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Very odd game. Only your NE Patriots can play a game with a 16 point spread against a team that has won 10 NFL games this season, then BEAT the spread despite turning the ball over FOUR times, and have everyone look and sound like they lost.
So now we have the narrative established for next week's meidot sh!t storm. " If the Pats hadn't played the 'tomato can" Texans they would have lost." " The only reason they won was they played a horrible QB". This team isn't good enough to beat one of the great QB's that remain in the playoffs". And my personal favorite, "they better hope they don't get Pittsburgh next week because "big ben" and his B's will eat them up.
I hate it, I hate it! I HATE IT. So before we break down the good and bad of this game, let me rewrite the narrative, or at least attempt to give an alternative one from the one you are going to hear for the next 8 days.
First of all, your NE Patirots are a VERY good team. They are good enough to play a very sloppy game, including 4 turnovers, give up 16 points off those turnovers, have their QB have his WORST completion percentage in his 17 year career, and STILL win the game by EIGHTEEN freakin's points. Can you imagine what they might have done if the offense had had just a normal statistical game.
Secondly let us not forget that the Texans not only has one of the better defenses in the league, they came up with a great defensive game plan that worked better than anyone expected. That's is good coaching by THEM, not bad playing by us. And although it was a great scheme that caused 2 sacks and a number of hits, the staff adjusted to scheme and Brady had more time in the 2nd half, even though he still got hit some.
Lets take a look at what the Texans were doing. First they played tight man to man coverage often doubling individual players. Then they created tough match ups with Clowney and Mercelous on Andrews and Thuney. That is smart. In what world wouldn't you put the fastest, biggest, and most athletic player in the league on an undersized UDFA C, and/or your best pass rushing DE on your rookie OG. At the same time have your LBs just hit the bejesus out of any TE or RB that tries to leak out of the backfield.
Take a good look at it folks, because this won't be the last time we see it....or see something like it. It was simply a brilliant plan by Romeo. That's the bad news. The good news is that Dante, Josh, and Bill will have at least one week and up to 3 weeks to create a response to it.
It also had at least one positive result. For years now I have hoped that Brady would take more shots at throwing 50/50 balls to his receivers. Well tonight he was forced to finally do that, and he had a least 5 completions of more than 20 yds and came real close on at least 3 more that I can recall (ones to Bennett, Edelman, and Lewis). Now that he's had some real success born out of necessity, maybe he'll get more comfortable doing it just a BIT more often.
So that's tonight's rant, now let's break it down!
1. OL - Already I'm pissed at comparison's being made to last season's AFCCG, when it wasn't anything close to that. Last season was a combination of good pass rushers having a home crowd advantage against a group of OLmen who weren't healthy enough to defend themselves. Tonights failures were the result of great schemes, great individual talent, and bad mismatches, MOST of which were starting to be worked out before the game ended.
a. the Good news is that that our OT's are really good, and when CLowney and Mercelous played against them, it was a different story and completely different than last season's ending.
b. I have said all year that teams will view Andrews as a mismatch and for the most part, even when they did, Andrews has performed adequately to well. Tonight he was exposed. He's never going to be a great run blocking C when he has a DL covering him. He's just too short and small. He's at his best when playing against 4-3 looks, and quite frankly I don't see him seeing to many of those anymore. In the future he needs to be upgraded, but for right now he needs to be protected when he's faced with a Clowney type matchup.
BTW- I used to worry about him being match up with a Vince, or Poe type power match up, which hurts him in the run game, but he's proven he can stand up to that kind of guy in protection. The Clowney type match up proved too tough for both he and Tuney. Also understand these just weren't one on one match ups, they were DL wide schemes/stunts that often included LB's.
c. I am concerned, but I recognize that MOST of it is fixable with practice, preparation, and our own set of schemes. It won't ever be perfect, because we don't have superior physical matchups yet, but it CAN be good enough to win THIS season..
2 Receivers -
a. Great games by Edelman and Hogan. Hopefully Hogan's thigh injury was just a charlie horse and Garerro can get him ready. 4 tough catches for 95 yds in just 2.5 quarters was a great first playoff effort for him.
b. Floyd had a rougher outing, There will be some who will blame him for the first pick. I won't be one of them. The pick was unlucky, as most defection picks are, but the pass was inaccurate. plain and simple. I was more disappointed that he didn't manage to create more of a role for himself than that one reception. You would like to think that HE would have been a target for one of those 50-50 balls tonight. Also his penalty, deserved or not, cost the Pats a FG opportunity.
With Gronk gone, Floyd NEEDS to fill some of that gap. Maybe him not being part of the game plan tonight was by design. Maybe he just wasn't getting open. I don't know, but would like to find out.
c. Also having a rough night in his playoff opener was Marty Bennett. He had one catch that MIGHT have warranted a challenge flag. It was closer on the replay than the original. He also had a drop. Add that to the hyperextension that stopped my heart, and it won't be a game he will be rushing to call his brother about.
Again, like Floyd, I wonder why Marty wasn't one of those targetted to get a 50/50 ball. He's had a few earlier in the year with a TD by Brady, and a long ball from Brissett.
Could be by design. I don't know. What I do know is that next to winning the game, my best feeling of the night was seeing him back on the field after I thought his season was done.
3. RB- 21 runs is NOT enough of a run game to create what we need to maximize the Pass game. LGB got screwed out of 20 yd gain by a very bogus holding call, but that happens, and doesn't make up for the GL failure at the end of the half (which I blame the OL for, since Blount got hit in the backfield) Lewis was fine as a runner, though I wish they'd designed some more plays specifically with his skills in mind. Things like draws, traps, and counters. I wouldn't mind seening something that stretches the defense on occassion.
Bottom line: Among the numerous things we need to see improved for next week, the running game plan would be one of them
4. QB- I wonder what the odds you would have gotten if you wanted to bet Brady would have 2 picks tonight. I bet they would be better than the odds of him throwing UNDER 50% completions. Credit the Houston D for some of it. They did a good job of rushing the passer as well as coverage. However in Brady's worst game of the year, he still almost threw of 300 yds and 2 TD's. Brady missed the underneath LB on his 2nd pick. It reminded me of the Wagner Pick in the superbowl
If you get a chance to see his post game presser, he couldn't have been more pissed if you had told him Roger Goodell was babysitting his kids tonight. There are a lot "teachable moments" to come out of this game, getting Tom Brady to refocus on them is NOT going to be a problem for Bill.......or anyone else judging from comments coming from the locker room.
5. General offensive comments - No it wasn't great, but no team can put up 27 points on offense, against the #1 defense in the league, and take more crap for it.
b. Bill commented on bad coaching in his presser. I don't think he was talking about the defense. I will speculate that either he wasn't happy that they weren't prepared for the scheme the Texans showed, OR he didn't think the coaches made the adjustments quickly and effectively enough once they understood what was happening. All fixable things.
c. Ever wonder if this particular Pats team has a problem with the bye. In a way the offense kind of looked like it did after the last time the Pats had a bye week, kind of sloppy and hurky-jerky (seattle game)
d. Ever wonder that a big part of the offensive inconsistencies in the first have was caused by the fact that between the KO return and all the turnovers, the Pats ran exactly NINE plays in the first half before their last drive
6. DEFENSE- Front 7 - Well done boys - They held Miller to just over 2ypc all night and essentially stuffed the run game. The only thing that was close to a disappointment was Osweiler's long run. As far as the pass rush went, I thought it was fairly consistent most of the night. My biggests disappointment was Flowers not having a bigger impact on the rush tonight, though he did have 7 tackles.
BTW- I have criticized Hightower for occasionally being ok but not all pro type impactful. Well tonight he was better. Not any "big plays" but 9 tackles and clearly he was critical in getting people in the right place.
b. Up for criticism tonight with "where were they" award, was Shea McClellin. Outside of one QB hit, he didn't register much on the stat line.
6. DB's Overall another very solid night by the DB's including the 3 picks by the Rutgers contingent. On the critical side, Rowe's penalty was nothing less than a turnover in that it kept the Pats from getting the ball, and led to Houston getting 3. Harmon got fooled on the TD and let Fedorowicz run right by him, and Butler, who was great on just about everyother play this game, allowed Fuller to get behind him for what should have been a TD, though I would like to find out where the S was that play later this week.
7. STs - More examples of ups and downs tonight. The special teams was no different. Great initial blocks by Slater and Devlin unleashed Lewis on his TD run, while Slaters penalty on an Edelman return forced the Pats to start on their own 33 instead of the Houston 46. IIRC that drive ended just outside of FG range. Had there been no penalty it wouldn't have.
a. Allen, Ghost and the snapper all got singled out by BB for handling the ball so well in very cold conditions
b. And of course our coverage teams were once again excellent.
8. General defensive thoughts -
1. I give up. This defense will never get the credit it deserves. A great example was McCourty's pick. In the replay it looked to me that he recognized the route and jumped it. Osweiller threw the ball right on the money and to the deep sideline never expecting a S to get there first. But rather than give McCourty full credit for a great read, they blamed Osweiller for being late or slow, or whatever. All we know is our defense didn't do anything except be out there when bad QB's were playing, so they must suck and are vastly over rated, and the best proof the mediots always give is how can our defense be any good when we don't have a Clowney or Mercelous on our side, or a great LB, or a great S or CB, etc We don't even have a Jamie Collins. So how can they be good.
9. General thoughts -
There was a time during this game when I began to wonder if Roger had gotten word to the refs that the PI call on Hogan was the last flag Houston was going to get. The Solder flag was particularly gauling. Brady was right in being pissed at Clowney. Not so much that he hit him late, but that he didn't have to drag him down so late after the play was over. There will be those who will look at the call Brady DID get and whine that he gets all the calls.
Thats BS. Brady COULD have gotten the call on the guy that was wrapped around his legs after he threw the ball. Clowney ended up hitting him 2 counts AFTER that... and low. It was horrifyingly late.
Now what I want to see is someone (especially in the media) come up with the stats about who is getting all the roughing calls. I'm pretty sure it ISN'T Tom Brady. In fact IIRC a few years ago I saw some stats that showed that far from getting "all the calls" more than half the QB's in the league were gettng more flags than Brady. I just wonder what they are recently. But after watching that late Clowney hit, I thank god Brady is pliable....and Clowney SHOULD get fined.
In the end between the 30 yd PI, the Clowney late hit, and a late and meaningless holding call, the Texans wound up with 25 more penalty yards than the Pats. (5-75 vs 5-50) I was surprised when I saw it, because I could have sworn Roger was on the phone with them from NYC At any rate we survived Morrelli, so we got that going for us.
b. So the narratives are set. The Pats are suddenly more vunerable. Their OL is now a question mark again. Tomorrow's winners will look better regardless of how they actually do, and just like people will go out of their way to make cases for anyone but Tom Brady for MVP, they will go out of their way to make cases for anyone but the Pats for league champion. And you know I'm fine with that actually. I always like it better when we are the underdog.
BTW- Kudos to those steeler loving mediots who will ignore Rothlessbergers, horrendous stats in away games this year. Some one was nice enough to correct my estimates of Bedard's stats, but I've forgotten them, but needless to say they are bad enough to make Brock Osweiller proud.
Well Enjoy this game.....at least as much as the mediots and whiners will allow you. '
So now we have the narrative established for next week's meidot sh!t storm. " If the Pats hadn't played the 'tomato can" Texans they would have lost." " The only reason they won was they played a horrible QB". This team isn't good enough to beat one of the great QB's that remain in the playoffs". And my personal favorite, "they better hope they don't get Pittsburgh next week because "big ben" and his B's will eat them up.
I hate it, I hate it! I HATE IT. So before we break down the good and bad of this game, let me rewrite the narrative, or at least attempt to give an alternative one from the one you are going to hear for the next 8 days.
First of all, your NE Patirots are a VERY good team. They are good enough to play a very sloppy game, including 4 turnovers, give up 16 points off those turnovers, have their QB have his WORST completion percentage in his 17 year career, and STILL win the game by EIGHTEEN freakin's points. Can you imagine what they might have done if the offense had had just a normal statistical game.
Secondly let us not forget that the Texans not only has one of the better defenses in the league, they came up with a great defensive game plan that worked better than anyone expected. That's is good coaching by THEM, not bad playing by us. And although it was a great scheme that caused 2 sacks and a number of hits, the staff adjusted to scheme and Brady had more time in the 2nd half, even though he still got hit some.
Lets take a look at what the Texans were doing. First they played tight man to man coverage often doubling individual players. Then they created tough match ups with Clowney and Mercelous on Andrews and Thuney. That is smart. In what world wouldn't you put the fastest, biggest, and most athletic player in the league on an undersized UDFA C, and/or your best pass rushing DE on your rookie OG. At the same time have your LBs just hit the bejesus out of any TE or RB that tries to leak out of the backfield.
Take a good look at it folks, because this won't be the last time we see it....or see something like it. It was simply a brilliant plan by Romeo. That's the bad news. The good news is that Dante, Josh, and Bill will have at least one week and up to 3 weeks to create a response to it.
It also had at least one positive result. For years now I have hoped that Brady would take more shots at throwing 50/50 balls to his receivers. Well tonight he was forced to finally do that, and he had a least 5 completions of more than 20 yds and came real close on at least 3 more that I can recall (ones to Bennett, Edelman, and Lewis). Now that he's had some real success born out of necessity, maybe he'll get more comfortable doing it just a BIT more often.
So that's tonight's rant, now let's break it down!
1. OL - Already I'm pissed at comparison's being made to last season's AFCCG, when it wasn't anything close to that. Last season was a combination of good pass rushers having a home crowd advantage against a group of OLmen who weren't healthy enough to defend themselves. Tonights failures were the result of great schemes, great individual talent, and bad mismatches, MOST of which were starting to be worked out before the game ended.
a. the Good news is that that our OT's are really good, and when CLowney and Mercelous played against them, it was a different story and completely different than last season's ending.
b. I have said all year that teams will view Andrews as a mismatch and for the most part, even when they did, Andrews has performed adequately to well. Tonight he was exposed. He's never going to be a great run blocking C when he has a DL covering him. He's just too short and small. He's at his best when playing against 4-3 looks, and quite frankly I don't see him seeing to many of those anymore. In the future he needs to be upgraded, but for right now he needs to be protected when he's faced with a Clowney type matchup.
BTW- I used to worry about him being match up with a Vince, or Poe type power match up, which hurts him in the run game, but he's proven he can stand up to that kind of guy in protection. The Clowney type match up proved too tough for both he and Tuney. Also understand these just weren't one on one match ups, they were DL wide schemes/stunts that often included LB's.
c. I am concerned, but I recognize that MOST of it is fixable with practice, preparation, and our own set of schemes. It won't ever be perfect, because we don't have superior physical matchups yet, but it CAN be good enough to win THIS season..
2 Receivers -
a. Great games by Edelman and Hogan. Hopefully Hogan's thigh injury was just a charlie horse and Garerro can get him ready. 4 tough catches for 95 yds in just 2.5 quarters was a great first playoff effort for him.
b. Floyd had a rougher outing, There will be some who will blame him for the first pick. I won't be one of them. The pick was unlucky, as most defection picks are, but the pass was inaccurate. plain and simple. I was more disappointed that he didn't manage to create more of a role for himself than that one reception. You would like to think that HE would have been a target for one of those 50-50 balls tonight. Also his penalty, deserved or not, cost the Pats a FG opportunity.
With Gronk gone, Floyd NEEDS to fill some of that gap. Maybe him not being part of the game plan tonight was by design. Maybe he just wasn't getting open. I don't know, but would like to find out.
c. Also having a rough night in his playoff opener was Marty Bennett. He had one catch that MIGHT have warranted a challenge flag. It was closer on the replay than the original. He also had a drop. Add that to the hyperextension that stopped my heart, and it won't be a game he will be rushing to call his brother about.
Again, like Floyd, I wonder why Marty wasn't one of those targetted to get a 50/50 ball. He's had a few earlier in the year with a TD by Brady, and a long ball from Brissett.Could be by design. I don't know. What I do know is that next to winning the game, my best feeling of the night was seeing him back on the field after I thought his season was done.
3. RB- 21 runs is NOT enough of a run game to create what we need to maximize the Pass game. LGB got screwed out of 20 yd gain by a very bogus holding call, but that happens, and doesn't make up for the GL failure at the end of the half (which I blame the OL for, since Blount got hit in the backfield) Lewis was fine as a runner, though I wish they'd designed some more plays specifically with his skills in mind. Things like draws, traps, and counters. I wouldn't mind seening something that stretches the defense on occassion.
Bottom line: Among the numerous things we need to see improved for next week, the running game plan would be one of them
4. QB- I wonder what the odds you would have gotten if you wanted to bet Brady would have 2 picks tonight. I bet they would be better than the odds of him throwing UNDER 50% completions.
Credit the Houston D for some of it. They did a good job of rushing the passer as well as coverage. However in Brady's worst game of the year, he still almost threw of 300 yds and 2 TD's. Brady missed the underneath LB on his 2nd pick. It reminded me of the Wagner Pick in the superbowlIf you get a chance to see his post game presser, he couldn't have been more pissed if you had told him Roger Goodell was babysitting his kids tonight. There are a lot "teachable moments" to come out of this game, getting Tom Brady to refocus on them is NOT going to be a problem for Bill.......or anyone else judging from comments coming from the locker room.
5. General offensive comments - No it wasn't great, but no team can put up 27 points on offense, against the #1 defense in the league, and take more crap for it.
b. Bill commented on bad coaching in his presser. I don't think he was talking about the defense. I will speculate that either he wasn't happy that they weren't prepared for the scheme the Texans showed, OR he didn't think the coaches made the adjustments quickly and effectively enough once they understood what was happening. All fixable things.
c. Ever wonder if this particular Pats team has a problem with the bye. In a way the offense kind of looked like it did after the last time the Pats had a bye week, kind of sloppy and hurky-jerky (seattle game)
d. Ever wonder that a big part of the offensive inconsistencies in the first have was caused by the fact that between the KO return and all the turnovers, the Pats ran exactly NINE plays in the first half before their last drive
6. DEFENSE- Front 7 - Well done boys - They held Miller to just over 2ypc all night and essentially stuffed the run game. The only thing that was close to a disappointment was Osweiler's long run. As far as the pass rush went, I thought it was fairly consistent most of the night. My biggests disappointment was Flowers not having a bigger impact on the rush tonight, though he did have 7 tackles.
BTW- I have criticized Hightower for occasionally being ok but not all pro type impactful. Well tonight he was better. Not any "big plays" but 9 tackles and clearly he was critical in getting people in the right place.
b. Up for criticism tonight with "where were they" award, was Shea McClellin. Outside of one QB hit, he didn't register much on the stat line.
6. DB's Overall another very solid night by the DB's including the 3 picks by the Rutgers contingent. On the critical side, Rowe's penalty was nothing less than a turnover in that it kept the Pats from getting the ball, and led to Houston getting 3. Harmon got fooled on the TD and let Fedorowicz run right by him, and Butler, who was great on just about everyother play this game, allowed Fuller to get behind him for what should have been a TD, though I would like to find out where the S was that play later this week.
7. STs - More examples of ups and downs tonight. The special teams was no different. Great initial blocks by Slater and Devlin unleashed Lewis on his TD run, while Slaters penalty on an Edelman return forced the Pats to start on their own 33 instead of the Houston 46. IIRC that drive ended just outside of FG range. Had there been no penalty it wouldn't have.
a. Allen, Ghost and the snapper all got singled out by BB for handling the ball so well in very cold conditions
b. And of course our coverage teams were once again excellent.
8. General defensive thoughts -
1. I give up. This defense will never get the credit it deserves. A great example was McCourty's pick. In the replay it looked to me that he recognized the route and jumped it. Osweiller threw the ball right on the money and to the deep sideline never expecting a S to get there first. But rather than give McCourty full credit for a great read, they blamed Osweiller for being late or slow, or whatever. All we know is our defense didn't do anything except be out there when bad QB's were playing, so they must suck and are vastly over rated, and the best proof the mediots always give is how can our defense be any good when we don't have a Clowney or Mercelous on our side, or a great LB, or a great S or CB, etc We don't even have a Jamie Collins. So how can they be good.
9. General thoughts -
There was a time during this game when I began to wonder if Roger had gotten word to the refs that the PI call on Hogan was the last flag Houston was going to get. The Solder flag was particularly gauling. Brady was right in being pissed at Clowney. Not so much that he hit him late, but that he didn't have to drag him down so late after the play was over. There will be those who will look at the call Brady DID get and whine that he gets all the calls.
Thats BS. Brady COULD have gotten the call on the guy that was wrapped around his legs after he threw the ball. Clowney ended up hitting him 2 counts AFTER that... and low. It was horrifyingly late.
Now what I want to see is someone (especially in the media) come up with the stats about who is getting all the roughing calls. I'm pretty sure it ISN'T Tom Brady. In fact IIRC a few years ago I saw some stats that showed that far from getting "all the calls" more than half the QB's in the league were gettng more flags than Brady. I just wonder what they are recently. But after watching that late Clowney hit, I thank god Brady is pliable....and Clowney SHOULD get fined.
In the end between the 30 yd PI, the Clowney late hit, and a late and meaningless holding call, the Texans wound up with 25 more penalty yards than the Pats. (5-75 vs 5-50) I was surprised when I saw it, because I could have sworn Roger was on the phone with them from NYC
At any rate we survived Morrelli, so we got that going for us.b. So the narratives are set. The Pats are suddenly more vunerable. Their OL is now a question mark again. Tomorrow's winners will look better regardless of how they actually do, and just like people will go out of their way to make cases for anyone but Tom Brady for MVP, they will go out of their way to make cases for anyone but the Pats for league champion. And you know I'm fine with that actually. I always like it better when we are the underdog.
BTW- Kudos to those steeler loving mediots who will ignore Rothlessbergers, horrendous stats in away games this year. Some one was nice enough to correct my estimates of Bedard's stats, but I've forgotten them, but needless to say they are bad enough to make Brock Osweiller proud.
Well Enjoy this game.....at least as much as the mediots and whiners will allow you. '
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