Positives from todays game

[YearbookCurfew]

Anytime the Jets lose is a positive.

 

[randomk1]

-Gronkowski.... The most unfortunate recipient of Mcdaniels coming back. Does Mcdaniels not see how automatic Gronk is??? I get the feeling Gronk isnt being used as he should be this year. Hes the best tight end in the league and unstoppable at times. He comes up big when you need him. 2 TDs and moved chains in crunch time

Why call a play for the 6'7 265 pound gargoyle vs Bart Scott when you have Brandon Lloyd vs Cromartie on a deep ball.

And if it doesn't work target him another 10 times.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

NO MAJOR INJURIES.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

Bequette can still turn out to be a productive player, if he busts that's too bad but that is the nature of the beast. The draft class is already shaping up to be a good one, with or without him. As for the UDFA remarks, there are more UDFA players in the NFL than 2nd round picks.

It wouldn't surprise me if there were more UDFAs than first rounders in the league—after all, there are hundreds of the latter, but only ~32 of the former each year.

 

[brucew]

Nice to see Dowling get on the field. Hopefully he can continue to improve and take snaps away from Arrington.


Brady looked sharp in the 2 minute at the end of regulation. Maybe they can incorporate more of what they did then into the game plan and leave some of the gimmick-icky cute plays out.

 

[ALP]

Dennard was super smart to hold Hill on that play at the end. There was no one behind him. Rather than give the yards AND 1st down on a past interference or worse, a TD, he only gave up 5 yards. These are the kind of smart players we need on D.

i would like to point out that a holding call is an automatic 1st down


the best part out of this game was the "clutch" factor

where earlier in the season we were losing it when it came to "crunch" time...today we matched it and then some


at the 2min mark, b4 mcourty fumbled, it was about to become a "clutch"moment, after fumble though this team had to REALLy get it together, keep their heads in the game, and really go at it...and man did they, and they won because of it

 

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

The positives were

Gostkowski - Proving that be can overcome adversity that he went through a few games ago when fans were calling for his head.....Ghost scored 9 points today...3 on XPs and 2 MUST MAKE FGs

The second is No injuries,Mayo and Love were injured but returned

That's all folks...everyone else seemed to have flaws sometime in the game

 

[Calciumee]

Patriots won


Jets lost

Sadly it seems some are forgetting this!

Even though I was p*ssed last night, I still said 'well at least it's a win'!

 

[DarrylS]

Honesty, we forced a safety and returned a kick for a touchdown. Brady threw 2 touchdowns and we beat a division rival in overtime. 8 years ago we'd all be thrilled.

20 years ago we would have all had heart attacks..

And say things like, "this is the greatest day in my life"..

 

[jimache]

W ... everything else ... meahhh

 

[Patriot Missile]

Positively stole this game. Hill goes Caldwell at the end. Jets qb and coaching blunders. Secondary sieve.

Brady clutch bringing the Pats in position for 2 field goals.
Defense stepping up big when it had too.
Gronk is a beast.
McCourty td.

Simply put, we beat a bad football team yesterday. And when it's all said and done they capitalized on their mistakes and won the game. This secondary is flawed in a bad way but it's only week 8 coming up so there is still time to improve.

If it doesn't then it's time for defensive changes in personal and coaches in the offseason. The front 7 is fine IMO but its pretty hard watching the separation the opposing wr's get game in and game out.

Every win is a positive and I still think this team can go far if they can get it together. If we lost more than twice the rest of the season I'd be shocked.

 

[tatepatsfan]

I was as bummed in the 4th quarter as anyone here. And after the game, I just felt relieved. But let's think about this a bit more.

1 - we won.

2 - we won a close game for the first time this year. That's something. Sure, it only became close by our own failures, but the point remains that we won a very close game.

3 - we beat a divisional rival. We're 2-0 in the division and have a one game lead. In my opinion, this is as bad as we've been since the year Cassel was QB and we were trying to get our legs underneath us. And maybe even worse than that. Perhaps as bad as 2005 when Bruschi was coming back from his heart procedure and we were struggling mightily. Yet as bad as we've been, we're ahead in our division.

4 - we have a young defense and nine more regular season games to get it squared away back there. They'll gel (hopefully). If we can win next week in London, we'll be 5-3, tops in our division and ready for the bye. Gronk's hip will have a week off, Hernandez can rest that ankle, and everyone else's bumps and bruises and heal up, at least some. My predictions in the offseason were that we'd be 6-2 at the midway stage. Win next week and we are only a game off that pace.

5 - apart from the Texans, who appear to be ahead of the others, the AFC is wide open. The Ravens, despite their one game lead and tiebreaker over us, were demolished this weekend and are banged up as bad if not worse than anyone else. We beat the Broncos, who are my pick for the AFC West. We can still eye that #2 seed and winning this division.

We have our problems. But, again probably apart from the Texans, I defy you to find an AFC team that doesn't. We have time to get our act together. It's not all doom and gloom guys. I know that season was remarkable in so many ways, but there was a time where we were 5-5 and totally stoked after a home loss.

Let's get a win this week, enjoy the bye and be ready for an awesome second half of the season!

 

[ivanvamp]

I coach AAU basketball, and I often tell my players, look, it's better to win pretty than win ugly. But there are going to be plenty of ugly games, and if it's going to be an ugly game, you might as well win it, because winning ugly is better than losing.

This was a tough game, a gut-check, character-building kind of win against a determined division rival with first place on the line. Both Brady and the defense stepped up big on their last two opportunities to do so. That's a good sign moving forward.

 

[SeymourTrophies]

I coach AAU basketball, and I often tell my players, look, it's better to win pretty than win ugly. But there are going to be plenty of ugly games, and if it's going to be an ugly game, you might as well win it, because winning ugly is better than losing.

This was a tough game, a gut-check, character-building kind of win against a determined division rival with first place on the line. Both Brady and the defense stepped up big on their last two opportunities to do so. That's a good sign moving forward.

This. The only victories occur on the scoreboard. No one would have blamed the team for dying after that McCourty fumble, but our guys had a serious gut check and came out with the best of it.

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

Another positive. They had 4 sacks in 1 game and 1 came at a critical time

 

[PatsDeb]

Honesty, we forced a safety and returned a kick for a touchdown. Brady threw 2 touchdowns and we beat a division rival in overtime. 8 years ago we'd all be thrilled.

This is very true, although I would put it at 10 years ago. I was chiding myself about this yesterday as I sat there after the game thinking to myself, "Why does this win feel like a loss?" Probably because I thought for sure we were going to lose once McCourty fumbled that kick off. How spoiled we've all become, myself included.

 

[PatsDeb]

I was as bummed in the 4th quarter as anyone here. And after the game, I just felt relieved. But let's think about this a bit more.

1 - we won.

2 - we won a close game for the first time this year. That's something. Sure, it only became close by our own failures, but the point remains that we won a very close game.

3 - we beat a divisional rival. We're 2-0 in the division and have a one game lead. In my opinion, this is as bad as we've been since the year Cassel was QB and we were trying to get our legs underneath us. And maybe even worse than that. Perhaps as bad as 2005 when Bruschi was coming back from his heart procedure and we were struggling mightily. Yet as bad as we've been, we're ahead in our division.

4 - we have a young defense and nine more regular season games to get it squared away back there. They'll gel (hopefully). If we can win next week in London, we'll be 5-3, tops in our division and ready for the bye. Gronk's hip will have a week off, Hernandez can rest that ankle, and everyone else's bumps and bruises and heal up, at least some. My predictions in the offseason were that we'd be 6-2 at the midway stage. Win next week and we are only a game off that pace.

5 - apart from the Texans, who appear to be ahead of the others, the AFC is wide open. The Ravens, despite their one game lead and tiebreaker over us, were demolished this weekend and are banged up as bad if not worse than anyone else. We beat the Broncos, who are my pick for the AFC West. We can still eye that #2 seed and winning this division.

We have our problems. But, again probably apart from the Texans, I defy you to find an AFC team that doesn't. We have time to get our act together. It's not all doom and gloom guys. I know that season was remarkable in so many ways, but there was a time where we were 5-5 and totally stoked after a home loss.

Let's get a win this week, enjoy the bye and be ready for an awesome second half of the season!

Thanks for the positive post, which is all true.

 

[Buchanty]

This was a tight chess match, but not at the Grandmaster level as both sides exhibited poor execution at times. Luckily the Jets made the last mistake. I was as relieved as many, but tell me who wasn't waiting, almost expecting Sanchez to throw a pick or fumble on that final drive.

This is the AFC East's most bitter rivalry, Rex doesn't want to kiss, and Brady openly hates. And didn't Rex have some revenge to exact after the last time these two played (37-16 Meadowlands), when Belichick was overheard scoffing at the "best defense in the league...."

You have to imagine that this date was the first to be circled by Ryan when the schedule came out. The Pats and the Jets have the easiest and 2nd easiest schedules for the season. If the Jets are to pass the Patriots for the Division title they have to win in Foxboro, and now more than ever Rex has a point to prove.

I think that this was Rex's most important game of the season, and the one into which he and the team put the most amount of preparation. With no Walters, Mankins and Connely it was run up the middle and throw short and long to the sides. The Jets looked very comfortable doing that all day long because they had practiced it so often. Wildcat was never intended other than a decoy for preparation, similar with the option offense. Tebow only came in to run up the middle (which again is not his strongest suit).

Give credit to the Jets, McCourty's KO return TD was a blow to their solar plexus and it winded them for most of the half. They got some rhythm going at the end of the first half and turned it up again in the 4th Quarter. You can't dismiss the effort or their success. Yes our D looked ineffective but most sides do against an oiled attack, and I do think the Jets O was better practiced (Keller back helped).

Going into overtime was a fair result given the previous 4 quarters, either side would have felt aggrieved to have lost as both sides played well and poorly in that time. The difference in overtime play was the execution by the Pats in both O and D, it would have been nice to see this same level of play turn up earlier in the 4th quarter and then we wouldn't have needed overtime. BUT winning in OT is still great experience, winning in a comeback is even greater.

With the Jets being prepped and ready to play, the same was not true for the Patriots. I suspect that more time was spent preparing for the Ravens and Broncos than the Jets (our circled dates) and just like Seattle we overlooked the fact that beating the Patriots brings you notice and respect.

Bottom line is that the Jets played better than their record suggests, but this was a game they really put their all in to win and they came up short. They may get back to playing like that but the more likely outcome is that they will find it hard to be as productive as yesterday.

One final thought from the Pats perspective is the possibility that the coaching staff wanted Sanchez to throw the ball, fully expecting him to be as inaccurate as he has been all season. Give him the space and the interceptions will follow. Except he played better than expectations and avoided, for the most part, turning the ball over.

I think this is the same tactic employed against Seattle and potentially every rookie or low rated QB we have faced for a while. I wish this tactic was excised from game planning. It is so frustrating to have the likes of Sanchez, Wilson, Kolb, Locker and Orlovski, Foles (preseason) throw with impunity. Remembering back to previous seasons with Painter, Campbell, Flynn and even Bradford (preseason) they all had career days against our D. I have to believe this is by design, because when we meet the more seasoned and effective QB's our D sharpens considerably. Can't we just make it hard on them like everyone else?