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The team just lost a game in November against what will likely be a very good playoff team. Obviously it sucks the way they lost, but let's face it - aside from the fact they were on the wrong end of the outcome - that was a great game yesterday and they played well. It just didn't turn out the way we would have liked.
Here are some things I wanted to point out:
- I thought it was interesting after the game that Belichick was extremely positive, saying, "It came down to the last few seconds, we just came up a play or two short, that’s all – across the board.” - and it sounded like that's exactly what he said in the locker room after the game. I think he was pleased to see some of the progress from some of the changes they implemented. Overall the execution defensively was decent, and save for a couple of penalties the game could have easily gone the other way. I thought they did a good job, especially considering the fact they bailed them out after some key turnovers. He genuinely seemed encouraged by what he saw, and I think some of you may want to take a step back and actually look at a lot of the little things that did go well yesterday.
- Speaking of the defense, keep in mind they shut the Giants out in the first half and still did a decent job keeping them from moving up and down the field on Sunday. They also held New York to 250 NET yards passing, which is an improvement considering how bad they were in recent weeks. The other thing worth pointing out is the fact they did a good job of bringing pressure and even though they didn't sack him, they still forced some bad throws, including that key pick to Arrington that stopped them from going up 17-3. They were obviously also much better on third down, which was obviously a big issue last week. Those PI penalties were brutal, and Belichick didn't seem thrilled about those either.
- I thought the secondary and the play from the safeties was much better this week. I'm sitting down this morning to go back over the game in a bit, but one thing I noticed yesterday was the fact guys were in much better position throughout the game and we didn't see anywhere near the amount of broken plays that we saw last week against Pittsburgh. You didn't see guys making wide open catches in space and making it look easy. It certainly appeared the communication was better, and you could actually see some pre-snap adjustments on the defensive side of the ball.
Overall this is actually a loss they can build on, as opposed to last week when they came out of that game looking like they had a million questions with very few answers. Granted I know they're heading into the Meadowlands where they haven't beaten Ryan since he took over there, but as we know every streak seems to end sometime. If all goes well, just like every other loss, this will be just a bad memory in a few weeks
Here are some things I wanted to point out:
- I thought it was interesting after the game that Belichick was extremely positive, saying, "It came down to the last few seconds, we just came up a play or two short, that’s all – across the board.” - and it sounded like that's exactly what he said in the locker room after the game. I think he was pleased to see some of the progress from some of the changes they implemented. Overall the execution defensively was decent, and save for a couple of penalties the game could have easily gone the other way. I thought they did a good job, especially considering the fact they bailed them out after some key turnovers. He genuinely seemed encouraged by what he saw, and I think some of you may want to take a step back and actually look at a lot of the little things that did go well yesterday.
- Speaking of the defense, keep in mind they shut the Giants out in the first half and still did a decent job keeping them from moving up and down the field on Sunday. They also held New York to 250 NET yards passing, which is an improvement considering how bad they were in recent weeks. The other thing worth pointing out is the fact they did a good job of bringing pressure and even though they didn't sack him, they still forced some bad throws, including that key pick to Arrington that stopped them from going up 17-3. They were obviously also much better on third down, which was obviously a big issue last week. Those PI penalties were brutal, and Belichick didn't seem thrilled about those either.
- I thought the secondary and the play from the safeties was much better this week. I'm sitting down this morning to go back over the game in a bit, but one thing I noticed yesterday was the fact guys were in much better position throughout the game and we didn't see anywhere near the amount of broken plays that we saw last week against Pittsburgh. You didn't see guys making wide open catches in space and making it look easy. It certainly appeared the communication was better, and you could actually see some pre-snap adjustments on the defensive side of the ball.
Overall this is actually a loss they can build on, as opposed to last week when they came out of that game looking like they had a million questions with very few answers. Granted I know they're heading into the Meadowlands where they haven't beaten Ryan since he took over there, but as we know every streak seems to end sometime. If all goes well, just like every other loss, this will be just a bad memory in a few weeks
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