Post Game Thread Week 7 Pats @ Steelers

[SVN]

Pitts had a very good defensive game plan unlike what **** lebeau wouldve done. They forced long drives and blount to minimize the TE and brady. Those gazillion 3rd down conversion attempts caught up to the pats with the drops and penalties. Eventually that one 2 min drive with gronk taking over , sealed the game.
Defensively, Bell is just amazing so we cant complain much .For the most part they stopped the big play except the 50 yarder to brown.
Feel for Gost. Hopefully he gets his issues resolved and i believe he will. The game thread had one post where someone completely trashed him and went back as far as letting adam Vinateri go as big mistake by BB :-D.

 

[The Gr8est]

Pitts had a very good defensive game plan unlike what **** lebeau wouldve done. They forced long drives and blount to minimize the TE and brady. Those gazillion 3rd down conversion attempts caught up to the pats with the drops and penalties. Eventually that one 2 min drive with gronk taking over , sealed the game.
Defensively, Bell is just amazing so we cant complain much .For the most part they stopped the big play except the 50 yarder to brown.
Feel for Gost. Hopefully he gets his issues resolved and i believe he will. The game thread had one post where someone completely trashed him and went back as far as letting adam Vinateri go as big mistake by BB :-D.

I highlighted your big mistake.

Avoid that.

 

[Ring 6]

I'm not really sure why there is consternation about the OL. On the road, against Pittsburgh, the running game produced 140 yards (4.8 avg), allowed zero sacks in 26 pass attempts, and allowed only two tackles for loss.

I don't know how you get much better than that performance.

Holding penalties hurt

 

[neali]

BTW, I really don't get why people are ****ting on the defense. The defense didn't commit two turnovers on the Patriots side of the field. The defense wasn't the side of the ball dropping 3rd down passes from Brady, either.

It is very difficult for the defense to commit a turnover.

 

[Deus Irae]

It is very difficult for the defense to commit a turnover.

Indeed it is.

 

[jmt57]

 

[long distance]

Team currently has about $9m+ in space, according to Miguel, btw.

Now, assuming you make the move after the Buffalo game (bye week), it would be for 8 games.
Thomas' base for 2016 is $8.3m
Half of that would be $4.15m
Then you'd be cutting a player in order to make space for Thomas, unless an injury opened a spot, in which case you'd be adding $4.05m instead of a lesser number. Either way, you'd be looking at less than $4m difference, not $5m, leaving the Patriots with $5m+ in cap space, with half the season left to play.

Thanks, I forgot he would be paid half already.

Still don't see it happening. Dante was our Joe this year. His #1 mantra for this year was glueing. Seems he doesn't want to change pieces. He did it only in cases of injuries from the first day of TC.
Then .. OT is not a need at the moment + there would be competition for JT (see below) + 2nd pick (if real) would be steep considering NE slim 2017 draft capital and two years of 10M cap hit + it would mean one of Pats own big FA's less ..

That said Id be kind of happy to be wrong on this one ..
_

Here a little something on possibilities and competition re. possible Joe Thomas trade.

Trade winds blow regarding Joe Thomas . . . again

 

[moejr]

What was Pitts conversion rate on 3rd down?

 

[thecore762]

And what from BB's drafting history shows that he'll invest such a high pick in a "pure pass rusher"?

He gets pass rushers in later rounds and via mid-round pick trades (such as Sheard, Vrabel). Now he will draft MULTI-talented DL with 1st round picks, but they have to do a lot well not just rush the passer.

You forget he drafted Chandler Jones in the 1st round?

 

[Canuck]

First Pittsburg and Denver are the 2 teams most often mentioned as who we have to beat to get to the SB. Pittsburg is a good team even without Big Ben just as Patriots are still a good team without Brady. The game plan would not be the same for Big Ben as it was for Landry. Mostly our troubles were self inflicted. Two turnovers and two passes that were dropped on 3rd down conversion put an end to 4 drives. Any one of those stalled drives if continued could have resulted in more points. Thankfully the turnovers did not result in points. The Pats still put up 27 points against the Steelers defense and could have scored more.

Steeler took away our TE's but it left Edelman open underneath and the OL run blocking made the run game an effective weapon against that defense. Steelers defense is fast, athletic and tackle well. Brady had a hard time finding open receivers. I thought the OL did a good job of pass blocking.

I thought the defense played well. They did a good job stopping Bell from being a big factor. On obvious pass plays for the most part they dropped 8 into coverage and rushed 3. Don't see that defense too often other then Hail Mary passing situations. Landry had all day to pass but his execution is what you expect from a back-up QB. Most people predicted that with Landry, the Steelers would score in the teens. He was who we thought he was (Ty Dennis Green). People are upset over the lack of a pass rush but how can you argue with success when their game plan works. Again alot of those yards and completions came at the end of the game when the Patriots were up 2 scores. The 2nd half the Steelers had 2 field goals. This is going to drive but we have no sacks and pass rush crowd nuts

Special teams struggled. Allen struggled with punts, Ghost struggled with PATs, kicking short on KO's was ineffective. Punt team struggled both returning kicks and downing punts before they entered the end zone.

All in all it wasn't a stellar performance. Still I think we win even if Big Ben was playing QB.

For those who think Ghost is having troubles, should watch the Sea-Ari game that ended in a 6-6 tie.

 

[Brewskies]

Mistakes Mistakes Mistakes

We won

 

[jmt57]

What was Pitts conversion rate on 3rd down?

Pittsburgh was 5 for 16 on third down (plus 1 for 2 on fourth).

To put that in perspective that 31.25% rate would rank 31st for an offense, and third best for a defense entering this week.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

Can make it essentially a 4 game lead with a win next week. This team is nowhere near its peak yet - I like that.

Next week's game has massive ramifications for the entire second half of the season.
A win and the Patriots can start filling out the paperwork to order hats and t shirts (just don't mail 'em out yet). Save an incredible run by Buff or Miami coupled with the Patriots bordering on a second half collapse -- scenarios that are unlikely to occur simultaneously -- a win in Buff makes the division crown probably a 90+% likelihood. The second half schedule: Patriots have 5 games against teams with losing records(as of right now). Only one game against a team with a winning record is an away game (Denver in Denver). OTOH the Bills have Seattle in Seattle, Cincy in Cincy, Oakland in Oakland.

A loss next week still leaves the Patriots with a division edge(in effect a 1/2 game), however, the path to the division crown is FAR cloudier.

A week 8 game against big mouth Rex with this much riding on it is a definite bonus for fans. The Patriots winning along with the big mouth having to kiss BB's rings is the jackpot.

 

[Fencer]

It is very difficult for the defense to commit a turnover.

True. But the Chargers once intercepted a ball on 4th down and then fumbled it back to the Patriots.

 

[Fencer]

Next week's game has massive ramifications for the entire second half of the season.
A win and the Patriots can start filling out the paperwork to order hats and t shirts (just don't mail 'em out yet). Save an incredible run by Buff or Miami coupled with the Patriots bordering on a second half collapse -- scenarios that are unlikely to occur simultaneously -- a win in Buff makes the division crown probably a 90+% likelihood. The second half schedule: Patriots have 5 games against teams with losing records(as of right now). Only one game against a team with a winning record is an away game (Denver in Denver). OTOH the Bills have Seattle in Seattle, Cincy in Cincy, Oakland in Oakland.

A loss next week still leaves the Patriots with a division edge(in effect a 1/2 game), however, the path to the division crown is FAR cloudier.

A week 8 game against big mouth Rex with this much riding on it is a definite bonus for fans. The Patriots winning along with the big mouth having to kiss BB's rings is the jackpot.

Home field, of course, is not as locked up. Indeed, if the Broncos win out from here, they WILL have home field advantage. (That's because they're only 1 game behind the Pats now, and 1 of the wins would be head-to-head.)

 

[meatface]

Pittsburgh was 5 for 16 on third down (plus 1 for 2 on fourth).

To put that in perspective that 31.25% rate would rank 31st for an offense, and third best for a defense entering this week.

Which team is lower than 31% on 3rd downs?

 

[PittPatriot]

It's hilarious man.

Pats only allow 5 of 16 3rd down conversions (31% which is damn good) and ****tsburgh was 1-4 in the red zone and they only allowed 16 points but let's complain about the pass rush when they were dropping 8 most of the game.

The big bad Vikings defense that all the usual doom and gloomers were saying how they wish Pats D played like, goes on the road after a bye week and ****s the bed and allows 21 points

Actually, the Vikings gave up 13 points (8 of the 21 were in a KR for TD and 2pt conversion).
Since you are comparing, the Eagles are ranked #4 in PPG and we played against Landry Jones.
I think we have a solid defense, though.

 

[AtomicDawg]

Home field, of course, is not as locked up. Indeed, if the Broncos win out from here, they WILL have home field advantage. (That's because they're only 1 game behind the Pats now, and 1 of the wins would be head-to-head.)

And their schedule is relatively easy on paper sans the Pats game, so that may be for HFA once it comes. Just like last year. Sigh.

 

[AtomicDawg]

Mutual respect. This is what the game should be about.

 

[ViperGTS]

Mutual respect. This is what the game should be about.

Stuff like this shows me two things:

That there is a super majority of NFL players who respect Tom as he does in return. They are the true players.

Then there are the super few (Hello Carson!) who are so jealous and indignant that they cannot wait to take shots at him.


Glad AB is in group one!