21 saves 51

[K. Dog]

A play that doesn't seem to be mentioned much in SBLI was Malcolm Butler's tackle of Freeman at the Falcons' first possession. If Butler doesn't make that tackle, Freeman scores.

Recall that in a later play, Blount was caught on mic'd up saying something like "it's hard to tackle Freeman on the open field" after he'd got some long run.

 

[Wheelman]

Although I'm glad Butler tackled Freeman. I'm pretty sure McCourty would have tackled Freeman before getting into the endzone.

 

[Betterthanmost]

Anything in that first half only sets up the stage for an ultimate comeback. I know this belittles Bulter's tackle but even if we don't stop him here and he scores, I am thinking the outcome would have been the same and here is why. I believe the outcome of this game was predicated on endurance. With a TOP of 40:31 to 23:27, the odds of the Falcons D keeping us out was precipitously decreasing as time went on. We were just fighting the clock in the fought quarter and their D was gassed.
So he could have scored, it only would have kept their D longer on the field to get tired more quickly. With that line of thinking, Brady may not have thrown the Int,...
We won this game because we run hills and prepared for a a long game. Our opponents were more interested in rising up and shot their load too quickly.

 

[supafly]

Can't even imagine how geeked we'd be if Butler were somehow extended.

Part of me wishes that we'd never heard the latest rumors of 11m a year + incentives, so that it would either come out of the blue, or I could've stayed thinking that he was long gone after this season. Now, I'm just salivating at the thought of keeping him for an extended time. I think some overrate him a bit, but I love his physicality and the way that he's progressed.

 

[Doctor DDS]

I thought the bigger tackle on Freeman was by Roberts on the screen pass in the 4th. Freeman had a blocker in front of him and if Roberts was unable to bring him down am not sure anyone could have.

 

[DarrylS]

OTOH if Freeman did score, the Patriots may have risen to the task earlier.. who knows.

What it does show is the lack of speed for the Patriots and why they made some changes in this area..

What is difficult for a PatFan to tell if the Falcons had a great blocking scheme, or were Chung, Ryan, Ninkovich, Harmon and Hightower out of position??..

 

[Kontradiction]

OTOH if Freeman did score, the Patriots may have risen to the task earlier.. who knows.

What it does show is the lack of speed for the Patriots and why they made some changes in this area..

What is difficult for a PatFan to tell if the Falcons had a great blocking scheme, or were Chung, Ryan, Ninkovich, Harmon and Hightower out of position??..

Not with the way the Falcons were generating pressure up the B-gap in the first half. The Patriots needed to adjust to that before rising to the task on the offensive end.

 

[K. Dog]

I've never seen it clearly explained exactly what the Patriots adjusted in the second half to stop the run game.

 

[PatsGuy]

The title of this thread was cryptic enough I clicked it open. Is this an example of "click bait"?

 

[Bruins29]

The title of this thread was cryptic enough I clicked it open. Is this an example of "click bait"?

Someone needs his attention

 

[tasmlab]

A play that doesn't seem to be mentioned much in SBLI was Malcolm Butler's tackle of Freeman at the Falcons' first possession. If Butler doesn't make that tackle, Freeman scores.

Recall that in a later play, Blount was caught on mic'd up saying something like "it's hard to tackle Freeman on the open field" after he'd got some long run.

Freeman really made some great plays. That highlight reel makes him look like a super star.

 

[Kontradiction]

I've never seen it clearly explained exactly what the Patriots adjusted in the second half to stop the run game.

The safeties. In the first half, they played back more. In the second half, both McCourty and Chung were regularly coming downfield more because the man coverage was holding up in the back end using one deep safety who was usually shading to Julio's side of the field. This allowed the Patriots to dedicate an extra man in the box on obvious running downs. When you add in the fact that Flowers and Brown suddenly started dominating their match-ups in the second half, you get the key to how the Pats contained the Falcons' run game in the second half. Well, that and the Falcons only ran it a total of 9 times in that half as well. Hard to fault them for that, though, since the ground game had clearly become ineffective at that point.

 

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

Now, I'm just salivating at the thought of keeping him for an extended time. I think some overrate him a bit, but I love his physicality and the way that he's progressed.

Butler is a great corner, but what's even better is how he's the designated Antonio Brown stopper. The Pats usually play Butler in man coverage on a team's #2 WR while bracketing the #1 guy with safety help. Yet against Pittsburgh this switches up.

It's as if Belichick knows Pittsburgh is in the path to a title, so he wants his AB stopper to ensure the path is clear.

Regards,
Chris

 

[n1997y]

Butler is a great corner, but what's even better is how he's the designated Antonio Brown stopper. The Pats usually play Butler in man coverage on a team's #2 WR while bracketing the #1 guy with safety help. Yet against Pittsburgh this switches up.

It's as if Belichick knows Pittsburgh is in the path to a title, so he wants his AB stopper to ensure the path is clear.

Regards,
Chris

More like Belichick knows pizza will provide the incentive for Butler to rise to the occasion.

 

[jah]

I thought David Harris' car set on fire and Butler dragged him out.

 

[JarOfMayo51]

I thought the bigger tackle on Freeman was by Roberts on the screen pass in the 4th. Freeman had a blocker in front of him and if Roberts was unable to bring him down am not sure anyone could have.

Harmon looked like he was wearing blocks of concrete for shoes on that play lol

 

[JarOfMayo51]

I've never seen it clearly explained exactly what the Patriots adjusted in the second half to stop the run game.

I don't have the stats handy but I recall reading that if you take out the 2 big runs, the Falcons had fairly pedestrian rushing numbers

Obviously that's cherry picking to ignore 2 big runs, but those were outliers in the game

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

Can't even imagine how geeked we'd be if Butler were somehow extended.

Part of me wishes that we'd never heard the latest rumors of 11m a year + incentives, so that it would either come out of the blue, or I could've stayed thinking that he was long gone after this season. Now, I'm just salivating at the thought of keeping him for an extended time. I think some overrate him a bit, but I love his physicality and the way that he's progressed.

Malcolm will always be a beloved Super Bowl hero here, forever.

And we need him too.