Official Post Game Thread - Pats beat the Bengals

BelizePats said:

This is pretty much what I saw too. That right side has been weak for a while now.

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Idk if cannon is injured or whateva but his play is atrocious. In my mind he’s underachieving. He should be better than what he has shown.

Ross12 said:

This was an educational exchange for me between you two, that’s interesting to see how the tiebreaker will come into effect - so essentially even if NE loses to Buffalo next week, they’ll have an equal record (11-4 each) and an equal divisional record (4-1 each) - then the following week would both be playing another division game to close the season. If both win their final games, their record in each still remain tied, so the tiebreaker comes down to W/L versus common opponents, which NE would win.

So as @SBLIII said - NE just needs to win one of the next two games, doesn’t matter which one, and they win the division. But KC is only a game behind and holds the tiebreaker (head to head) for seeding so NE really can’t afford to drop any games if they want a bye week.

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And we absolutely have to have that bye week to heal up.

PatsDeb said:

I don't care that it was the Bengals. We needed a solid win and some life in the offense. We got both. The kicking game seems to have stabilized. The D woke up after a slow start and made their usual adjustments and was spectacular. The O went right down the field and scored, which they've managed to do several times during this slump. Now if they could just find a way to script the 2nd, 3rd and 4th drives like they do the first, we'll be back in business. Big test on Saturday night. I'm liking that we are at home and the Bills have an even shorter week than we have, and it's their 2nd road game in a row. Their offense is terrible, but their D is legit.

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The passing game is still miserable like rodney harrison would say. Thank goodness for the short field.

NYCPATS4LIFE said:

The passing game is still miserable like rodney harrison would say. Thank goodness for the short field.

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There were some glimmers of hope. Both of Brady's TD passes looked like what we're used to (James White taking a short pass and razzle-dazzling his way through the D, and Harry coming open at the back of the EZ. Eyes forward fellow fans...

Would be nice if Sanu decided to join the fun and contribute.

Keyser Söze said:

Would be nice if Sanu decided to join the fun and contribute.

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Seems like Harry is going to pass him.

Tottie said:

It's unfortunate they couldn't take a shot to try and tie manning at the end instead of running with burkhead. Its very possible with brees tomorrow and only 2 games left that he never gets a piece of that record. What do you think sean payton is going to do up 17 in that position.

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Huh? Rex Burkhead's score was the longest run of his career. I doubt even he thought that he was going to score there... but whatever. Take any score any time over no score trying to do it a certain way.

Keyser Söze said:

Would be nice if Sanu decided to join the fun and contribute.

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He will. He ripped up the seam and would have had a walk-in touchdown had Brady’s ball placement been better. It’s clear that’s how they want to use him. We have a size and physicality advantage between he and Harry. Edelman is banged up as all hell but if Dorsett heals up, he could provide the vertical threat that would be able to loosen defenses out of Cover-1 to choke off everything between the hashes.

NYCPATS4LIFE said:

Idk if cannon is injured or whateva but his play is atrocious. In my mind he’s underachieving. He should be better than what he has shown.

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But is the alternative any better? The answer we saw when the backup subbed for the LT is no.

Patriots needed this win badly to stop the slide. It doesn't matter if the Bengals are a bad team, the way we won was impressive.

We ran the football early and often and with great success. 170+ yards on the ground. We controlled the clock. Not a lot of production in the passing game but it was nice to see them get Harry involved on running plays and he did make that back of the endzone TD reception. That's a booster to his confidence going forward.

Our secondary was extremely impressive, 2 INTs and an all-pro performance from Gilmore including a pick 6. Two athletic interceptions by JC Jackson who is proving his value in our stacked secondary, possibly the best secondary in the entire NFL in terms of talent and depth.

So was our offense super impressive? Well they didn't need to be because they worked with short fields all day thanks to all the takeaways. But 34 points is more than enough to put away any team when the defense is playing that well. This is a game to build momentum from going into the playoffs. If the Pats can win out they guarantee that bye week and that should be the most pressing goal right now.

Tb12goesinya said:

If Pats lost last 2 and Buffalo won last 2, wouldn't Pats have a worse division record?

So if buff lost last night that tiebreaker could have came into play.

Am I still missing something?

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The Buffalo-Pittsburgh game was irrelevant to the AFC East Divisional Champions. I broke it down in this thread (link below). I know it is counterintuitive, but it was confirmed by ESPN’s playoff machine, another poster had a very similar post, and it is correct that Buffalo’s loss truly made no difference, other than potentially winning the division via tiebreaker or winning via best record.

Is the Bills-Steelers game irrelevant to AFC East Winner?

Tony2046 said:

Could it be that Brady still does not trust his receivers to run their routes correctly? If so then there often wouldn't be time for touch passes. Basically throwing as his receiver breaks instead of before they break.

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I understand where you are coming from but the crosser to Sanu on fourth down that for some inexplicable reason was thrown with max power, the badly placed pass to Michel in the flat open for a TD and then also that overthrow on Sanu in the seam (which was the most difficult out of the three but something Brady usually makes) didn't really have an aspect of "cant trust them to run the right route".

And to me they are all symptoms of the same thing. Which is hopefully whatever issue he has with his elbow.

KontradictioN said:

He will. He ripped up the seam and would have had a walk-in touchdown had Brady’s ball placement been better. It’s clear that’s how they want to use him. We have a size and physicality advantage between he and Harry. Edelman is banged up as all hell but if Dorsett heals up, he could provide the vertical threat that would be able to loosen defenses out of Cover-1 to choke off everything between the hashes.

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Everything you say makes sense, but I just can’t envision Philip Dorsett providing an actual vertical threat. Where they need to use him is on shallow crossing patterns that would allow him to utilize his speed and turn short passes into moderate gains, but for whatever reason that never seems to happen.

PScottman said:

But is the alternative any better? The answer we saw when the backup subbed for the LT is no.

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This is where a draft pick like Cajuste could’ve started to see more rotational reps and 6th OL reps. It could’ve been a nice addition.

Ice_Ice_Brady said:

The Buffalo-Pittsburgh game was irrelevant to the AFC East Divisional Champions. I broke it down in this thread (link below). I know it is counterintuitive, but it was confirmed by ESPN’s playoff machine, another poster had a very similar post, and it is correct that Buffalo’s loss truly made no difference, other than potentially winning the division via tiebreaker or winning via best record.

Is the Bills-Steelers game irrelevant to AFC East Winner?

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Yup. A little strange but true. The game was irrelevant for AFC east title purposes.

Like you said, if Buffalo lost it would have just opened the door for them to win the East through a 'better division record' tiebreaker. Assuming Buffalo won out (5-1 division record) and Pats lost out(4-2 division record)

NYCPATS4LIFE said:

Idk if cannon is injured or whateva but his play is atrocious. In my mind he’s underachieving. He should be better than what he has shown.

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I think that this type of regression indicates an injury more so than underachieving. But you could be right, as his play has been subpar for the last half of the season. It would be nice to see him up his game and this is where playing for that first-round bye is so critical.

BelizePats said:

I think that this type of regression indicates an injury more so than underachieving. But you could be right, as his play has been subpar for the last half of the season. It would be nice to see him up his game and this is where playing for that first-round bye is so critical.

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Cannon turns 32 in May. Along with injury there might be dare I say a "cliff" situation going on.

robertweathers said:

Cannon turns 32 in May. Along with injury there might be dare I say a "cliff" situation going on.

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Very possible. If this is the case, I hope Cajuste is fully healed up for next year.

Least.

Impressive.

21-point victory.

Ever.