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Well today, I put all the window fans away, and bought an air conditioner cover, and sat down to watch the Expendables 2, on TNT. Pretty good movie, at least it was better than what the NFL was showing. You see, these days, while I wait for the Pats to come on, I watch the NFL during the commercials, but not at the expense of missing anything from a B movie that I've seen at least twice. THAT's how bad the product is these days and why its gone from being can't miss TV, to "what else is on" TV.
So based on what little I saw in the brief snippets I really haven't missed much. I don't think the London game was even on. I watched a bit of Minnesota/Philly. I probably only watched about 3 minutes and saw 3 turnovers, and turned it off. I watched the same amount of time of the Bills/Dolphins (there were a lot of commercials
) and saw about 60 yards in penalties. Later, I watched the end of the game and saw ANOTHER 60 yards of penalties in the last 3 minutes. On the other hand, the Bills not only lost the game, they lost their offense when they rushed McCoy back and he got hurt again. Stupid, stupid Rex.
So enough musings, let's get started
1. So we are on the road, in a tough environment, playing a good team who had to play an experienced back up QB, and won the game going away by 2 scores.....and ALL I can remember were the bad plays. By definition that makes me a spoiled Pats fan. Winning ugly is NOT an option anymore for us fans. Actually it wasn't all ugly, more like far from the perfection we've come to expect.
2. Offense:
a. OL- Except for two series to start the 2nd half, the OL played very well. Certainly it wasn't perfect, but you have to set the bar slightly lower for away games, especially in stadiums where the crown noise is a factor. It will always give the pass rush a half second advantage on the OL.
b. However for the most part they gave Brady the time he needed either to throw in rhythm or gave him room to move in the pocket to buy time. Most importantly you could see them start to open some holes against the front 7. This is critical because you can see that decent defenses CAN at least inhibit our passing offense with a well schemed plan. However, if they go nickel and dime to do that, the OL/running game HAS to make them pay with a successful running attack. I think we are starting to see some progress in that area.
BTW- no mention of Marcus Cannon again during this game, I will be interested in seeing how PFF grades him this week. Seemed like another solid job. Solder had that horrible series to start the 2nd half, but came back strong after that.
c. TE's Bennett and Gronk both blocked very well. Gronk was spectacular as usual. Interesting that while Gronk once again averaged over 20 yds per catch, most of his production came in the 2nd half....again. Marty only got 1 catch, but who knows next week. Maybe he can write a book about it.
d. WR's - Edelman was more of a factor in this game with 9 catches, but also had a bad drop. Hogan had the fumble, but I can't blame him. The LB (Timmons I think) made a great blindside hit on the play, and you can make the case that if they had ruled him down they wouldn't have overturned it either, it was THAT close. That wasn't bad ball security, that was a great hit. Once again Mitchell wasn't targeted, but then again neither was DA. BTW- all our WR's are excellent and willing run blockers.
e. RB's - LGB was great. Not Bell great, or David Johnson great, but just a notch below. He's currently 5th in the league in rushing yds with over 560, which I think his impressive since he's playing on a prolific pass first offense. White did his usual solid pass catching job, and I'm happy they didn't ask him to rush the ball. I was a bit surprised they didn't throw to him a bit more, but I guess that was the plan. Boldin had a bad drop 3rd down drop and was horrible on ST's NOT his finest hour.
f. QB - Brady was great....again. He had a 73% completion rate, despite 3 drops, and his pocket presence, and movement within that pocket looks better than it has in years. The man RAN for 3 first downs at 39. Who would have thunk. His passing yards were down, but I thought this was one of his better games. Once again he looked like he was in total control. Sorry Jimmy. You look like you should be a starting QB in the NFL, but just not on THIS team.
3. Defense:
a. DL/LB's - I think Leveon Bell is one of the top 3 RB's in the league. Some of the runs he made in HEAVY traffic were simply superb. It looked like he was shredding our run defense. That's because he made so many of those runs that turned a loss into a 5 yd gain. So in the end, in the run game he averaged a solid but pedestrian 3.9 yds/carry. In fact he was lot more effective in their passing game and was their 2nd best receiver with 10 for 68 yds. But despite Bell being great, he also was under control. He was "effective" but didn't hurt us.
b. But the pass rush didn't exist tonight. A lot of that was by design, especially late, by only rushing 3. Most of the night when we rushed only 4, but rarely got close. Even on those rare occasions we did rush 5, it didn't seem to have much effect. And to add to the frustration, the ONE time we got to the QB, he somehow escaped, like so many have before.
Well at first I joined the chorus decrying our lack of a pass rush, but by the time I started writing this after midnight, I started to wonder if somehow this was part of some great design and I'm just not getting it. I mean, the end result was the defense allowing just 16 points....again. More on this later.
c. Secondary - ABrown had 106 receiving yds, most of which came at the expense of Malcolm Butler, and I can safely say that this was Butler's best game of the year. Half of that yardage came on one play, and for the most part Butler won his share of the battles, including his pick. He looked like is feisty, competitive self at last. And god, for a midget, he truly is a good, hard hitting tackler. He doesn't just take receivers to the ground, he's looking to hammer them. BTW- after the game Butler and Brown spent more time than usual visiting after the game. A lot of mutual respect there. BTW- I'm glad Brown came back. It looked really bad when he was down on the sidelines. He's just too good a player and a joy to watch. You DON't want to see a guy like that hurt.
Eric Rowe got more snaps and showed more impact in this game. So far so good on this trade. Chung was solid again as well as the rest of the secondary. Only one big play (and it was a beautiful throw) and there was a lot of garbage time yards at the end.
d. When you think of the great defenses you think of teams like Seattle or Broncos who smother you, and beat you up physically, and constantly put pressure on your QB. Well we don't have that here. Yet I'm wondering if what we DO have is just as effective, but just not as flashy. Because somehow we are averaging just over 15 points per game. And while we aren't creating the TO's we'd like to see, we DID get off the field on 70% of our 3rd downs, and improved our red zone efficiency. Progress.
e. The other thing to think about this defense is that over the year's nearly ALL of the Pats defenses seemed to get better as the year went along. The best example I can think of was the 2011 defense that was HISTORICALLY bad in giving up yards, especially early in the season, but improved a great deal towards the end. In fact IIRC they had the 2nd best scoring defense that playoffs (Giants were #1), and the 5th best in total yds per game. Not bad for a regular season D that really sucked, but improved a lot when they played against the best teams in the league. The point being, that we should be confident that whatever you think you are seeing now, you should be confident that it WILL get better as the season goes along.
4. Special teams -
a. Now this was simply just bad on EVERY level.
b. The KO coverage allowed every short kick to get past the 25
c. The pun coverage allowed a great kick to slip into the endzone TWICE. Once on a Boldin muff, and once when Boldin slowed down. And because the Steelers started that drive at the 20 instead of the 4, they were able to grab 3 important points.
e. Allen had a 24 yd punt that gave the Steelers great field position at the 46. though aside from this punt, Allen was once again excellent
f. And then we had the Edelman fumble on the punt return, and that WAS poor ball security.
g. And oh by the way, did I mention Gotskowski missed ANOTHER extra point.
h. So in summary, this was a horrible job from top to bottom, by the unit that has, up to this point, been our most consistently successful group.
5. General thoughts
a. So Steeler fans can go online and tell us that the refs sucked, or we barely beat their JV's ( and we'd probably do the same if the situations were reversed ). But essentially we went to Pittsburgh and gave them our B game and still won by 11.
b. We are, at this point, uncomfortably healthy. It seems like its been so long that we've been without some tragic injuries, that I'm not sure how to react. Here's hoping that it lasts.
c. I can't help but notice that, what should have been the best game of the day, Seattle/AZ, ended in a 6-6 tie. Boy THAT must have been a thrilling game to watch. I know I turned it off sometime during the 3rd period when it was 3-0 AZ. I'm enjoying the Pats games, but what little I've seen or heard about from most of the league, is that too many of these game are NOT entertaining. As Pats fans were are seeing some outstanding offense, to go along with some effective defense.
d. There were again several, "I'm so glad BB is my HC" moments in this game as well. BB may respect Mike Tomlin, but aside from building tough, hard nosed football teams, he really sucks at game management. He made a really stupid challenge to start the game, and followed it up with an unfathomable decision to go for a 54 yd FG instead of 4th and 2 when you have the best RB in the league. All I could think of when I saw the FG team go on the field was THANK YOU, Mike.
e. I don't know who this crew was, but overall I liked them. I thought the PF on the Steelers was weak. And I thought the PF on Hightower was a make up call. Neither flag should have been thrown. It was close, but I had no problem with the fumble call on Hogan, and the holding calls on Mason and Solder, were legit. They missed a couple of bad holds on our DL, but they also missed the hand grab by Ryan. I can live with missed calls if they are even.
f. Sorry, I hate the Jets as much as the next guy, but it was just TOO sweet to see the Ravens fall for the 4th time in a row. Who knows it might even knock a little smugness off of Harbaugh and the rest of Raven Nation. Also Fitz's post game comments about his coaches and owners, was simply priceless. The Jets are truly in disarray DESPITE the win. It's like the best of both worlds.
g. When I read that McCoy was going to play in Miami, I was surprised they wouldn't rest him and have him at 100% for the Pats, especially since they were playing the lowly Dolphins. And again the best of both worlds, McCoy got injured and won't be at full strength against us, and they lost the game TOO. Thanks Rex.
I actually was happy for Bills fans during their 4 game win streak, and expected them to make it five. It would have made our inevitable crushing of them next week even sweeter. Ah well, it will STILL be pretty damned sweet anyway.
BTW- the Pats won the penalty yardage battle for only the 2nd time this season 40-82, so we got that going for us. But unfortunately we lost the TO battle 2-1.
Summary - We SHOULD be happier about this win, but we are spoiled Patriots fans and winning an away game against a good rival isn't enough anymore. OMG, we have all turned into BB, and only perfection or a Lombardi will make us happy in the end.
OK, I'm getting sleepy. That should be enought to start the conversation going. I look forward to your comments and adding observations that I missed.
So based on what little I saw in the brief snippets I really haven't missed much. I don't think the London game was even on. I watched a bit of Minnesota/Philly. I probably only watched about 3 minutes and saw 3 turnovers, and turned it off. I watched the same amount of time of the Bills/Dolphins (there were a lot of commercials
) and saw about 60 yards in penalties. Later, I watched the end of the game and saw ANOTHER 60 yards of penalties in the last 3 minutes. On the other hand, the Bills not only lost the game, they lost their offense when they rushed McCoy back and he got hurt again. Stupid, stupid Rex.So enough musings, let's get started
1. So we are on the road, in a tough environment, playing a good team who had to play an experienced back up QB, and won the game going away by 2 scores.....and ALL I can remember were the bad plays.
By definition that makes me a spoiled Pats fan. Winning ugly is NOT an option anymore for us fans. Actually it wasn't all ugly, more like far from the perfection we've come to expect.2. Offense:
a. OL- Except for two series to start the 2nd half, the OL played very well. Certainly it wasn't perfect, but you have to set the bar slightly lower for away games, especially in stadiums where the crown noise is a factor. It will always give the pass rush a half second advantage on the OL.
b. However for the most part they gave Brady the time he needed either to throw in rhythm or gave him room to move in the pocket to buy time. Most importantly you could see them start to open some holes against the front 7. This is critical because you can see that decent defenses CAN at least inhibit our passing offense with a well schemed plan. However, if they go nickel and dime to do that, the OL/running game HAS to make them pay with a successful running attack. I think we are starting to see some progress in that area.
BTW- no mention of Marcus Cannon again during this game, I will be interested in seeing how PFF grades him this week. Seemed like another solid job. Solder had that horrible series to start the 2nd half, but came back strong after that.
c. TE's Bennett and Gronk both blocked very well. Gronk was spectacular as usual. Interesting that while Gronk once again averaged over 20 yds per catch, most of his production came in the 2nd half....again. Marty only got 1 catch, but who knows next week. Maybe he can write a book about it.
d. WR's - Edelman was more of a factor in this game with 9 catches, but also had a bad drop. Hogan had the fumble, but I can't blame him. The LB (Timmons I think) made a great blindside hit on the play, and you can make the case that if they had ruled him down they wouldn't have overturned it either, it was THAT close. That wasn't bad ball security, that was a great hit. Once again Mitchell wasn't targeted, but then again neither was DA. BTW- all our WR's are excellent and willing run blockers.
e. RB's - LGB was great. Not Bell great, or David Johnson great, but just a notch below. He's currently 5th in the league in rushing yds with over 560, which I think his impressive since he's playing on a prolific pass first offense. White did his usual solid pass catching job, and I'm happy they didn't ask him to rush the ball. I was a bit surprised they didn't throw to him a bit more, but I guess that was the plan. Boldin had a bad drop 3rd down drop and was horrible on ST's NOT his finest hour.
f. QB - Brady was great....again. He had a 73% completion rate, despite 3 drops, and his pocket presence, and movement within that pocket looks better than it has in years. The man RAN for 3 first downs at 39. Who would have thunk. His passing yards were down, but I thought this was one of his better games. Once again he looked like he was in total control. Sorry Jimmy. You look like you should be a starting QB in the NFL, but just not on THIS team.
3. Defense:
a. DL/LB's - I think Leveon Bell is one of the top 3 RB's in the league. Some of the runs he made in HEAVY traffic were simply superb. It looked like he was shredding our run defense. That's because he made so many of those runs that turned a loss into a 5 yd gain. So in the end, in the run game he averaged a solid but pedestrian 3.9 yds/carry. In fact he was lot more effective in their passing game and was their 2nd best receiver with 10 for 68 yds. But despite Bell being great, he also was under control. He was "effective" but didn't hurt us.
b. But the pass rush didn't exist tonight. A lot of that was by design, especially late, by only rushing 3. Most of the night when we rushed only 4, but rarely got close. Even on those rare occasions we did rush 5, it didn't seem to have much effect. And to add to the frustration, the ONE time we got to the QB, he somehow escaped, like so many have before.
Well at first I joined the chorus decrying our lack of a pass rush, but by the time I started writing this after midnight, I started to wonder if somehow this was part of some great design and I'm just not getting it. I mean, the end result was the defense allowing just 16 points....again. More on this later.
c. Secondary - ABrown had 106 receiving yds, most of which came at the expense of Malcolm Butler, and I can safely say that this was Butler's best game of the year. Half of that yardage came on one play, and for the most part Butler won his share of the battles, including his pick. He looked like is feisty, competitive self at last. And god, for a midget, he truly is a good, hard hitting tackler. He doesn't just take receivers to the ground, he's looking to hammer them. BTW- after the game Butler and Brown spent more time than usual visiting after the game. A lot of mutual respect there. BTW- I'm glad Brown came back. It looked really bad when he was down on the sidelines. He's just too good a player and a joy to watch. You DON't want to see a guy like that hurt.
Eric Rowe got more snaps and showed more impact in this game. So far so good on this trade. Chung was solid again as well as the rest of the secondary. Only one big play (and it was a beautiful throw) and there was a lot of garbage time yards at the end.
d. When you think of the great defenses you think of teams like Seattle or Broncos who smother you, and beat you up physically, and constantly put pressure on your QB. Well we don't have that here. Yet I'm wondering if what we DO have is just as effective, but just not as flashy. Because somehow we are averaging just over 15 points per game. And while we aren't creating the TO's we'd like to see, we DID get off the field on 70% of our 3rd downs, and improved our red zone efficiency. Progress.
e. The other thing to think about this defense is that over the year's nearly ALL of the Pats defenses seemed to get better as the year went along. The best example I can think of was the 2011 defense that was HISTORICALLY bad in giving up yards, especially early in the season, but improved a great deal towards the end. In fact IIRC they had the 2nd best scoring defense that playoffs (Giants were #1), and the 5th best in total yds per game. Not bad for a regular season D that really sucked, but improved a lot when they played against the best teams in the league. The point being, that we should be confident that whatever you think you are seeing now, you should be confident that it WILL get better as the season goes along.
4. Special teams -
a. Now this was simply just bad on EVERY level.
b. The KO coverage allowed every short kick to get past the 25
c. The pun coverage allowed a great kick to slip into the endzone TWICE. Once on a Boldin muff, and once when Boldin slowed down. And because the Steelers started that drive at the 20 instead of the 4, they were able to grab 3 important points.
e. Allen had a 24 yd punt that gave the Steelers great field position at the 46. though aside from this punt, Allen was once again excellent
f. And then we had the Edelman fumble on the punt return, and that WAS poor ball security.
g. And oh by the way, did I mention Gotskowski missed ANOTHER extra point.
h. So in summary, this was a horrible job from top to bottom, by the unit that has, up to this point, been our most consistently successful group.
5. General thoughts
a. So Steeler fans can go online and tell us that the refs sucked, or we barely beat their JV's ( and we'd probably do the same if the situations were reversed
). But essentially we went to Pittsburgh and gave them our B game and still won by 11.b. We are, at this point, uncomfortably healthy. It seems like its been so long that we've been without some tragic injuries, that I'm not sure how to react. Here's hoping that it lasts.
c. I can't help but notice that, what should have been the best game of the day, Seattle/AZ, ended in a 6-6 tie. Boy THAT must have been a thrilling game to watch.
I know I turned it off sometime during the 3rd period when it was 3-0 AZ. I'm enjoying the Pats games, but what little I've seen or heard about from most of the league, is that too many of these game are NOT entertaining. As Pats fans were are seeing some outstanding offense, to go along with some effective defense.d. There were again several, "I'm so glad BB is my HC" moments in this game as well. BB may respect Mike Tomlin, but aside from building tough, hard nosed football teams, he really sucks at game management. He made a really stupid challenge to start the game, and followed it up with an unfathomable decision to go for a 54 yd FG instead of 4th and 2 when you have the best RB in the league. All I could think of when I saw the FG team go on the field was THANK YOU, Mike.
e. I don't know who this crew was, but overall I liked them. I thought the PF on the Steelers was weak. And I thought the PF on Hightower was a make up call. Neither flag should have been thrown. It was close, but I had no problem with the fumble call on Hogan, and the holding calls on Mason and Solder, were legit. They missed a couple of bad holds on our DL, but they also missed the hand grab by Ryan. I can live with missed calls if they are even.
f. Sorry, I hate the Jets as much as the next guy, but it was just TOO sweet to see the Ravens fall for the 4th time in a row. Who knows it might even knock a little smugness off of Harbaugh and the rest of Raven Nation. Also Fitz's post game comments about his coaches and owners, was simply priceless. The Jets are truly in disarray DESPITE the win. It's like the best of both worlds.
g. When I read that McCoy was going to play in Miami, I was surprised they wouldn't rest him and have him at 100% for the Pats, especially since they were playing the lowly Dolphins. And again the best of both worlds, McCoy got injured and won't be at full strength against us, and they lost the game TOO. Thanks Rex.
I actually was happy for Bills fans during their 4 game win streak, and expected them to make it five. It would have made our inevitable crushing of them next week even sweeter. Ah well, it will STILL be pretty damned sweet anyway.
BTW- the Pats won the penalty yardage battle for only the 2nd time this season 40-82, so we got that going for us. But unfortunately we lost the TO battle 2-1.
Summary - We SHOULD be happier about this win, but we are spoiled Patriots fans and winning an away game against a good rival isn't enough anymore. OMG, we have all turned into BB, and only perfection or a Lombardi will make us happy in the end.
OK, I'm getting sleepy. That should be enought to start the conversation going. I look forward to your comments and adding observations that I missed.
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