Idle thoughts - the TOTAL team loss edition.

[Bruins29]

That was two years ago.

TMK reminded me. Got it the first time

 

[Schmo]

A lot of mistakes everywhere....but I think ST takes the cake (with the exception of Allen). The D didn't play the best, but well enough to win.... we were giving up some pretty good field position from the start.

O wasn't broken or anything, but a car needs a driver to get anywhere. Plus, a Rex Ryan defense is admittedly a tough one for a rookie QB to go against.

TFB can routinely lead our offense to 17 points in a quarter against a defense like that. Bennett looks like gronk, and gronk will be up to form any week now, plus Lewis is gonna jump in the mix for the stretch run.

2nd preseason of 2016 is over.

 

[Soul_Survivor88]

What did Cyrus Jones do? I didn't see the game. Makes the game feel less real that I didn't see it, probably a good thing lol...

Yeah, not only was I fortunate to not watch it in live-time (for the reasons you mentioned) but I nearly brought tickets to the game.

Good thing I decided to go to work LOL

 

[supafly]

A lot of mistakes everywhere....but I think ST takes the cake (with the exception of Allen). The D didn't play the best, but well enough to win.... we were giving up some pretty good field position from the start.

O wasn't broken or anything, but a car needs a driver to get anywhere. Plus, a Rex Ryan defense is admittedly a tough one for a rookie QB to go against.

TFB can routinely lead our offense to 17 points in a quarter against a defense like that. Bennett looks like gronk, and gronk will be up to form any week now, plus Lewis is gonna jump in the mix for the stretch run.

2nd preseason of 2016 is over.

That's basically what it's been, another preseason. There wasn't going to be any way that Brissett could run anything resembling our usual offense, as seen by the lack of passes even thrown to the core WRs. It was going to take a full team effort with our STs/defense/running game taking over, with the hopes of a pass or two that led to a big play or conversion.

Unfortunately, the STs played poorly and the defense only average considering the lack of turnovers, missed tackles, etc.

 

[AtomicDawg]

c. I'll say it right now, I do not think we are going to see a 100% Tom Brady for at least a month. That is not saying that what we do get for this month won't be better than what we had at the position so far, but Brady isn't a guy who can just jump in and play. There is a reason he loves practice so much. He NEEDS it and he hasn't had it the past month and didn't get the all the snaps he needed in the preseason for the obvious reasons. So while I'm sure he's be "ok" the next few week, I believe we won't get VINTAGE Tom Brady until November. Hope I'm wrong here.

Yeah I'm with @JMC00 on having to disagree with this. No Brady has not had actual "practices" with his teammates, but he's been throwing the ball almost seemingly every day for 4 weeks. At least it seems that way with all the videos that have come out. Heck, even DURING THE GAME he was on a field throwing lasers:





I think he'll be ready to go.

 

[PF_SU]

The defense today was inconsistent (like the season's overall performance). The one key negative were missed tackles, other than that it was terrible in the first half, solid in the second. With Brady that could've been enough for a win, but we didn't have Brady out there. The only positive is red-zone D where they tightened up somewhat to limit the Bills to FGs instead of TDs.

I still feel our defense could be more aggresive. Maybe we just don't have the personnel. I remember a 2 and 22 and they when zone and it went for 23 yards. Still worried about these corners.

Oh, I was so angry at that one when I saw them rushing three and Taylor having like 10 seconds of time to find somebody. You can't expect your secondary to hold up for 10 seconds, no matter how good it is (and I surely don't trust Ryan or Coleman to hold their coverage that long). There are certain situations when it's reasonable to rush three and drop eight. But on a 2nd and long in the opponent's half while you are playing with a very limited offense? Would've rather blitzed six guys than drop eight in that kind of situation.

 

[supafly]

Yeah I'm with @JMC00 on having to disagree with this. No Brady has not had actual "practices" with his teammates, but he's been throwing the ball almost seemingly every day for 4 weeks. At least it seems that way with all the videos that have come out. Heck, even DURING THE GAME he was on a field throwing lasers:





I think he'll be ready to go.

Seems a bit odd that Brady wouldn't be watching his teammates during a game, doesn't it? If the footage was really within an hour of the 3:42 pm time stamp, there's a good chance the game was still 13-0 early in the second half when he left.

Either way, I'm going to cautiously side with Ken here. I think it takes him a couple of weeks (not quite the month that Ken predicted) to get back into the rhythm of practicing and timing. I do think that's been one aspect that's been overlooked a bit. Luckily, the dude is still a full blown superstar even at 70-75 percent, so I'll still expect an awesome performance while he works through it.

 

[luuked]

The problem is the D was all wrong. When you play contain up frot, you generally play some sort of man behind it because decent receivers will find the soft spots and sit down, which the Bills receivers did.

It's like you have never seen the good old BB formula against mobile QBs. This is what we get every time, with the secondary mixing it up to keep the QB guessing and coarseing him to throw into one of the disguises for a pick.

You can love it or you can hate it but it has always been like that and I doubt that one bad loss will make BB change his philosophy about it.

well Rodney Harrison just said the pats defense was simply not good today.

against a better offense, this D would have been smoked.

They played a considerably better offense last TNF and totally destroyed them. That's how useful those "if/then" fantasy comparisons are..

Nobody was good today but if you wanna order priorities then the defense definitely was not the No. 1 reason that the game was lost. Don't understand what the point is of trying to assign fault to specific groups if essentially everyone had a bad game.

 

[luuked]

Seems a bit odd that Brady wouldn't be watching his teammates during a game, doesn't it? If the footage was really within an hour of the 3:42 pm time stamp, there's a good chance the game was still 13-0 early in the second half when he left.

Seems to me like a typical Brady thing.

He started his workout most probably exactly when the game started so he would be on the field exactly at the same time as he would if he was playing. Wouldn't surprise me if he even throw more or less the same amount he would in an average NFL game to simulate the stress on his arm.

I don't necessarily follow his logic but seems about right to me.

 

[AtomicDawg]

Seems a bit odd that Brady wouldn't be watching his teammates during a game, doesn't it? If the footage was really within an hour of the 3:42 pm time stamp, there's a good chance the game was still 13-0 early in the second half when he left.

Either way, I'm going to cautiously side with Ken here. I think it takes him a couple of weeks (not quite the month that Ken predicted) to get back into the rhythm of practicing and timing. I do think that's been one aspect that's been overlooked a bit. Luckily, the dude is still a full blown superstar even at 70-75 percent, so I'll still expect an awesome performance while he works through it.

There is a thing called DVR.

But seriously, I understand your point. I'll even give a qualification that this was even earlier in the day, but the post was timed when it was. Of course we will never know for certain but this is what we have for now.

The reason I am confident about him not having "rust" or whatever the buzzword that I'm sure the media will use is because his training camp (yes 2 months ago but still) was otherworldly with a full compliment of players sans Lewis. The connections certainly won't be 100%, but I feel confident to say 80% based on that camp. Time will tell though.

 

[luuked]

There is a thing called DVR.

But seriously, I understand your point. I'll even give a qualification that this was even earlier in the day, but the post was timed when it was. Of course we will never know for certain but this is what we have for now.

The reason I am confident about him not having "rust" or whatever the buzzword that I'm sure the media will use is because his training camp (yes 2 months ago but still) was otherworldly with a full compliment of players sans Lewis. The connections certainly won't be 100%, but I feel confident to say 80% based on that camp. Time will tell though.

The main reason I am less worried about Brady and "rust" than some people here is that I don't see how his decision making and quick release could be significantly affected by that 4 week break.

Will some passes be off the mark ? Sure..
Will we get the usual overthrown deep, homerun shots once a game for a while ? Most probably..

Will he eat up opponents with quick passes to Edelman/Dola and take advantage of Gronk/Bennett in the redzone ? Definitely..

 

[DarrylS]

I expected a close game, but did not expect that debacle yesterday.. kept switching the game for Ryder Cup ( DVR'ed the Ortiz tribute), every division game is supposed to be tough.

Thought the reffing was terrible and uneven.. do not think it was fixed as we crapped the bed anyways.. but there were times when they just sucked.

With 10 days to prepare, thought BB would have been able to put a better product on the field..

I think Tyrod Taylor is better than expected, but not sure he is worth $92 million as running QB's deteriorate quickly..

What is the BB adage, that he does not know what kind of team he has until November???

 

[AtomicDawg]

The main reason I am less worried about Brady and "rust" than some people here is that I don't see how his decision making and quick release could be significantly affected by that 4 week break.

Will some passes be off the mark ? Sure..
Will we get the usual overthrown deep, homerun shots once a game for a while ? Most probably..

Will he eat up opponents with quick passes to Edelman/Dola and take advantage of Gronk/Bennett in the redzone ? Definitely..

In addition, what Tom Curran said last week about his workout regimen these last four weeks encouraged me.

What’s Brady been up to? Mixing family time and working out. He’s routinely spent four hours a day training, I’m told, presumably with his body coach Alex Guerrero at TB12 Sports Performance at Patriot Place. Also, aside from his Sunday session with Wes Welker, Brady’s been throwing to young college players at undisclosed locations, eschewing the opportunity to bring in some of the “name” former players who’ve reached out and offered their services.

Four hours a day, five days a week, so at least 100 hours this month has been devoted to Tom working out at his clinic, throwing balls to college guys and working alongside some former teammates. Again, it doesn't replicate the valuable practice he could get with his own guys, but it's not like he's going to be coming in at practice today or tomorrow cold turkey.

 

[archstanton543]

Last year they got destroyed by KC and look what happened after.

Two years ago.

 

[DSting]

Wow, so many ugly things yesterday. I did think the D played pretty well and adjusted after that horrible start. Punting and coverage was good. Offensively, ummm, not so much.

This probably sounds weird and selfish, but I wanted the team to do well without Brady. Some piece of me really wants to believe that we can continue to dominate after he retires. JB was not the answer yesterday, he is just not prepared to handle what he was seeing yesterday.

Much as I hate the blowhard, Rex can really rise to the occasion. He's sloppy and inconsistent as a coach and his teams reflect that. They played hard, were well prepared and had an edge. Outstanding schemes offensively and defensively and great special teams coverage. But the thing about Rex's teams is that they will NOT play that way every week.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Opening kickoff, he took it about 2 yards deep in the end zone. He ran it out to the 1, realized it was a mistake, and decided to try to down it. Then he realized he was out of the end zone and can't down it at that point. So then he started to run forward again. Got tackled at the 9. Just really poor awareness of his surroundings.

2nd kickoff he also took 2 yards deep. This time he didn't hesitate in deciding to take it out, but Buffalo's kick coverage team was already deep down the field. He got tackled at the 13. He shouldn't have taken this one out at all either, Buffalo was too far down the field.

In other words, he let the Bills beat the Pats at their own game? Good for them. Bad, very bad, for our guys.

 

[archstanton543]

In other words, he let the Bills beat the Pats at their own game? Good for them. Bad, very bad, for our guys.

No. The Pats don't kick it into the end zone forcing the player to run it. Jones has an opportunity to kneel on both kicks and decided to run it out both times.

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

http://boards.buffalobills.com/showthread.php?532804-This-Division

Bills fans already in playoff mode after week 4...gotta love it

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Great summary as always.

I'll quibble with one point: About Gostkowski missing a 49 yarder: "Gotkowski needs to make even the HARD kicks."

I don't think the Patriots' standard is that a 49 yard attempt at home on a clear day is "hard."

If that's "hard," what's a 45 yarder in the teeth of a blizzard to send the Snow Bowl into OT against the Raiders? "Real, real hard?" Or is it what it's been called by many observers: "the greatest kick under pressure ever made in the history of the NFL?".

And, what's a 48 yarder with no time on the clock to win SB XXXVI, with the history of an entire franchise on your shoulders? "Real, real, real hard?"

I'm willing to write off yesterday as the inevitable outcome of the pressure under which the Offense has been playing for the last month, but let's not let Gostkowski off the hook, when we're holding everyone else to account, by saying that that was a "hard" kick. It was a challenging kick, but one that the team relies on him to make.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

No. The Pats don't kick it into the end zone forcing the player to run it. Jones has an opportunity to kneel on both kicks and decided to run it out both times.

a lot of the sucker kicks that the pats execute are one or two yards "deep" into the end zone.