PostGame Thread OFFICIAL 2024 Week 1 Postgame Thread - Patriots Open 1-0 with a win over Cincy

[TommyD4207]

True. Lowe was giving up those pressures and Jacoby did a great job of getting away from pressure running for conversions.. so it's a start. The offense will become more balanced as the season goes on.

Robinson was bad too, there was one play he went to help Onwenu double team the end (who didn't need the help at all), and let a free blitzer come waltzing in, and damn near killed Brissett.

 

[Ross12]

The biggest most pleasant surprise for me was the competent coaching on both sides of the ball. AVP schemed around what Brissett could do and didn't put too much on his plate. Covington called a solid game and was true to his word about being more aggressive this season, a good amount of pressure through a nice mix of looks. He forced more than a few checkdowns.

Very competent coaching today. I think we really lucked out with Mayo. Contrast that with the string of unforced coaching errors Taylor made at the end of the game.

People have been calling for Mayo to be fired before he had even coached one game because of some ****ty press conferences. Dude goes out there and knocks off a Super Bowl contender in week 1, in their house. He and his staff looked a hell of a lot more prepared than many of these other tenured staffs I’m watching elsewhere today.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Something is not right on that team. They should be better than that.

Bengals are notoriously bad week 1. Plus higgins was out. There was no better time to draw cincy other than if burrow was out

 

[bormio]

Something is not right on that team. They should be better than that.

Taylor is on the hot seat - or should be

 

[upstater1]

OK, I see it. When I first read your comment that is not how I read. Makes much more sense now and I agree with you as long as that was the approach. We are drafting JG because TB is old as **** and when QBs are old as **** they tend to get worse....Look.

Yes, exactly. The really interesting conversations happened in 2018 when Brady was 41. That was a, "What the hell do we do now moment?"

Personally I never would have thought it was a big deal until I watched the Kraft hit job on Belichick. Then I realized that all of these things happened: 1. Kraft was ready to fire Bill if they hadn't won in 2018. 2. Kraft thought it was bad form to select a QB to replace Brady. 3. Belichick and Brady had a fight because Belichick banned Alex Guerrero from the field after Guerrero told players he was seeing to contradict the team lifting coaches and trainers. 4. Kraft forced Belichick to take Guerrero back despite the fact that Guerrero had interfered with the coaches. 5. Also remember that Brady was on that yacht in Miami with the Phins owner in the summer after that season, before 2019. So he was long gone before 2019 ever came.

I wouldn't have known any of this if I hadn't watched.

 

[mgteich]

You have to have time on those post routes though, even if it's Thornton. It seemed like if the ball didn't come out in under 2 seconds, and there wasn't a hard playaction that everyone bit on, it was a heavily pressured throw.

Yes, we want the pass protection to get better so that we will have a better passing game when Maye starts against MIA.

Maybe it will get much better by then, but probably not.
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By then, I do think that we will sort out the OL and WR depth charts a bit by then. That should improve the possibilities for the passing game a bit.
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IMO, the key all year will be for the QB to recognize defenses and to get out the ball relatively fast. If those are our limits, the coaches will work within them.

 

[upstater1]

You never know what you're going to get with these tackles. I mean, Dawand Jones is being badly abused by Dallas today, and he's the guy that we were regretting not taking last year.

 

[PP2]

People have been calling for Mayo to be fired before he had even coached one game because of some ****ty press conferences. Dude goes out there and knocks off a Super Bowl contender in week 1, in their house. He and his staff looked a hell of a lot more prepared than many of these other tenured staffs I’m watching elsewhere today.

The next big test for Mayo is how fast he can turn the page and move onto Seattle. The NFL is a week to week grind and one of BB's best qualities and one of the things that made him one of the best HCs ever was that he never let the team get too high or too low. I am hoping and believing that Mayo picked up on this quality.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

People have been calling for Mayo to be fired before he had even coached one game because of some ****ty press conferences. Dude goes out there and knocks off a Super Bowl contender in week 1, in their house. He and his staff looked a hell of a lot more prepared than many of these other tenured staffs I’m watching elsewhere today.

If today is any indication we are in good hands with mayo. He and the whole staff really couldn’t have been better today. Definitely exciting. Next question is maye and whether the front office can build the offense next couple years.

 

[Ross12]

The next big test for him is how fast he can turn the page and move onto Seattle. The NFL is a week to week grind and one of BB's best qualities and one of the things that made him one of the best HCs ever was that he never let the team get too high or too low. I am hoping and believing that Mayo picked up on this quality.

It seems like he has really delegated a lot to his coordinators so he can focus on the high level items, like Bill did. So I’m optimistic that he will be successful in keeping them focused and grounded after the big win, since Seattle is also a winnable game. They don’t look hot at all today against Denver, and it’ll be in Gillette.

Man, can you imagine if they start 2-0? Would be awesome.

 

[SlowGettingUp]

Dial is a STO only player.
Schooler is an STO player.
I also think of Elliss as primarily a STer.

Schooler I grant is ST only. The Slater replacement.

But Dial was drafted as a CB and can give you some reps there in an emergency.
Elliss is a legitimate LB - I believe he played in the Super Bowl for Philadelphia. So both give you some depth in case of an in-game injury.

Under Belichick, the ST-only folks (Slater, Board, Schooler) weren't legitimate backups.

 

[Pat the Pats Fan]

Cudo’s to special teamer Cardona forcing the fumble. That was huge.

 

[TommyD4207]

Yes, we want the pass protection to get better so that we will have a better passing game when Maye starts against MIA.

Maybe it will get much better by then, but probably not.
=======
By then, I do think that we will sort out the OL and WR depth charts a bit by then. That should improve the possibilities for the passing game a bit.
=========
IMO, the key all year will be for the QB to recognize defenses and to get out the ball relatively fast. If those are our limits, the coaches will work within them.

There's only so much 'coaching up' you can do. I feel like 3, maybe 4 of the OL can't really play at the NFL level (4th being Andrews, who may have had the worst game of his career today). You can coach up average guys to be good - but I don't think you can coach up poor players to even be average, there's a baseline level of skill you have to have, and I'm not sure the Patriots have that on the offensive line.

 

[mgteich]

Schooler I grant is ST only. The Slater replacement.

But Dial was drafted as a CB and can give you some reps there in an emergency.
Elliss is a legitimate LB - I believe he played in the Super Bowl for Philadelphia. So both give you some depth in case of an in-game injury.

Under Belichick, the ST-only folks (Slater, Board, Schooler) weren't legitimate backups.

Dial isn't our 10th best pass defender.

We have 5 better CB's, 4 S's, and Mapu.
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Schooler is as much of an emergency pass protecter then Dial.

In a game "emergency", we could but one of our WR's or TE's on the field as the 8th or 9th defender. If there is an injury and a couple of Cb's can't play, then we elevate a DB or two.
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Perhaps you are correct on Elliss.

However, we will check to see which LB is close to the role that Board played. After all, he was supposed to be able to play LB in an emergency.

 

[Pats2000]

You're making things up.

He didnt show anything saying Brady was on the decline. He showed Kraft a study showing how 37 year old QBs deteriorate. These are 2 entirely different things.

Did you watch last year? Even the Belichick haters constantly made the point that the team was fighting hard and didn't quit.

I didn't say anything about WR picks because one of them was a bust (Harry), the other looks very good (Douglas) and a guy that maybe was a bust is maybe finally showing his value (like he did today).

The team made so many mental errors last year. It was easy to see they were wilting under BB the disciplinarian. They obviously weren't receptive to being coached at the same level.

 

[signbabybrady]

There’s that RK ego front and center. Let your rookie HC do the talking. Very tasteless.

He supposed to give himself the game ball? Nice of Kraft to do that for him.

 

[mgteich]

There's only so much 'coaching up' you can do. I feel like 3, maybe 4 of the OL can't really play at the NFL level (4th being Andrews, who may have had the worst game of his career today). You can coach up average guys to be good - but I don't think you can coach up poor players to even be average, there's a baseline level of skill you have to have, and I'm not sure the Patriots have that on the offensive line.

4 is a lot for a line that is supposed to be the worst in the NFL.

I agree that we need a backup center. We have Jake in 2025, but he may not be good enough. We'll certainly give Strange a try. We may be able to coach up SOMEONE to be a better backup center this year than Leverett, perhaps Hudson. We might even be able to trade for a backup center, or continue to try to find one one the Practice Squad of other teams.

We have Lowe, Okorafor and Jacobs at LT. And, yes, they all need to be coached up. Whatever, their level, better coaching will lead to a better level of performance. I agree that we are not even talking about bring them up our LT's to an average NFL level.
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BOTTOM LINE
1) Coach up players the best that they can be.
2) Given what we have, devise game plans that best hid the weaknesses and take advantage of strengths.

 

[Ross12]

Kraft must be on cloud 9. The Mayo hire looked kinda iffy to a lot of people but he looks pretty smart on this day.

 

[Pats2000]

What?

That's a way you can learn. I learned how not to run a company on several occasions, watching ownership screw things up. It's why my company made it as far as it did in the first 3 years. Maye is watching and digesting what does and does not work.

 

[mgteich]

I will be interested to see the reviews of OL play by individual players.

Also, I will be interested to see the snap counts.

LT: I think that Okorafor started and then Lowe came in for the rest.

LG: Did Jordane start? Who else played? It seems that they did OK.

C, RG, OT: Did any subs play?