Malcolm Butler Mega Thread

[IllegalContact]

How about the obvious from the beginning

Gilmore on Jefferey
Butler on Agholor
Rowe on Smith

So mind numbingly simple.....that is until you decide to cripple yourself

DUH.......freaking DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH

How f.cking stupid could they be?

Don’t answer, rhetorical question

 

[IllegalContact]

Pats were terrible stopping the run too. Just awful game plan/execution all around on defense

Severely compounded by the galactically stupid idea: hey! Let’s cripple ourselves!!!

 

[luuked]

Focus on stopping the run, you are daring them to throw. Having them throw - you need the best players in position. Time after time the Pats DBs were either out matched or just in the plain old wrong position.

It was a poor game plan for a woefully overmatched secondary.

People keep bringing up the secondary but they were not the problem from what I have seen. The coverage was usually tight and passes needed to be pretty precise. I also disagree that they were often in the wrong position. At least not on the majority of third downs.

The weakest link was the front 7 in general and he LBs more specifically..

 

[Soliel]

B.B. stole a title from me

 

[IllegalContact]

Most detailed speculation I've seen, although that doesn't mean the writer is closer to the truth than others. Even if this was the game plan, shouldn't it have been scrapped by halftime? Or by the end of the 3rd quarter?

It’s a crock of sh.t......Rob Ninkovich is baffled by it, but this doofus knows?

Pfffffft

 

[Ring 6]

I think there are a number of things happening here that are getting lumped together, mangled and confused in the general discussion.

1) Belichick has historically come up with unique approaches to teams that present unique challenges. The rams and bills games are well known. In that bills playoff season he played 3 totally different and unique schemes in the playoffs. He played dome base in the 80s against run and shoot. In this game agaimsyva bakanced offense that attacks the whole field laterally and vertically he decided to play a big nickel base with a safety heavy dime. It’s not hard to understand the logic.
2) Malcolm butler or Eric Rowe wasn’t so much a scheme decision as a personell one. We have heard enough reports that butler stank in practice to understand what was behind that
3) the front 7 was beaten and humiliated. We were run over embarrassingly. The pass rush was impotent. Their ol dominated as much as any I’ve seen in a long time. The scheme you use in the secondary is pretty meaningless if you front 7 is butch slapped all day.
4) Eric Lee, Ricky Jean Francois, Lawrence Guy, the corpse of James Harrison, Elandon Roberts, marquise flowers. Those are players that were out there for a lot of snaps. Those are also players who don’t belong out there for a lot of snaps on any team, and mostly have been cast off. When you won by scheme covering deficient players sometimes a team comes along and figures out how to isolate ave exploit them.

 

[Soliel]

Jk. Couldn’t help myself

 

[Ring 6]

B.B. stole a title from me

You still have 5 others you did nothing to get. No, you don’t because all you do is cheer for a team and then think you own their success.

 

[IllegalContact]

People keep bringing up the secondary but they were not the problem from what I have seen. The coverage was usually tight and passes needed to be pretty precise. I also disagree that they were often in the wrong position. At least not on the majority of third downs.

The weakest link was the front 7 in general and he LBs more specifically..

Jefferey made some catches that Rowe contested.....agholor and Ertz were wide open

 

[Soliel]

You still have 5 others you did nothing to get. No, you don’t because all you do is cheer for a team and then think you own their success.

No. They owed me this title and the freaks decided not to play butler just to piss me off

 

[Soliel]

On top
Of that I think your a millennial

 

[Pape]

People keep bringing up the secondary but they were not the problem from what I have seen. The coverage was usually tight and passes needed to be pretty precise. I also disagree that they were often in the wrong position. At least not on the majority of third downs.

The weakest link was the front 7 in general and he LBs more specifically..

Thats the whole point though, If you game plan to neutralize the run, then you had better make sure your secondary is up to the task. They were not.

And you're right - both the line and the linebackers were bad. Combine that with the poor secondary play, you get what we saw, the iggles moving the ball with impunity, and basically scoring at will.

 

[IllegalContact]

Focus on stopping the run, you are daring them to throw. Having them throw - you need the best players in position. Time after time the Pats DBs were either out matched or just in the plain old wrong position.

It was a poor game plan for a woefully overmatched secondary.

I’m still trying to wrap my brain around the start of the game

Gilmore on Smith
Rowe on Jefferey
Chung on Agholor

WTF

 

[PittPatriot]

Butler not playing AT ALL wasnt due to scheme.

People are getting things all twisted around here.

The relevance of scheme is when people say their was a domino effect. If butler was truly in the mix, based upon the scheme the game plan was built on he would have played maybe 15-20 snaps. So scheme says it was Rowe or butler not a domino effect.

My opinion, based upon EVERYTHING we saw or heard was that butler struggled badly in practice and wasn’t getting the gane plan. That led to the decision to go into the gane with him at cb3. That happened a few days before the game.
It’s very possible he could have split time with rowe or that we used more regular nickel I’d he was available than we did with Bademosi.
But at some point something else happened. I’m sure not practicing with the 1s all week created a reaction in butler hence the rumors of attitude and fighting with coaches.
There are also rumors of weed or curfew which on top of demotion and a negative attitude toward it mean even more.
Then there was what we saw on tv. A guy who looked liked he was melting down.

For all those reasons as an example we can’t put this guy in the field if there is any way to avoid it comes into play.

Finally if you decided it was bad for the team to play him why would you later just throw him in there? I don’t get that logic.

I find myself agreeing with your post, but I have a couple questions:
If poor performance in practice led to MB being demoted to CB3...and the supposed fighting, weed, curfew, or whatever we don't know led to him being demoted to what CB who will not play, then 1. why did come out for the kick off and ST unit and 2. why was he even active?

If what @robertweathers and you suggest is true (he broke a core BB principle, etc) then why even let him be available. Why not stick to your principles and play without him, win or lose. People say, "well, what if Rowe or Gilmore get hurt?" Well, put in a linebacker or Amendola or Burkhead at DB. Do whatever you have to do to prove and uphold your principles but don't go back to Butler. Thus, many of us on the board feel that personal feelings and principles resulted in us losing trophy#6.

 

[PatriotsNumero1Fan]

I’m still trying to wrap my brain around the start of the game

Gilmore on Smith
Rowe on Jefferey
Chung on Agholor

WTF

Agholor was the MVP in the second half. It was one of the weirdest brain farts by BB.

 

[Pape]

Rowe on Jefferey

I think i just threw up in my mouth thinking about that. Stuff of nightmares right there.

 

[aluminum seats]

Aluminum seats

Yes?

 

[IcyPatriot]

Ray Lewis killed 2 guys ...

 

[luuked]

Agholor was the MVP in the second half. It was one of the weirdest brain farts by BB.

It really was Ertz. Agholor did nothing special. Ertz was key on all third downs either by converting or creating space.

 

[DaBruinz]

That's effectively what BB did. How does this help anyone's argument who is advocating that BB was justified for what he did to the Patriot's defense in the Super Bowl?

No. It's not, effectively, what he did because Butler was dressed and we'd likely have seen him in the event of an injury..