Not of nothing but...

[PrairiePat]

Re: Not of nothing but....

Amen. I saw Matt Light look like he was out of his league the past two weeks. Multiple breakdowns in his play BOTH ways: being overpowered AND outquickened.

What really is troubling is the 4th and 1 QB sneak that got stuffed (but saved by Rex Ryan's blooper TO). Watch it. Replay it several times.

Remember that play, to that point, was THE most important play of the season.......and Matt Light got blown up. The DE almost pancake blocked HIM.

I read somewhere that Light said he heard the official's whistle for the timeout as the play was starting, and didn't go all out. Now this could be 100% excuse-making for all I know, but it -did- come from his side of the formation.

Combine that with the inexcusable early movement flags he got against the Eagles (that "noisy Gillette stadium crowd must've drowned out Brady's calls") and one has to wonder if he is at the top of his game at this point.

No excuses for those calls, indeed. Still, I think you're being pretty hard on Light, especially for his pass blocking. How many times had Brady been blindsided this year from his side? Very few. That speed rush from the Baltimore end this week was notable mostly because Light rarely lets that type of rush get past him - it was a great play by the defender. Keep in mind that Light lines up every play against the best pass rusher on the defense, usually 1 on 1, and he's generally a rock out there. Nobody's going to win 100% of their matchups - I think Light still does better than most.

Now his run blocking? That's another issue.

 

[Tunescribe]

You got two things wrong, PFK:

The NFL head of officials, Mike Pereira, said Gaffney's catch was correctly called because his fingertips (both hands) never left the ball, even though his palms separated from it. In other words, the only way it could have been considered a non-catch would have been if the ball left his hands as he was stepping out, which it never did.

There were two personal fouls called against Baltimore's Scott on that play, not holding. IF Gaffney's catch was incorrectly overturned, the Patriots would've had a first down with half the distance to the goal being marked off twice.

 

[Mike the Brit]

4. The same goes for the Raven's fans and other assorted haters. How they can ***** when EVERYONE of those defensive calls were UNDENIABLY correct, with a straight face. The same goes for those players. I heard Rolle (I think) say in a post game interview that the flag wasn't thrown until AFTER the ball hit the ground, when CLEARLY it was throw WELL before Brady even threw the ball. These guys have no sense of reality down there.

5. Speaking of the behavior of the Ravens players, is it ANY wonder why, with one of the most talent laden teams in the NFL they haven't even had a SNIFF at a superbowl since 2000. Clearly they are HORRIBLY put together, have ZERO discipline, no class, and all of them play to the INDIVIDUAL spotlight. They are a true reflection of their HC, and they have paid the price for it for this entire DECADE. Their window has officially CLOSED!

Great post, Ken -- thanks, as always. It really increases my pleasure to have your thoughts to help digest the games (see sig!)

I'm not going to rehearse everything I agreed with/profited from but I want to put one thought to you.

I think that the strengths and the weaknesses of the Ravens go together. Do you remember that LT clip that used to be shown a lot where he is on the sidelines and shouts at his team-mates "Let's go out there and play like mad dogs!" (something like that, anyway ) ?

At the highest level, the intensity of football is downright scary. The difficulty, though, is combining intensity with discipline. On Monday we saw one team that had intensity but insufficient discipline nearly beat another team that had discipline but (on the night) not as much intensity.

I don't like Billick much and think that the Ravens should probably get rid of him, but the answer to their problem isn't easy: imposing self-discipline at the cost of intensity would be fatal to them.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

I agree that the Seymour is playing like a JAG. Since the bye week, Seymour has 0 sacks, 0 passes defensed, 6 tackles, and .5 tackle for loss. He has not been an impact player, and that is what he's supposed to be. Right now he is the 4th best D-lineman on this team, and has been for some time.

PWP: You're pushing it but clearly he's not one of the top 2 with this season's play. It's not the stats it's the big opposing gains on his and AD's side. AD is another topic

Sorting Maroney's snaps: When Maroney is in the game, prior to the Raven game, the offense telegraphs "run". He said as much, that he is the "running back" and Faulk is the "passing back". Why not get Maroney more involved in the passing game, when he has repeatedly shown a talent for explosive receptions? He did it with limited opportunities vs. Denver, Chicago, Green Bay, Minnesota, Washington, and Baltimore.

One possible way to take advantage of the attention paid to Welker and Moss, is send Moss deep, run Welker on a slant toward Moss' side of the field, and hit Maroney on the opposite side in the flat with a swing pass. You will destroy teams all day long that way. Faulk is a nice player but Maroney is a gamebreaker.

On target. I'd criticize Josh for telegraphing run with LoMo's presence up to last Monday. Maybe it was because of perceived blocking deficiencies but I watched and Maroney blocked really well Monday. Faulk like. I really like the idea of sending the two threats deep and shallow to the same side and swinging out to Maroney. If he's as good as I think he is, he should be able to beat one guy and gain serious yards. The opposing DC will need to adjust for this in subsequent quarters and then back to Moss and The Wanker for a TD.

 

[Deus Irae]

Re: Not of nothing but....

No rule change. In the books at the time. Point of emphasis. Case closed. No more response about this topic. Move along. Nothing to see here.

Point of emphasis = rules change without going through the normal process. As you well know, I might add. If you don't want to hear this simple truth, stop bringing up your nonsensical argument about contact downfield from years ago everytime someone else talks about this season.

 

[patfanken]

Re: Not of nothing but....

Sorry but the facts that otherwise.

http://www.coldhardfootballfacts.com/Articles/11_1902_Patriots_27,_Ravens_24:_What_we_learned.html

4. New England's offensive line showed again that it struggles against top defensive fronts. As we pointed out last week, the Patriots have faced some of the worst Defensive Hogs in the business this season. But against Philly, Dallas and now Baltimore (all in the top 10 on our Index when they played the Patriots, with Baltimore No. 1), New England allowed 10 of their 21 Negative Pass Plays on the season (sack or INT) and ran for 213 yards on 69 carries (3.1 YPA).

http://www.coldhardfootballfacts.com/Article.php?Page=1135

Sometimes we get sooooo caught up in the numbers that we forget to fully interpret. Listen to what the CHFF really mean. That the Patriots, playing against 3 of the top 10 defenses in the league, averaged 3 negative pass plays a game.

Tell me, HOW BAD IS THAT, especially when you concider that the Pats drop back to pass over 40 times a game. So here is a more optimistic interpretation of the stats. THE BEST DLs in the business, can only manage to create an average of 3 "negative plays" a game, when the Pats are making more that 40 attempts. WHERE IS THE PROBLEM HERE. I don't see one.

OTOH, the numbers vs the running game IS more sobering. However I wonder how much is derived from a lack of talent running the ball, or how much is a lack of COMMITMENT to run the ball.

Granted you can't blame the Pats coaching staff for throwing the ball, given who is out there throwing and catching it. OTOH, as the weather gets worse, we should be making plan B a priority. Perhaps when we play 2 JV teams like the Jets and the Dolphins, we can start working on that part of our game in preparation for the Playoffs.

 

[mgcolby]

Re: Not of nothing but....

You can't treat a False start like a normal penalty. It is a dead ball foul, the false start occurs prior to the snap, therefore there is no play. So you can't let a play that doesn't exist continue on. They let the play continue when "offsides" occurs, because you can't be offside without the ball being snapped. Therefore that is a live ball foul. The only exception being, offsides on the defense when the defender is unimpeded to the QB.

Same with a delay of game penalty, the snap didn't occur within the alloted time limit, which negates the snap and makes it a dead ball foul. Same concept.

The rule is exactly as it should be.

That is my thought on that and thanks for another great post!!

 

[Ring 6]

You could allow the play to continue on a false start, but there is one huge reason they do not.
The potential for injury.
There is a much greater chance of injury when a play has a false start. Especially on the OL. Either a defender, who is watching the ball, is getting hit while still in his stance, or the OL is now out of position (or at leastt eh unit out of position with respect to each other) and the play is likely to end up with an unblocked defender.

If you let the play continue on false starts you would see a lot of QBs hit by unblocked guys and a lot of unprepared defenders getting hit.

Thats why the 'unabated to the passer' offsides also creates a whistle and stopped play.

 

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

Nice post.

I really haven't had a problem with anything the Pats are doing these three tight games recently. The defense needs some fine tuning perhaps. More emphasis on running the ball effectively, not just to go through the motions of being balanced but to really have a RUN ATTACK like our pass attack.

I think all three games would have been won comfortably with proper officiating.

I think the big point this year is that we are a great TEAM, as you mention. The talent level of the parts is not as important as the results. Some areas of our team are clearly better than others, but overall we can overcome a lot of stuff. I believe we have more margin of error than ever before.

 

[ATippett56]

Re: Not of nothing but....

No rule change. In the books at the time. Point of emphasis. Case closed. No more response about this topic. Move along. Nothing to see here.

We hardly take orders from a moronic Colts troll on the PATSFANS message board.

 

[ATippett56]

Re: Not of nothing but....

Tell me, HOW BAD IS THAT, especially when you concider that the Pats drop back to pass over 40 times a game. So here is a more optimistic interpretation of the stats. THE BEST DLs in the business, can only manage to create an average of 3 "negative plays" a game, when the Pats are making more that 40 attempts. WHERE IS THE PROBLEM HERE. I don't see one.

Are you that blind? In the last two games, the Patriots offense has averaged 25.5 points per game. In the first ten games, the Patriots offense averaged over 40 points per game. If a fifteen point scoring differential is not alarming, then you are unable to see the forest thru the trees.

 

[ATippett56]

Re: Not of nothing but....

Sometimes we get sooooo caught up in the numbers that we forget to fully interpret. Listen to what the CHFF really mean. That the Patriots, playing against 3 of the top 10 defenses in the league, averaged 3 negative pass plays a game.

Tell me, HOW BAD IS THAT, especially when you concider that the Pats drop back to pass over 40 times a game. So here is a more optimistic interpretation of the stats. THE BEST DLs in the business, can only manage to create an average of 3 "negative plays" a game, when the Pats are making more that 40 attempts. WHERE IS THE PROBLEM HERE. I don't see one.

The pass happy offense must cease. Throwing 40 times a game is not the solution when historically the statistics prove otherwise. Passing yards is NOT the measure of an efficient pass offense, passing yards per attempt is.

http://www.coldhardfootballfacts.com/Article.php?Page=889

 

[MrBigglesWorth]

Re: Not of nothing but....

the pats have no one to blame but themselves. they limit maroney's touches. they don't him in for a while half.

they've messed up their own offense by going 4 wide and getting pass happy.

they've missed opportunities to get players experience like pierre woods, even CJ.

how many roster spots are wasted right now? troy brown, cj...