Idle thoughts - the panic edition.

[patfanken]

I’ve sort of been laying back since Thursday, and have spent a productive morning followed by channel surfing a few games that I’m not really interested in watching.

So the way I see it, Bills fans now think they should be 2-0. We all know that Jet fans think THEY should be 2-0. Miami IS 2-0 and their fans can’t image the Pats scoring a point against them.

On the other hand, here under the dark cloud, Pats fans want to ignore the fact they are 2-0 and talk like their team should be 0-2. So in other words everything is moving along as it it usually does. The Bills, Miami, and Jet fans all overestimate their team’s abilities while Pats fans hope for the best but expect the worst.

A few comments on Thursday night’s game.

The bad:

1. For me the most disappointing thing for me wasn’t the WR’s, it the disappointing effort of the OL, especially in the run game. I think the Jets DL is good. They have spent the last 4 years drafting one early every year. But that same OL averaged over 130 yds rushing last season, and over 150 in the last game. There is no excuse for only rushing for 54 yds on Thursday. The RB’s might not have distinguish themselves, but I didn’t see ANY movement up front.

2. The coaching. - When it became clear that the that after 3 days of walk-thru's the young WR's didn’t have a quantum improvement to the WR’s The Pats coaching staff continually refused to throw dump offs to the RB’s or TE’s to try and keep the pressure off the kids.

BB is one of the best coaches in the league at not asking players to do more than they can do. Right now injuries have forcesd those young WR’s into a role they are not fully ready to fill, and the Pats offensive coaches are NOT making their lives any easier.

3. Vlad Ducasse has been a flat out BUST for the last 3 years. Yet Thursday night he looked like a HOFer against Vince. I’ve never seen Wilfolk dominated like that anytime in the last 10 years. After reading what Bedard wrote on the subject, it makes some sense.

The good:

1. People keep carping on the WR situation. Granted its certainly not where we want it to be. But the fact remains that those 3 rookies are as talented a group of Wrs the Pats have had in the last 5 years They are NOT bad athletes. All the tools are there. We just have to be patient. Its not going to happen overnight.

2. It occurred to me, while watching the offense self destruct vs. the Jets, one positive note can be taken from this game. When was the last time over the last 4 years you saw Pats WR’s wide open running behind the other teams defenders. IIRC, I saw that happen at least 6 times. Granted we only completed one. There were a couple of drops and a couple of misses by Brady, but I thought it was an encouraging aspect to an otherwise discouraging offensive night.

3. I thought the defense sucked in the first half and only the Jets ineptitude kept them from scoring. Receivers where running open, RB’s were gaining yards at will, and no one was getting even close to Smith on the rush. However in the 2nd half they played much better. Coverage was much tighter, the rush was much better, and the Jets didn’t run as well in the 2nd half.

General Comments:

1. I want to say WTF every time I here some media puke or chicken little keep comparing Welker and Amendola and use the phrase," especially the way he played opening night." Did anyone watch that game. Welker was totally responsible for 7 of the Ravens points, had a couple of drops, and a below average ypc.

Under that criteria, Edelman’s WR night on Thursday was very “Welker-like”, When you add all pro-like, his special teams play, you can easily say that the Pats production from the slot position utilizing 2 different players didn’t drop of a single iota. If anything it improved slightly

2. I think its time the Pats brain trust cut the kids some slack and dumb down the playbook just a bit.

What we saw in the preseason that all of these kids are physical enough that they don’t have to have full separation make a play on the ball. I think it would better for them and the team if they didn’t have so many options when they run their routes, other than if there is a change made at the LOS.

This works for both them and Brady. If there are no options to be read, Brady will know where they are going to be, and if they only have one route to deal with, they can run that route will much more precision.

Another alternative is for Brady to give them their routes after he gets to the LOS. He probably does that now, but until they are ready, the kids won’t be responsible to make any post snap reads

Work with them all week in practice with option routes, but at least for the next few games, make it all about precision routes and knowing where everyone is for sure at the actual games.. I know its not ideal, but its what would be best at this time.

3. Time for us as fans to man up and deal with the fact that there aren’t gong to be the usual 6 or 7 blow outs. That if you have Brady in your FF league you are screwed. All our games will be close and we are gong to win most of them. We might even get blown out once or twice as well just like the Steelers did in 2004 during the regular season.

4. This team is all about the playoffs. In other words being the best team we can be in JANUARY, not in September. Its not about getting the bye, It’s not about being the hot team in December. It doesn’t matter. The Ravens, Giants, Steelers and Packers all limped into the playoffs before running the table and lifting the Lombardi.

5. The new CBA has had a serious effect on the quality of play early in the season. Not just with the Pats, but across the entire league. It won't be until November before we start to see where everyone is competitively. Until then there will be a lot of anomalies every week before things start to sort themselves out.

We just have to be good enough to get to the Tournament. It makes no sense to make season long judgments based on what we are seeing now. All we have a right to ask is that it gets better game by game……and if History tells us anything….it usually does.

 

[Fencer]

IIRC, the defense looked its best late in the first half. By that I mean specifically two three-and-outs, both punctuated with a sack, in one case after Smith had run for his life on both 1st and 2nd downs.

Is my memory a bit off?

 

[JMC00]

Is my memory a bit off?

No it's not. They forced 5 three and outs in 8 NYJ drives in the 1st half and forced 6 punts overall.

 

[everlong]

Welker in the first half against the Giants 2 catches with 7 targets and 2 drops one really bad.

 

[denverpatsfan]

2. I think its time the Pats brain trust cut the kids some slack and dumb down the playbook just a bit

AMEN brother. They need to change things up a bit to account for some growing pains. I did not like the play calling. They called a game for the 2007 offense the other night.

I loved the Defense. Remember it's not how they start a game but how they finish. The last few defenses would not have closed that game out. This one did!

 

[Joker]

Two games...krist

Buffalo beat the bejeezus out of the Pats 33-0 to open a season...WTF did THAT mean in the long run?

you either trust this head coach and staff or you don't...I look at the record year in and year out since 2000...I prefer to be patient and trust that this team will be a contender as the season rolls on. In the meantime, I'm just as much a biatcher and complainer as the next guy but this constant whining about Welker and rookies and on and on really blows.

 

[Rob0729]

Good write up as usual Ken. A few comments based on your post:

• Yeah, I was encouraged by the rookie WRs in a lot of ways. How many times did we see the Pats send Chad Jackson on a go route and him not even able to beat a #4 CB who is playing with crutches down the field. Thompkins beat Cromartie quite often. Dobson beat all the CBs at times. Both these guys have the tools to be be good or even great players. Whether they will is still a question, but they certainly have the tools to do it.
• I also agree that people made too much of Welker's opening night performance. He did drop a critical third down catch (which the refs mistakenly called a catch and Harbaugh didn't challenge) and as I said in another thread, he is benefitting right now from Manning's stat padding ways. Manning always want to throw on X and goal. I bet if Welker was still with the Pats, he wouldn't have a TD in the same situations. He is still a very good WR, but I don't know if he would be nearly as good here as people think and his drops are starting to be an issue.
• I do agree that that the Pats should dumb down the playbook. I am totally against revising the playbook for one player, but when all the receivers could benefit from a simplified playbook I am all for it. They pared down the playbook for Gronk and Hernandez during the first year and it benefitted them.
• I agree that at this point, all you should be is concerned with is getting into the playoffs and not how they do it. Since the Pats last won the Super Bowl, only the Saints have won the Super Bowl with the league's best record and most of the Super Bowl winners have played on Wild Card weekend. It is all about who gets hot in the playoffs and in recent years it usually isn't the best team in the regular season.
• I agree about the CBA making teams take longer to gel in the season. But one thing I wonder is the fact that the Pats did not have a real practice all week and only walk throughs 9as you said), hindered the rookie's performance on Thursday. I think the veterans can get by without practicing, but I think the rookies could have benefitted from real practices.
• I give the o-line a little slack because the Jets have one of the best d-lines in the league. They had little problem last week against a pretty good d-line for the Bills. And the Jets shut down Doug Martin in week 1 and he had 144 yards on 29 carries today.

 

[Mack Herron]

BB is obviously not putting his rookie WRs in a position to succeed. So why would a HOF coach do such a thing? One possibility is that he has made a commitment to these WRs and he is accelerating their climb up the learning curve so that they are that much further along come December. Don't dumb down the playbook; smarten up the players. The return of Amendola, Gronk, and Vereen will surely eat into their touches, so now is the time. Thanks again to the scheduling Gods. I expect the same thing next week.

 

[supafly]

BB is obviously not putting his rookie WRs in a position to succeed. So why would a HOF coach do such a thing? One possibility is that he has made a commitment to these WRs and he is accelerating their climb up the learning curve so that they are that much further along come December. Don't dumb down the playbook; smarten up the players. The return of Amendola, Gronk, and Vereen will surely eat into their touches, so now is the time. Thanks again to the scheduling Gods. I expect the same thing next week.

Great point, and you may be onto something with that thinking.

At this point next Sunday though, we'll be cursing the scheduling Gods

Let's hope that Gronk can come back for the SNF game at ATL two weeks from tonight. To say that we'll need him there is a dramatic understatement.

If we can be in any kind of decent position by the halfway point, we could be setting up for a nice stretch run.

 

[JoeSixPat]

Given the weather conditions against the Jets, I'm not going to make too many judgments about the offense at all

Messy conditions make for messy football - and that goes for the run as well as the pass

So really, all I can assume about the WRs is that based on what we saw at camp, they'll come around eventually.

 

[supafly]

Given the weather conditions against the Jets, I'm not going to make too many judgments about the offense at all

Messy conditions make for messy football - and that goes for the run as well as the pass

So really, all I can assume about the WRs is that based on what we saw at camp, they'll come around eventually.

As some have pointed out, the concerns about the running game may be more important, especially since we'll need to be able to run to pass and vice versa.

Of course I also think that many are underrating the NYJ defensive line too, so in all reality it's possible that we should just throw this last game out the window as you say.

 

[mgteich]

OK, is 5-4 decent?

Great point, and you may be onto something with that thinking.

At this point next Sunday though, we'll be cursing the scheduling Gods

Let's hope that Gronk can come back for the SNF game at ATL two weeks from tonight. To say that we'll need him there is a dramatic understatement.

If we can be in any kind of decent position by the halfway point, we could be setting up for a nice stretch run.

 

[captain stone]

BB is obviously not putting his rookie WRs in a position to succeed. So why would a HOF coach do such a thing? One possibility is that he has made a commitment to these WRs and he is accelerating their climb up the learning curve so that they are that much further along come December. Don't dumb down the playbook; smarten up the players. The return of Amendola, Gronk, and Vereen will surely eat into their touches, so now is the time. Thanks again to the scheduling Gods. I expect the same thing next week.

Don't you mean the possible but we're really not sure return of ToughGlass, Gronk & Vereen?

 

[supafly]

OK, is 5-4 decent?

I would consider 6-3 a pretty decent point to shoot at, going into the week #10 bye.

7-2 would be practically remarkable considering the circumstances, I think.

5-4 would mean that we'd only be winning three of our next seven games. Personally speaking, I would be concerned with only winning 3 out of our next 7.

 

[shmessy]

2. It occurred to me, while watching the offense self destruct vs. the Jets, one positive note can be taken from this game. When was the last time over the last 4 years you saw Pats WR’s wide open running behind the other teams defenders. IIRC, I saw that happen at least 6 times. Granted we only completed one. There were a couple of drops and a couple of misses by Brady, but I thought it was an encouraging aspect to an otherwise discouraging offensive night.

This +1,000,000.

"Downfield SEPARATION!" I haven't seen that so often in a Patriots game since Randy Moss left.

The kids were getting unbelievable separation. The hands weren't working, but hopefully that will come with more experience.

 

[supafly]

This +1,000,000.

"Downfield SEPARATION!" I haven't seen that so often in a Patriots game since Randy Moss left.

The kids were getting unbelievable separation. The hands weren't working, but hopefully that will come with more experience.

Not meaning to try and put a negative spin on it Shmessy, but do you think that some of that could possibly be due to the specific defensive gameplanning from the NYJ?

It seemed to me that they were pretty much daring Brady and the WR's to try and connect by stacking the LOS/defending the run. I suppose we'll have to wait and see how the larger sample size plays out over the course of the next few games, but I definitely agree that it seems to be a positive thus far.

Of course the truth may also lie in the middle if the Jets were playing the odds and stacking the box as I thought I saw a lot of the time. Only time will tell of course.

 

[borg]

It seemed to me that they were pretty much daring Brady and the WR's to try and connect by stacking the LOS/defending the run.

Exactly.....but going public with such a statement just opens too many cans of worms...Brady's deep ball, the elusiveness of the rookie WR, yada yada

 

[cmasspatsfan]

Not meaning to try and put a negative spin on it Shmessy, but do you think that some of that could possibly be due to the specific defensive gameplanning from the NYJ?

It seemed to me that they were pretty much daring Brady and the WR's to try and connect by stacking the LOS/defending the run. I suppose we'll have to wait and see how the larger sample size plays out over the course of the next few games, but I definitely agree that it seems to be a positive thus far.

Of course the truth may also lie in the middle if the Jets were playing the odds and stacking the box as I thought I saw a lot of the time. Only time will tell of course.

That's what I believe they were doing, this sort of conflicts with your earlier post about being concerned about the run, the Jets have a good D and can take away the run from the Pats and force them to beat them with the pass, if the rookies would have held on to the ball the game wouldn't have been close. If they start to catch the ball it should open up the run game.
Mike Reiss was on Sportsfinal and said he was encouraged by the rookies getting open and finding space, they just need to hang onto the ball, something correctable.

 

[supafly]

That's what I believe they were doing, this sort of conflicts with your earlier post about being concerned about the run, the Jets have a good D and can take away the run from the Pats and force them to beat them with the pass, if the rookies would have held on to the ball the game wouldn't have been close. If they start to catch the ball it should open up the run game.

Very fair point, cmasspatsfan. In my defense I do believe that I brought up the aspect of the NYJ good run defense though, so I wasn't trying to be entirely negative about the state of the run game, just pointing to the hope that it can get back to a positive state.

Obviously it will be key moving forward though, so that's something to keep an eye on. We did have positive results in game 1 though, but now that Vereen's gone Ridley and co. will have to get it done themselves. I believe they can the majority of the time. The return of Gronk will help, so let's hope that he makes it back 2 weeks from tonight. Better yet, let's hope that he and the team can get acclimated together during the Tampa game so that they're in better shape come the game at ATL.

Mike Reiss was on Sportsfinal and said he was encouraged by the rookies getting open and finding space, they just need to hang onto the ball, something correctable.

Well, if Reiss approves then I'm on board

I do wonder how much the NYJ stacking the box had to do with their ability to get downfield past the defenders though? They certainly seem to have been more effective in the second game as opposed to the first, which probably makes some sense with how the Jets played their odds.

 

[supafly]

I just woke up in a cold sweat at 3 am

Had a night terror about the pats this season. No playoffs in the dream

And you were actually starting to convince me that you're not a troll from a rival fanbase prior to this post

Actually, I will still give you the benefit of the doubt though until further proof