Why The Pats Believe In Josh McDaniels, And You Should Too

[Salva135]

I'm suggesting that the combination of banged up O-line, banged up TEs and banged up QB had a lot to do with that offense struggling. Are you seriously going to try pretending that's not likely to have been the case?

I'm not arguing any of that. I'm arguing McDaniels knew about the majority of those injuries and didn't develop an appropriate gameplan given the film study he had on the Giants' D-line.

The Pats losing that game was a historical embarrassment for a team in the NFL, forever. And Josh McDaniels played a part.

 

[Oswlek]

I'm not arguing any of that. I'm arguing McDaniels knew about the majority of those injuries and didn't develop an appropriate gameplan given the film study he had on the Giants' D-line.

The Pats losing that game was a historical embarrassment for a team in the NFL, forever. And Josh McDaniels played a part.

He knew about one. Tom's ankle. All the rest happened mid-game.

 

[Salva135]

How did McDaniels know that K. Brady, Neal and Faulk were all going to get hurt in the SB?

Take a look at those names. That is your best pass protecting interior OL, your best blocking/receiving back and your only blocking TE. It was as if God made a clean sweep of NE's max protect personnel.

If he's as good of an OC as we make him out to be, shouldn't he make adjustments at halftime? No more forcing to Moss, maybe utilize Maroney more in the passing game, sweeps to Faulk? Something??

Bottom line is the gameplan never changed when the obvious problem was obvious, even to us fans during that painful game. McDaniels stubbornly kept with his original calls. That is his fault.

 

[Oswlek]

If he's as good of an OC as we make him out to be, shouldn't he make adjustments at halftime? No more forcing to Moss, maybe utilize Maroney more in the passing game, sweeps to Faulk? Something??

Bottom line is the gameplan never changed when the obvious problem was obvious, even to us fans during that painful game. McDaniels stubbornly kept with his original calls. That is his fault.

Faulk was injured, Maroney was beat up and ineffective, the screens didn't work.

When the OL plays that poorly, not much is going to work. I don't fully absolve him, but when attempts at other things had proven fruitless, it is hard to blame Josh for sticking with the big guns. I'm sure if they weren't missing three critical parts of their max sets, we would have seen them more.

 

[IcyPatriot]

Every year I believe the same thing ...

Belichick goes into pre season with a plan that is modified over the course of training camp up to week 6 or so of the regular season. Josh as well as Bill are smart enough to work with what they have while at the same time retaining the ability to be flexible from week to week depending on the opponent. Bill found a way to go 11-5 with Matt Cassel no less ... Josh is right off the same tree.

 

[Salva135]

Faulk was injured, Maroney was beat up and ineffective, the screens didn't work.

When the OL plays that poorly, not much is going to work. I don't fully absolve him, but when attempts at other things had proven fruitless, it is hard to blame Josh for sticking with the big guns. I'm sure if they weren't missing three critical parts of their max sets, we would have seen them more.

So you're saying just about every player was injured except for the WRs, so McDaniels just blindly said, "F-t, keep on bombing it, it's worked for 18 games, why stop now?"

The best offense of all time only scored 7 points at the half, and you think McDaniels just said, "keep going with it guys."

Gosh, maybe he actually did. In which case, I don't love him as much as some of you do.

 

[Oswlek]

So you're saying just about every player was injured except for the WRs, so McDaniels just blindly said, "F-t, keep on bombing it, it's worked for 18 games, why stop now?"

No, that isn't what I said at all.

 

[Rob0729]

I have never put it all on him, but at least you admitted my point in the former phrase.

McDaniels didn't call a horrible game, but like everyone else in that game, it wasn't his best effort. No one escapes blame for that loss. If I was going to dole out blame pie though, he wouldn't be in my top 5 of getting the biggest piece. In fact, I don't know if he was in the top 10.

Also, we don't know how much all the hooplah from Arlen Specter, Matt Walsh, and John Tomase affected the last minute preparation of the coaching staff.

 

[Deus Irae]

If he's as good of an OC as we make him out to be, shouldn't he make adjustments at halftime? No more forcing to Moss, maybe utilize Maroney more in the passing game, sweeps to Faulk? Something??

Bottom line is the gameplan never changed when the obvious problem was obvious, even to us fans during that painful game. McDaniels stubbornly kept with his original calls. That is his fault.

They did make attempts at different things and adjustments. They didn't work. Why are you re-hashing 2007 when you don't seem to know anything about the game?

 

[Rob0729]

BTW, the Giants didn't give up more than 20 points to any team in the playoffs. I think they deserve a little credit for shutting down the Patriots and playing an outstanding game.

 

[Salva135]

They did make attempts at different things and adjustments. They didn't work. Why are you re-hashing 2007 when you don't seem to know anything about the game?

I know plenty about the game but apparently McDaniels called it perfectly. It was the Giants pass rush only that won that game. Is that the narrative? It is to ESPN, but to us?

 

[Rob0729]

If he's as good of an OC as we make him out to be, shouldn't he make adjustments at halftime? No more forcing to Moss, maybe utilize Maroney more in the passing game, sweeps to Faulk? Something??

Bottom line is the gameplan never changed when the obvious problem was obvious, even to us fans during that painful game. McDaniels stubbornly kept with his original calls. That is his fault.

A number of things:

• Moss was targeted 12 times, Welker was targeted 15. So McDaniels had Brady target Welker more than Moss.
• Faulk had 7 catches on eight targets. He was only targeted twice in the first half. They utilized Faulk quite a bit in the second half telling me they adjusted.
• Welker had 86 of his 103 yards in the second half. He had 11 of his 15 targets in the second half. That tells McDaniels made adjustments. If anything, you can argue he screwed up in that he didn't utilize Welker earlier in the game. But his clearly made adjustments.

 

[Oswlek]

I know plenty about the game but apparently McDaniels called it perfectly. It was the Giants pass rush only that won that game. Is that the narrative? It is to ESPN, but to us?

Perfect? Why the need for a straw man? Everyone agrees that Josh bears some responsibility, just that there are mitigating circumstances that you are ignoring.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

Perfect? Why the need for a straw man? Everyone agrees that Josh bears some responsibility, just that there are mitigating circumstances that you are ignoring.

Like the same excuse-making for why he led a Broncos team that lost its last 16 games straight, and then led the worst offense in the entire NFL at St Louis despite having Sam Bradford and Steven Jackson. Excuses........ (usually the injury excuse even though the Pats overcame tons of injuries pre-2005).

 

[JackBauer]

Like the same excuse-making for why he led a Broncos team that lost its last 16 games straight, and then led the worst offense in the entire NFL at St Louis despite having Sam Bradford and Steven Jackson. Excuses........ (usually the injury excuse even though the Pats overcame tons of injuries pre-2005).

Do you think if you repeat the same nonsense ad nauseum you'll eventually get your point across, maverick?

 

[Ring 6]

The direct answer is that I believe in Josh because Bill and Brady do. IMP, Josh is no Charlie Weiss, but he certainly is a fine coordinator.

I agree. He is no Charlie Weis. He is miles better than Charlie Weis.

 

[mgteich]

ROFL

Thank you andy.

I agree. He is no Charlie Weis. He is miles better than Charlie Weis.

 

[signbabybrady]

Vereen is more explosive than Woodhead. We've seen that. We've not seen that out of Boyce or Dobson.

Seeing as Lloyd was not a great deep threat (more intermediate) and that he was a zero at YAC I can confidently say that they are more explosive than Lloyd and Branch 2 and 3 last year. Being rookies they may not out produce them but I think defenses have to respect their athletic ability more.

Ballard isn't in AH's league. We've seen that, as well.

Them not being the same type of TE it is hard to compare them and for what Ahern did Ballard is not in his league but if we are strictly looking at TE2 then while their abilities differ they each are very good TE starting caliber in this league AH was Pro Bowl caliber Ballard is just a good adequate starter. In order to replace Ahern I think we use Ballard as we can for more traditional two TE looks but for the plays where we would flex Ahern or use him in some other unique way we will need to look to a receiver or possible a back to fill some of those things.

Regardless, the 'known' WR corps sucks, as of now.

If you want to ignore that we have the best TE in the game and sole look at WR corp I would still say it does not suck as DA is nasty and Edelman is back and the three rooks look good so far.

I think you fail to realize that our WR group has not been great for a few years other than Wes.

Ahern for Ballard is a drop off for sure but there are no requirements to having a flex TE and we can just run some more 3 WR or use Vareen in some creative ways to make up for it.

Other than Welker and DA I will take every WR favored to be on the team this year over all of them last year and you have to admit sans Welker DA has to be as good a replacement for him as we could get.

 

[Rob0729]

Like the same excuse-making for why he led a Broncos team that lost its last 16 games straight, and then led the worst offense in the entire NFL at St Louis despite having Sam Bradford and Steven Jackson. Excuses........ (usually the injury excuse even though the Pats overcame tons of injuries pre-2005).

The Pats went from a 14-2 Super Bowl winner in 2004 to a 10-6 team that lost in the division round in 2005. That is a big drop off.

But if you want to use that as an example, who was in charge of the Pats' offense in 2005? I will give you one guess.

 

[Deus Irae]

Seeing as Lloyd was not a great deep threat (more intermediate) and that he was a zero at YAC I can confidently say that they are more explosive than Lloyd and Branch 2 and 3 last year. Being rookies they may not out produce them but I think defenses have to respect their athletic ability more.

Guesswork is meaningless, as Jackson/Tate/Price should have proven to you already.

Them not being the same type of TE it is hard to compare them

No, it's not. Ballard wasn't in the same class before the injury, and he's now working post-surgery.

If you want to ignore that we have the best TE in the game and sole look at WR corp I would still say it does not suck as DA is nasty and Edelman is back and the three rooks look good so far.

Then you're too far gone in the Koolaid cups to bother with any further.