Idle Thoughts - post game edition

[supafly]

Blount is a very valuable player early on this year because he extends the shelf life of our feature back Ridley. We don't need Ridley against crappy teams like TB, we need him against Balt and DEN in January.

Looking back a few years ago, Belichick's use of running backs in 2007 was awesome. Knowing Maroney's fragile health history, he'd go to Maroney somewhat sparingly during the regular year , but would rely on him heavily in the playoffs.....where he was a stud. We need a HEALTHY Ridley if we have any shot at going deep in the playoffs this year. If we overuse Ridley now, and he gets hurt, we are toast because Vereen doesn't come back till week 8.

This is likely the best reasoning for keeping Blount, as he provides another capable body at the position, and can be used to take some of the workload in situations that are not as important. I actually have posted about this myself in some of the thoughts and different threads, although I'm not sure if that is in this thread or not.

Aside from that though, I don't think he offers much talent-wise, and obviously I hope that his fumbling issues do not come to light in a NEP uniform.

 

[patfanken]

I am proud of the job that the offensive line did today against a tough Bucs defense, but having Vollmer in a walking boot isn't sounding too promising as far as you being "less concerned."

I didn't know" about the "walking boot" Lynch mentioned something about a hand. Of course its not good, but it seems to me that if it was THAT serious they wouldn't have left him sitting on the bench with no training staff around him. If it looked serious they would have had him go in the locker room or at least have some staff with him icing it. Just a thought. I'm thinking maybe a game. Of course the way things are, it could be the IR.

 

[patfanken]

Some things I wish I had remembered to put into the original post and some comments on the the comments

1. I don't like Blunt as a RB, but I don't mind him on the roster, However the depth is thin at DT and the OL, while we have 5 RB's in a league where some teams carry just 3. If it becomes necessary to add at those positions, RB and DE seem to be the most likely areas for a release.

2. I still am confused about what is PI and what isn't. On BOTH the PI calls on the Pats, I thought it could have just as easily been called offensive PI. IMHO the correct call on both occasions would have been no call. I thought there was a lot of mutual hand fighting between the DB and WR, especially on the call against Ryan. The key word here is MUTUAL.

It seems like the refs are allowing more contact between the DB's and receivers and that's a good thing. But then you get a call, for no apparent reason, takes us back to 2009 when NO contact was allowed.

3. Given the situation at DT, do you think a call to Richard Seymour would make some sense. Maybe after so many hapless years in Oakland, Richard might be willing to lower hiis money demands enough in order to make a real superbowl run one last time. I'd go as high as $3MM if he was in good shape. It would make a great prodigal son story.....as well as fill a need.

4. That being said, maybe the fact that they doesn't seem to be any real urgency in adding a DT means that Armstead might be progressing well.

5. The NINER's offense made the Colts defense look like the 85 Bears Believe me when I say their offense looked WORSE than the Pats' did in the first 2 games....and I'm wondering if I should find a new QB for my FF team.

6. On the Richardson trade - On the surface it looks like the Browns got screwed, but I think its just an indication of how far RB's have fallen as a go to position. Its not like you don't need a good running game, its more like you can have one without making a huge investment in the draft.

Think about it. Who has been the more effective RB. UDFA Brandon Boldin, or Marc Ingram who NO took with a first round pick. It its not like Richardson isn't a good RB, but thus far in his career he's never averaged 4ypc and is at 3.2 so far this season. As of now in his career, he's really not worth a first round pick and he's certainly not AP. In fact he's not even a Steven Ridley yet (a 4th round btw).

7. This last point is a rant. It really pisses me off when the media tries to make the game of football all about the INDIVIDUAL. Like Manning vs Brady, etc. The real beauty of the game of football is that its all about the TEAM not the individual, yet the media keep trying to make it into a personal battle week after week The only time Brady vs Manning would become personal is if either one of those guys trots out on the defense to face the other guy and even THEN it would be all about TEAM.

That being said, Manning is having one hell of a year thus far. But here's what I see judging from the highlights I saw vs the Raiders. Everything he throws in underneath and while that works fine during the regular season (as we all know) in the playoffs with 16 games on film that short passing game gets squeezed, and I'm wondering if Peyton still has the arm to widen the field. Just sayin'

 

[shmessy]

I didn't know" about the "walking boot" Lynch mentioned something about a hand. Of course its not good, but it seems to me that if it was THAT serious they wouldn't have left him sitting on the bench with no training staff around him. If it looked serious they would have had him go in the locker room or at least have some staff with him icing it. Just a thought. I'm thinking maybe a game. Of course the way things are, it could be the IR.

See: Gronkowski AFCCG January 2012

Came back onto the sidelines, jumped around all over the place when Cundiff missed.

Useless in SB 46.....and needed the entire offseason to get back to 80% by training camp.

........not to mention Amendola's 2nd half in the Buffalo game.......




Going forward, I'd prefer the Patriots sideline medical staff to be a bit more proactive - - but I've been saying that since they botched the handling of our secondary in the 2004 season.

 

[shmessy]

3. Given the situation at DT, do you think a call to Richard Seymour would make some sense. Maybe after so many hapless years in Oakland, Richard might be willing to lower hiis money demands enough in order to make a real superbowl run one last time. I'd go as high as $3MM if he was in good shape. It would make a great prodigal son story.....as well as fill a need.

Not going to happen.

That's been a blood feud since BB benched him not to start a game back in the mid part of last decade for missing one day of practice to attend his grandfather's funeral.

That one goes deeper than football.

 

[patfanken]

See: Gronkowski AFCCG January 2012

Came back onto the sidelines, jumped around all over the place when Cundiff missed.

Useless in SB 46.....and needed the entire offseason to get back to 80% by training camp.

....and other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play" Thanks Shmess. Keep thinking those "good thoughts"

 

[supafly]

Not going to happen.

That's been a blood feud since BB benched him not to start a game back in the mid part of last decade for missing one day of practice to attend his grandfather's funeral.

That one goes deeper than football.

I don't think there'd be anyway that either Belichick or Seymour would want to get together again, no matter what anyone says about Belichick overlooking things etc. It takes 2 to get a deal done, and right now we have a total of zero.

It wasn't more than a couple of months ago that Seymour addressed the thought of resigning with NE, and his thoughts were not optimistic in the least. I believe he reiterated his "31 other teams" comment again, but I can't remember the specifics, so I could be wrong. I definitely know that there were published reports that stated Seymour wouldn't be signing with NE and would rather just retire.

On top of that Seymour seems to think that he's worth a ton of money still, which is presumably why ATL did not sign him during the past offseason. Even if Belichick suddenly lost his mind and agreed to a 3m dollar pact, Seymour would be wondering where the "1" was before the number

 

[supafly]

I didn't know" about the "walking boot" Lynch mentioned something about a hand. Of course its not good, but it seems to me that if it was THAT serious they wouldn't have left him sitting on the bench with no training staff around him. If it looked serious they would have had him go in the locker room or at least have some staff with him icing it. Just a thought. I'm thinking maybe a game. Of course the way things are, it could be the IR.

I think that as a whole, you're closer to being right than I was, although you can hardly blame me for being concerned. The recent reports seem to state that the team does not believe it to be too serious, and that he may only miss a game or two in the meantime. Let's hope it stays that way and there are no setbacks, especially with our lack of depth on the OL.

 

[Fencer]

Not going to happen.

That's been a blood feud since BB benched him not to start a game back in the mid part of last decade for missing one day of practice to attend his grandfather's funeral.

That one goes deeper than football.

Agreed.

The armchair psychologist in me notes that Seymour idolized a strict, supportive father who, at the end, was way over the top in how he expressed anger.

 

[Oswlek]

See: Gronkowski AFCCG January 2012

Came back onto the sidelines, jumped around all over the place when Cundiff missed.

Useless in SB 46.....and needed the entire offseason to get back to 80% by training camp.

........not to mention Amendola's 2nd half in the Buffalo game.......




Going forward, I'd prefer the Patriots sideline medical staff to be a bit more proactive - - but I've been saying that since they botched the handling of our secondary in the 2004 season.

Players regularly go back into games, moving OK, only to find out that the injury is more severe after the fact. It is just natural body mechanics, not an indictment on the Pats medical staff.

 

[SVN]

Watched the first half again yesterday .My thoughts (and I am nowhere near a football expert).

-Dobson and KT seem to catch the ball with their hands and try and get the ball. We have had quite a few WR's who let the ball come into the body and this seems to be a welcome change.
-The Amendola injury seems to be a blessing in disguise for Dobson because I am not sure how much playing time he would've got otherwise.
-We still don't have an outside WR threat yet even though we have the players. Its going to take some time for Dobson and KT to consistently pick up the offense to make the tough outside catches.
-Defensively, impressed by dennard. Guy fights for every play even thought he holds/grabs at times . Guy also comes in the box to tackle the runners.
-Our defensive secondary still has some plays to be made. Freeman made some bad throws and his WRs let him down badly. If it was the other way round with brady and his WRs we would be killing them after the game. Matt Ryan will make those throws to jones so this is going to be something to watch.
-Pass rush was decent but quite a few of them seem to be Freeman holding out a lot and getting sacked.I havent watched the 2nd half but Bedard pointed this out yesterday

Greg A. Bedard ‏@GregABedard 15h
Thid play after halftime (Kelly/Jones sack), 8 guys are playing draw to Martin, Freeman & 2 WRs running something else.

-Lot of teams with good TEs are going to give some issues I think. Our LBs are too big and burly e.g hightower to stay with these TEs although I suspect BB will put a safety or collins in the game for those. This is another break we have had in last 3 games, no dangerous TE. This changes next week with gonzalez ,gresham and Graham.