Post Game Thread Week 7 Pats @ Steelers

[PatsWickedPissah]

Against Pittsburgh special teams sucked. Missed extra point, the squirrels fumble, Bad punt, and piss poor coverage on the kick off the land it outside the end zone. Pittsburgh got the ball pass the 25 almost every time.

 

[aluminum seats]

My point is that Mitchell is the 8th weapon on this team behind Gronkowski, Edelman, Bennett, Blount, White, Amendola and Hogan. So, it's going to be hard for the kid to get touches in general. Add to the fact that he's a rookie. Add to the fact that he's still learning the play-book and earning Brady's trust I don't think that 2 weeks without a catch is anything to worry about.

I would like to see the Pats use him going over the middle some with Edelman on an out route while Gronk and/or Bennett go deep.. That would open things up for Mitchell to make the catch and add tons of YAC.

With all that being said, it's also clear that the Pats are getting Mitchell involved in the game by having out there on running plays blocking. To me, that them having him cut his teeth. Learning that being a WR in the league isn't all about making the catch.. That it's a TEAM game and that he'll succeed when the team succeeds..

I agree with most of that, and am not overly worried about 2 games...I just don't want to see 2 games turn into 4, turn into 8, turn into next year's, "Mitchell seemed promising..."

So sure, as I said out the outset, the Pats have a lot of weapons. And he should block, and he's a rookie, etc. etc. But let's get him some catches this year, which we might be really happy about next year and the year after that.

 

[Mike the Brit]

If this hasn't been linked yet, Chad Finn is in mid-season form:

"There’s stuff to yowl about if that’s how you prefer to spend your Monday after a win."

27 thoughts on the Patriots’ imperfect yet impressive victory over the Steelers​

 

[captain stone]

I especially like #16 on Finn's list.

 

[DaBruinz]

Was the lost fumble by Hogan on an End-Around? I ask because CBS here in Dallas didn't cut to the game until Butler made the interception in the end zone..

 

[captain stone]

The fumble happened when Hogan caught a 10-yard(?) pass from Brady, turned upfield,
then lost track of the back-side pursuit from the DB covering the other WR.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

Home field, of course, is not as locked up. Indeed, if the Broncos win out from here, they WILL have home field advantage. (That's because they're only 1 game behind the Pats now, and 1 of the wins would be head-to-head.)

Agreed. I brought up division crown because a win will paint 80 to 90 percent of that picture. HFA remains overwhelmingly cloudy and is likely to continue to be through November.

On the Broncos, while they hold destiny in their own hands I'm not impressed with their play. 2 losses in a row and even their most recent wins not emitting a 'we'll go on a run' feel to them. We'll see....

 

[Hammer of Thor]

Was the lost fumble by Hogan on an End-Around? I ask because CBS here in Dallas didn't cut to the game until Butler made the interception in the end zone..

No, it was on a 10 yard completion to the left side. I can't imbed this video, but you can see the play here.

HIGHLIGHT: Jones forces and recovers fumble

Edit: FYI, there was no conclusive video on the play, it was an extremely close call. If they called him down, it wouldn't have been overturned either. My suspicion is I think he was down, but the video (they showed a whole bunch of slow-mo versions afterwards) wasn't conclusive enough.

 

[DaBruinz]

Kinda surprised at this as I thought he played pretty well..

 

[DaBruinz]

No, it was on a 10 yard completion to the left side. I can't imbed this video, but you can see the play here.

HIGHLIGHT: Jones forces and recovers fumble

Thanks.. Looks like he and Edelman are gonna be doing the Ball Security drill all week..

 

[captain stone]

Kinda surprised at this as I thought he played pretty well..

I wonder if it had anything to do with the incident after the last play of the game (excluding Brady's victory kneel-down), the incompletion to DHB.

 

[DaBruinz]

I wonder if it had anything to do with the incident after the last play of the game (excluding Brady's victory kneel-down), the incompletion to DHB.

Yeah.. Could be.. Johnson was in the middle of that and it was pretty stupid of him..

 

[Hammer of Thor]

Kinda surprised at this as I thought he played pretty well..

He was a bubble guy who had already been cut and resigned to the PS, was promoted later when someone was hurt. I'm guessing back to the PS for him, and they will be signing a street free agent as a run-stuffing DT for this week. They're playing Buffalo; even if McCoy isn't playing, Buffalo's still going to try to stuff the ball down our throats with Bush. If Valentine and Hamilton are still hurt, they can't ask Brown and Branch to play every snap, and Johnson is a pass rushing specialist.

 

[DaBruinz]

He was a bubble guy who had already been cut and resigned to the PS, was promoted later when someone was hurt. I'm guessing back to the PS for him, and they will be signing a street free agent as a run-stuffing DT for this week. They're playing Buffalo; even if McCoy isn't playing, Buffalo's still going to try to stuff the ball down our throats with Bush. If Valentine and Hamilton are still hurt, they can't ask Brown and Branch to play every snap, and Johnson is a pass rushing specialist.

Bush isn't doing jack in Buffalo. Gillislee is the guy we need to worry about at 5'11 and 219. He's averaging better than 6 YPC in his limited use running the ball. They'll also have to worry about Jonathan Williams who will be the back-up..

Asking a Street FA DT to come in and learn this defense is a tall order.. I'd have thought it would have happened 2 weeks ago when Valentine went down if they were going to do it at all.. Then the player would be on the PS learning the rope. Instead, they signed a WR, a FB, and a RB. while cutting said FB and then Re-signing him..

 

[Hammer of Thor]

Bush isn't doing jack in Buffalo. Gillislee is the guy we need to worry about at 5'11 and 219. He's averaging better than 6 YPC in his limited use running the ball. They'll also have to worry about Jonathan Williams who will be the back-up..

Asking a Street FA DT to come in and learn this defense is a tall order.. I'd have thought it would have happened 2 weeks ago when Valentine went down if they were going to do it at all.. Then the player would be on the PS learning the rope. Instead, they signed a WR, a FB, and a RB. while cutting said FB and then Re-signing him..

Thanks for the info about Buffalo, haven't been following them too closely.

Agree with you on the PS issue. I guess they just didn't like who was out there at the time. But it wound up biting them since Hamilton got hurt too.

 

[PScottman]

Sorry, but this just isn't true. What I saw yesterday was an improved middle where Andrews and Mason were picking up the late man coming in and properly passing off the guy they were blocking to do so.

Late man coming in? How many blitzes did Pitt run to have a late man? They rushed four most of the game so I guess you could mean stunts. They only had 3 quarterback hits, which I'm interpreting by your comments was both line improvement and Brady footwork.

I still saw middle penetration causing Brady to move off his spot quite a bit to deliver the ball (which he did with his usual aplomb skewing the metric).

As such my bottom line point remains that if the team has one area to perhaps look at improving before the deadline (a la Hicks last year) it could be C or G given the very high quality DLs this team will face in the meat of the season. Doesn't mean they have to, as I continue to rate the rest of the team as pretty darn strong to stand pat with, but given relative return on investment the middle line play seems to me the best place to look. It could even mean something so small as Jackson returning (who is a better pass protector than Mason IMHO).

 

[neali]

True. But the Chargers once intercepted a ball on 4th down and then fumbled it back to the Patriots.

I remember. 14-2 Chargers had intercepted Brady and had only to fall down on the ball to set up in victory formation. Troy Brown, my favorite, stripped the ball away from the excited guy running it back. Pats win. Celebrate on the 50 in San Diego. LDT cries about it to this day.

FF to the turn up the heat bowl in Indy. Peyton best offensive play over his career which was DPI in the endzone and beating the inept Bears in SB. We shoulda had that one. And Assante shouldn't dropped that INT. And Welker. Could be drive for 8. Can you imagine?