Boyce's suckage had nothing to do with it. This is all on Bill, who never should've had Gibson on the field
in the 4th quarter catching passes from Garoppolo. Really really short-sighted on his part.
This makes no sense. The 4th quarter is just as important as the 1st in preseason - which is to say it's not important at all
The entire preseason is time to work on developing chemistry, getting live reps, learning new schemes etc. The results of the games don't matter so 4th quarter garbage time is the same as the 1st drive of the game.
What you seem to be saying is that Gibson shouldn't have been playing at all or that he doesn't need those reps with a guy who, as of now, is the week 1 starter. He doesn't, being new to the scheme, need reps in the Pats system. Any reps Gibson would get would be equally "garbage time".
I understand the argument for guys like Brady or Gronkowski who need little practice to be great regular season performers. But a new to the system #3/4 WR who has limited number of snaps with the possible starting QB? I don't see any rational argument for that guy not getting reps in preseason.
A big part of the Pats unparalleled success under Belichick has been preparation and chemistry (especially on offense where timing is critical). Suggesting that they keep guys off the field in preseason play, whether the 2nd or 4th quarter makes no sense to me. Sure, there's a risk of injury. There's also a risk of having unprepared or out of sync players in games that actually matter.
Wasn't it just a year or two who when Pats fans were complaining that the young/new WR were out of sync and they had a learning curve etc? We saw that play out in the regular season with offensive timing issues. Seems to me that more reps, not less, should be the argument. Especially for the non vital players.