Idle thoughts - the "good loss" edition

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

reminder and reply to all the people chirping today in the media about AFCE division foes being responsible for everything the patriots ever accomplish:

Even after this loss, Brady’s career winning percentage vs. the AFC North (27-7, 0.794) is almost exactly equal to that vs. the AFC East (85-21, 0.802)

 

[ctpatsfan1]

idle thoughts reaction, Ravens edition.

1. No, there are no good losses. However, there are no good 19-0 rumblings before the Super Bowl is over. I mean, if we were 18-0 again, there would be inevitable ones... so I guess it's nice to have that pipe dream in the rear view. But yeah, losing is never good.

2. Dang. Guys who have been in our receiving corps this year would CRUSH my 2012 fantasy league. What's that you say? Irrelevant? Eh well. At least they didn't cost us much mon...SON OF A B@#$*&^!!!!

3. Good morning, sunshine, this is what the good part of the NFL looks like.

4. Lamar Jackson is smart to want to be a pocket passer, because running quarterbacks break. So, good mindset for the announcers to assure us he has. Definitely an outstanding QB in the style they're using him in, which is manifestly not a screw-everything, use-him-as-a-runningback fashion. One to watch, and one for NFL defenses to absorb, gameplan for, and spit out... in most cases. Don't order the annointing oil for a few more games

5. Too small a sample size to say "this defense is nothing special." But they now have 2 weeks to come back firing and showing us that they are. That's the test of a great D (I've been singing this song for a while...) Not how they look statistically through the feast games, how they look after some slightly more scary opponents have had their shots.

5a. Do great defenses allow 53-yard scampers? Imunno. Maybe "that one time." Definitely not on the regular.

5b. Until they get back on the field and shut us up, say snarky **** rookie fans say. "More like the boogermen" would be utterly appropriate. It's either true, or prove it's not. And yes I do like the relative anonymity that online fanhood offers.

6. Any time BB was supposed to respond to a zero blitz and it worked, that's what you do the Pats on a zero blitz. CHECKMATE mothaf****. Now if what the Pats did against a zero blitz NEVER worked, who really won those downs... Um, yeah, that's bullsh1t. But say that to a drunk fan of an opposing team (and then tell them we all know the refs will give us the games that count). Remember, it's one loss. We still live in everybody's head rent free year-round.

7. Ken's much better at this. But daylight savings somehow made me wake up at like 4:30

Respectfully disagree with your point #1. Losing is never fun but it can be good in an educational manner. Losing is nothing more than failing at something and some of the biggest failures have led to the greatest successes, if utilized to learn from the failure and to improve. You should never want to lose (well I guess if you are "Tanking for Tua" then maybe) but you should always strive to win and inevitably when you do lose (i.e. fail) learn/grow from it and improve yourself overall. Just my two cents.

 

[203Pat]

reminder and reply to all the people chirping today in the media about AFCE division foes being responsible for everything the patriots ever accomplish:

Even after this loss, Brady’s career winning percentage vs. the AFC North (27-7, 0.794) is almost exactly equal to that vs. the AFC East (85-21, 0.802)

The “they only win because they’re in the AFC East” thing is so tired. The Patriots win against everyone in every division. On top of being 27-7 against the AFC North Brady is 26-7 against the AFC South, 22-12 against the AFC West, 15-3 against the NFC East, 17-3 against the NFC North, 12-4 against the NFC South, and 10-5 against the NFC West (with a bonus 1-0 against the NFC Central and 1-0 against the NFC Central).

 

[Hyped]

Comments:

a.) Losing sucks, but it was our first loss in 322 days.....and our 13 game winning streak was 7th longest ALL TIME in NFL history.

b.) We were lucky to get back into it before half time with two turnovers....and at the same time we got screwed by two timely penalties that would have changed the complexion of the game.

c.) We only ran it about 15 times last night. Yeah, part of that was the up tempo game plan and playing from behind...but a critical issue is us doing nothing on the ground on FIRST down, IMO. We need to be able to pick up 4 yards every time on 1st down to set up 2nd and 6....

d.) By a similar nature, our D was terrible on first downs last night setting up way too many 2nd/3rd and shorts. We need to play better on first down to set up long downs.

 

[goheels22002]

Now we know how you beat the Patriots - you run a high-speed option offense that includes rushing plays called for your quarterback. And you hope the Patriots make lots of mistakes and turnovers.

The Patriots had a tough win against mobile QB Josh Allen in Buffalo, as well. But looking around the NFL there are very few teams that could pull off what the Ravens did last night. Maybe the Texans with Deshaun Watson or Russell Wilson in Seattle if they wanted to game plan for that and risk Wilson's health.

Maybe I'm too accustomed to cringing every time Brady starts to run the ball (or now when he sneaks it), but I don't think Lamar Jackson is going to stay healthy very long. He's got great awareness in space, but he reminded me of RG3 last evening heading side to side in the option and then turning upfield into the unknown. All it takes is a safety or a linebacker arriving from behind at the same point to wipe him out.

The Ravens problem is, when they keep him in the pocket and ask him to be a throw-first QB, they get beat the way they lost to the Chargers in the playoffs. Last night's approach is successful, but so risky.

 

[NG Pats Fan]

Now we know how you beat the Patriots - you run a high-speed option offense that includes rushing plays called for your quarterback. And you hope the Patriots make lots of mistakes and turnovers.

The Patriots had a tough win against mobile QB Josh Allen in Buffalo, as well. But looking around the NFL there are very few teams that could pull off what the Ravens did last night. Maybe the Texans with Deshaun Watson or Russell Wilson in Seattle if they wanted to game plan for that and risk Wilson's health.

Maybe I'm too accustomed to cringing every time Brady starts to run the ball (or now when he sneaks it), but I don't think Lamar Jackson is going to stay healthy very long. He's got great awareness in space, but he reminded me of RG3 last evening heading side to side in the option and then turning upfield into the unknown. All it takes is a safety or a linebacker arriving from behind at the same point to wipe him out.

The Ravens problem is, when they keep him in the pocket and ask him to be a throw-first QB, they get beat the way they lost to the Chargers in the playoffs. Last night's approach is successful, but so risky.

Come on Lamar Jackson is a way better QB than RG

Perhaps compare him to Russell Wilson instead?

 

[NYCPATS4LIFE]

Love our defense, defense will be fine. Short and long term. Just one bad game.

Really worried about our offense long term when Brady retires or leaves. Severe lack of talent.

Well it’s gonna be growing pains after he leaves but let’s see what harry is. He should start seeing a lot of snaps starting with the eagles. You take him in the first round you have to play him.

 

[NG Pats Fan]

Well it’s gonna be growing pains after he leaves but let’s see what harry is. He should start seeing a lot of snaps starting with the eagles. You take him in the first round you have to play him.

Especially when 2nd and 3rd round rookie wideouts are going off for other teams

 

[Soliel]

Come on Lamar Jackson is a way better QB than RG

Perhaps compare him to Russell Wilson instead?

He’s not as good as RGIII

 

[Mack Herron]

Losing can be educational. Also indicates that we were outplayed. The first may not be sufficient to overcome the second. Time will tell.

 

[pencilneckgeek]

Good post Ken. One point of disagreement: While the Ravens' offense is difficult to defend because it is different from everything else, it is at its core, a power running game that should hold-up well as the season goes on. Those are some big, strong linemen, and they have a host of lead and wham blockers that will help them grind out drive and control the clock. In this age of smaller, faster defenses, that will probably get them far enough to lose in Foxboro in January. I think the Pats' coaches will have a much better game plan and the players a much better idea of what to expect, and that will make the difference.

I think the Pats gave up on the run too readily. They were facing lots of dime defenses, and Michel was gaining 6 yards more often than 2 or less. They certainly needed to run more when they were inside the 10. The lack of a big target showed-up big time in the red zone. Maybe Harry will make a difference there, but I think they need to change-up their play calling when JE is being bracketed like that. Giving-up on Michel for making a bad read on a pass play does more harm than a missed read. The hurry-up with him in the game to run, pass block, or get out in a pattern or on a screen is much more versatile and looked super-effective last night. If a single missed pass a game is the cost of having your otherwise best offense on the field, that's a sacrifice that Brady and the coaches are going to have to make.

 

[goheels22002]

Come on Lamar Jackson is a way better QB than RG

Perhaps compare him to Russell Wilson instead?

I did compare the Ravens approach to Russell Wilson at the beginning of my post. I don't agree on RGIII. He was among the most poorly coached young QB talents in NFL history. He had extraordinary skills when he came into the league. He reminded me of Randall Cunningham.

It's interesting that you bring up Wilson who is an effective but cautious running QB. I hope Lamar Jackson develops that sensibility as he matures.

 

[pencilneckgeek]

There was one screen and the play got blown up immediately.

There were at least two excellent screen passes - one to Sony and one to White.

He got his knee blown up in preseason last year and then got turf toe this season. Both of those things are things you can't really plan for as they can happen to anyone.

It was the achilles, note the knee, but I agree. Add to that, the turf toe is a likely compensation issue for limited ankle mobility, so the two are not unrelated. What he needed was time to heal properly. He's had it, and soon will be a welcome replacement for Newhouse, who is about as agile as we have a right to expect just about any 330-pound man to be, which is nowhere near agile enough for one of the 32 starting LT jobs in the NFL .

 

[Bonzo]

I don't dispute that some good can come from being served up a steaming slice of humble pie midway through the season...

But I'm actually pretty disappointed with the way this one shook out. I'd been thinking for a long time: "No way we make it to 16-0. Too much inexperience / too little talent in critical places: there is at least one loss on the schedule that we can attribute to Gunner coughing up a couple punts, or the O-line getting slaughtered (which kinda did happen here)", or something like that, basically regardless of opponent. I still think one or two of those L's remain on the schedule. But this one had more to do with shoddy RZ execution and our best, most-experienced players turning the ball over, killing promising drives in the process.

 

[DarrylS]

Dorsett was playing hurt last night but we give a Healthy Rookie WR who should be familiar one snap and not dress a First Round WR.

66 snaps hurt??? What about Meyers??

 

[DaBronxPats14]

Can someone explain that intentional grounding to me? I still am confused by it.

If it involves TB, goodell* calls from park ave* to refs and they immediately throw a flag. Got It?

 

[Bonzo]

If it involves TB, goodell* calls from park ave* to refs and they immediately throw a flag. Got It?

Honestly, that looked to me like retaliation for Brady's grumbling about PI.

 

[luuked]

66 snaps hurt??? What about Meyers??

He wasnt playing hurt all game, at least not substantially more than he was entering the game. He missed one snap because of what looked like an injury early.

Meyers is most probably not there yet in terms of no huddle use.

 

[pencilneckgeek]

One other thing: I have no issue with the Brady interception. All Sanu had to do was fall down on Thomas instead of running past him, and it would have been a really good punt. That's better than throwing the ball away on 3rd and 10. He needs to be more aware than that.

 

[Mack Herron]

He wasnt playing hurt all game, at least not substantially more than he was entering the game. He missed one snap because of what looked like an injury early.

Meyers is most probably not there yet in terms of no huddle use.

Not playing Meyers when going no huddle puzzles me. Edelman was obviously gassed. I would think Meyers has practiced enough to know the calls. Should further temper expectations for Harry.