Idle thoughts.....instant reactions

[The Scrizz]

They ram RBs and TEs as they go out into their route, before the ball is thrown. Obviously the rule is the rule, right there in black and white, so Sapp did make a great play. I'm just surprised that's what the rule states, because it allows a defender to absolutely crush a defenseless receiver who is waiting for a pass and there would be no penalty whatsoever.

So while the rule is what it is, it makes no sense to me.

Well, just because PI doesn't apply doesn't necessarily mean that the 'defenseless receiver' penalty wouldn't. If Brady had thrown that over their heads and Sapp had come in helmet first and leveled Welker you might have seen a penalty.

And TE's and RB's don't have to be going out into their route in order to get rammed. They can just be standing there. If the O tries a RB pitch-play and the defender beats the ball to the RB he is allowed to crush them. All's fair behind the line except the obvious holding.

 

[SanAngeloState]

You are way off the mark with this comment. You are reading much to much into this. Much like the Brady "body language" controversy a few years ago

I hope you are correct, but fear you are NOT. I was called the stinker, but it appears that ocho is the true ochostinko.

 

[Patsrock]

I said "NO GO" to getting stinko. Nothing personal against him, just didn't think he'd be good here either character wise or talent wise. I was RIGHT. But typically, I got called a troll and a bum and a jets fan.

Now, the jury is still out and I"m hopeful, but the light is fading a little bit on him here. But I am willing to hope.

How are right? It has been 60 mins of real football.

 

[borg]

Gostkowski has hit 113-of-134 career field goal attempts, and his 84.3 percent accuracy rate is the highest in Patriots history and sixth-best in NFL history.

* Gostkowski kicked the longest field goal in Patriots playoff history when he nailed a 50-yard boot at San Diego (1/14/07).
* Gostkowski's 52-yard field goal vs. Chicago (11/26/06) was the longest field goal in Gillette Stadium history.

Why do such dumb things get posted? Get a grip on reality.

Beaten by Shmessy. Seeing something that obviously wrong got me too exercised to finish the thread.

Reaching back 5 years for a choice stat is ...ancient history. You know as well as I that BB rarely gives him long FG opportunities....why do you think that is. In 2011, Ghost is a 50% kicker

 

[SanAngeloState]

How are right? It has been 60 mins of real football.

Well, I hope I'm wrong, I should say, but I'm pretty sure I"m not. Just noting that when I said that I was called a stinker and troll (which is par for the course around here) and it appears (although I kind of hope I'm wrong) that I was none of the above.

 

[AzPatsFan]

I think it hilarious hearing the excuses and critiques from so-called knowledgeable fan about last night's game.

The Pats collected 4 sacks (projected to 64 sacks/season) and 10 QB hits and the fans were criticizing the lack of a "consistent pass rush". I was also laughing at the long pass completions when the pass rush did not get there and the attacking Defense failed, to pressure the QB. That leaves one on one in the defensive backfield and very predictably long successful long bombs. What did you expect anyways?

I frankly prefer the tried and true, successful and fundamentally sound Defense that Bill Belichick has always employed. Read and React, Give up nothing cheap; and make them earn every score after a long series of minor plays. Chances are great that some screwup will happen and they won't score. It is the way the Pats, under Belichick, have always been a leader in Points Allowed, the only defensive stat that means anything.

I just hope that we use a mix, biased perhaps to read-and-react, throughout the year.

 

[captain stone]

Terrific thread, folks, expertly started by our resident idle thinker PFK.

It seems that most of us are in general agreement about certain aspects of the game & the team:

- During the GB/NO game thread, I stated that Rodgers is the league's best QB.
But what TFB did last night was almost unfathomable in its SciFi-caliber surgical precision.
If he just had a little more juice in his legs, he could beat any defense any time with any teammates.
Except for the over-reliance on pass-throwing (instead of clock-killing) inside the Doofins' 5 when we settled for 3, and during the last 2 drives of the game, his only other mistake was taking the sack at the end of the 1st half instead of throwing the ball away.
The Ghost then proceeded to miss another long FG attempt. (BTW, can we really, really trust this guy
to make a long FG when the difference is either winning or losing?)

- Where was the running game during those aforementioned drives in the 4th quarter?
Law & Order were performimg well, and Ridley (whose specialty one would think would be clock-killing)
didn't even play a down on offense. I didn't get it last night, and I still don't get it tonight.

- The OL played above & beyond the call. Waters & Solder were amazingly effective, and
Connolly was VG taking over for Koppen, whose broken ankle isn't season-ending, I hope.

- I also hope that Bill has Ocho on a short leash, before he turns into the 2010 Randy Ratio,
exc. without even being a downfield threat. Taylor Price, your opportunity still awaits; please seize it.

- Nice to see Slater catch the first pass of the game. I didn't fault him originally for not catching the long downfield pass, which I thought was well over his shoulder; but on multiple re-viewings, I now believe that the pass was much more in-stride & catchable than it first appeared to the naked eye.

- Except for the Henne Penne scrambles/bootlegs, I thought that the DL was pretty stout throughout the game, and that the pass-rush was much improved. Folks, Henne was hit - a lot, and hard. That is a huge improvement from '09-'10. Shaun Ellis, however, was useless. I hope he's saving something for Rivers this Sunday, and that Mike Wright isn't concussed, again.

- Dane Fletcher >>> Gary Guyton. 'Nuff said. But I do wish that Mayo had Guyton's hands,
because Mayo couldn't catch a cold otherwise.

- The CBs were good enough, and Ras-IR even made it through the whole game without hurting something.

- The Safeties, OTOH, were awful, Chung included. Too many whiffed tackles, too much soft coverage.
We need a true Centerfielder - ASAP.

 

[supafly]

McCourty did not get "picked on". He had a good battle with one of the best WRs in football, playing single coverage.

Notice McCourty actually won a lot of the battles too.


Getting "picked on" is what Brady did to the guy covering Branch.

Good point. I have a good feeling about McCourty improving from last night. Even though he got picked on by Marshall at times, he was still in good position on many of the plays. Like you said, that cannot be said for guys like Butler and the W/bros.

Settle down there, killer.

You are correct in saying that he did not 'get picked on' in the traditional sense, and I am more than willing to admit my poor choice of words. Let's just say they surely weren't too scared it throw it to his side of the field, so he was one step down from getting picked on.

Then again, you can call it whatever you want, but when you make approx. 20% of your tackles from the previous yr in one game, give your assignment one of his top 5 yardage outputs EVER, and give up an average of 20 yards a catch, not to mention winning only 2 of 12 targets (2 credited drops, and a ball that sailed well over his head) to the tune of allowing 140 yards--it's pretty close to getting 'picked on.'

I am a enormous McCourty supporter, and you can go back and re-read the infamous thread on draft day of last yr when BelichickFan and I went back and forth on selecting him as a CB--much to everyone's dismay. I did not predict his selection as well as BelichickFan did, but I documented it as having my choice down to 3 CB's, one of which was him. I wanted him on the team just as much as anyone out there, but you have to call it what it is...which is him getting knocked around pretty good on Monday Night.

Yes he "won" 2 of 12 battles, and yes I do believe that he will knock his rust off and be just fine, but we're getting into semantics here I believe. You may call it one thing, and I may call it another, but it pretty much is the same. Keep in mind that Marshall was also credited with having 2 drops also, which means that McCourty would've "won" ('many' battles as you say) 2 out of 12 of these battles had it not been for Marshall's 2 drops. (There was also another that went about 5 yards over his head, giving him #12)

While McCourty did not play extremely poorly, he certainly did not play well either. If you notice my original quote, I said that he was often in position, which is a whole lot better than some of the CB's that we have previously had. There's no need to panic, but let's not kid ourselves, and pretend that he played well either.

 

[shakadave]

Wilfork - I cringed when he destroyed Henne on that sack. It must have felt like getting hit by a car. Especially considering he had another sack of bricks holding him down in Pryor. Yikes.

Yeah, I was watching at a bar with my 75 jersey on, and before I could cheer I had to make sure Henne was still conscious. Yikes!

Also, as Ken mentioned, when Miami is choosing to pass on 4th and 1, Haynesworth's value is realized.

 

[Lloyd_Christmas]

Couple of things I liked (too much to list):

Haynesworth looked good. Should be even better once he gets out of the hot humidity and gets more conditioned. I think after seeing how Bill used him, it will really motivate him to work even harder because it is how he wants to be used.

Solder, Waters and Connolly all stepped up. Connolly stepping in for Koppen, Solder going up an elite pass rusher and Waters playing 69 out of 80 snaps and doing so well. We needed it, and they delivered. Need to get some depth now, but it is scary to think that Solder is still to be considered somewhat "raw".

TEs - Gronk played well obviously, and Hernandez made some very good athletic catches and ran well with the ball. Not great with the fumble, and hopefully that improves but if he can make catches like that more he is a great weapon.

Not so great but not the end of the world:

- Pass rush wasn't as epic as some of us thought it would be but to his credit Henne stepped up and made a couple of good throws while under immediate pressure.
- Secondary: Happy with Dowling and wish McCourty would've played better. Safety somewhat of an issue and I think Guyton just didn't do well with coverage. Fasano made an amazing catch when he was covering him but it didn't seem he was playing the ball as much as he could've been??

Again, I think Henne had some errant throws but he also made some very good ones. I think he is getting more confidence and with Marshall, Bush, Bess, and Fasano he has some decent weapons. We can give some credit to his OC, but the bottom line is you need to go out and make plays and he did that without a doubt.

good comments. I disagree with you and others in this thread about McCourty. I thought he played well even on some of the catches by Marshal - had his hand in there on catch near the goalline in the 3rd qtr, then made a great tackle for a loss on the next running play. Very next play, near interception. Dowling made a good play on 3rd down and dolphins kick fg.

hanesworth is going be good. I thought Fletcher looked good too. Didn't see much buzz for him

 

[The Scrizz]

Terrific thread, folks, expertly started by our resident idle thinker PFK.

- I also hope that Bill has Ocho on a short leash, before he turns into the 2010 Randy Ratio,
exc. without even being a downfield threat. Taylor Price, your opportunity still awaits; please seize it.

How could he possibly be the Randy Ratio? I think they threw to him 2 or 3 times, 1 a catch and another a horrible missed PI.

It's not like Brady's going out of his way to target an obviously ineffective player and the only attitude problem that anyone has with him so far is that he is too in 'awe' of being on the team.

I would call 18 snaps a short leash. I suspect as he learns the offense it will get longer.