Idle thoughts - the stop the whining edition -

[mihap]

If Scarnecchia, McDaniels and BB were unprepared for that, then they should all quit because that plan (twists and stunts bringing Clowney and Mercilus inside) was something that I mentioned and I have only a thimble full of football comprehension compared to those 3.
Aren't you making a big assumption that the Pats will play KC since that game hasn't been played yet?

You have better knowledge so no surprise for you, thnx for info, but i dont like how offense played against them. Next year with Watt in its going to be....
I dont know why but i am confident that Kansas will beat Pitt.

 

[willard]

Former Patriots Coaches on the Texans (3):
HC - Bill O'Brien
OC- George Godsey
DC - Romeo Crennel

Former Patriot Players who are Coaches with the Texans (2):
DL - Mike Vrabel
ST - Larry Izzo

.

Had not realized it until this game how close the Texans symbol resembles the patriots. Same colors, 1 star, some graphical similarities.

 

[WhoaDirty]

Not sure which you are referring to, but on the call that was Given, Brady got hit HI and LOW. One Texan (Covington?) had him around the legs and Clowney came in WELL after the ball was released and hit him. It was so obvious that a blind man could call it.

Yes, that was an obvious penalty, and was called.

There were others that were closer that went uncalled, but still should have been called because they were more than one step away from Brady..

I mean, maybe you are right on the play a series before the penalty, but if that was a penalty, then the Hightower earlier in the year should have been called as well.

 

[Kdo5]

You had an entire Texans coaching staff who had worked with Brady try and beat him. They all knew Brady's quirks, mannerisms and weaknesses.

That is why I was cautioning against the over confidence and boasting that had run rampant about an embarrassing blowout. The Texans coaches have familiarity with the Pats, and I thought their defense could make things very uncomfortable for us if a couple things (turnovers) went right for them. And it was uncomfortable for a while.

I know retrospectively a lot of people here are looking back and saying, we still blew them out but I say "ehh" to that. "A blowout" going by the way people here were talking was destroying them from the get go and making it look easy. It wasn't. It was difficult throughout much of the game particularly on offense.

I take three positives out of this game:

1. We win, onto the AFCCG.
2. The defense played strong against a weak opponent.
3. In all likelihood we got our ugly game out of the way.

But really I look back on this game like Belichick and Brady did. It was ugly, we played on offense the type of game that might we'll have led to our elimination against a semi-competent QB on the Texans.

Fortunately it is behind us.

 

[SVN]

as i posted in the other thread ,bedard spoke to obrien who had some good explanation on what they did

According to Texans coach Bill O’Brien, it was a combination of what the Texans have done all season: stemming (moving them in a coordinated direction) the line, and then penetrating the unveiled weaknesses with Clowney and Mercilus.

“We stemmed the front a lot, moved the front,” O’Brien said before boarding the team bus. “We don’t line up in one front and then when the ball’s snapped stay in the same front. We’ve been doing that all year. Then we change it up from week to week. So whatever we did last week, maybe we did something different this week. We moved Clowney around, Mercilus, and I think that’s tough to deal with. Our defense played their asses off.

“Those guys are good, we know they’re very well coached so you can’t be vanilla. They’ve got vanilla. You’ve got to figure out something else to do and do some different things. If you line up in the same front that you did last week, they’re going to block the crap out of you.”
But Belichick is going to have his say at making adjustments this week. And while the Chiefs and Steelers are going to duplicate some of the things the Texans did, each team’s skillset is unique.

“I think the one thing about blueprint and stuff like that is each team is going to have to do their own thing,” O’Brien said. “… What we did tonight, we’ve been doing it in different ways all year; we’re a very active front. So whatever the next team is, Pittsburgh or Kansas City, they’ve got to do what they do. That’s just how we do it.”

 

[DaBruinz]

Had not realized it until this game how close the Texans symbol resembles the patriots. Same colors, 1 star, some graphical similarities.

Umm.. The Texans symbol actually matches up with the Texas State Flag..

 

[Ochmed Jones]

In my mind, when we are right, we can beat anybody in this league.

But if we play sloppy next week, we will lose.

Clearly Houston jumped on everything short and Brady had to take shots downfield. But we had tons of ooportunities to take the easy stuff and Brady still tried to force throws.

That is not patriots football.

Fortunately osweiler sucks and the defense came to play,

 

[robbomango]

The 1st pic, TB threw the ball over the out stretched arms of a D Lineman, he couldn't put it on Floyd's chest or it would'v been knocked down, only place Floyd could get it, unfortunately it was tipped. Second almost pic not Floyd's fault TB stared down Floyd from the snap and the DB made an immediate brake on the ball, thankfully it bounced off his hands. The last pic looks like he didn't see the linebacker and forced it to Jules.

That being said, psyched we won and are moving on!!!!

 

[SVN]

That is why I was cautioning against the over confidence and boasting that had run rampant about an embarrassing blowout. The Texans coaches have familiarity with the Pats, and I thought their defense could make things very uncomfortable for us if a couple things (turnovers) went right for them. And it was uncomfortable for a while.

I know retrospectively a lot of people here are looking back and saying, we still blew them out but I say "ehh" to that. "A blowout" going by the way people here were talking was destroying them from the get go and making it look easy. It wasn't. It was difficult throughout much of the game particularly on offense.

I take three positives out of this game:

1. We win, onto the AFCCG.
2. The defense played strong against a weak opponent.
3. In all likelihood we got our ugly game out of the way.

But really I look back on this game like Belichick and Brady did. It was ugly, we played on offense the type of game that might we'll have led to our elimination against a semi-competent QB on the Texans.

Fortunately it is behind us.

Yeah, I expected their defense to give us trouble unlike the experts on TV but not for this long in the game. But let be real with ourselves. In the play offs you need real play makers to make a difference. Pats have 2 Brady + Gronk. Maybe edelman too I guess. Without Gronk and an inffective brady we are just an average talented offense compared to some of the other play off teams maybe other than KC and houston. Yeah, hogan, amendola,lewis, bennett are good players but pats need a good brady to make them work as a unit and get the rhythm .
And as always Brady was zeroing in only on edelman for everything .Even the 2nd pick was a bracket coverage to edelman. I am surprised more teams are not doubling edelman on every 3rd down.
This game was like the 2011 AFCCG vs ravens which won with an average brady performance.

 

[Kdo5]

Yeah, I expected their defense to give us trouble unlike the experts on TV but not for this long in the game. But let be real with ourselves. In the play offs you need real play makers to make a difference. Pats have 2 Brady + Gronk. Maybe edelman too I guess. Without Gronk and an inffective brady we are just an average talented offense compared to some of the other play off teams maybe other than KC and houston. Yeah, hogan, amendola,lewis, bennett are good players but pats need a good brady to make them work as a unit and get the rhythm .
And as always Brady was zeroing in only on edelman for everything .Even the 2nd pick was a bracket coverage to edelman. I am surprised more teams are not doubling edelman on every 3rd down.
This game was like the 2011 AFCCG vs ravens which won with an average brady performance.

Yeah Brady zeroed in really badly on his second INT. I don't know how much he was forcing it the rest of the game but that one was pretty bad. I was chalking it up to receivers simply unable to get open and Brady going to the guy he trusted most to make a play.

 

[mgteich]

I really like Harmon. Not as "the greatest safety ever", but as a cheap, reliable player who usually contributes & produces. Maybe another team will overpay this offseason, but here is a guy I'd value going forward. If ever DM needs to miss games, I am confident Harmon could play a few weeks & keep things sane back there.

He isn't perfect, but he is excellent value. And he gets some key picks at key times. I like him.

I think that the patriots should "overpay" for Harmon (and Ryan). Just how much do you think that they have been worth to us this year?

 

[farn]

I think that the patriots should "overpay" for Harmon (and Ryan). Just how much do you think that they have been worth to us this year?

They have been valuable - my point was simply that for the $ they are spending on a few of those defenders, NE is getting the good side of the deal.

 

[SaCaCh]

Why do people keep posting we turned it over four times?

 

[mihap]

Aren't you making a big assumption that the Pats will play KC since that game hasn't been played yet?

upppps

 

[AtomicDawg]

In regards to the coaching, I'm thinking the distractions of our coordinators interviewing for other positions is complete BS that the NFL* needs to put an end to.

Everyone is playing for the ultimate prize of winning a Superbowl, so at a time when coaches need to be the most focused on the job at hand, the league allows these major distractions and loss of focus.

I don't give a rat's ass about the fortunes of the loser franchises. They can just wait unail the winners are done with their business.

Suppose SF had basically guaranteed McDaniel the HC position once the Pats are eliminatrd. Now his attention may be divided between doing his current job and what he can do to fix the 49ers.

Sorry, teams that suck, but you suck, and as a result you just need to wait and suck for a while longer, while the teams that don't suck get to continue not sucking.

**** the NFL* !!!

100000000% agree. I said as much on another thread. It is complete and utter ******** that loser teams get to poke and prod and poach actual good coaches whenever they feel the need. There should be a specific day/period of time made to cater to all interviews and contract offers for coaches. There's a whole damn month for the players.

But then again this is the NFL* we're talking about. They don't do smart things.

 

[PF_SU]

Why do people keep posting we turned it over four times?

Because Rowe's penalty was essentially a turnover.

 

[Gumby]

Rothlessberger and Flacco are the only major QB's still playing who have lower flags per 100 attempts than Brady (.36 to .40), though Flacco looks to be catching up since he got 6 just this season.

I was also surprised to see that Rothlessberger has gotten 6 flags fewer than Brady over the course of the last 8 seasons. So while there is a difference it's not that great given the span of time. I guess even refs hate rapists....a little.

His own body hates him. How many games out of the 128 possible did Bennie actually play? TB =128 + postseason every year

 

[DarrylS]

Avoid talk radio at all cost this week as their focus will be on what might happen rather than what did happen.. and the agitated fans will be all riled about something. BB will incur his predictable vitriol..

The reality is that the top rated defense in the league, if you want to go by yards allowed stats as some sort of barometer, forced three turnovers by the Patriots.. but somehow they won by 18 points..

IMO that is pretty incredible.. no team that commits three turnovers should ever win an NFL Playoff game.. as evidenced by the inept Texans.

Yesterday out with my better half and stopped for lunch at a local "99" sat at the bar as we always do.. across from us were three old codgers( I am an old codger myself) sporting their Red Sox jackets.. overheard and ignored, it was too early for them to be drunk:

"Can you believe that David Ortiz is taking all that money and bringing it back to the Dominican Republic".... blah, blah, blah.

"Tom Brady runs like a girl"... blah, blah, blah

"I cannot believe that Brady makes all that money".. blah, blah, blah

"Belichick should not be paid because he refuses to talk to the press"... blah, blah, blah.

Wonder if they were all "friends of Felger and Borges"???? There are lot of very dumb "fans" out there..

 

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

As is the Pats M.O., their focus Saturday night was to force the horrible Osweiler to beat them by taking away the running game and when he had to throw, not let DeAndre Hopkins torch them. They pretty much did just that and as expected, Osweiler was not up to the task.

The only chance Houston had was that the Pats turn the ball over or commit stupid penalties on 3rd downs to extend Houston drives which was the case for a while. But then Osweiler started doing Osweiler things as expected in the 2nd half to even out the turnover ratio and the Pats unsurprisingly ended up covering the ridiculous spread.

Generating a pass rush and backing it up with tight short-range coverage is a good recipe to beat any QB, but you need the horses to do that. Houston was the best remaining playoff team to have the right horses to do that to Brady, with KC close behind. With both of them eliminated, I'm not sure who can come close to repeating what Houston was able to do to the Pats' short passing game. Brady should have some breathing room moving forward. As for the Pats D...

All the talk about how the Pats haven't faced a good QB aside from Wilson will be the narrative moving forward considering the QBs left. Personally, I think there is plenty of merit to this point, but I wouldn't put it past this Pats D to be up to the task. They will have their work cut out for them, though.

Regards,
Chris

 

[RelocatedPatFan]

Boomer Esiason has some real talent

Esiason: The last thing Roger Goodell wanted was to suspend Tom Brady


He can speak clearly with Goodell's C**k is in his mouth. Seems the NFL narrative machine is preparing for a possible Patriot SB appearance.