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Rather than go through the normal prodigious detailed review of today's game, time constraints and the fact that I'd rather sleep than bore you with my musings, I thought I'd just offer some disjointed thoughts about this terribly disappointing game.
1. The offense sucked over all. It constantly kicked itself in the ass with some mind numbingly dumb plays that killed drive or created turnovers that constantly put the defense into bad positions. . 4 turnovers are one thing, but there were also FOUR fumbles, of which we recovered 3 just added to one stalled drive after another. And what made it even more frustrating was the fact that almost every drive featured a number of good plays that often moved the ball down the field only to see the drive get sidelined.
2. Think about this. You'd think on a day when the offense could only generate 12 points, Jake Baily would have to punt more than 3 times, and one of those was from Denver's 38. (and it was a good one)
3. Cam Ran the ball well and threw the ball terribly, at least in my impression. I don't think I saw a throw he made where he dropped back and set an threw the ball in rhythm. he looked completely out of sorts. His field vision seemed to have taken a step back this week.
4. As a former football coach I think what you saw on offense was the difference between one team that had the better part of 2 weeks of practices and one teams that had only one with Cam. I know there will be those among you who would say say, "well the Titans played great without practicing much when they went through their Covid maladies." Well their situation was a bit different. They had 3 practices and didn't have to deal with the same situation the Pats had on the OL. IMHO there were just too many changes to overcome all the adversity.
Football teams have to practices to be able to execute a game plan, ESPECIALLY teams like the Pats who happen to run a very complex offense where timing is so critical to its success. To expect the offense to look much better than it did was going to be wishfull thinking.
5. Even Joe Thuney killed a scoring drive with a bad snap. And when Joe Thuney makes a mistake its news.
I said to a friend that in a way the Pats caught a break when Elumaneur went down, because that moved Wynn back to LT where he played pretty well, but he sucked as a RG. After he allowed a deflection that killed a drive or caused the pick (I forget which) I started to looked closely at his play, and it wasn't good. I think it was because he was setting his feet as if he were on the end of the line rather than in the middle of things. For someone who constantly plays on the outside, things move a lot quicker on the inside. A lot more things coming at you, and it showed in his play. I'm sure he was very happy to get sent back to LT where he seemed to do much better.
The one bright side to all this was Frodholt finally got into a game and I thought played pretty well. I'm thinking it was the first time he got in a game, am I right about this.
Bottom line, the Pats have often had to make some changes to their OL moving a couple of players around and have generally had good success. Of course those were on weeks when they actually got together to practice those changes. At any rate, I don't want to see Wynn at G any time soon. You can't win them all.
6. Here are the things that pissed me off. (feel free to add your own)
a.ve been supportive of Bills trials when it come to finding impact WR's. But he HAS had success in finding TE's. So If I had Josh in a closed room with me, I'd have to ask. How come Denver could come into my stadium and make a TE who was active for the first time this season, in his first NFL game a major factor in their offensive plans (6 targets), while I don't think ANY TE of ours has had 6 targets for the last 2 years!!!!!!
Each week I see TE's that I've never heard of of who are just JAGS make plays for their team, while we seem to seem to just concede the TE routes to the defense with guys I believe are just as good as many of the guys who are making plays. Izzo had 3 catches for almost 40 yds. It was unfortunate that he fumbled one of them, but he was at least open AND caught the ball. And when are we going to see Asiassi get some targets. Wasn't he drafted as the "pass catching" TE. Well Josh we are five games into the season and this kid hasn't gotten a TARGET yet.
b it was also very frustrating to see the OTHER team's 6'4 WR making plays down field (84 yds), while our 6'4 WR was only targeted 2 and was thrown balls he had no chance to catch. Even if he hasn't lived up to his 1st round status, he's still a 6'4 inch target who has 4.5 speed and has proven he can catch the ball. Send him down the field and throw it to him damned it. If he's having trouble getting into his routes, then move him inside or use motion or bunches to free him up. This is beginning to piss me off.
c. I thought the defense played fairly well today. Only 3 drives deep into their territory, which is not horrid when your offense created 4 turnovers. However there is NO excuse for "the best secondary in the league" to give up a 36 yd play on third and 26. And I wouldn't want to be in the room when THAT play comes up with Bill doing the breakdown.
9. But overall, I thought the D did fairly well. However Cowarts absence was felt as was the loss of Butler during the game. Those loses were clearly evident in the run game. On the other hand, I thought Bentley had his best game since his rookie year. Still can't cover for sh!t, but he was very strong in the run game with 12 tackles.
10. Although the secondary gave up some plays, overall I thought the coverage was good, especially the man coverage. Those 2 picks by Jones and Jackson were awesome.
11. This team needs PRACTICE. They have the Niners coming off a very good win this week so their confidence will be high for the Jimmy G reunion game, It will be a good test. Pardon me, but I'll put aside my obituary of this season until I see what they do next week.
1. The offense sucked over all. It constantly kicked itself in the ass with some mind numbingly dumb plays that killed drive or created turnovers that constantly put the defense into bad positions. . 4 turnovers are one thing, but there were also FOUR fumbles, of which we recovered 3 just added to one stalled drive after another. And what made it even more frustrating was the fact that almost every drive featured a number of good plays that often moved the ball down the field only to see the drive get sidelined.
2. Think about this. You'd think on a day when the offense could only generate 12 points, Jake Baily would have to punt more than 3 times, and one of those was from Denver's 38. (and it was a good one)
3. Cam Ran the ball well and threw the ball terribly, at least in my impression. I don't think I saw a throw he made where he dropped back and set an threw the ball in rhythm. he looked completely out of sorts. His field vision seemed to have taken a step back this week.
4. As a former football coach I think what you saw on offense was the difference between one team that had the better part of 2 weeks of practices and one teams that had only one with Cam. I know there will be those among you who would say say, "well the Titans played great without practicing much when they went through their Covid maladies." Well their situation was a bit different. They had 3 practices and didn't have to deal with the same situation the Pats had on the OL. IMHO there were just too many changes to overcome all the adversity.
Football teams have to practices to be able to execute a game plan, ESPECIALLY teams like the Pats who happen to run a very complex offense where timing is so critical to its success. To expect the offense to look much better than it did was going to be wishfull thinking.
5. Even Joe Thuney killed a scoring drive with a bad snap. And when Joe Thuney makes a mistake its news.
I said to a friend that in a way the Pats caught a break when Elumaneur went down, because that moved Wynn back to LT where he played pretty well, but he sucked as a RG. After he allowed a deflection that killed a drive or caused the pick (I forget which) I started to looked closely at his play, and it wasn't good. I think it was because he was setting his feet as if he were on the end of the line rather than in the middle of things. For someone who constantly plays on the outside, things move a lot quicker on the inside. A lot more things coming at you, and it showed in his play. I'm sure he was very happy to get sent back to LT where he seemed to do much better.
The one bright side to all this was Frodholt finally got into a game and I thought played pretty well. I'm thinking it was the first time he got in a game, am I right about this.
Bottom line, the Pats have often had to make some changes to their OL moving a couple of players around and have generally had good success. Of course those were on weeks when they actually got together to practice those changes. At any rate, I don't want to see Wynn at G any time soon. You can't win them all.
6. Here are the things that pissed me off. (feel free to add your own)
a.ve been supportive of Bills trials when it come to finding impact WR's. But he HAS had success in finding TE's. So If I had Josh in a closed room with me, I'd have to ask. How come Denver could come into my stadium and make a TE who was active for the first time this season, in his first NFL game a major factor in their offensive plans (6 targets), while I don't think ANY TE of ours has had 6 targets for the last 2 years!!!!!!
Each week I see TE's that I've never heard of of who are just JAGS make plays for their team, while we seem to seem to just concede the TE routes to the defense with guys I believe are just as good as many of the guys who are making plays. Izzo had 3 catches for almost 40 yds. It was unfortunate that he fumbled one of them, but he was at least open AND caught the ball. And when are we going to see Asiassi get some targets. Wasn't he drafted as the "pass catching" TE. Well Josh we are five games into the season and this kid hasn't gotten a TARGET yet.
b it was also very frustrating to see the OTHER team's 6'4 WR making plays down field (84 yds), while our 6'4 WR was only targeted 2 and was thrown balls he had no chance to catch. Even if he hasn't lived up to his 1st round status, he's still a 6'4 inch target who has 4.5 speed and has proven he can catch the ball. Send him down the field and throw it to him damned it. If he's having trouble getting into his routes, then move him inside or use motion or bunches to free him up. This is beginning to piss me off.
c. I thought the defense played fairly well today. Only 3 drives deep into their territory, which is not horrid when your offense created 4 turnovers. However there is NO excuse for "the best secondary in the league" to give up a 36 yd play on third and 26. And I wouldn't want to be in the room when THAT play comes up with Bill doing the breakdown.
9. But overall, I thought the D did fairly well. However Cowarts absence was felt as was the loss of Butler during the game. Those loses were clearly evident in the run game. On the other hand, I thought Bentley had his best game since his rookie year. Still can't cover for sh!t, but he was very strong in the run game with 12 tackles.
10. Although the secondary gave up some plays, overall I thought the coverage was good, especially the man coverage. Those 2 picks by Jones and Jackson were awesome.
11. This team needs PRACTICE. They have the Niners coming off a very good win this week so their confidence will be high for the Jimmy G reunion game, It will be a good test. Pardon me, but I'll put aside my obituary of this season until I see what they do next week.
