UPDATE: Dion Lewis has been IR'd with torn ACL, and will be out for the season

[PatriotsPimp136]

I would support bringing in Rice if he was still good. Problem is, he didn't look very good in his final year in Baltimore.

The rats o line in 2013 was terrible.

 

[Oswlek]

Like a loser I went & did some of the math for games without a starting third down back, in this case my study was the 2013 season in which the Pats lost Shane Vereen for 8 games. In games Vereen played the Patriots averaged 29.2 ppg and in the games he missed they averaged 26.3, so field goal difference.
As I like to do when I work with stats like this, I like to adjust for outliers - in this case I discarded the high & low score of each test group (a 55 point outburst vs Pit, a 6 point egg vs Cin, a 16 point yuck vs Den & a 43 point performance vs Ind) and we have the pats scoring 29.1 with Vereen and 25.0 without him.
So there's a bit of insight into the effect the loss of Lewis may have on the offense...

I appreciate the effort, but there are far too many variables missing for this to have much meaning. Which games included Gronk? Which games were with completely green WRs? Which games had Amendola? What does "starting third down back" even mean? How would the offense have done if they had a 2015 James White on the bench? Or if they had this year's group of receivers?

I'm not saying you need to do more work to answer these questions, I'm saying that you can't answer them, making the information hard to apply to this situation.

 

[Tony2046]

The last running back I watched that was that exciting was Barry Sanders. Not comparing the physical skills etc... just the anticipation that something big was about to happen when they got the ball. Lewis is a freaking Juke magician. I had to watch his TD run against the Cowboys multiple times to see how in the hell he made it into the endzone. Really a fun player to watch.

With that said this team as a whole is exciting to watch from both sides of the ball. One week it's Amendola making circus catches, the next week it's Jules doing his thing and another has the D line racking up sack after sack. Lewis will be missed but I think in the short term it means Amendola's receptions will go up.

My main concern is the health of the Oline because it all starts in the trenches.

Funny thing for me is when injuries happen I catch myself thinking in some kind of delusional sinusoidal injury balance mode. It goes something like this: Injuries happen every year. If an injury happens early enough in the season the Pats will get back healthy players near the end of the season which equates to a better team heading into the playoffs.

Anyways Lewis will be missed but if they can settle the O line issues this team will still be a freaking scoring machine. It has been absolutely remarkable how the O line has held it together this year.

 

[PatriotsPimp136]

The last running back I watched that was that exciting was Barry Sanders. Not comparing the physical skills etc... just the anticipation that something big was about to happen when they got the ball. Lewis is a freaking Juke magician. I had to watch his TD run against the Cowboys multiple times to see how in the hell he made it into the endzone. Really a fun player to watch.

With that said this team as a whole is exciting to watch from both sides of the ball. One week it's Amendola making circus catches, the next week it's Jules doing his thing and another has the D line racking up sack after sack. Lewis will be missed but I think in the short term it means Amendola's receptions will go up.

My main concern is the health of the Oline because it all starts in the trenches.

Funny thing for me is when injuries happen I catch myself thinking in some kind of delusional sinusoidal injury balance mode. It goes something like this: Injuries happen every year. If an injury happens early enough in the season the Pats will get back healthy players near the end of the season which equates to a better team heading into the playoffs.

Anyways Lewis will be missed but if they can settle the O line issues this team will still be a freaking scoring machine. It has been absolutely remarkable how the O line has held it together this year.

We need everybody back for that donkeys game.

 

[VectorPrime]

For me this is just yet another slap in the face that you can't tell ANYTHING from how a player gets off the field. They could be skipping and it could still be a season ending injury.

All of my excitement for the season and the team has been just deflated. (its a phrase thats been used forever so don't even) It'll be back soon I know but damn, this one hurts.

 

[FourierSeries]

All of my excitement for the season and the team has been just deflated. (its a phrase thats been used forever so don't even) It'll be back soon I know but damn, this one hurts.

Drink some warm Gatorade. You'll be fine.

 

[dannydyn]

For me this is just yet another slap in the face that you can't tell ANYTHING from how a player gets off the field. They could be skipping and it could still be a season ending injury.

All of my excitement for the season and the team has been just deflated. (its a phrase thats been used forever so don't even) It'll be back soon I know but damn, this one hurts.

 

[PatriotsPimp136]

For me this is just yet another slap in the face that you can't tell ANYTHING from how a player gets off the field. They could be skipping and it could still be a season ending injury.

All of my excitement for the season and the team has been just deflated. (its a phrase thats been used forever so don't even) It'll be back soon I know but damn, this one hurts.

Relax. We still got number 12 and BB

 

[VrabelJr]

**** **** **** ****

Why did you enter your credit card number in?

 

[Silver Blue&Red]

Sh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!tttttttt.




. Sigh

 

[VrabelJr]

The worst part about this is he might not ever be the same. Or, if he is the same it will take all of next season, too.

 

[Tony2046]

seeing ray rice's name floating around twitter..

the circus would be in town if we signed that jerk.

Hell no.

 

[PatriotsPimp136]

The worst part about this is he might not ever be the same. Or, if he is the same it will take all of next season, too.

Idk about that. He doesn't have mileage on him. He will work hard to come back. We should have been back for 8 games next year

 

[Off The Grid]

Can somebody please help me understand why I keep seeing "welp" all over the place? Is this some Gaming thing like "pwn"? Or maybe just an AutoCorrect Typo for "well"? #JustCurious.

 

[Wheelman]

Why is Dion gone? I miss him already. He was so elusive. God I miss him. I'm gonna go cry now...

 

[meatface]

Sign Cadet and maybe Ball to the PS?

 

[BelichickFan]

Can somebody please help me understand why I keep seeing "welp" all over the place? Is this some Gaming thing like "pwn"? Or maybe just an AutoCorrect Typo for "well"? #JustCurious.

LOL, I had to google it to find out. It turns out that "Welp" is the cool kids way of saying "Well", and "Lolz" is the cool version of "lol". I think they're both stupid but I'm old and stuck in my ways

 

[Gronkowski123]

The rats o line in 2013 was terrible.

rice was also hurt.
belichick was talking about rice on WEEI comparing him to lewis...glowing praise...

still should stay away from him though

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Next man up...yada yada...but just when I had started to feel that we were fine without Shane vereen

 

[PatriotsPimp136]

Why is Dion gone? I miss him already. He was so elusive. God I miss him. I'm gonna go cry now...

Very likeable. It stinks!!! Kid worked hard to get here