Josh McDaniels Handicapped This Patriots Team

[stcjones]

Exactly -

This is not a knock against Caldwell. I was very critical of him and he missed major opportunities yesterday, but we would not have been in this game without him.

Moving forward we need to improve that position:

Talent and production at WR stretches the field

It puts less pressure on Brady

It opens up the running game

It opens up the short to mid receiving game, letting our TEs and RBs do more and get more yards after the catch

Does that not sound good to everyone?

I can't really quantify how many more games we could have won with a better WRs and better playcalling as a result of having better WRs - but one, possibly 2 games is not inconcieveable.

What difference would a 14-2 season have made to the Patriots SB chances as opposed to a 12-4 season? A pretty big one I think.

We'd have played one fewer game, have been better rested and would have been playing outside at Gilette. Any one of those could have been good for 4 points yesterday.

Now could McDaniels have made his adjustments earlier in the season? Who knows - but adjust he eventually did and that, along with better execution and an end to turnovers helped get us on a great roll at the end of the season.

There's a lot that handicapped this team - I trust that BB will make the right offseason moves to improve the team - and if he thinks we're ok at OC, I'll trust his judgment

You are right....Caldwell has played way above his ability all season and if not for his late big time catch against SD.. We may never have advanced....However, the real Reche showed up yesterday overall and was ANOTHER component that cost us the game.....dropped balls like that are inexcusable

 

[maverick4]

Just wanted to add cstjohn's great post from another thread, in which he analyzed 3rd downs and found the Pats were only 1 for 6 on 3rd downs in the 2nd half.

It's poor...

 

[ATippett56]

Just wanted to add cstjohn's great post from another thread, in which he analyzed 3rd downs and found the Pats were only 1 for 6 on 3rd downs in the 2nd half.

It's poor...

Add to that NEM's analysis of the Patriots time of possession in the second half only adds to the frustration. This was a total team meltdown of epic proportions.

 

[ATippett56]

Here are some startling numbers for Josh and his asinine offensive play calling, in the second half. No womder the defense got tired out.

3........................1:23
5........................2:35
3:.......................2:18
6........................2:44
5........................1:42
3........................1:05
4........................0:16


4 of those 7 drives began near midfield or in Indy territory. PITIFUL, ABSOLUTELY PITIFUL BY MCDANIELS...

The first numbers are how many plays we ran on each offensive series.

Note that the maximum was 6....on ONE posession.

The second is that time taken off the clock to run those series of plays.

There is no defense that can continually perform at a high level when the offense does not hold up their half of the bargain..

McDaniels is, without a doubt, the weakest link on this team, and if he is given the gate, IMMEDIATELY, i could care less.

He is why we lost, plain and simple.

Were there other factors? Yes, of course, but McDaniels was the main cause for defeat.

He had opportunity after opportunity to take control of the game, from late in the 2nd quarter until the end, and he failed, miserably.

It's even more pathetic that the 2001 version of the New England Patriots rushed for more yards in the Super Bowl against a better defense with a worse offensive line.

http://www.superbowl.com/history/boxscores/game/sbxxxvi

 

[Rob0729]

Forgive my previous post...did not finish the thread so I didn't know this one has been, by all intensive purposes, closed.

I was saying I am done. I wasn't closing the thread. I was just getting tired of posting the same thing over and over again. I thought I was bowing out gracefully. I guess it came off wrong.

 

[maverick4]

It's even more pathetic that the 2001 version of the New England Patriots rushed for more yards in the Super Bowl against a better defense with a worse offensive line.

http://www.superbowl.com/history/boxscores/game/sbxxxvi

Yup. I agree.

 

[maverick4]

Just wanted to add cstjohn's great post from another thread, in which he analyzed 3rd downs and found the Pats were only 1 for 6 on 3rd downs in the 2nd half.

It's poor...

I think this stat, as well as NEM's drive-by-drive time of possession analysis from the second half, proves that McDaniels was either completely clueless that our D was toast, or that he did know but was not intelligent enough to know what to do.

 

[PATSNUTme]

I think this stat, as well as NEM's drive-by-drive time of possession analysis from the second half, proves that McDaniels was either completely clueless that our D was toast, or that he did know but was not intelligent enough to know what to do.

Or, there is really life on other planets.

 

[maverick4]

Or, there is really life on other planets.

? huh?

 

[PonyExpress]

This team averaged 33 points per game over the last 6 games, playoffs included, against some of the top scoring defenses in the league (Jacksonville, Jets, Chargers). If this was a season of growing pains, next year should be an explosion with the continued maturity of Maroney, Thomas, Jackson, Caldwell, Gaffney, and yes, McDaniels. One of the best items of news we have is that McDaniels will stay on after getting his ears wet this year. Although, as O-coordinator, was directly or indirectly responsible for the 12 men on the field penalty that killed our season, I chalk that up to inexperience and nerves, which are correctable. Charlie also suffered a loss of composure in the 2003 Indy-Pats dome game. McDaniels is a bright up and comer and we are lucky to have him next year.

 

[maverick4]

Driving home from work today, Felger on his radio show said that during Tom Brady's interview, Tom said he didn't like the call at the end of the game to throw to Troy Brown (which was intercepted). Tom wanted to throw an out pattern to Reche Caldwell, but he followed the (flawed) orders of our coordinator instead.

Did anyone else hear that? A little over an hour ago.

 

[maverick4]

All the people complaining about our offense and over-reacting by wanting to spend a 1st round pick on a receiver (ala the Matt Millen school of team-building), need to take a look at the coordinator.

I've read lots of complaints about not stretching the field, but I think this is more due to the fact that McDaniels runs so many formations where the receivers are almost lined up right next to the tackles.

 

[nukin]

Did you guys hear the new movie coming out?

It's called:
Patsfans.com: The Return of the NEM

 

[DaBruinz]

Wedll,m I got through the 1st two pages of this thread and saw many complaints about Dillon and Faulk not being on the field in the 2nd half. They were HURT. It wasn't just the flu and being exhausted. They were hurt. This was reported several times.

 

[DaBruinz]

That specific drive had some mistakes by players, yes, but look at the body of work from that half. McDaniels had ridiculous field position in the 2nd half. He did a poor job controlling the clock, abandoned his running game, and also could not generate a single first down when the game was on the line. That is not an execution problem by the players, it is poor strategy on McDaniels' part.

People keep claiming he abandoned the running game, but you refuse to acknowledge that Dillon and Faulk were both hurt and Maroney hadn't run well at all.

 

[maverick4]

People keep claiming he abandoned the running game, but you refuse to acknowledge that Dillon and Faulk were both hurt and Maroney hadn't run well at all.

Faulk was hurt after the first half, yes, but when McDaniels used the others, he ran Dillon outside and Maroney inside. How does that make any sense? Of course Maroney wouldn't have success running up the gut. Oh, and it was a brilliant move to put Heath Evans in there on the final drive instead of Maroney (if Faulk was injured).

 

[Digger44]

Did you guys hear the new movie coming out?

It's called:
Patsfans.com: The Return of the NEM

sorry we are not allowed to post pornography on this board.

 

[DaBruinz]

Faulk was hurt after the first half, yes, but when McDaniels used the others, he ran Dillon outside and Maroney inside. How does that make any sense? Of course Maroney wouldn't have success running up the gut. Oh, and it was a brilliant move to put Heath Evans in there on the final drive instead of Maroney (if Faulk was injured).

Dillon was hurt later on as well, prior to the 4th quarter.

Also, Maroney has had success running up the gut this year as shown by his 4.9 YPC over the middle. He had less success running between the guards and tackles than he did between the centers and guards.

As I have in OTHER threads, I blame the entire offense including McDaniels. But McDaniels is NOT the SOLE reason the Pats lost as you and NEM would have us believe.

There were a variety of reasons. Bad Execution by the players. Bad penalties. Bad play-calling.

By the 4th quarter, the Pats had to rely on Evans to be their RB because Maroney was ineffective and Faulk and Dillon were hurt. That limits what an OC can do.

 

[richpats]

Yeah, and how many times did he come through during the 4th quarter?

Buffalo-Week 1
Chicago
Detroit
Jacksonville
Tennessee
NY Jets - Wild Card
San Diego - Divisional

In the other 7 victories he helped the Pats out to decent leads in the 1st half and it was smooth sailing from there.

Overall the guy did a good job this year. Can anyone rationally say that since he didn't get a ring (like 30 other OC's, including Dolphins HEAD COACH Cam Cameron), that he had a bad year and handicapped the team?

Our season can't be defined in one game...if that's the case then Dean Pees handicapped the team in 2006 by playing soft on Indy in the 2nd half.

 

[All_Around_Brown]

Josh McDaniels Handicapped This Patriots Team
:agree:

No question. But I'm still impressed with him all things considered. Hope he works hard to improve this offseason or maybe we should have Dante play a more influential role in playcalling.