Finally figured out why we lost Super Bowl 52

[lancerman]

2018 is coming to an end and some are still not over the final game of the 2017 season.

Atleast it was last year. Most Pats fans aren't over the one from 10 years ago

 

[Ring 6]

Let's look at Matt Patricia on the Lions. He beats Brady (a well known QB with tons of tape), he beat Rodgers (a well known QB with tons of tape). I'm not going to hold road losses to divisional rivals against them. And the Seahawks and Cowboys have the talent that made them up and down enough that I can sort of understand those

The 3 big losses that were massive head scratchers for the Lions were

Week 1: Jets
Week 2. 49'ers
Week 12: Bears (minus Trubisky)

What do these have in common? The Jets were starting their brand new QB who had very little tape on him, the 49'ers were starting Garoppolo who they just got last year and finally had a real off season to tailor his play to the system, and Daniels who hadn't played a significant snap in years.

Patricia's a smart guy and he does his homework. A lot of his defenses for us were tailored to playing against the strength's of the QB we played. When there is uncertainty (rookies QB, relatively new QB who just learned the system, and a vet who hadn't played in a while).... he lost games that people believed he should have won.

Why do I say this... Because Foles was a mid season replacement for Wentz who significantly upped his game in the playoffs and was a lot harder to prepare for. You couldn't use the tape of him sucking when he first came out in 2017 because he wasn't playing at that level anymore. All we had to go off of was two games in the playoffs. Hence our defense had no answers for Foles and he looked comfortable all game.

Foles played the best game of his life.
The patriots have no history at all of losing to young QBs with little tape on them.

 

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

Good, timely thread.

Regards,
Chris

 

[QuantumMechanic]

The Butler INT came on second down, if I remember correctly.

Correct. There was the Kearse tip drill to pick up a first down.
Then the handoff to Lynch on that 1st down, with Hightower and his bad shoulder making the unsung, game-saving tackle.
And then the Butler INT on 2nd down.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

Hope the opposing head coach doesn't hand off to a Beast on 4th and goal from the one

First, it was 2nd down.
Second, Lynch actually didn't do all that well in short-yardage goalline situations in 2014.
Third, a pass there was a fine call -- the problem was the specific play called. They should have done a designed rollout to Wilson's right. That would have put immense stress on NE's defense because Wilson easily could run it in if not spied, but if the defense isn't careful he could lob it over the defenders to a receiver behind them. And Wilson would be under instructions to just throw it away if he felt he couldn't get in and couldn't find anyone open.

 

[Joey007]

Finally figured out why we lost Super Bowl 52

 

[XLIX]

Correct. There was the Kearse tip drill to pick up a first down.
Then the handoff to Lynch on that 1st down, with Hightower and his bad shoulder making the unsung, game-saving tackle.
And then the Butler INT on 2nd down.

People forget that the fact that it was 2nd down made passing the ball not quite the moronic play some claim it was. There was no way they could run on both 2nd and 3rd downs since they only had 1 time out. One of those plays *had* to be a pass. Carroll tried to surprise with the pass on 2nd down. Not the horrible call some make it out to be.

It’s one of those results-oriented plays. Everyone calling Carroll a moron would be calling him a genius and how he surprised everyone if it worked.

 

[maineman209]

IDK about all this "we" sh it. I know that I, personally, had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the Pats losing that game.

Well ... I'm pretty sure, anyway.

 

[PittPatriot]

I thought it was because the referees still didn’t figure out what is a catch and what is not.

 

[Coolade2]

Bye week byeproduct... Byesecting braincells.

I thought it was because the referees still didn’t figure out what is a catch and what is not.

Philly special was an illegal formation that wasn't called. That's why.

 

[Bobsyouruncle]

The Eagles scored on every drive of the second half and NE scored on 75%. Call that what you want but I’d call it crappy defense.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

People forget that the fact that it was 2nd down made passing the ball not quite the moronic play some claim it was. There was no way they could run on both 2nd and 3rd downs since they only had 1 time out. One of those plays *had* to be a pass. Carroll tried to surprise with the pass on 2nd down. Not the horrible call some make it out to be.

Yep. Now, I think there were better pass plays he could have called (and I'm not saying that because the one that was called resulted in an INT), but a pass there is not at all unreasonable.

 

[Triumph]

i thought it was because of butler...

Never should have let Welka go either.

 

[Triumph]

I dont buy that its all on Patricia.

BB is hands on as they come regarding game plans. If he thought the game was going south because of Patricia BB would step in like he did with Mangino in SB39.

The Eagles were better that day. The Pats wanted it, but the Eagles wanted it more just like the Pats did in SB36.

 

[maust]

People forget that the fact that it was 2nd down made passing the ball not quite the moronic play some claim it was. There was no way they could run on both 2nd and 3rd downs since they only had 1 time out.

Additionally what gets 'lost in the wash' with a lot of folks is Belichick keeping the heat on by not calling a timeout to preserve clock for Brady when most any other coach would have and Carroll fully expected him to. The Hawks lost a good 30+ seconds there necessitating a pass. Once again BB playing chess...

 

[PF_SU]

Additionally what gets 'lost in the wash' with a lot of folks is Belichick keeping the heat on by not calling a timeout to preserve clock for Brady when most any other coach would have and Carroll fully expected him to. The Hawks lost a good 30+ seconds there necessitating a pass. Once again BB playing chess...

What gets forgotten amids all of this is how bad Carroll and the Seahawks handled their timeouts.

They burned one with 1:50 remaining after Wilson threw an incompletion (!) to Kearse. Then they spent another TO after the Kearse catch because they took too much time getting down the field and getting set. So when they began their goal line sequence they could only stop the clock once, forcing them to pass the ball at least once if they wanted to use all four downs. Had they preserved one more TO they would have had enough time to run it on all downs if they wanted.

 

[supafly]

The Eagles scored on every drive of the second half and NE scored on 75%. Call that what you want but I’d call it crappy defense.

They allowed like, 6 YPC on the ground. That’s laughable. Also, the defense allowed 12/18 conversions on third and fourth down. You can point to these two factors more than Brady’s strip sack because losing a fumble in a game is a reasonable enough thing to happen. The first two are inexcusable.

 

[DarrylS]

Two teams made it out of the "tournament" and went to the Superbowl, which is an incredible feat in itself. Then we lost to a team that played better than the NEP in the SB, time to get over it and move on... As a long time fan it is great to watch this team having made it to the SB 8 different times, after languishing in the desert of mediocrity for the previous 40 seasons..

Blaming Belichick, Patricia or Brady is pure folly bordering on idiocy..

FWIW Lane Johnson is chirping about something idiotic, perhaps this is his post playing days audition for an ESPN job...

Lane Johnson snubs Bill Belichick, chalks up Patriots' success to Tom Brady

 

[Danger Zone]

People forget that the fact that it was 2nd down made passing the ball not quite the moronic play some claim it was. There was no way they could run on both 2nd and 3rd downs since they only had 1 time out. One of those plays *had* to be a pass. Carroll tried to surprise with the pass on 2nd down. Not the horrible call some make it out to be.

It’s one of those results-oriented plays. Everyone calling Carroll a moron would be calling him a genius and how he surprised everyone if it worked.

Choice.

Run the ball twice, get two plays. Everyone in the world knows exactly what you're doing.

Get three plays, but you have to pass on either 2nd or 3rd down.

 

[fnordcircle]

Personally I'm more suspicious that them having scored more points than us was a key factor.