Official Patriots/Falcons Post Game Thread

[jmt57]

Reaction from Atlanta

Reaction to the game from Atlanta:

The Falcons suffer a thumping loss but learn a needed lesson

“We said this would be a benchmark for our organization,” said Thomas Dimitroff, the Falcons’ general manager but once New England’s chief scout. “And the reality is that we still have a lot of work to do. And I knew — I knew — that [the Patriots get] agitated when it’s suggested they’re losing something. I knew they would play physically and come out with all guns blazing.”

To use the Dimitroff buzzword of 2009, the Pats played with urgency. They’d rushed for a total of 156 yards in the season’s first two games; they ran for 168 Sunday. They kept possession for nearly 40 minutes.
“They ball-hogged the ball,” receiver Roddy White would say later, and in so doing the Pats hogtied the Falcons.

The Pats weren’t precise — the great Tom Brady missed more open receivers in one game than he used to miss in a full season — but they were persistent. The Falcons hung around and seemed about to seize the lead in both the second and third quarters, but Michael Turner fumbled and Michael Jenkins was flagged for offensive interference in the end zone (the right call, by the way) and the Falcons didn’t score over the final 38 minutes and 48 seconds.

And you’re not going beat New England, which has been the NFL’s best team over the past eight seasons, that way. And that’s what showed Sunday. One team knew what winning such a game entailed. The other was still guessing.

Patriots' approach surprised Falcons' defense

In particular, several Atlanta players said New England’s reliance on a play-action passing attack surprised them. Because the Falcons had to respect the Patriots’ running game, they couldn’t rush Brady as aggressively as they’d like.

“They kind of did a little mind games on us. That’s all it was,” defensive end John Abraham said. “They did a good job. I’ve got to credit them with how they played. We watched a lot of tape, and they didn’t do as much play action before.”

One year after setting a franchise record and personal best 16.5 sacks, Abraham had two sacks in the season-opening 19-7 victory over the Miami Dolphins. But the Patriots’ offensive line did a nice job containing the 6-foot-4, 263-pound Abraham and the rest of the Falcons’ line.

Falcons falter late against Patriots

The Falcons were about as precise as a team could be Sunday in an annoying drizzle. The performance, especially by the secondary, was gritty too.

But in the catch-a-break department, they were was not as fortunate. A shaky pass interference call seemed to take the steam out of their sails on the way to a 26-10 defeat at Gillette Stadium, Atlanta's first loss of the young season.

"They were the better team today," coach Mike Smith said of the Patriots. "Guys, its real simple and you want to search for answers. They were the better team."

On the key interference call, wide receiver Michael Jenkins started to celebrate what appeared to be his 64-yard touchdown catch, which would have brought the Falcons' a 17-16 third-quarter lead. Until out of the corner of eye, he saw the penalty flag. On replays it appeared that Jenkins gave Patriots defensive back Leigh Bodden a little too much of his right arm to create some separation and was called for offensive pass interference.

The drive stalled and New England went on to hold Atlanta at bay to improve to 2-1, while the Falcons dropped to 2-1 heading into the early-season bye week. If Smith wanted no parts of discussing that play, Jenkins disputed the call.

"I felt like there wasn't anything extra, but the ref thought there was something extra," Jenkins said. "He felt like I pushed off and he made the call."

Running back Michael Turner thought he witnessed a touchdown.

"It looked clean to me," Turner said. "It looked like a normal touchdown catch."

Patriots double up on Falcons' Gonzalez

As Tony Gonzalez walked off the Gillette Stadium field Sunday, he ran into Bill Belichick. The two share a mutual respect and have known each other for a few years, since Belichick coached Gonzalez at the Pro Bowl.

All afternoon, the Patriots had focused on the Falcons tight end, swarming him with “bracket” coverage and rarely assigning just one defender to him.
Afterward, New England’s coach had a reason to feel good about his team’s performance in limiting Gonzalez to one catch. What did Belichick offer?

“I’m not going to tell you exactly what he said,” said Gonzalez, grinning. “Something to the effect of, ‘A double team was on today.’ ”

 

[mcsully]

thanks jmt57!

 

[captain stone]

So is Reche Caldwell, with the game winning TD against the Steelers.

Do you want him back?

At the price of losing Galloway, then Yes.

 

[realtime]

At the price of losing Galloway, then Yes.

Reche Caldwell has been out of the league for going on two years. I'll take my chances with Galloway.

 

[BradyManny]

So is Reche Caldwell, with the game winning TD against the Steelers.

Do you want him back?

That was Reche's brother, Andre, actually.

 

[captain stone]

Oh...then never mind. But regardless, Galloway's Got to Go.

As for the 4th-down conversion, I'm glad they did it. It was a helluva risk, to be sure; but it was only one lousy foot, and these are TFB & the NEP, d%#*!@t. Italia44 is correct: if I'm a Falcons fan, I'm praying that the Pats punt. This is what can happen when you have a running game that is working all day, and your OL suddenly has the mentality that it can gain a foot, or a yard, or two yards, whenever it needs to do so. I just wish that Bill & BOB would remember this when they get inside the 10.

Speaking of which, Joey Effin Galloway should never, ever, be on the field in a Goal-to-Go situation. Moss, Baker, Watson, Taylor, Faulk, Morris; even Edelman (very disappointed in his drops), Aiken (don't stop, Sam; keep running to the post!) and Matthews are all better options down there.

 

[pencilneckgeek]

Thanks to all of you who have hung in amidst the low signal-to-noise ratio to offer your analysis. That was the kind of game that makes the analysis all-the-more fun. Better schemes on offense, getting the run going and mixing in a good amount of play action, and a good scheme on defense.

I still wouldn't be sorry to see the empty backfield go away, unless it's an obvious passing situation. The benefits of having a back there, even in the shotgun for pass protection and deception, outweigh the benefits of being able to get five guys out in the pattern right away. (This will be even more true against a blitzing defense, unless Tom stops caring about getting hit.) Obviously, somebody in the braintrust doesn't feel that way, since they went straight to an empty backfield the drive after Taylor rumbled over the opposition. I quite simply think that's bad coaching.

Props to Wheatley for stepping up with Wilhite and Butler down and manning-up on the outside without much help. Nothing spectacular back there, but he only got beat once, and giving up a first on 3rd and 3 isn't exactly a major breakdown.

I'm sure everyone here with 20/20 hindsight is going to talk about how great it was, but I am not afraid to say that was just a stupid decision (even though it worked).

I agree it was gutsy and I liked the attitude/message he was sending to his own team. I also agree with you that you can't justify the move with stats, payoff calculations, or any intellectual exercise. Only brain-challenged posters...cling to bizarre beliefs that the move was somehow justified by reason.

Belichick did seem a little sheepish about that call later, probably knowing that it wasn't entirely rational. There was definitely more to lose than gain on that one play, but it allowed for the game-changing drive and didn't give Atlanta the ball with the opportunity to make their own game-changing drive. More importantly, it reflects a coach who still thinks of his team as a SB contender and expects to make the game-winning plays you need to go all the way, not just avoid making the game-losing plays that leave you at home in January.

So... not to hijack the Jenkins thread (which forum is this again?) but here's a nice little video of Fred Taylor's exploits today.

NFL Videos: WK 3: Fred Taylor highlights

Good to see those plays again. On second glance, it looks like some soft tackling by Atlanta there. Still, it takes a strong runner to make a 250# NFL LB look soft.

I'm very happy watching the OL handle the Falcons all day. It was impressive watching Light stand Abraham up on a play, hopelessly trying to get to Brady. One of his finest highlights, IMO.
...
Burgess has been a huge disapointment thus far to me. He has done nothing, and was again invisible today. Jarvis Green still is not getting to the QB, and it seemed as if ADT was in coverage all day. I'm happy with the results, we're no doubt better than last year when it comes to 3rd down. I just want to see them make plays, create turn overs. I'm not seeing that yet.

OL did look good. However, I'm still concerned about Baltimore's pass rush next week. It's a much more complicated task to integrate TEs and RBs against a mix of 4-man rush and blitzes and for Brady to hang in and step into his throws like he did today. (Those overthrows looked to be more a lack of touch than a failing of mechanics below the waist, and that's a major improvement in my book.)

Agree that Burgess continues to underwhelm. However, Green gave some good pressure yesterday. He flushed Ryan a couple of times and was by far their most effective pass rusher. There weren't any sacks, but this was definitely the kind of day where pressure was good enough for the secondary and the scheme.

Running game- It definitely picked up in this game where we were able to get what we wanted as far as yards. Fred Taylor should be the starting RB for us as he is able to hit a little crease and get 4 yards while carrying someone on his back. Goal line situations should automatically go to Taylor NOT a pass TAYLOR. I understand we don't want to wear him out and we should throw in a bit of Morris Maroney but primarily Taylor 20 carries a game sounds about right.
...
Brady and WR's- Not on the same page. It was either Brady overthrowing, or WR dropping the ball. Better then last week YES however there is still a lot of work to be done here. Yes Galloway has stunk up the joint but the entire passing game is off and thus the calls to cut him are a bit premature. Bench him until he gets it together and start Endelman. Brady needs to be called out to. He hasn't played in a while and needs time but as it stand he has a lot of work to do to make accurate passes and not overthrow WR's. OHH we need Welker back and our 3 starting wideouts should be: Moss, Welker, Endelman.
...
Offensive playcalling- Much much better. Whether it was passes to RB's, Playaction, the bag of tricks was open and our O was not as predictable this time around. We need to continue this as well as running the ball so the opposing D does not focus on brady and dont know what is coming. BB called the plays on O if I am not mistaken.
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Worst play call- Inside the 10 we abandon the run that got us there to pass and not score a TD. Taylor inside the 10 please 3 times will get that TD.
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Red zone- What was it 6 times and we scored ONLY 2 TD's? That needs to change in a hurry.

Running game looked good with Maroney, too. Taylor definitely made the big plays though. I'll be very happy if they can split drives. I'd rather see Morris as a 2nd back at this point. We've got two really good backs, who should be given their reps.

Edelman won't get the call as a third wideout. He backs up Welker and works as a fourth receiver in the opposite slot, but he doesn't run the same routes as Galloway. I agree it's premature to call for Galloway's ouster. He is getting better in the tricky stuff - running better routes and being in the right place. I'm hoping he can stop thinking and just work on execution now. If not, Tate has the speed to play Galloway's position, but it's unlikely he'll be ready to fill that position until LATE in the year, if at all. Nunn has the tools to play that position, too. If he's learning faster in practice than Galloway, he could get the call, but unless Galloway ends up stinking it up until the bye-week, he'll be part of this team.

I gave my idea of the worst play call above, but it seems we're on the same page. I wanted to see them run it on 2nd down from the 5 yard line, after picking up 3 on first down.

Worst play was probably Aiken breaking off his route in the end zone. He's one of my favorite players out there, but settling down into the seam of a zone when the defense is in man coverage is just bizarre. For all the talk about Galloway, that's clearly the thing that set Brady off, as he was yelling down toward Aiken, who was in with the STers getting ready for the kickoff.

Still, the passing game looks better. It doesn't need to fire like in 2007 to win a ton of games. I'd rather see the running game integrated whenever possible. Did I mention I don't care for the empty backfield?

 

[captain stone]

Good analysis, PNG; I esp. agree with your call to banish the empty backfield, for all the reasons prev. stated, by you & others.

 

[convertedpatsfan]

Good post, welcome aboard.

Just curious though, if you are a converted Pats fan, what team did you root for before?

Are you also a Yankees, Canadians, and Lakers fan?

I'm sure being a Yankees/Canadiens/Lakers fan would go over well here

I grew up near Detroit, so I followed the Lions, though I wasn't much of a fan. Hated the team, hated the owner, hated the coaches, hated the players (except for Barry Sanders). But it was the only NFL football I could watch.

I also followed the University of Michigan, where I rooted for some scrub named Tom Brady. He was my fav player, though I didn't expect him to get drafted. When he got picked up by NE, I kept tabs on the team. When Bledsoe went down, I watched the Pats. Of course, I never thought he was going to last. I just wanted to see him play a few more times before he was out of football entirely. Whoops.

Wolfpack: I understand what you mean. But I didn't feel like we were in control at the time. The offense was still struggling in the red zone, an Atlanta TD puts us behind, and a punt would probably give them the ball around their 35, possibly worse because our ST haven't been too good.

As for 4th down conversions, you're right, the Pats didn't invent it. But I haven't seen too many other teams go for it as aggressively. Granted, the majority of games I've watched are AFC East games, where the other coaches have been pretty crappy. And the Pats are usually in the top 10 in 4th down attempts, despite most of the other teams being crappy teams that have to go for it out of desperation.

And why are people arguing Jenkins' value based on what the Jets gave up for him? Does that mean Randy Moss is over-rated too because we only gave up a 4th for him?

 

[maverick4]

I'm sure being a Yankees/Canadiens/Lakers fan would go over well here

I grew up near Detroit, so I followed the Lions, though I wasn't much of a fan. Hated the team, hated the owner, hated the coaches, hated the players (except for Barry Sanders). But it was the only NFL football I could watch.

I also followed the University of Michigan, where I rooted for some scrub named Tom Brady. He was my fav player, though I didn't expect him to get drafted. When he got picked up by NE, I kept tabs on the team. When Bledsoe went down, I watched the Pats. Of course, I never thought he was going to last. I just wanted to see him play a few more times before he was out of football entirely. Whoops.

Welcome aboard. Wasn't trying to give you a hard time, was just trying to understand why you were a fan, since your username is so unique.

 

[atljbo1]

Mike Ditka C'Mon Man

YouTube - C'Mon Man Monday Sep 28

On a bad Call the Refs made against Michael Jenkins

 

[PatsFanJess]

Mike Ditka C'Mon Man

YouTube - C'Mon Man Monday Sep 28

On a bad Call the Refs made against Michael Jenkins

Yes, it was a bad call. What's your point?