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First and formost the BEST thing about this game was that we seemed to have gotten out healthy, and by FAR that is the most important stat to come out of this game.....at least to me.
Mental Toughness- That should be the watchword of this team. As fans we have very little, since every failed first down, or completion on defense seems to make us nuts.
But fortunately for us, the TEAM as this quality in aboundance. It's an easy term to say. In fact it's one of our major 'go to' cliches, when you come to think on it. But in football teams, where you have over 60 odd guys in that locker room every day, trying to create a unified unit, it is a VERY difficult and delicate thing to develop AND maintain.
Of course it's easy to say you have mental discipline when you are 14-2 in and things are going all your way. But not when you think about what exactly makes up a team with mental discipline, because if it was easy to replicate, EVERY team would sign up for it. Mental Discipline first starts with hard work. BB has created the system where hard work becomes the instinct, and even the stragglers are caught up into the roar of that river. Mental Discipline is the ability to overcome adversity. That is ALSO taught, and its not about being behind in the 4th quarter. It's about how you react when you screw up in practice, make a mistake in the classroom, see something you aren't prepared for in a game.
For Bill developing Mental Discipline is a matter of paying attention to dozens of details all the time until it become second nature. You don't walk in the door armed with mental discipline, you BUILD it, brick by brick, practice by practice, and meeting by meeting. THEN, hopefully, when all the oars finally start dipping at the same time, you wind up with a team that is prepared to bounce back from whatever adversity they run into......BECAUSE of that intense preparation. And when we keep seeing it, we call it "Mental Discipline".
For this team it manifests every time you happen to catch all those situational subsititution that occur on almost every play. To watch them go so smothly on both sides is one of the most understimated facets of our success. There are so many of them and you don't have to screw up many to cause serious problems. It manifests it self the way the team reacts to things during the game. Miami find a hole in the defense for those 2 drives that ended and began the half. Just as suddenly those 2 holes seemed to close. There is a lot of "mental disciple" that go into making that adjustment.
Everything you want to know about this team at this point, is that Bill Bellichick, when asked if this team had 'mental discipline', replied unequivically, "Yes, it has."
OK, the lecture portion of the post is over, let's get the breakdown over and move on to the playoffs.
1. OFFENSE - OL - What more can you say, so this will be brief. They were great AGAIN. Brady had all the time he wanted. MAYBE he was it twice all game, and had a 2 passed batted down. Supposedly one of the best pass rushes in the game, and they were dominated. I don't think Brady has had a consistantly clean pocket this entire year. He was so erect and still in the pocket, he looked like Bledsoe sometimes.
a. One of the best things I read in the pregame was that Wake needed just a half a sack to reach an $875, 000 bonus. Needless to say his kids will be going hungry after he only got close ONCE.
b. Nice to hear Brady mention ALL the OL in his presser including the guys who don't play. Also a good place to note that Brady has been sacked only 15 times in 12 games this season, and less and less as the season's gone on. What a difference a year makes.....AND good health. (which no one mentions these days)
2. RB's - A decent and workmanlike job. Nothing special from these guys. Every team knows we CAN run. We are effective if not prolific, and if you don't play us honest, we will gash you. It's all you can ask from a running attack that's in a passing offense.
3. Receivers - Spread it around with 7 receivers - A BIG day for Julian in a game he crashed through the thousand yard barrier all the way to over 1100. Nice to see him make that TD.
b. But Julian was ALMOST overshadowed by such a tantalizing peak at Michael Floyd. But it wasn't so much his catches, but what he did after those catches.....even the ones that weren't his. His effort at the GL was extraordinary, and his block on Julian's TD was SPECTACULAR!
But you know the thing I noticed on the replay that tells us even more about Michael Floyd the player, was that after the hit, he popped right up and went to look for another block. Check it out the next time you see the replay (and you WILL see that replay). He didn't glory over a hit that could use some glorying over; he popped right up and continued to play. I REALLY liked that. That kid is growing on me.
BTW- I hear he's doing all the right things. He's living in the hotel within walking distance of the field. He's being chaparoned by Brissett and doing all the extra work he needs, and relying on his new teammates to help him on his way.
4. QB- Brady had all the time he wanted and it showed in his 70% completion rate and 60% 3rd down conversion rate. In fact, if you look closely, the only time Miami came close to stopping Brady and the offense the entire game, were were those times when penalties put us into 2nd and 20 and 25 situations. Allen only punted twice while Brady was in there.
It was another great game for the GOAT. No question he has had an MVP worthy season. But there's no question that there are other worthy contenders, especially Matt Ryan. So if he doesn't win it, who cares. Winning the superbowl MVP will be MUCH sweeter anyway. It's a beauty contest, anyways, the Lombardi is the only award that is REAL. The only value this award has is its FU aura to Goodell and his corrupt cronies. And this entire season has turned out to be a FU to those excrement
5. General offensive thoughts
a.. Everyone got in on the action and I had a feeling that after they got out to a 21-0 lead, Josh wasn't going to show much more on film.
b. I said it in the game thread, but I'd love Jarvis Landry on this team. He is like a bigger JE. He's full of piss and vinegar and doesn't hesitate to let you know it. It pisses you off when he does it, but you'd love it if he was doing it here.....like Edelman is.
c. Kudos to Adam Gase for just running out the clock at the end of the game instead of trying for garbage time points that could hurt someone. I see that happen all too often. Very smart for a HC who has let everyone know who he is building his program on. (ours if you didn't guess. ) He's had a great season so far. I think he will do well. BB gave him a sincere handshake at the end of the game and Patricia and he had a long conversation (relatively) after the game.
d. Lengel got 2 targets today and one catch. He looks comfortable around the ball, not stiff at all....and big. Who knew?
e. My one complaint on the offense came on one of the GL drives that failed. We have on this team FOUR guys who are 6'2 or over. We no longer need to run those smurf routes on the GL in order to throw the ball. We have joined the 21st century and WE too have big receivers. Maybe we should have routes for them too.
OR maybe Josh is just saving them for the playoffs and I should just shut up and stop complaining.
6. DEFENSE - Front 7 - What can you say about a defensive front that held a guy who has THREE 200 yd games to 59 yds and a 3.6yc average. And it would have been even better if Malcolm Butler hadn't had his head down and missed one of the very few tackles I've seen him miss this season. Tsk tsk Malcolm you can't hit what you can't see. That clip could be used by every HS coach in the country as what NOT to do on a tackle. But you're forgiven....this time.
a. In the first quarter, about every time Moore dropped back he was under severe pressure. Later that pressure was gone for most of the game. For the last 3 quarters, Moore was getting almost as good protection as Brady was getting. So if there IS a complaint, it is about the lack of a consistent pass rush today.
b. Nice to see Roberts rebound from adversity and get back to being the tackling machine he's become the last few games. Don't underestimate what having Hightower available to do other things has on the overall defense.
c. Interesting to note that it was the "second string" DT that led the group in tackles today with 3. Looks like someone wants his job back. Also it should be noted what a great contribution Vincent Valentine is making just to be doing well enough to be put in that situation. Finally, I sure am glad that Alan Branch won his appeal. He might be having his best year as a pro at 31. Good for him.
d. Finally no comment about the DL can go without another paean to Trey Flowers. He might have made the biggest play of the game when on a 3 man rush he hit and disrupted Moore's throw with a wide open man deep down field very early in the game. On the other end he stuffed Ajayi on the LOS and pancaked him, and had 3 other tackles to boot. He now gone from after thought to main man on the DL. He's looking more and more like Micheal Bennett every day,. BTW- I LOVE the fact this kid's nickname is "technique"
7. DB's - My first reaction to the coverage today was "how does someone get that open, that deep, against 8 man coverage", and that one was incomplete (thank you Trey Flowers). It happened again on a 3rd and long on one of the TD drives. When you compound this with the blown coverage on the 2nd TD, the 2ndary has some splainin' to do. (typical game day overreaction)
a. I don't know how it happened, but 2 things I know for a fact is that Van Noy doesn't have a coverage where he takes Stills on on one deep. And McCourty doesn't have a coverage were he has BOTH the deep middle and Deep outside. So something was broke on that play. I hope the all 22 guys try to figure that one out on Wednesday.
b. On the plus side, whatever the Dolphins saw that helped them score those 2 TD's at the half, was gone after it, as the secondary seemed to tighten the coverage on those crossers and outside breakers.
8. General defensive comments
a. Somehow it feels worse that the 14 points they allowed. But in the cold hard look of reality, they really only managed 3 decent drives all game, on their home field. BTW- in the last 5 games the Phins have played up to now, they have scored 31, 38, 26, 34, and 34. So if that doesn't make you field better about those 2 TD's I don't know what will.
b. If you think about it. Last year at this time we were thinking how we HAD to sign CJones, JCollins, Hightower, Sheard among others. But we traded Jones for space and had over $65MM more for the rest. @Miguel told us it could be done, and we comforted in that knowledge. Now it's 6 months later Jones and Collins are gone, Sheard has become a secondary contributor and not even our best rusher, and if anyone has seen Hightower make an impact play in the last few weeks, please feel free to let me know. AND YET the defense couldn't be playing any better.
So it's a very different kind FA period we might be experiencing this off season, beginning with tons of space and not nearly as many of our own people that we need to sign, or sign for the kind of money we thought we were going to need to sign them.
c. This defense is never going to get the credit they are due simply because the don't have any players on it who are "name worthy". I mean the perfect example is Oakland's defense. They're scary because they have Kalil Mack, who is a great player, but the DEFENSE as a whole sucks. On the other hand the Pats D is vanilla as Rob Ninkovich. Just keep this in mind as the mediots do their work and try to individualize a sport where the sum is always greater than the individual parts. BTW - this marks the 4000th time I have used that phrase on this site. Commit it to memory and use it when necessary.
9. ST's - only Gotskowski's 52 yd miss marred a perfect day for special teams. Too bad, it was straight as an arrow, but started outside and stayed that way. Who knows if the bad field had anything to do it, but.....
a. I saw one of the great magic tricks I've seen today. On one of Allen's 3 punts, I happened to notice Nate Ebner as his personal protecter making a block on a guy coming up the middle. Next thing the cameras scan to the catch, the guy runs up the middle for about 7 yds and is tackled......by Nate Ebner. All I could think was, "how did he get there?". Like I said it was like magic.
10. General comments:
a. I thought the refs were solid. The Phins had about 10 yds more than the Pats all told, but it could have been more if the Pats had accepted all the ones they got. In the end they kept the game moving and out of the limelight. Too bad I saw where that ref was retiring after today.....figures
b. When I saw the Bill/Jets score, I had to admit I was surprised. What a clusterf*ck is going on up there. I don't think they will be having a wrap party, or at least one I'd want to go to.
c. I'd like to think that the score indicated that the Ravens mailed it in for John Harbaugh and after 9 years his message has gotten old. Couldn't happen to a "nicer" guy.
d. Good to see the Colts squeek by those rampaging Jags by 4. I was starting to worry that Irsay might fire the OTHER 2 idiots of that triumverate if they lost. So it looks good that alls well with the world in Methland. phew.
e. The LA owner BETTER get a big name coach and lots of players, or they won't be able to sell ANY season tickets to anyone who gives even a remote sh!t about money. Even the Browns and Niners look like much better teams. Can you imagine that THAT team is cap strapped and that bad.
OK, 60 minutes is coming one, so lets end it here, and start the discussion. HAPPY NEW YEAR to all, and I hope its a great one.
Mental Toughness- That should be the watchword of this team. As fans we have very little, since every failed first down, or completion on defense seems to make us nuts.
But fortunately for us, the TEAM as this quality in aboundance. It's an easy term to say. In fact it's one of our major 'go to' cliches, when you come to think on it. But in football teams, where you have over 60 odd guys in that locker room every day, trying to create a unified unit, it is a VERY difficult and delicate thing to develop AND maintain. Of course it's easy to say you have mental discipline when you are 14-2 in and things are going all your way. But not when you think about what exactly makes up a team with mental discipline, because if it was easy to replicate, EVERY team would sign up for it. Mental Discipline first starts with hard work. BB has created the system where hard work becomes the instinct, and even the stragglers are caught up into the roar of that river. Mental Discipline is the ability to overcome adversity. That is ALSO taught, and its not about being behind in the 4th quarter. It's about how you react when you screw up in practice, make a mistake in the classroom, see something you aren't prepared for in a game.
For Bill developing Mental Discipline is a matter of paying attention to dozens of details all the time until it become second nature. You don't walk in the door armed with mental discipline, you BUILD it, brick by brick, practice by practice, and meeting by meeting. THEN, hopefully, when all the oars finally start dipping at the same time, you wind up with a team that is prepared to bounce back from whatever adversity they run into......BECAUSE of that intense preparation. And when we keep seeing it, we call it "Mental Discipline".
For this team it manifests every time you happen to catch all those situational subsititution that occur on almost every play. To watch them go so smothly on both sides is one of the most understimated facets of our success. There are so many of them and you don't have to screw up many to cause serious problems. It manifests it self the way the team reacts to things during the game. Miami find a hole in the defense for those 2 drives that ended and began the half. Just as suddenly those 2 holes seemed to close. There is a lot of "mental disciple" that go into making that adjustment.
Everything you want to know about this team at this point, is that Bill Bellichick, when asked if this team had 'mental discipline', replied unequivically, "Yes, it has."
OK, the lecture portion of the post is over, let's get the breakdown over and move on to the playoffs.
1. OFFENSE - OL - What more can you say, so this will be brief. They were great AGAIN. Brady had all the time he wanted. MAYBE he was it twice all game, and had a 2 passed batted down. Supposedly one of the best pass rushes in the game, and they were dominated. I don't think Brady has had a consistantly clean pocket this entire year. He was so erect and still in the pocket, he looked like Bledsoe sometimes.
a. One of the best things I read in the pregame was that Wake needed just a half a sack to reach an $875, 000 bonus. Needless to say his kids will be going hungry after he only got close ONCE.
b. Nice to hear Brady mention ALL the OL in his presser including the guys who don't play. Also a good place to note that Brady has been sacked only 15 times in 12 games this season, and less and less as the season's gone on. What a difference a year makes.....AND good health. (which no one mentions these days)
2. RB's - A decent and workmanlike job. Nothing special from these guys. Every team knows we CAN run. We are effective if not prolific, and if you don't play us honest, we will gash you. It's all you can ask from a running attack that's in a passing offense.
3. Receivers - Spread it around with 7 receivers - A BIG day for Julian in a game he crashed through the thousand yard barrier all the way to over 1100. Nice to see him make that TD.
b. But Julian was ALMOST overshadowed by such a tantalizing peak at Michael Floyd. But it wasn't so much his catches, but what he did after those catches.....even the ones that weren't his.
His effort at the GL was extraordinary, and his block on Julian's TD was SPECTACULAR! But you know the thing I noticed on the replay that tells us even more about Michael Floyd the player, was that after the hit, he popped right up and went to look for another block. Check it out the next time you see the replay (and you WILL see that replay). He didn't glory over a hit that could use some glorying over; he popped right up and continued to play. I REALLY liked that. That kid is growing on me.
BTW- I hear he's doing all the right things. He's living in the hotel within walking distance of the field. He's being chaparoned by Brissett and doing all the extra work he needs, and relying on his new teammates to help him on his way.
4. QB- Brady had all the time he wanted and it showed in his 70% completion rate and 60% 3rd down conversion rate. In fact, if you look closely, the only time Miami came close to stopping Brady and the offense the entire game, were were those times when penalties put us into 2nd and 20 and 25 situations. Allen only punted twice while Brady was in there.
It was another great game for the GOAT. No question he has had an MVP worthy season. But there's no question that there are other worthy contenders, especially Matt Ryan. So if he doesn't win it, who cares. Winning the superbowl MVP will be MUCH sweeter anyway. It's a beauty contest, anyways, the Lombardi is the only award that is REAL. The only value this award has is its FU aura to Goodell and his corrupt cronies. And this entire season has turned out to be a FU to those excrement
5. General offensive thoughts
a.. Everyone got in on the action and I had a feeling that after they got out to a 21-0 lead, Josh wasn't going to show much more on film.
b. I said it in the game thread, but I'd love Jarvis Landry on this team. He is like a bigger JE. He's full of piss and vinegar and doesn't hesitate to let you know it. It pisses you off when he does it, but you'd love it if he was doing it here.....like Edelman is.
c. Kudos to Adam Gase for just running out the clock at the end of the game instead of trying for garbage time points that could hurt someone. I see that happen all too often. Very smart for a HC who has let everyone know who he is building his program on. (ours if you didn't guess.
) He's had a great season so far. I think he will do well. BB gave him a sincere handshake at the end of the game and Patricia and he had a long conversation (relatively) after the game. d. Lengel got 2 targets today and one catch. He looks comfortable around the ball, not stiff at all....and big. Who knew?
e. My one complaint on the offense came on one of the GL drives that failed. We have on this team FOUR guys who are 6'2 or over. We no longer need to run those smurf routes on the GL in order to throw the ball. We have joined the 21st century and WE too have big receivers. Maybe we should have routes for them too.
OR maybe Josh is just saving them for the playoffs and I should just shut up and stop complaining.
6. DEFENSE - Front 7 - What can you say about a defensive front that held a guy who has THREE 200 yd games to 59 yds and a 3.6yc average. And it would have been even better if Malcolm Butler hadn't had his head down and missed one of the very few tackles I've seen him miss this season. Tsk tsk Malcolm you can't hit what you can't see. That clip could be used by every HS coach in the country as what NOT to do on a tackle. But you're forgiven....this time.
a. In the first quarter, about every time Moore dropped back he was under severe pressure. Later that pressure was gone for most of the game. For the last 3 quarters, Moore was getting almost as good protection as Brady was getting. So if there IS a complaint, it is about the lack of a consistent pass rush today.
b. Nice to see Roberts rebound from adversity and get back to being the tackling machine he's become the last few games. Don't underestimate what having Hightower available to do other things has on the overall defense.
c. Interesting to note that it was the "second string" DT that led the group in tackles today with 3. Looks like someone wants his job back.
Also it should be noted what a great contribution Vincent Valentine is making just to be doing well enough to be put in that situation. Finally, I sure am glad that Alan Branch won his appeal. He might be having his best year as a pro at 31. Good for him.d. Finally no comment about the DL can go without another paean to Trey Flowers. He might have made the biggest play of the game when on a 3 man rush he hit and disrupted Moore's throw with a wide open man deep down field very early in the game. On the other end he stuffed Ajayi on the LOS and pancaked him, and had 3 other tackles to boot. He now gone from after thought to main man on the DL. He's looking more and more like Micheal Bennett every day,. BTW- I LOVE the fact this kid's nickname is "technique"
7. DB's - My first reaction to the coverage today was "how does someone get that open, that deep, against 8 man coverage", and that one was incomplete (thank you Trey Flowers). It happened again on a 3rd and long on one of the TD drives. When you compound this with the blown coverage on the 2nd TD, the 2ndary has some splainin' to do. (typical game day overreaction)
a. I don't know how it happened, but 2 things I know for a fact is that Van Noy doesn't have a coverage where he takes Stills on on one deep. And McCourty doesn't have a coverage were he has BOTH the deep middle and Deep outside. So something was broke on that play. I hope the all 22 guys try to figure that one out on Wednesday.
b. On the plus side, whatever the Dolphins saw that helped them score those 2 TD's at the half, was gone after it, as the secondary seemed to tighten the coverage on those crossers and outside breakers.
8. General defensive comments
a. Somehow it feels worse that the 14 points they allowed. But in the cold hard look of reality, they really only managed 3 decent drives all game, on their home field. BTW- in the last 5 games the Phins have played up to now, they have scored 31, 38, 26, 34, and 34. So if that doesn't make you field better about those 2 TD's I don't know what will.
b. If you think about it. Last year at this time we were thinking how we HAD to sign CJones, JCollins, Hightower, Sheard among others. But we traded Jones for space and had over $65MM more for the rest. @Miguel told us it could be done, and we comforted in that knowledge. Now it's 6 months later Jones and Collins are gone, Sheard has become a secondary contributor and not even our best rusher, and if anyone has seen Hightower make an impact play in the last few weeks, please feel free to let me know. AND YET the defense couldn't be playing any better.
So it's a very different kind FA period we might be experiencing this off season, beginning with tons of space and not nearly as many of our own people that we need to sign, or sign for the kind of money we thought we were going to need to sign them.
c. This defense is never going to get the credit they are due simply because the don't have any players on it who are "name worthy". I mean the perfect example is Oakland's defense. They're scary because they have Kalil Mack, who is a great player, but the DEFENSE as a whole sucks. On the other hand the Pats D is vanilla as Rob Ninkovich. Just keep this in mind as the mediots do their work and try to individualize a sport where the sum is always greater than the individual parts. BTW - this marks the 4000th time I have used that phrase on this site.
Commit it to memory and use it when necessary.9. ST's - only Gotskowski's 52 yd miss marred a perfect day for special teams. Too bad, it was straight as an arrow, but started outside and stayed that way. Who knows if the bad field had anything to do it, but.....
a. I saw one of the great magic tricks I've seen today. On one of Allen's 3 punts, I happened to notice Nate Ebner as his personal protecter making a block on a guy coming up the middle. Next thing the cameras scan to the catch, the guy runs up the middle for about 7 yds and is tackled......by Nate Ebner.
All I could think was, "how did he get there?". Like I said it was like magic. 10. General comments:
a. I thought the refs were solid. The Phins had about 10 yds more than the Pats all told, but it could have been more if the Pats had accepted all the ones they got. In the end they kept the game moving and out of the limelight. Too bad I saw where that ref was retiring after today.....figures
b. When I saw the Bill/Jets score, I had to admit I was surprised. What a clusterf*ck is going on up there. I don't think they will be having a wrap party, or at least one I'd want to go to.
c. I'd like to think that the score indicated that the Ravens mailed it in for John Harbaugh and after 9 years his message has gotten old. Couldn't happen to a "nicer" guy.
d. Good to see the Colts squeek by those rampaging Jags by 4. I was starting to worry that Irsay might fire the OTHER 2 idiots of that triumverate if they lost. So it looks good that alls well with the world in Methland. phew.
e. The LA owner BETTER get a big name coach and lots of players, or they won't be able to sell ANY season tickets to anyone who gives even a remote sh!t about money. Even the Browns and Niners look like much better teams. Can you imagine that THAT team is cap strapped and that bad.
OK, 60 minutes is coming one, so lets end it here, and start the discussion. HAPPY NEW YEAR to all, and I hope its a great one.
