Looking at the pressure Brady was under last night

PatsFan2 said:

As Coach cap would say "Thanks Dad Ferentz" Ted Karras much better.

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Neither of them are Andrews but at least they were able to run up the A-gaps on dives with Karras in there. Ferentz held up better than I thought in Houston and was useless yesterday.

Kid~Brady said:

Man.
Props to Brady. After being so down on this game almost the whole time, after that 1st down scramble in the 4th quarter, he was so pumped. Even Bill was on the sidelines doing the first down point.

The man still has that fire in him and wants to win. Love Brady. Just hope he's here until he retires.

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That Bill first down hand was amazing. He never does that.

Ian said:

Nice piece by Hurley, with about 7-8 Gifs showing the pressure Brady was dealing with last night:

You Can't Blame Tom Brady And Other Leftover Patriots Thoughts

Another reminder that despite the lack of depth at receiver, the offensive line has also been a mess this year and certainly has made this season harder than it's needed to be.

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protection was atrocious in the first half especially.

I liked what I saw in the second half a lot more

The OL wasn’t making the blocks, that much is clear.

I am an old time fan from 1960. I agree with your assessment. There is no way
that the available 2020 salary cap money can remedy their current offensive
problems plus pay for the expiring contracts of Brady, Karras, Thuney, Dorset,
Slater, Ebner, McCourty, Bethel, Collins, Roberts, VanNoy, and Shelton. I'm
afraid that the next decade, without Brady, with begin as a non-contending team.
I wonder what action Belichick will take with Gilmore's ballooning contract?

Keyser Söze said:

Mason and Cannon picked a bad time to have down years.

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And Andrews being on IR, the whole line has been in flux right from the start. The only solid lineman has been Thuney. Combine this with the revolving door at wr adds up to TB not having time to build a repore with them. In the past brady hasn't needed HOF typ recievers to get the job done because the o-line has given him time. At this time i think brady is hearing footsteps and making bad decisions or throws.

Give some credit to Spagnulo.

He obviously has a good handle on our protection tendencies.

He's always dialed in when he plays us, scheming blitzes to beat our OL.

condon84 said:

Give some credit to Spagnulo.

He obviously has a good handle on our protection tendencies.

He's always dialed in when he plays us, scheming blitzes to beat our OL.

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They didn’t really even need to blitz last night. They were getting pressure with four.

Pape said:

The center of the line is soft. Center and guard play is soft, both in run and pass protection. Especially pass protection. The line is really missing David Andrews in the center position.

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The thing is, Andrews isn't particularly stout at C. He often gets overpowered by larger DTs.

But he is an absolute technician who uses his hands and feet extremely well, gets to the second level in the running game, and knows every line call as well as possible.

No idea if his absence is hurting Mason, but I'd wager it is, at least to an extent - especially in pass blocking.

Regardless, Mason has been scary bad. Like legitimately concerning to the point that I really hope he's injured, otherwise this is one of the largest regressions I've seen from a player in a single season. If for whatever reason this isn't a fluke season, and he just lost his ability, that contract is fairly problematic.

Cannon concerns me less. He hasn't been as bad as Mason, and he's older and has wear and tear, it's to be expected. But man, Mason worries me a lot - something isn't right with him.

Worth noting that Brendan Daly is the DL coach for the Chiefs, and he was here previously for several seasons. Probably had a good idea of how to attack this OL.

Mason has been awful most of the year. Very problematic given his huge contract.

looks like Belichick may have given the big extension to the wrong guard. Thuney has been the best OL on the team by a huge margin all year and he’s probably going to leave at the end of the year.

NYCPATS4LIFE said:

I read somwhere he was dealing with something. Don’t known if it’s physical or emotional.

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That was one long way to say "I know nothing".

condon84 said:

Give some credit to Spagnulo.

He obviously has a good handle on our protection tendencies.

He's always dialed in when he plays us, scheming blitzes to beat our OL.

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What protection tendencies??? This team has protection tendencies?

Viper652 said:

To me the real criticism of Brady is not throwing to Meyers on 4th down and instead to Edelman.

Am I wrong? Meyers looked open

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Myers sucks. He can't catch.
He pouts and looks overwhelmed and confused.

robertweathers said:

His play has slipped this year no question. So has Shaq's.

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Cannon probably doesn’t have much left. Won’t be surprised if he retires.

I said this in the GDT, All of the TB doubters will be the 1st ones crying when he is gone.

You don't realize how lucky we are to have him.

The O line has been the number one issue this season.
Everything else can be overcome.
The team is getting better every week except there. IMO.

Being perennial winners doesn't help with draft picks either.
And as another poster mentioned, salary cap room is a potential problem next year as well.

Viper652 said:

To me the real criticism of Brady is not throwing to Meyers on 4th down and instead to Edelman.

Am I wrong? Meyers looked open

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On the replay, sure, he looked like he had a step. Then again, there's a very real possibility he drops that one, too.

Jimke said:

I am an old time fan from 1960. I agree with your assessment. There is no way
that the available 2020 salary cap money can remedy their current offensive
problems plus pay for the expiring contracts of Brady, Karras, Thuney, Dorset,
Slater, Ebner, McCourty, Bethel, Collins, Roberts, VanNoy, and Shelton. I'm
afraid that the next decade, without Brady, with begin as a non-contending team.
I wonder what action Belichick will take with Gilmore's ballooning contract?

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I’m with you. I don’t see sufficient resources to fix the many jaggy holes on the roster.
3/5’s of OL minimum, 2-3 TEs, multiple WRs, K, maybe a QB.....and that’s just the O.

And.... the 2020 schedule includes 3 legitimate NFC opponents... SF, LAR, Sea...plus a fleet of foot midget QB in Ariz..... unlike the 4 NFC east disfunctionals.

Silver Blue&Red said:

I said this in the GDT, All of the TB doubters will be the 1st ones crying when he is gone.

You don't realize how lucky we are to have him.

The O line has been the number one issue this season.
Everything else can be overcome.
The team is getting better every week except there. IMO.

Being perennial winners doesn't help with draft picks either.
And as another poster mentioned, salary cap room is a potential problem next year as well.

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The Patriots have to use multiple 2020 draft picks on offensive linemen. They
cannot assume Andrews, Cajuste, and Froholdt are fully recovered from their injuries or that Cannon will play better.
I don't know why the Patriots didn't give Veldheer a look see when he decided to
unretire. He was good enough for Green Bay to take a look.
Their backups on the offensive line were so bad during the preseason games that the Patriots cut them and traded three draft picks for replacements. One replacement
lasted only a few days and the other two have played very little.

KontradictioN said:

Neither of them are Andrews but at least they were able tno o run up the A-gaps on dives with Karras in there. Ferentz held up better than I thought in Houston and was useless yesterday.

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Limited reps in Houston vs full game vs KC (50% vs 100%) ... teams were able to better identify his weakness (just about everything) and exploit it to a fuller extent ... those blitzes came right up the throat for the most part, and no one was there to stop them ... except edelman...

It's gotten so ridiculous that every play is analyzed in slow motion to see who's to blame. On that 4th down play you can say Myers had a step but he might of dropped it, he might of caught it and not goneforward for the first down. Edelman was open also and if brady throws to myers and it doesn't work out some of you would be saying he should of thrown it to Jules. That clown Breeland made a nice play, it is what it is. This has been the anti-patriots season so far. They suck in critical situations because of lack of playmakers.