Malcolm Butler Mega Thread

AndyJohnson said:

It can have a place but we seem to only use it against the wrong teams.
In concept it’s a big nickel with a safety a lb to defend the run better. In practice it’s too small to stop the run and took slow to stop the pass

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Your posts are so fraudulent they are funny!

Almost a day late but it seems people start to slowly realize what some have been saying here even in the GDT thread:



Stop mentioning Richards when you are talking about Butler.

luuked said:

I knew that you would have actually had at least something constructive in mind.

My issue is with all those people that just want Patricia to handwave those magical adjustments so we can finally win that game. To me adjustments has become another one of those buzzwords a lot are using but if you ask them deeper they have no clue.

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Right. It’s an entitlement. We have to make halftime adjustments that change the game and confuse the opponents.

But if you think about it, we made halftime adjustment that turned 12-22 into 33-32.
Unfortunately we couldn’t get a stop, despite forcing a 4th and 2 at the +48 and then the guy who just led 4 consecutive 75+ yard drives and had fumbled one time in 36 playoff games got strip sacked, or we win the game.

luuked said:

Almost a day late but it seems people start to slowly realize what some have been saying here even in the GDT thread:



Stop mentioning Richards when you are talking about Butler.

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Richards is a whole separate problem that everyone has known about for a while. It was painfully predictable this game.

The Butler benching was still a huge mistake. Butler is a good tackler and on an evening where the tackling was a joke, we could have used him. And ya know, also covering receivers on the outside rather than safeties.

Kdo5 said:

Execution was horrible. The missed tackles and absence of almost any pressure destroyed us. I don't recall many occasions of them dialing in the blitzes. Foles was way way too comfortable in the pocket.

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Yeah I think they underestimated how good Philly's line was. There was a couple times they reacted to it with pressure, like the 3rd and 2 from the 40 with 5min left. But honestly it was too late at that point. They needed to dial up some pressure to get them off on 3rd, they just didn't do it enough. They tried a few times late in the first half but they still got burned. That's where Butler missing was most egregious, they just needed a little better coverage on a couple plays.
But, Phillys Oline was really good.

Kdo5 said:

Richards is a whole separate problem that everyone has known about for a while. It was painfully predictable this game.

The Butler benching was still a huge mistake. Butler is a good tackler and on an evening where the tackling was a joke, we could have used him. And ya know, also covering receivers on the outside rather than safeties.

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The point is that people keep bringing Richards up as someone who they thought played because Butler got benched. I think within an hour of the game I tried to explain to those people that Richards played actually less than his season average in terms of snap percentage (20% vs. 25% avg) and would have been on the field even if nothing had happened to Butler.

What I haven't seen answered is why was Butler even active?

Sure, 1 ST snap for the punt team.

If BB's decision was really about giving the Patriots the best chance to win then he would have included Harris or Branch who would have likely had more impact than Butler who was on the sidelines all night.

I think it reveals so much about BB's personality and ego. Sure he is the all time greatest coach but as a person, he is less than desirable.

Leaving it until the anthems to tell Butler he wasn't playing is callous and unprofessional.

For a player who was on the field for nearly 98% of the defensive snaps it is staggering watching a much less talented and far less experienced CB (Rowe) take Butler's place in the starting line up as well as having Richards and Badesmosi who are ST players take snaps instead of Butler. It's sickening and it is the reason we lost.

There was a ripple effect because for a team that had so many injuries you can't just sit Butler, it meant for less effective players took meaningful snaps and allowed the Eagles so many more chances to score point.

Butler in the slot would have slowed down Nelson and Torrey Smith and he would have tackled better.

If I'm Brady I'm furious with all the coaches.

Brady6 said:

So wasn’t every other coach who coached with a hall of fame QB. It is correlation not causation.

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OMG. I'm out of here.

luuked said:

Almost a day late but it seems people start to slowly realize what some have been saying here even in the GDT thread:



Stop mentioning Richards when you are talking about Butler.

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Some other pertinent things:

Richards only played 16 snaps.
Bademosi played 11, most of not all when chung was out for 12 snaps injured.

Harmon played 65

McCourty and gillmore played all 75 and Rowe 71.

The plan was clearly to play McCourty Ching Harmon and 2 corners in the big nickel as base and there were a handful of plays where we went to dime.

JJC said:

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You will have better luck at the Kremlin.

Bella*chick said:

He practiced lousy and was likely weak from illness so who knows if he would have made a difference.

What I don’t get is not even trying him after the half or something. Anything. How can you know if you don’t try? The eagles scored nearly every possession anyway.

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where did you hear he was weak at practice? the reports were full participation
and a “focused” week of practice.

if my hunch is correct, and the flu story was a cover for his antics in foxborough over the weekend, then it would explain the separate flight and missed additional flight.

we learned of a
“separate” flight on wed, the first day of practice...what if he arrived too late for even the start of practice?

i kept asking, was butler
on the flight or quarantined and we never got an answer on that monday when the flight landed; we only got that info on wed, almost like it was a surprise to the team. and, then a fully healthy butler is sitting there answering media questions on thursday.

if really any of these stories are true, it is a horrible look for butler who is now a free agent. and, when bb gives up on you, especially if you’re good, that player ends up
simply fading away.

no way bb would dress
and bench butler if he just had the flu.

i do think bb was not wanting to reward butler by playing him, but also he felt smallish, more zone style cb, wouldn’t work with with what the gameplan was vs larger wrs.

nothing more, nothing less and the guy butler
would have best matched up with as a way to take out smith, would have beem butler, but smith was taken out already likely by maybe mccourty off
camera. bademosi only played 11
snaps so there is no way he can be blamed here

AndyJohnson said:

Brandon browner said the same thing for what that’s worth.

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Browner was just repeating that tweet. He doesnt know any more than we do either.

Addictive said:

What I haven't seen answered is why was Butler even active?

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He was the only real corner we had if there was an injury.

Sure, 1 ST snap for the punt team.

If BB's decision was really about giving the Patriots the best chance to win then he would have included Harris or Branch who would have likely had more impact than Butler who was on the sidelines all night.

I think it reveals so much about BB's personality and ego. Sure he is the all time greatest coach but as a person, he is less than desirable.

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Please explain to us all how well you know him and what interactions you are basing your judgment on.

Leaving it until the anthems to tell Butler he wasn't playing is callous and unprofessional.

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Putting his coach and teammates in this position by not taking the Sb seriously and being benched is much more unprofessional.

For a player who was on the field for nearly 98% of the defensive snaps it is staggering watching a much less talented and far less experienced CB (Rowe) take Butler's place in the starting line up as well as having Richards and Badesmosi who are ST players take snaps instead of Butler. It's sickening and it is the reason we lost.

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Might be. Shame on butler.

There was a ripple effect because for a team that had so many injuries you can't just sit Butler, it meant for less effective players took meaningful snaps and allowed the Eagles so many more chances to score point.

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thd team had no one in its final injury report.

[qiote]Butler in the slot would have slowed down Nelson and Torrey Smith and he would have tackled better.[/quote]
Not if his head was up he’s @ss.

If I'm Brady I'm furious with all the coaches.

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Just one of a multitude of reasons you aren’t brady.

pwes said:

Browner was just repeating that tweet. He doesnt know any more than we do either.

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You don’t know that.

AndyJohnson said:

I would have gone bigger to stop the run and blitzed more on passing downs.
Especially in the second half the passing was set up by the run. They rarely threw from bad down and distance.
Given that they were getting big plays anyway, sending more blitzes to at least speed Foles up couldn’t have hurt.

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I agree they needed to try something different, but Philly's offensive line is the real deal. Their communication is impeccable and they picked up almost every blitz and stunt the Pats ran last night. The only success we had in the pass rush was Harrison physically dominating their left tackle on the bull rush and Brown/Guy getting inconsistent push up the middle, in which case Foles effortlessly glided out of the pocket, and Harrison's pressure was too slow to have a consistent impact on Foles.

luuked said:

The point is that people keep bringing Richards up as someone who they thought played because Butler got benched. I think within an hour of the game I tried to explain to those people that Richards played actually less than his season average in terms of snap percentage (20% vs. 25% avg) and would have been on the field even if nothing had happened to Butler.

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True. I'm just saying I truly think that if Butler played we would have made at least 2 stops on those scoring drives and that would have been enough for us to win. Rowe was mediocre in his place, Bademosi should not have been on the field.

AndyJohnson said:

Some other pertinent things:

Richards only played 16 snaps.
Bademosi played 11, most of not all when chung was out for 12 snaps injured.

Harmon played 65

McCourty and gillmore played all 75 and Rowe 71.

The plan was clearly to play McCourty Ching Harmon and 2 corners in the big nickel as base and there were a handful of plays where we went to dime.

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Bingo. I have no idea why they thought Rowe on Jeffrey was the way to go either. Gilmore on Jeffrey was the obvious choice from the beginning, not at half.

Even a sick butler could have worked over the smaller agholor.

alvinnf said:

Your posts are so fraudulent they are funny!

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I’m sorrry if they are over your head

Mack Herron said:

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Star players have had bad practices before and played. I believe Butler was benched because he was already not in Belichick's good graces.