4 Questions for Sunday

[PatsWickedPissah]

For the Pats to win big Sunday 4 ongoing questions have to be answered...

1. Can the OL cum TEs and RBs block for something longer than short pass routes with any consistency?

2. Will Cassel improve with game experience? Needs to make defensive reads quickly, see the field better and avoid focus on the primary receiver. Minimal turnovers for a W.

3. Does the Pats vaunted Front Seven have a pass rush? Can't put up 0 (vs Miami) or just 1 sack. If they can pressure Sully, rush his throws, the defensive backfield should come up with a TO or 2.

4. Can the Pats vaunted Front Seven stop the run? Last game they were MIA, up the middle and around the end. Assuming Wilfy et. al. clog the middle, the OLBs need to set the edge consistently and the safetys read the play and execute in run support. Gore could dominate the game if the answer here is No.

There are other lesser issues like Moss, etc. geting open, Maroney and the RBs contributing, but the bigest questions are centered on the QB, OL and on the basic defense stoping the run and applying enough pressure on their young QB to force mistakes. We'll still win with 3 of 4 YES answers, but less than that it's anybody's or even worse, SF's game. Most critical is stoping Gore and Cassel contributing.
Pats win.

 

[Mike the Brit]

5. Can the coaches coach? Can they stop putting scissors on rock, rock on paper and paper on scissors? Simple, really ...

 

[MoLewisrocks]

For the Pats to win big Sunday 4 ongoing questions have to be answered...

1. Can the OL cum TEs and RBs block for something longer than short pass routes with any consistency?

2. Will Cassel improve with game experience? Needs to make defensive reads quickly, see the field better and avoid focus on the primary receiver. Minimal turnovers for a W.

3. Does the Pats vaunted Front Seven have a pass rush? Can't put up 0 (vs Miami) or just 1 sack. If they can pressure Sully, rush his throws, the defensive backfield should come up with a TO or 2.

4. Can the Pats vaunted Front Seven stop the run? Last game they were MIA, up the middle and around the end. Assuming Wilfy et. al. clog the middle, the OLBs need to set the edge consistently and the safetys read the play and execute in run support. Gore could dominate the game if the answer here is No.

There are other lesser issues like Moss, etc. geting open, Maroney and the RBs contributing, but the bigest questions are centered on the QB, OL and on the basic defense stoping the run and applying enough pressure on their young QB to force mistakes. We'll still win with 3 of 4 YES answers, but less than that it's anybody's or even worse, SF's game. Most critical is stoping Gore and Cassel contributing.
Pats win.

Long story short as it almost always is in the end - it all starts and ends with winning the battle in the trenches at the LOS. No QB truly flourishes under pressure. Nobody sees the field or reads pressure better than Brady. Only Manning is even in that class/league. Matt is above average compared to the rest of the league. Gunslingers don't see or read much, they just take shots. That might actually work to advantage...here and there. Over the course of a season, not so much because for every game winning play they pull out of their ass, there's the mindnumbing game killing play that costs you...

Game managers aren't sexy, but the job description is to put your team in a position to win without throwing their chances to away. Arguably the greatest QB of all time remains at heart a game manager because that's the system his HC runs. And the QB's who won this decade when he didn't only did so when they were coached to manage the game...