Idle thoughts - the "oops" edition

[PP2]

It took a while to process this game. It was as ugly a game as I can remember and the ending was almost the exact opposite of their last game. From a remarkable comeback to an utter collapse. I'm sure its been hard for everyone to process. But let's take a stab at it and try to put it into prospective.

1. The good news is, we won't have to hear any more talk about the 19-0 season. The bad news is (if you are going to watch or listen to media coverage of the game ) you are going to hear a lot this week about the "cliff" Brady will be falling off, and the end of an era. I image I will hear about it here, because I know I won't be listening.

2. Big picture issues - You have to go back to the 31-0 loss in 2003 to see an effort as bad as this one. Even back to the KC loss in 2014 they were still fighting at the end. The most disturbing thing about THIS loss was the complete lack of effort at the end.

3. OFFENSE

a. Lets start with the QB - The Pats put together 6 good drives over the course of the game. So it wasn't a horrible effort. But for a guy who supposedly has the answers to the test, Brady looked like he was guessing a lot last night. He was indecisive, inaccurate, and instead of getting the offense back on track, it got worse. This game will go as one of Brady's 5 worst games as a Patriot. Let's hope it isn't a pattern. Giardi is already writing his "It's time to start Garapolo" column.

b. OL - Good news and bad news - The pass protection was outstanding last night. Not perfect of course, but certainly good enough to win most games. Granted KC rarely rushed more than 4 and often just 3, the OL handled most of it flawlessly On the other hand, the run game was largely disappointing and most of it was due to a lack of creases created by the OL.

One of the questions I will be asking of those who break down film later next week will be be about the effectiveness of David Andrews in the run game. I'm not sure he has the strength and physicality to move people in the center of the line. And because of this weakness, I expect him to fact a big NT most weeks.

But in the end the OL was the best of the 4 offensive groups and since it will only get better as the season goes on, about the only question we should have about it is about the depth behind the starting 5.

c. Receivers- Amendola was off to a great start before the concussion....er "head injury". He had 100 yds early in the 3rd quarter and was poised for a bigger game. Cooks was OK, but never wowed me. He didn't get the kind of separation I was expecting. Even on his long gain he was just barely open. I wasn't sure exactly what they wanted him to be. Hogan was mis- used IMHO, Gronk wasn't much of a factor, and Allen was merely an afterthought, though given how open he was on the first play I wonder why it wasn't used again.

d. RB's - ALL the RB's had their moments. None of them nearly as impressive as any of Hunt's myriad of moments, but the Run game seems to be in good hands. I would have liked to see more of Lewis in the mix but that's a subjective observation. Here's the thing though, I've rarely seen the Pats passing attack to their RB's so.....unfocused, purposeless, uncreative or disjointed. I'm not sure how to phrase it. It just didn't seem directed, much like the rest of the offense.

e Offensive game plan - You all know I rarely question any of the coaching decisions....and rightfully so. None of us have 1% of the information the staff has. HOWEVER I don't know about you, but there didn't seem to be any "plan" to the offense. It just seemed to be a series of individual plays that were thrown out there like you would in a scrimmage. If they work, fine. If not, OK too, and on to the next one.

Let me put it this way. How often, over the years have we seen the offense get better and better as the game went along and the opposition's defensive gameplan was revealed. How often has our offense dictated to the defense and had THEM reacting to what we were doing. I saw none of these things last night. (except for the first drive)

Clearly KC used the Falcon blueprint as their base defense. Which basically is to be physical and tough in the short zones and clog up the middle using the off side LB/S to discourage short crossing routes the Pats like so much. They were also very physical on the outside guys, using an old Pats tactic which was grab as much as you think you can get away with, because they can't call them all.

Believe me we WILL see some versions of this game plan a lot over the next 3 months. But lets remember that the offense DID score 5 times and 27 points and it very easily could have been more, perhaps a lot more if Brady had been sharper and the game plan more defined. Please credit KC for a good game plan, and better execution. but the Pats brain trust needs to take accountability for not making better adjustments to it, and the players for not executing better.

It is hard to believe that the same team that made three 2yd MUST HAVE plays in the superbowl, could only manage to run right into the heart of the defense on every 4th and inches play. You have to wonder, did Josh leave his creativity at home last night?

4. Defense -

a. Front 7- WOW.....just WOW.....and not in a good way.

I thought the defense was in good shape at the end of the first half. As usual the run D was getting better as the half went along and the KC run game plan was revealed. KC got a bit lucky with a duck in the endzone ending up with a PI when Butler lost track of the ball, So I fully expected the D to hold KC to 10 or less points in the 2nd half. Boy was I mistaken.

First of all, EVERY time Smith optioned the DE (hightower) he should have been planted in the dirt. This has been standard operating procedure for every DC from HS on up since the days of the triple option in the mid 70's. The way the Pats played it, it seemed like we were saying, "OK, you can scheme out our best defensive player without any consequence and that's alright with us". If we had planted Smith (who is a legit target as a runner) even once, it would have ended the option as a threat for the rest of the night. I couldn't believe it.

I don't know what was going on that made the run defense collapse to entirely, but it should be at the top of all of our lists to find out from guys like Bedard, Chatham, or guys here who break down film. This was a positive melt down that was so complete it is hard to blame just Hightower's injury and the fact Marsh just got here. Its not like there was a long run or two, but they kept on coming and kept getting worse. Like I said earlier, usually when a team exploits a scheme for some success in the run game, they Pats fix it before too long. In this case, the dike collapsed instead of getting stronger.

c. Questions I need answers to.

i. Where was David Harris - did he even play in the 2nd half?

ii. Where were Brown, Guy, and Branch?

iii. Give credit to Andy Reid for his little shuffle pass to Kelcey play that they ran 5 times with some success, but where was the eventual response we were supposed to see?

iv. Does this front 7 have any heart, because I didn't see any at the end.

d. on one positive note, both Wise and Flowers flashed a bit, but I'm grasping a straws at this point.

5. Secondary -

a. I have no problem with Gilmore physically. I thought he played well. If he was to blame for the long TD, it was a mental mistake by either him or McCourty, and at this point it doesn't matter who. I doubt it will happen again.

b. Butler again looked less effective than last season. Not bad, just not at the same level he had us expecting from his past perfomances.

c. I don't know WTF Patricia was trying to do with his 3 and 4 safety schemes, but whatever it was, it wasn't working constently. Again a very strange game plan

In the end it was without question the WORST defensive performance of the BB era and opens a SLEW of questions that this team will need to answer.

6. ST's - Like most of the night, there were highs and lows from some great coverage by Jones and Badamosi, to TWO running into the kicker penalties on the same series. As well as some mediocre coverage on some punts and KO's

SUMMARY - Well I'm on media lockdown. It's not that the Pats don't deserve a boatload of crap this long week, I just don't want to hear it. If there are answers to the questions I want to know about, I'll find out about them here.

Disappointed? Of course we all are. I don't care if KC is a VERY good football team (I hope Berry is OK) We are supposed to beat the best and given the first 3 quarters, we should have. (How ironic THAT statement is).

We had 6 months to enjoy perhaps the greatest win in Patriots history. I think we, as fans should be able to take 10 days of crap and hope BB turns it around, because if he doesn't, we all know how 2009 went.

Ken,

You know I enjoy reading your posts, especially your post-game analyses. This time I have a bone to pick with you over Cooks- you are dead wrong on Cooks and you need to go stand in the corner for 10 minutes (or rewatch the game).

Cooks was murdering his man every single time- even when he was given a 15 yard cushion, he still got separation. He also drew, what, four, five penalties? On that long bomb, he actually had to slow up a bit. He had to slow down on pretty much most of the throws to let them catch up with him.

I know it's been said that the long ball isn't Brady's game but I think it's a matter of Brady getting used to how fast Cooks really is.

 

[sambam94]

Brady was 3-4 in 2015 when Jules was injured. The loss is huge...the 3rd down guy is gone. How many possessions are the Pats going to give up because of this? A couple a game is devastating as we lose the opportunity to score and the opponent gets the ball.
I read too many ..the Pats will be fine because they have so many other weapons. I think we bought into this after hearing it so often. Yes, the Pats will be fine...against weaker opponents, but against the better defenses, this will be a major loss.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

This game will go down as one of Brady's 5 worst games as a Patriot.

16/36 44.44% 267 yards 0 TD 0 INT 70.0 QBR

Off the top of my head Buffalo opener 03, Indy regular season 06, KC regular season 05, Miami regular season 06, Baltimore playoffs 09, Cincinnati regular season 13, Baltimore playoffs 2012........there's probably some ugly ones from 02 that I'm forgetting that would be worse that this as well. Don't get me wrong he wasn't good but he had zero help and still didn't throw a pick. The miss to Allen was painfully bad. He also had some great throws taken off the board by drops where the refs could have thrown a flag. Several to Gronk alone.

Oh and I forgot KC in 14.

Dunno if it makes the 5 absolute worst cut but I was @ San Diego in 2015 EDIT 2002 ; Tommy Boy was bad throwing 2 picks as LT torched the D.
The Patriots Mailing list Bledsoe Krishnas traveling with us were taunting us Brady's Ladies bemoaning BB's trade of Bledsoe.

 

[tasmlab]

Let me put it this way. How often, over the years have we seen the offense get better and better as the game went along and the opposition's defensive gameplan was revealed. How often has our offense dictated to the defense and had THEM reacting to what we were doing. I saw none of these things last night. (except for the first drive)

Great post, Ken. This is what happened. The game was SO out of character that it barely made sense. Although if the Chiefs didn't have the two home runs late in the game, it would've been just a close loss that looked sloppy.

What a juxtaposition between the gaudy Marky-mark, giant super bowl trophy banner ceremony and then the sh*t-show of a Pats game.

 

[Dagg]

I think it happened during the "non-TD". He got up slowly from that and had a look of concern on his face. He wasn't the same after that.

This is an excellent observation which I also made at home. I was expecting him to pop up get all fired up and Gronk spike with authority and all I saw was a look of uncertainty, some shuffling around and then 10 seconds later the realization everyone wanted the spike and it was half hearted. I thought that behavior was very telling and not good news for us fans...

 

[PatriotsNumero1Fan]

The patriots offense will get better. I am not buying the doom and gloom negative nancies on this board. We need our defense to step up badly.

 

[ivanvamp]

He completed 44 percent of his passes, had a 70 QB rating and didn't throw for a TD. That's pretty bad.

Not throwing for a TD is no issue, except for passer rating and fantasy reasons. Gronk had one that he dropped. They ran for three short yardage scores - those are the kind of TDs that Manning used to live off of, but the Patriots the past two seasons have been pounding it in via the run. Brady easily could have had 3+ touchdowns but for the Gronk drop and the three short TD runs (say they pass on two of them).

That's a case where the stats don't quite tell the whole story.

 

[Ring 6]

Ultimately for 3 quarters this was a typical patriot game. (Aside from the 75 yard bomb)

We were up. They had 8 drives (again ignoring the 75 yarder) and on 6 of them they ran a total of 20 plays for 42 yards with a turnover and 5 punts.
We were taking what they were giving us and had 27 points on the board.

It was not a terrible game it was a horrific 4th quarter.

This is a team, a staff, an organization that owns the 4th quarter. I'm not worried that a new trend has started.

 

[mgteich]

Cooks was awesome. The play where he slowed down and took the penalty was a really great play.

Ken,

You know I enjoy reading your posts, especially your post-game analyses. This time I have a bone to pick with you over Cooks- you are dead wrong on Cooks and you need to go stand in the corner for 10 minutes (or rewatch the game).

Cooks was murdering his man every single time- even when he was given a 15 yard cushion, he still got separation. He also drew, what, four, five penalties? On that long bomb, he actually had to slow up a bit. He had to slow down on pretty much most of the throws to let them catch up with him.

I know it's been said that the long ball isn't Brady's game but I think it's a matter of Brady getting used to how fast Cooks really is.

 

[fgssand]

My take is very simple, they came out of this game MUCH better off than the last time we opened against KC at home.

No need to panic, this team will be just fine and will be right where we've grown accustomed to seeing them be -- that would be playing a game in Feb and winning it!!!

PS -- The fire in his eyes tells me I would not want to be the team facing him next week.

 

[The Gr8est]

This is an excellent observation which I also made at home. I was expecting him to pop up get all fired up and Gronk spike with authority and all I saw was a look of uncertainty, some shuffling around and then 10 seconds later the realization everyone wanted the spike and it was half hearted. I thought that behavior was very telling and not good news for us fans...

I didn't see the ball ever hit the ground so I don't think the TD should have been overturned.

As bad as this performance was, if the Pats still had Edelman I think they would have won.

He is THAT good, and THAT important to the offense.

Maybe Brady doesn't have an off night with Jules to move the chains.

 

[Bruins29]

I didn't see the ball ever hit the ground so I don't think the TD should have been overturned.
.

The view from the end zone clearly showed it hitting the ground.

 

[rochrist]

I didn't see the ball ever hit the ground so I don't think the TD should have been overturned.

As bad as this performance was, if the Pats still had Edelman I think they would have won.

He is THAT good, and THAT important to the offense.

Maybe Brady doesn't have an off night with Jules to move the chains.

I did. The second the replayed it I knew it was going to be overturned. So did the broadcasters.

 

[The Gr8est]

I did. The second the replayed it I knew it was going to be overturned. So did the broadcasters.

OK, I just thought I saw Gronk's hand between the ground and the ball. The ball may have been moving, but he controlled it when he hit the ground.

That is what I saw.

 

[patfanken]

Ken,

You know I enjoy reading your posts, especially your post-game analyses. This time I have a bone to pick with you over Cooks- you are dead wrong on Cooks and you need to go stand in the corner for 10 minutes (or rewatch the game).

Cooks was murdering his man every single time- even when he was given a 15 yard cushion, he still got separation. He also drew, what, four, five penalties? On that long bomb, he actually had to slow up a bit. He had to slow down on pretty much most of the throws to let them catch up with him.

I know it's been said that the long ball isn't Brady's game but I think it's a matter of Brady getting used to how fast Cooks really is.

What I saw in the completions he made early to Cooks was good close coverage on all those stop routes. Sometimes it was a completion and sometimes it wasn't, but not much separation at all. Those plays probably tainted my view

As to the PI he drew, I took umbrage when Colingsworth intimated that Cooks "drew" the penalty. While you may interpret it that way, but I thought it was a blatant PI where the guy was both grabbing and early even before Cooks began to slow down. And to my view he was slowing down to get the ball, not necessarily to draw the flag.

But OK, I get the point. Cooks might not have deserved my ""meh" designation,. As to my 10 minutes in the corner, I will need to go to arbitration, have a federal judge review the results, and an entire legal team to disuss the effects ad nauseum.

BTW- There was (as I recall) one play that no one has mentioned yet where Cooks ran a deep post and was WIDE open. Unfortunately it was one of the rare plays where Brady was forced to move in the pocket a bit, and he never saw him. Too bad on that one.

 

[rochrist]

OK, I just thought I saw Gronk's hand between the ground and the ball. The ball may have been moving, but he controlled it when he hit the ground.

That is what I saw.

Right, but the tip of the ball hit the ground first.

 

[VJCPatriot]

Well that game was a clunker. 4th quarter collapse. Defense simply could not slow down the hunt kid. Teams are going to test our ability to stop them in the outside a lot now. Count on it.

Offense was not horrible but they were not clicking on all cylinders despite the good start. I also think we went on 4th down too early when all we needed to do was kick a fg for the 10-0 lead.

I think the offense needs more time to gel. But the defense looks simply a mess. Lot of introspection followed by immediate fixing needed so we can be ready for next week! At least we have a couple extra days to prepare and maybe sign one more defender!

 

[mgteich]

As bad as this performance was, if the Pats still had Edelman I think they would have won.

Unless Edelman was playing defense, KC would have won.

I guess we're readying our excuse for all future losses (if there are any).

 

[shmessy]

. ...If someone wants to post a tweet to Michaels informing him that a certain Patriot fan has had a "Fathead" fashioned for his toilet bowl and plans on defecating on an image of his face the rest of that certain fan's life, I'd appreciate it. THAT is what HE, the rest of them and the rest of this POS league will get from me now on. Gutless, wormlike, anthropoidal wastes of DNA bereft of any conscience, morals or decency...the lot of them. Sorry sukkers...you lose...we won.

Always good to hear from you, Mr, Prssident.

.

 

[Pats2000]

Yes this was a bad game, but I don't think it's because the Pats aren't a great team. We've turned over a lot of the offensive weapons from last year. The guys we have now, don't have the same skill sets as the guys we had before. Edelman was obviously a huge loss as someone who could go and get the ball even in a clogged up middle of the field. Amendola is an awesome receiver, but you've got to limit his snaps, otherwise he's going to break...as we saw last night.

I think this is a the learning curve of everyone new on the team. Brady was off because the guys he's throwing to are still getting used to the system. If you saw Brady's throws that were innacurate, they were innacurate over the receivers head. I think his philosophy was if my guy can't go up and get the ball, no one can. He wanted to make sure that he wasn't go the throw the ball to a spot and have his guy not be there and have a defender there instead. I saw a lack of trust that still needs to be developed during game speed play.

The offense is going to get much, much better as the year goes on. The Patriots do have to figure out how to scheme that defense though and not just wait until they wear down.

Defensively this game was a mess. But again, one of the things that we learn is that BB and Patricia don't give the defense the entire playbook from day 1. There are a lot of new defensive guys and they install an expanded defensive playbook each game. Credit to Andy Reid for being creative, but he probably spent most of the offseason game planning for this. The Patriots probably worked more on the fundamentals and trying to get ready for the season, vs. this one game. Now that we are going week to week, no one is going to have that advantage of spending months figuring out a gameplan.

Finally, the Patriots have almost always been a team that builds steam over the year. They tend to play their worst and most sloppy football at the beginning of the year and build momentum, sure they drop a game here and there in November and December. But that is usually due to losing the game of attrition with all of the injuries.

Overall, I'm not worried. Everyone was comparing this team to the 2007 team. That team was special in a way no Patriots team will probably ever be special again. Randy Moss was a man amongst boys in a way that not even Gronk can lay claim to. Wes Welker couldn't be stopped in the slot, and we had another burner in Donte Stallworth. Plus on defense we had guys like Rodney Harrison, Asante Samuel, Rosie Colvin, Mike Vrabel, and one of my personal all time favorite Pats, Teddy Bruschi, on defense. Those guys were a special bunch, they were all heart, more so than any group of guys that have played since.

The Patriots only have a couple of guys with that much heart now and one of the we lost for the season in Edelman. So everyone hit the pause button, chill, and let this season unfold, it's going to be a good one.