PostGame Thread OFFICIAL POSTGAME THREAD: Patriots Fall 35-31 to the Bills

[Tunescribe]

For having a football take that you don’t like?

Weak.

You don't offer "takes," sport, only fear-based trash talk belying your (well-founded) lack of faith in a team that never has and probably never will get over the hump in our lifetimes. You can't just enjoy your Prairie Cows rising to the occasion in a must-win scenario or celebrate with fellow fans on your home board. Instead, you come here attempting to disavow/discredit the reality that threatens to end Josh Allen's five-year flirtation with ultimate success. A big win today yet you remain scared ****less -- just admit it.

I've always respected Prairie Cows fans for their "never say die" attitude through countless gut-wrenching disappointments. But your pathetic nonsense in the face of what should be a hope-saving VICTORY is changing that, you sniveling puke.

 

[TheRainMaker]

What does it look like if we're 2 and 1 with a lose to one of Miami and Jets and the Bills are 3 and 0?

I'm not sure what you mean here, but the Pats can't lose to the Jets or Dolphins if the Bills win out. Bills would win the tie breaker because of the conference record would be better.

 

[Vindicate]

You don't offer "takes," sport, only fear-based trash talk belying your (well-founded) lack of faith in a team that never has and probably never will get over the hump in our lifetimes. You can't just enjoy your Prairie Cows rising to the occasion in a must-win scenario or celebrate with fellow fans on your home board. Instead, you come here attempting to disavow/discredit the reality that threatens to end Josh Allen's five-year flirtation with ultimate success. A big win today yet you remain scared ****less -- just admit it.

I've always respected Prairie Cows fans for their "never say die" attitude in the face of countless gut-wrenching disappointments. But your pathetic nonsense in the face of what should be a hope-saving VICTORY is changing that, you sniveling puke.

 

[dliverey44]

Bo Nix have quite a few.

A lot of that is because Nix has not always been able to score during the 1st 3 qtrs and needs the late drive. The Pats have not needed 4th QTR drives to win. Not saying he would or would not but to point at someone being clutch by high lighting that they are more mid during the entire game is not a great selling point.

 

[SVN]

i think more than the baltimore game, miami and jets are must win games assuming Buffalo runs the table

 

[mgteich]

For everyone focusing on Maye, not being clutch or some ****, it's ignoring that the offense put up 31 points today. In fact, when the Bills first get their lead, the offense immediately answered. Then the D failed again.

I must have missed something. How much time did the Offense have left after the last BUF score?

Was it enough for a top Offense to move down the field and score?

The Defense couldn't stop BUF IN THE SCOND HALF. That is indeed on them.

But the Offense could score at the end when it counted. THAT is on them.

The plan for a great team and Offense cannot be to start fast and go ahead by 10 more at the half and then hold on and blame the Defense if they lose.

 

[dliverey44]

What does it look like if we're 2 and 1 with a lose to one of Miami and Jets and the Bills are 3 and 0?

Buff would win based on Conference record which is the 4th division tie breaker. We can lose to Baltimore but have to beat both Fins and Jets to win the division based on division record.

 

[mgteich]

A lot of that is because Nix has not always been able to score during the 1st 3 qtrs and needs the late drive. The Pats have not needed 4th QTR drives to win. Not saying he would or would not but to point at someone being clutch by high lighting that they are more mid during the entire game is not a great selling point.

Clutch is being clutch when it really counts when a team needs points to close out the game.

Some think that is by getting a great TD or 2 in the first half.

 

[dliverey44]

Consequence? The team is on fraud alert

Fraud?? They are a team in a rebuild. Its does not matter what their record is currently because their roster as a whole is not that good and needs to be improved. That is a rebuild, so what are they fraudulent in??

Are they fraudulent because you and the media were putting excessive expectations on the team??

 

[Vindicate]

I must have missed something. How much time did the Offense have left after the last BUF score?

Was it enough for a top Offense to move down the field and score?

The Defense couldn't stop BUF IN THE SCOND HALF. That is indeed on them.

But the Offense could score at the end when it counted. THAT is on them.

The plan for a great team and Offense cannot be to start fast and go ahead by 10 more at the half and then hold on and blame the Defense if they lose.

You are indeed missing something, because my post was talking about people saying that Maye isn't clutch.

You're saying the offense as a whole didn't get the job done in the waning seconds. Which is correct.

And furthermore, I think it is missing the forest for the trees by harping on these points when in reality, this game was a major failure from the defense, that is - and in the scheme of the SEASON - IS the forest here.

We've seen all season this offense score on tough defensive units while the defense did its job against god awful offenses.

The biggest question should've been, if watching this team this season, was if they could tame a playoff offense.

And it failed today. Badly so.

There wasn't a lot to suggest Maye isn't clutch (nor was there much to say he is). I don't think this game really shed much light on that.

 

[mgteich]

We need to stop with the premature crowning of Allen as "the best"

You can't be the best QB in football without a single Super Bowl appearance, i don't care how many regular season games he wins, when he cashes all this into a championship then we can talk about him being the best.

People are doing the exact same thing that used to drive them crazy with the media fawning of Manning when Brady had 3 championships and he had none.

For now, let us now not consider Mahomes who is out for the forseeable future.

Is Hurts the "best QB"? Someone is the "best"? Who are the top 5?

I do believe that Allen is the best QB in the NFL today. If Mahomes comes back strong and his team has a lot of success in free agency, then maybe it will be Mahomes again. But Allen is certainly ONE of the best 5.

 

[ViperGTS]

Fraud?? They are a team in a rebuild. Its does not matter what their record is currently because their roster as a whole is not that good and needs to be improved. That is a rebuild, so what are they fraudulent in??

Are they fraudulent because you and the media were putting excessive expectations on the team??

When you win 10 games in a row, you earn those expectations. You earn the ire of fans who clown you for giving up 5 TD in a row and 47 passed yards in the 2nd half. Nah, they earned everything that came there way in the 10 games, and also this game. Can't have it both ways.

 

[slash83]

If they don’t get their redone defense fixed they’ll be one and done in the playoffs, it’s borderline a guaranteed TD when opposing teams get inside the 20.

 

[dliverey44]

When you win 10 games in a row, you earn those expectations. You earn the ire of fans who clown you for giving up 5 TD in a row and 47 passed yards in the 2nd half. Nah, they earned everything that came there way in the 10 games, and also this game. Can't have it both ways.

If you look at them winning 10 straight against some of the weaker teams in the NFL and that made you change your mind on who they were then thats on you bro. We can still clown them for giving up 5 consecutive TD drives, but their record did not change that they were a team rebuilding. Maybe its just me but my view of the team did not change based on their record with a pretty easy schedule.

 

[mgteich]

If they don’t get their redone defense fixed they’ll be one and done in the playoffs, it’s borderline a guaranteed TD when opposing teams get inside the 20.

We were 11-2 games while having the worst redzone defense. The key is not allowing teams in the red zone. This obvious flaw won't make us a poor Defense.

 

[mgteich]

You are indeed missing something, because my post was talking about people saying that Maye isn't clutch.

You're saying the offense as a whole didn't get the job done in the waning seconds. Which is correct.

And furthermore, I think it is missing the forest for the trees by harping on these points when in reality, this game was a major failure from the defense, that is - and in the scheme of the SEASON - IS the forest here.

We've seen all season this offense score on tough defensive units while the defense did its job against god awful offenses.

The biggest question should've been, if watching this team this season, was if they could tame a playoff offense.

And it failed today. Badly so.

There wasn't a lot to suggest Maye isn't clutch (nor was there much to say he is). I don't think this game really shed much light on that.

fair enough.

You and I simply disagree.

I don't think that QB can be considered a clutch QB's with our 4th performance on Offense this year.

In this game, I think that several QB's in the AFC would have had a better chance to score in the last 2 minutes.

This is NOT a knock on Drake. He needs more time to develop, more situations to get out of, more potential comebacks in which to be Superman.
=======
And yes, there is a fundamental problem when a team is destroying their Defense, leading 21-0, completely shutting out their Offense and apparently having little chance to win.

 

[Grogan14]

Next week against the Ravens will be an extremely difficult game to win.

Its a must win home game for the Ravens

Patriots can afford to lose the game and still make the playoffs.
Ravens D looked very good today.
Maye will have his hands full.

 

[slash83]

We were 11-2 games while having the worst redzone defense. The key is not allowing teams in the red zone. This obvious flaw won't make us a poor Defense.

Didn’t say it’s a poor defense, don’t believe they’re as bad as they were today. Getting Williams and Spillane back will def help. But if relying on stopping teams from getting into the RZ that’s a risky and dangerous way of going about things.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

- You can't get anything going, in terms of a rhythm, with that cadence of penalties.
- The penalties weren't called even-handedly, but except one (the pass interference where our boy looked backwards at the ball then fought for it, which seemed like just a good play on his part,) they were there to call.
- But by and large there's nothing to say that makes the D look like anything beside a team that just gave up 35 points. They looked like crap in the second half. Pity there are 60 minutes in a game not 30.
- I loves me some Drake, but this situation showed us what we haven't seen from him, an ability to take over a game against a tough opponent

Disappointed, but this isn't the first time we or any other team lost a tight game after being way up.

Some stating-the-obvious "wisdom" from the stats -
The difference in pen. yds was 2 for 15 yds for Buf vs. 7 for 65 yards for the good guys. Obviously this doesn't quantify woulda coulda shoulda calls (bad no-calls)
Neither QB went over 200 yds passing, which was a shock to me
Yes, Drake ran two scores in - but how we scored 31 without a single passing TD is beyond me
Don't gloss over what went right - Henderson continues to be a revelation. If we had turned it around in the 2nd half, I mean even by one more break going our way, they're crying about how they have no answer for Henderson.

We all watched it. Stuff did not go our way for a solid half of football, Henderson home-run aside. Because of the momentum shift, that feels like all sorts of definitive, mainly negative things... but some comments here indicate unsupported depths of despair. For one thing, the moment one says "Henderson home-run aside" that puts aside a major bright spot/potential momentum shift the other way. One more bright spot or other turning point, and this game is a W (whatever we say when we're embracing our disappointment.) That said, I for one thought Drake could take that next step. That might be a year 3 project. Disappointing, but let's see what the playoffs show us.

It is what it is. To quote DM:
"We just gotta be better when we’re up. It starts with me, making some throws. Coach says, ‘no naps,’ so just not relaxing. I didn’t feel like we relaxed, just didn’t make enough plays. Credit to them. It’s one of the things we emphasized during the week and gotta do a better job.”

 

[Ring 6]

Mvp candidates are supposed to raise the players around them. Mvps win this game with a two minute drill, or at least give the team a chance to win with a heave into the end zone. Maye did neither. Does he suck? No one is saying that. But people here get their Patriots panties in a bunch at the least bit of criticism...happened when we started on Belichick (and we were 100% correct) and now people are starting when anyone criticizes Maye. Maye has another chance next week. If he puts together another stinker he's opening himself to a ton of criticism, and rightfully so. If he plays a great game, the he'll have righted his ship until the next time he needs to generate a GW drive. God forbid Maye needs to get points to win the game next week in the 4th quarter and he comes up short again. The Maye Isn't clutch chorus will start singing pretty loudly. Let's see how he does

Our MVP candidate has raised the players around him all season to an 11-3 record after being 3-11 at this point a year ago. Which MVP candidate are you giving me that is undefeated?