First Thoughts

[reflexblue]

One of my first thoughts was CAN'T WE EVER PLAY IN A BIG GAME WITHOUT THE REFS BEING PART OF THE STORY,OR EFFECTING THE OUTCOME OF THE GAME. They were pathetic,I'm tired of the horrific calls. In the last three years every time were in this type of game the refereeing has been horrific.It got to the point in this game everytime there was a flag I didn't have to wait to know who it was on.It seemed everytime a ref had to make a subjective call it went against the Pats. I know the home team is suppose to get a few calls go their way but this was ridiculous.

 

[Mike the Brit]

Thanks so much for this, Ken, but really, for me, there is only one thought: the Colts had the refs, the Patriots had Randy Moss!

Happy Monday, everyone!

 

[JoePats]

The blocking the player while out of bounds call...they called the Falcons for the exact same thing against San Fran.

 

[tedylb]

I always look forward to your posts, Ken. Great points by you and others. I'll just add a few other opinions.

1. Our depth and special teams won this game. The Colts were sucking air in the fourth quarter. We rotated more effectively and got stronger, as the Colts weakened on both sides of the ball.

2. Peyton couldn't find a groove with all of the confusing defensive formations and moves all game long. Who was lining up where? Who was stunting? He couldn't figure it out. Who could? I think we even lined up a 1-6-4 a couple of times.

3. BB and staff will build on our mistakes today and won't let the team become complacent. And kudos to the coordinators and coaches for making the needed adjustments, like limiting Dallas Clark and the great Joseph Addai (second half), and controlling the line of scrimmage when it counted .

4. The Colts are a great team, and won't go away. Thank God we have leaders like BB and Tom and Rodney, who refuse to lose, and stay focused on the immediate goals. 16-0 is nice, but won't mean squat if we don't don't get that fourth Lombardi.

5. I read that our new receivers, Randy, Wes and Donte are together averaging 185 yards and two touchdowns per game so far. And they've figured prominently in almost every offensive score. What we're witnessing between Brady to Moss is special. We'll be telling our grandkids that we got to see them. Keep it up!

 

[Krugman]

Many good points brought up by PFK and Oswlek .Indeed Oswlek,I was wondering the same thing about Brady's Int when throwing the long ball to Stallworth.After watching it a few times,he starts with his back to the end zone,the CB behind him then adjusts and allows the CB to move in front of him
and make a play on the ball.Anyone else see a problem with that...?

 

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

Lots of good posts, especially patfanken and Oswelk (both as usual). I'll add some thoughts, likely reiterating most here and in other threads...

1. The Colts dictated the game for 3+ quarters. They were intent on running the ball with Addai and did so with success. They wanted to keep Brady off the field and they did; The Pats had only 3 first-half possessions (not counting the kneel-down) and started the 2nd half 3-and-out. They wanted to stay in their cover-2 and rush only 4, hoping to get pressure on Brady and they did as Freeney and Mathis gave Light and Kaczur a ton of trouble (surprisingly, IMO). We can complain about the reffing all we want, but let's give credit where it's due...the "flow" of the game was completely in the Colts' favor and almost all of it was their doing.

2. I thought the Pats were overly conservative in the 1st half, but I also think there was a method to their madness...they were trying to keep the TOP relatively even in hopes of keeping the D fresh in the 4th quarter. The last two visits to this dome the Pats jumped out to early leads and the D suffered huge meltdowns in the 2nd halves and BB didn't want to see a repeat of this. I do NOT think that plan included letting Addai run wild like he did or the Pats getting down by 10 in the 4th quarter, but the D did look much fresher than the Colts' in that final frame.

3. Through 3 quarters, the Colts benefited from good pass protection (and good OL play overall) while the Pats struggled in this aspect. In the 4th quarter, it's almost as if the teams switched jerseys. Suddenly Brady had time to throw and was able to pick apart the Colts. OTOH, Campbell...err, Manning...got stripped of the ball twice on sacks, the latter one ending any hopes of a comeback. Manning's OL got called for holding and a false start as the Pats' pass rush started asserting itself and the few plays Manning made that final quarter were made under pressure.

4. As a carry-on to the previous point, I think Light and Kaczur play much better in a January rematch. Freeney and Mathis are good, but Light and Kaczur have played plenty of good pass rushers this year and never looked as bad. If they do play better in a January rematch, the Pats will put up 35+. If they can put up 14 in one quarter with good protection, they'll do much better in those other three quarters.

5. It was obvious the Pats' gameplan was to take away Clark. Good job. Next time they need to spend a little more effort taking away Addai. That TD before the half was inexcusable. They did a better job handling him in the 2nd half than the 1st, but still...the guy almost single-handedly won the game for them.

6. I think the injury AD suffered vs. Cleveland is hurting him a ton more than anyone's letting on. The AD we saw vs. San Diego, taking LT2 out of the game and playing good middle-of-the-field coverage hasn't showed up for weeks. I thought his assignment this game would be to key on Addai. Instead, he's nowhere to be seen the entire 1st quarter and was subbing in and out the rest of the game. I hope he heals up a bit during the bye and maybe if the Pats can coast in a few more games this year, he can rest up some more.

7. The Pats appear married to the concept of keeping Hobbs at RCB and Asante at LCB. I would like to see the Pats start cross-training these guys to play each other's position because I think yesterday would have been a great time to have Asante cover Wayne, especially with no Harrison on the other side. If they meet again in January, I hope the Pats try this.

8. The Colts had no answer for Moss. They won't in a January rematch, either. Every member of their secondary is tiny in comparison to him.

9. Brady had Stallworth on that roll-right, throw deep left INT, but simply underthrew him. Bethea did a good job getting over and jumping in front of the ball, but if that ball is in the endzone then Stallworth has an easy TD.

10. I love how the Welker catch for the game-icing first down is so reminicent of the play the Pats ran unsuccessfully to Troy Brown that could have iced the AFCCG. If at first you don't succeed... Is it true that after making that catch, Welker turned to Hayden and shouted, "You effing suck!"?

ETA: The timestamp is messed up. I should be post 35, not 26.

Regards,
Chris

 

[boggleboggle]

Take away the false pass interference issues and Hobbs was just fine as the Patriots starting cornerback today.

Agreed. Remember, he was on Reggie Wayne most of the day. Wayne is by far Indy's best receiver (especially with Harrison out). If Samuel had been on Wayne, he would have given up some plays too. You are not going to shut down Manning to Wayne completely.

 

[Nordy]

5. I read that our new receivers, Randy, Wes and Donte are together averaging 185 yards and two touchdowns per game so far. And they've figured prominently in almost every offensive score. What we're witnessing between Brady to Moss is special. We'll be telling our grandkids that we got to see them. Keep it up!

Actually that trio is averaging 225 yards a game.

 

[PatsFan37]

Agreed. Remember, he was on Reggie Wayne most of the day. Wayne is by far Indy's best receiver (especially with Harrison out). If Samuel had been on Wayne, he would have given up some plays too. You are not going to shut down Manning to Wayne completely.

I agree. Hobbs was the target because he was covering Wayne. How has anyone done this year, across the NFL, covering the Manning-Wayne connection? Is there a tougher job, aside from covering Brady-Moss?

To make it worse, how do you cover him when all the rules are upside down?

To me, this is like all the crap Rodney got from the media for 'not covering' Witten in Dallas, when he hammered Witten all day long, and held him to 3 catches. Yesterday, Rodney shut down Clark the same way he shut down Witten and this time was seen as one of the heroes of the game.

So much is perception.

 

[Terry Glenn is a cowgirl]

4. There was one ref who desperately trying to give the game to the Colts. He threw 2 flags that were TOTALLY undefenseable both nearly cost the game for the Pats. He was so incompetent that I'm sure there will be some reprecussions.

His number is #132. This guy NEEDS to get out of Dodge asap... he must either be a short bus kid, or he got paid a kings ransome from Polian the night before in a back alley...

 

[Oswlek]

Some of my thoughts:

* We all know about the PI calls (offensive and defensive) and the early crap call to make NE lose a challenge, but there were two others that I haven't seen a single person mention

1) The play where NE was tagged with a PF call for "blocking out of bounds"? **** like that happens at least once a game and I have never seen that called in my football watching life.

2) There was another play where a Colt lineman literally ripped the helmet off of a Pats lineman (I can't remember who was on offense at the time) 3 seconds after the play without a call. Just a complete debacle.

Indy actually had significantly more contact in the secondary than NE did. If your want to call the Samuel play PI, then Indy should have been flagged 5-10 times - not counting the Hayden play where he was holding Moss' arm and the Faulk hook play. I don't think they should be flagged, just some consistency.

* My son got me up at 5:40 this morning, so I was able to watch quite a bit of coverage on this game, not one national highlight show even replayed the terrible PI calls. Let me say this loud and clear: Had NE been the beneficiary of that type of officiating it would be a huge story. Because it was against NE, it will be quickly swept under the rug.

* Whether or not the Colts were pumping in noise (I personally have no opinion), the same goes for this one. This will go nowhere, but we would hear about it all week of that crap happened in NE. I doubt Skip Bayless refers to this game other than to bash BB for being so impersonal afterward.

* Addai was unreal in this game. NE's tackling was terrible, but a lot of that was Joe. He made some terrific cuts and skip-steps to avoid contact. The play that he took all the way was not one of them, BTW. It was a basic play that NE complete screwed up.

* As good as Addai was - and he certainly the better RB at this point - I wouldn't sleep on Maroney. I thought he was terrific in this game. He was decisive and he ran with excellent quickness and power. I would have liked him to convert the 3rd down in the 3rd quarter, but other than that he was excellent. I don't regret that pick in the least.

* I completely underestimated Indy's defense. They are as tough as they are fast and they are hard to move despite their size.

* Brady was obviously affected by Indy's pressure. He wasn't nearly as accurate as he has been. Just a few plays

- the long play to Moss probably should have been a TD on its own.
- Brady had a couple tosses to Moss that werre thrown too high. One was caught by a crzy one armed catch and the other was almost picked. It seemed to me that the second pick was because he was trying to be careful not to overthrow it.

* By comparison, Manning was remarkably accurate. He made a stupid throw that Rodney picked, but all his other throws were right on the money. As upset I was about the Addai TD, Wayne's drop evened things off. He should have had a TD on that play.

* I do blame Stallworth on Brady's first int, though. It was a little underthown, but Stallworth completely ran himself out of position on that one. It reminded me of a basketball player putting a token effort into getting a rebound and letting a guy get inside position on him. Stallworth should have at least broken that play up and, frankly, should have earned a PI call.

* One of the things I love about Indy os the play of their OL. They played fabulously despite the absence of Ugoh and gave Manning more time than I expected in the first 3 quarters. I also love just how much holding the league seems to want them to do. They didn't have any of those "grab the back of the jersey" type holds yesterday, but I noticed several of the OLs doing a technique where they grab the lower part of the defenders jersey and hold them close so it was hard for the officials to see. It was *clearly* a coached technique that they knew that they could get away with. How is this so much worse than what NE did in 2003 when they took a gamble that the refs would let some things go?

(Yes, I realize it is partly hypocritical to ***** about the refs and make reference to a game where NE got away with some rough stuff, but as I always say, that game was *consistent*. No game since then has even been partly so. Indy was handed two possessions inside the 10 - one of which was OPI on Wayne - while NE has a TD taken away at the end by an absent OPI that was called. I don't know how anyone could deny what has been going on in their recent games)

* *****ing about the refs aside, Indy proved to me that they are much better than I thought. They have every right to feel that they are right there with "the greatest team ever" if they have everyone healthy. They outmuscled NE on both sides of the ball and looked very well coached.

* My boy Welker was key to this game. Two quick outs for huge plays and big punt returns to set things up. He just finds a way to get involved.

 

[Oswlek]

One other thing: Here are Addai's yards in the RZ and in the second half:

RZ - 5 rushes for 15 yards
2nd - 11 rushes for 32 yards

He made some really nice plays, and a 9 yard loss certainly skews the numbers a little, but NE did have an answer for the guy when they really needed it.

 

[TruthSeeker]

I think the best way to address this is to reverse the question. Would any Pats fans accept a #2 and #7 for Welker?

Anyone willing to trade him for a #1?

Maybe Miami would trade him for Ginn?

 

[godef]

1. Well we saw the Pats play their worst game of the year, and everything that could go wrong DID go wrong....And they still won. They are that good.

It could just as well have been Indy's pressure making this look like our worse game. As I always tell my wife, "Give the other team some credit."

12. Anyone notice how much better the pass protection got as the game went on.

I also noticed how much better we defensed Addai in the 2nd half.

 

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

Between the timestamp problems and all of the "Moved->" threads, this thread doesn't deserve to be burried on page 3. If bumping is frowned upon, I'll take a mod-imposed timeout if need be.

Regards,
Chris