The Official Patriots vs Broncos POST game thread

ausbacker said:

Some people think that wasn't a reason for Flacco's performance against the Patriots.

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This was on the 27 yarder that led to the TD to put it within 2...

I thought the new refs were supposed to be better, yet we have two screenshots of the exact same thing, and they both missed it.

Joker said:

next time half this board goes off bashing one of the corners perhaps they should wait and see if there's an underlying reason why the opposing QB has so much time to pick out his targets...

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That was horrible and pissed me off to no end.

Chandler is getting absolutely nothing from the refs.

Joker said:

next time half this board goes off bashing one of the corners perhaps they should wait and see if there's an underlying reason why the opposing QB has so much time to pick out his targets...

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If you zoom in, Chandler Jones is holding on this play. The referee should have called Illegal Use of the Chin Strap.

goheels22002 said:

If you zoom in, Chandler Jones is holding on this play. The referee should have called Illegal Use of the Chin Strap.

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That is one blind referee. That stuff happened right in front of him and he still didn't see it. Wow.

DaBruinz said:

That's funny coming from you, Kontra. The guy with the Ceasar from Gladiator as his avatar.. You know the guy who had a real Napolean complex.

And the way you said it made it sound like you were. Sorry if you weren't.

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Nope. It was just a generalization. And the avatar has more to do with the scene than the actual movie itself.

State said:

About the only guy who was subpar was Daniel Fells, who whiffed on the block on von Miller just before half and miffed a couple of pass plays.

It'll be dynamite to have Aaron back. Or the Hawaiian. Or bring back Gronk's brother. Fells needs to do better.

Why don't we throw more to Branch? I think defenses just leave him in single coverage. One of these days he should haul in a long-gainer.

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In the rush to make ignorant evaluations of the defense, patsfans.com does miss the one area of actual concern......

The pattern of not closing games out cleanly.

My thoughts during the game;

Someone please drop-kick me through the uprights the next time I complain about Woodhead getting the ball on third and long.

The Pats offense is so good that they look terrible even when they put up 31 points.

Bill, I didn't realize that you were listening to me about the running game and I certainly didn't think you'd go from pass-happy to run-happy. Thanks buddy.

The next person here who complains about Rob Ninkovich is going to get drop-kicked through the uprights. He makes far too many big plays to be considered a scrub.

The new P6 looks a lot like the old P6 but without any zip on his passes. He still does that same ridiculous two-handed head slap and shoulder shrug when a teammate makes a mistake though.

Speaking of PMoney (ahem), he still doesn't do too well with the media. You'd think that by now he'd be better at avoiding the dark alleys with them.

Why do other teams make so many really boneheaded plays (fumbles, dropped passes, dumb penalties, etc) when they play us? It seems like we get the benefit of more than our fair share of those.

What happened to that easy schedule that all of the Pathaterheads were spouting off about in the preseason. Maybe it's the Pats that make their schedule look easy.

Is it me or is the AFC making a little comeback after a lousy start vs the NFC this year. I hope so.

No offense to BJGE, but I'll gladly trade him for the explosiveness the young RBs bring, in spite of the occasional fumble.

My wife doesn't like football much, but as we watched Belichick's press conference she commented that he doesn't look like they won. She thought it was hilarious. I did too.

Josh McDaniels was clearly frustrated with Belichick when the Pats didn't take a shot at the end-zone for one more play before settling for a FG at the end of the 1st half.

I've noticed that the snaps on the FG and EP attempts all seem to be a little bit too much to the inside and take a little more time to get down.

I've come to the conclusion that Patrick Chung isn't the answer for us at safety.

Man, are we lucky fans.

Unlike last year, we'll truly get to see what this team is made of in the regular season. Although the schedule is overall not all that daunting IMO, you still can't find 3 much tougher tests than Baltimore, Houston, and SF.

We did lose the Bmore game but I felt like we definitely should've won that game on their field, though if they get T Suggs back at full strength it'll be a much tougher task later on. Still, I feel like that was a more encouraging sign than last year losing to our 2 toughest opponents, and in the Steeler game we were really outplayed more than the score indicated.

While they are not 'must-wins' by definition, I think we have to win those games against Houston and SF to prove it to ourselves. That's the point in the season where we will hopefully be playing our best on both sides of the ball, and both games are at home. Win those games and I feel extremely confident going into January.

Zolak on the play of McCourty:

"Frustrating"


It's not just posters on Patsfans.com, despite what some here seem to think.

Deus Irae said:

Zolak on the play of McCourty:

"Frustrating"


It's not just posters on Patsfans.com, despite what some here seem to think.

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Hey, while you are at it, what does Matt Millen have to say?

Let's find an expert with a track record to back it up.

Ian, make it stop!!!!!!!!!!!!

goheels22002 said:

If you zoom in, Chandler Jones is holding on this play. The referee should have called Illegal Use of the Chin Strap.

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The hilarious part is the ref staring straight at it from 10 feet away.

I owe Ninkovich a cyber apologyfor pissing on him earlier (probably to McDaniels as well). Ninko looked like a different player pass rush-wise, although i have to think he got sealed on a few of the McGhahee runs. People like me that want pro-bowlers at every position should probably stay out of the game threads. :stars2:

Josh McD looks like a genius again all the sudden. Keep in mind, the Pats still have no legit deep threat, and Von Miller was terrorizing Brady all day. Great playcalling and scheming to create favorable matchups and move the ball in spite of being hamstrung by not having any burner/tall receiving threats on the outside.

Dennard already possesses more pure skill as a CB than McCourty will ever have. Won't be long before Devin becomes CB3 or a Safety imo. In spite of what others are saying about DB coaching, DM looks shell-shocked to me. Some of his PIs are just hard to watch. I still like Arrington because the mofo can tackle.

Pay Welker already. Do they really want to franchise him again at what, $11-12 million next year? (maybe, I guess--the guy is a trooper if there ever was one. Seems like the Pats have taken advantage of that somewhat.)

JMarr said:

I still like Arrington because the mofo can tackle.

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Can't cover though.

What was he thinking on the Stokley TD too? He stopped covering his man because he was looking into the backfield to play the run!

PATSYLICIOUS said:

Unlike last year, we'll truly get to see what this team is made of in the regular season. Although the schedule is overall not all that daunting IMO, you still can't find 3 much tougher tests than Baltimore, Houston, and SF.

We did lose the Bmore game but I felt like we definitely should've won that game on their field, though if they get T Suggs back at full strength it'll be a much tougher task later on. Still, I feel like that was a more encouraging sign than last year losing to our 2 toughest opponents, and in the Steeler game we were really outplayed more than the score indicated.

While they are not 'must-wins' by definition, I think we have to win those games against Houston and SF to prove it to ourselves. That's the point in the season where we will hopefully be playing our best on both sides of the ball, and both games are at home. Win those games and I feel extremely confident going into January.

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I hate even thinking about that game. The replacement refs kept it from being a Pats win by a blowout, but they also cost them the game outright by missing the call on the missed FG.

As a result, the Pats are far more likely to meet the Ravens in Baltimore if they meet in the playoffs, and that just blows on so many levels.




The only positive coming out of that game was that Bernard Pollard played and no Pats were lost for the season.

fnordcircle said:

Was it just me or was Chung out of position on a number of plays?

I don't claim to be a football scientist but when your safety is upfield of the corner something might be wrong.

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Yates touched on this in his post on ESPN Boston...

Picked-up pieces from 2nd-half review - New England Patriots Blog - ESPN Boston

The Gr8est said:

I hate even thinking about that game. The replacement refs kept it from being a Pats win by a blowout, but they also cost them the game outright by missing the call on the missed FG.

As a result, the pats are far more likely to meet the Ravens in Baltimore if they meet in the playoffs, and that just blows on so many levels.




The only positive coming out of that game was that Bernard Pollard played and no Pats were lost for the season.

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Yeah I rarely use the ref excuse but that game was definitely an exception. They completely took the game over and changed it. I honestly didn't see the last couple drives of the firrst half because I turned the game off I was so disgusted. Admittedly I did eventually go back and start watching in the 2nd half again, but it was the first time I've ever turned a Pats game off since becoming a fan in 1994. And I've watched games in full where they've gotten hammered from start to finish. But I just couldn't take it anymore, I was that effing angry and disgusted by what I was seeing.

Didn't want to start a thread, so I'll dump this here.

The other notable aspect was how Stevan Ridley still had the high snap total among running backs (45, compared to 22 for Brandon Bolden and 20 for Danny Woodhead) even as the Patriots played fast. In Week 3 at Baltimore, when the Patriots also favored more of no-huddle/play-fast approach, Danny Woodhead received the majority of the snaps (51 to Ridley's 26). That was one follow-up question several readers had in Week 3, "Why can't Ridley still get the majority of work when the Patriots play fast?"

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New England Patriots Blog - ESPN Boston

I've been bemoaning the use of Woodhead because i think he's limited. Besides getting a better balance through a better running option, notice the opportunities Woodhead had because he was in in "passing" situations. He's a handy, heady player, but he needs to be in situations where the opportunities for a surprise run/catch are there IMO. There's a role if he can hold off Vereen, but it's not as the primary ball carrier in a game IMO.

Eli after seeing his brother Fumble the Ball

Some thoughts after seeing a Pats game in its entirety since week 1:

- Last year the Pats O took the no-huddle into warp-drive speed under BOB, but it still was a pass-heavy (shotgun-heavy) offense. This year JMcD tweaked that discipline by adding a big dose of power running. I cannot imagine how tiring this must be to a D. In addition to the tearing it up on the ground, this was exemplified by the 14 men on the field call...the Broncos couldn't wait to rotate their guys as they were huffin' and puffin'.

- I need to review the game at nfl.com, but it did appear that when Brady was under center, it was a run the bulk of the time. If they indeed were giving away such an obvious key and still had the success they had on the ground, that says a lot to their execution and their ability to impose their will on the game.

- For the first half, when the Pats weren't running the ball it was the Brady-to-Welker show. It's easy to wonder why the Broncos "weren't covering" Welker better, but between the success of the run, Gronk's matchup issues in the secondary and Lloyd has to be accounted for as a deep threat, how can Denver really allocate the extra attention to him? Maybe they were ready to bracket him at several points throughout the game, except the Pats used those plays to run the ball down their throats instead.

- Chandler Jones is such a treat to watch. Lines up on both sides of the line, hand-down or standing up, has that DeMarcus Ware-like ability to bring the heat without appearing to put in much effort (unlike the ferocity of Jared Allen), sets the edge so well on the run vs. tackles much bigger than him, collapses the pocket with a veteran's toolbag of moves. The refs have to get their act together and start calling the insane amount of holds against him, particularly around the neck.

- The front 7 as a whole hasn't been this good since the 2007 days of Seymour, Bruschi, Vrabel and Colvin were plugged in. Ninko had a great game. Kyle Love is a legitimate DT next to Wilfork. Cunningham continues to be a beast as a substitute DT...and he was even in on the goalline D on that McGahee fumble. Mayo was all over the place yesterday, even rushing the passer and Spikes continues his run-stuffing ways. With Hightower's return, this unit is title-contending.

- McCourty's play reminds me of early 2010 when he had great coverage, but awful ball awareness. He turned it around...like he needs to do with his head as the ball arrives...around the Ravens/Chargers games around this deep into the season. I hope he's about to rediscover his latter 2010 form.

- That being said, Demarrius Thomas clearly is in sync with Manning and looks like one of those matchup nightmares a la Vincent Jackson and other huge WRs.

- Arrington finished 2011 as their best cover corner (his excellent game vs. Victor Cruz in SB46 went overlooked in the loss), but appears to have slipped a bit. I bet he rounds into form as the year progresses.

- Safeties. I dunno. Give Tavon more playing time? Move McCourty there for several plays depending on the opponent or game situation?

Regards,
Chris

these screenshots show that Jones was being held and the refs missed it

(Screen shot courtesy of NFL.com/GameRewind)

(Screen shot courtesy of NFL.com/GameRewind)

(Screen shot courtesy of NFL.com/GameRewind)

(Screen shot courtesy of NFL.com/GameRewind)


Tom Brady-Peyton Manning Duel Decided By Sterling Moore And Other Leftover Thoughts « CBS Boston

“To make it short, we worked on it all week,” Bailey said, via Tom Curran of CSNNE.com. “That lets you know right there. You gotta translate things from the meeting room and practice field to the game. Coaches can’t go out there and play for us. We gotta make sure we put ourselves in position to make plays and get off the field on third down. We worked on everything they did to us. There wasn’t no surprises. They just hit us in the mouth and we didn’t hit back hard enough.”

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Champ Bailey: Patriots hit us in the mouth, we didn’t hit back | ProFootballTalk