Anyone else stoked for the matchup against Brady and the Bucs?

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Mods, please shut this thread down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sincerely,
moosekill, patsgofor4, JMC00, MAC10, Wozzy, and DaBruinz

 

[Ian]

This thread is also back open - since it's obviously worthy of discussion. Let's just also try and remember we do have a game this weekend against the Saints

 

[SHOWTIME15]

I keep seeing the score Bucs 45 Pats 21 in my head. Wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the case. Maybe the Pats hang tough for a while, like maybe get the score to 28-21, then the Bucs get some late scores.

Hope I’m wrong, would love to see the Pats hand the Bucs their 1st loss of the year, but I don’t think the Pat’s offense will be in sync in time for that game. BTW, I see the Pats scoring 21 on 3 td passes from Mac, and I could see Mac playing relatively well in that game. I hope his first breakout game will be next week though. Needs to get some huge confidence going into the Bucs game.

I think the Rams are more likely (have a better chance) to beat the Bucs than the Pats. The way to beat Tampa is to do what Dallas did - dominate the TOP and make no mistakes. You need a good QB and 3 good receivers to exploit their secondary. However, I don't think NE has that. We have a rookie QB plus ok receivers. It's not going to work.

 

[Ian]

I think the Rams are more likely (have a better chance) to beat the Bucs than the Pats. The way to beat Tampa is to do what Dallas did - dominate the TOP and make no mistakes. You need a good QB and 3 good receivers to exploit their secondary. However, I don't think NE has that. We have a rookie QB plus ok receivers. It's not going to work.

I agree with @oldrover potentially equate this game to the Rams regular season match-up in 2001. They'll probably lose this one because it's happening too early in the year, but in the event they're able to make it back and face them again, I like Mac's chances in the second match-up to pull off the upset having had a good look at them while also knowing what he'll need to do differently. So the outcome of this game won't bother me. A 7-time SB Champ (and knowing his background) beating a rookie QB shouldn't shock anyone.

I'm happy for Brady and wish him the best, he made this region great for two decades. But after a lot of fruitless searches I do finally feel like they have "the next guy", so I'm excited to go down this road and see where it takes us going forward.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

I'd feel better with Gilmore playing. Front 7 needs to improve for us to have a shot.

All about winning in the trenches, that’s the only way to beat Brady over the years. Pressure with 4, sustain drives, win the TO battle. That is the ‘blueprint ‘ but a lot easier said than done.

If it’s a shootout we’re effed. When you look at the teams who traditionally gave him / us trouble, it’s been the ravens/giants / broncos style of play. None scored a ton of points but did the above. Shorten the game and throw him out of rhythm.

 

[Steve102]

No - I'll be mostly avoiding the forum for the week up until the game.

The fun factor of seeing Brady and Bill on opposite sidelines will almost certainly be avalanched by pop-up stories and innuendos, so I'm not looking forward to it.

It's a regular season game between teams that rarely cross paths. The amount of "legacy deciding" is as asanine as the Packers/Patriots deciding the GOAT status a few years ago.

If I ignore almost all the noise and just tune in right before kickoff, I'll enjoy watching it. It will be a big test for the Patriots, but I think it will come down to the end.

I’m not looking forward to it. I’m enjoying watching Brady still dominating and the Patriots mini rebuild with Mac. I suspect the Pats won’t be far enough along and might take a beating. Then all the Belichick haters and Negative Nancies will flood this place (and the media) like an invading army dropping “I told you so” bombs and firing off “Belichick is overrated” missiles. It could be unbearable.

I will 100% immerse myself in non-football podcasts for that week. No NFL football. It's gonna suck, and Brady is going to be at another level. Bill's going to be at his infuriating best/worst.

It's just a week 4 non-conference game. They don't hand out trophies for winning week 4. That's a good team over there, but we are just trying to get better. We have a long way to go to get to our ultimate goals. We are on to Houston.

I would think I won't be on here much, either.

 

[Marko]

I wish it was later in the season... that said, I think it will go the way of this game from 2001... a well-fought battle that comes up short...

St. Louis Rams at New England Patriots - November 18th, 2001 | Pro-Football-Reference.com

St. Louis Rams 24 at New England Patriots 17 on November 18th, 2001 - Full team and player stats and box score

www.pro-football-reference.com

...but with a rematch a few months later.

I was thinking the same thing. I hope Mac does well enough where he doesn’t get an avalanche of Brady regret post game.

 

[Kontradiction]

Nope. I may not watch. It would be my first missed game (on TV) since before Brady. Zero interest in watching LeBron Brady preening around with his super team. I know that no one agrees with me, it is what it is.

If my wife left me for a millionaire I wouldn't watch them having fun in his Ferrari either.

My man… it’s football. It’s not that serious.

 

[Kontradiction]

All about winning in the trenches, that’s the only way to beat Brady over the years. Pressure with 4, sustain drives, win the TO battle. That is the ‘blueprint ‘ but a lot easier said than done.

If it’s a shootout we’re effed. When you look at the teams who traditionally gave him / us trouble, it’s been the ravens/giants / broncos style of play. None scored a ton of points but did the above. Shorten the game and throw him out of rhythm.

Specifically the A and B gaps. You need push up the gut without blitzing to beat Brady so you can drop 5-6 into coverage. This would be a great week for Barmore to come of age.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

I agree with @oldrover potentially equate this game to the Rams regular season match-up in 2001. They'll probably lose this one because it's happening too early in the year, but in the event they're able to make it back and face them again, I like Mac's chances in the second match-up to pull off the upset having had a good look at them while also knowing what he'll need to do differently. So the outcome of this game won't bother me. A 7-time SB Champ (and knowing his background) beating a rookie QB shouldn't shock anyone.

I'm happy for Brady and wish him the best, he made this region great for two decades. But after a lot of fruitless searches I do finally feel like they have "the next guy", so I'm excited to go down this road and see where it takes us going forward.

I hope that a 2001 repeat happens, but I don't know if NE is ready yet this year to contend for the SB. I think next year it could happen. I would love to see Belichick vs Brady in the super bowl by the time TB retires. If we can beat Tampa in a few weeks, it'll be the biggest regular-season win in NE history. But I don't see that happening, and it's like you said, it's too early in the season. I think the NFL set this match up in early October so Brady can beat Brees' yards record in Foxboro.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

All about winning in the trenches, that’s the only way to beat Brady over the years. Pressure with 4, sustain drives, win the TO battle. That is the ‘blueprint ‘ but a lot easier said than done.

If it’s a shootout we’re effed. When you look at the teams who traditionally gave him / us trouble, it’s been the ravens/giants / broncos style of play. None scored a ton of points but did the above. Shorten the game and throw him out of rhythm.

You have to get Brady moving in the pocket. He's not that great when he's throwing on the run. If he's back there with enough time to check his email, then he's going to tear you apart. It would be great to have Harris run the ball a lot in this match-up to shorten the game, but that strategy is not going to work because Tampa's run D is unreal. I think we're going to have to rely on Mac's arm.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Specifically the A and B gaps. You need push up the gut without blitzing to beat Brady so you can drop 5-6 into coverage. This would be a great week for Barmore to come of age.

Yep, blitzing is a death sentence. Big day for the men up front

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

You have to get Brady moving in the pocket. He's not that great when he's throwing on the run. If he's back there with enough time to check his email, then he's going to tear you apart. It would be great to have Harris run the ball a lot in this match-up to shorten the game, but that strategy is not going to work because Tampa's run D is unreal. I think we're going to have to rely on Mac's arm.

We shall see. Still you don’t necessarily need to run to chew up clock, can still attack that secondary, just keep the chains moving

 

[SHOWTIME15]

We shall see. Still you don’t necessarily need to run to chew up clock, can still attack that secondary, just keep the chains moving

I think we're going to have to take a page out to Dallas' playbook - short passes to the outside and lots of bubble screens.

 

[Lagaffe_07]

With our OL performances since the beginning of the year, I am not real confident that we can keep in check the Bucs pass rush.

 

[Lagaffe_07]

I think we're going to have to take a page out to Dallas' playbook - short passes to the outside and lots of bubble screens.

It’s basically what we are doing already against every team. I think the Bucs will be prepared for it.

 

[Kontradiction]

It’s basically what we are doing already against every team. I think the Bucs will be prepared for it.

Not to mention those may not work based on the coverage we’re looking at. I’d be surprised if they didn’t hit us with a ton of single high safety looks. Cover-1 and Cover-3, similarly to what we just did to the Jete. There’s no real reason to have two safeties deep since we don’t have much in the way of speed outside of Agholor who won’t beat double coverage anyway. Cover-2 would be brain dead against us since our TEs and White would just eat that alive.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

It’s basically what we are doing already against every team. I think the Bucs will be prepared for it.

True, but our short passing game has been more concentrated across the middle I think. I would love to see someone post a pass distribution chart of Mac's first two games.

 

[amfootball]

I have no idea how we stop their passing attack even if we had Gilmore. I am hoping to see if we can generate anything up front vs the Saints. If not, the Bucs game is going to be brutal from start to finish.

 

[Kontradiction]

I have no idea how we stop their passing attack even if we had Gilmore. I am hoping to see if we can generate anything up front vs the Saints. If not, the Bucs game is going to be brutal from start to finish.

You stop it by knocking Brady on his ass as often as you can. Even then, as we’ve seen many times over the course of two decades, it might not be enough.