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Well that one was interesting. Maybe not as interesting as a lot of other games this week, but in a parochial sense there is a lot to talk about annual Buffalo beat down in Foxboro. Same old beat down, but with a lot of different moving parts.
1. General Offensive Observations - Kind of sucked again, at least for what we are used to seeing for the last 15 or so years. Kind of a different look you might say.
b. Brady is clearly hurt, and least to my mind. He has zero mobility within the pocket. He was constantly throwing (inaccurately) off his back foot, and rarely stepped up in the pocket. He passing stats have been ugly and getting worse over the last few weeks. It is not a coincidence that it all started from the game where some people were thinking he dinged his knee.
There might be those who will ring the "cliff" bell, and hope that THIS time they are right, but I don't think so, despite the title of this tome. Rather it's less about the cliff, and more about the injury that we will never know about until well into the off season, and then maybe not even then. That makes next week's game so important. IIRC they can clinch a bye week with a win, and they are going to need to be able to score given the Jets put up 38 against GB. Brady will need the time, or at least I HOPE its the kind of injury that time can help.
c. As usual I watched bits of a few of the games today ( NO/Steeler, KC/Seattle, and Houston/Eagle games) and ONE thing stood out in all of them. Every team on both sides made big passing plays throwing the ball to well covered receivers and allowed their receivers to make plays on them. That is something the Pats have RARELY done over the years and it seems in particular THIS year. If you aren't clearly open, then Brady isn't throwing you the ball.
It's not like he CAN'T throw a back shoulder fade, or the like. We've seen him do it and more than once. Wilson threw for 2 TD's on throws that Brady would have never made and not just to big receivers. Baldwin and Lockett each pulled down a rainbow thrown by Wilson. Check out the replays if you want to see what I mean.
Gordon is gone, but Hogan, CP, and Gronk all have some size and have all caught their share of 50-50 balls in their times. I'm thinking that the Pats need to throw more of those kinds of balls if they are going to go far in this post season.
d. All that being said, I think Josh did a good job setting up his game plan. Clearly he protected Brady with a massive running attack, and just 24 very short pass attempts. The results were 24 points and a lot more left on the table. AND it should be noted that while the Bills are the Bills, they DO have the 2nd rated run D going into this game, and a top 5 defense overall. If they ever get some consistent offense going, that D will look even better.
2. QB - No much more to add. It looked as bad as it seemed. Brady has thrived over the years despite his physical limitations because he could make people miss with subtle moves within the pocket. Only Marino in his prime did it as well as Tom has over the years. We saw NONE of that today. Blitzing against Brady was usually a non-starter vs the Pats, because historically Brady's stats against the blitz was better than when you didn't. Well today the Bill Blitz was very successful in getting Brady off his mark and making him throw short and too often inaccurately. Frankly he looked like a QB protecting an injury (and so did the game plan) Brady is one of the toughest players in the league. He has been Grogin/Bledsoe tough and then some over the years. Today he gave up on the play any time he felt pressure. That just not natural.
3. OL - There were 3 holding calls, though 2 were on Gronk and Edelman. That needs to stop. 5 called penalties, so while not great, it was a great improvement over last week.....relatively,
The success of the run game starts with the domination of the OL. What makes that notable is that (again) it was against one of the better run defenses in the league. When there weren't gaping holes, there were plenty of soft spots for the runners to gain consistent yardage.
I don't think it was a coincidence that the success of the running attack showed up the same time DAllen returned to the line up.
4. RB- This was Sony's best game. Just 18 carries to rush for 116 yds was very efficient. He seemed to rush with a bit more oomph imo. He also ran with great patience. He still doesn't run with much power, but it was better.
White had a nice run for his TD, but the one complaint I had with Josh was on that last drive inside the Bills' 10 having White as the RB was just dumb. He just isn't a GL RB....as much as I like him. That just shouldn't be his role.
CP the runner was very effective with his motion sweeps. I'm still wishing we'd see him featured more in the regular passing attack. I noticed he got dinged late in the 3rd quarter. They are going to need him back if they are going to make a deep run.
5. Receivers - What receivers? Outside of Edelman, all the WR's TE's COMBINED had 5 targets and only ONE catch for the game. Hogan was spotted slamming his helmet in frustration over "something". It's something to watch in the future. It IS his contract year.
6. General Defensive observations - Generally good. This was the same defense that has been HORRENDOUS against the run the last 3 weeks did exactly what they needed to do to slow the Bills offense. They "held" Josh Allen to just 30 yds rushing That notable because they showed a graphic that had Allen being the 5th best rusher in the league over the last 5 or 6 weeks. They also did a pretty good job on McCoy who has been very effective against the Pats over the years, especially in the passing game. He was held in check with only 9 rushing yds and 10 in the passing game.
The only long drive the Bills made was in garbage time, and then only after Allen made a great play avoiding a sack to throw that meaningless TD pass.
The pressure was decent, I thought. Especially when you consider the rush had to be controlled given Allen's running and evasion skills. The Pass coverage and LB/Secondary tackling was good as usual. It will be interesting to see if Allen improves his accuracy and football IQ in his second year. He has a lot of talent, but it still looks VERY raw.
7. Front 7 - From being sieves to being formidable and it couldn't have happened at a better time. The Bills clearly wanted to run the ball this game and found out they couldn't. The Pats ended up giving up less than 50 yds to the Bills RB's and controlled Allen for most of the game (5 for 30).
It should be pointed out (again) most of the damage that RB's have done to the Pats in recent weeks have come against dime defenses and to a lesser degree, nickel D's. Clearly today the Pats were in more base fronts, and the results showed.
8. Secondary - Good as usual. Another nice play on the GL for JCJ, and several more from the "other" McCourty, who seems to be getting better as the season has gone on.
Bottom line this secondary has been CONSISTENTLY good the entire year,
9. ST's - With the exception of one long KO return, the ST's did a nice job. Allen was consistent in his punting, while Gotskowski made all of his FG's and Points. Slater added 2 punt catches inside the Bills 10, and they got another punt block.
General Comments -
a. I didn't think that Brady was at fault on either pick.
b. I thought the officials did a nice job.
c. CBS gave us the last 4 minutes of the Eagles/Texans game and it was a beaut. Watson made a miracle throw to put Houston ahead, but not before spinning out of TWO sack attempts. What a play! Only to have the Eagles drive from their own 10 to the Houston 20 for the game winner. Foles passed for almost 500 yds in this game. You'd think with all the big names the Texans have on defense that they'd be better than that.
d. Gumble and Green were marginally mediocre. Didn't love them ore hate them.
e. I called it the "Cliff edition" more for click bait than reality.
f. I think we'd have to go back to 2009 for a time where there was as many questions about a superbowl run as the Pats have now. They in control to get yet ANOTHER bye week with a win over the Jets in the regular season finale. It will be interesting to see what the Pats will look like when they emerge to play their first playoff opponent. One game left to go in the regular season and with the exception of the secondary and winning 10 or more games, NOTHING has been consistent this season
1. General Offensive Observations - Kind of sucked again, at least for what we are used to seeing for the last 15 or so years. Kind of a different look you might say.
b. Brady is clearly hurt, and least to my mind. He has zero mobility within the pocket. He was constantly throwing (inaccurately) off his back foot, and rarely stepped up in the pocket. He passing stats have been ugly and getting worse over the last few weeks. It is not a coincidence that it all started from the game where some people were thinking he dinged his knee.
There might be those who will ring the "cliff" bell, and hope that THIS time they are right, but I don't think so, despite the title of this tome. Rather it's less about the cliff, and more about the injury that we will never know about until well into the off season, and then maybe not even then. That makes next week's game so important. IIRC they can clinch a bye week with a win, and they are going to need to be able to score given the Jets put up 38 against GB. Brady will need the time, or at least I HOPE its the kind of injury that time can help.
c. As usual I watched bits of a few of the games today ( NO/Steeler, KC/Seattle, and Houston/Eagle games) and ONE thing stood out in all of them. Every team on both sides made big passing plays throwing the ball to well covered receivers and allowed their receivers to make plays on them. That is something the Pats have RARELY done over the years and it seems in particular THIS year. If you aren't clearly open, then Brady isn't throwing you the ball.
It's not like he CAN'T throw a back shoulder fade, or the like. We've seen him do it and more than once. Wilson threw for 2 TD's on throws that Brady would have never made and not just to big receivers. Baldwin and Lockett each pulled down a rainbow thrown by Wilson. Check out the replays if you want to see what I mean.
Gordon is gone, but Hogan, CP, and Gronk all have some size and have all caught their share of 50-50 balls in their times. I'm thinking that the Pats need to throw more of those kinds of balls if they are going to go far in this post season.
d. All that being said, I think Josh did a good job setting up his game plan. Clearly he protected Brady with a massive running attack, and just 24 very short pass attempts. The results were 24 points and a lot more left on the table. AND it should be noted that while the Bills are the Bills, they DO have the 2nd rated run D going into this game, and a top 5 defense overall. If they ever get some consistent offense going, that D will look even better.
2. QB - No much more to add. It looked as bad as it seemed. Brady has thrived over the years despite his physical limitations because he could make people miss with subtle moves within the pocket. Only Marino in his prime did it as well as Tom has over the years. We saw NONE of that today. Blitzing against Brady was usually a non-starter vs the Pats, because historically Brady's stats against the blitz was better than when you didn't. Well today the Bill Blitz was very successful in getting Brady off his mark and making him throw short and too often inaccurately. Frankly he looked like a QB protecting an injury (and so did the game plan) Brady is one of the toughest players in the league. He has been Grogin/Bledsoe tough and then some over the years. Today he gave up on the play any time he felt pressure. That just not natural.
3. OL - There were 3 holding calls, though 2 were on Gronk and Edelman. That needs to stop. 5 called penalties, so while not great, it was a great improvement over last week.....relatively,
The success of the run game starts with the domination of the OL. What makes that notable is that (again) it was against one of the better run defenses in the league. When there weren't gaping holes, there were plenty of soft spots for the runners to gain consistent yardage.
I don't think it was a coincidence that the success of the running attack showed up the same time DAllen returned to the line up.
4. RB- This was Sony's best game. Just 18 carries to rush for 116 yds was very efficient. He seemed to rush with a bit more oomph imo. He also ran with great patience. He still doesn't run with much power, but it was better.
White had a nice run for his TD, but the one complaint I had with Josh was on that last drive inside the Bills' 10 having White as the RB was just dumb. He just isn't a GL RB....as much as I like him. That just shouldn't be his role.
CP the runner was very effective with his motion sweeps. I'm still wishing we'd see him featured more in the regular passing attack. I noticed he got dinged late in the 3rd quarter. They are going to need him back if they are going to make a deep run.
5. Receivers - What receivers? Outside of Edelman, all the WR's TE's COMBINED had 5 targets and only ONE catch for the game. Hogan was spotted slamming his helmet in frustration over "something". It's something to watch in the future. It IS his contract year.
6. General Defensive observations - Generally good. This was the same defense that has been HORRENDOUS against the run the last 3 weeks did exactly what they needed to do to slow the Bills offense. They "held" Josh Allen to just 30 yds rushing That notable because they showed a graphic that had Allen being the 5th best rusher in the league over the last 5 or 6 weeks. They also did a pretty good job on McCoy who has been very effective against the Pats over the years, especially in the passing game. He was held in check with only 9 rushing yds and 10 in the passing game.
The only long drive the Bills made was in garbage time, and then only after Allen made a great play avoiding a sack to throw that meaningless TD pass.
The pressure was decent, I thought. Especially when you consider the rush had to be controlled given Allen's running and evasion skills. The Pass coverage and LB/Secondary tackling was good as usual. It will be interesting to see if Allen improves his accuracy and football IQ in his second year. He has a lot of talent, but it still looks VERY raw.
7. Front 7 - From being sieves to being formidable and it couldn't have happened at a better time. The Bills clearly wanted to run the ball this game and found out they couldn't. The Pats ended up giving up less than 50 yds to the Bills RB's and controlled Allen for most of the game (5 for 30).
It should be pointed out (again) most of the damage that RB's have done to the Pats in recent weeks have come against dime defenses and to a lesser degree, nickel D's. Clearly today the Pats were in more base fronts, and the results showed.
8. Secondary - Good as usual. Another nice play on the GL for JCJ, and several more from the "other" McCourty, who seems to be getting better as the season has gone on.
Bottom line this secondary has been CONSISTENTLY good the entire year,
9. ST's - With the exception of one long KO return, the ST's did a nice job. Allen was consistent in his punting, while Gotskowski made all of his FG's and Points. Slater added 2 punt catches inside the Bills 10, and they got another punt block.
General Comments -
a. I didn't think that Brady was at fault on either pick.
b. I thought the officials did a nice job.
c. CBS gave us the last 4 minutes of the Eagles/Texans game and it was a beaut. Watson made a miracle throw to put Houston ahead, but not before spinning out of TWO sack attempts. What a play! Only to have the Eagles drive from their own 10 to the Houston 20 for the game winner. Foles passed for almost 500 yds in this game. You'd think with all the big names the Texans have on defense that they'd be better than that.
d. Gumble and Green were marginally mediocre. Didn't love them ore hate them.
e. I called it the "Cliff edition" more for click bait than reality.
f. I think we'd have to go back to 2009 for a time where there was as many questions about a superbowl run as the Pats have now. They in control to get yet ANOTHER bye week with a win over the Jets in the regular season finale. It will be interesting to see what the Pats will look like when they emerge to play their first playoff opponent. One game left to go in the regular season and with the exception of the secondary and winning 10 or more games, NOTHING has been consistent this season
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