****** Official Unofficial Patriots/Rams Postgame Observations Thread ******

[spacecrime]

we're doomed :singing:

Really and truly doomed. Best thing now is to root for a lockout so as not to repeat the upcoming winless season.

 

[IcyPatriot]

Kind of typical pre season game. Players who know they're on the team not playing their best, rookies trying to run through brick walls. The occasional veteran like Tom Brady who thinks every game will be his last.

I watched the game while playing online golf ... One eye was enough.

I bet all those players we passed on the last few drafts played much better.

 

[JR4]

Wow. I just watched BB's postgame presser and he looked PISSED. I mean wow. The Pats just lost a meaningless preseason game by 1 point, but it sounded like they had been thrashed 31-0 by the Jets in the AFC title game. BB just hates losing no matter what! Phew! I would not want to be in the Pats lockerrom this upcoming week. BB is gonna work em like dogs!

The bright spot out of this is that the loss to the Rams of all teams is a huge wakeup call. That definitely prevents any overconfidence leading up to the regular season. Game 4 is the final tuneup game, and I expect to see the regulars play more. And the defense in particular to be sharper and not make so many dumb penalties.

It was planned that way by the master. The one who pays players to
start fights. By the greatest inventor :idea2: of NFL motivation tools ever..
... the guru that has no equal. ....:youtheman:

Wait until week 8. If no injuries,
Pats Defense will be cooking .... bet on it!
(they could have 3 or 4 loses by then but the rest of the season should be
theirs) If PATs can get at least 11 wins considering their tough schedule
and this young defense I'll be OK with that.

 

[TruthSeeker]

I didn't see the game. My impressions from you guys, and seeing the highlights, Brady is having a great preseason. Gronk apparently looked great, and I'm worried about the defense. I'm sure Belichick is probably going to rip them a new one during practice and film session. Barring injuries (What's the status of Edelman & Gonzalez), the offense can be pretty unstoppable. I'm more worried about the defense, but it is a young defense, so there is bound to be some growing pains. Hopefully Merriwether and Brace are ok.

 

[Deus Irae]

Something else to note.... All the Connolly rumpswabbing seems to have died down. So, if nothing else positive came out of last night, maybe the "Mankins who?" crap ending will be enough to keep us going.

 

[JackBauer]

Something else to note.... All the Connolly rumpswabbing seems to have died down. So, if nothing else positive came out of last night, maybe the "Mankins who?" crap ending will be enough to keep us going.

Connolly looked fine last night, in a very limited sample.

Tough to tell what's going on with the running game, though.

 

[Rob0729]

Connolly looked fine last night, in a very limited sample.

Tough to tell what's going on with the running game, though.

I thought the other side of the line had far more problems than Conolly did.

 

[BradyManny]

Something else to note.... All the Connolly rumpswabbing seems to have died down. So, if nothing else positive came out of last night, maybe the "Mankins who?" crap ending will be enough to keep us going.

I'm not sure about that - I didn't notice Connolly doing anything wrong, that's for sure.

Honestly, he may very well be our most consistent lineman in this preseason.

I remember Neal, Vollmer and Light all missing blocks on various plays, but nothing from Connolly. I'm going to rewatch over the weekend and confirm, but I think his play has been fine.

LG is actually pretty low on my worry list at this point, personally. In general, yes, the interior line depth is an issue, but not b/c of Connolly.

 

[Deus Irae]

Connolly looked fine last night, in a very limited sample.

Tough to tell what's going on with the running game, though.

Connolly didn't look fine last night. In his defense, nobody on the line really looked fine.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Connolly didn't look fine last night. In his defense, nobody on the line really looked fine.

You're agenda is showing again...

The OL looked pretty good in extremely limited action. The pass blocking was effective as Brady's stat line attests. Not sure if the run blocking was sub par or the RB were in limited opportunities. As it stands if I had to (or could realistically) choose one place to invest $8M this AM, it wouldn't be LG...

 

[Deus Irae]

You're agenda is showing again...

The OL looked pretty good in extremely limited action. The pass blocking was effective as Brady's stat line attests. Not sure if the run blocking was sub par or the RB were in limited opportunities. As it stands if I had to (or could realistically) choose one place to invest $8M this AM, it wouldn't be LG...

My agenda? Dude, get over it. The line was poor last night, and that definitely included Connolly.

Or do both Dale and Holley share my agenda?


The one with the agenda is you. The Patriots can handle criticism. You can climb out of the team's pocket any time.

 

[JackBauer]

Connolly didn't look fine last night. In his defense, nobody on the line really looked fine.

Meh. Looked fine to me, though you've been consistently pessimistic re: Connolly so we'll just leave it at that.

 

[Kontradiction]

I wasn't keeping my eye on Connolly nearly as much (if at all) last night compared to the first two games. If he was getting pushed around then that's bad news considering we weren't exactly going up against a top tier defensive line.

 

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

Ho-Hum...

Detroit Lions...... 4-0 and great looking wins in preseason of 2008
then 4 months later.......

0-16 with a team that could barely beat a division II school



Enough said here....

 

[MoLewisrocks]

I wasn't keeping my eye on Connolly nearly as much (if at all) last night compared to the first two games. If he was getting pushed around then that's bad news considering we weren't exactly going up against a top tier defensive line.

He wasn't. Reiss and the intern have some solid analysis up. Dale and Holley may simply be venting... Their analysis deals not with simply the how but the why. They were obviously working on the spread last night. And the run D wasn't as bad as some would make it out to be, it was the secondary and mistakes that kept the Rams on the field for 44 minutes and limited the offense to 16...

New England Patriots Blog - ESPN Boston

 

[Kontradiction]

He wasn't. Reiss and the intern have some solid analysis up. Dale and Holley may simply be venting... Their analysis deals not with simply the how but the why. They were obviously working on the spread last night. And the run D wasn't as bad as some would make it out to be, it was the secondary and mistakes that kept the Rams on the field for 44 minutes and limited the offense to 16...

New England Patriots Blog - ESPN Boston

The secondary certainly looked bad, but the linebackers deserve some blame too. Bradford was doing work underneath.

 

[Deus Irae]

He wasn't. Reiss and the intern have some solid analysis up. Dale and Holley may simply be venting... Their analysis deals not with simply the how but the why. They were obviously working on the spread last night. And the run D wasn't as bad as some would make it out to be, it was the secondary and mistakes that kept the Rams on the field for 44 minutes and limited the offense to 16...

New England Patriots Blog - ESPN Boston

So much for pounding the ball. The Patriots had success running the ball in their first two preseason games, but they leaned more toward the pass in their seven offensive plays. Pass protection was spotty. Overall, like the defense, it hasn’t been an inspiring effort.

New England Patriots Blog - ESPN Boston



Funny.... nothing about Connolly playing "fine" or anything of that sort. Hell, no mention of him at all. In fact, while not mentioning names, that analysis would lead one to believe that "Connolly didn't look fine last night. In his defense, nobody on the line really looked fine." might just be a sensible interpretation of last night's game. The only time they did focus on the o-line was when they broke down the sack of Brady, where Vollmer got beat and that threw everything off.

Hmmm.......

 

[BradyToAmendola]

The OLine looked very shaky last night. Couldn't get any kind of push. In fact, they were getting pushed back. I remember one particular play that went for about .2 yards, Connolly was pushed 5 yards into the backfield.

Hopefully McCourty and Butler turn it around, they didn't look good at all.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

We've covered the poor and there was certainly a lot of it in last nights piss poor exhibition, but unexpectedly to use a phrase in vogue in economic cycles these days, Sam Aiken seemed to help himself last night. Simply the fact that Brady looks for, finds him and throws to him is a good sign for this ST ace lost in the WR depth chart.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

I have to admit that I didn't see the because we didn't get it down here, but going from the comments here and in the media, I could conclude one of two things:

1) This is not a good defensive football team and, on offense, it is a team that will have to rely excessively again on the passing game, assuming a shaky O-Line can protect the Franchise. In other words, bad news if we had illusions of returning, at least partially, to the glory days this season.

2) Last night's game was "just one of those things" that happens in all sports, but particularly in the NFL, where a team just doesn't play well on a particular day for reasons that people can agonize over but that might just not be fully explainable. In other words, all we can do is shake our heads and put it behind us.

I'm going to choose explanation Number 2).