Game Thoughts: The Pats have blown out the Lions & Bengals & Bears this season Oh my! edition

[Rob0729]

BTW, I forgot to say that based on my remedial math, I have won the predict the score contest for the second week in a row. I am letting people rub my head for luck. It will only cost you $20 plus any travel expenses. Send me a private message if you want to arrange it.

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

Michael Giardi ‏@MikeGiardi 30m30 minutes ago
Revis "I can look at a formation and say this is what they're running, based off studying, based of football experience." #patriotstalk


he's ok at football

 

[rochrist]

Here we go!

• First and foremost at this point this season! It is the Patriots and then everyone else in the league. This gauntlet of division leaders have been blow outs of 22 points (vs. the Broncos), 22 points (vs. the Colts), and 25 points (vs. the Lions). Also they beat the division leading Bengals by 26 points. The Pats are not just beating good teams, they are dominating them.

• I think this is the best defensive performance of the year. Yes, the Lions had a lot of dropped passes, but the Pats had Stafford and the Lions off balance all day.

• I am not one to cry about the refs, but they were awful and one sided all game. On the Brady interception, the defender clearly interfered with Gronk tackling him before the ball was remotely there. The OPI on Gronk was BS. The only time they called anything on the Lions when it was so obvious that they had to call it.

• This may be Belichick's best year of additions if you count the in-season pick ups. LaFell and Revis were beasts today. Browner was solid for the most part. Ayers, Casillis, Blount, Wright, and Branch all made significant impacts today.

• I still don't know why they don't get Wright more involved in the offense. He catches everything thrown to him. He seemed to be a bit more involved today, but he is still mostly used in goal line situations. I am ready to say that, even without the fourth rounder, the trade for Wright with Mankins was a huge win for the Pats.

• I liked the game plan today at least in the first half. I really didn't have that much of a problem with them not running until the end of the game. I felt many drives were stalled in the second half due to poor throws or dropped passes to open receivers. I give McDaniels tons of credit though for radically changing the offense from week to week to match up against the defense. I know a lot of people don't like the guy, but what he does is truly special.

• It looks like LaFell should be ok (sounds like a stinger more than a broken collarbone), but if the Pats lose him for any significant amount of time it could really affect how the Pats perform on the field quite a bit. He has been a player teams have to game plan for the past month and a half.

• With Blount, the Pats now have two offensive weapons that defensive players don't want to tackle along with Gronk.

FWIW, Wright was on for 60 snaps today, by far his highest total of the season.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

FWIW, Wright was on for 60 snaps today, by far his highest total of the season.

And Mankins committed a key penalty today as the Bucs blew a 10-0 1st half lead for a loss.

 

[rochrist]

On a note about that, people who listen to Felger and Mazz will remember how they pointed out on a daily basis how the Broncos were all in and the Pats screwed the season by not doing it. They haven't compared the Pats and Broncos for the last three to four weeks for some reason.

But Felger is taking credit saying, in effect, now that the Cheapskate Pats have done what I told them to do, with his little pal chiming in 'Horses not ponies Mike, horses not poinies!!! over and over and over again.

 

[pencilneckgeek]

Regarding your thoughts:

Agreed on the mid-season pickups. Kudos to the GM. Casillas blowing-up that swing pass was awesome.

My thoughts:

Revis makes it look easy. He is the perfect CB.

I hate Troy Aikman.

 

[Rob0729]

Regarding your thoughts:

Agreed on the mid-season pickups. Kudos to the GM. Casillas blowing-up that swing pass was awesome.

My thoughts:

Revis makes it look easy. He is the perfect CB.

I hate Troy Aikman.

I know I am in the minority, but I kinda like Aikman. He knows the game better than most color guys. I like him far better than Phil Simms (his A team counterpart on CBS) who ball washes everyone.

 

[manxman2601]

I know I am in the minority, but I kinda like Aikman. He knows the game better than most color guys. I like him far better than Phil Simms (his A team counterpart on CBS) who ball washes everyone.

Chris Collinsworth should do every Patriot game.

 

[rochrist]

Regarding your thoughts:

Agreed on the mid-season pickups. Kudos to the GM. Casillas blowing-up that swing pass was awesome.

My thoughts:

Revis makes it look easy. He is the perfect CB.

I hate Troy Aikman.

I was surprised at how much Casillas was on the field today.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Agree on the in-season pickups.

At this point in the season it's become very obvious that the Pats' O-line gelled quite nicely. The Lions - up until today - were the defense to beat in the NFL. Brady always gets hit more than I like (the only amount I like is none.) But Detroit couldn't collapse this group. Last week they demonstrated that when they get the opportunity to do the fun stuff (road-grading,) they're good at that too.

What's really great to see is the combination of
(1) Huge improvement in guys we had - Collins, Arrington, Chung, for Christ's sake... wait, when did we get him back? I forget...
(2) The pieces we needed and got on D showed up as advertised and then some (e.g. Browner, Revis)
(3) The O-line is working, like really well. Not just adequately.
(4) Um, yeah Tom is still Tom, but that's become very obvious over the last 7 games
(5) My favorite part, we've got some interest in having a legit running game

And all of this adds up to versatility, and when you give Bill versatility-based dominance, well, that makes me confident. "Oh no we don't have a great big super-fast guy to stretch the field" seems sort of 2007 now. (Although... um how fast is LaFell?)

Anyway that's what I got. It's good that what it looked like in Week 4 isn't the truth.

 

[Nikolai]

Throw Chung in there ... 3rd most tackles today ... every week he is near the top in tackles.

Ranked 4th on the season for the Patriots

And he's reading the run really well. A lot of his tackles are at or near the LOS. This was a strength of his the last time around, but he's even better now.

I am letting people rub my head for luck. It will only cost you $20 plus any travel expenses. Send me a private message if you want to arrange it.

I think this is still illegal in most states

 

[Ross12]

So who's the Wicked B*tch of the West? Oh, I guess that one is obvious...

 

[mayoclinic]

Chris Collinsworth should do every Patriot game.

Chris Collinsworth can be annoying at times, but he is quite smart, and a darn good TV analyst. Unlike many former players, he shows an ability to understand the game at a high level and to analyze positional play outside of his own positional background.

 

[BelichickFan]

Chris Collinsworth should do every Patriot game.

Announcers are like spouses - after a while the voice grates on you. I'm there with Collinsworth and Michaels. I'm probably there with my wife but she's the reason I'm a Patriots fan (since 1995 when the Browns moved) so she gets a pass.

 

[DaBruinz]

I'll be interested to see if the number one D is still number one after today.

Yes, they are.. They went from 15.7 points allowed to 17.3 points allowed.
In terms of other categories, the Lions are now 2nd in Total yards allowed, they are 1st in Rushing yards allowed, and they are now 15th in Passing yards allowed.. I think the Passing Yards allowed is a big fall cause they were like 5th before the game..

 

[mayoclinic]

Yes, they are.. They went from 15.7 points allowed to 17.3 points allowed.
In terms of other categories, the Lions are now 2nd in Total yards allowed, they are 1st in Rushing yards allowed, and they are now 15th in Passing yards allowed.. I think the Passing Yards allowed is a big fall cause they were like 5th before the game..

They certainly weren't the #1 D on the field today. I'll take our D, any day, regardless of the standings and the stats.

 

[patchick]

They certainly weren't the #1 D on the field today. I'll take our D, any day, regardless of the standings and the stats.

A dominant defense WITHOUT Jerod Mayo, Chandler Jones and Dominique Easley. Pretty darned impressive.

 

[BelichickFan]

They certainly weren't the #1 D on the field today. I'll take our D, any day, regardless of the standings and the stats.

Our defensive stats are really skewed due to the big leads. Since the KC game our average score has been 40-20. Tough to keep yards down when playing with big leads. So I agree.

 

[mayoclinic]

I was surprised at how much Casillas was on the field today.

Casillas is a good player. Smart, versatile. Great STer, but also a solid LB. He's a nice addition, like so many others this year.

 

[Joker]

BTW, I forgot to say that based on my remedial math, I have won the predict the score contest for the second week in a row. I am letting people rub my head for luck. It will only cost you $20 plus any travel expenses. Send me a private message if you want to arrange it.

uh...which head? the big one up top or the itty bitty one down below?