My random thoughts on certain players

[KillEM]

I'll start off by saying the team isn't all that bad. If it weren't for Cassels horrible red zone efforts when it was 17-3, it wouldve been a close game. He had wide open receivers, he could've even ran it in himself. Instead he elected to do what he always does when he gets nervous... tuck his head in his chest and fall to the ground. WTF? Just horrible. Easily the worst NFL QB I've seen in a loooong time. It shouldve been 17-10... at that point. We lose some easy points in the red zone... huge momentum shift... kills our teams confidence in Cassel... next thing you know it's 24-3. Then Cassel throws a horrible INT right to one of the SD players.


Anyways, onto some random thoughts.......


Meriweather, Mayo, Sanders were the only players on defense that looked decent.


Even Gostkowski missed a FG. I love his kick offs but I still don't have too much faith in his field goal kicking. He's not automatic like Viniteri.


Vrabel looks TERRIBLE this year. He's over paid and is one of the main reasons our defense can't get any type of pass rush. Patriots seriously need to consider CUTTING him if they can find a better option in Free Agency (Dansby?).

Bruschi and Harrison - Old. Need to retire. Rodney's blown a few too many coverages. Yeah he has alot of tackles.... but so does Dhani Jones.

Deltha ONeal looks like he enjoys getting burned. What's with his half ass efforts to break up the pass vs. Vincent Jackson? They need to put Wheatley in ASAP. It was as if Deltha wasn't even on the field.

Cassel - just a pathetic QB really. He'll never be good. No accuracy. Holds the ball way too long. Can't find his wide open receivers. Under throws Moss more often than not. Sure, his numbers aren't too bad... but anyone would put up those numbers if they were only throwing 5 yard passes to Welker and Faulk. Face it, he sucks. I've known this since preseason and I was shocked he even made the team. It's Belichecks fault... for not signing a veteran QB.

Mayo - was all over the field. Looks good most of the time. Has his bad moments like all rookies, but overall a very promising prospect.

Meriweather - the only guy who can cover in our secondary. Almost had another pick.

Our defense is a year or two late in rebuilding and it's really starting to show. Belichecks refusal to draft LBs and CBs in the past is the reason this D is getting sh*t on. We havent won a SB since we let go of Ty law(CB) and Willie McGinest(OLB). Both were 1st round picks. Yet up until this year BB refused to pick any LB's despite our corps being so old... did he think Bruschi and Vrabel would magically get faster as they got older? We should've been grooming replacements for them already and should have some young dogs ready to step in for them at this point.
Instead we have Crable, who is not ready at this point. And we still need to use another pick on an ILB to replace Bruschi.


The 2006 draft REALLY hurt the team. A mega bust in Chad Jackson whom we traded up to pick when we couldve had Brandon Marshall or Greg Jennings with our original pick. And Laurence Maroney, an injury prone change of pace back... the type of player you can pick up on day 2 of the draft.

Logan Mankins - as good as he is... let's be serious... it was a HUGE reach and we probably could've got him with our 2nd round pick. I'll be dissapointed if we throw around BIG TIME money to him this offseason.

Teams are going to continue giving up those dinky screen passes to Welker and Faulk. Who cares if we pick up a few small gains when they're beating us by a huge margin.

Moss - doesn't want to play with Cassel. Simple as that. Cassel's success rate on passes over 10 yards is horrible.

 

[maverick4]

Logan Mankins is horrible at pass protection, I followed him all game and was surprised at how bad to mediocre he is. A few times he completely picked up the wrong guy and let a guy fly in behind him.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

Even Gostkowski missed a FG. I love his kick offs but I still don't have too much faith in his field goal kicking. He's not automatic like Viniteri.

Vinatieri isn't automatic, and hasn't been in a long time. The Pats wouldn't have even tried for the FG with Vinatieri, tonight or in the SB.

Logan Mankins - as good as he is... let's be serious... it was a HUGE reach and we probably could've got him with our 2nd round pick. I'll be dissapointed if we throw around BIG TIME money to him this offseason.

SF was planning to pick him at #33.

 

[WhiZa]

The game plan tonight was to stop LT and Gates and then pressure Rivers. All the blitzes were up the middle so Vrable wasn't given much of a chance to do anything to get to the QB.

How do you not mention Koppen. He was much worse then Mankins tonight.

 

[KillEM]

The game plan tonight was to stop LT and Gates and then pressure Rivers. All the blitzes were up the middle so Vrable wasn't given much of a chance to do anything to get to the QB.

How do you not mention Koppen. He was much worse then Mankins tonight.

Maybe so, but Vrabel has looked terrible all season long. And by Patriots standards, he's being over paid.

Agree on Koppen, but he was manned up on one of the best NT's in the game so I cut him a little slack.

SF was planning to pick him at #33.

Any proof to this? As far as I remember, Mankins wasn't close to being the top ranked OG in that draft and was projected to be a mid round pick. That's why everyone was blown away when he was drafted. Not because he's an OG, but because he wasn't even the top ranked OG on anyone elses board.

 

[maverick4]

Everyone will see from this season just how horrible and predictable Josh McDaniels is at playcalling. I can already guess over half of his plays now and where the ball is going, opposing defenses must know as well

 

[skri65]

Even Gostkowski missed a FG. I love his kick offs but I still don't have too much faith in his field goal kicking. He's not automatic like Viniteri.

.

Are you serious. He hadn't missed a kick all season till now and he was pretty darn good last year as well.

 

[HEY BRO! WHAT UP?]

All good points, the 2006 draft turned out to really kill the Pats. However, Mike Nolan came out and said he was going to draft Mankins had he fell to them with their first pick in the second round. Also, I'm glad to see Merriweather getting his hands on more passes than last season. As far as him almost having another interception, I'm glad he dropped it because the Pats would have been backed up at their 10 yard line or so. I would rather take my chances with the opposing team punting it.

 

[WhoaDirty]

I'll start off by saying the team isn't all that bad. If it weren't for Cassels horrible red zone efforts when it was 17-3, it wouldve been a close game. He had wide open receivers, he could've even ran it in himself. Instead he elected to do what he always does when he gets nervous... tuck his head in his chest and fall to the ground. WTF? Just horrible. Easily the worst NFL QB I've seen in a loooong time. It shouldve been 17-10... at that point. We lose some easy points in the red zone... huge momentum shift... kills our teams confidence in Cassel... next thing you know it's 24-3. Then Cassel throws a horrible INT right to one of the SD players.

I thought under pressure tonight Cassel looked better than he had previously. He is still holding on to the ball too long (this line is not playing as well as last years), but he took off a couple times tonight, when two games ago he would have taken the sack.

Even Gostkowski missed a FG. I love his kick offs but I still don't have too much faith in his field goal kicking. He's not automatic like Viniteri.

He missed a 48 yarder, cut him some slack, he is perfect otherwise.

Deltha ONeal looks like he enjoys getting burned. What's with his half ass efforts to break up the pass vs. Vincent Jackson? They need to put Wheatley in ASAP. It was as if Deltha wasn't even on the field.

Wheatley got burned several times. O'Neal obviously didn't play well tonight, but Wheatley is a rookie and it showed on several plays tonight.

Mayo - was all over the field. Looks good most of the time. Has his bad moments like all rookies, but overall a very promising prospect.

I love the kid but I wish he could have made a rookie mistake on a play when he wasn't supposed to be covered Gates in the endzone.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

I love the kid but I wish he could have made a rookie mistake on a play when he wasn't supposed to be covered Gates in the endzone.

I would feel worse about it if it had been the tipping point, but the Pats were not going to win this game the way they played, so chalk it up as a learning experience for Mayo.

 

[KillEM]

the game was good as over when Cassel screwed up that red zone drive...

the kid just looks LOST out there

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

I need to watch the first half of the first quarter and most of the third quarter, then rewatch it with some slo-mo time - but here are some first impressions and some thoughts on your notes:

I'll start off by saying the team isn't all that bad. If it weren't for Cassels horrible red zone efforts when it was 17-3, it wouldve been a close game. He had wide open receivers, he could've even ran it in himself. Instead he elected to do what he always does when he gets nervous... tuck his head in his chest and fall to the ground. WTF? Just horrible. Easily the worst NFL QB I've seen in a loooong time. It shouldve been 17-10... at that point. We lose some easy points in the red zone... huge momentum shift... kills our teams confidence in Cassel... next thing you know it's 24-3. Then Cassel throws a horrible INT right to one of the SD players.
I Can't comment on the red zone effort yet, but I again fail to see how NFL QBs like Tavaris Jackson, Matt Schaub, young Eli (before last season), Alex Smith, etc. are so much better then Cassel? I've got 25 or so years of training experience dealing with young people working in hazardous environments (fires, accident scenes, maritime rescue, etc.), Cassel is showing steady improvement. I see why BB is willing to put the ball in his hands and let him grow in the job - because he "is" growing for the better. My two cents.

Anyways, onto some random thoughts.......


Meriweather, Mayo, Sanders were the only players on defense that looked decent.


Even Gostkowski missed a FG. I love his kick offs but I still don't have too much faith in his field goal kicking. He's not automatic like Viniteri. As was pointed out, a 48 yard miss is hardly worthy of a vote of no confidence.


Vrabel looks TERRIBLE this year. He's over paid and is one of the main reasons our defense can't get any type of pass rush. Patriots seriously need to consider CUTTING him if they can find a better option in Free Agency (Dansby?). I'll have to put some time into watching him closer, but I did come away wondering if he is that fraction of a second slower. He and Guyton ran a sweet looking stunt where Gary cleared an inside rush lane for Vrabes, but Rivers still got the ball away for a 1st down. I can't say the 2007 Vrabes made that play every time, but I did wonder - I'll try to count the seconds off when I rewatch the play.

Bruschi and Harrison - Old. Need to retire. Rodney's blown a few too many coverages. Yeah he has alot of tackles.... but so does Dhani Jones. It appeared as if Rodney was playing more OLB in 4-2 nickel packages, he was overmatched a bit working against the TEs, but the pass rush didn't help him much either.

Yeh Bru is aging and this is most likely his swan song, but the Coaches also put him at a disadvantage in the 4-2, 4-3 packages - he never was one you expected to play sideline-to-sideline. Guyton getting reps helps.

Deltha ONeal looks like he enjoys getting burned. What's with his half ass efforts to break up the pass vs. Vincent Jackson? They need to put Wheatley in ASAP. It was as if Deltha wasn't even on the field. Deltha certainly was the weak link tonight against those 6'5" WRs he was covering, but I thought he was closer to making a play on occasion than Wheatley - I'd rather have Deltha get picked on and burned a little now, then see Wheatley spend an entire game getting his head handed to him. Hobbs and Gay never really got a lot of playing time until after mid-season, Wheatley is not ready to go "yet."

Cassel - just a pathetic QB really. He'll never be good. No accuracy. Holds the ball way too long. Can't find his wide open receivers. Under throws Moss more often than not. Sure, his numbers aren't too bad... but anyone would put up those numbers if they were only throwing 5 yard passes to Welker and Faulk. Face it, he sucks. I've known this since preseason and I was shocked he even made the team. It's Belichecks fault... for not signing a veteran QB.

Mayo - was all over the field. Looks good most of the time. Has his bad moments like all rookies, but overall a very promising prospect.

Meriweather - the only guy who can cover in our secondary. Almost had another pick.

Our defense is a year or two late in rebuilding and it's really starting to show. Belichecks refusal to draft LBs and CBs in the past is the reason this D is getting sh*t on. We havent won a SB since we let go of Ty law(CB) and Willie McGinest(OLB). Both were 1st round picks. Yet up until this year BB refused to pick any LB's despite our corps being so old... did he think Bruschi and Vrabel would magically get faster as they got older? We should've been grooming replacements for them already and should have some young dogs ready to step in for them at this point.
Instead we have Crable, who is not ready at this point. And we still need to use another pick on an ILB to replace Bruschi.


The 2006 draft REALLY hurt the team. A mega bust in Chad Jackson whom we traded up to pick when we couldve had Brandon Marshall or Greg Jennings with our original pick. And Laurence Maroney, an injury prone change of pace back... the type of player you can pick up on day 2 of the draft. Hindsight is 20/20, I had Jennings and Marshall on my board - not Jackson, but I'm glad now that Denver got Marshall - Jennings would be nice though **sigh**.

Logan Mankins - as good as he is... let's be serious... it was a HUGE reach and we probably could've got him with our 2nd round pick. I'll be dissapointed if we throw around BIG TIME money to him this offseason. As others pointed out, he was taken at the right spot to get him. I need to rewatch the game before critiquing him - Koppen and Yates on the other hand - ugly.

Teams are going to continue giving up those dinky screen passes to Welker and Faulk. Who cares if we pick up a few small gains when they're beating us by a huge margin. It's part of BB's development strategy and he's sticking to the program and not letting individual games shatter his confidence in what proved to work well once. I've never seen a viable alternative to Cassel in any of the available or fantasy QBs out there - other than Penny being signed by Miami, I haven't seen much QB value hitting the free market this season.

Moss - doesn't want to play with Cassel. Simple as that. Cassel's success rate on passes over 10 yards is horrible.

Moss was knocked off his game by Jammer, and I felt he could have made a little stronger effort, but I'm loathe to try and get inside his head and make the same excuse for him that you did - Randy has played with worse QBs.

 

[KillEM]

Randy has NOT played with worse QBs. Cassel is one of the worst QBs the league has seen in many years.

 

[A.C Vegas]

Randy has NOT played with worse QBs. Cassel is one of the worst QBs the league has seen in many years.

Wow did cassell beat you up a a kid or something there have been a lot worse QB's in the game hell Tavaris jackson got Benched for a guy that gave himself an injury hitting his head on a brick wall on purpose.

Are you telling me that you would rather have Tyler Thigpen, Rex Grossmen or Chris Redmon.

 

[Easywolf32]

I'll start
Vrabel looks TERRIBLE this year. He's over paid and is one of the main reasons our defense can't get any type of pass rush. Patriots seriously need to consider CUTTING him if they can find a better option in Free Agency (Dansby?).

Bruschi and Harrison - Old. Need to retire. Rodney's blown a few too many coverages. Yeah he has alot of tackles.... but so does Dhani Jones.

I wouldnt go as far asy saying Vrabel, Bruschi and Harrison need to be cut!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's the QB situation that's really killing it for everyone!!

Vrabel looked great VS the 49'ers even came out on offenceto help guarentee a 1-2 yard run in that game , something of which they should do more often, especially when they were on San Diego's 1-2 yard goal line tonight, instead of making the goofball Cassell attempt 2 straight passing plays. He needs to go, cant stand QB's who dont get rid of the ball when they are getting sacked, wow, that was HORRIBLE!

Vrabel, Bruschi, Harrison still have a few years left in em!!! Or at least kept for key moments!!

 

[mossisboss]

Randy has NOT played with worse QBs. Cassel is one of the worst QBs the league has seen in many years.

I have followed Randy Moss' career since it started, and I can think of only 2 QBs that were worse than Cassell.....Aaron Brooks in 2006, and Spergeon Wynn in 2001.

If Randy has an average QB throwing him the ball....he's OK and can make plays.

Cassell is not your average NFL QB...he reminds me of Andrew Walter of the Raiders.

 

[KillEM]

Cassel reminds me of Joe Nobody starting at every other high school around the corner.

 

[TealSox]

Sorry... being at the game, Mayo looked very lost in coverage. When Gates scored, I could see Mayo unsure of what his responsibilities were. Than there was another pass to Gates in a 5 yard flat underneath and it looked as if he couldn't keep up with Gates after he realized he was supposed to cover him on the pass.

O'Neal and Wheatley were burnt all day long - clearly. I wanted safety coverage over the top, but I don't know if that is something Bill is willing to do.

I didn't see any pressure on Rivers and by the second half, the run defense was used up.

Kick off returns were horrible. Slater was getting rocked and Hobbs couldn't find a decent hole, except on one occasion when it looked as if he almost had it.

Cassel needs to work more with Moss. He either can't get the ball deep enough for him like in the 9er game or he isn't putting the ball where Moss can catch it.


But hey....

Calm down....

This is a road game after a road game on the West Coast. They practiced in San Jose which could had screwed up their routines.

 

[A.C Vegas]

careful you are making sense the Doom Squad doesn't like that

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Belichick hinted

Sorry... being at the game, Mayo looked very lost in coverage. When Gates scored, I could see Mayo unsure of what his responsibilities were. Than there was another pass to Gates in a 5 yard flat underneath and it looked as if he couldn't keep up with Gates after he realized he was supposed to cover him on the pass.

O'Neal and Wheatley were burnt all day long - clearly. I wanted safety coverage over the top, but I don't know if that is something Bill is willing to do.

I didn't see any pressure on Rivers and by the second half, the run defense was used up.

Kick off returns were horrible. Slater was getting rocked and Hobbs couldn't find a decent hole, except on one occasion when it looked as if he almost had it.

Cassel needs to work more with Moss. He either can't get the ball deep enough for him like in the 9er game or he isn't putting the ball where Moss can catch it.


But hey....

Calm down....

This is a road game after a road game on the West Coast. They practiced in San Jose which could had screwed up their routines.

Belichick hinted in his presser and Fred and Christian extrapolated on the post game that the plan going in as it often is was to stop the run on first and second downs and force them into long yardage and that didn't allow for much in the way of safety help or pressure on the QB. I guess given his teams slow starts and difficulty running the ball Norv decided to go agressive and pass (deep on first and second downs) to run. We never really adjusted and except for a few drops it could have been worse. I think Bill underestimated Vincent Jackson in the absence of Chambers. And he overestimated what a still struggling Gates and LaDanian might do. The Chargers played like a team with their season on the line, and we played like a team that expected the opponent to play right into their plans.

Leaving 14 points on the field in the first half kind of sealed our doom. But our inability to score from the 2 on four tries just underscored it. That they could then drive 98 yards for another score just put the exclamation on it. A really poorly conceived defensive game plan they couldn't seem to adjust out of coupled with inconsistent execution on offense which has become this seasons trademark. You don't win those game with any backup QB.