Same Old Board

[Ring 6]

I came here today with the following thuoughts in mind:
-Tough loss. Felt we had the game in hand, then that penalty happened, and all of sudden we are out of time.
-That was the fastest game I can ever remember
-Disappointing way to lose, but I feel better about the rest of the season after that game than I did before it
-Rough call on Thomas, looked like the right call, but hard to villify a guy for playing hard. Damn how does Gaffney not catch that? First 50+ FG in SEVEN YEARS????
-And finally, that was a good game, touch one to lose, I thought we played well on the road, and very much deserved to win, I wonder what Patsfans are saying, and.....
.....I come here and see a slew of people feeling the need to assign blame and criticize.

Still havent figured out how choosing a player or coach to place blame on makes someone feel better about a loss.

 

[Kontradiction]

I'm usually one of the most even minded people on here but you have to admit the Thomas foul was ridiculous. There is abolsutely no excuse for that whatsoever. Am I blaming the entire loss on him? No. Because it's too easy to spread the blame. Do I think we SHOULD have won that game if not for his penalty? Yes I do. Field goal range, time about to expire, and going into overtime where a coin flip would have determined the outcome of the game (and if we got it, we would have won. The Colts let us move the ball on them all day last night).

 

[BelichickFan]

I was actually encouraged about last night. Yeah, we lost. But we know we aren't as good as with Brady and have a lower margin for error. But to go on the road against a good and desperate team without our RB and to play them to a virtual tie speaks well for our chances the rest of the way IMO. Honestly, I am shocked at the accuracy Cassel has shown in the short to medium passing game. Just gotta make a couple more plays next time.

 

[Clonamery]

Couldn't agree more. All I heard from talking heads all week was how the Colts would blow us out cause they it needed the win so much more than the Pats. Go look at the Pick The Score Thread for the game and see how many Patsfans picked the Colts to win.....easily.

 

[ScottieC]

I came here today with the following thuoughts in mind:
-Tough loss. Felt we had the game in hand, then that penalty happened, and all of sudden we are out of time.
-That was the fastest game I can ever remember
-Disappointing way to lose, but I feel better about the rest of the season after that game than I did before it
-Rough call on Thomas, looked like the right call, but hard to villify a guy for playing hard. Damn how does Gaffney not catch that? First 50+ FG in SEVEN YEARS????
-And finally, that was a good game, touch one to lose, I thought we played well on the road, and very much deserved to win, I wonder what Patsfans are saying, and.....
.....I come here and see a slew of people feeling the need to assign blame and criticize.

Still havent figured out how choosing a player or coach to place blame on makes someone feel better about a loss.

Oh, I agree. I've been reading all this today and I'm just sick to my stomach.

Everyone has been killing us on strength of schedule and we have not played anyone yet..blah blah - and last night we get the chance to play a Colts team that was as close to 100% as they have been all year and we hang with them all night with our "rookie" QB and our patchwork secondary and our 4th string running back and yet the sky is falling on this board.

Seriously guys and gals? You don't see that going forward this Patriots team is a pretty damn good team?

 

[fgssand]

Shoulda won....

Coulda won.....

Woulda won....

CRAPO

Patriots are improving each week in front of our eyes, further, in case you haven;t noticed, this is kind of a rebuilding year and we are winning football games - that is really hard to do in the NFL.

We'll be fine, along the way we'll steal one that will balance out this one. We're in a tie for first with the next two games crucial and we are playing decent football.

Ask yourself, is there really a team in the AFC you think we cannot beat, or the NFL for that matter??

I like our chances....

 

[Lifer]

I came here today with the following thuoughts in mind:
-Tough loss. Felt we had the game in hand, then that penalty happened, and all of sudden we are out of time.
-That was the fastest game I can ever remember
-Disappointing way to lose, but I feel better about the rest of the season after that game than I did before it
-Rough call on Thomas, looked like the right call, but hard to villify a guy for playing hard. Damn how does Gaffney not catch that? First 50+ FG in SEVEN YEARS????
-And finally, that was a good game, touch one to lose, I thought we played well on the road, and very much deserved to win, I wonder what Patsfans are saying, and.....
.....I come here and see a slew of people feeling the need to assign blame and criticize.

Still havent figured out how choosing a player or coach to place blame on makes someone feel better about a loss.

Dont you know? It ALWAYS has to be one persons fault. We need one person to blame. Otherwise life doesnt make sense. We'd have to actually use all our brain and see life in an intelligent way.

Much easier to scapegoat and complain. We're supposed to be undefeated, dont you know?

 

[MoLewisrocks]

I was actually encouraged about last night. Yeah, we lost. But we know we aren't as good as with Brady and have a lower margin for error. But to go on the road against a good and desperate team without our RB and to play them to a virtual tie speaks well for our chances the rest of the way IMO. Honestly, I am shocked at the accuracy Cassel has shown in the short to medium passing game. Just gotta make a couple more plays next time.

This seems to be the general concensus except for the usual suspects. It was a game they could and should have won. Game plan may be frustrating for the fantasy fanboys to watch but it was brilliant in it's simplicity and it was working to a T. But 3-4 glaring mistakes or missed plays/opportunities haunted them. The oddest of all being mistakes/miscues in game management...

 

[Halifax_Pats_Fan]

Yeah, I am gonna hop on this positive wave too, for the reasons already mentioned. Realistically I do see us making the playoffs. I thought we had a great game plan last night, a couple plays blew it for us. Gaffney catches that ball, Thomas holds up, BB shows confidence in his offense and let them play out on 4th down and we got a win in my eyes.

Jarvis-Green looked great, hit the small holes and came out and Faulk, well he was his normal reliable self.

Seriously, we are looking good. Cassel is looking good, RB's look great, in my eyes preferable to Maroney even if he was healthy, front 7 stuffed the run pretty good last night. Secondary, well, it needs a bit of help. Hopefully game time experience will help that.

I feel good about this team.

Edit: Forgot to mention the O-line, they played great. Great to see them back

 

[MassPats38]

Given this was a "must win" game for the Colts, the fact the outcome turned on a few miscues by the Patriots says something. Remember the Colts played with the Titans up to the middle of the 4th without Bob Sanders. If the Titans are considered the best in the AFC right now, that says something about how competitive the Patriots are now.

I too disagree with negative assessments of the Thomas hit and penalty. For those saying it was retaliation, do you really think he would choose a critical drive to retaliate? That would be monumentally stupid. The game showed a slow motion version of the hit, so it looked like it took forever. Thomas was blocking downfield, ahead of the crowd, which means: (1) defensive players away from the tackle may not be going all out and (2) he has no reference to stop blocking if he missed the whistle. It is easy to judge the hit as obviously wrong from a sky view, but Thomas didn't see all that from field level surrounded by Colts and likely didn't have time to ask the defenders whether the play was still going. It is a stupid penalty if Thomas heard the whistle. Otherwise, I say that is exactly the intensity you want from your blockers.

 

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

I came here today with the following thuoughts in mind:
-Tough loss. Felt we had the game in hand, then that penalty happened, and all of sudden we are out of time.
-That was the fastest game I can ever remember
-Disappointing way to lose, but I feel better about the rest of the season after that game than I did before it
-Rough call on Thomas, looked like the right call, but hard to villify a guy for playing hard. Damn how does Gaffney not catch that? First 50+ FG in SEVEN YEARS????
-And finally, that was a good game, touch one to lose, I thought we played well on the road, and very much deserved to win, I wonder what Patsfans are saying, and.....
.....I come here and see a slew of people feeling the need to assign blame and criticize.

Still havent figured out how choosing a player or coach to place blame on makes someone feel better about a loss.

I agree 100% with the bolded. The Pats put together a good gameplan against a team that is tough to beat at home, but just couldn't get over the hump. Sure, there was poor execution at times as well as poor decisions, but those got amplified by the final score. I think this game will serve as a good learning experience for players and coaches and will help them going forward.

Regards,
Chris

 

[Bertil]

I'm very encouraged by what I saw last night from all of the guys who are new to the "Patriot Way". The Coaches who presumably are aware of the aforementioned method are still in question (I'm not referring to the playcalling. I know they were playing keep-away from Manning). If they all learn about themselves and what the '08 Patriots are now and are capable of being, then it's all good. I think they'll be well positioned to make some playoff noise, and then...who knows?

 

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

Not that BJGE did not play well,but I have no doubt like I said earlier in the week that if we had LaMont Jordan to pound the rock we would be sitting at 6-2 right now,I think we would have kept Manning off the field a little longer and would have won - Jordan needs to stop being a pu$sy with that calf and get out there and play even in a little pain but its been 5 weeks now,time to show up for gameday.

 

[Pat the Pats Fan]

I came here today with the following thuoughts in mind:
-Tough loss. Felt we had the game in hand, then that penalty happened, and all of sudden we are out of time.
-That was the fastest game I can ever remember
-Disappointing way to lose, but I feel better about the rest of the season after that game than I did before it
-Rough call on Thomas, looked like the right call, but hard to villify a guy for playing hard. Damn how does Gaffney not catch that? First 50+ FG in SEVEN YEARS????
-And finally, that was a good game, touch one to lose, I thought we played well on the road, and very much deserved to win, I wonder what Patsfans are saying, and.....
.....I come here and see a slew of people feeling the need to assign blame and criticize.

Still havent figured out how choosing a player or coach to place blame on makes someone feel better about a loss.

I can't disagree with one thing you wrote.......my sentiments exactly.

 

[Leave No Doubt]

Thank you for this thread; I'm glad I wasn't the only one who was encouraged by a lot of things last night despite the loss and I don't see how it's possible to 'blame' any one person or any one thing It's not that I don't agree with some of the overall assessments but talk about playing 'if only'. My only "if only" is that had any one of the events cited throughout the board happened alone or we had fewer of them then we wouldn't even be having these discussions at all.

The loss was due to a combination of things not just one, and there was lots about the overall team effort to feel good about. It's no one person's fault; it almost never is. I saw lots of things last night that they can build on going forward and I'm even more convinced we can take the east.

And because I've complained so much about our OL I'm gonna prop them big time for having such an improved game. I'd be more worried if I were a Colts fan-there was an interstate highway right up their middle almost everytime-and Bob Sanders wasn't all that after all.

I like our chances going into next week:rocker:

 

[BlitzFritz]

Oh good, the Homer thread.

I share most of the senitments. Tho i was confused and frustrated by BB calls DURING the game (not just after). Not his finest game...

But i agree, it could have gone either way. and it was encouraging that the team played so well.

 

[emoney_33]

I'm usually one of the most even minded people on here but you have to admit the Thomas foul was ridiculous. There is abolsutely no excuse for that whatsoever. Am I blaming the entire loss on him? No. Because it's too easy to spread the blame. Do I think we SHOULD have won that game if not for his penalty? Yes I do. Field goal range, time about to expire, and going into overtime where a coin flip would have determined the outcome of the game (and if we got it, we would have won. The Colts let us move the ball on them all day last night).

Wasn't there over 4 minutes left when this penalty occurred?

 

[Clonamery]

I like our chances going into next week:rocker:

If you saw the Bills-Jets game, you'd like them even more. Jets shoulda won 40-10 but Brett tried to keep the Bills in it until the end. Unless the Bills play 100% better, find a running game, an OL, good special teams and a QB that doesn't make poor decisions then they will lose handily.

 

[Leave No Doubt]

Oh good, the Homer thread.

I share most of the senitments. Tho i was confused and frustrated by BB calls DURING the game (not just after). Not his finest game...

But i agree, it could have gone either way. and it was encouraging that the team played so well.

What's homerish about it? I know you're sort of joking but you don't have to be "homerish" to get the big picture, big picture meaning despite everything we stayed tight with the Colts throughout. And with Matt at the helm, a ton of injuries, and on the road. It really IS just 1 game and definitely was not our SB

 

[JR4]

They lost as a Team.

It is easy to single out a few plays and a few people and play
the blame game. That is because it is what is most obvious to many.

But there are a lot of factors that go into a win or loss

On a win you might say it's Cassel's two TDs or Morris 140 yds etc
but all 11 guys are responsible for the points or NO points.
If one guy obviously blows it with a failed catch how is that more important
than the 4 or 5 failed blocks that caused a failed pass or a failed
3rd and short to end a drive?

Same applies to defense.

It really disturbs me to see a few of PATs players or coaches
singled out as a reason for a loss.
It is a TEAM thing and if the T E A M played better they wouldn't have
lost even with the obvious mistakes.