Malcolm Butler Mega Thread

Whatever happened it couldn't of been that bad or he'd just of been inactive.

Galeb said:

LMAO. You're right, it's silly to argue that the Pats almost certainly would have given up less points if their starting CB2 played when his replacement struggled mightily.

You do know that players can't miss tackles if they're not on the field, right? LMFAO!

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Yes, I know that players can't miss tackles if their not on the field. But I also know that tt wasn't just Richards who missed tackles. McCourty missed. Harmon Missed. Van Noy Missed. Harrison missed. Bademosi missed a tackle. And what's to say that Butler wouldn't have missed a tackle if he'd played? You just don't know and Neither do I.

All you have is pure speculation. That's about as valuable as monkey poop thrown at the stock pages..

Ras-IR Dowling said:

This is a huge area that needs to be addressed over the spring and summer. Find players who can defend the RPO well. We struggled against this not tonight but all season, Carolina and Houston come to mind.

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I certainly hope we wont have to see players like Richards or Elandon Roberts next year in September anymore. That would be a bad sign.

I dont think RPOs are a big deal at all. I sincerely doubt that those will stay relevant beyond next year.

I have no doubt in my mind that Butler playing would have made a difference on at least a couple plays. He's a good tackler and that was their biggest problem tonight. A couple plays could have made a huge difference in this game.

I don't know why the decision was made but short of him killing someone it was a bad decision and I think it cost them the game.

It's always the team above all else. But if you don't play someone that could help you win how is that putting the team first?

Banjo said:

I don't think anyone will blame Butler when he decides to leave. You can't "buy in" on a coach after something like this.

The way they traded Jimmy, benching Butler. These are BAD moves by Belichick and I can't help but wonder if this season was a "jump the shark" moment for him.

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It has been said again and again.. Butler has been gone since last offseason when he rejected the Pats offer.

StockingAnarchyNumber12 said:

We lost because:

- Butler benched
- Illegal td by Philly which gifted them 6
- Brady fumble
- Brady drop
- Missed Xp/fg

Benching butler was bad, but change the outcome of any of those? We likely win.

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Brady drop was the result of bad timing. None of those trick cute plays were working and the eagles were in amendola face right before the play even developed.

If anything blame McDaniels for looking at game film of the last time these two teams played on YouTube and thinking yea man let' do that again.

Just pathetic

I haven’t read through all of this, burn i am going to say right now that B.B. better have a good reason for why he didn’t play one of our best players in the game. Instead I got to watch Richards stink it up lore times than one. And hey, when you know your defense can’t stop a ****ing cold, what is your reason? Did Butler snort a line of blow? Did he shoot up some heroin? What did the guy do soooo well throughout the year that you all of a sudden felt he wasn’t good enough for? Because to be honest, that guy is better than Richards any day of the week. WTF was that?!?

Anyone saying we can't really say whether Butler's benching cost the team should consider the domino effect of not having him out there caused: instead of having him on Agholor, which is what many predicted, you had Chung on him (?????), and then Jordan Richards on Zack Ertz. I mean just horrific stuff.

Ras-IR Dowling said:

Butler looking bad in warmups goes along with the “they gave up on me” line but doesn’t mesh with players like Dmac knowing he wasn’t part of the gameplan

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Is it just his “the plan” quote right now? That still seems awfully ambiguous to me, and I haven’t seen anything more specific. “The plan” could have just been to try out Butler pregame, where the final decision wasn’t made until right before the game.

SalemPats said:

Agreed. But our front 7 is not very good and was horrible today. Our secondary is our bread and butter. Benching Butler made us a worse defense today. There is no arguing that, we just saw the proof. The fact that he played ST, but did not even get one defensive snap, Rowe and Gilmore were unaware he was getting benched and he practiced in warmups as a starter. This story is mind-boggling. He played 97% of our snaps.

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We clearly missed Hightower and having a true NT with Alan Branch out. As much as I like Malcolm Brown, I think he's better as the UnderTackle or a DE in a 3 man set than as the NT. RJF and Guy also make good rotational DEs..

I don't know if Roberts will ever learn not to over-commit to his gap. He did so a few times and ended up on the sidelines in favor of Marquis Flowers.

I was disappointed that we didn't see much of Wise tonight. I think that allowed the Eagles to key on Trey Flowers and limit the Patriots pass-rush.

Sciz said:

Is it just his “the plan” quote right now? That still seems awfully ambiguous to me, and I haven’t seen anything more specific. “The plan” could have just been to try out Butler pregame, where the final decision wasn’t made until right before the game.

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Then why not make him inactive?

I wonder if this 'looked bad in warmups' is just going to be the catch all excuse.

It’s really bugging me as well. I’d like to know why so I can sleep

DaBruinz said:

We clearly missed Hightower and having a true NT with Alan Branch out. As much as I like Malcolm Brown, I think he's better as the UnderTackle or a DE in a 3 man set than as the NT. RJF and Guy also make good rotational DEs..

I don't know if Roberts will ever learn not to over-commit to his gap. He did so a few times and ended up on the sidelines in favor of Marquis Flowers.

I was disappointed that we didn't see much of Wise tonight. I think that allowed the Eagles to key on Trey Flowers and limit the Patriots pass-rush.

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The Hightower injury really hurt our defense. Our LB corps was probably the slowest in the league. I can't remember a season where our corners made as many tackles against the run as this one.

Modest said:

I wonder if this 'looked bad in warmups' is just going to be the catch all excuse.

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100%, coaches are not watching their own players in warmup, there watching the other team to see how they look.

Ras-IR Dowling said:

Then why not make him inactive?

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Because as you have seen with Cooks injuries happen and we were already missing J. Jones as a depth option.

SalemPats said:

The Hightower injury really hurt our defense. Our LB corps was probably the slowest in the league. I can't remember a season where our corners made as many tackles against the run as this one.

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Hightower's great but he isn't exactly a burner. He can't stay healthy either. This team needs some athleticism when it comes to the linebackers.

They lost because they played bad.
The Seagulls weren't much better.

The Pats were just BAD!!! Butler would not have saved the day.

Butler should man up, just like the rest of us.

Wrath Mania said:

Anyone saying we can't really say whether Butler's benching cost the team should consider the domino effect of not having him out there caused: instead of having him on Agholor, which is what many predicted, you had Chung on him (?????), and then Jordan Richards on Zack Ertz. I mean just horrific stuff.

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This. The main argument isn't whether Butler would have played great or even good. It's the domino effect.

BB just said this loss is on him and kinda agree. Bad coaching today.