Patriots vs Bengals Post-Game Thread

[Brady6]

A rookie isn't going to start practicing for the first time this year and contribute.

If a rain storm can start when Brady walks on the field and end as a Brady pass lands in the stomach of Pac Man Jones then I have to believe anything is possible…

 

[Mack Herron]

Interesting break-down from Bedard about Bengals giving the Patriots a taste of their own medicine.

“They weren’t lined up where they needed to and were taking a while to get set,” Dalton said. “I think it gave us that little advantage to make the play.”

Greg Bedard's Week 5 Decisive Moments in the NFL | The MMQB with Peter King

 

[manxman2601]

Re: The current state of the 53 man roster…

I think the clarification is not so much in the context but in the way it was conveyed. The current state of the roster may not be pitiful but it is not prime for success either, now the word I used that I should not have used is “constructed” because the roster was not constructed to be what it is today, what it is today is as result of a lot of unfortunate circumstances.

The roster was constructed well, this is along the lines of how it could have looked:

QB: Brady | Mallett
RB1: Ridley | Blount | Bolden
RB2: Vereen | Washington
WR X: Thompkins | Dobson | Harrison | Slater
WR Z: Amendola | Edelman | Boyce
TE Y: Gronkowski | Ballard
TE Flex: Hernandez | Fells
LT: Solder | Svitek
LG: Mankins
OC: Wendell
RG: Connolly | Cannon
RT: Vollmer

LE: Ninkovich | Cunningham/Francis
DT: Kelly | Armstead
DT: Wilfork | Vellano
RE: Jones | Buchanan | Bequette
SLB: Hightower | Collins
MLB: Spikes | Fletcher
WLB: Mayo | C. White
LCB: Talib | Dowling
RCB: Dennard | Arrington | Ryan
FS: McCourty | Harmon
SS: A. Wilson | Gregory | Wilson

This is a roster prime to be in championship contention, pull the players in red out because of injuries, inability to recover and of course first degree murders charges and replace them with players like Develin, Mulligan and others and completely change the scope of the roster, you have those inexperienced rookies more essential roles where their rookie mistakes are not as easily overcome.

Will things improve if Gronkowski, Amendola and Vereen all return to full health? Absolutely! Is that guaranteed to happen though, we all held the position that when Gronkowski returned last season we’d be ready to make a super bowl run then he came out ran a deep out and reinjured his arm, so all that talk of “when” never came to fruition and personally I am not going to align myself for that same possibility this year, I am going to make an assessment on the current roster and if I grade the roster in its current state with the exception of Brady, Talib, Mayo and a handful of others it does not grade out well against other teams considered to be contenders.

My point in short is that my use of the word constructed was my fail, nobody constructed this roster this roster came as a result of adversity that I have never seen a NFL team experience in my 25+ years of following the NFL – which is why my opening sentence was that Belichick coaching it to a 4 and 1 record is the greatest achievement of his career bar none – so to reiterate I am not disappointed in this team, the coaching or general management of it, it is actually the opposite I am alighted, I am very disappointed that we’ve experience so much adversity and that the actions of a piece of **** like Aaron Hernandez prevented what could have been one of the best Patriots teams of the Brady era, which combining a slightly above average offense with this much improved defense would have made it in my opinion.

I hope this clarifies my stance, admittedly I was disappointed with Sunday’s game and my posting was based more on emotion than actuality.

Well said.

 

[moejr]

Re: The current state of the 53 man roster…

I am not saying Brady sucks, I'm saying he has sucked this year and too many people are putting that solely on his receiving core. Yes there have been some drops, but the big thing I'm seeing is Brady's ability to step up in the face of pressure is greatly reduced compared to previous seasons. It used to be if you blitzed Brady you were dead. Now it's if you blitz Brady he falls backwards, and throws off his back foot into the dirt. How many times have we already seen that this year? Some of that can be attributed to his young WR core not knowing their hot routes, but that doesn't explain everything.

If unfamiliarity is the primary reason for this, why did Manning lead the Broncos to the #4 offense in the NFL last season? Why did he make Thomas and Decker top line wide receivers, when neither had done much in either of their first two seasons? Knowshon Moreno is the #10 rusher in the NFL right now after being considered a draft bust prior. Julius Thomas is a top 3 TE after having 1 career reception before. Wes Welker leads the NFL in touchdowns. Manning has elevated the play of everyone around him while Brady needs his guys to "learn the system". I guess Manning's system must just be easier to learn. Why do I suspect Manning would not look like the bum Brady's resembled if he were in the New England huddle.

TB's stats against the blitz were actually better Sunday than when Cinci didn't blitz

 

[supafly]

Re: The current state of the 53 man roster…

TB's stats against the blitz were actually better Sunday than when Cinci didn't blitz

That's almost always the case, and is that way with many QB's. Brady is a master at reading and taking advantage of blitzing teams due to the fact that they don't always get there.