Grogan's Grade: Week 16

[PatsFans.com Article]

Former New England Patriots Quarterback Steve Grogan Reviews the Week 16 match-up: New England at NY Giants

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[FrontSeven]

Re: Grogan\'s Grade: Week 16

Former New England Patriots Quarterback Steve Grogan Reviews the Week 16 match-up: New England at NY Giants

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Interesting quote about Junior's play Saturday night:

Colvin’s loss has meant a lot more playing time for players like Junior Seau. I thought Seau was guessing a lot against the Giants and guessed wrong several times. He would come up to fill in the run and it turned out to be play action. Adalius Thomas is making plays occasionally but not often enough for what I saw from earlier in the year and what I thought he’d be able to do. I do think their linebacker corp will need to step it up just a little bit as they go into the playoffs.

 

[Metaphors]

Re: Grogan\'s Grade: Week 16

Colvin’s loss has meant a lot more playing time for players like Junior Seau. I thought Seau was guessing a lot against the Giants and guessed wrong several times. He would come up to fill in the run and it turned out to be play action. Adalius Thomas is making plays occasionally but not often enough for what I saw from earlier in the year and what I thought he’d be able to do. I do think their linebacker corp will need to step it up just a little bit as they go into the playoffs.

I think both of those are fair points. Could also add Bruschi with similar comments. It looks to me like the defense plays conservative at times and lets the offense try to set the tone. When push comes to shove, the defense has always stepped up and delivered.

I don't think that will work in the playoffs. I expect to see a more aggressive approach early in the game by the defense. Everyone (except Colvin) should be reasonably healthy and refreshed to go 100% for the 2 game AFC stretch. It is likely to be PIT/JAX up first and you don't want either of them to get comfortable early and set the tempo on offense.

 

[Rawky77]

Re: Grogan\'s Grade: Week 16

Grogan makes an excellent point here:

"I know they didn’t give out any game balls after this one because they considered it a team effort but one player I strongly feel that should be mentioned and you never hear much about him is Kevin Faulk. He caught eight balls and had three big catches for first downs where he caught the ball short of the first down and ran through people to get there. He knew how far he had to get to pick up the first down to keep the drive alive, and I just thought he did a heck of a job."

Grogan is right in this comment, Kevin Faulk was the key to keeping vital drives alive with his absolute determination to get the first down regardless of the defensive guys in his way and not just once but at least three times by my count. He showed a will to win that is inspiring.

We tend to take Kevin for granted because of the Moss, Welker etc but Kevin is vital to this team and he plays much much bigger then his size in both the passing game and the running game.

I say more KUDOS TO KEVIN FAULK.

 

[FrontSeven]

Re: Grogan\'s Grade: Week 16

Grogan is right in this comment, Kevin Faulk was the key to keeping vital drives alive with

I say more KUDOS TO KEVIN FAULK.

Absolutely. Kevin Faulk is a guy that they cannot defense. Whenever they decide to use him it's in response to something they see, and he always manages to exploit that particular thing.

When Faulk is in there the offense becomes like a mutant that can do almost anything. Third and long? No problem.