Fencer
Pro Bowl Player
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2006
- Messages
- 14,293
- Reaction score
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one other thing I forgot to mention originally. Not to dismiss the 2 Caldwell drops, however neither really cost the Pats. After the first one, we immediately scored on the great catch by Gaffney in the back of the endzone 2 plays later. On the second, because the Pats got out there so late, there was a defender who would have tackled him after about a 2-3 yd gain.
Again this isn't to infer that they weren't bad drops, but to refute the idea that we would have won the game if Caldwell catches those 2 balls. There were about a dozen individual plays I can name that might have changed that game. Neither of these 2 passes are among them.
You're totally right, but it's amazing that this still needs to be said.
As for the LB thing -- you're right, and I've been saying similar things, but there are a couple of buts.
First of all, if the Pats defense can't stop anybody on traditional 3-4 downs, it's going to be a long afternoon.
Second, what's the nickel package going to be? 5 DBs, AD at LB, Colvin, Vrabel, and 3 DL, one of whom is Green?
Unless there are more no-apologies subs than Green in the mix, that's not going to provide all that much relief.
The part of the story that's totally right is that Seau and Bruschi or their direct subs won't have to play side-by-side all THAT often -- but it's still a large MINORITY of the time. And there's still depth pressure on the LBs overall unless somebody steps up to replace TBC.