This was a choke and blame rests on Brady and Belichick

[MoLewisrocks]

In perspective...

When the Jags defeated my Steelers this season in the playoffs, we had fans calling for our O Coordinator's head, because of the last drive we had the ball. He called a run, a run, then a qb scramble/bootleg left that was stopped short of the 1st down. We punted, jags drove and got the field goal and ended up winning the game. People tried to say that one series, or that even the play call was to blame.

I spent days arguing that, in a 60 minute game, there are mistakes made all over the place, by both teams, and great plays made by both teams. You can't blame a coach or a player (Unless its Neil Odonell) for a loss. It goes to everything. It goes to punt returns, field position, a first down missed tackle in the 2nd quarter, or a 3rd down and 6 ball overthrown in the 3rd quarter. Every play has a direct effect on the game, and the flow of the game. The Giants made more plays, the Patriots made more mistakes. That's what happens in a football game.

Oh, and the Tyree catch was great, but I felt the Boss catch and the Steven Smith Catch where he catches it on the sidelines and gets forward for the first down then gets out of bounds were both bigger plays. Not more spectacular, but just bigger plays for the flow of the game.

It wasn't even that we made more mistakes - the Giants actually did. Fot a stretch it was as it they were trying to turn the ball over. But we failed to make plays off of or on those mistakes. And they did make more big plays.

The irrational whining that is going on here is, as you know, is just a form of denial. My team could not have lost this, so it must have been the coaching. Although in the case of this particular OP, based on some latent pre existing irrational distain for Brady, it must have been the HOF QB he has long claimed isn't nearly all that. He almost never posts after a win, leading some to believe he's just a stealth troll anyway.

 

[Keep Up With The Joneses]

PF, Don't f*** with Brady. You are in no way a true Pats fan.

Found a pic of PF1996 that explains everything:

 

[bobmal99]

Bottom line 1st & goal from the 6 with three minutes left.
They throw three passes, two incomplete, one for TD
used about 18 seconds.

If they run two running plays they use over a minute off the clock.
If they do not score then they pass on 3rd down if no TD kick the FG.

Giants then get the ball back with less then 1:30 left.

They lost the same way last year in Indy.. Passing with the lead last year and not using the clock..

I have to agree with this. I'm trying not to blame anyone, but this is pretty true. A 4 point lead, 2:40 left and 84 yards to go, a championship defense comes up with key stops. Three dropped int's and a missed sack are a major reason for the loss. Brady had nothing to do with that.

For pete's sake, Brady came through when he had to (The Pats last TD drive), had no support from his O-Line or running game, yet he still completed 60% of his passes for 266 yards. I don't think any QB in the NFL could have done better against the pressure he faced ALL game.

I do have to agree that Belichick is to blame, he was totally outcoached. Two weeks to prepare for a defense they faced before, a QB with a busted ankle, and yet he couldn't keep his QB protected, and couldn't come up with a good offensive game plan (McDaniels get's some major blame) ?

It really did come down to the Pat's defense though, if they held, they would have talked about the Giants D, but wouldn't be talking about them as if they were the 85 Bears.

 

[JoeSixPat]

Just watched the game again on NFL replay and three things cost us this game:

1. Brady's inability to read the defense/get his blocking set up correctly.

2. Brady's inaccuracy. This one kills the most. Forget the early missed throws. On the last series, Brady threw wide of a WIDE OPEN Gaffney, TD - goodnight Giants and then underthrew Moss who had gotten behind the defenders, again that's a sure TD, say goodnight Giants.

3. Coaching. No reason to send a blitz on Giants last TD. The Pats were getting pressure with 4/5 (thanks Adalius + knowing the Giants had to throw). Also, why continue with the 15 yard cushions when Giants need to convert 3rd and 10? Rushing 4, with tight coverage in the secondary would have won this game for the Pats because besides Plax, the Giants have no receivers that scare you with height/speed. On offense - Pats stopped themselves by getting unnecessarily greedy when the short stuff was moving the chains.

Giants played hard but the Pats lost this game more than the Giants won it. Oh well. One bright spot about this is that Pats have now completed two of the most embarrassing chokes in sports history. There's no way they can possibly choke any worse in the future so I know this is the lowest I can ever feel as a Pats fan.

I think the first two are the result of Brady's injury (and some bad blocking on the OL's part) - tough to call that a "choke"

As far as the Giants TD - Burress has about 7 or 8 inches on Hobbs... but I fail to understand why in that situation you blitz and choose not to double cover... Hobbs had him one on one... I don't agree with that defensive call.

But even had Burress been double covered they still might have scored - and indeed were moving the ball very well. So I'm not going to lament and second guess.

 

[Dino 6 Rings]

Actually, Burress rarely makes big catches while covered. You should remember, in the AFC title game 04, we were down by 14, and on 3rd we threw to Burress, he was covered and even though the ball hit him in the hands, he didn't make the catch. We chickened out and went for the field goal, cutting the lead to 10, but that wasn't good enough, you guys went up by 17 and that was the end. If he's covered, Burress won't make that catch 80% of the time. He put on a solid move, and got open, that's it.

 

[DaBruinz]

Just watched the game again on NFL replay and three things cost us this game:

1. Brady's inability to read the defense/get his blocking set up correctly.

2. Brady's inaccuracy. This one kills the most. Forget the early missed throws. On the last series, Brady threw wide of a WIDE OPEN Gaffney, TD - goodnight Giants and then underthrew Moss who had gotten behind the defenders, again that's a sure TD, say goodnight Giants.

3. Coaching. No reason to send a blitz on Giants last TD. The Pats were getting pressure with 4/5 (thanks Adalius + knowing the Giants had to throw). Also, why continue with the 15 yard cushions when Giants need to convert 3rd and 10? Rushing 4, with tight coverage in the secondary would have won this game for the Pats because besides Plax, the Giants have no receivers that scare you with height/speed. On offense - Pats stopped themselves by getting unnecessarily greedy when the short stuff was moving the chains.

Giants played hard but the Pats lost this game more than the Giants won it. Oh well. One bright spot about this is that Pats have now completed two of the most embarrassing chokes in sports history. There's no way they can possibly choke any worse in the future so I know this is the lowest I can ever feel as a Pats fan.

Listen reject. YOu piss and moan more than anyone about the Patriots and 99% of the time you are talking out your rear end.

This was a TEAM loss. PERIOD. Why? Because you could just as easily blame the loss on Asante not catching the ball as you could McDaniel not calling at least 1 running play from 1st and goal from the Giants 6.

I think you are wrong about Brady not calling out the right blocking assignments. In fact, Brady calls out who the MLB is and KOPPEN is the one who adjusts the line.

 

[Keep Up With The Joneses]

Bottom line 1st & goal from the 6 with three minutes left.
They throw three passes, two incomplete, one for TD
used about 18 seconds.

If they run two running plays they use over a minute off the clock.
If they do not score then they pass on 3rd down if no TD kick the FG.

Giants then get the ball back with less then 1:30 left.

They lost the same way last year in Indy.. Passing with the lead last year and not using the clock..

I agree, it would have been nice to use more time. Still, being down on the scoreboard and wanting to go up 4 points, you have to take what is given. The run wasn't working all game, so it probably wouldn't have worked in this situation.

I believe the playcalling was predictable all game, but once they got to this point, they had to go with what has been working all year, Brady's arm and the weapons at his disposal.

A crazy Eli Manning-Tyree helmet grab is all that stood between us saying this game was a disaster vs just saying they found a way to grind out another big win when things weren't going as planned.

 

[letekro]

Bottom line 1st & goal from the 6 with three minutes left.
They throw three passes, two incomplete, one for TD
used about 18 seconds.

If they run two running plays they use over a minute off the clock.
If they do not score then they pass on 3rd down if no TD kick the FG.

Giants then get the ball back with less then 1:30 left.

They lost the same way last year in Indy.. Passing with the lead last year and not using the clock..

Down by 3, the goal was to score a TD. Running time of the clock would've been a huge bonus, but it was clearly secondary to scoring. 10-10 with 1:30 left would've been much more terrifying than 14-10 with 2:42 left.