I love this team.

[StrawHatPatriot]

I love the team, but that doesn't mean we didn't play like crap, nor does it mean that the actual team is good.

Our receivers are seriously lacking due to injuries, our o-line is struggling, and our defense is inconsistent when it comes to making late game stops.

It's the same team as 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, etc. when they were losing Super Bowls.

Good passing offense that relies soley on Gronk and Edelman (one of which is unlucky with injuries), bend but don't break defense that gives up big plays when our offense isn't playing perfect, and o-line that gets hurt and gives up to pressure. Thank god Brady suddenly got mobile this season.

And despite all that, they'll probably go to the Super Bowl because of the piss-poor competition this year.

 

[Froob]

Agreed, if they hadn't onside kicked the last one they probably would have won.

 

[RayClay]

If Pats win out they're guaranteed the 2nd seed at worst.

They'll clean it up and, oh yeah, hopefully have their two biggest weapons other than Brady back on offense.

But,but,but they're supposed to win every game. That's why I started following them.

 

[Tunescribe]

Someone has to step up in that receiving core.

Not "core," c-o-r-p-s CORPS!

 

[Triumph]

Three bad plays. They'll fix that.

They had 3 straight drops on the final drive.

Gronk and Edelman fix the greasy fingers.

 

[Triumph]

Man.. the Brady reception, onside kick recovery, and fumble recovery... I was freaking out. Would've been one hell of a comeback; what a ride!

LeFell had a TD to tie too.

 

[RayClay]

Eagles played well, ran the ball well. If they didn't get called for a penalty every other play in the first quarter, this game wouldn't have been close.

They were flat and Brady was impatient early. The offensive line played much better than given credit. Brady had 5-6 seconds to throw in the second half but no receivers open.

Amendola's been out, Martin was out for weeks, Chandler isn't Gronk.he played OK. LaFell is a short pass YAC guy, not a guy who can run and catch 40-50 yard passes. If he did,I'd consider it a bonus. We could win 14 games. Most teams would **** themselves if they won 12-14 games once in ten years.

You have to have players. We're lucky that we might get a bunch of important players back this season.

Football's hard, even for Brady and the Pats. They don't just wave a magic wand while you watch with your fritos, they have to beat the other team and The eagles played harder, were healthier and made the key big plays.

Accept it and move on.

 

[Tunescribe]

Eagles played well, ran the ball well. If they didn't get called for a penalty every other play in the first quarter, this game wouldn't have been close.

They were flat and Brady was impatient early. The offensive line played much better than given credit. Brady had 5-6 seconds to throw in the second half but no receivers open.

Amendola's been out, Martin was out for weeks, Chandler isn't Gronk.he played OK. LaFell is a short pass YAC guy, not a guy who can run and catch 40-50 yard passes. If he did,I'd consider it a bonus. We could win 14 games. Most teams would **** themselves if they won 12-14 games once in ten years.

You have to have players. We're lucky that we might get a bunch of important players back this season.

Football's hard, even for Brady and the Pats. They don't just wave a magic wand while you watch with your fritos, they have to beat the other team and The eagles played harder, were healthier and made the key big plays.

Accept it and move on.

Two special-teams touchdown and a defensive touchdown. How often does that happen for a team? That's a lot to overcome. Take away one of those scores from the Beagles and as undermanned and lousy as the Pats played, they likely win. This was as uncharacteristic a loss for a BB-coached Patriots team as you're ever likely to see.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

Not "core," c-o-r-p-s CORPS!

Corpse is more like it.

 

[Tunescribe]

Corpse is more like it.

I'll even take that over "core."

 

[RayClay]

Two special-teams touchdown and a defensive touchdown. How often does that happen for a team? That's a lot to overcome. Take away one of those scores from the Beagles and as undermanned and lousy as the Pats played, they likely win. This was as uncharacteristic a loss for a BB-coached Patriots team as you're ever likely to see.

When we win like that, BB says we made the big plays. Eagles are having a horrible season, but they ran hard and made plays on special teams. We need to get healthy amd need to practice with these new receivers.

Without Brady's sheer will that's a 2-3 touchdown loss. shake it off, have a good week of practice and be thankful we get almost all our star players back.

I think this loss was more physical than anything else. They're tired and beat up and that breeds impatience, unlike the usual Brady. They've got missing or rusty receivers and role players being used like they're Randy Moss [Lafell].

We lost a freakin game. We win a lot of games we get beat physically, just not this week.

 

[dannydyn]

Bengals and Broncos have to play each other. Pats win out they are at worst a #2.

Apparently, the way they've been playing, saying they need to win out is MUCH easier said than done....

 

[RayClay]

Apparently, the way they've been playing, saying they need to win out is MUCH easier said than done....

Everything in the world is easier said than done.

 

[primetime]

Apparently, the way they've been playing, saying they need to win out is MUCH easier said than done....

I don't see another game where something that flukey happens. The biggest challenge will be the Jets, who always play them close and will likely still be fighting for a playoff spot. The Brian Hoyer-led Texans and Titans don't scare me.

 

[Kontradiction]

This was probably the most poorly coached game since the Cleveland contest in 2010. Thankfully, this probably won't be an issue, going forward. Same with the quarterback play. The glaring issues at WR and OL are very troublesome but one getting healthy will directly impact the other.

 

[BradyFTW!]

I love the team too. But they could not afford to give this game away.... And they definitely beat themselves I don't give the Eagles credit for this.

I still believe that both the Bengals and the Broncos will drop one more down the stretch apiece. The loss sucked pretty hard in that it eliminated the Pats' margin of error and they no longer control their own destiny for the #1 seed, but if they win out over the last 4 I still think they'll get it.

Maybe more importantly, they do still control their own destiny for a first round bye, since Denver and Cincy still have to play each other and therefore can't both win out. It's a far cry from where we were two weeks ago, and definitely a bit discouraging, but it's still not a horrible situation to be in given that unlike in 2013 it looks like our guys will get healthy and come back this year.

 

[The Brandon Five]

Horrible playcalling, stupid onside kick while up by 14, receiver's dropping passes and not consistently getting open, Brady's horrible interceptions, Special teams completely ****ting the bed, Offensive line getting beaten like a rented mule, inability to run the football.

And most importantly the lead for a bye and home field advantage has completely evaporated due to this lackluster performance. Also the injury bug can seriously eat a giant middle finger.

Shades of @Miami in 2013...

 

[dannydyn]

I don't see another game where something that flukey happens. The biggest challenge will be the Jets, who always play them close and will likely still be fighting for a playoff spot. The Brian Hoyer-led Texans and Titans don't scare me.

I’m sorry, but I don’t see anything fluky about last night’s loss, especially considering we were up 14-0 on these guys. There’s nothing fluky about a ****y/stupid call for a pooch punt instead of a standard kick-off. There’s nothing fluky about poor ST play failing to block a punt, there’s nothing fluky about TB throwing a pick into tight double coverage followed by the failure of the players to stop the return for a TD, there’s nothing fluky about another fade into the end zone (though I blame this one more on LaFell quitting on the route), there’s nothing fluky about allowing a kick return for a TD, there’s nothing fluky about the dropsies we saw last night, there’s nothing fluky about O-line being rattled like ragdolls by the 23rd ranked defense, there’s nothing fluky about failing to stop the run, there’s nothing fluky about Bradford looking like the second coming of Joe Montana, and MOST IMPORTANTLY – there’s nothing fluky about the 5hitty *** play-calling.

And just to prove that there was nothing fluky about last night's performance: the difference in playing levels between the point (before/after) where the Eagles went up 3 TDs on us, was night and day. Had they played for 60 minutes like they played during the last 5 minutes of the game, we wouldn't be having this discussion now. It's as if the team woke up during the last 5 minutes of the game, when it was already way too late.

In short it was a 5hit show of epic proportions. If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear I was watching a week 17 game in which we had already locked the #1 seed, and are just playing experiments with different monkey-clown playcalling. Absolutely embarrassing. I have no other words to describe last night’s circus performance.

As for Brian Hoyer and his Texans.... sure, maybe their offense is not prolific by any stretch, but if the lousy Eagles defense managed to get to Brady all night long, rest assure that JJ Watt et al, will have a field day. Damn Gronk better show up for this one, or else we're staring down at another loss.

 

[primetime]

I’m sorry, but I don’t see anything fluky about last night’s loss, especially considering we were up 14-0 on these guys. There’s nothing fluky about a ****y/stupid call for a pooch punt instead of a standard kick-off. There’s nothing fluky about poor ST play failing to block a punt, there’s nothing fluky about TB throwing a pick into tight double coverage and then failing to stop the return for a TD, there’s nothing fluky about another fade into the end zone (though I blame this one more on LaFell quitting on the route), there’s nothing fluky about allowing a kick return for a TD, there’s nothing fluky about the dropsies we saw last night, there’s nothing fluky about O-line being rattled like ragdolls by the 23rd ranked defense, there’s nothing fluky about failing to stop the run, there’s nothing fluky about Bradford looking like the second coming of Joe Montana, and MOST IMPORTANTLY – there’s nothing fluky about the 5hitty *** play-calling.


In short it was a 5hit show of epic proportions. If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear I was watching a week 17 game in which we had already locked the #1 seed, and are just playing experiments with different monkey-clown playcalling. Absolutely embarrassing. I have no other words to describe last night’s circus performance.

They've only allowed three return touchdowns all year, and all three of them were last night.

Brady has had exactly one multiple interception game all year, and it was last night.

The coaching staff missed a challenge that would have ended a drive that ultimately put the Eagles up by three scores.

They were missing their best non-quarterback offensive player, who is one of the most dominant players of all time. They were missing their second best offensive player. They were missing their best defensive player, and their second best defensive player was back on the field after a long layoff due to a mysterious illness that caused him to lose 20 lbs.

And yet they still had a 10.3% probability of winning after they recovered that fumble, after having had a 0% probability with half a quarter to play, down 3 scores. In other words, since those probabilities are based on history, in that scenario no other football team in history has managed to come back and win. And the Patriots had a chance.

It was a ****show. But that's not systemic, and if they were a bad team they would never have even been close. Losing the game might matter for playoff seeding, especially with games against the Jets and Texans left on the schedule. But what matters is getting to the playoffs, and the chance they miss the playoffs is extremely low. They aren't going to storm through the playoffs, but it's pretty clear to me that they have at least a 50/50 chance against any team in the league, especially when they're healthy, even with some wiggle room for mistakes.

 

[dannydyn]

They've only allowed three return touchdowns all year, and all three of them were last night.

Brady has had exactly one multiple interception game all year, and it was last night.

The coaching staff missed a challenge that would have ended a drive that ultimately put the Eagles up by three scores.

They were missing their best non-quarterback offensive player, who is one of the most dominant players of all time. They were missing their second best offensive player. They were missing their best defensive player, and their second best defensive player was back on the field after a long layoff due to a mysterious illness that caused him to lose 20 lbs.

And yet they still had a 10.3% probability of winning after they recovered that fumble, after having had a 0% probability with half a quarter to play, down 3 scores. In other words, since those probabilities are based on history, in that scenario no other football team in history has managed to come back and win. And the Patriots had a chance.

It was a ****show. But that's not systemic, and if they were a bad team they would never have even been close. Losing the game might matter for playoff seeding, especially with games against the Jets and Texans left on the schedule. But what matters is getting to the playoffs, and the chance they miss the playoffs is extremely low. They aren't going to storm through the playoffs, but it's pretty clear to me that they have at least a 50/50 chance against any team in the league, especially when they're healthy, even with some wiggle room for mistakes.

I'm sorry, to me a fluke is a bad officiating call, a fluke is the wind picking up momentum during a FG attempt just to swat the ball wide-right..... anything that is left to the coaches and players power is not a fluke - it's called bad coaching/playing. To me a fluke is something you have no control over.