Game Thoughts - Bills Edition

[Rob0729]

Here we go:

1. Game balls to the entire o-line. All week we heard how great the Bills' d-line was and how the Pats' o-line had no chance especially after Mankins was downgraded to out. The o-line won the war in the trenches.
2. As bad as the safeties were, give it up to the CBs. McCourty looked like the McCourty of his rookie year. The other CBs pretty much locked down the other side. For the second time in three games, the Pats pretty much shut down the the primary WR.
3. I think the one team that has the best shot at beating the New England Patriots are the New England Patriots. This game should have been a 65-7 rout. Not being able to hold onto the ball by guys who don't fumble was a crusher in the first half.
4. As long as they commit to it, this could easily be the best running game the Pats has have since 2004. Both Ridley and Boldin were decisive shifty and fast.
5. I went to the store after the game and bought a carton of milk and there was a picture of Mario Williams on it. Did he play today?
6. It may be time to give Wilson playing time over Gregory. Gregory has played like crap for two games straight. Unfortunately, Chung wasn't much better.
7. Wilfork is a beast (as if we didn't know that). The way he hit Jones on that catch, maybe they should put him at safety.
8. Good day for the rookies. Hightower had a sack and 2 tackles (one for a loss) in limited play. Jones had a sack, 5 tackles (2 for loss), and 2 QB hits. Wilson had an INT and three tackles.
9. This offense has shown it can be every bit unstoppable as any other year. They just need to work on consistency. I can't wait for Hernandez to get back and be healthy.

 

[Marqui]

Also nice to watch a Pats game that isn't horribly officiated.

 

[Big-T]

Also nice to watch a Pats game that isn't horribly officiated.

A good pace to the game too.

 

[Ring 6]

Good post. I would add the we physically manhandled them on both sides of the ball. Our OL had their way with them. They couldn't run on us at all. We tackled ferociously and sent a bunch of guys to the trainers.
Spikes was a beast.

 

[resdubwhite]

Patriots win!

Thats my thoughts.

 

[Run DMC]

You forgot to mention the hit Spikes put on Chandler. Nearly took his head off on the 2nd DMc interception. I love the attitude. :rocker:

 

[Danger Zone]

Here we go:

1. Game balls to the entire o-line. All week we heard how great the Bills' d-line was and how the Pats' o-line had no chance especially after Mankins was downgraded to out. The o-line won the war in the trenches.
2. As bad as the safeties were, give it up to the CBs. McCourty looked like the McCourty of his rookie year. The other CBs pretty much locked down the other side. For the second time in three games, the Pats pretty much shut down the the primary WR.
3. I think the one team that has the best shot at beating the New England Patriots are the New England Patriots. This game should have been a 65-7 rout. Not being able to hold onto the ball by guys who don't fumble was a crusher in the first half.
4. As long as they commit to it, this could easily be the best running game the Pats has have since 2004. Both Ridley and Boldin were decisive shifty and fast.
5. I went to the store after the game and bought a carton of milk and there was a picture of Mario Williams on it. Did he play today?
6. It may be time to give Wilson playing time over Gregory. Gregory has played like crap for two games straight. Unfortunately, Chung wasn't much better.
7. Wilfork is a beast (as if we didn't know that). The way he hit Jones on that catch, maybe they should put him at safety.
8. Good day for the rookies. Hightower had a sack and 2 tackles (one for a loss) in limited play. Jones had a sack, 5 tackles (2 for loss), and 2 QB hits. Wilson had an INT and three tackles.
9. This offense has shown it can be every bit unstoppable as any other year. They just need to work on consistency. I can't wait for Hernandez to get back and be healthy.

Agree with everything except I'd give the game ball to Wilfork. If that strip on the goal line wasn't a momentum changer, then that phrase doesn't mean what I think it means..

 

[Creative Username]

You forgot to mention the hit Spikes put on Chandler. Nearly took his head off on the 2nd DMc interception. I love the attitude. :rocker:

It was a huge hit, no one can deny that...
but Golden Tate got fined for that a few weeks ago when he lit up Sean Lee. I just hope he doesn't get hit with the 21k fee.
BTW, does anyone know why it's 21K? Seems a bit arbitrary to me.

 

[convertedpatsfan]

Great game from the OL against what some considered the best DL in football. Scar worked some serious magic to make Donald Thomas useful.

I agree about Tavon getting more reps. We'll have to see how this plays out but I hope he's the starter by the end of the season.

And the running game is explosive and provides a big play element we haven't had in a while. The second half was a glimpse of what this offense could become on a consistent basis.

 

[Reckedtrek]

I think this team is starting slow and building, but today was a nice leap forward. I think that by weeks 10-12 the team will be playing in sync, with good consistency and with any luck they hit the playoffs in full kill mode.

 

[jsull87]

Here we go:

1. Game balls to the entire o-line. All week we heard how great the Bills' d-line was and how the Pats' o-line had no chance especially after Mankins was downgraded to out. The o-line won the war in the trenches.
2. As bad as the safeties were, give it up to the CBs. McCourty looked like the McCourty of his rookie year. The other CBs pretty much locked down the other side. For the second time in three games, the Pats pretty much shut down the the primary WR.
3. I think the one team that has the best shot at beating the New England Patriots are the New England Patriots. This game should have been a 65-7 rout. Not being able to hold onto the ball by guys who don't fumble was a crusher in the first half.
4. As long as they commit to it, this could easily be the best running game the Pats has have since 2004. Both Ridley and Boldin were decisive shifty and fast.
5. I went to the store after the game and bought a carton of milk and there was a picture of Mario Williams on it. Did he play today?
6. It may be time to give Wilson playing time over Gregory. Gregory has played like crap for two games straight. Unfortunately, Chung wasn't much better.
7. Wilfork is a beast (as if we didn't know that). The way he hit Jones on that catch, maybe they should put him at safety.
8. Good day for the rookies. Hightower had a sack and 2 tackles (one for a loss) in limited play. Jones had a sack, 5 tackles (2 for loss), and 2 QB hits. Wilson had an INT and three tackles.
9. This offense has shown it can be every bit unstoppable as any other year. They just need to work on consistency. I can't wait for Hernandez to get back and be healthy.

The Rookies are absolutley continueing to exceed expectations. It's just so great when that happens e.g McCourty, Hernandez and Gronk in '10.

I think you have put it the best i have heard, the only team that can beat this team is the pats. I honestly believe that our best is better than everyone else's best (GB and Giants are up there). If this line holds up and we execute with the personnel we have we are just a very very tough match up. But including this game we have just kept shooting ourselves in the foot.

I will temper the Running expectations, historically we have run the ball very effectively against buffalo and this isn't the 1st time in recent history we have gone over 200 against them.

 

[patsfan-1982]

this rookie class really is looking good pretty much every big play on defense this year was made by one of the rookies

 

[Sicilian]

I will temper the Running expectations, historically we have run the ball very effectively against buffalo and this isn't the 1st time in recent history we have gone over 200 against them.

I agree. It looked to me like they definitely found something to exploit today, as they caught the Bills overpursuing on a little fake right, then cut back left play over and over again. Kudos to them for finding the exploit and having the talent to execute it, but I'll bet that won't even be an option in the next game against Bills, let alone a better run defense team.

I feel like that was Mark Anderson's side of the line too, but without going back and looking I can't be sure.

 

[ThatllMoveTheChains!!!]

This was also a masterpiece by Tom Brady. He might've had a few balls that were slightly off target, but he was completely absent of WTF throws. There are a bunch of other praises I can send his way, but I'll just sum it it up this way "Brady was perfect today.".

 

[Rob0729]

The Rookies are absolutley continueing to exceed expectations. It's just so great when that happens e.g McCourty, Hernandez and Gronk in '10.

I think you have put it the best i have heard, the only team that can beat this team is the pats. I honestly believe that our best is better than everyone else's best (GB and Giants are up there). If this line holds up and we execute with the personnel we have we are just a very very tough match up. But including this game we have just kept shooting ourselves in the foot.

I will temper the Running expectations, historically we have run the ball very effectively against buffalo and this isn't the 1st time in recent history we have gone over 200 against them.

It is all possible that the Pats just found something to exploit, but they did rush for 247 yards. It isn't like they ran for 150 yards. Also, in the first three games, the Bills had given up 301 yards on the ground total. So the Pats almost doubled that number today.

BTW, I didn't say the only team that can beat the Pats is the Pats. I said the team with the best chance of beating this team is the Pats. There are a handful of teams who can beat the Pats if they give their best effort, but against most teams their best chance to beat the Pats is if the Pats shoot themselves in the foot somehow like the Pats did in the first half.

 

[The Gr8est]

Great game from the OL against what some considered the best DL in football. Scar worked some serious magic to make Donald Thomas useful.

I agree about Tavon getting more reps. We'll have to see how this plays out but I hope he's the starter by the end of the season.

And the running game is explosive and provides a big play element we haven't had in a while. The second half was a glimpse of what this offense could become on a consistent basis.

I keep hearing about how Thomas isn't very good and we shouldn't expect much from him. The fact is that he is enormously talented physically, but had a very limited football background. He has the physical talent to be a standout, and a guy like Dante is just the guy to bring it out of him.

 

[JMarr]

I know this is supposed to be a "positive" thread and all, and I will say that that was probably the best second half performance I've seen from the Patriots, ever.

But I don't think you can ignore what may be the second biggest story of this game, and that's how absolutely horrendous Ryan Fitzpatrick was in this game (and is as a QB).

Also,the Bills' vaunted D-line isn't nearly what it has been cracked up to be. I have to think that the success of our running game was more attributable to their overrated D-line's utter ineffectiveness vs. the run, than to any herculean effort by our beaten up O-line, or to the fact that Bolden all the sudden became the second coming of Barry Sanders.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Nice thoughts as always Rob.

Agreed about the offense and the run game. Both can possibly be the best we've had. For all the talk about the new offense failing, we have the highest scoring offense in the NFL right now. Imagine if Hern was healthy AND we are still adapting to 3 new contributors in Lloyd, Ridley, and Edelman seeing an increased role. Scary to think it should only get better. Don't sleep on Vereen either, I remember Bolden looked brutal in his first game. Definitely the deepest offense we've had.

 

[ATippett56]

Here we go:

1. Game balls to the entire o-line. All week we heard how great the Bills' d-line was and how the Pats' o-line had no chance especially after Mankins was downgraded to out. The o-line won the war in the trenches.
2. As bad as the safeties were, give it up to the CBs. McCourty looked like the McCourty of his rookie year. The other CBs pretty much locked down the other side. For the second time in three games, the Pats pretty much shut down the the primary WR.
3. I think the one team that has the best shot at beating the New England Patriots are the New England Patriots. This game should have been a 65-7 rout. Not being able to hold onto the ball by guys who don't fumble was a crusher in the first half.
4. As long as they commit to it, this could easily be the best running game the Pats has have since 2004. Both Ridley and Boldin were decisive shifty and fast.
5. I went to the store after the game and bought a carton of milk and there was a picture of Mario Williams on it. Did he play today?
6. It may be time to give Wilson playing time over Gregory. Gregory has played like crap for two games straight. Unfortunately, Chung wasn't much better.
7. Wilfork is a beast (as if we didn't know that). The way he hit Jones on that catch, maybe they should put him at safety.
8. Good day for the rookies. Hightower had a sack and 2 tackles (one for a loss) in limited play. Jones had a sack, 5 tackles (2 for loss), and 2 QB hits. Wilson had an INT and three tackles.
9. This offense has shown it can be every bit unstoppable as any other year. They just need to work on consistency. I can't wait for Hernandez to get back and be healthy.

I would like to see the transition from safety Steven Gregory to safety Tavon Wilson in the last eight games, if not sooner.

 

[ThatllMoveTheChains!!!]

I know this is supposed to be a "positive" thread and all, and I will say that that was probably the best second half performance I've seen from the Patriots, ever.

But I don't think you can ignore what may be the second biggest story of this game, and that's how absolutely horrendous Ryan Fitzpatrick was in this game (and is as a QB).

Also,the Bills' vaunted D-line isn't nearly what it has been cracked up to be. I have to think that the success of our running game was more attributable to their overrated D-line's utter ineffectiveness vs. the run, than to any herculean effort by our beaten up O-line, or to the fact that Bolden all the sudden became the second coming of Barry Sanders.

So we're supposed to judge the team by some completely unattainable bar where everything they do right doesn't matter because it's clearly a failing of the the other team?