds.

Player health is my #1 priority for the Patriots in the playoffs. Where they play, who they play, or whether they have a bye are all secondary concerns to that.

 

[IcyPatriot]

Also I'm thinking this ... we took a possible future Super Bowl loss and moved it to the present. Now it's out of the way and if we meet them in the Super Bowl we got Jonah out of the way. This will work nicely ...