A reason the Patriots might lose Monday night to Buffalo

[TheRainMaker]

1) The Miami game a few years back when he coached conservatively and gave up the #1 seed. Reason: protect injured players.

And that was arguably his worst coaching decision along with Butler. And it started against the Jets, not the Dolphins as many on here keep saying.

And he wasn’t protecting injured players, he was trying to avoid any more injuries.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

You are citing examples of teams that Belichick knew were a lock to go to the playoffs and probs luck go far in the playoffs. That is not the case this season. Much as I like this team they have to treat every game as a must win game or they could end up golfing in January. Belichick isn’t going to throw 29 trick plays at them but he’s not going to ease up because he thinks they can afford to lose to Buffalo.

Football just isn’t as complex as people make it put to be. No doubt there are strategies and nuances that make the game interesting. But the idea that there’s all these layers and layers of gameplanning, and it’s worth holding back the right strategy, is nonsense. Half of the greatness of a unit, like a defense, is in repetition, discipline, communication, and often running the same general concept with a few tweaks depending on the opponent.

The Patriots haven’t fared better against teams in the postseason after losing to them in the regular season, even though I’ve heard before every game that they’ll do better because “now they have the film.” Here are all the postseason games against teams they lost to in the regular season:

2001 - Rams (win)
2004 - Steelers (win)
2005 - Broncos (loss)
2006 - Jets (win), Colts (loss)
2010 - Jets (loss)
2011 - Giants (loss)
2012 - Ravens (loss)
2015 - Broncos (loss)

I heard the same stupid reasoning for why some people claimed Belichick intentionally didn’t coach well against Miami first game of the season. Of course that wasn’t true.

Priorities ahould always be:

1. Winning (for playoff positioning)
2. Health/injury risk management





3. Withholding strategy for a theoretical future matchup for possibly a small advantage (one that is dwarfed by home field or a higher seed.)

 

[FCB02062]

Buffalo wins this game if they win the turnover battle and if we see the Pats resort to 1st and 20 again every other possession. Pats fans should not be "expecting" a victory tonight. Rookie quarterback vs legit MVP candidate. Need to keep the "big" picture in focus. A loss tonight is far from a death sentence. Pats have Buffalo once more. The Pats are the flavor of the month right now, and how many times did we see that vs our own club - such and such a team is surprisingly having a good season, the national media makes a lot of trendy picks against the Pats, saying said flavor of the month team will go into Foxboro and win only to get waxed by 17....

 

[mgcolby]

Pound the rock on offense and dare the Bills to run the ball in between the 20's.

Bills Oline is garbage
Bills run game is garbage (see point 1)
Bills run D is not that good

Classic BB game. Add in the potential for **** weather and I'll take the better run game and Oline. But it won't be Vanilla on Defense. If you consider punching the defense in the mouth with the running game and taking what is there in the Passing game Vanilla than maybe. I call it a winning formula on the road in bad weather with a rookie QB in a hostile environment. Get this one and probably don't have to play them again in Buffalo!

 

[WaterfallJumper]

Turns out that it was a pretty simple gameplan after all -- but it worked! BB is a genius.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Well I'll be............

 

[Pats2000]

Your reasons are invalid

 

[reflexblue]

The Patriots and Bills could (even likely) meet three times in the next 7-8 weeks.

How often does a team beat one as good as the Bills three times in that period?

Bill will have to go a little vanilla. He can't empty out the plan. To win three straight from a team that good, Bill must know he needs his team to beat them head to head on talent alone during some of this stretch. This game for multiple reasons seems like the place to begin.

This is what is meant by chess vs checkers. Sean McDermott will be all in.

The dog was right, the game plan was Real Vanilla, he didnt show the jills much, except they can't stop the run.

 

[venecol]

Apologies to the OP. Bill in fact was holding something back: the passing game. Lol

 

[Betterthanmost]

That was Vanilla enough?