Game Thoughts: Thank God We Don't Have to Rehash the Snow Bowl Anymore Edition

[Brady6]

Meh, who needs Kelly or Quarles when we have Vellano?

VellaNOOOOOOOO

 

[Nikolai]

The offense...leaves something to be desired. I don't think that's a big secret and, as has been discussed at length, the problems pretty much start and end with the OL. Brady is throwing off his back foot a ton and he's having to show off some fleet feet to just to stay upright.

That said, the D...wow. I know Revis wasn't perfect and there are areas for improvement, but for the first time in a damned long time, I felt very confident that the D would hold the Raiders scoreless on that last drive. I said as much at the start of the series in the chat. They did just that.

Too many people are used to the days of going into halftime with a 23-7 lead and celebrating another W as early as the third quarter.

Ugly win, but a win.

 

[IndianPat]

Offensively, this season is going to be a stinker. I can see it turning into a 2009 season when we barely won against weak teams, lost to the strong teams and got blown out by Ravens in the firt playoff game. That's too bad because, this defense is championship caliber.

 

[RayClay]

Some good points. But when you score 16 points against a horrible team and have to hold on for dear life for the win, tough to be positive. When you're on the one yard line twice with several chances to get into the endzone, and can't gain one yard both times and have to settle for FGs, it's tough to be positive. When you only have 2 receivers to catch the ball, and your offensive line can't give your Hall of Fame QB time to throw, tough to be positive. When your defense gets ZERO sacks for the 2nd time in 3 games, tough to be positive.

We are VERY lucky to be 2-1. Championship teams need to be lucky too, but we are depending on luck more than talent to even get to the playoffs. I really don't see a playoff team here.

Someone was expecting you to be positive?

 

[ausbacker]

Agreed

In unrelated news Kelcy Quarles made his NFL debut today, he had a sack and a tackle for a loss. To bad it was for the Colts.

That's not going to please the people who wanted him as an insurance policy and interior presence.

 

[Brady6]

That's not going to please the people who wanted him as an insurance policy and interior presence.

Especially if Siliga is out for an extended period.

 

[supafly]

Except on the TD against Minny last week. He covered a guy well, but it was the wrong guy. The right guy went for the TD.

I have to admit though, that he doesn't stink, as I had declared in a thread about last week's game.

I believe that it may have been determined that it wasn't Chung's responsibility on the MIN TD last week, but obviously I could be wrong.

Either way, I do know that many felt that his coverage was very good last week (which I wasn't fully sold on, to be honest). What I saw today however, suggests that he hasn't nearly been the liability in coverage that I expected, at least to this point.

Not sure that I expect it to hold up--but it's been a pleasant surprise so far. I actually think that we've seen some decent stuff from Chung through the first 3 games.

 

[manxman2601]

Agreed

In unrelated news Kelcy Quarles made his NFL debut today, he had a sack and a tackle for a loss. To bad it was for the Colts.

That's not going to please the people who wanted him as an insurance policy and interior presence.

I could get a sack against that Jacksonville OL and I have the explosion of a weakened butterfly flying the wrong way into a hurricane.

 

[AzorianPats]

I could get a sack against that Jacksonville OL and I have the explosion of a weakened butterfly flying the wrong way into a hurricane.

This!

Now you have some people moaning how the 1-2 Colts are better then us because they blew out Jacksonville....

 

[pencilneckgeek]

I heard he fractured he foot on twitter but saw nothing else after that.

The fact that he was listed as "out" instead of "questionable" during the game certainly suggests a bad Xray.

 

[captain stone]

I could get a sack against that Jacksonville OL and I have the explosion of a weakened butterfly flying the wrong way into a hurricane.

Then you still would've recorded 1 more sack than VellaNo would have vs the Jax OL.

 

[Uncle Rico]

• The offense has a lot of work to do, but it is showing signs of starting to put things together. I am under no illusions that they looked good other than in spurts, but at least they made some progressions late in the game. Overall though, the offense was not very good though.

Volin's film review saw similar things:

The Patriots actually did move the ball; there were four drives of double-digit plays, and three drives of at least four minutes. The only problem was that three of the four long drives ended on the Oakland 2, 2, and 18-yard lines. But the red zone troubles can be fixed, and I doubt the Patriots will have another game in which two drives stall inside the 5-yard line. They’ll figure it out.

The Patriots picked up 21 first downs. They did a nice job on third down, converting 9 of 18 opportunities. ... The offense cut down on the penalties, committing four for 30 yards, plus a holding call that was declined.

Tom Brady actually spread the ball around pretty well. While Julian Edelman dominated with 13 targets (and 10 catches), Brandon LaFell had eight targets and Shane Vereen tied Gronkowski with six. On third down, Vereen, LaFell, and Edelman each had three targets, while Gronk had two.

And maybe, just maybe, Brady has figured out how to get the ball down the field. Brady threw six passes that traveled at least 15 yards; five of them came in the second half, and four of them in the fourth quarter. Brady completed three of the five passes for 57 yards, plus a pass interference penalty for 14 yards. He also threw a fade pass to Edelman that resulted in a 15-yard gain.

Brady is still missing some easy throws, the offensive line still has major issues, and the receivers need to do a better job of getting open. But this offense isn’t as far off as you think.

 

[Rob0729]

Volin's film review saw similar things:

Damn it, if Volin agrees with my point, then it has got to be wrong.

One thing I did forget to mention is that the Pats had two good drives fail on the Raiders' 2-3 yard line. One could have been a TD if not for a bad snap by Connolly and the other could have been a TD if not for a Vereen trip or Brady's passes being a little more on the money to Gronk or Amendola. If they convert both those TDs, the score would have been 24-9 and the discussion this week would be a whole different storyline. The Pats moved the ball on Sunday, they had red zone issues though.