Tampa Bay

ChrisR2223 said:

I'm in favor of resting Cooks Gronk and Brady this game.
TJ Ward is the player you love having on your team but hatee seeing him go after your guys.

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Why don't the Pats stay home, will this help you?

The good news here is I think the Belichick Pats have done well on short weeks, probably because BB is more efficient in his preparation than most coaches. I always feel pretty good going into Thursday games for some reason.

Defense needs a lot of work for sure, but going into the New Orleans game people were saying the same thing they're saying now: "If this terrible offense did this, a good offense is going to do THIS!" And that ended up being our best defensive effort so far this year. As I said last time, that doesn't mean we're GOING to play well on defense, just that matchups are the life blood of the NFL, and it will not surprise me one bit if we look better against the 9th ranked Bucs than we did against the 31st ranked Panthers.

The Defense made Devin Fungus look like the second coming of Randy Moss. He's hasn't done jack squat is this league up until yesterday being aided by a confused D. I guarantee thatDevin Fungus doesn't have another day like yesterday.

Bet your house and 401k on the over...

Brewskies said:

Why don't the Pats stay home, will this help you?

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I was joking but still hate to see TJ Ward he's right below Bernard Pollard for players I don't want to see on the field against us.

TommyBrady12 said:

Good news it that their defense is nearly as bad as NE’s, being ranked 30th and giving up 400 yards per game. There are definitely holes that can be exploited. The 0-4 Giants were able to move the ball on them.

Bad news is that offensively they are ranked 9th, much higher than Carolina’s. They will be tough to handle with good players like Evans, Brate, Howard and Jackson. Doug Martin returns from suspension today.

I think this can definitely be a bounce back game.

Edit: I forgot they had TJ Ward. Gronk is going to have to look out.

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The reason Tampa Bay's defense has looked so bad the last couple of weeks is due to multiple injuries to key players. We will have to see if those guys are out again Thursday.

Two or their three best defensive players are linebackers Kwon Alexander (hamstring) and LaVonte David (ankle), who have been out. Safety TJ Ward (hip) was out with an injury too, and CB Brent Grimes returned from a shoulder injury. They had others on the defensive line (McCoy, Ayers, Spence) who had been questionable with injuries but played Sunday against the Giants.

I haven't looked at their latest injury report yet. If some from that group return, their defense should improve. I think David was supposed to be out for a month so don't expect him back - which is a good thing for the Pats, he's a very good player.

The offensive skill players are capable of posing a problem for any defense. That group is going to be a big challenge for the Pats coaching staff and players.

There's good news about the game already: TJ Ward is not participating in practices because of a hip. That likely means he won't suit up on Thursday. I don't know about you, but that makes me breathe easier for our players' knees.

The Pats are winning this game. BOOK IT.

The turnaround starts Thursday night.

This is a fairly interesting column for Patriot fans, from the perspective of a Tampa writer:

Here comes the most anticipated Bucs home game ever



It has already been noted that Brady has never played a regular season game in Tampa. The column also points out that Belichick has never won a regular season game there. He was 0-3 at the Old Sombrero when he was with the Giants (though he was of course on the winning end of the Super Bowl played there, when Whitney Houston sang the Star Spangled Banner, BB's game plan was to let Thurman Thomas run for 100 yards, and Wide Right happened.

Brandin Cooks needs more than 38yds per game...that ain't going to cut it.

Their OLine has admitted they're not concerned about the Patriots and are expecting an easy game. I think it was their centre, and I'm paraphrasing here, but it was something like "We still have to respect them, but we're not really expecting too many issues with them".

Setting aside the week-1 debacle against KC ...

In week-2, the Pats D did fine against a dropback passer with not much of a ground game to rely on , and then sucked against two running QBs with decent ground games backing them up.

Winston is much closer to Brees than to Newton or Watson in terms of being a "running QB". For, that matter, Rodgers and Luck have regularly gained more rushing yards in a season than Winston has total in his 2+ year career so far. And Tampa's ground game hasn't been much so far. Winston has completed 63% of his passes, thrown 3 picks and fumbled 3 time in three games.

Seems to me like a good chance for the Pats D to have a bounce back game.

I don't see Tampa's defense being nearly as strong as Houston's or Carolina's, especially with David out, Alexander questionable (hamstring) and two safeties (Tandy and Ward) questionable with hip injuries.

Username said:

Their OLine has admitted they're not concerned about the Patriots and are expecting an easy game. I think it was their centre, and I'm paraphrasing here, but it was something like "We still have to respect them, but we're not really expecting too many issues with them".

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Famous last words?

PatsFan2 said:

Brandin Cooks needs more than 38yds per game...that ain't going to cut it.

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Good thing he's averaging 73.5 per game, second on the team behind Gronk then, eh?

I am shakily predicting a close win by the Pats in a shootout, but this is largely due to the exploits of Tom Brady.

Without Brady, I feel the Bucs win this game rather easily. The set-up for these Thursday Night Football games are atrocious, especially for the visiting team traveling hundreds of miles on extremely short rest to a hostile environment in sweltering heat. The odds stacked against the visitor are manifold under these circumstances.

Be that as it may, I am excited to finally get to see the Pats play for the first time in a month. Due to living in the Chicago-land area and a flexible work-schedule, I have been unable to watch much NFL on Sundays this Fall.

Username said:

Their OLine has admitted they're not concerned about the Patriots and are expecting an easy game. I think it was their centre, and I'm paraphrasing here, but it was something like "We still have to respect them, but we're not really expecting too many issues with them".

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I suspect a lot of teams are going to be sounding off until NE fixes their issues. Once you see the bully get beat up by someone you tend to start thinking you've got a shot. KC celebrated like they had won the SB. CAR was giddy. Every team looks at NE as he barometer. I'm sure we'll hear a lot less from teams when NE finally gets sh*t together. I hope they somehow use this as bulletin board stuff, even if it's not the worse thing I've heard. Something needs to get these guys fired up about defending their Title.

PatsFan2 said:

Brandin Cooks needs more than 38yds per game...that ain't going to cut it.

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Huh? He's averaging a career best 73.5 y/g

How has Brady played on Thursday nights?

mosi said:

How has Brady played on Thursday nights?

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Brady is the least of our problems.

maineman209 said:

In week-2, the Pats D did fine against a dropback passer with not much of a ground game to rely on

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Definitely their best defensive performance this year, although they still allowed 8 plays of 20+ yards through the air.

I agree with what you're saying about Winston, and would like to see more pressure. They're getting picked apart back there.