Felger’s take on the Pats…and mine on Felger
http://patriots.bostonherald.com/patriots/view.bg?articleid=159192
Felger keeps beating the dead horse that the Pats should never have let Branch and Givens go. As players I think he is right but I also think both were overpaid by other teams. Where the Pats screwed up is not paying Givens $25 million because then they knew they would have had to pay Branch what he got from Seattle. Pats should have paid Givens a little less to stay – how much fun is he having in Tennessee – and let Branch go. Hindsight is 20/20 though.
What Felger keeps overlooking is the poor O-line play. Even in the first 2 games I never thought the O-line was playing well and there run blocking was awful last night. They got no movement at all. I also blame the play calls because the Pats were trying to run a lot of Denver like stretch plays and they simply can not. Still, the Pats were working out of 2-10, 2-9 and 2-8s way too much. No team will be successful if they are always in 2nd and long. The Pats also gave up on the running game well before the game was out of reach.
While Felger has ripped the Pats D for lack of big plays he does not mention it in today’s article. He writes “Branch made his debut in Seattle against the New York Giants yesterday and the NFC champion Seahawks scored 42 points.†Implying that Seattle has offensive weapons to score 42 and the Pats don’t. While I agree that the Seahawks have a loaded offense, Felger fails to mention the 3 of Seattle’s first 4 drives began in NYs territory. Hawks D caused TO and got the Seahawks short fields. The Hawks still needed to turn those TO into points and they did. Look, Brady has looked awful but when was the last time the Pats had a short field to work with? The D and the running game – and the coaches – need to share the blame. It all is not for lack of receivers.
http://patriots.bostonherald.com/patriots/view.bg?articleid=159192
Felger keeps beating the dead horse that the Pats should never have let Branch and Givens go. As players I think he is right but I also think both were overpaid by other teams. Where the Pats screwed up is not paying Givens $25 million because then they knew they would have had to pay Branch what he got from Seattle. Pats should have paid Givens a little less to stay – how much fun is he having in Tennessee – and let Branch go. Hindsight is 20/20 though.
What Felger keeps overlooking is the poor O-line play. Even in the first 2 games I never thought the O-line was playing well and there run blocking was awful last night. They got no movement at all. I also blame the play calls because the Pats were trying to run a lot of Denver like stretch plays and they simply can not. Still, the Pats were working out of 2-10, 2-9 and 2-8s way too much. No team will be successful if they are always in 2nd and long. The Pats also gave up on the running game well before the game was out of reach.
While Felger has ripped the Pats D for lack of big plays he does not mention it in today’s article. He writes “Branch made his debut in Seattle against the New York Giants yesterday and the NFC champion Seahawks scored 42 points.†Implying that Seattle has offensive weapons to score 42 and the Pats don’t. While I agree that the Seahawks have a loaded offense, Felger fails to mention the 3 of Seattle’s first 4 drives began in NYs territory. Hawks D caused TO and got the Seahawks short fields. The Hawks still needed to turn those TO into points and they did. Look, Brady has looked awful but when was the last time the Pats had a short field to work with? The D and the running game – and the coaches – need to share the blame. It all is not for lack of receivers.
