Draft Addressed MY concerns

[SoonerPatriot]

I think this is a bit much. I agree that it's not a great match-up for the Patriots OL, their skill-set, and the skill-set of the Giants, but I think 9 times out of 10 the results would not be "the same." I think they'd be "opposite." Not that Light, Koppen, et al, would dominate the Giants, but the result of the game would be opposite.

Giants and their DL played a perfect game. Hats off to them, they earned that Super Bowl. But it was a perfect storm that day. Any other day, Pats win.

I'm not saying we wouldn't have won a hypothetical game the following Sunday. I do think they would be able to get a lot of pressure on brady.

You're right though. The Giants played a perfect game defensively and still needed a FLUKE catch from Tyree to get in position to win.

 

[Chevy]

As to the pass rush/sacks issue:


2007 -- 47 -- 2nd/NFL

2006 -- 44 -- 5th/NFL

2005 -- 33 -- 23rd/NFL

2004 -- 45 -- t3rd/NFL

2003 -- 41 -- 6th/NFL


IMHO, that's a pretty good 5 year run.

 

[nashvillepatsfan]

Everyone makes valid points here, but you can't blame just the offense, or the defense. The pats lost as a team. The o-line didnt play their best(not even close), and Brady clearly wasnt what we had seen all year, and the same could be said for Moss at the end of the game. The defense did exactly what we thought they would. They made an average q.b., look average. Too bad they couldnt do that in the 4th quarter. On top of that, mr. average had incredible luck. Then to make matters worse, the coaching staff did something we hadnt seen all year. They made no adjustments. God only knows (and b.b.) what happened with the coaching. Finally, the giants defense played a really good game. I wont dare give their offense any credit, as I really think this year, people will see that they are average, period. Luck was on their side, and the Pats couldnt close the deal. Everyone was to blame......maybe even the evil mr specter

and yes, the draft addressed some of my concerns too

 

[JoeShmoe]

As I said I think it would have been wrong JUST to judge what we needed to do this year on one game. Sure we went 18-0 but we needed the same luck to beat Baltimore that the Giants had beating us

People can say the OL didnt do well in that game but they were OK for the other 18 (not nearly as good as some have given them credit for). However we gave up a lot of yards through the air down the middle (I can still remember Feely passing at will 10 yards down the field) with the age of Harrison/Bruschi/Seau and the quality of our nickle backs (Gay) catching up with us

We have now got more speed and presence in that DB unit. I think Mayo could be huge for us even next year and I really hope BB gets Merriweather in at S early this year so he and Sanders can get on the page. I also think Woods will see a lot more given what BB has been saying - pre season should be interesting

On a side note if the OL does get burned again this year and we either see Tom on his backside or a non-existant running game watch us go OL next year or look to FA

 

[jct]

It was really interesting seeing the progression from the loss in the AFCC to the loss in the SB. One can never be sure, but I bet its safe to say that BB was surprised, to say the least, that we didn't outscore the Giants.

I trust your analysis and definitely agree that the two minute D was the major problem. It seemed like there were some opportunities last offseason to improve (AT, Meriweather) but not enough to get the defense where he might have wanted it, so he went on the other side and created an incredible offense to go along with it. "Hey, what are the chances that this high powered offense has its an off day in the same game that the defense can't hold when given two chances??"

They weren't good but also weren't zero. Oh well... I'm looking forward to this defense with the tight cover corners, young LBs, and maybe most importantly Dom Capers, who will hopefully inject some creativity as well as allow BB to pay attention to the game as a whole instead of turning his back on the offense and/or special teams.

I really like the sentiment is this thread.
It can even be further argued that a better defense and STs will help out strongly offensive production.