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It was another solid win for our Pats....that's pretty much all we need to knowGoing in this game reminded me about the time in 2003 when the Pats played the Bills in the "they hate their coach" game and lost 31-0, then in the rematch at the end of the year, the Pats subs played their ass off in a goal line stand to maintain a 31-0 victory. It was perfect symmetry to what turned out to be a perfect year. This game wasn't as symmetrical, but it was a VERY satisfying payback win for the Pats. Lets break it down.
1. Offense:
a. Oline: The OL is going to get a lot of grief this game by the "sky is falling" crowd, because of the 4 sacks and the "can you believe how well the Bills are putting on Brady" talk coming from the inept analysis of Dan Fouts. But if you watch with a bit more critical eye, it wasn't nearly as bad a you may think.
A good example was the sack that Solder gave up to the Bills Rookie DE. Solder tried to cut him. That is NOT the technique he'd use if he didn't think the pass was going to come out quickly. Brady did have time to throw the ball in rhythm, but when he pulled it down, the DE had time to wrap him up. I would opine that on 3 of the 4 sacks they got on Brady, the OL did its job, but the play broke down due to either failures by the receivers to get open, the Bills were in the right D, or Brady couldn't find the open man.. Remember that is a VERY good defensive front for the Bills. They are going to get upfield, but not every sack is a failure of the OL.
NOT a great day for the OL in opening any holes for LG. He never really had to the room to get started. Way too many times he was getting hit behind the LOS It was better in passing situations with some successful runs by White. But in regular run situations, the OL failed to create the push they got the last 2 weeks.
The OL is going to get a lot criticism after this week, but I think people will be looking at the wrong area to criticize.
b. TE/FB - Gronk's pass per catch average is perhaps the most surprising thing about this season so far. Once again he was over 20 yds/catch which is a number you associate with elite speedster WR's, not 265 lb TE's. Bennett is a great TE in his own right, but Gronk is even at another level.
Bennett is clearly hampered by his ankle. I'm surprised they didn't rest him for this game. But he muddled through with 4 more traditional TE catches.
The results tell me that the TE's didn't have a great blocking day, and my eyes tell me that Devlin did either. I saw on 2 occasions when he whiffed on his block. Not his finest hour.
c. RB's get a meh. The only good thing you can say about the running game was that it took up 22 of the offensive snaps and didn't turn over the ball. It certainly wasn't all the RB's fault, but sometimes you have to make that one guy miss even if he's not blocked to get the one or two big running plays that makes it work.
White had that huge 3rd down drop. Granted he was brutally held before it, but it was a bad drop nonetheless. He's to be forgiven since it might have been his first of the year (or second)
d. QB- By this time anything laudatory you have to say about Tom Brady is going to sound trite and overused. His 66% completion rate was the worst of this season, and still the results were just terrific with 4 TD's and STILL no picks. But he continues to surprise us with 2 more 5o+ yd TD throws, That will ONLY make the offense more effective as defense are going to HAVE to deepen their coverage to protect against these big plays.
I swear he looks both quicker and faster at 39 than he did at 29. He actually made a cut on his 15 yd run. Maybe his mom is right, and he always has been fast, and we just didn't notice .
e. WR's - Stephan Gilmore was a high first round pick with a can't miss tag. He was big, fast, who actually turned into a pretty good #1 CB for the Bills
Chris Hogan was a #1 draft pick..... but for Major League Lacrosse.(which may or may not be true, but it sounds right so I used it) And he just blew right by Gilmore for that TD. If he'd been some big time draft pick coming out, maybe it would quiet all the WR mafia who continually and annoyingly plead for a WR in the first round.
Almost better than the TD was the great move he made on Gilmore to create separation and a first down on the first TD drive. Hogan has turned into a legit outside receiver for the Pats. FINALLY a guy who has some size (6'2) and strength to get by initial press coverage and the speed to run by even good CB's.
Edelman was his usual effective self. Clearly he doesn't need to be a 10+ catch guy anymore with all the other options Brady has. Amendola once again had just a few touches, but made the most of all of them. He's a guy you'll never want for your FF team, or someone who can go to the GM and show him his "stats" and get a raise. He simply has risen to the occasion this season time and time again. He has really been an impact player for the Pats this season.fd
One comment: Brady threw a successful back shoulder throw to Gronk in this game. I would like to see him us this pass more often with not only Gronk, but Bennett and Hogan as well. It is just so effective when executed well. Too often Brady refuses to throw the ball unless a guy is clearly open. Most of the rest of the league's QB, have no problem throwing 50-50 balls out there. Joe Flacco earned over 100MM doing exactly just that, the year they won it all.
2. Defense -
a Front 7 - I think the most obvious criticism for the front 7 was allowing 160 rushing yds to the Bills. Now the Bills DID have an interesting concept going with 2 and sometimes 3 RB's in the backfield that often gave them an extra blocker at the hole, It's a great concept because you have to protect against the QB going wide on the fake, which widens the holes. But I would have thought that that we would have adjusted better in the 2nd half better, (especially the stuff up the middle).
The DL and LB's actually got there enough times to have had 5 sacks of their own, except that Taylor kept getting out of their grasps so often. It makes me very wary given the fact that we will be facing an equally elusive QB next in Wilson. The difference being he will not only have better receivers, is also a better passer.
It was good to see Mingo get some late game snaps with the regular D. He got well into the backfield on a couple of inside rushes and made a nice tackle on the last GL series. I can see him being a potential factor before the season ends, if only providing dependable depth
Trey Flowers continues to develop. 2 sacks and 4 tackles in limited snaps will only earn him more play as the season goes one and that can't hurt.
Ninko is great at tackling RB's,and sets the edge better than anyone, but seems to have this block about getting QB's to the ground. That's like the third of fourth QB he's had 2 hands on and let go. The same can be said of Sheard as well. An awful lot of close calls by those 2. Still I'd rather have them have those now.
c. DB's. I may complain from time to time about our midget secondary, but DAMNED those guys hit hard and are uniformly great tacklers. Malcolm Butler hits so hard he scares the piss out of me, but somehow it's the guy he hits that gets up slowly, while I just thought he might have killed himself hitting him.
Speaking of Butler, his coverage seems to be getting better and better as the year goes on. He totally shut down Woods when he was manning him. I don't think Woods had a catch until they went to the prevent zone late in the game.
Kudos again for our Safeties. To see how Chung has developed in to this multi-use swiss army knife that is so consistently reliable is truly a beautiful thing to see. It's a LONG way from the camp fodder talk from when he first resigned.
Rowe had a tough day with the multiple penalties. The Pats had over 115 yds in penalties and he might have been responsible for almost half of them. But I was happy to see him in great position to defend passes. His head was usually turned back to the ball, and on at least one of the PI's it was the WR pushing off that was what I saw. Basically, he's been doing fine. He just needs to refine his technique and not feel that he has to be perfect to stay on the team. It is NOT all on him for this team to win, and all CB's get passes caught on them. Just relax and do what you do and he'll be fine.
3. Special Teams
a. What a difference a week makes. With the exception of one KO return back to the 35 the special teams at the end of the game, ST's were virtually flawless at every stage. GOOD punt coverage. GOOD KO coverage (with the one exception), GOOD KO's and FG's, GOOD punting by the specialists.
The 2 most impressive plays were the 51yd FG, into a crossing wind, and the 70 yd KO return from Amendola. Whatever ailed Gotskowsi, he is clearly working through it. You could tell from the opening point after that a lot of the movement we've seen on his kicks wasn't there. On his long FG, the ball got caught in the wind at the end that made it close, but the kick was center cut to start out with. Clearly this was the kind of day he needed. He plays a position that is perhaps more mental than any other.
b. I should comment on the Punt that wasn't. It started out lucky for the Pats in that the guy just dropped a perfect snap. Then they got unlucky when he fumbled it again, and it bounced in a direction that literally lead him in right direction to run. Unlucky that they had a return on and that side of the field was open.
Bottom line - Very good job by special teams. Not perfect, but you really don't want to be at this time of the year,
4. General Comments
a. Watching the number of people the Bills had limping to the sidelines throughout this game, you'd have to conclude that the Pats symptomatically just beating the piss out of them.
b. The PI on Coleman was a bad call. Even though he did make contact after 5 yard, the last person to make contact was the Bills WR who simply pushed him away. Clearly the official must have been listening to Dan Fouts and wanted to even up the penalty yards.
c. Fouts was simply horrible. Every chance he could he made excuses for the Bills and how lucky the Pats were. He was properly laudatory when it was obvious, but ONLY when it was obvious. He made it seem like the refs never threw a flag against the Pats, when it was flags that got the Bills 17 of their points. The final straw was when they threw the flag on the White drop. It had to be the most obvious hold in history, and Fouts not only said it wasn't much of a hold, he said White was pushing off.
d. EVERY scoring drive that the Bills had after the first one, were materially aided by multiple PI's and holding calls.
e. I really, REALLY hated the garbage time TD, especially since so much of it was aided by very ticky tack calls all the way down the field
f. Tyrod Taylor is a very interesting player. His escapability is unbelievable. His long ball is excellent and usually pretty accurate (as far as long balls go). Given the lack of top grade weapons, I thought he did pretty well today under adverse conditions. He does need to work on developing some touch on his shorter passes, but that is an easy fix in the right system, and good coaching I think he's in the right kind of offense with Lind as his OC, But I wonder if Rex has the patience to develop him
g. I waver on my feelings on Rex Ryan. Sometimes I'm up because you see him create a great defensive game plan, and, of course, his very entertaining pressers. Sometimes I consider him a horrible coach, especially on game day. A buffoon who's teams may like to play for him, but NEVER seem to have the discipline to avoid dumb penalties, or other things you rarely see around a BB team. On balance, we will ALWAYS have an advantage when BB plays him. If you listened to his post game presser, I think even HE has come to believe that's true now.
h. The Gronk TD was especially rewarding because it game against Robey. IIRC, he's one of those 'tough guys' who was chirping all week.
BTW- I would be interesting to know if Brady did his traditional 100 yd sprint to start the game. Not that it mattered, but I's still curious
i. Someone better tell the WHINING Dan Fouts, that the Pats had over 110 yds in penalties and over 30 yds more than the Bills. Many that were key in all but one of the Bills' drives. According to him all the flags were going against the Bills.
j. I was thinking that one of BB's standard remarks in the post game locker room is that 4 wins won't get you anything in this league, or 5 wins, or 6 wins, and I'm sure he made the same remark today. But the reality is that 7 wins might very well get ypu the division crown in the AFC and NFC south divisions.
k. Happy to see Indy go down again and nice to see NO win. The Brownies lost another heart breaker to the Jets, who aren't even on my radar of caring about, and I'm sorry to see Denver eek out another win. But Denver is over a month away, so it will be few weeks before it comes into focus.
l. Bye weeks are great for the players, but they suck for us. Some of us will have to do overtime work to find things to complain about. We are really very good at it.
. 1. Watching what the ref did was hysterical! 2. Who brings a bildo to a football game? 
Maybe that is what the fan, who threw the "toy" on the field, was trying to express.
Well I remember THAT one clearly. It was Larry Izzo. BB had emptied the bench late in that game and Izzo was getting some rare regular defensive snaps on the Bills last drive.
Yeah, I have had that complaint too from time to time, especially all the open RB's he seems to ignore. However, that being said, we should both temper than complaint because there is value in the QB taking that risk downfield.
