Post Game Thread- Pats at Lions

[JetFan79]

well sounds like we played as bad as we could’ve done.. how bad were we?!

Maybe this will help sum it up.

I felt like crap after the Jets lost to the Browns.

I don't feel that bad anymore.

 

[Vindicate]

Tom Brady says he wants more James White, so does he want less Sony Michel?
This Brady guy gets it.

For what possible reason could they be forcing it to Michel so much? Pats haven't had much restraint in holding someone back, regardless of their possible potential, if there's someone else who makes more sense/works harder/etc. What's the hold up on that philosophy now?

I'm sure someone can contend this point with the whole Butler fiasco, but that dodges the trend and is an outlier. I hope. Haha.

On a separate note, if Gordon does make some production for this offense (and I mean, like, even mid-tier production) and Edleman comes back all nice and shiney, that will cure many, many offensive woes. I feel like we've seen a time where Dola - who we all love and miss - was thrusted into a WR1/2 role and just vanished (Or maybe I'm remembering it wrong, I think it was 2015 though). We cannot expect people like Hogan and Dorsett to produce in the 1/2 role.

Feel free to correct me on that Dola claim, though. I somewhat forget. Either way, I stand by my point.

 

[Nordberg]

It's probably crazy to say, but it almost feels like Bill is tanking the roster to chase Brady out of here. Since Kraft won't let Brady go and Belichick wants to prove he can do it without Brady, I have to wonder. Almost trading Gronk? Almost causing Brady to retire? Belichick is either fading or he is making moves to get the team good in 2021.

This roster us so bad that you might actually be on to something.

 

[Boomer B]

I thought Brady has all the answers to the test?

With the receivers Brady has right now it’s like taking a calculus test without a calculator or a driving test without a car.

 

[Peachhead]

Memo to BB: Hand over the personnel reigns to Caserio or whoever. Completely. Depth is supposed to be our hallmark. The O and especially D falling apart after missing a couple players on D (one a former UDFA no less) and one WR shows our depth and drafting leave much to be desired.

Memo to Josh McD: Michel looked damn good running in the A and B gaps, and looked like crap running wide. Plan accordingly. Accentuate your players' strengths.

Memo to Brian Flores: More Bentley and less E. Roberts. And teach your backup DBs how to hand off/pick up WRs better.

Memo to Brady: If you're going to throw to WRs & TEs being tightly covered, OK sometimes you don't have a choice. But throw to the guy being tightly covered by one defender instead of the guy being tightly covered by two defenders. Regardless of who is who. Everyone gets paid.

Memo to Sony Michel: The idea on wide runs is to be faster to the edge than the guys in the other uniforms. A little more urgency is called for in those situations. Oh, and put in more time with the jugs machine.

I apologize for the pedantic and sarcastic tone. But I'm in a mood.

 

[ViperGTS]

In the U.K so was like half 1 in the morning

You didn’t miss much. Here’s the recap.

Nobody except Gronk could get separation so Brady couldn’t find anyone open. Replays showed this multiple times.

The defense couldn’t stop a nosebleed. In fact the Lions had the ball for 40 minutes. The Pats 20.

The Pats that looked good : Bentley, Wise, Gilmore, Brady, Gronk, White. Everyone else was average or bad.

That sums it up. Abysmal.

 

[Snooky97]

You didn’t miss much. Here’s the recap.

Nobody except Gronk could get separation so Brady couldn’t find anyone open. Replays showed this multiple times.

The defense couldn’t stop a nosebleed. In fact the Lions had the ball for 40 minutes. The Pats 20.

The Pats that looked good : Bentley, Wise, Gilmore, Brady, Gronk, White. Everyone else was average or bad.

That sums it up. Abysmal.

Oh ****ing dear... that’s worrying to say the least.

We’re the lions good or were we really awful?

 

[Joker]

How bad was it Snooky?..it was so bad, half the chicken little population here are now capons...and the other half are starring on the MickeyD's value meal menu...4 CL's for a buck!..

 

[Boomer B]

Oh ****ing dear... that’s worrying to say the least.

We’re the lions good or were we really awful?

We played like a steaming bag of dog sh*t.

They ran the ball down our throats. Their line dominated ours. RB was getting 5 yds with ease. When they wanted to pass, we couldn’t generate much pass rush, and Stafford had lots of time to make his throws.

On O we didn’t create holes in the running game and our receivers are the worst this leagues seen in a very long time. They doubled Gronk and no one else could get open.

We need to dig in and scrape a win out next week and then hopefully the O can get back on track with Edelman and Gordon.

 

[ViperGTS]

Oh ****ing dear... that’s worrying to say the least.

We’re the lions good or were we really awful?

Nothing the Lions did was special in my opinion. The Pats DL was getting blown off the ball, the LBs were either under or overpursuing, couldn’t shed blocks and then if by chance they got it right...they couldn’t tackle. So many missed tackles.

The Lions hadn’t had a 100 yard rusher in 5 years until tonight. It was a failure at all levels.

 

[lancerman]

I think some of you should cool it with Gordon as the messiah talk. The Browns used to think that too. It’s just as likely he’s not on the team in a couple weeks as it is that he contributes a whole lot. And honestly, who freaking knows what the middle ground is.

 

[TomPatriot]

Too much “thinking” and not enough reacting.

 

[supafly]

This team isn’t doomed by any means. If they can tough out a gritty win at home next weekend versus Miami, they’ll only be one game behind and sitting at 2-2, which is the record that some here predicted in the extended preseason/month of September, sans Edelman.

That said, as it stands right now, at least through the first three games, we may have the crappiest group of receivers in the league. Aside from acting as an adequate kick returner, Patterson is a complete joke. In his defense, I don’t know that they’re doing their best to get him the ball in space, but he’s certainly not anything of a viable option in terms of throwing the ball downfield.

Dorsett may be a WR4 or something (somewhere), but he pretty much sucks, too. If the game is on the line, does anyone feel confident about Philip Dorsett making a crucial catch? I sure don’t. I don’t GAF about his former first round draft status. That means nothing at this point. If anything, it drives home the idea that he’s simply not very good. These guys make Doug Gabriel and Reche Caldwell look like all pros. I seriously felt more confident about Kenbrell Thompkins, and I knew that he sucked, too.

Hogan is fine here as a WR3, maybe showing flashes in the WR2 role with the supporting cast that is needed for him to excel, but anything he provides will almost certainly be lost right now. He’s pretty much a waste with the current group around him—at least how he’s being utilized.

All that aside, the first thing they need to do this morning is call Orleans Darkwa and address the running game. Until this team gets a real running game, they are playing one-handed.

 

[supafly]

I think some of you should cool it with Gordon as the messiah talk. The Browns used to think that too. It’s just as likely he’s not on the team in a couple weeks as it is that he contributes a whole lot. And honestly, who freaking knows what the middle ground is.

While I agree with you to some extent, Gordon doesn’t have to do much to improve this offense. At the very least, he can help to draw/shift coverage, which should create opportunities in other areas. Hitting him with a couple quick passes with defenders giving him an automatic 5-10 yard cushion would go a long way towards making a positive impact. Yes, the playbook and scheme are hard to pick up, but they should be able to create a couple of opportunities (per half) for him to keep the defense honest.

 

[carmelo15]

The obvious solution here is to just identify as 3-0 team

If body parts and chromosomes don’t determine a gender, then who’s to say your wins and losses determine your record

On our way to 16-0 boys

Hahahaha

 

[lancerman]

I’m not super worried. The offensive line gave Brady time, nobody was open in the WR Corp. You can fix that with more creative play calling, we still have strength with our RB’s ability to catch out of the back field and Edelman will change a lot. We just have no margin for error of injuries however. This team probably can’t hanfle another “Gronk or Edelman injury” the same way we did in 2015, 2016, and 2017. We really need both on the field to make this work. I also think we might have given up on Matthews a bit too early. I would have probably waited on him a bit to see if he could contribute once he healed up.

On defense, a lot of the issues are the same as the ones last year. Personal being off assignment in the secondary and the pass rush not gelling (we actually have been getting some pressure, just not consistent, our run defense needs to change fast though. Brown is becoming a liability there.

Also this team has just shown it struggles early. 2014 it looked worse imo. Last year the defense looked historically bad at this time. 2015 and 2016 were a little different because the Patriots came out with something to prove with Deflategate. But this isn’t anything new.

My biggest reservation is we took a big step back in our approach to the secondary. Finally in 2012/2013 Belichick got sick of getting torched late in game like they did from 09-11 and he picked up Talib, then he decided to get Revis and Browner. Then it feels like we got complacent on Butler. Now Gilmore is our only strength in the secondary with McCourty and Chung aging.

Also yes there is merit to the idea that drafting since 2014 has sucked. We haven’t backfillef important positions. In my mind, Flowers has been the only standout. Brown is showing to be an incomplete player, Rivers hasn’t contributed yet, Wynn is out, and now we are forcing a banged up Michel to make plays to compensate for our WR issues. The flip side is would you rather have paid Amendola, Cooks and Lewis a fortune to stay? Idk.

Either way this is far from dire and everyone needs to take a breath. In 2014 our defensive line was getting mauled, our offensive line was paper thin and gave Brady no time, Gronk was struggling to return from injury and we didn’t know how much back to form he would get, and Brady was coming off his worst season and not playing so hot. We won the Super Bowl that year. In 2017, our defense looked historically bad and we went to the Super Bowl and lost a one score game. The doom and gloom is premature

 

[lancerman]

While I agree with you to some extent, Gordon doesn’t have to do much to improve this offense. At the very least, he can help to draw/shift coverage, which should create opportunities in other areas. Hitting him with a couple quick passes with defenders giving him an automatic 5-10 yard cushion would go a long way towards making a positive impact. Yes, the playbook and scheme are hard to pick up, but they should be able to create a couple of opportunities (per half) for him to keep the defense honest.

Gordon is one screw up from being banned. He’s played 10 games in the past 4 seasons. A team that was 1-15 and 0-16 got fed up with him and traded him and the market gave back next to nothing.

There’s way too many question marks here to think he’s the difference maker. There’s no reason to think he’s not another Decker who is just coming in as a throw crap on the wall and hope it sticks. And it’s not very encouraging to see people here talk about Gordon the way Browns fans did.

 

[MainePatsFan26]

Unfortunately no bright spots tonight and I’m the ultimate optimist.....but Brady’s last year here (most likely I feel..BB too) is not going to end well.....when u struggle this HARD against one of WORST defenses in the league....it is disheartening. Pats defense is absolutely awful...time for a reboot...what a wake up call

I wanted to get one last Super Bowl with BB and Brady. But if this season is the beginning of the downward slope, I hope we just gut the roster and coaching staff at the end of the season. I don't see how this team can get another Super Bowl win with the recent poor drafts and superstars on the decline. To get decent playmakers without a huge cap hit, we need high draft picks. I'd rather press the reset button now than roll the dice with a disgruntled 42 year old quarterback and a defense who couldn't stop the Little Giants.

 

[supafly]

Gordon is one screw up from being banned. He’s played 10 games in the past 4 seasons. A team that was 1-15 and 0-16 got fed up with him and traded him and the market gave back next to nothing.

There’s way too many question marks here to think he’s the difference maker. There’s no reason to think he’s not another Decker who is just coming in as a throw crap on the wall and hope it sticks. And it’s not very encouraging to see people here talk about Gordon the way Browns fans did.

Sure, but he’s different in the sense that he can actually make opposing defenses fear him, and that’s something that guys like Decker, Britt, etc just cannot command.

In other words, he should be able to help a lot more than any of those other examples, even if his job is to act as a decoy. Of course, for this to happen, they’d have to get him the ball a couple/few times, but he tends to get a pretty decent cushion from opposing DBs. They should be able to develop some type of simplistic scheme to catch a few balls. Just having the dude line up and run down the field should improve the current situation.

 

[Arialgg]

I was on a international flight during the game- we had the game, but the WiFi was a joke, so I couldn’t join all my peeps on the GDT. I really needed support though- my god.
I have concerns. We might have one of the worst receiving corps in the league right now. Seriously, was it just me or could NO ONE get open?
The defense...no words.
I’m very confused as to what Belichick is doing right now. The team has little fight,passion, intensity...it’s chaos. I feel like I don’t even recognize this team.
Obviously, Edelman & JG will bring something more to the O,& we were missing Chung & Flowers, but the issue seems greater than this.