my 2 cents about last night

[Franchise12]

1. After watching our first two plays of the game I knew we werent going to win the game. NO, I dont proclaim to be a fortune teller its just the simple fact the the playcalling lacked origionality and it played into the hands of the broncos gameplan. my suggestion for our first drive: No huddle 3 wr set. it would have kept the broncos defense on its heels. offensively we were predictable, Run,Run,Pass.

2.Where the hell was gabriel in the first 3 quarters? did any of you guys ask yourselves that too? going into this game I felt gabriel would be the difference maker at that position. as soon as he comes in brady gets his first TD of the night.

3. Seau is doing a damn good job at MLB. And this is only WEEK 3, just wait until around november. Im convinced that if beisel played last night the end score would have been 27-7 broncos. gotta give credit to the pats front office for that move.

4.NOTE TO DEFENSE: paying extra attention to rod smith on 3rd down would help.

5.playing QB is very much a position where you have to trust the people surounding you. branch and givens earned that trust over time and its clearly obvious that brady doesn't have that trust in the new guys. my opinion is Brady feels hopeless, he has no idea who to go to in pressure situation because he has no trust in the wide recievers. the only recievers he trusts is brown but he can no longer create seperation like he once used to.

6. the offense lacks emotional fire, if we see this next week we should be very concerned

 

[shatch62]

"1. After watching our first two plays of the game I knew we werent going to win the game. NO, I dont proclaim to be a fortune teller its just the simple fact the the playcalling lacked origionality and it played into the hands of the broncos gameplan. my suggestion for our first drive: No huddle 3 wr set. it would have kept the broncos defense on its heels. offensively we were predictable, Run,Run,Pass."

Really. The Pats started their first drive on the 1 yard line and you would have gone No huddle 3 WR? I doubt it. The first drive was only to get out of the end zone.

 

[SamBam39]

Problem is McDaniels...he is way, way, out of his league. Lacks imagination, depth, and constantly trying to force plays that havent worked....

He just doesnt get what it takes to move this offense....even with some minor parts missing.... he still attacks opposing defenses the same wiy, with adjustments that come way too late....

NEM,
If I talk to Belichick, and can convince him to consider you to replace McDaniels as Offensive Coordinator (BB listens to me), would you be willing to at least consider the role? I know it would mean you having to move back east from Arizona, but as least you would be able to put your footprint on the success of this team's offense over the rest of this season, and probably beyond. Clearly you are more than qualified, as your keen insights into what this team needs has shown time and time again. At first, when Charlie Weiss was here, I thought it was a series of lucky guesses, but your never-ending track record of successfully pinpointing exactly what the team should've done has at this pont become undeniable. So, if you give me your word that you will make the commitment, and be willing to take the position, I'll arrange for an interview to be set up with BB so that he can see what the rest of us already know, that you should be the one game-planning and calling the plays for this football team. what do you say?

 

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

I'll add my $0.02...now the kitty is up to $0.04!

Stepping back a bit...the one thing that concerned me after watching the Buffalo game was what would happen if a team was able to successfully stop the running game, clog the middle of the field on passing downs and *force* Brady to throw to his wideouts that he clearly isn't comfortable with. I think we saw the result last night. There are a handful of AFC teams that will be able to do this in January. Luckily, the Pats have a lot of season left to get Brady and the WRs in sync on the passing game before then.

On a related note: I don't want to read too much into one play, but the pass to Caldwell that was almost picked by Lynch seemed telling to me. The replay showed Caldwell stopping to sit in the seam between zones whereas Brady throwed to where Lynch was, expecting Caldwell to continue running in front of Lynch. These are the route adjustments that Brady and Branch seemed to have ESP on...they were so good at it, maybe the best in the league. Brady and Caldwell clearly aren't on the same page.

Despite the offensive problems, the game came down to two long TDs to Jevon Walker. Both TDs were beautiful throws...the coverage wasn't bad and on the 2nd TD, Plummer just got the throw off before getting creamed. I think the Pats blitzed on the first one and they definitely blitzed on the 2nd one, so the Broncos made them pay. Give credit where credit is due. It should be noted that in 2003, the Pats didn't give up a TD play of over 30 yards from scrimmage (maybe they gave up 1...I don't remember for sure) all season long (until SB38 where they gave up 3 - whoops). Giving up 2 such TDs in the same game is not a receipe for winning.

Looking at the scores everyone predicted in the contest this week, most people were picking relatively low scores (20 or less for the Pats) and a TD margin or less. It appeared that most respected the Broncos' D and thus didn't expect the Pats to light them up. However, I bet most (including myself) expected Plummer to play like Jake-the-Mistake and would help the Pats out with poor play. He didn't. Factor his mistake-free play and the opportunistic long TDs and that was the difference last night.

Regards,
Chris