Extremely encouraged by this win

[JackBauer]

It means I was extremely encouraged by the performance of this team today. Many of the most important questions were answered in a positive way. Dillon is back. Rodney is laying the lumber. Maroney is spectacular. The running game was productive. The pass rush survived the loss of McGinest. Wilfork commanded double teams. The worst part of the game was the performance of Brady, the best player in football, the player on this team I am least worried about.

A point(s) on which we are in total agreement.

 

[PATSNUTme]

It was absolutely horrible. The 1st and 2nd down play calling was horrendous. The pass routes that were established were horrible, mainly ouside, and the game plan in general looked like it was drawn up in a sandlot.

Finally, in the second half, McDaniels discovered that there actually is a part of the field between the hash marks that is in bounds.

Howeve, play action is not in his dictionary, and with the threat of these two running backs, play action, especially in the red zone, would have worked.....as well as in other areas. I agree with you on this and said so during the game.

I dont understand why McDaniels has an aversion to play action, especially when Brady handles it very well, and we have the tight ends, the backs , and even the WR's to utilize it.

We got away today because the Bills really are not a good team, and our defense rose when they needed to.

If we approach next week's game the same way, offensively on the road against the Jets, the game will be over by halftime.

Ihave no aversion to using a running game, and we Do have a good one....but you can use that threat of running to make your passing attack better, with play action and a no huddle, and when you go with multiple wideouts, keeping a back in to keep the defense honest.

More later. You really don't have to.

Dont get me wrong, very happy with the win..but we can not play this way offensively against better teams. We need to exploit the seams inside/ McDaniels needs to learn the words, INSIDE, PLAY ACTION, SLANT, CROSSING....etc.. Lord Knows, I wil do my best to teach him....

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[wistahpatsfan]

Wow. And we won the game. I suppose you would have hung yourself if we had lost. Or if we had played like the Bills (start off great, unable to finsih the job. At least the Pats came back, hung tough, and pulled out the win. What more do you want? Style points?)

Not sure what help Deion would have been. Brady was off, not the receivers. Hard for anyone to catch passes tipped at the line of scrimmage.

The game was over at half-time. When the PAts go into the locker room within 10 points, BB usually solves the other team. This was typical Pats victory. The amazing thing is that Brady, under more pressure than expected, kept cool and made the huge plays at the end. I was also impressed with the response after the Bills' first TD. On TV, the o-line looked like they were getting pushed around, but at Gilette, the Bills were executing very well and looked more prepared than the Pats' O-line. That happens, but when you win anyways, that makes it even better knowing they'll work harder to improve next week. Bills are definitely a better team than everyone says, but Loseman sucks.

 

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

Me too.

Guys, let's try not to rip each other up over a win, OK? We're all supposed to be on the same side here.

I'm in a relentlessly foul mood because some guy ripped me off on E-bay and won't return my e-mails.

So I really shouldn't even be posting today!

We barely beat the Bills in Foxboro.

I'll go away and let you guys have the last word.....

 

[RPCity]

Nothing 'sky is falling' in my attitude. Just expect Brady to get normal protection.

When I see a good game, I am encouraged. When I see a mess, I am hoping that they can sort it out. Do you remember as far back as 2005 or 2002? We will look like that if we don't buckle down in a lot of areas.

So I will remain cautiously optimistic that we can improve by next week and also against Miami and Denver.

People get hit in football. Its my hopes and prayers every week that nothing happens to any player (on our team or other teams) what happened to poor Trent Green today, but its pretty much unavoidable. Yes, I want Brady to be protected better and I think that will improve over the course of the year. Offensive lines take time to gel as a unit, particularly on run blocking. With one member coming off an injury for a year and another member being a rookie, thats how it is for our O-Line. With Dante running things, I'm confident that it won't be a concern for long.

You really thought this game was a mess? We were pretty successful on defense. I think that you're severely underestimating the Bills. Beyond Brady's play, I thought we did pretty well. (Granted I didn't watch from kickoff to buzzer because I was at my cousin's house where he was controlling things with NFL ticket and he jumps around far too much) Most of the Bills points were off of offensive mistakes in the first half. A Brady fumble at the 5.....then I didn't see the A-Train TD or the drive that led to it. But it was two seperate games today. Maybe the first half was a mess. But the second half certainly was not.

As far as being cautiously optimistic.....I think you just defined everybody in this thread. Nobody's jumping up and down being excited. If anybody's taking today's performance too far one way or the other....in all honesty.....I think it might be you.

 

[Garbanza]

Wow. And we won the game. I suppose you would have hung yourself if we had lost. Or if we had played like the Bills (start off great, unable to finsih the job. At least the Pats came back, hung tough, and pulled out the win. What more do you want? Style points?)

Not sure what help Deion would have been. Brady was off, not the receivers. Hard for anyone to catch passes tipped at the line of scrimmage.

I'm hardly going to give my tix up over this....LOL! Just commenting on what I saw. I saw two diffrent defenses. Sh&t in the first half. Very good in the second half. The o-line - left side - was a major issue. This need to be fixed. We can't have Graham AND Watson helping Light out all the time - kills our best receiver - who right now is Watson. Brady had a BAD day - and I put some of that blame on the o-line.

That said, I think next week with a healthy compliment of recievers, should help the verticle game. I think teh Jets can be run on and they have no run game - so I suspect they will tee off on Chad - and test our secondary for the first time this season.

 

[mgteich]

How can any patriot fan say?

"The amazing thing is that Brady, under more pressure than expected, kept cool and made the huge plays at the end."

How many times does Brady have to prove himself to us?

The game was over at half-time. When the PAts go into the locker room within 10 points, BB usually solves the other team. This was typical Pats victory. The amazing thing is that Brady, under more pressure than expected, kept cool and made the huge plays at the end. I was also impressed with the response after the Bills' first TD. On TV, the o-line looked like they were getting pushed around, but at Gilette, the Bills were executing very well and looked more prepared than the Pats' O-line. That happens, but when you win anyways, that makes it even better knowing they'll work harder to improve next week. Bills are definitely a better team than everyone says, but Loseman sucks.

 

[Bella*chick]

I'm in a relentlessly foul mood because some guy ripped me off on E-bay and won't return my e-mails.

So I really shouldn't even be posting today!

I'm sorry that happened to you! I hope it wasn't for a whole lot of money.

 

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

It's not the $75 bucks, its just the dishonest people that lie to you and don't care. Internet theft.

My Bad for even posting on this site when I am pre-occupied.

RPCity: Again, I am not taking this performance one way or the other. I am hoping they improve one day at a time until next week.

 

[flutie2phelan]

Maroney/Dillon/Faulk played outstanding. That's it.
Yes, they did.
In the second half, so did almost everyone else ... who won that half, 12-0.


Here's the bad:

Tully Banta-Cain sucks arse. Colvin is fabulous at rushing the passer - fantastic pas rusher. However, did everyone see Buff RB run right at him and past him? Hello????
Well, ALL their rushes ... 23 of them ... gained only 99 yards.

Was Matt Light drunk? He had one of his WORST games.
Yes. For a while there, it looked like the Aaron Schobel Show.
But thank goodness, we have Matt back! Think of it as ramping-up.

Um.....yes, we do need Deion back.
Not on HIS terms, we don't.

Zone D was soft.
If you say so.
But the Bills gained merely 164 yards thru the air.

Special teams tackling leaves a bit to be desired.
Parrish ran back 1 punt for no gain. (Kevin Faulk took his back 14.)
But kickoffs several times were covered INSIDE the 20. (Holy Gost helps, of course ... booting into the endzone.)
There was that one bust-out, admittedly.

Okay, rant over.

0101010101

 

[cstjohn17]

Just logging in now, I honestly didn't expect to see a topic entitled "Extremely encouraged by this win..." I must have been watching another game. This game was won by the skin of our butt. The offensive game plan was not coherent, it is very obvious that Mr. Weis is at a completely different level than J. McDaniels. The team continues to lay its entire offensive plan on the shoulders of Brady's pre-snap reads. No doubt #12 is the best in the business but he can't just be winging it.

The running game was great but must be tempered by the fact that Buffalo was near the bottom of the league last year and they lost their best interior lineman (Sam Adams).

The biggest disappointment is that the weaknesses of the team (WR and LB) were obvious and well known and little or nothing was done to improve these areas in the offseason.

I hope things turnaround but it is eerily similar to last season where each game was a life and death struggle and there never was true sense that the team was ever all on the same page. Our top end talent and coaching will allow us to win more than we lose but I will need to see more before I am convinced that this is a championship caliber team.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

It was absolutely horrible. The 1st and 2nd down play calling was horrendous. The pass routes that were established were horrible, mainly ouside, and the game plan in general looked like it was drawn up in a sandlot.

May I suggest a simple cut and paste rant of senility from the past several years of inanity regarding offensive play calling? It would save lots of repetitive effort. Just use a word macro to update the names.

 

[p8ryts]

Glad to see a postive post. I was worried that we were overrun by frustrated second guessers. I don't know why people expect perfection. The other team is playing hard also.

People complaining about Dillon, the guy was a monster today. Complaining about the play calling, jeez, looked like execution to me.

Game 1, tough game, both elevens improved during the game and we came back. I thik it will be a good wake up call before next week's game.

There are three important stats today, no injuries, good running game and now we are 1-0.

 

[mgteich]

Did Faulk come back in?

Glad to see a postive post. I was worried that we were overrun by frustrated second guessers. I don't know why people expect perfection. The other team is playing hard also.

People complaining about Dillon, the guy was a monster today. Complaining about the play calling, jeez, looked like execution to me.

Game 1, tough game, both elevens improved during the game and we came back. I thik it will be a good wake up call before next week's game.

There are three important stats today, no injuries, good running game and now we are 1-0.

 

[Ungeheuer]

You know what gets me about Patriots fans sometimes? Because we won three Super Bowls, everyone seems to think we dominated everybody the last four or five years. In fact even in our 14-win years we had a hell of a lot of close wins. We had a lot of teams that had to live with Antowain Smith running the ball, teams that didn't score that well. Teams that beat Cleveland 9-3. Teams that played a lot of loose quarters.

The distinguishing feature of these Patriots teams is that they win. They show toughness, they keep fighting, they pull it out. Admittedly this win was unusual in that they fell far behind and gave up bad turnovers. But I like the physicality of this team a lot already. They were in better shape than the Bills. They came back and won the line battles. We have to stop expecting blowouts and learn to appreciate wins. It's hard to win in the NFL and these guys just keep finding a way.

 

[14thDragon]

Well there were certinaly things to be encouraged about. And things to worry about.

But what I did find encouraging was

1. Running attack, we have one. A good one too.

2. Rush Defense, looked shaky in the early goings, but got better, biiggest improvemt, few of those long demeroalising runs. The one eception being the touchdown where the runner seemed to have a teflon coat on his uniform.

3. Pass Defense, again, no really long plays were given up by the defense. Asante needs to step it up a bit though.

Worrisome,

1. Passing game, I am not sure what was going on in the first half but I can not rember the last time Brady was constantly throwing into D-linemans hands. I'm sure this will improve as the o-line and Brady settle down, but it was odd to say the least.

2. Special teams, Miller had a couple of not so great kicks, and once again our special teams had times where they were getting gashed.

Overall. If Brady is going to have a day like today, I am just glad everyone-else stepped it up enough to win he game.

 

[Bella*chick]

You know what gets me about Patriots fans sometimes? Because we won three Super Bowls, everyone seems to think we dominated everybody the last four or five years. In fact even in our 14-win years we had a hell of a lot of close wins. We had a lot of teams that had to live with Antowain Smith running the ball, teams that didn't score that well. Teams that beat Cleveland 9-3. Teams that played a lot of loose quarters.

The distinguishing feature of these Patriots teams is that they win. They show toughness, they keep fighting, they pull it out. Admittedly this win was unusual in that they fell far behind and gave up bad turnovers. But I like the physicality of this team a lot already. They were in better shape than the Bills. They came back and won the line battles. We have to stop expecting blowouts and learn to appreciate wins. It's hard to win in the NFL and these guys just keep finding a way.

Very good point. Offhand, from our SB seasons, I remember a horrific game against the Texans and one against the Dolphins that EVERYONE expected us to run away with and we lost.

Heck, we were expected to roll over Philly in the Superbowl. However, we usually do enough to win. Today we did not play very well in the first half, had some mistakes in the second half, and still did what we needed to win. Patriot wins aren't always pretty.

Geez, from the tone on this board, I almost forgot we are 1-0.

 

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

Nobody expects a blow out. Looking like we were ready to defend our own turf would have been a great start.

The 2002 and 2005 teams seemed to lack that special toughness that previous SB teams had shown. The character of a champion that we all admire when we pop in 'three games to glory'.

In 2005, we regained some of it at the end of the season but it was too little and too late. You can't pour it on at the last minute, whether due to injuries or whatever else, and expect that everything will go your way.

When we start out looking like a mess, it makes me wonder what the Pats have been doing this offseason and whether that special magic will show up, or if we will drift thru all our 'trap' games and then not be able to quite turn it up when the Fins, Colts, Broncos and other good teams show up on the schedule.

It is enough to keep me from being extremely encouraged. The sign of the 2002 and 2005 season is that we NEVER put two good halves together when we needed to.

What if the Bills got just one more field goal in the second half? Many other teams would have put us away.

I hope we play two good halves of football next week. If that happens, I might be encouraged, but not extremely encouraged until we play a top team.

And show up in both halves.

 

[shakadave]

How about the biggest positive of the game.... NO MAJOR INJURIES!

Amen!

Also, Graham played the 10th-best game of any Patriot today.

 

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

We played hard against the Texans and outgained them by about 350 yards, and also knocked out their QB. That game was a fluke game. So was the Fins game. We had it wrapped up until Brady made a daring throw while being sacked, to the wrong team. Of course, each SuperBowl was super hard. Wouldn't want it any other way.

I can't really compare our first half today to any of our heroic 2003-2004 efforts.

Going 1-0 could be 1-15 or 16-0 at the end of the season. So I hope we are better next week because we stunk in a lot of games in 2002 and 2005 when we could only muster the effort for one good half of play.