Game Thoughts - The Pats almost got Buffaloed edition

[Rob0729]

Here we go (disclaimer: this is the first game of the season and definitive assessments are not necessarily valid as the year goes along):

1. This game should not have been nearly as close as it was. In the first half, the Pats outplayed the Bills in almost every aspect but continued to shoot themselves in the foot. A lot of it is correctable, but a lot is a concern. Two stupid turnovers let the the Bills back in the game.
2. Shane Vereen showed us today what we all were hoping for out of him since the Pats drafted him. If this is what he see out of him going forward this year, he may be a Marshall Faulk lite.
3. Stevan Ridley needs to cure his fumbling problems, but it is too early to give up on him. I still think he is still too good of a RB and too valuable in certain situations to write him off. He needs to run a lot of gauntlet drills.
4. Amendola is Welker 2.0. In fact, he made a few catches that I don't know if Welker is dependable to catch anymore. He is also a tough SOB and many receivers would have shut it down battling a groin injury. I think he will be like Welker in that respect and play through the nagging injuries. It is the big injuries he needs to avoid.
5. Kembrell Thompkins showed flashes of some good things, but he made a lot of rookie mistakes. He needs to learn to drag his second foot on sideline catches. He needs to know not to run out of bounds on a sideline catch when he doesn't have a defender with in a yard of him. He needs learn shallower routes in the back of the end zone. Much of this can be learned fairly quickly. I think he is still at this point better than he was today, but he might have been a bit overwhelmed in his first game.
6. Edelman is definitely a pretty good receiver when he is healthy. Needs to work on his hands a bit, but he is definitely a go to WR for Brady.
7. Overall the defense played pretty well. I think they came into the game trying to shut down CJ Spiller and Stevie Johnson. They basically accomplished both other than one TD pass to Johnson. The Bills didn't really do much on offense other than two drives. The Pats 3rd down defense was markedly better than last year (the Bills were 4 of 13 on third downs or 30%).
8. I was unimpressed with the pass rush, but I think it may have had to do with the Pats playing contain vs. Manuel. I think they asked Ninkovich and Jones to be more concerned about taking running lanes away from Manuel than to pressure him. I am assuming we will see a similar strategy on Thursday.
9. Kyle Arrington was awesome today for the most part. He was the antithesis of what he was last year. He was breaking up passes and causing turnovers. And he did play outside at times and still did very well. Maybe last year was a fluke year and he is more like he was in 2011.
10. The o-line had a rough day. At times they dominated, but they struggled a lot to protect Brady and opening holes in the running game. I think it had mostly to do with the lack of a blocking TE. Sudfeld and Hooman both missed important blocks in the passing game. They need to bring back Fells tomorrow if he is healthy.

Overall, this team is a bit of a work in progress. I think most of the problems we saw today are correctable. It kinda reminds me of the Arizona game last year where nothing went right and the team figured itself out as the weeks went along. Luckily this time, Gostkowski's last second kick went through the uprights.

 

[RelocatedPatFan]

Not alot to argue with in here. Pretty much what I feel.

Though Shane belongs to Vereen and Stevan to Ridley
\
Another thought. They showed a stat at one point that we had 6 plays of 20+ yards. Not all of them were passing either. so we did have some big play ability.

 

[Big-T]

Rob, please double check players names before you post these - it makes it hard to take the posts seriously when there's stuff like "Shane Ridley", there's at least one glaring error every time (Matt Hoyer was a funny one, though!).

Otherwise though, can't agree with you bashing Jones for doing what was likely his assignment - contain instead of going after Manuel all the time, the game plan looked pretty clear, make sure Spiller & Manuel can't get round the edge.

 

[Rob0729]

Not alot to argue with in here. Pretty much what I feel.

Though Shane belongs to Vereen and Stevan to Ridley
\
Another thought. They showed a stat at one point that we had 6 plays of 20+ yards. Not all of them were passing either. so we did have some big play ability.

Sorry, I was just giving a shout out to Dan Dierdork and his butchering of players names.

Speaking of the Dork, could he be more stupid and biased today? When Arrington stripped the ball from Goodwin while the guy was clearly standing, Dierdork tried to argue that he held the ball long enough that his knee had hit the ground before he lost the ball. He almost openly rooted for the Bills.

 

[supafly]

Rob--nice writeup. Good thoughts. Thanks.

 

[PatsSox363804]

Sorry, I was just giving a shout out to Dan Dierdork and his butchering of players names.

Speaking of the Dork, could he be more stupid and biased today? When Arrington stripped the ball from Goodwin while the guy was clearly standing, Dierdork tried to argue that he held the ball long enough that his knee had hit the ground before he lost the ball. He almost openly rooted for the Bills.

Yeah I normally don't like when people talk about the announcers being biased but he was really all over the Bills jocks today, it was embarrassing.

 

[supafly]

Sorry, I was just giving a shout out to Dan Dierdork and his butchering of players names.

Speaking of the Dork, could he be more stupid and biased today? When Arrington stripped the ball from Goodwin while the guy was clearly standing, Dierdork tried to argue that he held the ball long enough that his knee had hit the ground before he lost the ball. He almost openly rooted for the Bills.

Out of any announcer, I hate Dierdorf the most. The whole "biased" issue rears its ugly head in every single game that he calls vs the NEP in my opinion.

 

[Rob0729]

Rob, please double check players names before you post these - it makes it hard to take the posts seriously when there's stuff like "Shane Ridley", there's at least one glaring error every time (Matt Hoyer was a funny one, though!).

Otherwise though, can't agree with you bashing Jones for doing what was likely his assignment - contain instead of going after Manuel all the time, the game plan looked pretty clear, make sure Spiller & Manuel can't get round the edge.

I addressed you first point, but your second point is off base. I never even mentioned Jones by name other to state that it looked like the gameplan was to contain over rushing the passer. Again, here is what I wrote:

I was unimpressed with the pass rush, but I think it may have had to do with the Pats playing contain vs. Manuel. I think they asked Ninkovich and Jones to be more concerned about taking running lanes away from Manuel than to pressure him.

 

[mrscruff]

1. This game should not have been nearly as close as it was. In the first half, the Pats outplayed the Bills in almost every aspect but continued to shoot themselves in the foot. A lot of it is correctable, but a lot is a concern. Two stupid turnovers let the the Bills back in the game.
   
2. Stevan Ridley needs to cure his fumbling problems, but it is too early to give up on him. I still think he is still too good of a RB and too valuable in certain situations to write him off. He needs to run a lot of gauntlet drills.
   
3. Kembrell Thompkins showed flashes of some good things, but he made a lot of rookie mistakes. He needs to learn to drag his second foot on sideline catches. He needs to know not to run out of bounds on a sideline catch when he doesn't have a defender with in a yard of him. He needs learn shallower routes in the back of the end zone. Much of this can be learned fairly quickly. I think he is still at this point better than he was today, but he might have been a bit overwhelmed in his first game.
   
4. Overall the defense played pretty well. I think they came into the game trying to shut down CJ Spiller and Stevie Johnson. They basically accomplished both other than one TD pass to Johnson. The Bills didn't really do much on offense other than two drives. The Pats 3rd down defense was markedly better than last year (the Bills were 4 of 13 on third downs or 30%).
5. I was unimpressed with the pass rush, but I think it may have had to do with the Pats playing contain vs. Manuel. I think they asked Ninkovich and Jones to be more concerned about taking running lanes away from Manuel than to pressure him. I am assuming we will see a similar strategy on Thursday.

Totally agree with these points. Let's hope the Patriots can iron out a few of the mistakes and bounce back against the Jets. With so many changes to the offense, it could be several weeks of inconsistency before we see the best from this group. The Jets Defense will test this Offense and the Jets, as a team will be hurting from the embarrassing mauling they took last year.

 

[Nunchucks]

Is it too late to steal the Zoltan from the Steelers?

 

[tonyto3690]

Do we really need a game reaction thread for each poster?

Just post in the game thread.

 

[Rob0729]

Is it too late to steal the Zoltan from the Steelers?

Allen had a better day than Mesko today. Allen had 6 punts with an average of 36.0 yards and three inside the 20. Mesko had 7 punts for 35.1 average with one inside the 20. Allen had one or two bad punts, but several good ones. Didn't think he was horrible at all.

 

[the Patriot]

Good read. I'm still concerned about our receivers though. The addition of Gronk will surely help, but some of these younger guys are really gonna have to step it up.

 

[Rob0729]

Good read. I'm still concerned about our receivers though. The addition of Gronk will surely help, but some of these younger guys are really gonna have to step it up.

If they are not significantly improved by the end of the month, then I will agree with you. The first regular season game, they get a bit of a free pass.

 

[BingoBrown]

Anybody notice the snaps to Brady were low

 

[Rob0729]

Anybody notice the snaps to Brady were low

Wasn't a great game by Wendell. I don't know who was at fault on that goalline fumble, but the handoff was awful between him and Brady.

Maybe they will slide Connolly back to center and make Cannon the RG>

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Nice observations Rob. 2 of the last 3 games, Vereen was given the rock and proved to be one of our best weapons. Makes me wonder why he was barely used in the AFCC. But if he is rightfully given the touches, he will have a huge year provided he doesn't get injured.

Thompkins will get better I agree, I honestly think alot of the team got a little off edge after Ridley's embarrassing game changing play (even Edelman who was one of the more reliable performers had a few drops). Opening the season on the road is always a tough environment to get your feet wet. Once we let the crowd in the game they never should have had the chance, we were in trouble. I think all the players felt it.

Regardless, I'll take it man. 1-0 and onto the Jets

 

[shmessy]

Do we really need a game reaction thread for each poster?

Just post in the game thread.

Certain posters have become known for their detailed, well-thought out game reaction threads. Patsfanken, Zeus and Robo are three of them.

You? Not so much.

 

[patfanken]

Nice post. Don't listen to Tony. He's just an angry little man. Just a quick comment.

1. Loved your comment on the pass rush. As several posters mentioned in my thread, the perceived lack of a pass rush was probably more by design than anything else.

2. I thought your comment on the OL was overly harsh. First that was a good DL. Darius and KWilliams are as good a DT combination as the the Pats are going to see this season.

However one of the Sacks was a DB blitz that wasn't read well by either Brady or Vareen, the other was a coverage sack by KWilliams Give some credit to the DC too. He dialed up a lot of blitz packages, most of which were picked up. Most of the time Brady had the time he needed. And as someone posted earlier, it got better as the day went on.

Instead I would concentrate on the job Nate Solder did, turning Mario Williams into an after thought. I would focus on them rushing for more yards than their average last season (162) on just 30 carries (I hope we see more than 30 attempts on Thursday)

Thanks for the good read

 

[pencilneckgeek]

Nice note on the DL strategy. I thought Jones and Ninkovich did a stellar job containing Spiller and Manuel. Spiller rarely bounced it outside, and the one time I recall him doing so, he got spanked by Mr. Jones.