The Day the Offense Died

[PonyExpress]

Today the offense died... all those carefully laid plans developed all offseason, the 2 TE sets and the power running, and visions of the Pittsburgh Steeler smash mouth style, and the sugar plum footballs dancing in BB's head, 5 yards and clouds of dust.

Josh McDaniel and his X and O theatrics melted away, unable to deal with the intense pressure and competition offered by the dreadful Detroit defense.

As the season winds down all the "coaching" has been unmasked as a naked emperor and the offense distilled into what it always has been since Tom took the reins: Brady taking the ball in crunch time and carrying these overrated coaching slobs to victory, figuring out how and what to do with the ball and making it happen enough to overcome the litany of errors this team has been overcoached into making.

It is what it is. Cut the crap, give Tom the ball, and tear up the BB-inspired McDaniels playbook. Go no huddle, spread, two minute and once you have the lead, then indulge the coaching staff's bloated ego with some mediocre power running bull$hi#.

There are alot of fingers in the pot, but only one person whose hand, and mind, are on the ball. Brady is carrying this coaching staff, and team, to the finish line. We know he's a team player, but I hope he is selfish enough to tell the naked emperors to get out of the way so he finish the job.

 

[Patriots4Ever]

Today the offense died... all those carefully laid plans developed all offseason, the 2 TE sets and the power running, and visions of the Pittsburgh Steeler smash mouth style, and the sugar plum footballs dancing in BB's head, 5 yards and clouds of dust.

Josh McDaniel and his X and O theatrics melted away, unable to deal with the intense pressure and competition offered by the dreadful Detroit defense.

As the season winds down all the "coaching" has been unmasked as a naked emperor and the offense distilled into what it always has been since Tom took the reins: Brady taking the ball in crunch time and carrying these overrated coaching slobs to victory, figuring out how and what to do with the ball and making it happen enough to overcome the litany of errors this team has been overcoached into making.

It is what it is. Cut the crap, give Tom the ball, and tear up the BB-inspired McDaniels playbook. Go no huddle, spread, two minute and once you have the lead, then indulge the coaching staff's bloated ego with some mediocre power running bull$hi#.

There are alot of fingers in the pot, but only one person whose hand, and mind, are on the ball. Brady is carrying this coaching staff, and team, to the finish line. We know he's a team player, but I hope he is selfish enough to tell the naked emperors to get out of the way so he finish the job.

And....so it starts.We win the game and its not good enough.The playcalling isn't the problem partner.As much as it is the turnovers,the failed completions.The mediocre blocking,the injuries,the fact that maybe,This is the same team that beat the powerhouse team in the NFC' chicago bears.The offense is 11 guys that are the best of the best,even god has off days,or weeks.Lets drink another cold one and get ready for next week.It will allllll be allright..I still have a job to wake up for,I am content.

 

[Sean Pa Patriot]

I do like the no huddle and Brady runs it to perfection..

 

[edgecy]

A little dramatic, but yeah, nicely sums up how I felt today. I still hold out hopes though.

 

[Mike the Brit]

Perhaps it was just me, but I thought that the defense was more disappointing than the offense. There were a lot of nice plays, particularly the various catches to Caldwell, the tight ends and Troy. Sure, the hurry-up was very good (Faulk was excellent as usual catching the ball out of the backfield) but so were many other aspects of the offense. I didn't think that play-calling or play design were terrible.

Three huge things let the offense down:

1. The loss of Maroney. Much though I love him, Dillon is not the kind of break-it-for-twenty-yards-to-the-outside threat that Maroney is and so our running game was more one-dimensional.

2. Penalties. Granted that holding appeared to be being applied wholly one-sidedly, the false starts were bad.

3. Turnovers. I count four (including the safety). I'm inclined to give Watson a pass on his: a huge guy going head over heels and a helmet hits the ball. Stuff happens ... But I can't excuse the other three. Pass wasn't even carrying the ball close to his body (shades of Doug Gabriel). Brady seemed to be trying to throw to the defender. And protecting your quarterback when you're in your own endzone is basic.

What burned me most about the game (and I have to admit it was one of the most frustrating games I've seen in a long time) was watching the Lions completing at will in their first-half touchdown drive and Kevin Jones converting on -- what was it? -- third and 22? Our pass rush was ineffective (although the referees seemed to give the Lions a lot of latitude) and I lost count of the missed tackles.

 

[PonyExpress]

There's plenty to criticize about my comments, though they reflect how I felt watching this game. I usually like to digest a game for 24 hours before forming an opinion, and probably should have in this case too.

 

[hwc]

and Kevin Jones converting on -- what was it? -- third and 22?

Ughh. That play made me throw up in my mouth a little bit. That's when I realized this is a not a championship caliber football team. There's just no excuse for letting the Detroit Lions convert a 3rd and 22 like that.

 

[DarrylS]

On one hand I agree, but the penalties, turnovers and defensive lapses were as responsible as the play calling. I always felt that the Pats play to the level of their competition, and have never figured out why.. there are flashes of brilliance, particularly when they go no huddle and there are times when they look like the worse team in the NFL.

On the other hand, a win is a win no matter if we are inspired or not, being 9-3 at this stage of the season is good. It also seems as though this team needs some major retooling before the '07 season begins.

 

[Tucker]

I just wish we werent so damned injury prone

 

[BelichickFan]

There's nothing wrong with the offense that better pass blocking and less fumbles won't fix. And Brady wasn't that good either, several of his completions were dive bombing into the ground. It just wasn't a sharp day - and remember the Lions' DC is ex Jets' DC Donnie Henderson, he knows us well.

 

[Patfandango]

Overall, a disappointing flat performance but where does the naked emperor rant come from? I'm not sure how this was the OC's fault unless he was gameplanning for turnovers. What I saw was sloppy execution on all three phases of the game against a team that they took for granted. In the end they were bailed out by the veterans (Vrabel, Bruschi and Brady once he woke up). There will be a lot of yelling watching game film today.

 

[Rob0729]

Perhaps it was just me, but I thought that the defense was more disappointing than the offense. There were a lot of nice plays, particularly the various catches to Caldwell, the tight ends and Troy. Sure, the hurry-up was very good (Faulk was excellent as usual catching the ball out of the backfield) but so were many other aspects of the offense. I didn't think that play-calling or play design were terrible.

Three huge things let the offense down:

1. The loss of Maroney. Much though I love him, Dillon is not the kind of break-it-for-twenty-yards-to-the-outside threat that Maroney is and so our running game was more one-dimensional.

2. Penalties. Granted that holding appeared to be being applied wholly one-sidedly, the false starts were bad.

3. Turnovers. I count four (including the safety). I'm inclined to give Watson a pass on his: a huge guy going head over heels and a helmet hits the ball. Stuff happens ... But I can't excuse the other three. Pass wasn't even carrying the ball close to his body (shades of Doug Gabriel). Brady seemed to be trying to throw to the defender. And protecting your quarterback when you're in your own endzone is basic.

What burned me most about the game (and I have to admit it was one of the most frustrating games I've seen in a long time) was watching the Lions completing at will in their first-half touchdown drive and Kevin Jones converting on -- what was it? -- third and 22? Our pass rush was ineffective (although the referees seemed to give the Lions a lot of latitude) and I lost count of the missed tackles.

I agree. I think it was the defense that let this team down. The offense was on fire in the first quarter and the fourth quarter. In the first half we scored on 3 of five drives. Brady missed one pass in the fourth quarter.

Also, you can 100% not blame McDaniels for the problems on the offense. We punted twice yesterday. All the other drives ended on fumbles or a interception. So the only times other than two times where the Lions were able to stop the Pats offense was because of player mistakes. In fact, one of the times we punted was because penalties stopped the drive.

As for the defense, I feel Martz outcoached Pees. I think he found soft spots in the defense for the first three quarters and Pees didn't have a solution for it.

We scored 28 points yesterday. Anyone who wants to say the offense died yesterday didn't watch the game closely enough.

 

[Willie55]

There's nothing wrong with the offense that better pass blocking and less fumbles won't fix. And Brady wasn't that good either, several of his completions were dive bombing into the ground. It just wasn't a sharp day - and remember the Lions' DC is ex Jets' DC Donnie Henderson, he knows us well.

I noticed that also, a lot of his throws were at the receiver's feet where it made it difficult for the receiver to catch it.

 

[sdaniels7114]

We've got to find a way to keep the Secondary healthier throughout the year. All the other problems come out because of that glaring weakness. I think every first-day draft pick this offseason needs to be a DB

The way I see it though, both us and the Colts came out weak against opponents each team should have handled easily. We dug down deep and, as usual for the later stages of the year, they didn't; but then again, my glass is always 1/2 full.

 

[Brady'sButtBoy]

The O did look disjointed at times yesterday but I put that more on the team being over confident they'd whip the Lions and the Detroit coming out fueled to beat the best.

But the numbers don't make the Pats out so bad at all -

5th in yards/game
8th in points/game
3rd in 1st downs/game
6th in 3rd down conversion rate
1st in 4th down conversion rate and actual number made
10th in passing offense (Lions are 7th by the way)
12th in rushing yds/game
12th in yds/play

that's in the entire NFL.

 

[Ring 6]

Ughh. That play made me throw up in my mouth a little bit. That's when I realized this is a not a championship caliber football team. There's just no excuse for letting the Detroit Lions convert a 3rd and 22 like that.

Lets call off the season then. I wasnt aware that throughout an entire season one screen pass decides whether or not we can win a championship.

The manic depressive nature of this board is ridiculous. We won the game. There were 2 results possible yesterday, a win or a lose. We got the good one.
Yet somehow for reasons I cannot understand fans here decide that since they didnt like everything about the WIN it must be a crushing blow, and must mean doom for the future.
There are tons of examples, but how is this different than almost losing to Houston or worse than LOSING to the Patrick Ramsey-led Skins in 2003, or losing to Miami in 2004?

We won the game.

 

[MDD]

I'm getting roasted by some on another thread for suggesting we spend more money on defensive talent, but ironically enough I disagree that our offense is in serious trouble.

You score 28 points and a kneel at the end your offense can't be that bad off.

 

[BelichickFan]

Like Rob0729 said, we punted twice. So it's all McDaniels fault. 28 points. Despite 3 turnovers. We only saw Walter twice. That darn McDaniels, we should never have to punt.

 

[MDD]

how is this different than almost losing to Houston or worse than LOSING to the Patrick Ramsey-led Skins in 2003, or losing to Miami in 2004?

We won the game.

Throw out the Skins game as it was an early-season contest and we were still adjusting post-Milloy.

And watch that Lions game again. You can't tell the difference between THAT game and the fluky a-- games that were the Miami and Houston games? The Lions game was no fluke - they marched up and down the field on us.

 

[Ring 6]

So, according to you, people dont have the right to express an opinion if it is different than yours. That being the case why did Ian spend all those hours, day and night, to put this FORUM back together so people could discuss the games, etc?

What the hell, lets all just agree with AJ and shake our head in the affirmative....never mind discussing pros and CONS......

For the record, a person can be very happy with the WIN, as I am, and I am sure EVERYONE in this FORUM is.... however, winning a game does not mean that everything that happened in that game was positive... Although, according to AJ, we shouldnt talk about it.

OK, we won, I am happy, we are wonderful, nothing went wrong, and the future looks like we will sweep the rest of the season and march to Miami in February, and no one will score against us and we will have every game well in hand by halftime. Now I feel better.

NEM please show me where I said anything resembling what you just attributed to me.
I respnded to a comment that one play says we wont win a championship.

Do you eally thing it is reasonable to take a win, and draw conclusions that it means we WON'T win in the future?

I am not saying anyone does not have the right to express their opinion.
But since my opinion is that it is frustrating that fans on this board are so up and down, and lose sight of the fact that we won a game because it didnt go exactly how they expected, you have said that I do not have the right to express MY opinion.

Interesting huh? I express my opinion, you MAKE UP that by stating my opinion I am saying no one else has the right to express theirs (which I did not come close to saying) but apparently you dont feel I have the right to express mine because you disagree with it.

Bizarre.