Revisiting my pre-season thoughts

[UGAPatsfan]

It’s been a wild season in many ways.

The up and down is easy to get caught up in.

But going back to what I said pre-season to gauge what I expected vs what I didn’t is interesting.

I expected:

-Mac to prove that he just wasn’t the guy. I hoped to be wrong, but wasn’t. Knew about the physical limitations, had inkling that he may not have the mental makeup. I felt this was a “prove it” year…and ge has proven that he isn’t the future.

-Poor O-line play. Just didn’t think there was enough real talent. It’s been worse than I expected at times, better at others.

-Parker would suck…never been a fan.

Things I did NOT expect:

-To really be feeling like it may be time for BB to move on. I’m honestly shocked by the lack of discipline, strategy, and obviously talent on this team.

-Injuries…brutal year.

-That we would have the absolute worst group of skill players in the NFL, and that JUJU would be such a non-factor.

-Defense would regress…Or maybe it was fools gold last year, but I didn’t think the D would look so hapless against good teams as they have at times.

-Finally, that Bill Obrien didn’t make a bigger impact than he has . I really had hoped he could turn Mac and the O around.

 

[Jlaff]

I'll just admit my failures. I thought JuJu was an upgrade from or equal to Meyers because Meyers is a moron (for more than just his idiocy in Las Vegas). Still don't mind moving on from him, but for a replacement with actual ability.

I also thought Parker was a good value signing and an underrated depth piece.

 

[TheRainMaker]

The Pats have had a serious speed issue on defense for years and needs to be addressed. Mapu was supposed to help, but he's playing deep S and looks awful. He looks like you're playing against Madden AI who are slow reacting to plays.

With that said, no defense can hold up against all offenses in today's NFL. The 49ers have a very fast front 7, yet they got bullied by the Bengals.

Offensively, they will never compete without a competent QB, OL and better skill players. The Pats are bringing knives to gunfights.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

I was expecting 8 wins. The losses of judon and Gonzalez Will probably knock that down to 6 wins. Everything I thought about the offense is basically the same as you and no big surprises here for me either. Just Juju and parker are worse than i thought theyd be based off what each of them did last season when healthy. Zeke has suprised me in a good way other than the fumbles and pharaoh b has been a great suprise. There’s obviously alot of work to do on offense.

I think people are being too hard on the defense, hard to expect much more without judon who is by far the most important player on the team and your #1 cb, along with another regular cb and others. Besides every defense in todays game gets lit up a few times a year. Week 1 was the only game they were mostly healthy and they did a great job against Philly. Small sample size but Id love to resign Dugger and run this unit back again next year while we focus on upgrading the offense.

 

[lancerman]

The Pats have had a serious speed issue on defense for years and needs to be addressed. Mapu was supposed to help, but he's playing deep S and looks awful. He looks like you're playing against Madden AI who are slow reacting to plays.

With that said, no defense can hold up against all offenses in today's NFL. The 49ers have a very fast front 7, yet they got bullied by the Bengals.

Offensively, they will never compete without a competent QB, OL and better skill players. The Pats are bringing knives to gunfights.

Even the good defense in 2019 got pantsed when they played a speedy offense like the Ravens. You can be as technically sound as possible, speed kills in this league

 

[SammyBlueCat]

I approached this season with an open mind and tried to avoid all of the negativity and anger.

I am sad to say it but the angry fans look like they have reasons to be angry.

 

[Brotherblues]

Hey my preseason expectations are alive and well. They just reached my predicted number of losses. Just a matter of getting the wins now and I'm gold.

 

[lancerman]

Preseason I thought this team would be bad. But I thought it would be closer to purgatory because I didn't believe Bill would allow a total disaster. Turns out he did let the bottom go out. Probably a good thing everything considered. They need to make drastic changes. It's been 5 years since the bad 2019 season. Time to make some changes.

 

[venecol]

I'll just admit my failures. I thought JuJu was an upgrade from or equal to Meyers because Meyers is a moron (for more than just his idiocy in Las Vegas). Still don't mind moving on from him, but for a replacement with actual ability.

I also thought Parker was a good value signing and an underrated depth piece.

Good, we can all blame your ass for this season. Lol

 

[Jlaff]

Good, we can all blame your ass for this season. Lol

Don't blame me, I learned almost everything I know about football from Mike Tirico.

 

[cmasspatsfan]

I'll admit I thought 9-10 wins but I thought the defense was good enough to keep games close and the offense could be good enough to pull out that many wins. Mac looks worse than I thought, Juju is a disappointment and the injuries to the defense has killed any chance of what I thought would happen to come to pass. Let's hope they address these faults in the offseason.

 

[VrabelJr]

I think of this season as a condensed version of 2009 but instead of finding out we can't hang with playoff teams through out the season we're finding out all at once right at the beginning of the season. Barring even more injuries we're probably going to finish near .500.

The good news is our defense is legit and deep and our OL is trending in the right direction. QB1 and WR1 need to be addressed. A speedy LB would be nice.

edit: Didn't realize this was another "BB must go" thread. I'm such a sucker.

 

[doesntmatter1]

I couldn't definitively see who are starting receiving threats were then and I still can't now. Bourne was the only consistent player. Did Thorton or Boutte have a role? Saw nothing in the preseason to see how JuJu or Douglas would fare in the slot. Douglas was in the doghouse until recently. Who was our 3rd down back was a big one since Montgomery was injured and then we traded away Strong(maybe a mistake)? Te2 hasn't done enough. Line still figuring things out.

We aren't just bad, we look like we are still in the figuring out mode of the preseason when everyone else is gearing up into playoff mode. Mac is bad but the fact that we still don't have an offensive identity is troubling. I've seen worse talent function better than we are. Scoring 20 points a game isn't too hard in this modern day nfl and we struggle to do that without help from D/st.

I said in the beginning of the year I would only need four games to see if our offense is legit. That has held true and we aren't going to get better. Our offense for the last 20 years is nothing if not consistent. The defense is a different story. They usually improve throughout the year. I'm convinced BB could field a defense of high schoolers and turn them middle of the pack by the end of the year lol. That won't happen this year due to injuries. Sad wasted season that has cracked my rose colored glasses.

 

[UGAPatsfan]

I think of this season as a condensed version of 2009 but instead of finding out we can't hang with playoff teams through out the season we're finding out all at once right at the beginning of the season. Barring even more injuries we're probably going to finish near .500.

The good news is our defense is legit and deep and our OL is trending in the right direction. QB1 and WR1 need to be addressed. A speedy LB would be nice.

edit: Didn't realize this was another "BB must go" thread. I'm such a sucker.

I wasn’t in that camp, but this doesn’t look like a team listening to the HC. Add to that, I don’t ever see Bill agreeing to lose GM power and I just don’t want to see year 5 of the same thing or worse.

 

[VrabelJr]

I wasn’t in that camp, but this doesn’t look like a team listening to the HC. Add to that, I don’t ever see Bill agreeing to lose GM power and I just don’t want to see year 5 of the same thing or worse.

Care to provide evidence that the team isn’t listening to BB?

 

[Nikolai]

I had the team at 9-8....whoops.

Like some others, I believed in the defense, and hoped the offense would be good enough to steal a couple games against good teams, even if we knew it would never be great.

I didn't expect Mac to be great. It had started to look like his lack of field awareness from his rookie season is hardwired into him. He reminds me a bit of Eli, but actually cares enough to panic when things don't go well. All that said, I didn't think he'd actually look worse than last year.

The lack of effort and discipline is a shock to me, frankly. I did play yakety sax while watching an offensive series a few games back...and it was an apt soundtrack.

I stocked up on the hard liquor, so I'm ready for the rest of the season.

Let's ****ing go...

 

[Sam Bam Cunningham]

I said 6 wins and no playoffs, which is looking like a pretty solid prediction.
I thought Mac's performance would be similar to last year and he would be on the hot seat
I thought JuJu would be an upgrade over Myers- wrong
I thought Rhamondre was over rated and would not have a great year- spot on
I knew Reif and Anderson were highly questionable signings
I was not counting on either Parker or Thornton to step up
I thought the O line would be bad (even before injuries)
I thought the defense would be top 12
I thought that BoB would greatly improve the offense- wrong
I wanted BB the GM and coach to move on at the end of the year


I knew the team would not be good and would probbaly finish in last place and have been hoping for a top 5 pick to start to turn things around

 

[UGAPatsfan]

Care to provide evidence that the team isn’t listening to BB?

Have you watched the games or…..

Does this look like a disciplined, smart team?

Or…Did Bill suddenly switch coaching philosophy to a “do whatever you feel like” model?

 

[203Pat]

Hmmmmm