PostGame Thread Official PostGame Thread - 2023 Week 7 - Patriots Win 29-25

[Kasmir]

I am not sure why folks are giving you a hard time, you are 100% on point and I agree with your everything you've said throughout. Mac was bad in most prior weeks outside of week 1 and most of week 2, the team struggled on offense. Mac was great today, the team put up almost 30 points and beat a top AFC team. This shows that it's not so much about "Mac has nothing around him, Mac has no weapons, Mac can't cook with garbage" but rather "if Mac steps up, the team can succeed".

So why didn't he "step up" before?

 

[PatsFan2]

Play the younger WR's Pop Douglas - Bourne -Thornton - Reagor and Boutte. TE Pharaoh Brown what a find. BOB keep Parker and Juju on the bench where they belong.

 

[festy1986]

So why didn't he "step up" before?

It's just a brigade of excuse after excuse.

The truth of the matter is, Mac isn't as bad as he's looked the last month.

But you're way more likely to get that version of him than the one today.


That's a fact established over 3 seasons now.

Saying he'd be better if he had better talent around him doesn't even feel like a real argument. Who's arguing against that?

So I don't understand the takes that it's not Mac fault personally. He's part of the problem.

He had 2 or 3 balls come out of his hands today that literally "fell" out and had they go the way they have the last few weeks we aren't even discussing how great a day he had.

 

[LightSkinSmurf]

They would win this game. Probably the least realistic win on the schedule so far.

 

[cmasspatsfan]

Play the younger WR's Pop Douglas - Bourne -Thornton - Reagor and Boutte. TE Pharaoh Brown what a find. BOB keep Parker and Juju on the bench where they belong.

Pharoah seems to catch anything near him, he looks big and slow but he catches the ball.

 

[PatsFan2]

It's just a brigade of excuse after excuse.

The truth of the matter is, Mac isn't as bad as he's looked the last month.

But you're way more likely to get that version of him than the one today.


That's a fact established over 3 seasons now.

Saying he'd be better if he had better talent around him doesn't even feel like a real argument. Who's arguing against that?

So I don't understand the takes that it's not Mac fault personally. He's part of the problem.

He had 2 or 3 balls come out of his hands today that literally "fell" out and had they go the way they have the last few weeks we aren't even discussing how great a day he had.

I would take that Mac Geno Smith Today we can win with him playing like that. BOB called a nice game Today.

 

[mgteich]

If Brown, Strange, Andrews, and Onwenu (at RT) all play to their level, I think Sow can be adequate at RG. OLs can withstand one weak link usually. It's when there's two+ that defense just start blowing games up. Strange had a great game today!

We can't withstand ONE weak OL if his name is Lowe.

 

[lancerman]

It's just a brigade of excuse after excuse.

The truth of the matter is, Mac isn't as bad as he's looked the last month.

But you're way more likely to get that version of him than the one today.


That's a fact established over 3 seasons now.

Saying he'd be better if he had better talent around him doesn't even feel like a real argument. Who's arguing against that?

So I don't understand the takes that it's not Mac fault personally. He's part of the problem.

He had 2 or 3 balls come out of his hands today that literally "fell" out and had they go the way they have the last few weeks we aren't even discussing how great a day he had.

We can just make it simple. The line actually showed up and gave him time today and his receivers got open and made plays on the ball more consistently. Two things that were just flat out statitiscally not true in most of our losses.

Mac makes some bad plays. Issue is, every QB makes dud plays. Allen made dud plays today and has every game all season. But when the you compound that with receivers rarely getting open and no help from the line or running game, the bad plays the QB makes end up being more costly because when he has a shot it becomes rarer and more precious.

 

[festy1986]

We can just make it simple. The line actually showed up and gave him time today and his receivers got open and made plays on the ball more consistently. Two things that were just flat out statitiscally not true in most of our losses.

Mac makes some bad plays. Issue is, every QB makes dud plays. Allen made dud plays today and has every game all season. But when the you compound that with receivers rarely getting open and no help from the line or running game, the bad plays the QB makes end up being more costly because when he has a shot it becomes rarer and more precious.

Mac has no touch on the ball and most the time he has no pocket awareness.

He's not the guy. Even if he had Jefferson and Hill.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

I am not sure why folks are giving you a hard time, you are 100% on point and I agree with your everything you've said throughout. Mac was bad in most prior weeks outside of week 1 and most of week 2, the team struggled on offense. Mac was great today, the team put up almost 30 points and beat a top AFC team. This shows that it's not so much about "Mac has nothing around him, Mac has no weapons, Mac can't cook with garbage" but rather "if Mac steps up, the team can succeed".

Yup. Mac's head has to be into it. It is mental with Mac. If the OL improvement helps Mac feel comfortable then I am all for it. Maybe that is the formula for Mac, he needs a really good OL but the receiving weapons are not that important because Mac is accurate and can make tight throws. Mac is not good on the run, but maybe Mac can fix that over time? Today Mac's pocket movement still was not great, and he did not step into half of his passes, but his QB rating was over 125, so that tells you how accurate Mac can be. Imagine if Mac was comfortable in the pocket and stepped into his throws - he would be a top QB. Right now all Mac needs to do is have a great game twice in a row.

The guys that do not like Mac are upset if we defend him, the guys that like Mac are upset if we say he was awful through six games. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. An NFL team lives and dies by its QB play with a few exceptions. Mac has to keep building on that performance and not throw any INTs.

Mac looked great. I am encouraged, but still cautious. We will see.

 

[mgteich]

We can just make it simple. The line actually showed up and gave him time today and his receivers got open and made plays on the ball more consistently. Two things that were just flat out statitiscally not true in most of our losses.

Mac makes some bad plays. Issue is, every QB makes dud plays. Allen made dud plays today and has every game all season. But when the you compound that with receivers rarely getting open and no help from the line or running game, the bad plays the QB makes end up being more costly because when he has a shot it becomes rarer and more precious.

"The line actually showed up"

I think that it is more reasonable to say that we had 5 healthy OL's.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

let's get to .500 or a game within .500 before we start worrying about playoff permutations

BB will be traded before that happens.

 

[Ras-IR Dowling]

Well that was a floating duck from Tua

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

Pharoah seems to catch anything near him, he looks big and slow but he catches the ball.

Agreed, great hands, really strong, but a little slow.

 

[Kasmir]

Mac has no touch on the ball and most the time he has no pocket awareness.

He's not the guy. Even if he had Jefferson and Hill.

That's a crazy take. Not even his harshest critics claim that. Touch is something he is great at. Did you mean to say "zip"?

I'm not convinced Mac will make it as a top rank starter because he has serious composure issues that I'm not sure he can overcome.

In today's presser he admitted (a) that on two plays his eyes were down looking at the rush and (b) that he can get too "hot".

I'm convinced that inability to remain calm when pressured or when the play is blown up are the problems that threaten to destroy his career.

 

[mgteich]

Yup. Mac's head has to be into it. It is mental with Mac. If the OL improvement helps Mac feel comfortable then I am all for it. Maybe that is the formula for Mac, he needs a really good OL but the receiving weapons are not that important because Mac is accurate and can make tight throws. Mac is not good on the run, but maybe Mac can fix that over time? Today Mac's pocket movement still was not great, and he did not step into half of his passes, but his QB rating was over 125, so that tells you how accurate Mac can be. Imagine if Mac was comfortable in the pocket and stepped into his throws - he would be a top QB. Right now all Mac needs to do is have a great game twice in a row.

The guys that do not like Mac are upset if we defend him, the guys that like Mac are upset if we say he was awful through six games. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. An NFL team lives and dies by its QB play with a few exceptions. Mac has to keep building on that performance and not throw any INTs.

Mac looked great. I am encouraged, but still cautious. We will see.

If the starting 5 OL's are healthy, we have a really good OL.

And, I agree that the key is the OL, not the quality of the receiving group. We will do fine with Bourne, Douglas, Thornton, Henry, Gesicki, and Brown.

 

[Kasmir]

Yup. Mac's head has to be into it. It is mental with Mac. If the OL improvement helps Mac feel comfortable then I am all for it. Maybe that is the formula for Mac, he needs a really good OL but the receiving weapons are not that important because Mac is accurate and can make tight throws. Mac is not good on the run, but maybe Mac can fix that over time? Today Mac's pocket movement still was not great, and he did not step into half of his passes, but his QB rating was over 125, so that tells you how accurate Mac can be. Imagine if Mac was comfortable in the pocket and stepped into his throws - he would be a top QB. Right now all Mac needs to do is have a great game twice in a row.

The guys that do not like Mac are upset if we defend him, the guys that like Mac are upset if we say he was awful through six games. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. An NFL team lives and dies by its QB play with a few exceptions. Mac has to keep building on that performance and not throw any INTs.

Mac looked great. I am encouraged, but still cautious. We will see.

Mac is actually capable of being quite accurate when on the run, and he has enough athleticism to be escapable, but I think the issue is as you said his "head", or as I have been saying his lack of composure. I predict that he can throw well on the run on designed rollouts etc, but when running to escape pressure he is prone to panic, forget his technique and make bad throws.

 

[PatsFan2]

Agreed, great hands, really strong, but a little slow.

We have seen TE's like that on other Teams over the years they can sneak up on the LB's it's all in the play design.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Loved what I saw from Mac on the final drive. You can see it in the body language when a guy is going to to win.

My buzz was killed a bit with the 50 yard laser Allen threw to Diggs on second to last play. Holy **** that was ridiculous. It looked like a 10-15 yard dart where QB throws receiver open. Luckily Digs dropped it.

Entertaining game and a good win.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

Mac is actually capable of being quite accurate when on the run, and he has enough athleticism to be escapable, but I think the issue is as you said his "head", or as I have been saying his lack of composure. I predict that he can throw well on the run on designed rollouts etc, but when running to escape pressure he is prone to panic, forget his technique and make bad throws.

I think this is completely correct. Today Mac had a designed rollout and threw a good pass to Pharoah, but last week he rolled out in a scramble (panic) and threw a INT. In both cases he had an open large TE for an easy pass. In one case he was under control, in the other he was scrambling. Hopefully over time Mac will react in the pocket and scramble without panicking. Today it appears as though the most important thing for Mac is a clean pocket and scripted plays. That is not a criticism.