Better And Worse Than Expected

[oceansizer]

First of all we won the game with a demanding opponent. There are many aspects to improve, but our offense looked really good. OL with Mason, Andrews and Jackson played very well ( I hope it'll do the same right thing in the next game with dangerous Bills pass rushers ). Gronkmachine and Minitron were great, but I expect TB12 will engage a lot more players in the passing game.
I didn't like some defense elements, especially defense against the running. A mediocre Williams looked like a star in this game and this is not a good sign. A LB corp wasn;t sharp except Hightower. For sure our flexibility and defensive players rotation is a good thing. It looks like Jones and Ninko won't play every single snap and they will grab the opportunity to rest a bit. Butler is fine to me and he's going to be better and more secure in next games. A kid is aggresive and what is more has a heart.A bigger concern are potential CBs opposite Butler. A high level of our secondary playing is a matter of the integration of players. A lot of new bodies in new positions. It demands time to play like a unit.

 

[Joker]

just glad it wasn't post KC last season.

You can't rush just four and expect the secondary to cover for 6 to 100 seconds. I was there. I have seen over 400 NFL games live since the Patriots first game. Butler got beat while in TIGHT coverage a few times. He also played well for the most part. Fletcher got burned over and over right in front of us, getting beat off the line and his back to the passer every time. With no rush, he will continue to get burned.THat being said, he did a lot of positive things also and is pretty physical.Experience will only make him better IMO

Nink had a lousy game on the edge. Don't know what the hell YOU were watching but when they blitzed ,they hit the wrongs gaps. They missed tackles at the LOS all night(Collins was terrible) and they mustered ZERO pass rush. The 4-2-5 worked well enough for a victory last night but I HATE it. 'Berger tore the D apart that first drive until the "moron whomever" called that ridiculous WR pass play.

First games really mean shyt. Get the win and start to grin. The real season starts in Buffalo.

 

[pencilneckgeek]

Better than expected was the offensive line as a unit. They didn't look good in preseason but kept Tom upright for the most part. The run blocking needs some work, particularly in short-yardage. Hopefully, that will improve over time, but having the pass protection working is the top priority and that looked excellent.

Worse than expected was the run defense. Williams looked much better than he has in years, with his weight loss and freshness raising his game remarkably. The fact that he did so much damage on the outside was a surprise, however. Fortunately, if our biggest issue is how Nink sets the edge,
I expect things to improve quickly. That said, if the ends get further upfield to establish contain, it could be a struggle inside, especially in the smaller sub packages with Jones and Chung inside, instead of Siliga and Mayo.

 

[DarrylS]

It is not how you play in August, it is how you are playing post Thanksgiving.. this team has a lot of new faces and for them to play together will take some time.... with that being said very impressed with the Pats O line, much better than expected....


BB and krewe are hunkering down in the bowels of Gillette, assessing what went right and what needs to change.. we won Thursday nite, but this team will get better.. for Brady, Edelman and Gronk those were the first plays of their season.. and that was very encouraging as well.

 

[Oswlek]

If you post that he learned a lot, by definition you are saying he "got schooled." That's what the term means.

In another profession, maybe, but in any kind of sports context "get schooled" means to be embarrassed. I'd be willing to bet that the of the last 1,000 times the phrase was used regarding athletics, this would be the first time it was simply about education.

 

[PatsBoy12]

Butler was far from schooled

Butler being "schooled" has been posted a few different times and I am just tired of defending it. They're only looking at the numbers and saying he was "schooled." They'll say they watched the game, but if they did, then they'd see he was not schooled. I couldn't care less what the numbers say. Schooled is what happened to Fletcher. It's what has continued to happen to Ryan. Schooled is not what happened to Butler. But I guess people were expecting him to come out and be Revis. Whatever.

 

[skinnydog]

Considering the Butler was left on an island with an all pro WR speaks volumes about how BB views Butler.

He did well under the circumstances. He played a lot of press man which we were told was impossible sans Revis and Browner.

I am not sure how the interstate the problems with the run D, the game plan was reminiscent of the Bronco game where we dared then to run


We may lead the league and could have a D as good as last year by the end of the year. BB will have a lot to work on in the next 10 days. The game plan could have 8 in the box instead of 6. We'll have a better measure of the run D after we see Rex ground and pound. The Bills Colts will be interesting Sunday.

I was pleasantly surprised with Butler's play. It looked like he followed Brown around the field at times which I did not expect. He is quick, fast enough and seems to have great football reaction time. He will make some mistakes as every corner does, heck in his first game last year Revis was absolutely toasted by Mike Wallace and got lucky when he failed to make the catch. But Butler seems shorter than his listed 5'11" will give up some catches to some of the better receivers like Brown even when the coverage is tight.

I think it's hard to evaluate the run defense. They could not contain the edge for most of the night but that should be coachable. Also, not only did they go with only 6 in the box for most of the night, they were often light up the middle with guys like Chandler sliding down for some extended play inside.

 

[BTTA]

In another profession, maybe, but in any kind of sports context "get schooled" means to be embarrassed. I'd be willing to bet that the of the last 1,000 times the phrase was used regarding athletics, this would be the first time it was simply about education.

Yeah, I'm aware of that. I'm sticking to my old man stubbornness, and holding on to the original definition of the term even in the face of overwhelming corruption of it by popular culture.

 

[hambone1818]

Re: Butler, he matched my expectations against a top QB/WR duo like Ben/Brown - competed, mostly good positioning but lost the battle more often than not. Room to grow, and as others have said his heart and competitiveness will ensure he does grow.

That said, lots of tough QB/WR duos on the schedule this season. If he's playing press man against Brown then it's speaks volumes in terms of Belichick's confidence in him, but we do need to see him start winning more of these battles before we can start singing his praises as a #1 CB.

Not a bad start given the matchup, but we need to see improvement (and I think we will) for this secondary to really shape up to be SB caliber.

The glaring issue, to me, was the front 7, I know they weren't pinning their ears back to get to Ben but that makes the run D look that much worse. Huge gaps up the middle, DE's not setting the edge, it was ugly. We've seen them clean that up in-season and I think they have the personnel to improve dramatically as the year goes on. But this was not a pretty first game from them.

Passing offense was insane, O-line held up far better than I expected. Huge test for them in a week, hopefully good news on Stork but I think Andrews now gives us some confidence that we have some real depth across the line. Lewis/Blount will be a hell of a backfield too, add in Lafell and this offense will be rocking.

 

[mgteich]

Yeah, I'm aware of that. I'm sticking to my old man stubbornness, and holding on to the original definition of the term even in the face of overwhelming corruption of it by popular culture.

I too have an old fashioned view of the English language, not using the corruptions of the language of the past few years.

 

[Deus Irae]

Butler being "schooled" has been posted a few different times and I am just tired of defending it. They're only looking at the numbers and saying he was "schooled." They'll say they watched the game, but if they did, then they'd see he was not schooled. I couldn't care less what the numbers say. Schooled is what happened to Fletcher. It's what has continued to happen to Ryan. Schooled is not what happened to Butler. But I guess people were expecting him to come out and be Revis. Whatever.

Being a blind homer doesn't change reality. It just warps one's perception of it. Butler got lit up. You can cry and moan and deny that reality, or you can accept it. It's not going to change anything, either way.

It's not surprising that Butler got schooled, given the QB/WR duo he was facing in just his second NFL start. He'll learn from it. As most, if not all, of the people who've noted that Butler got lit up have also noted, it was still a positive sign overall, because he remained competitive throughout.

 

[AzPatsFan]

If you look at the stat sheets it would appear that the secondary was pounded unmercifully. But what the stats don't show was the intermitancy of the attack, which I attribute to the Defense.

The Steelers posted some great plays, only to surround them with mediocre or failing plays, so the net result was a Drive that petered out with no score, more than once. The TV announcers were astonished at the yardage but the scoreboard did not reflect it at all. The hidden plays were the cause of it.

 

[PatsBoy12]

Being a blind homer doesn't change reality. It just warps one's perception of it. Butler got lit up. You can cry and moan and deny that reality, or you can accept it. It's not going to change anything, either way.

It's not surprising that Butler got schooled, given the QB/WR duo he was facing in just his second NFL start. He'll learn from it. As most, if not all, of the people who've noted that Butler got lit up have also noted, it was still a positive sign overall, because he remained competitive throughout.

I won't respond to your point specifically. I'll only encourage (if you have the time and desire) that you read some of my posts just over the past few days (to make it a bit easier) and you will see there is nothing about me or my opinions that is "blind homer[ism]." We can agree to disagree on this one without calling me names or my opinions into such inaccurate question.

 

[mgteich]

What has been overlooked is that Brown played a great game.

If you look at the stat sheets it would appear that the secondary was pounded unmercifully. But what the stats don't show was the intermitancy of the attack, which I attribute to the Defense.

The Steelers posted some great plays, only to surround them with mediocre or failing plays, so the net result was a Drive that petered out with no score, more than once. The TV announcers were astonished at the yardage but the scoreboard did not reflect it at all. The hidden plays were the cause of it.

 

[Deus Irae]

I won't respond to your point specifically. I'll only encourage (if you have the time and desire) that you read some of my posts just over the past few days (to make it a bit easier) and you will see there is nothing about me or my opinions that is "blind homer[ism]." We can agree to disagree on this one without calling me names or my opinions into such inaccurate question.

I've seen your posts, and there's nothing inaccurate about what I wrote.

 

[PatsBoy12]

I've seen your posts, and there's nothing inaccurate about what I wrote.

Okay.

 

[Deus Irae]

What has been overlooked is that Brown played a great game.

Indeed....

The knee jerk reaction of some has been to completely misunderstand the point of what others are saying. Brown was excellent last year, and he's started off the same way this year. Butler getting beaten by him is not any kind of insult. That he was able to remain competitive, even though he was still lit up overall, was a 'win', in a way, under the circumstances.