Post Game Thread- Pats at Lions

[mcmurtry86]

I’ve got hope the offense will get better, work in progress.

I’m not so optimistic about the defense. I’m not sure it can be fixed and no offense in this league can recover from what I saw last night. Maybe The Saints, I don’t know.

How does the defense get fixed? It can’t just be Flowersand Chung....

I don't think it can get worse along the DL so I'd bench Brown, Shelton, Clayborn and K.Davis and try literally anyone else. Valentine off the PS maybe. Scour the waiver wire and unsigned veteran free agents. Yes, it's that desperate up front. Until the DL improves, the team is going nowhere and I have no confidence that a trio of 1st round busts turned career mediocrities and an undrafted 2nd year player are the solution. Give Wise more playing time. Get Butler more involved (though he's been part of the problem at times). Watching Brown get shoved out of every running lane by mediocre guards is maddening.

 

[mcmurtry86]

No they didn't look capable last season. In those first four games they didn't look like they could stop ANYONE. Gilmore looked like a huge huge bust. Their LBs couldn't cover anyone (sound familiar there?). They couldn't get off the field on third down. They were getting shredded in every way imaginable. Three of those first four games were at home. The difference is that the offense looked good in those four games, scoring 27, 36, 36, and 30 points. This year, the offense has been anemic. 27, 20, and 10 points scored. Pretty ugly.

Edelman and Gordon will help immensely. The defense will improve. Maybe they won't ever be better than average this year, but they'll improve.

SOMETHING has to be done about the LBs though. That's a major problem without much of a solution in sight. Trade???

Edelman and Gordon might help. A 32 year old coming off a torn ACL and a drug addict who hasn't played more than 5 games in a year since 2013 are hardly sure things.

 

[TheRainMaker]

The offense will stabilize with the additions of Gordon and Edelman. The defense just flat out sucks and the coaching staff will have to coach around it again. They'll beat the little sisters of the poor and their PPG ranking will improve leading the mindless around here to pimp their rankings as if they're somehow improved but they'll eventually get exposed again because you can only coach around personnel issues for so long until they come back and bite you. That's the reality of this league.

I was thinking the same thing. We may get a tease of “improvement” and then they get exposed sometime in the playoffs. I just don’t see it happening this year, especially if Miami comes in and beats them.

But what if Edelman isn’t the same like Hightower?

I have a bad feeling Gordon only lasts a few weeks.

 

[TheRainMaker]

I don't think it can get worse along the DL so I'd bench Brown, Shelton, Clayborn and K.Davis and try literally anyone else. Valentine off the PS maybe. Scour the waiver wire and unsigned veteran free agents. Yes, it's that desperate up front. Until the DL improves, the team is going nowhere and I have no confidence that a trio of 1st round busts turned career mediocrities and an undrafted 2nd year player are the solution. Give Wise more playing time. Get Butler more involved (though he's been part of the problem at times). Watching Brown get shoved out of every running lane by mediocre guards is maddening.

@Triumph’s hate of Malcolm Brown may be justified. He’s been awful.

 

[PatsfanTN]

And what was with the force feeding of Michel? I like the kid but why?

 

[Kontradiction]

I was thinking the same thing. We may get a tease of “improvement” and then they get exposed sometime in the playoffs. I just don’t see it happening this year, especially if Miami comes in and beats them.

But what if Edelman isn’t the same like Hightower?

I have a bad feeling Gordon only lasts a few weeks.

Unfortunately that's a real possibility. He's on the other side of 30 and is coming off an ACL. He also hasn't played in well over a year. That said, if there is anyone that could come back and tear it up, it's him. I just hope he survives the season because he's going to get a TON of targets.

 

[mcmurtry86]

I was thinking the same thing. We may get a tease of “improvement” and then they get exposed sometime in the playoffs. I just don’t see it happening this year, especially if Miami comes in and beats them.

But what if Edelman isn’t the same like Hightower?

I have a bad feeling Gordon only lasts a few weeks.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

No they didn't look capable last season. In those first four games they didn't look like they could stop ANYONE.

As someone posted earlier either in this thread or maybe in the Hightower thread, through three games this defense has actually allowed 18 fewer points than last year's, and only 4 more first downs and only around 100 more yards.

The big difference has been on offense, which has scored 42 fewer points and something like 400 fewer passing yards.

 

[condon84]

It's nuts that Belichick wanted to trade Gronk. Without Gronk, this would be the worst Pats offense in the Belichik era.

 

[iapatsfan]

Jordan Richards was a wasted pick, Tavon Wilson was a wasted pick, Ras-IR-Dowling was a wasted pick.

This dudes played two games in the NFL, and is still coming back to full health.

A RB in the first was a wasted pick when your defense has so little talent

 

[RobertWeathers]

After what Gronk pulled in the offseason, I find it incredible people think BB is stupid for trying to trade Gronk.

 

[PatsfanTN]

As someone posted earlier either in this thread or maybe in the Hightower thread, through three games this defense has actually allowed 18 fewer points than last year's, and only 4 more first downs and only around 100 more yards.

The big difference has been on offense, which has scored 42 fewer points and something like 400 fewer passing yards.

The problem is this: they CAN NOT get off the field after 3rd down. This is keeping the offense on the bench for a longggg time. No chance of getting into a rhythm. What was the time of possession vs the other teams in the last two games. That’s the problem.

 

[iapatsfan]

Improved, sure, no doubt.

But the line has been okay and given Brady time to throw.

Problem is he has no one to throw it too

Cooks would clearly remedy that.

Brady threw for 500 yds in the Superbowl and lost. The lack of speed/ talent on D is the issue.

 

[iapatsfan]

Let's forget offense or defense for a second...is there a team in the NFL with less young talent to be excited about than the 2018 NE Patriots? Buffalo maybe?

 

[iapatsfan]

And what was with the force feeding of Michel? I like the kid but why?

Just attempting to see if he can beat NFL defenders to the edge...He can't.

His relative lack of athleticism and explosion fits right in with this team.

 

[PatsfanTN]

Let's forget offense or defense for a second...is there a team in the NFL with less young talent to be excited about than the 2018 NE Patriots? Buffalo maybe?

Josh Allen looked ok yesterday

 

[Gronk]

It's nuts that Belichick wanted to trade Gronk. Without Gronk, this would be the worst Pats offense in the Belichik era.

Even with Gronk....

It’s the worst offense in the Belichick era. Maybe no one could have known Jules would be suspended, but we did know he was coming off an ACL injury. Signing Amendola initially was a decision that took a beating here for years - more about the $$ amount than the player, ok - but NOT re-signing him this year given the circumstances at the WR position may be the single stupidest decision this team has made in some time. It’s not Cooks that Brady is missing.

 

[iapatsfan]

Josh Allen looked ok yesterday

That's why I said maybe. If I were a Bills fan, I would probably have more excitement about the prospects of Allen than any young Patriots player.

 

[KDPPatsfan85]

Ok, I saw this and laughed...

 

[Todd Bradley]

Brady threw for 500 yds in the Superbowl and lost. The lack of speed/ talent on D is the issue.

No one’s saying it isn’t.

The problem is, the offense is just as big of an issue currently as the defense, in case you haven’t been watching.

They scored 10 points against the Lions and Brady had no one to throw the ball to.

You can add prime Lawerence Taylor and Deion Sanders to this defense and that still doesn’t remedy the issues of the opposite side of the ball.