Giving up in the First Half

[JayNM]

I share your anger and frustration BUT
if you look at this objectively- Every minute during the game should be considered equally in its importance. This is the attitude that should be instilled in his players.

BB with his strategy yesterday not only sent his team the message that he does not trust the offense- AT ALL but also that some parts of the game you can coast and not give 100% effort for 60 minutes.

Extremely un Belichek like. This is why I am 99% sure the Pats unfortunately will lose next week. The players on offense KNOW he does not trust their abilities and he does not expect them to play all out the whole game.

This is as if BB had a brain freeze and is such a losing mentality that it will be carried over into next game.

I know many will be offended that I dare to question BB"s strategy, because I am just a fan. But clearly BB IS actually human and can make huge mistakes.

My problem with the bolded part is two-fold:
1st - if that sentence is true (and it is) it makes giving up even more flagrant. Whatever time we were about to have on the second half (with presumably, says you, a better gameplan, confidence etc) WOULD NOT CHANGE. We would still get the ball first and, for lack of a better contrafactual, might as well have the same exact game happening.

The difference would be we didn't gave up almost 2 minutes for nothing.

2nd - The middle eight is where, statistically, the biggest change in winning percentage can occur. Is a fact, because of they way ball possession in handled. Mastering this is what made the Patriots with BB and TB so deadly.

We literally threw away years of reliable information sayingt this was a crucial moment a becaue "we didn't trust an offense" which is lead by the GoaT.

I can't defend that at all and agree with pretty much everything else really

 

[JayNM]

No excuse for not taking the time out and leaving 1:40 on the clock. If you run a play after that and it is unsuccessful, the Dolphins are not likely to immediately call a time out. You can then run it down to about a minute and throw on second down or run again etc. The bottom line is that even if you can't get a drive going, you are likely punting and pinning the Dolphins deep with about a minute to go in the half. And if you don't have the confidence in your defense to defend the field against the Dolphins for a minute, then you are just giving up.

He needs to read about stuff outside of twitter, it's making his brain rotten

 

[luuked]

I wonder if Josh thought the O could score at the end of the first half.

Did you ?

 

[skinnydog]

Did you ?

I did, they had just started to actually move the ball on the last 2 drives, so yeah.

 

[JayNM]

Did you ?

One drive before


two drives after

bb

 

[luuked]

No excuse for not taking the time out and leaving 1:40 on the clock. If you run a play after that and it is unsuccessful, the Dolphins are not likely to immediately call a time out. You can then run it down to about a minute and throw on second down or run again etc. The bottom line is that even if you can't get a drive going, you are likely punting and pinning the Dolphins deep with about a minute to go in the half. And if you don't have the confidence in your defense to defend the field against the Dolphins for a minute, then you are just giving up.

What ? In what world are you living ?

If they get a negative play against a offense that can't move the ball consistently of course they will call their TO.

Also more importantly and that is the key point here there is no difference between calling the TO at 1:40 or after the first successful play. At some point you will have a play where you don't call a TO and the time will tick down. That is the point of the criticism that I get the least.

 

[luuked]

I did, they had just started to actually move the ball on the last 2 drives, so yeah.

Except they didn't. They had a 50 yard lucky ball to Dorsett that gave them the field. They didn't move the ball at all in the first half.

 

[Doctor DDS]

The Roberts TD was in the 3rd quarter.

 

[luuked]

One drive before


two drives after

bb

One set up by a lucky 50 yard play and the other a trick play in the second half when they generally moved the ball better. Your point ?

We are not talking about the usual top 5 offense here.

 

[Kontradiction]

I see why they did it. The offense already had a pick 6, the receivers are the walking wounded, and Brady has an injured elbow. I get it. I don’t agree with it. With how bad/inept this offense has been, any opportunity to score points needs to be used to score points. And that was one hell of an opportunity. That flies in the face of how this team usually operates... even this season.

 

[JayNM]

One set up by a lucky 50 yard play and the other a trick play in the second half when they generally moved the ball better. Your point ?

We could've scored. We had done twice. already. And we did it later.

That's my point.

Also, kudos for not answering the long post, i wouldn't want to be destroyed too

 

[TomPatriot]

Did you ?

I thought it was possible but not a certainty.

I also agreed with BB’s decision to go for it on 4th and 2 in that 2009 Colts game so what do I know?

I didn’t like the way they coached this game or prepared their team. I thought Josh made good second half adjustments on offense. I don’t know what the D was doing in the second half.

 

[luuked]

Now, bc you are trying to get in field range with little time, you are throwing the ball or getting to the sideline so that you can stop the clock. NEITHER was in his mind when you draw up the middle. It's a run-out strategy.

A draw play with about 55 seconds left in your own half is a great call. Except Flores and O'Shea knew exactly what McDaniels would do in this situation. Most other teams would have played the pass hard. That's what you are missing here.

Gained some yardage throw passes. This is a 2 minute drill. We PRACTICE this HARD.

We practice everything hard and yet the offense looked like the most incompetent unit in the entire league in the first half. What is your point ?

Because we are throwing, we only lose some seconds on the clock. Therefore, by having more time, we could run more plays

Because we have yet another quick three and out the Dolphins have time for a drive with multiple TOs and about a minute left. Again why do you assume they suddenly would be able to move the ball via pass when they were not able for the entire half except for one deep play to Dorsett.

 

[luuked]

We could've scored. We had done twice. already. And we did it later.

That's my point.

Also, kudos for not answering the long post, i wouldn't want to be destroyed too

Or maybe Brady would have thrown another INT. Or maybe we would have had yet another quick three and out and been 3 down at half time. Why anyone would assume this garbage offense would be able to move the ball even 10 yards with the pass is absolutely absurd to me.

This situation is yet another beautiful Shibboleth that shows how shallow some people think. Thank god for that to know who not to take serious anymore.

 

[BradytoMosstoGronk]

I think its safe to say, no one really EXPECTED 7 in that final drive, but it sucks to see your team go Into halftime with all its timeouts in a game you needed to win. What if the offense wills it's way to a FG before halftime, and some semblance of confidence forms within the offense?

final score, you lost by 3... safe, conservative, whatever you call it, it sucks.

 

[JayNM]

I see why they did it. The offense already had a pick 6, the receivers are the walking wounded, and Brady has an injured elbow. I get it. I don’t agree with it. With how bad/inept this offense has been, any opportunity to score points needs to be used to score points. And that was one hell of an opportunity. That flies in the face of how this team usually operates... even this season.

Makes no logical sense to think this was a winning strategy.

Seriously, i think this also a tuning point for Flores... Think about it

The Pats are either:
- Too scared to play

- Too confident they can win later


It's disrespectful and dumb in every way you think about it

 

[XLIX]

The worst case scenario is giving the ball up and not going into half at even. You can disagree with the conservative approach thats fine but calling it idiotic or a ****up just shows your limited understanding of risk and how to evaluate your own team.

The offense did jack **** in the first half. They got one drive in an entire half of play based on a low percentage 50 yard play to Dorsett. The primary objective was to make sure the situation didn't get worse like it did against the Bills just a week ago.

If you were to actually stop being irrational and think the options through you'd see the logic in it but no we have to find some low hanging fruit to blame.

There is nothing bad about making sure you don't give another team a chance to score. It is the intelligent thing to do. Whether you call that coward or not doesn't matter. You always wanna play the right odds.

If you’re going to sit there and say the Patriots offense didn’t do jack ****, then you should also acknowledge that Miami’s offense was even worse up to that point of the game.

There are no guarantees, and I agree 100% with playing the odds. Given that NE could have gotten the ball back with 1:40 and 2 timeouts in decent field position, the odds were with NE. It is a situation where NE would be far more likely to score than Miami.

 

[JayNM]

Or maybe Brady would have thrown another INT. Or maybe we would have had yet another quick three and out and been 3 down at half time. Why anyone would assume this garbage offense would be able to move the ball even 10 yards with the pass is absolutely absurd to me.

This situation is yet another beautiful Shibboleth that shows how shallow some people think. Thank god for that to know who not to take serious anymore.

Im sorry. we must've been playing the 82 Bears defense. I mean, we cannot even move the ball against the INCREDIBLE Miami Defense, right?

-30th ranked defense in the league
-26th ranked passing D in the league
-27th ranked Rushing D in the league

With Eric Rowe and Nate Brooks, all very consisent and GREAT players.

Also, let's NOT look at SOME of the positive plays we had the game so far:

4 Yard Run
(10:45) NE 12-Brady 16th season starting 16 games, ties P. Manning for 2nd all-time (Favre 17). S.Michel right guard to NE 49 for 4 yards (T.Harris).

4 Yard Pass
(10:08) T.Brady pass short left to N.Harry to MIA 47 for 4 yards (A.Van Ginkel).

6 Yard Pass
(1:38) T.Brady pass short left to R.Burkhead to NE 31 for 6 yards (C.Munson).

14 Yard Run
(1:07) R.Burkhead right guard to NE 45 for 14 yards (A.Colbert, N.Needham).

14 Yard Pass
(15:00) (Shotgun) T.Brady pass short middle to J.Edelman to NE 49 for 14 yards (N.Needham).

Touchdown Patriots
(2:10) E.Roberts reported in as eligible. S.Michel left guard for 4 yards

8 Yard Run
(9:46) S.Michel left tackle to NE 42 for 8 yards (A.Van Ginkel)

14 Yard Run
(8:25) R.Burkhead left guard to MIA 26 for 14 yards (N.Brooks).

18 Yard Pass
(7:14) T.Brady pass deep left to N.Harry pushed ob at MIA 7 for 18 yards (N.Brooks).


I mean, you are right Luuked. It was IMPOSSIBLE to move the chains, right bb?

 

[skinnydog]

Except they didn't. They had a 50 yard lucky ball to Dorsett that gave them the field. They didn't move the ball at all in the first half.

Uh, Dorsett was open, wide open. The pass from Brady was mediocre, but it was not a lucky play.

 

[luuked]

If you’re going to sit there and say the Patriots offense didn’t do jack ****, then you should also acknowledge that Miami’s offense was even worse up to that point of the game.

That is true as well. But giving them 0% odds of scoring and going into half at worst at a draw is better than the alternative. Who is to say they didn't have another trick play ready to get into FG range ?