Game Thoughts - Julio is still vacationing on Talib Island Edition

[Rob0729]

Here we go:

• As I said in the Game Thread, this game was a big F-U to the critics and haters. No Welker - No problem. The secondary sucks - not so fast. Gostkowski can't kick the side of the barn - hit all his kicks. Blount is useless - Unless he runs for a 50 yard TD.
  
  
• Aqib Talib is as close to Revis that this team has had since Ty Law. He was targeted 8 times and allowed on catch for one yard and one INT. The only things I was disappointed with him about was the questionable PI and that they didn't put him on Jones all the time before Jones got injured. Talib Island is accepting visitors, but it is a very lonely place for a receiver to stay.
  
  
• Overall, it is amazing how the secondary has gone from the weakness of this team to its strength. I would say half the sacks the Pats have had this year (maybe more) have been coverage sacks.
  
  
• The Pats need Wilfork back quickly especially next week with the Bengals' running game, but kudos to Vellano for stepping up and playing very well in his place. The Falcons tried to test him and for the most part he passed. I am not hopeful though that Wilfork will be back soon.
  
  
• It was amazing how well Patricia and Belichick adjusted the defense at the end of the game. Went from taking Jones out of the game to neutralizing Gonzalez.
  
  
• Tonight was the Kembrell Thompkins coming party. This was the guy we saw in the preseason. Not perfect. A few drops. But this guy is the outside/deep threat the Pats have been looking for. Not ready to buy completely into him, but he is progressing into a consistent big play target.
  
  
• So much for all the talk that Brady is getting old and declining. See what good protection and receivers getting open and holding onto the ball can do. Not to mention he executed the play action flawlessly.
  
  
• The Pats markedly improved in two crucial areas on offense - red zone scoring (2 for 3) and third down efficiency (7 for 13). That is what a balanced attack can bring you.
  
  
• Disappointed with the last six minutes of the game. This shouldn't have been a close game. Breakdowns in all phases of the game. Hopefully that will be fixed going forward. The Pats could have lost if they didn't have a 17 point cushion.
  
  
• Overall a good win against a good team (the Falcons are not as good as people thought they were, but still better than their record) in a tough place to win. The Pats are 4-0 for the first time since 2007. This three game stretch doesn't seem as hard as it looked a few weeks ago and the Pats are already 1-0 in it.

 

[Mark12]

The way Brady can slide in the pocket to buy time was as impressive as ever today. Without a doubt the best in the league at that.

 

[MrNathanDrake]

It looked like our Defense thought the Falcons were just going to give up and not try to score in the last 6 minutes.

Lazy tackling and soft coverage once the defense knew we had a big lead. Not happy with that. This game shouldnt have been that close....


But on a positive note, the Defense held the Falcons to just 3 points in their last 2 redzone trips.

Spikes barely played.

Chandler Jones drew 2 penalties from Baker, but couldn't do anything against their backup Left Tackle for the remainder of the game.

Jamie Collins finally got a lot of playing time trying to cover Gonzalez.

Julio Jones gave up when it was 30-13 and was sitting out due to "injury"... when it got close again, he came back in and wanted to play again. He was perfectly fine. LOL.... I hope someone calls him out on this.

 

[Rob0729]

It looked like our Defense thought the Falcons were just going to give up and not try to score in the last 6 minutes.

Lazy tackling and soft coverage once the defense knew we had a big lead. Not happy with that. This game shouldnt have been that close....


But on a positive note, the Defense held the Falcons to just 3 points in their last 2 redzone trips.

Spikes barely played.

Chandler Jones drew 2 penalties from Baker, but couldn't do anything against their backup Left Tackle for the remainder of the game.

Jamie Collins finally got a lot of playing time trying to cover Gonzalez.

Julio Jones gave up when it was 30-13 and was sitting out due to "injury"... when it got close again, he came back in and wanted to play again. He was perfectly fine. LOL.... I hope someone calls him out on this.

The Pats were in sub packages all night. Spikes won't see much playing time in sub packages with Mayo and Hightower much better in coverage.

Chandler Jones was doubled almost every play after Baker went down and he moved to DT when Kelly went out.

 

[Joker]

Vellano was our best D lineman tonight...period

 

[Fencer]

Julio Jones gave up when it was 30-13 and was sitting out due to "injury"... when it got close again, he came back in and wanted to play again. He was perfectly fine. LOL.... I hope someone calls him out on this.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Let's hope this doesn't turn out to be his version of Amendola's Game 1.

 

[VrabelJr]

At some point during the game Colinsworth cited a conversation he had with Brady where Brady said Thompkins reminds him of Chad Johnson (note: Not Chad Ochocinco) a lot. I've been wanting to make that comparison on this board but was afraid to. I can totally see it though.

 

[Ozymandias]

At some point during the game Colinsworth cited a conversation he had with Brady where Brady said Thompkins reminds him of Chad Johnson (note: Not Chad Ochocinco) a lot. I've been wanting to make that comparison on this board but was afraid to. I can totally see it though.

Nah, I don't see it (and people on this board have made that comparison before).

Kenbrell Thompkins reminds me of Kenbrell Thompkins.

 

[VJCPatriot]

At some point during the game Colinsworth cited a conversation he had with Brady where Brady said Thompkins reminds him of Chad Johnson (note: Not Chad Ochocinco) a lot. I've been wanting to make that comparison on this board but was afraid to. I can totally see it though.

Chad Johnson physical talent without the headaches, craziness, and inability to get the Pats offense? I guess the better way to put it is, take Chad Johnson's body and give him a normal brain. Watch Thompkins get scooped up from the waiver wire across all fantasy football games in the next 3 days. LOL.

 

[VrabelJr]

Brady was most likely referring to the Cincinnati Bengals Chad Johnson. Chad Johnson was never an elite athlete. He was always a good route runner and excellent at getting a clean release. If you don't see those qualities in KT you might be blind.

 

[Ozymandias]

Brady was most likely referring to the Cincinnati Bengals Chad Johnson. Chad Johnson was never an elite athlete. He was always a good route runner and excellent at getting a clean release. If you don't see those qualities in KT you might be blind.

The only things KT and Chad have in common are their height/weight/speed. Nothing about their game is even remotely similar.

If you're comparing their physical make up, that's one thing, but how they actually play the game of football, they are nothing alike.

 

[andrewgarrr]

Vellano looked good, but Kelly looked winded in the late 3rd quarter. Gonna need Vellano to keep playing well and Armstead/Jones to step up if this Wilfork thing is serious...

I didn't like seeing Chandler Jones playing DT. That position is not the most useful for this skills.

What about Hightower playing a little DT? Didn't he do this a lot in college?

 

[VrabelJr]

The only things KT and Chad have in common are their height/weight/speed. Nothing about their game is even remotely similar.

If you're comparing their physical make up, that's one thing, but how they actually play the game of football, they are nothing alike.

I don't expect any Patriots fan to agree with this comparison. You've all been scarred by the Chad Johnson of 2011.

 

[Ozymandias]

I don't expect any Patriots fan to agree with this comparison. You've all been scarred by the Chad Johnson of 2011.

Actually I'm referring to Chad from his best years in Cincinnati. There's no real similarity in how he and KT play the WR position.

It's a common thing to do, one player looks physically like another, or runs as fast another, to make some sort of arbitrary comparison. It's done too much pointlessly. Like people saying Stephen Hill reminds them of Randy Moss and other such nonsense. When nothing about how they play the game of football is even remotely similar.

As I said before, Thompkins reminds me of Thompkins. And that's all I care about. Comparisons to old ghosts are rather redundant.

 

[Patriot Missile]

Considering Matt Ryan was 34-5 at Atlanta before this game I'd say this win was huge. The defense was magnificent considering the weapons Atlanta has. Very proud of the win despite detractors trying to downgrade it this morning.

Bottom line, the Pats handled this team pretty well for 50 mins with a lot of questionable calls and a few mistakes on our part that they capitalized on well. Definitely a good hard fought win.

Can't wait to get Amendola and Gronk back. Then this offense may be able to match the defense. Kind of weird saying that. It's been all offense since 2007.

 

[Rob0729]

Vellano looked good, but Kelly looked winded in the late 3rd quarter. Gonna need Vellano to keep playing well and Armstead/Jones to step up if this Wilfork thing is serious...

I didn't like seeing Chandler Jones playing DT. That position is not the most useful for this skills.

What about Hightower playing a little DT? Didn't he do this a lot in college?

Chandler Jones playing DT did pay off dividends in previous games this year. It didn't so much last night (although Buchannon had a sack due to it). I think it will depend on the opponent whether he will be successful there.

 

[everlong]

A lot of positives last night. The biggest being the patience with the play calling where they kept running the ball until Atlanta was selling out and then the play action was awesome. Give McDaniels a lot of credit. At times I like everybody else question what he's thinking but that was well done. On defense the back 7 had one of their finest games in recent memory.

Minus the injuries the biggest negative was the pass rush. They did get 2 sacks and 5 QB hits. I'm not sure on pressures as I couldn't find a stat on it but there weren't a lot of them. Granted one helped cause an interception but Ryan dropped back 56 times including the two sacks and I doubt their was effective pressure on Ryan more than one in four plays. If Brees and Manning have that type of time they're in big trouble. Granted it was nearly all with 4 rushers but Ryan was back there for a solid 5 count a lot. Nobody was pushing the pocket. Chandler Jones did draw a couple of penalties but that was against Baker who probably shouldn't have played. He did nothing against the second string guy who replace him which is disappointing.

Hopefully Dennard and Dobson don't have serious injuries.

 

[pencilneckgeek]

Chandler Jones playing DT did pay off dividends in previous games this year. It didn't so much last night (although Buchannon had a sack due to it).

Jones helped on that, but per your earlier point, I thought that was a nice coverage sack.

 

[chasa]

My thoughts:

The good:

Brady and the rookies continue to Gel, Thompkins is growing into his star receiver shoes, Dobson continues to make progress, and Boyce had a really nice catches(that shoe string grab was incredible in the 4th when we really needed it most).

Edelman continues to ease the loss of Welker, With amendola coming back soon, then gronk, this offense is going to be scary good. As welker has been on the broncos high powered offense, I'm glad hes gone. Brady forced it to welker far to often and it hurt our offense's long term goals. forcing brady to grow some new young receivers is going to add longevity to this team.

Defense! God damned its nice to have a defense that you just know is going to make stops again, forcing turnovers on downs twice in the redzone is great.

The ground game, for those of you keeping track at home, Blount runs so hard hes really been that beast back we have been missing since dillon retired.

The bad:

Losing Wilfork for the season

The refs, non stop bad calls, or no calls in the falcons favor. somehow the review machine being broke at a critical time.

 

[stumeister]

I think the run and TD by Lagerett Blount came at the right time for me as a fan. I had a better feeling after that, even though I was getting a little worried with 3 minutes and change left on the clock when things got a little rocky for us. That TD came at the right time in the game.