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I actually did an Idle Thoughts last week, and it was a long one too. However I was about 95% finished when I accidentally hit some key that highlighted the post and my next move was to hit the space bar, and erased what took close to 3 hours to do. To say I was pissed was an understatement. By then I was too pissed to do it again. Hopefully this one will reach the launching pad intact.
About the title. The opening half of the game was VERY sloppy by the Pats. they had 2nd and 20+ on their first TWO drives and were -2 in TO That's ridiculous to still be doing that at this stage of the season. Especially when this was the game that was going to tell us if this team is truly a playoff team. Well when things turned around in the 2nd half and the defense continued to dominate what should have been a shutout. I made the comment that if we ARE a playoff team, then its a playoff team on training wheels. One step in the right direction but still a long way to go,
So here are a bunch of "Idle thoughts" in no particular order.
1. Some injuries are just unlucky. A cleat stuck in the ground, being rolled by a teammate, etc. Some are inflicted. The result of hard PHYSICAL football. The exodus of Panther players over the course of this game reminded me of the 2001 team in their physical play. That team wasn't the most talented, but they could have been the most physical team of the last 20 years. IIRC The record of teams that played the Pats, their NEXT week's record was well under .500. Even teams that beat the Pats didn't do well the next week because of beating they took playing that Pats team. Well THAT is what I'm feeling here. This team is playing more physically every week. And I really really like that about this team.
2.Myles Bryant - Just ANOTHER in a long line of undrafted FA's the Pats have developed over the years that have turned into valuable secondary pieces. From Butler, to Jones, to Jackson, and now Bryant. We might not be able to develop WR's for sh!t, but we SURE as hell can create DB's out of nothing. He certainly doesn't look like a PS refugee 2 years in the making, He's more than flashed since Jones went down.
He knocked out DJ moore with a massive hit, and reacted up to blow up a flat pass as well. Now as his coach I would have yelled at him because he lowered his head making his hit on Moore as well as having his head on the wrong side. But still the effort and smarts just ooze from this young kid.
3. Another guy who deserves a nod is the much maligned Jalen Mills. I was questioning why he was the one who seemed to be covering the Pathers' biggest WR threat in DJ Moore. Well shame on me because Moore was held to 3 catches for 32 yds with Mills doing most of the heavy lifting. He's an easy target. playing out of position, for the whiners to dump on. So lets give him props when he does the job.
4. I hope that some of those Panther holding calls were caused by Matt Judon, because I saw about a half dozen that WEREN'T called. This guy could be Bill's best FA signing since Rodney. WHAT a motor. Hard to believe he's playing 80%+ of the defensive snaps. That cat is EARNING his money. I can hardly wait to see how many hurries he had this week. Not to mention that he sets the edge like Willie. Bill could use his work as training films for future generations of edge setters
5. This would have been a shutout if not for the 2 TO's. THAT's how dominant the defense was. For the most part, Darnold had no open receivers and no time to throw to them if they were. OUTSTANDING!
6. I saw Christian Barmore's presser. God, the guy had so much energy he couldn't stand still. Far from a finished product, this kid is the real deal. Right now he's doing it with brute force, just throwing OLmen aside. When he gets so moves and refines his techniques over the next few years, he's going to be hard to stop. I noticed that in some passing situations they moved him to a DE alignment. I guess they are giving him more opportunities to make plays.
7. (in a Russian accent) "Pay the man his money". That's my advice to whoever is the GM in regard to JC Jackson. This year is continuing to prove last year wasn't a fluke. Jackson is a top tier CB with serious ball skills. Hard to find them; And he will be going into his prime years. I'd like to think those prime years will be spent in NE.
8. I Liked it when the Pats moved Mac out of the pocket today. The plays weren't readily successful, but showcased some of the athleticism of Jones. He has quick feet and some acceleration when he moves. He isn't a quick twitch athlete, though his 3 cone time (7.06) seems to indicate its better than we think. The Pats have pretty much programed him to stay in the pocket, but as he develops I think we shall see that athleticism show up more and and more.
9. Mac's two sacks looked brutal, so I tried to look at them again to figure out why they happened. In his pressure Jones seemed to put all of the blame on himself for not getting the team in the best pass blocking scheme. I don't know if that's the truth. On the first one, it looked like they wanted Karras to pull and pick up the DE. On that play Karras had no chance to get there before Reddick was in Mac's face. Either Karras was too slow, or the concept didn't account for Reddick's speed, or they expected Reddick to do something else but come hard off the edge.
The Burns sack was worse. That one looked like it was all on Wynn, but in retrospect his guilt might be mitigated. It could be Mac should have changed the blocking scheme to the left which would have gotten Wynn into position to meet Burns. Perhaps Henry needed to chip another second before releasing. Or perhaps Wynn just wasn't prepared for Burn's burst. At any rate, Burns got a free shot on Mac without being touched. Whatever the reason it will have to be addressed because next week the rush will be harder.
10 I said this in the game day thread, but it bears repeating. I was among the most vocal when it came to demanding the Pats move on from Brandon Boldin. At that point he looked like he was "just" a ST'er and a redundant one at that. How wrong can a guy be. VERY! Well, Boldin again proved to be outstanding running the ball and even better catching it. Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Maximum Mea Culpa
11. And speaking about RB's what a resounding effort by R Stevenson. He looked electric out there with nimble cuts and crunching hits. He was every bit the playmaker we all hoped we saw in preseason. Too bad it was all derailed by the fumble against the dolphins in that first game and it too this long for him to get out of the dog house (though I think pass blocking issues probably had more to do with it in the end) He has real soft hands as well. I think it was his acceleration that surprised me the most. For a big b1ack, he has a 2nd gear.
12. I was disappointed the passing attack was so anemic. In the pregame thread I predicted the RB's and TE's would be featured. I was half right. Well maybe NEXT week will be the game where the TE's shine.
13. What a week for upsets. Who'd have thought the Cowboys would be SHUTOUT! That the Jags would beat the Bills and hold them to 6 points. Is there a blueprint or just 'one of those days" I wouldn't mind going over the film of THAT game. "On any given Sunday" is NOT and adage, its a reality. Other oddities were, the invincible Rams getting beat at home by 12 by the Henryless Titans (who lost to the Jets) The really disappointing Niners who lost to a Cardinal team that was without Murray, Hopkins, and AJ Green and were QB'd by a 35 year old Colt freakin' McCoy. BTW Jimmy threw for over 300, but was sacked 5 times.
Interesting stat. While Shanahan DID get the Niners within 10 minutes of a championship, his overall record would have gotten a lot of HC's fired. He's 32-40 and has been to the playoffs once in his tenure. It doesn't look like they are going to make it this year either, so he will have only one playoff appearance in five year to show for his tenure there. Yet by all accounts he is looked at as untouchable. Lynch will lose his job, while Kyle is still the boy wonder; Head scratcher, right?
14. So when is Winovich due to come back from IR because Josh Uche has been my most disappointing Patriot this year. I had such high hopes for him and they've be DASHED! We need a 3rd edge rusher to spell Judon so he doesn't burn out. We know Chase can do that. Uche (thus far) can't. BTW-same question for JJones. Is he done done, or is it possible he might be able to make it back for the playoffs...if there is a playoff for this team.
15. Today was a GOOD day. A dominating defensive win over a 4-4 team who has a very good defense. Clearly we have a playoff quality defense even if we are a little thin in the secondary. Still a lot of question marks about the offense, hence the "training wheels" metaphor more steps need to be taken. goals to be accomplished and more wins stacked up before we know that THIS is a playoff team. Thanksgiving looms ahead. We might know by then.
16; Cleveland coming in after a big win in a rivalry game. They pretty much dominated a 5-3 team and won going away. Normally I'd be happy that they are coming here, but we are now 4-0 on the road and only 1-4 at the friendly confines of Gillette. A step up in competition and class. The Cleveland OL is much better than the Panther's and the Browns pass rush is even more so. We will need the training wheels to come off this week and the offense to carry more of the load. All this while our top 2 RB's will be in the concussion protocol ;eek:
Cleveland next week coming off a VERY strong game against the Bengals. Normally I'd say its a good thing we have them at home, but when your team is 4-0 on the road and only 1-4 at home, I'm not so sure.
About the title. The opening half of the game was VERY sloppy by the Pats. they had 2nd and 20+ on their first TWO drives and were -2 in TO That's ridiculous to still be doing that at this stage of the season. Especially when this was the game that was going to tell us if this team is truly a playoff team. Well when things turned around in the 2nd half and the defense continued to dominate what should have been a shutout. I made the comment that if we ARE a playoff team, then its a playoff team on training wheels. One step in the right direction but still a long way to go,
So here are a bunch of "Idle thoughts" in no particular order.
1. Some injuries are just unlucky. A cleat stuck in the ground, being rolled by a teammate, etc. Some are inflicted. The result of hard PHYSICAL football. The exodus of Panther players over the course of this game reminded me of the 2001 team in their physical play. That team wasn't the most talented, but they could have been the most physical team of the last 20 years. IIRC The record of teams that played the Pats, their NEXT week's record was well under .500. Even teams that beat the Pats didn't do well the next week because of beating they took playing that Pats team. Well THAT is what I'm feeling here. This team is playing more physically every week. And I really really like that about this team.
2.Myles Bryant - Just ANOTHER in a long line of undrafted FA's the Pats have developed over the years that have turned into valuable secondary pieces. From Butler, to Jones, to Jackson, and now Bryant. We might not be able to develop WR's for sh!t, but we SURE as hell can create DB's out of nothing. He certainly doesn't look like a PS refugee 2 years in the making, He's more than flashed since Jones went down.
He knocked out DJ moore with a massive hit, and reacted up to blow up a flat pass as well. Now as his coach I would have yelled at him because he lowered his head making his hit on Moore as well as having his head on the wrong side. But still the effort and smarts just ooze from this young kid.
3. Another guy who deserves a nod is the much maligned Jalen Mills. I was questioning why he was the one who seemed to be covering the Pathers' biggest WR threat in DJ Moore. Well shame on me because Moore was held to 3 catches for 32 yds with Mills doing most of the heavy lifting. He's an easy target. playing out of position, for the whiners to dump on. So lets give him props when he does the job.
4. I hope that some of those Panther holding calls were caused by Matt Judon, because I saw about a half dozen that WEREN'T called. This guy could be Bill's best FA signing since Rodney. WHAT a motor. Hard to believe he's playing 80%+ of the defensive snaps. That cat is EARNING his money. I can hardly wait to see how many hurries he had this week. Not to mention that he sets the edge like Willie. Bill could use his work as training films for future generations of edge setters
5. This would have been a shutout if not for the 2 TO's. THAT's how dominant the defense was. For the most part, Darnold had no open receivers and no time to throw to them if they were. OUTSTANDING!
6. I saw Christian Barmore's presser. God, the guy had so much energy he couldn't stand still. Far from a finished product, this kid is the real deal. Right now he's doing it with brute force, just throwing OLmen aside. When he gets so moves and refines his techniques over the next few years, he's going to be hard to stop. I noticed that in some passing situations they moved him to a DE alignment. I guess they are giving him more opportunities to make plays.
7. (in a Russian accent) "Pay the man his money". That's my advice to whoever is the GM in regard to JC Jackson. This year is continuing to prove last year wasn't a fluke. Jackson is a top tier CB with serious ball skills. Hard to find them; And he will be going into his prime years. I'd like to think those prime years will be spent in NE.
8. I Liked it when the Pats moved Mac out of the pocket today. The plays weren't readily successful, but showcased some of the athleticism of Jones. He has quick feet and some acceleration when he moves. He isn't a quick twitch athlete, though his 3 cone time (7.06) seems to indicate its better than we think. The Pats have pretty much programed him to stay in the pocket, but as he develops I think we shall see that athleticism show up more and and more.
9. Mac's two sacks looked brutal, so I tried to look at them again to figure out why they happened. In his pressure Jones seemed to put all of the blame on himself for not getting the team in the best pass blocking scheme. I don't know if that's the truth. On the first one, it looked like they wanted Karras to pull and pick up the DE. On that play Karras had no chance to get there before Reddick was in Mac's face. Either Karras was too slow, or the concept didn't account for Reddick's speed, or they expected Reddick to do something else but come hard off the edge.
The Burns sack was worse. That one looked like it was all on Wynn, but in retrospect his guilt might be mitigated. It could be Mac should have changed the blocking scheme to the left which would have gotten Wynn into position to meet Burns. Perhaps Henry needed to chip another second before releasing. Or perhaps Wynn just wasn't prepared for Burn's burst. At any rate, Burns got a free shot on Mac without being touched. Whatever the reason it will have to be addressed because next week the rush will be harder.
10 I said this in the game day thread, but it bears repeating. I was among the most vocal when it came to demanding the Pats move on from Brandon Boldin. At that point he looked like he was "just" a ST'er and a redundant one at that. How wrong can a guy be. VERY! Well, Boldin again proved to be outstanding running the ball and even better catching it. Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Maximum Mea Culpa
11. And speaking about RB's what a resounding effort by R Stevenson. He looked electric out there with nimble cuts and crunching hits. He was every bit the playmaker we all hoped we saw in preseason. Too bad it was all derailed by the fumble against the dolphins in that first game and it too this long for him to get out of the dog house (though I think pass blocking issues probably had more to do with it in the end) He has real soft hands as well. I think it was his acceleration that surprised me the most. For a big b1ack, he has a 2nd gear.
12. I was disappointed the passing attack was so anemic. In the pregame thread I predicted the RB's and TE's would be featured. I was half right. Well maybe NEXT week will be the game where the TE's shine.
13. What a week for upsets. Who'd have thought the Cowboys would be SHUTOUT! That the Jags would beat the Bills and hold them to 6 points. Is there a blueprint or just 'one of those days" I wouldn't mind going over the film of THAT game. "On any given Sunday" is NOT and adage, its a reality. Other oddities were, the invincible Rams getting beat at home by 12 by the Henryless Titans (who lost to the Jets) The really disappointing Niners who lost to a Cardinal team that was without Murray, Hopkins, and AJ Green and were QB'd by a 35 year old Colt freakin' McCoy. BTW Jimmy threw for over 300, but was sacked 5 times.
Interesting stat. While Shanahan DID get the Niners within 10 minutes of a championship, his overall record would have gotten a lot of HC's fired. He's 32-40 and has been to the playoffs once in his tenure. It doesn't look like they are going to make it this year either, so he will have only one playoff appearance in five year to show for his tenure there. Yet by all accounts he is looked at as untouchable. Lynch will lose his job, while Kyle is still the boy wonder; Head scratcher, right?
14. So when is Winovich due to come back from IR because Josh Uche has been my most disappointing Patriot this year. I had such high hopes for him and they've be DASHED! We need a 3rd edge rusher to spell Judon so he doesn't burn out. We know Chase can do that. Uche (thus far) can't. BTW-same question for JJones. Is he done done, or is it possible he might be able to make it back for the playoffs...if there is a playoff for this team.
15. Today was a GOOD day. A dominating defensive win over a 4-4 team who has a very good defense. Clearly we have a playoff quality defense even if we are a little thin in the secondary. Still a lot of question marks about the offense, hence the "training wheels" metaphor more steps need to be taken. goals to be accomplished and more wins stacked up before we know that THIS is a playoff team. Thanksgiving looms ahead. We might know by then.
16; Cleveland coming in after a big win in a rivalry game. They pretty much dominated a 5-3 team and won going away. Normally I'd be happy that they are coming here, but we are now 4-0 on the road and only 1-4 at the friendly confines of Gillette. A step up in competition and class. The Cleveland OL is much better than the Panther's and the Browns pass rush is even more so. We will need the training wheels to come off this week and the offense to carry more of the load. All this while our top 2 RB's will be in the concussion protocol ;eek:
Cleveland next week coming off a VERY strong game against the Bengals. Normally I'd say its a good thing we have them at home, but when your team is 4-0 on the road and only 1-4 at home, I'm not so sure.
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