PostGame Thread 2024 Postgame Thread Week 16 - Pats fall to Bills 24-21

[Real fan 02]

Sounds like Hunter might help.

I think guys like Marcus Jones and hunter are creating a trend.. being able to play in multiple spots. Having elite speed and quickness can make guys alot of $$$ in the league these days.

 

[Vindicate]

I just don’t know how it works…

The team is very obviously devoid of talent so Wolf needs to sign talent. But will good players actually want to come play in NE for Mayo? This was already a struggle last year when he was an unknown, and now this year he has shown he isn’t actually good at his job, so it can’t have helped…

If they are somehow able to buy that talent and Mayo still looks bad then it becomes obvious that he’s a total failure. But if they can’t even get anyone to sign, then what? You can’t pin that on the GM… If they’re willing to overpay and still can’t get anyone because the team is so unattractive then that’s a bigger death knell… Will Kraft see it or will he somehow think it’s Wolf’s fault?

Not to mention the fact that spending big and overpaying requires Kraft to get out the checkbook.

The hope and draw is now we have a QB that has players around the league commenting on his potential. Coming into this year, you had no idea what to expect and couldn't say it'd be a good move for your career at all. Now there's someone here to throw to you and build a career with or from.

Fingers crossed.

 

[Vindicate]

The offensive line "metrics" we've been fed the last few years are an absolute joke. We have eyes. Those metrics got Onwenu 19 million a year, when he spends half the game on his ass, and the other half standing around as defenders blow past him.

I feel like it's also what got Godchaux his money, as I remember him constantly being rated higher than we'd expect in run blocking, IIRC.

 

[Real fan 02]

The hope and draw is now we have a QB that has players around the league commenting on his potential. Coming into this year, you had no idea what to expect and couldn't say it'd be a good move for your career at all. Now there's someone here to throw to you and build a career with or from.

Fingers crossed.

Agreed. Drake has put the league on notice. This is the best case scenario out this season. I can assure you FAs to be are already looking at possibly coming here. I'm warming up to the idea that we get aggressive for a trade for DK.. or DJ Moore. While still singing Higgins and taking hunter on the draft. Imagine having DK or DJ Moore on the outside for Drake.

 

[h0c2000]

 

[Toofy]

Away for Christmas so just had time to do a quick All-22 review. Just a couple notes. I concentrated mainly on Layden Robinson.

Robinson played his best run blocking game of the year, IMO. He wasn't perfect but he got regular movement, got to second level, got push. Played very well in run blocking. His pass blocking was not as strong. He struggles less with stunts and hand-offs than he did earlier in the year. Was also smarter in his decision making on who to block. He was really dumb on that early in the year so it was progress but not does not mean it was good.
.
One play in 4Q, the Bills sent 2 blitzers tight thru his gap, a gap that he created by following the guy in front of him that looped to Ben Brown, once he saw the guy was going to be blocked by Brown it was too late to block the blitzers. Maye ran right and hit Douglas on the sideline but he had to escape 2 completely free blitzers to do it.
There was a play he got beat on a spin move, another 2 plays where quickness just beat him.
So strong run blocking, improvement in pass blocking but still below where you want him to be as a pass blocker. As a rookie he's getting better and the fact he is already starting to be a good run blocker is great progress, hopefully in off season can work to improve the pass blocking. He's a solid starting guard as a run blocker. Progress!

Jacobs was the worst of the lineman. He accounted for almost half the pressures. He can't be starting here next year. Lowe bounced back with a solid game. On average he does struggle more in run blocking. 3 of his last 4 games has had good games pass blocking, with off season improvement I think he could possibly be a solid pass blocker. Run blocking has been a big issue, especially the last 3 games. I'm not sure he has the power to run block successfully on a regular basis.

The Bills toward the end of the game just decided to Rush 4-6 and play man. Every other play was a blitz of 5 or 6. The biggest thing I noticed is the receivers could not get open against man. On some plays for the entire route, on others just not quick enough. Bills brought enough guys so Maye could not run but the 4 or 5 receivers couldn't get open vs man.

It's normally a dangerous way to play defense but they got away with it because the pressure was quick, and the receivers were blanketed.
Need that guy that can get a quick release and get some separation and maybe give some fear to the defense you might get over the top. Bills played 1 deep or zero deep on quite a few plays in Q4. No respect for receivers to get open.

Could teams run defense be more aggressive because our pass catchers suck. I am hoping with improvements in pass catchers next year we can keep run defenses a bit more honest and circumspect thereby improving run offense and run blocking .

I strongly feel Lowe will get better and it's in our best interest to coach him up. Besides he has been playing with shoulder injury the entire season. Maybe the break and better conditioning could help him out and make him an average to above average LT. We don't need studs . The focus should just be on 10-20% improvement over last year . I donno if Scott peters is probably the weak link considering the amount of penalties and whiffed blocks by the olinemen.

Every team is struggling. So better to coach up our existing talent.

 

[KCSVEN]

Drake is sitting with nice company in some of these advanced stats

 

[Mack Herron]

Drake is sitting with nice company in some of these advanced stats

Enormously valuable asset. Kraft must ensure he has the best people to surround Maye with quality OL and WRs.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

Robinson is a strong guy, so he is good at taking on bull rushes, even Ed Oliver. Running blocking Robinson is a grater. Really strong guy.

What Robinson does not do well is adjust to delayed blitzes or stunts. After Robinson has committed left or right, he has trouble recovering for some reason. I am not sure why. Is it a mental mistake that can be re-taught, or is it a physical limitation? If the latter, Robinson will be limited for his whole career.

Is Robinson a bull that going forward and back is great, but can't move quickly side to side?

 

[Clonamery]

Robinson is a strong guy, so he is good at taking on bull rushes, even Ed Oliver. Running blocking Robinson is a grater. Really strong guy.

What Robinson does not do well is adjust to delayed blitzes or stunts. After Robinson has committed left or right, he has trouble recovering for some reason. I am not sure why. Is it a mental mistake that can be re-taught, or is it a physical limitation? If the latter, Robinson will be limited for his whole career.

Is Robinson a bull that going forward and back is great, but can't move quickly side to side?

How NFL experts graded the Patriots' selection of G Layden Robinson

The New England Patriots likely tipped their cap to even more changes along the offensive front by taking Texas A&M gua

patriotswire.usatoday.com

This is where are.
From Ayrton Ostly:

New England bolsters its offensive line again in the fourth round with one of the longer guards in the draft. Robinson has some of the longest arms and biggest hands in the class. His aggressive play style will be a boost in the running game but he’s more of a project in pass protection. He’s at least a good depth piece for the Patriots to start his career.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

How NFL experts graded the Patriots' selection of G Layden Robinson

The New England Patriots likely tipped their cap to even more changes along the offensive front by taking Texas A&M gua

patriotswire.usatoday.com

This is where are.
From Ayrton Ostly:

Thanks a million. Great read. I was really glad to read that Robinson has long arms. It was impressive watching Robinson singularly completely destroy Ed Oliver. If Robinson can fix the pass protection problems, his issues are significant, he will be a great player. Hopefully Y2 he will learn.

Robinson, Strange, and Onwenu could be a great front 3.

 

[h0c2000]

Robinson is a strong guy, so he is good at taking on bull rushes, even Ed Oliver. Running blocking Robinson is a grater. Really strong guy.

What Robinson does not do well is adjust to delayed blitzes or stunts. After Robinson has committed left or right, he has trouble recovering for some reason. I am not sure why. Is it a mental mistake that can be re-taught, or is it a physical limitation? If the latter, Robinson will be limited for his whole career.

Is Robinson a bull that going forward and back is great, but can't move quickly side to side?

After flipping from right guard which he played all of 2023 season, he's been getting incrementally better last few weeks. If he makes a jump next off season, I'm hoping he can be Logan Mankins-lite road grader.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

After flipping from right guard which he played all of 2023 season, he's been getting incrementally better last few weeks. If he makes a jump next off season, I'm hoping he can be Logan Mankins-lite road grader.

I hope you are right. This week we are hopefully going to see Robinson LG, Strange C, and Onwenu RG. That might be the future. Of course we need to address LT and RT, but those three on the inside with Sow, D Andrews, and J Andrews as backups might be a great start to our 2025 OL.

 

[Mike the Brit]

What a weird game!

It took me a long time to re-watch it and I'm still not sure I could get my head around it. How could the Pats have kept it so close -- close enough to have won the game if not for the turnovers -- while getting beaten at the LOS on both offense and defense?

The short answer is: Drake Maye. The Bills were coming from behind the line and pouring through on Maye (some of their starts were very, very quick, to say the least, but there we are) but he kept his head even when he had defenders right in his face. You hear a lot of stories about promising young quarterbacks who were ruined by having to play behind terrible offensive lines. This one seems to be able to handle it.

And compliments too to the pass catchers, especially Henry, Boutte and Hooper. For the first time in the season, we saw an offense that was in sync, in the first half at least.

Another thing in the Pats' favour was that, for once, the penalties didn't go against them. On the contrary, the Bills got caught with false starts and alignment penalties. I couldn't figure out why the fumble recovery against Shakir wasn't given and surely there was a foul in the endzone on the interception, but, compared with some games this season (*cough* Ron Torbert *cough*) the Pats were given a fair shake.

On the other hand, watching the defense against the run was painful. I couldn't get every jersey number but there were bad missed tackles by Godchaux, Jennings, Ellis, Dugger and Mapu and a general failure to shed blocks. Mapu, at least, played with energy, in contrast with Tavai who seemed to be just hanging back and not getting involved. I remember the early 2000s and the ferocity the team would play with on short yardage and the goal line. How I long for those days again.

Otherwise, I noticed that Maye's swing passes to the back all seemed not to go forward. I'd seen that in previous weeks and wondered if that was deliberate (planning a throw by Stevenson). An accident waiting to happen -- and then it happened.

I switched off thinking that the team isn't hopeless, but that it needs to be coached with a lot more demandingness and attention to detail, and that it needs improvement pretty well everywhere on the O-line and in the defensive front 7.

@KCSVEN

You mentioned that Buffalo were playing man towards the end and relying on the Pats' pass-catchers not being able to get open. I didn't see who was on the field for the Patriots then. All I noticed was that Maye's accuracy seemed to have fallen off. Whom did you have in mind?

 

[KCSVEN]

@KCSVEN

You mentioned that Buffalo were playing man towards the end and relying on the Pats' pass-catchers not being able to get open. I didn't see who was on the field for the Patriots then. All I noticed was that Maye's accuracy seemed to have fallen off. Whom did you have in mind?

It was mainly a combination of Douglas, Hunter, Hooper and Bourne.

 

[captain stone]

Away for Christmas so just had time to do a quick All-22 review. Just a couple notes. I concentrated mainly on Layden Robinson.

Robinson played his best run blocking game of the year, IMO. He wasn't perfect but he got regular movement, got to second level, got push. Played very well in run blocking. His pass blocking was not as strong. He struggles less with stunts and hand-offs than he did earlier in the year. Was also smarter in his decision making on who to block. He was really dumb on that early in the year so it was progress but not does not mean it was good.
.
One play in 4Q, the Bills sent 2 blitzers tight thru his gap, a gap that he created by following the guy in front of him that looped to Ben Brown, once he saw the guy was going to be blocked by Brown it was too late to block the blitzers. Maye ran right and hit Douglas on the sideline but he had to escape 2 completely free blitzers to do it.
There was a play he got beat on a spin move, another 2 plays where quickness just beat him.
So strong run blocking, improvement in pass blocking but still below where you want him to be as a pass blocker. As a rookie he's getting better and the fact he is already starting to be a good run blocker is great progress, hopefully in off season can work to improve the pass blocking. He's a solid starting guard as a run blocker. Progress!

Jacobs was the worst of the lineman. He accounted for almost half the pressures. He can't be starting here next year. Lowe bounced back with a solid game. On average he does struggle more in run blocking. 3 of his last 4 games has had good games pass blocking, with off season improvement I think he could possibly be a solid pass blocker. Run blocking has been a big issue, especially the last 3 games. I'm not sure he has the power to run block successfully on a regular basis.

The Bills toward the end of the game just decided to Rush 4-6 and play man. Every other play was a blitz of 5 or 6. The biggest thing I noticed is the receivers could not get open against man. On some plays for the entire route, on others just not quick enough. Bills brought enough guys so Maye could not run but the 4 or 5 receivers couldn't get open vs man.

It's normally a dangerous way to play defense but they got away with it because the pressure was quick, and the receivers were blanketed.
Need that guy that can get a quick release and get some separation and maybe give some fear to the defense you might get over the top. Bills played 1 deep or zero deep on quite a few plays in Q4. No respect for receivers to get open.

Mike Jordan >>> that ****ing over-****ing-drafted by At Least TWO FULL ****ING ROUNDS ****ing stiff Laydown Robbie.

 

[captain stone]

Kyles: Jock-Sniffer with Zero credibility.

 

[Mike the Brit]

It was mainly a combination of Douglas, Hunter, Hooper and Bourne.

Hmm. That's a shame. I have high hopes of all four.