Official Patriots/Ravens Postgame thread

[thechris]

The offense needs an overhaul . . . and I'm not talking about the players necessarily. When I can sit on my couch and pretty much know what's coming, there is no reason the Ravens (or any other team) that watches film and gameplans can't figure out what's coming from this predictable offense. It's awful to watch.

The Ravens offense is even more predictable and we couldn't stop it. Everyone knew they would be running it with Rice & Willis.

 

[patfan#1]

Complete meltdown of entire team save Edleman and a few others. We don't have the horses anymore and maybe TB is banged up more than we know. Too many lost players over the years. Tough loss at home but we've had a great run and were still a playoff team. I'm looking to next season right now and the challeges it will bring.

 

[BennyBledsoe]

Everything is cyclical including success in the NFL. The stars aligned earlier in the decade with a 6th rounder turning into a hall of famer and a dressing room stocked full of character guys that blindly followed the teams mantra. It is difficult to maintain that, especially with coaches being poached and poor drafts.

Here's hoping that the stars begin to align again, but there is no doubt that the strategy has to change somewhat. Time to start paying your best players (hello Wilfork) and start taking advantage of draft position instead of trading down for value. There are alot of holes to fill.

Agreed a thousand percent.

 

[UESPatsFan]

I think it all comes down to depth. The Pats dont seem to have the depth they used to have and it shows. It isnt plug n play anymore. I think they need to draft better, sure, but they really need to develop depth. Too many injuries to overcome.

I think there are also issues on the playcalling on both sides of the ball this game and all games this season, but man, expecting to win when giving away that many short fields in the first quarter....nearly impossible. The Ravens came out sky-high and we were still in warm-ups. Played them even after that for the most part....but even doesnt help when youre down that much in the first quarter.

I look forward to seeing what I would expect tremendous change in the offseason.

 

[JMarr]

1. Boo birds coming out at Gillette after Baltimore's 2nd TD was pathetic. Everyone associated with the franchise should be embarassed by that. Crowd just like the team itself--soft, entitled, riding the coattails of past success.

2. TB's lack of mobility [injuries or not] killed this team and will continue to do so in the future. Reminds me of Drew Bledsoe now. Can't think of any other QBs in the league who would not have run it in for the TD in the second quarter, or who couldn't have avoided some of the pressures/sacks. A QB who can't make plays outside the pocket is worthless in the NFL.

3. Cutting Galloway, being cheap and letting Gaffney walk, no #3 WR--IN A SPREAD OFFENSE!--are you F'in kidding me. Epic fail by BB, Kraft and FO.

4. Special Teams. Compared to recent years, an epic failure. Didn't our ST coach leave last year? Worst special teams play I've ever seen from the Pats.

5. We are officially a soft team--the new Indiannapolis Ponies. Almost every other team in the league is more physical than the Pats. Not drafting/signing physical LB's etc= epic fail. Chung the only bright spot for the future.
Mayo/Guyton: unimpressive to say the least. Can Guyton shed a block to save his own life? Merriweather: can't tackle, makes stupid plays. His going to the Pro Bowl is a cruel joke. Never liked him.

The Good:

1. Vollmer=Beast. Have to draft nasty, meat grinding linemen on both sides of the ball NOW!

2. Edelman. He was great, but his attitude is the most important thing. There were only 3 true patriots at Gillette today--Edelman, Faulk, and the guy sipping beer in Kraft's luxury box. Also, thanks Junior Seau for doing what you could.

3. Bodden=total stud. People who don't see this are not watching our secondary play. Hopefully he wasn't just playing this well for a $ contract next year. And hopefully they will sign him.

Other than that, we need an OC. And any HC who would prefer having Gary Guyton as an ILB instead of a guy like Mauluaga (obstensibly b/c Guyton "knows the system" or is "smarter" than a guy like Rey) needs to re-think his defensive scheme.

 

[RayClay]

Mirrors for all

Nice to have the supermodel wife or the big boobed Milf girlfriend, but it wasn't that way back when we were hungry. Time fades away, if we don't find that hungry Patriots attitude again, the Dynasty is ancient history. 2004 is receding in the rearview already. Don't even mention 2007, or I'll dump a Gatorade bucket of cement on you.

First off, we need professional NFL coordinators especially on offense. If we can scoop Romeo from the Giants, so much the better. The rest of the staf should be back upon evaluation. Let some go and get new blood if that's needed.

Now, our new OC needs to get straight that he's running the offense, not Brady. Brady's best success was when he had an experienced OC. Call audibles when called for

Randy Moss is fine, he's older. Get a quick hitting O with some options and force defenses to cover a lot of ground and defend...the run. Run the freaking ball. force defenses to stop it. Then work off that.

Take Tully and Burgess and a new DE and play our 3-4 base. No time to get cute when we can't play our base D and we can't, case in point, today. Add some other LBs, dump Thomas. Get some tight ends that are tough and want it. This superstar TE stuff is hogwash. Get a big dirty guy that can get open and make space and block. Scour the middle of the draft, free agents or try out guys, there really is no sense getting a track star when all they do is turn around, catch and fall down (Watson). I saw Baker laughing, drop him.
There's only one Tony Gonzalez every other team does without him.

Bodden's a keeper, Vince, Warren and our young backups are cheap and have potential. Pryor's fine as a sub package guy or change of pace.

Decide on a couple running backs and some back ups. Give them work. a kick returner 3rd down guy would be a good cheap investment.

All special teams jobs are wide open. If we can acquire a maniac like Izzo, fine. Otherwise let's have a big camp and keep the survivors, This special teams specialis approach is a failure. Horrible "tackling" on special teams. No way slater or Alexander shouldn't have to beat out 4 or 5 people for spots. Why not guys who can play a position run kicks or do anything because they're hungry to make a team. Sorry, that's the way it used to be and it produced effort and hunger to prove. Look at Welker, look at Edelman.

We could use a speed burner WR, but let's get guys that produce, that run routes, that catch the ball and fight for yards. We've gone the good "athlete" route a few times and
we got Bethel Johnson, Chad Jackson and Ben Watson. time to go back to drafting football players that produce are smart and hate to lose.

Speaking of hate to lose, way to many smiles during tough losses. If we have to make a shocking cut ot two, do it.

The culpability of our line is overrated. If we run the ball and add quick developing pass plays, they're all pros again. Vollmer's the left tackle, so I don't know why they would wait. If Light can't play another position, maybe we save a salary. If we go bookends with light at LT another year, that's fine too. We can add guys, but it's not the main problem IMO.

 

[BennyBledsoe]

Or James Laurinaitis...Brian Cushing...Paul Posluszny (I think they were in position to draft him)...

Then they lucked out drafting Vollmer that high...you know, sometimes I think they just overthink their drafts. Sometimes the great LB... IS a great LB.

 

[blackglass3]

1. Boo birds coming out at Gillette after Baltimore's 2nd TD was pathetic. Everyone associated with the franchise should be embarassed by that. Crowd just like the team itself--soft, entitled, riding the coattails of past success.

I coulod not agree less with this. The booing was completely deserved. The team looked like it thought the date was August 10th, not January. Every single boo the Patriots heard today was valid.

 

[FootballFanatic]

Crushing loss. I thought we'd go to the SB for sure if we just one today.

 

[JMarr]

Everything is cyclical including success in the NFL. The stars aligned earlier in the decade with a 6th rounder turning into a hall of famer and a dressing room stocked full of character guys that blindly followed the teams mantra. It is difficult to maintain that, especially with coaches being poached and poor drafts.

Here's hoping that the stars begin to align again, but there is no doubt that the strategy has to change somewhat. Time to start paying your best players (hello Wilfork) and start taking advantage of draft position instead of trading down for value. There are alot of holes to fill.

I agree with every word. Well said--you just put everything in a nutshell.

 

[patsinthesnow]

I have a good question.

Is this finally the end of Maroney? Or we see him again..

 

[Run DMC]

Boo's are well deserved for this sad group of under-achieving JAGs. When I see smiling faces on our sidelines after getting *****-slapped yet again, it makes we want to vomit. This team is SOFT.

 

[FootballFanatic]

Does anybody think the Ravnes cheated? Some plays were like wow like they knew what to expect.

 

[furley]

Or James Laurinaitis...Brian Cushing...Paul Posluszny (I think they were in position to draft him)

Or Jonathan Beason, David Harris, Justin Durant, Stewart Bradley and Clint Session in 2007 draft. New England selected Oscar Lua instead. Wow.

Shawn Crable and Bo Ruud in 2008. And Gary Guyton was undrafted. How ironic...

 

[FootballFanatic]

God I hope the Chargers win. I hate the Colts Ravens and Jets.

 

[FootballFanatic]

As a long time patriot fan I am starting to wonder how much spying on teams and stealing there signals helped us and how much of it was skill? If there was nothing to hide than why was the evidence destroyed?

Cheating is wrong period, and any team doing it is stupid. I think the Ravens were cheating or something in the 1st quarter.

 

[Sean Pa Patriot]

Boy you can tell who the true fans are... 2 years ago when we lost last, you could not get on this board for 2 days...

 

[Sean Pa Patriot]

As a long time patriot fan I am starting to wonder how much spying on teams and stealing there signals helped us and how much of it was skill? If there was nothing to hide than why was the evidence destroyed?

I have no problem questioning Brady, or Belichick.. but when we go to this childish antics, I have a problem... That is why you need to go away..

 

[PrairiePat]

...as the < 10 post-count trolls appear and start talking cheating by the Ravens. Get over it. They were well-prepared and hyper-motivated, things we used to laud the Pats for. Kudos to them, and hopefully they can knock off Indy next week too.

Our supposed strength on defense was stopping the run, but the Ravens ran it right at our defense all game, and the we couldn't stop them. WE used to be the physical team in the playoffs, but today we were getting pushed back on defense all day long.

Our offense consisted of dump offs to the running backs, draw plays, and wide receiver screens that everyone saw coming. We have no power running game. Any passes downfield (if Brady had time to look downfield) were highly contested. Either our schemes are completely transparent, we have receivers who can't get open, or Brady is just making bad reads. Maybe it's a combination of all of those things, who knows.

Overall it was just a really bad day for us on both sides of the ball. Outside of the debacle in New Orleans, our losses this year have been closely contested throughout. But this was just a beat down. We got outplayed from the opening snap, and really looked like we deserved to lose. At least it wasn't some gut-wrenching PI call at the end that did us in

I suspect there will be some big changes this offseason, both on and off the field. One thing I admire about the Pats' organization is that losing isn't tolerated - I'm sure the ownership and BB are going to look long and hard at what happened this year, decide on a strategy to regain their competitive edge, and set out to make 2010 a great season for the team. I'm disappointed in how this season ended, but I'm a long way from ever turning in my die-hard fan membership

 

[blackglass3]

Let's not go that far, but he has been banned. Posting from New Jersey, if that tells you anything.

Um, look at my location...

Some of us out here aren't complete morons