Game Thoughts, Patriots loss at Baltimore

[PatsFan2]

WOW. You clearly didn't watch the game last night. McCourty didn't cost the Pats the game singlehandedly. That is your uneducated bias talking.

I can point to numerous other plays that had more effect on the game. Including the Pats poor playcalling on the last drive and the poor clock management with under 2 minutes to play.

When he's benched:singing: in the upcoming weeks i'll get back to you.

 

[zeroakuma]

So you think Belichick will bench his best CB because the experiment is over?

Sorry, I don't know what game you were watching, but Arrington was getting picked on a lot and getting burnt a lot and a heck of a lot more than McCourty. If McCourty sucked last night, Arrington was an unmitigated disaster. Arrington has struggled the last two games and McCourty has mostly been good with some bad plays last night.

Based on how they are playing this year, if Belichick benches McCourty for Arrington and Dowling, I would suspect that he is tanking the season to get Matt Barkley to replace Brady. McCourty is worlds better than either Arrington or Dowling this year.

And last year was last year. Arrington was decent last year and McCourty struggled. Not this year though.

I'm too lazy to directly quote PatsFan2, but after reading multiple pointless comments from the poster, it is clear that he or she is a troll.

Move on.

 

[Rob0729]

Arrington would have caught those two balls that hit "McStonehands" right in the mitts the QB couldn't have thrown them any better. McCourty was making Ravens WR's look like Megatron and Andre Johnson last night. The 2011 McCourty showed up last night and that's not good. There is no upside to McCourty game what we are seeing is what we are going to get. Thank goodnees BB kept quite a few. Put me in the anybody but McCourty fan club he now reminds of Laurence Maroney my most HATED Patriot player.

First, I don't think many CBs would have caught the first dropped INT. The receiver stripped the ball and made a good play on the ball. That isn't McCourty's fault.

Second, Arrington blew his own sure INT because he tripped over himself on a lob that would have been right to him which probably would have won the game. I don't know why people are killing McCourty for his drops and not Arrington for blowing this game.

Third, I think McCourty's worst play was when he and Arrington traded jerseys and he gave up a 25 yard TD pass to Torrey Smith. Poor Arrington that he was discredited because he was wearing 32 at the time. Seriously did you watch the game?

Fourth, for most of the game, the 2010 McCourty showed up. He showed good tight coverage, good technique, looked backed for the ball. He had some really bad plays, but overall he was good. Some of the really bad plays were really bad.

 

[DaBruinz]

I'll skip the ref stuff that's been covered.

McCorty dropped two interceptions. Smith made a nice play on one of them but he had both firmly in his hands and dropped. He was flat out awful even omitting the Smith push off.

Flat out awful? He has several passes defensed, again. Yes, it sucks that he dropped the 1 interception, but, as you said, Smith made a nice play on the other. Yet you fault McCourty for that? Hypocrite.

Arrington falls down missing a chance for a game over interception. He got torched deep and had some legit penalties.

Josh McDaniels:

Turned Gronk into Daniel Graham with a 2/21 performance. I'm sorry I don't care what the Ravens were doing you need to get this guy involved so the defense has another playmaker to account for.

He runs Danny Woodhead 15/34. WTF? He was 6/20 game one and 8/18 game two. He had one reception for 9 yards so it's not like he was lighting them up there. He's a marginal pass blocker. Ridley's numbers were that much better but he was also in there in rushing sets where the Ravens were keying on the run. Maybe give him some draws and he breaks one.

Besides the reverse which killed a drive some of the other play calling just didn't make sense. The play calls down by the goal line where they settled for FGs and that last drive where they would have killed the clock were so frustrating.

The offense again with a chance to kill the clock could not do so. They cannot run when the other team knows they will.

On the reverse that killed the drive, you have to put some of the blame on Brady. Brady looked right at Upshaw and didn't audible out of the play even though it was clear that Upshaw was going to come in free based on the blocking scheme.

I agree with you regarding the last series. After they got the two 1st downs passing the ball, they should have RUN the ball with either Ridley or Bolden. Force the Ravens to use their time outs. Instead, they didn't run enough time off the clock and it cost them.

The D-Line got zero pressure against Flacco.

The linebackers did not honor their gaps and were getting sealed again and again. Mayo and Hightower both filled the wrong hole many times.

503 total yards for the Ravens. This defense finally played an offense that can both run and pass and they failed the test. I think they'll continue to improve but epic fail. Yes the refs prolonged drives but still.

Sorry, but the D-line did get pressure on Flacco. Just not as much pressure as we've seen in other games. The PRIMARY reason is that Harewood, Oher and Yanda were holding on 90% of the plays. And I don't mean marginal stuff. I mean stuff that the Regular Refs would have called.

I saw Flacco have to move about more than a few times because the pocket was collapsing.

Mayo didn't miss any gap assignments. The problem was that the Ravens were getting a guard to the 2nd level more often than not. SPIKES on the other hand, shot the wrong gap numerous times in the 2nd half and it allowed Rice to real off a big run.

 

[jnug]

It makes little sense to berate the D-line for the lack of pressure on Flacco when Flacco was playing like he was being pressured mightily to begin with. Flacco made GAMES worth of bad throws and mistakes that we just did nothing with in the secondary.

Yes Flacco and the Ravens made tons of long yardage plays in the passing game. However, did it look to you like Flacco had to go to his progressions to make those plays? Did not look like it me. Looked like he was going to his primary receiver for the most part, time and time again.

However I will say it again, this league is designed now to reward offensive play. Once again, we did nothing with the ball when we had the ball and the game was ours to win with our offense on the field and we failed....again to either run time or score points. You have to do one or the other. Optimally you run time AND score points. We do neither again and then leave it to a defense with no playmakers in the secondary to prevent the opposing offense from doing to us what we should have done to them when we had the chance.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Sorry, but you are 100% wrong on the call on McCourty. He never touched Smith. No way it should have been called. Even Chris Collinsworth said that he couldn't see McCourty touch Smith during the entire play.

Yesterday's game was, by far, the worst officiated game this season. BAR NONE. And it was the worst officiated game since the Steelers/Seahawks SB a few years back..

Which call are we talking about? I'm talking about the play on Jacoby Jones which led to the FG; it looked like interference to me. I don't remember what Collinsworth did or did not say exactly, but, outside of fans here and in the blogs I haven't seen anyone in the media questioning the call this morning. Could you give me a link if you have one so I can see where I'm wrong. Thank you.

And, I watched the entire Jets Fins game and, believe me, the officiating was much worse there; not defending the guys last night, but it was worse.

PS: I don't blame McCourty for the loss; there's way too much to go around, but one of those missed picks went right through his hands. He didn't lose the game for the Pats, but he should have made that play.

 

[everlong]

Flat out awful? He has several passes defensed, again. Yes, it sucks that he dropped the 1 interception, but, as you said, Smith made a nice play on the other. Yet you fault McCourty for that? Hypocrite.

There's no reason to name call just because we disagree. I don't blame him for the push off TD and the pass interference was qustionable at best but he was beaten on several other plays and his tackling especially on Pita's TD was just unacceptable. It was not a good game for him. I'm not pinning the loss on him like Curran but to say he even had a sub par game is rose colored glasses IMO.

On the reverse that killed the drive, you have to put some of the blame on Brady. Brady looked right at Upshaw and didn't audible out of the play even though it was clear that Upshaw was going to come in free based on the blocking scheme.

That's a fair sharing of the blame.

I agree with you regarding the last series. After they got the two 1st downs passing the ball, they should have RUN the ball with either Ridley or Bolden. Force the Ravens to use their time outs. Instead, they didn't run enough time off the clock and it cost them.

They should have gotten Ridley more carries. Woodhead was averging 2.2 coming in and they fed him the ball way too much and he duplicated his average.

Sorry, but the D-line did get pressure on Flacco. Just not as much pressure as we've seen in other games. The PRIMARY reason is that Harewood, Oher and Yanda were holding on 90% of the plays. And I don't mean marginal stuff. I mean stuff that the Regular Refs would have called.

Agreed on the holding but as I prefaced I was going to avoid the ref commnets because they've been done a lot today. The Oher take down of Nincovich in particular was unreal. They still came up short in pressuring him although I will credit Flacco with moving out of the pocket when Jones did get close to beating his man.

I saw Flacco have to move about more than a few times because the pocket was collapsing.

Mayo didn't miss any gap assignments. The problem was that the Ravens were getting a guard to the 2nd level more often than not. SPIKES on the other hand, shot the wrong gap numerous times in the 2nd half and it allowed Rice to real off a big run.

Yes agree he did have to move a few times but they never put him on his @ss.

Spikes hit the center once on a run blitz that took him completely out of the play. I think if you rewatch the game you'll see Mayo on the wrong side of the gap more than once that led to big runs by Rice.

 

[BradyManny]

On the reverse that killed the drive, you have to put some of the blame on Brady. Brady looked right at Upshaw and didn't audible out of the play even though it was clear that Upshaw was going to come in free based on the blocking scheme.

Upshaw was unaccounted for by the play by design. He was supposed to flow upstream and buy the fake. (See Yates breakdown of the play). As always with that play, Brady is supposed to get in someone's way on the outside, but Edelman never got there.

If you think or want Tom Brady, our most irreplaceable player, to throw an improvised block against a 280lb man who can run a mid 4s 40, we have different ideas of what is and isn't a smart thing to do.

 

[juny]

1. I think Matt Patricia is getting off the hook for his game plan and lack of adjustments. He spoon fed the Ravens their gameplan. On the Ravens' side of the field, he kept two safeties deep allowing the Ravens to run Rice all over the defense. On the Pats' side of the field, he would go with an one safety deep set which allowed Flacco to pass deep with ease. The Ravens' first three TDs were scored by that same strategy and Patricia never adjusted.

This was aggravating to watch Flacco pass with all the time in the world. You would think the Pats D would mix things up by blitzing or changing looks but it was always the same ineffective 4-man rush.

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

Was gronk being blanketed all game? Didn't see much from him. not that it would have won the game if they went more his was

 

[Sfpat]

Flat out awful? He has several passes defensed, again. Yes, it sucks that he dropped the 1 interception, but, as you said, Smith made a nice play on the other. Yet you fault McCourty for that? Hypocrite.



On the reverse that killed the drive, you have to put some of the blame on Brady. Brady looked right at Upshaw and didn't audible out of the play even though it was clear that Upshaw was going to come in free based on the blocking scheme.

I agree with you regarding the last series. After they got the two 1st downs passing the ball, they should have RUN the ball with either Ridley or Bolden. Force the Ravens to use their time outs. Instead, they didn't run enough time off the clock and it cost them.


Sorry, but the D-line did get pressure on Flacco. Just not as much pressure as we've seen in other games. The PRIMARY reason is that Harewood, Oher and Yanda were holding on 90% of the plays. And I don't mean marginal stuff. I mean stuff that the Regular Refs would have called.

I saw Flacco have to move about more than a few times because the pocket was collapsing.

Mayo didn't miss any gap assignments. The problem was that the Ravens were getting a guard to the 2nd level more often than not. SPIKES on the other hand, shot the wrong gap numerous times in the 2nd half and it allowed Rice to real off a big run.

I believe the number one concern from this game was the Pats DL, or lack thereof. With the exception of the 4th and 1 stop, they got absolutely zero penetration against the Ravens (and that penetration was from Chung). Flacco had hours to throw before the pocket would finally collapse and I don't remember one time when a Raven back was hit in the backfield. I doubt if they had a single TFL. One can complain about holding, but the facts are a miserable performance by the front seven.

 

[RoughingthePasser]

Good points Rob.

Game thoughts before we move on to Buffalo:


Our offensive line played physically against the Ravens D. Mankins and Wendell played well esp.

The offensive line gave Tom and receivers more time on pass routes-sometimes that extra half of a second makes all the difference.

Deen Pees (ex Pats DC) made better adjustments in the second half than Patricia and our crew. Their D played more aggressively than ours-though I saw plenty of HOLDING (esp. on Ninkovich and Jones)

I would take an Ed Reed anyday....over a Gregory AND McCourty....they are simply not aggressive enough.


Ravens played better...Bruschi has a good article as well as this one:
Bill Belichick's Defensive Strategy Proves Costly in Patriots Week Three Loss to Ravens - New England Patriots - NESN.com