PostGame Thread OFFICIAL 2026 Post Game Thread: Patriots Finish with a 13-13 tie against the Colts

[WhatJustHappened]

The replay ok but I don't have your refined requirements. I grew up on b&w tv with 3rd world antennas.

"Honey can you move the rabbit ears...ok, now redo the tinfoil...ok..hold on... maybe grab the left one... GREAT, there it is...O you moved..ok, hold it right there!"
Ma can I move?
"Commercial will be in a minute, just wait"
But I gotta pee...

 

[Thelonious]

I made it a little past halftime. I'm inclined to think that the preseason games could be beneficial in providing an opportunity for the guys to play together in a (sorta) actual game, and I would think it might help them to get into "football" shape, but damn are these games a dull watch.

 

[Milton Quagmire]

Looks like Miller had a good night @ 4 yac and converting 2 - 4th down runs.

And both 4th down runs were running behind Lomu per one of the tweets.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

I made it a little past halftime. I'm inclined to think that the preseason games could be beneficial in providing an opportunity for the guys to play together in a (sorta) actual game, and I would think it might help them to get into "football" shape, but damn are these games a dull watch.

I have a dwindling attention span so I quit early in Q3.
I wonder if televising the scrimmages would be more interesting. Without inane booth chatter that is.

 

[Family]

The first kick, the snap was really slow, and the placement was late, but the hold itself was fine (and he didn't miss that 56-yarder by much, really). There's no explanation for the other two. Bad execution from my boy last night, and honestly, wouldn't blame the Patriots if they brought someone else in. Bad night all around from Borg.

He went through this last year. His kickoffs were sad too.

It's almost like he has to build his leg strength back from the offseason. It seemed on the misses he was trying to boom the ball too hard like he felt his leg wasn't strong enough.

 

[tasmlab]

NFL network showed the final score at halftime.

(I know, just preseason,)

 

[Bill Lee]

What I don’t get is, who but die hard football fans actually bothers to watch a preseason game? So isn’t this the perfect opportunity to talk about what’s on the field and the evaluation process?

But instead we get an excruciating stream of man-cave banter and inside jokes. I keep thinking “guys, can’t you try to do some actual work now then go out for a beer together later?”

Zolak needs to be Romo'd. He's past his sell-by date.

When in the world will Robert Kraft get rid of those damn uniforms?

Reddit's GDT has a dude claiming to have the inside line saying that this is the last season for these unis.

 

[DaBruinz]

Conversely, kick return coverage was terrible. I know they were missing Schooler, but man, the Colts started every possession at the 40.

@manxman2601 - How can you notice something that didn't actually occur?

Kick 1- Indy 38 yard line (28 yd return)
Kick 2- Indy 31 yard line (26 yd return)
Kick 3- Indy 20 (39 yd return nullified by Offensive Holding)
Kick 4- Indy 30 yard line w/ penalty knocking them back to the 20

Punt 1 - Indy 9 yd line - No Return
Punt 1 - Indy 44 yard line (27 yd return)
Punt 1 - Indy 8 yd line - No Return
Punt 4 - Indy 9 yard line - No Return
Punt 5 - Indy 38 - 8 yd return
Punt 6 - Indy 11 - 4 yd return.

Sorry, but this idea doesn't fly in regards to the Kick / Punt. Only 1 PUNT return gave Indy starting field position beyond the 40. None of the kicks gave them position beyond the 40.

The time that Indy had a starting field position where they started beyond the 40 were the 3 missed FGs. And that's not a coverage issue.
Missed FG 1 - Indy started from their 46 (56 yd attempt)
Missed FG 2 - Indy started from their 45 (55 yd attempt)
Missed FG 3- Indy started from their 39 (49 yd attempt)

So, that's 9 of 10 possessions where Indy didn't start beyond their 40.

The coverage units were much better than you're giving credit for.

 

[DaBruinz]

The first kick, the snap was really slow, and the placement was late, but the hold itself was fine (and he didn't miss that 56-yarder by much, really). There's no explanation for the other two. Bad execution from my boy last night, and honestly, wouldn't blame the Patriots if they brought someone else in. Bad night all around from Borg.

56, 55 and 49. None of which are gimmees by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[patfanken]

A few "idle thoughts" on last night's practice game.

1. A lot to like and hate from Devito. I liked that even when he missed, he was throwing on time to the right receiver. He was MENTALLY in synch with the offense, even though he sometimes was inaccurate. At this stage of camp that kind of physical issue can easily be fixed a lot easier than if he was having problems reading his progressions and throwing to the wrong receiver. Some great throws and some horrible ones. Ok, but I need to see improvement next time out.

2. The OL pass blocked well and consistently most of the night. The run blocking needs a lot of work and its understandable. It seems like they are moving one from the power blocking scheme they have run for so long to more of an outside zone blocking scheme, that is a big adjustment for both the backs and OL. It takes TIME to coordinate the scheme and a LOT of live reps to be more effective. The semi-live **** they have for these pansy preseason camps aren't giving them the looks they need to fully be effectively coordinated.
Again, this is an area that will likely improve with the preseason game, but also into September and October before we see consistency in the run game.

3. Jacas, I'm sorry to say was a disappointment. About the only thing I liked was his effort. It was always 100%. But he didn't flash any special edge rushing talent. He pressured the QB but never hit him or made him move much. That being said, Richardson is a tough QB to open your career with, with his running ability. But, I was looking for something "special". a burst off the line, or something like that and I didn't see it.

4. The run defense was deplorable. I know it will be better when Durdon, Barmore and Williams are back in there, but still too many 5 and 6 yd games and a 2yd stop was the exception rather than the rule. The whole front 7 was unimpressive all night with few exceptions. Giving up a FG at the end of the half with 28 seconds on the clock to start the drive was embarrassing

5. I hope next week Maye gets at least the first half to work out the kinks against a good Eagle D. If you are planning
on being touted a PHYSICAL team on both the offense and defense, you have to start to put on a few callouses to prepare yourself for the grind

6. I have been one of those banging on Barranger this summer, so it's only fair that I praise him when he is good. Barranger might have been the single best player for the Pats last night. He showed that big leg again both in distance AND hangtime. I only wish the downfield coverage was as good as his punts. Need some work there.

 

[DaBruinz]

The Colts still have possession with the ball across the goal line. You can see the blue glove.



The defender reaches down and knocks the ball out of the hand. This where the fumble happens. Even if it did happen where you say it did, it was still recovered by the Colts at that stage.



The ball comes free. This is where the Pats recover it.

Hmm.. Ok.. Fair enough.. it does appear he had possession there. The only thing I can think of is that the ref thought he didn't at that point.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Right, but I’m looking beyond the KR role to a more general roster battle. Most of the discussions have assumed that Miller and Larison are battling for the last RB job while Chism is in a separate battle for the last WR job.

Let’s imagine all three players are on the roster, but you only have room for one to be active on game day. Miller is the best runner, Chism is the best receiver. But Larison is enough of a runner for emergency and garbage time duty and enough of a receiver to take some snaps in the slot, and, as you point out, the best KR. IMO Larison’s one who ends up on the field.

Did that data analysis really try to combine 80% preseason games against scrubs with 20% real games? That’s a new one.

I like Chism. How can you not? He works hard and does everything well. But when the game cranks up that final notch from practice and preseason to full NFL speed, his athletic limitations start to show.

How can you make that statement when he barely played during last season? Diggs and Douglass got almost all of the snaps out of the slot.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Right, but I’m looking beyond the KR role to a more general roster battle. Most of the discussions have assumed that Miller and Larison are battling for the last RB job while Chism is in a separate battle for the last WR job.

Let’s imagine all three players are on the roster, but you only have room for one to be active on game day. Miller is the best runner, Chism is the best receiver. But Larison is enough of a runner for emergency and garbage time duty and enough of a receiver to take some snaps in the slot, and, as you point out, the best KR. IMO Larison’s one who ends up on the field.

Both Chism and Larison are good special teams players, which gives them an advantage over other contenders for remaining roster spots. And Vrabel loves Chism, and. I believe that was a big factor in not resigning Diggs, he feels they have the slot covered.

 

[Thelonious]

I have a dwindling attention span so I quit early in Q3.
I wonder if televising the scrimmages would be more interesting. Without inane booth chatter that is.

Might well be. The "announcing team" was awful. The two brothers are good eggs but did not say much of interest, and Zo, though he seemed somewhat less intoxicated than usual, had little of note to say. (I enjoy listen9ng to him hoot and holler for the radio game coverage with Sosci there to do the actual adult broadcasting job.)The worst thing was that they never identified who did what in a game where many of the players have numbers of which your typical viewer would be totally unaware. So it was a dull game made worse by poorly conceived and produced programming.

 

[TheRainMaker]

Zolak needs to be Romo'd. He's past his sell-by date.



Reddit's GDT has a dude claiming to have the inside line saying that this is the last season for these unis.

I'm not a huge fan of the white helmets for the flying Elvis, but the Nor'Easters was pretty clean. I'd prefer they go back to the Parcells/Carroll 90's style.

They don't want to look like Buffalo, yet 3 out 4 teams would have white helmets. That would be quite odd.

 

[Thelonious]

A few "idle thoughts" on last night's practice game.

1. A lot to like and hate from Devito. I liked that even when he missed, he was throwing on time to the right receiver. He was MENTALLY in synch with the offense, even though he sometimes was inaccurate. At this stage of camp that kind of physical issue can easily be fixed a lot easier than if he was having problems reading his progressions and throwing to the wrong receiver. Some great throws and some horrible ones. Ok, but I need to see improvement next time out.

2. The OL pass blocked well and consistently most of the night. The run blocking needs a lot of work and its understandable. It seems like they are moving one from the power blocking scheme they have run for so long to more of an outside zone blocking scheme, that is a big adjustment for both the backs and OL. It takes TIME to coordinate the scheme and a LOT of live reps to be more effective. The semi-live **** they have for these pansy preseason camps aren't giving them the looks they need to fully be effectively coordinated.
Again, this is an area that will likely improve with the preseason game, but also into September and October before we see consistency in the run game.

3. Jacas, I'm sorry to say was a disappointment. About the only thing I liked was his effort. It was always 100%. But he didn't flash any special edge rushing talent. He pressured the QB but never hit him or made him move much. That being said, Richardson is a tough QB to open your career with, with his running ability. But, I was looking for something "special". a burst off the line, or something like that and I didn't see it.

4. The run defense was deplorable. I know it will be better when Durdon, Barmore and Williams are back in there, but still too many 5 and 6 yd games and a 2yd stop was the exception rather than the rule. The whole front 7 was unimpressive all night with few exceptions. Giving up a FG at the end of the half with 28 seconds on the clock to start the drive was embarrassing

5. I hope next week Maye gets at least the first half to work out the kinks against a good Eagle D. If you are planning
on being touted a PHYSICAL team on both the offense and defense, you have to start to put on a few callouses to prepare yourself for the grind

6. I have been one of those banging on Barranger this summer, so it's only fair that I praise him when he is good. Barranger might have been the single best player for the Pats last night. He showed that big leg again both in distance AND hangtime. I only wish the downfield coverage was as good as his punts. Need some work there.

I agree with all of this. The run blocking on offense looked just as anemic as last year. The pass blocking still seems easily confused by any sort of trickery or deception (a thing which could improve, of course, with more reps together). The run defense was genuinely awful. No doubt much of this will be mitigated as the team "gels" on both sides of the ball, but at some point you just run up against the limit of your talents, and I don't think anybody yet knows where that limit actually is. Put together what we saw last night with a much more difficult schedule and there is reason for concern. On the plus side, some of the RB prospects looked darn good, and we really do have some talent at WR. For a backup, DeVito looks more than fine, and I suspect Josh can make good headway over time with some of the weird decision making. He certainly has a lot more upside than last year's backup. And having Drake around means you can put a big fat thumb on our side of scale as you weigh out the team's plusses and the minuses.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Might well be. The "announcing team" was awful. The two brothers are good eggs but did not say much of interest, and Zo, though he seemed somewhat less intoxicated than usual, had little of note to say. (I enjoy listen9ng to him hoot and holler for the radio game coverage with Sosci there to do the actual adult broadcasting job.)The worst thing was that they never identified who did what in a game where many of the players have numbers of which your typical viewer would be totally unaware. So it was a dull game made worse by poorly conceived and produced programming.

^
That's right. After good receptions or runs I had no clue who did them until I later saw the name on the jersey

 

[Family]

56, 55 and 49. None of which are gimmees by any stretch of the imagination.

It's really become a different league.

According to AI 64-67% of 56 yard FGs attempts are now made. Statistically to be average today he would have to hit two.

Let alone 0-3.

 

[Triumph]

And both 4th down runs were running behind Lomu per one of the tweets.

I like Millers size and it appeared that he would have caught a pass in the left flat for a nice game but the QB underthrew.

 

[BennyBledsoe]

....why do so many of you guys trust AI results when we have literal databases that do the same thing?

Anyway. Just a reflection on the change in the kicking game. It took 28 years to even MATCH Dempsey's 63 yarder. 1970 to Jason Elam's 1998 record tying kick. In the 28 years since that record has been tied or broken 11 times.

The top 73 kickers in terms of field goal accuracy since 2000, nearly all have careers that started after 2000. I picked 73 because in the 74th spot is the former #1 all time when he retired in 2004, Gary Anderson.