Amendola did not choke and if Brady6 isn’t bashing him you shouldn’t either…

I have read through many threads and I see a lot of Danny Amendola bashing going on and frankly I don’t get it. I have consistently been anti-Amendola for much of the season and went back and forth with many posters about him not being worthy of his contract and failing to meet the expectations that came along with replacing Wes Welker. Today however I thought Amendola played his best ball game in a Patriots uniform and he was the primary cog in the team even being within scoring range.

The common theme is that Amendola choked today and that is far from the truth. Choking is when a player does not make a play that he generally would make 99.9% of the time due to the pressure of the situation. The play that Amendola did not make the reception on was a 50/50 play no matter the situation and if he had made that reception it would have been one of the best plays of the season. Could Danny have made the play? Yes absolutely but him not making the play is not had the same likelihood if not more so I am not going to fault him for that, the fact is the Dolphins DBs are in the NFL for a reason because they’re the best at what they do in the world so in my opinion them making a play when it counts is not shocking. In week 4 Talib made a play on Roddy White to knock away a ball we all celebrated nobody suggested that Roddy White was a choke-artist.

I for one walk away from this week’s game cautiously optimistic when assessing Amendola. He stepped up today and that to me is what we should all take away from this game that on the final drive when we needed plays Danny got it done and gave us a shot, his not pulling in what would have been an outstanding catch does not take from that. This is the happiest I have been with Amendola all season. I think Ivan, AJ, DaBruinz and many others can attest to the fact if Amendola deserved any crisitisim for his play I would be at the front of that line with an air horn letting it be known, the guy played a great game – 14 targets, 10 receptions, 131 receiving yards and 9 first downs. Give the guy the credit he deserves he did not lose this game for us him and Edelman are actually the only reasons we had a shot, period.

People are blaming Amendola for the loss? Clearly they drank too much or perhaps they're just morons.

He was fantastic today. I agree with you; best game as a Patriot.

I only blame Amendola for not being a few inches taller on that fade route.

Rob0729 said:

I only blame Amendola for not being a few inches taller on that fade route.

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Even if he was the DB made a great play. The Dolphins aren't a bad football team, they have a lot of talent on both sides of the football.

I can't remember the time situation or yardage situation but when we were around the 30 yard line of Miami, I wish we'd taken at least 2 shots to the end-zone from there. Simply cause once you're much closer, it obviously gets harder with a shorter field.

Really frustrated about how we couldn't get it in though. Even moreso about the no-call on Hooman's defender.

That would just be crazy to place blame on Amendola for this one. This was arguably his second best game of the year.

Danny was great today, i'm just hoping he stays healthy

That end zone pass breakup was in no way an Amendola drop. It was just a failure to somehow be brilliant enough to preclude the DB's play.

This the danny i saw last year :rocker:


Thompkins and dobson need to return so the pats can activate the 4 wide reciever set.

Nikolai said:

People are blaming Amendola for the loss? Clearly they drank too much or perhaps they're just morons.

He was fantastic today. I agree with you; best game as a Patriot.

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He blew the pass that would have won the game, because he didn't catch it properly, and he gave the defender the opportunity to break it up. It should come as no surprise that people are blaming him.

There are plenty of people who earned a "what if he hadn't...". Amendola's one of them.

People blaming amendola....idiots


This was a team loss. On O and on D.

Win as a team...lose as a team

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He had a very good game, no doubt, but he's being paid $6m to make that catch. How much is he worth simply to be a reliable slot WR but not a Star? He needs to make that catch if we're to have any chance of replacing Gronk's Red Zone prowess. That said, I'm not blaming him for the loss but I am disappointed that he didn't give us a big play.

Aßßynormal said:

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He had a very good game, no doubt, but he's being paid $6m to make that catch. How much is he worth simply to be a reliable slot WR but not a Star? He needs to make that catch if we're to have any chance of replacing Gronk's Red Zone prowess. That said, I'm not blaming him for the loss but I am disappointed that he didn't give us a big play.

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He made big plays the whole game, just sucks everyone only chooses to remember the ball he didn't come up with...

Brady_to_Moss said:

People blaming amendola....idiots


This was a team loss. On O and on D.

Win as a team...lose as a team

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And on ST. Gostkowski had his worst game all year. I thought on ST, with the missed FG, and the kickoff out of bounds, was where we lost the game.

The loss is all on that lousy defense and ST. First Ghost's kick gives the Dolfs the ball on the 40, then the D can't stop them from making a big advancement on a 3rd and 19, then failing miserably from stopping them from making a 4th and 5 conversion, and finally a long pass on the left side puts them at least at FG range.

I understand we're missing a few key play-makers (Mayo, Wilfork, etc.), but this D is broken way beyond these few guys. The defense needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. This team has no chance in the playoffs. And before anyone comes back at me with the "as long as we have Brady and BB, we have a chance...." bullcrap, just realize that defenses win championships. And right now, the way our defense is playing, we'll be one and done. Last year at least we had the number 1 offense, which would put points on the board to give us big leads (ala Broncos this year). But this year, we're missing so much on offense and thus, can't accumulate points to give our defense room to breath. The margin for error this year is almost non-existent.

Pretty sure Amendola was not brought here to make a contested catch on a fade route in the endzone. That is Thompkins and Dobson work.

Deus Irae said:

He blew the pass that would have won the game, because he didn't catch it properly, and he gave the defender the opportunity to break it up. It should come as no surprise that people are blaming him.

There are plenty of people who earned a "what if he hadn't...". Amendola's one of them.

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That's blowing a pass?

So if we follow the logic that we can't bash a player unless Brady does so first, then we can never be critical of any players.

I thought our OL was our worst unit on the field yesterday. I know there are extenuating circumstances. Vollmer out for the year and Solder got dinged. They allowed pressure on TFB nearly every play. Ryan Wendell did something yesterday I don't recall ever seeing in a football game. I'm 52 and have followed the NFL for 40 years. He missed two blocks on one pass play. The 3rd and 8 on the last drive right before the 4th down completion. Miami ran a stunt and he passed the guy off to his left and nobody was there to block him. First mistake. Another Dolphin was about 2 steps behind him. Wendell having nobody to block is standing there and gets caught flat-footed and the 2nd guy runs around him. Unbelievable. We need to replace him and Connolly. Sign a vet for one spot and draft someone for the other.

AzorianPats said:

And on ST. Gostkowski had his worst game all year. I thought on ST, with the missed FG, and the kickoff out of bounds, was where we lost the game.

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Agreed AzorianPats.
That seemed pretty clear to me and I bet he'd say the same thing. If anyone choked today it was Ghost. Amendola was very good today and certainly didn't choke on that catch in the end zone. I thought he was going to cry when they asked him about it in the postgame interview. He is just too short to make that catch and he doesn't have the ups to make up for it. Without Gronk this team is height-challenged.

Wonder if Randy Moss can still play.