My biggest takeaway from the Ravens game....

[brdmaverick]

Trust me, as skeptical as I was about the defense I was thrilled to see them have such a great game (with solid tackling), but my greatest reassurance was with the offense and how effective they looked.

Last year the Pats looked like world beaters for 10 weeks. I think some even may have compared them to the 2007 team, but the wheels came off late in the easons with injuries to Edelman and Amendola. After all having the mentality of "there is no defense that can stop us" it quickly changed to "how are we going to score" as the offense became a shell of itself.

With us facing injuries again with Gronk and Amendola I couldn't help but think "oh no, is this going to happen again?" Sure, victories over SF and NYJ didn't offer much of a test and/or reassurance that things were ok, so here come the Ravens. What will our offense do to their defense?

It wasn't just that they scored points and racked up yards they looked good doing it. I didn't get the sense that any of their plays were lucky. If anything, they could have executed better if Jules hung onto the ball (even though he is prone to a drop each game even this was more than usual for him).

Bottom line, it was good to see the Pats offense looking like their dominant selves. While Gronk is a huge loss, the supporting cast looks to be stepping up more than the supporting cast did last year. Blount being effective running the ball only helps matters, too.

 

[aluminum seats]

Trust me, as skeptical as I was about the defense I was thrilled to see them have such a great game (with solid tackling), but my greatest reassurance was with the offense and how effective they looked.

Last year the Pats looked like world beaters for 10 weeks. I think some even may have compared them to the 2007 team, but the wheels came off late in the easons with injuries to Edelman and Amendola. After all having the mentality of "there is no defense that can stop us" it quickly changed to "how are we going to score" as the offense became a shell of itself.

With us facing injuries again with Gronk and Amendola I couldn't help but think "oh no, is this going to happen again?" Sure, victories over SF and NYJ didn't offer much of a test and/or reassurance that things were ok, so here come the Ravens. What will our offense do to their defense?

It wasn't just that they scored points and racked up yards they looked good doing it. I didn't get the sense that any of their plays were lucky. If anything, they could have executed better if Jules hung onto the ball (even though he is prone to a drop each game even this was more than usual for him).

Bottom line, it was good to see the Pats offense looking like their dominant selves. While Gronk is a huge loss, the supporting cast looks to be stepping up more than the supporting cast did last year. Blount being effective running the ball only helps matters, too.

Fingers crossed, they're coming together when they should.

Brady just needs to stop locking in on Edelman.

 

[mosi]

My other thoughts were that no matter how bad they look against bad teams, they will come to play against the good teams.

And second, the Ravens are over-rated. Dallas got close to 400 yards of total offense with 300 passing against them - and 27 first downs to boot.


There are no dominant defensive teams this year. Denver has a really good D but I would say the Pats are better this year than last year going into the Denver game and Denver is worse this year than last year.

 

[Tony2046]

Fingers crossed, they're coming together when they should.

Brady just needs to stop locking in on Edelman.

I thought that to but wonder if that's part of the game plan. Minus the drops that is.

Do the plays to Edelman setup Mitchell and Hogan later in the game?

 

[aluminum seats]

I thought that to but wonder if that's part of the game plan. Minus the drops that is.

Do the plays to Edelman setup Mitchell and Hogan later in the game?

It's a fair question and I've a similar thought, but I don't think that's the case.

 

[RobertWeathers]

And second, the Ravens are over-rated. Dallas got close to 400 yards of total offense with 300 passing against them - and 27 first downs to boot.

You make it sounds like Dallas has a crappy offense. Going into that game DAL had been averaging 29ppg and 412yds of offense.

 

[ALP]

last year was a lot of factors, including Lewis

 

[Patstopia]

For me, I see Edelman as the reason the wheels on the wagon keep rolling. His foot is still a factor in his play, he feet seems less quick, still as tough as they come.

Lewis is in the same boat, the leg is healed but it's not back to normal. His cuts aren't as sharp.

I like that Mitchell is slowly gaining the trust of Brady. I see him open a lot but unless the play is to him, he doesn't look his way. I see Mitchell one on one with his hand up but Brady either doesn't see or still doesn't trust him enough.

Bennett is still hurting, toughing it out but it has slowed him down.

Hogan was a good addition also.

Bennett and Hogan were brought in because of the losses we suffer last year with Gronk And Edelman, Amendola. Now we have better depth, we can keep going forward thru the injuries.

I expect the Pats to pick up Hester if they can, we can't let Jones be back there until he gets his head on straight. It's painful watching someone lose their confidence right in front of your eyes. It was an edge of the seat moment every kickoff.

 

[nabwong]

I agree. The first thing I took from that game was that we have 3 awesome healthy RBs. I don't think there is a team in the NFL right now that can match up with our RBs, in terms of the flexibility in splitting them out. Hell, even blount is catching passes.

 

[mgteich]

My biggest takeaway is that we have the best coaches and coordinators in the NFL. IMHO, the only blemish was have C Jones out there as a punt returner.

The coordinators didn't have a good, solid game that allowed Brady to easily win. They had an awesome game.

 

[oldrover]

My biggest takeaway is that this team is good enough to beat a longtime nemesis and serious playoff contender even while gift-wrapping them 14 points.

That's pretty damn good.

 

[Kontradiction]

Fingers crossed, they're coming together when they should.

Brady just needs to stop locking in on Edelman.

He's not locking onto Edelman. Edelman will, a lot of times, be his first read (especially with Gronk on the shelf now) and as Edelman gets open quicker than most of the receivers in the NFL, that's where the ball will tend to go.

 

[mosi]

You make it sounds like Dallas has a crappy offense. Going into that game DAL had been averaging 29ppg and 412yds of offense.

Yeah, you are right. Dak Prescott is the same as Brady.

 

[mihap]

The difference between last year and this year is health of Oline. They are playing together from week 1 and pats are able to run the ball. Which was impossible last two years.

 

[Tony2046]

It's a fair question and I've a similar thought, but I don't think that's the case.

@Ian , @Ross12 , @ashley1992 - Can I post screenshots of the game? If not please delete them.


I was watching the All 22. (Just got it because I had to know )

On the deep ball in which Edelman stopped running Weddle is watching Brady's eyes. He ends up in a completely empty part of the field. Weddle wanted to cut off the underneath route. Brady looked him into no man's land.



There's a couple of other plays in which Brady moves Weddle by looking him off.

This is the Hogan TD. Brady moves Weddle towards Edelman with a quick look to his left. Weddle bites. Hogan blows by Elam (who slipped but after Hogan blew by him) and Weddle was out of the picture.




They matched up Edelman against multiple coverages which got different looks from the Ravens. With the exception of smith Edelman was pretty much able to get open against most coverage. Dropped balls plus a batted ball in the red zone hurt but I think they got to see what they wanted from the coverage.

Interestingly the Hogan TD had Elam drop down into coverage leaving Weddle to cover the top but he was too busy watching Brady.

Edit: I might be wrong that Weddle bit on the Edelman route. He may have bit on the fake hand off to blount. Or both. Not sure. He jumps forward twice. Once on the fake hand off and again towards Edelman.

 

[aluminum seats]

He's not locking onto Edelman. Edelman will, a lot of times, be his first read (especially with Gronk on the shelf now) and as Edelman gets open quicker than most of the receivers in the NFL, that's where the ball will tend to go.

The numbers suggest it's excessive still. More than twice as many targets as anyone else and a sub-50% completion rate.

 

[aluminum seats]

@Ian , @Ross12 , @ashley1992 - Can I post photos of the game? If not please delete them.


I was watching the All 22. (Just got it because I had to know )

In the deep ball in which Edelman stopped running Weddle is watching Brady's eyes. He ends up in a part in a completely empty part of the field. Weddle wanted to cut off the underneath route. Brady looked him into no man's land.



There's a couple of other plays in which Brady moves Weddle by looking him off.

This is the Hogan TD. Brady moves Weddle towards Edelman with a quick look to his left. Weddle bites. Hogan blows by Elam (who slipped but after Hogan blew by him) and Weddle was out of the picture.




They matched up Edelman against multiple coverages which got different looks from the Ravens. With the exception of smith Edelman was pretty much able to get open against most coverage. Dropped balls plus a batted ball in the red zone

Interestingly the Hogan TD had Elam drop down into coverage leaving Weddle to cover the top but he was too busy watching Brady.

Good post, interesting topic. (On my phone and text badly so that's all for now. )

 

[Kontradiction]

The numbers suggest it's excessive still. More than twice as many targets as anyone else and a sub-50% completion rate.

Stats without context are pretty much useless. As I said, Edelman is going to be Brady's primary read with Gronk gone on most plays, similar to how it was with Brown and Welker. Because he gets open quicker than most other WR's in the league, he's going to get the ball. Brady is still spreading the ball around but Gronk is gone now which is where a large percentage of Edelman's targets would have gone.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

The difference between last year and this year is health of Oline. They are playing together from week 1 and pats are able to run the ball. Which was impossible last two years.

Let's put this in perspective . . .

2016 OL snaps:
Thuney 902 (99.9%)
Andrews 898
Cannon 818
Solder 816
Mason 804
Fleming 254
Karras 102
Waddle 1

2015 snaps:
Kline 865 (77.4%)
Vollmer 816
Andrews 765
Mason 737
Cannon 624
Jackson 607
Stork 491
Fleming 460
Solder 229
Waddle 37
Wendell 13

 

[Buchanty]

The difference between last year and this year is health of Oline. They are playing together from week 1 and pats are able to run the ball. Which was impossible last two years.

The O-Line is perhaps the most important difference. Last year's O-line had disintegrated by this time last year, and it was not only injuries, it was a lack of cohesion and execution. And then in the AFCC Stork kept lifting his head pre-snap presenting a tell, which Von Miller keyed upon. It was bad enough to send DeGuigliermo packing. Which, of course, led to the biggest difference maker, Scarnecchia, returning.