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I almost posted something before the game to the effect that the Pats were in a no win situation in this game. If they won big, it would passed off as a product of SF's ineptitude, if they won like they did, it would be passed off as the Pats' ineptitude. There was no way this team could have come out of this game looking good. And until they play and beat the Bronco's next month NOTHING this team does on the field will be met with any acceptance by the media, the whining part of the fan base, haters, and more than a few of us here (if the game day thread and all of last week's post game breast beating is any indication)
So be prepared for more of the same this week from the mediots, etc. You see the Pats are now forever graded on a higher scale than the rest of the league. It's a grade where mere wins are not good enough to satisfy the so called arbitors of what is good and bad and the week will be filled with criticisms and angst about the coming weeks. I know I won't be listening to it, just like I didn't last week. Try it, you blood pressure will be better for it.
But the game has some interesting insights to talk about and some real critiques to make on first impression. So lets get started, I want to watch Madam Secretary, Elementary, and still get this done before 2am.
The Offense:
1. The OL - Brady was sacked just once, and that was a one of those one handed sacks that we all hate to see happen since we've missed about a dozen of those sacks this season already....and the running game accounted 171 more yards. Doug Kyam tweeted that "Brady looked uncomfortable for most of the game", yet I would say the opposite. Brady looked entirely comfortable with his protection, which constantly gave him holes to step up or move within the pocket. In fact about the only time the protection failed was on Brady's TD pass to Amendola, when the protection failed to create middle that middle hole and Brady just made a fantastic play.
Solder WAS guilty of the hold that negated Blount's TD run and might have blown the game open early. But in his defense, at least his hold was at the point of attack and critical to the success of the play. So often we see killer penalties called that weren't germain to the play.
Finally Marcus Cannon was excellent.....AGAIN. He was never mentioned (always a good thing for an offensive lineman) but on a replay you could see him eat up a rusher. BTW- Cliff Avril, who got his 10th sack today (tied for first in the league) is the same guy Cannon stoned last week.
2. Receivers
a. If I were Marty Bennett, I'd be pissed. No Gronk and only 3 targets. Meanwhile SF was fully using their TE's to great effect (at least in the first half). I really hope only winning matters to him, because he was very underutilized in this game.
b. Edelman must have some of those Brady Italian pictures because he got almost half of Brady's 40 throws targetted to him, plus 2 runs. It seemed to be complete overkill to me on Brady's part. Meanwhile Edelman wound up with only 8 catches on those 16-20 odd targets, but he was open on more than a few of them, but Brady wasn't his usual accurate self on his long throws this week.
c. Amendola - was once again made the most of his targets and again made an impact on the game while playing limited snaps
d. Mitchell - Well if this is "a start of a beautiful relationship", it was a good one. Mitchell not only had 4 big catches for almost 100 yds, his best catch of the day was the OTB's catch. He showed great hands, good speed, and nice adjustments. He has already shown some flashes this season, and this one confirms all the good feelings we had about this kid. It was nice that he got his first TD today. Hopefully more will follow.
3. RB's. I know James White had done yoeman's work for us this season, but if today pointed out one thing, it was the talent gap between him and Dion Lewis is a big one. Everytime Lewis touched the ball he made at least one person miss, even on his one yard run. Everytime White got the ball, the first guy who touched him was the guy who got credit for the tackle.
I have been calling all season for the Pats to use LGB more in the passing game, if only to break some strong tendencies. Well it's clear no one is listening. BUT having Lewis back there DOES give us a decent run/pass option from the RB position that we don't have with Jame White back there. White is an excellent back up to have, but his limitations limit this offense for getting to be all it can be. I suspect his snaps will only decrease while Lewis is healthy.
b. LGB was at the top of his game, with over 120 yds, and 6.5 ypc. I really wanted him to get that TD at the end, but kneeling was the right thing to do. He may not be a great RB, but he is a very good one, and more than enough to make this offense work.
QB- Not Brady's best work of the year. He "only' completed 60% of his passes, and missed on a couple of long passes that were open and had about 50 yds taken away by mere inches on the sideline. Once again I was astounded by his footwork and escapablity in the pocket. I can't recall it EVER being better. Missing those few deep throws only made him seem human. That being said I have 2 complaints to lodge about Tom. First was he seeming obsession with getting the ball to Edelman most of the game. Mitchell actually could have 2 TD's today, if Brady had seen him wide open in the 4th when instead he went with Edelman for the first down. The 2nd is his seeming inability to throw the ball to a player who isn't completely open.
In a league where more and more QB's are throwing those 50/50 balls all over the place and getting results I wish Brady would do it more often. The perfect example was at the end of the first half, when he refused to let it go, even on the last play of the half. Watching him refuse to take a shot, when he was standing for 4 or 5 seconds without pulling the trigger sometimes pisses me off. I know someone is at least partially open out there. Bennett, Gronk, Hogan and Mitchell give him 4 bigger and stronger guys to throw to in those situations. Maybe 17 years of "throwing to the open man" is just too much for him to adjust to, but I wish he'd just do it a little bit more often.
4. Defense
a. DL - before we all over the DL for not shutting down the Niner running attack, concider the offense they run. Most of the time it's a true read option which takes away potential defenders from the point of attack to cover the QB and passing threats. Besides Hyde is a good RB playing on a bad team. Given that, the 110 yds they gave up was reasonable and really didn't hurt the defense. The 5 sacks and multiple pressures will be ignored by the whiners. It will never be enough, because most of those sacks were by design and NOT cause by individual effort, and we all know that individual effort is much more important that good results.
BTW- It was another strong game by Malcolm Brown in the middle Not much on the stat sheet, but I noticed him a lot.
LB's Well Hightower made at least one impact play with a strip sack, but otherwise was pretty quiet. He was too often a penny late and a dollar short in coverage, and I want more than 6 tackles from my top potential FA if in fact he wants to be my top free agent priority.
b. Elandon Roberts looked like a low round rookie today. He was lost in coverage and not much of a factor in the run game. LB's should have huge days against teams that run read option. He didn't.
c. Ninko, Van Noy both flashed on occassion, while McClellan, despite 4 tackles, didn't...at least to my eyes.
d. I still want to see Mingo get more of a run at LB in the regular D. I think we need his speed and long arms in coverage would be an improvement over Hightower and Roberts and if he's coming from the middle he has proven he can be a factor in the pass rush. Where I don't see him helping is as an edge rusher from the DE position. I saw him lined up there a few times at the end of the game and each time he got stoned on the LOS. Just not enough lead in the pants to do that job. If he's to rush off the edge he needs to do it from a LB position.
e. A MUCH better job by the DB's today. They didn't even try to throw on Butler. Ryan had a much better game and contested a lot of throws. Also Rowe gets a thumbs up. He provided tight coverage most of the time and got his head turned around on that key 3rd down deep pass that "might have gotten called if he hadn't.
MOST of the damage done by the Niners were throws to their RB's and TE's crossing in zone coverages or pick plays. That is stuff that can be fixed over the next 6 games I believe. But the improvement will have to come from LB's or dime backs. Maybe it's time for Cyrus Jones to make an impact in the secondary.
f. A quick check of the stats showed that, after a very slow start, the defense ended up only allowing a 35% conversion rate on 3rd down
g. My final comment about the defense is an old one and my biggest concern right now. Its the virtual lack of any TO's that is really starting to disturb me. Now SF fumbled 5 times according to the stats, and we got NONE of them. Statistically if you fumble the ball you have a 50/50 shot at getting it. Clearly we defied the odds. I haven't seen us miss so many fumble opportunities since the 2011 superbowl. Taking the ball away a few times would make these games a LOT easier to win.
5. ST's did solid job all around. I didn't even worry about Gotskowski's miss. It looked like a slip on his approach to me. If it wasn't that it was something different about his approach to that kick than his others. The rest of the coverage was excellent and DA did some nice work on punt returns
General Comments.
1. I did see a bit of the Dallas/Ravens game, and Dallas looks like the real deal. I'm not sure how good their defense is, but their offense is going to cause a LOT of problems for any team that faces them. Dax Prescott looked very impressive to me, both in his accuracy and poise. They have a lot of bigger receivers to throw 50-50 balls to and an Edelman clone as a safety valve. It took me a long time to get to this point, but they look like the class of the NFC.....thus far.
2. Always happy to see the Ravens lose, even though I usually root for the AFC team when it isn't the Jets, Colts, Ravens, or Denver.
3. With the Bills and Dolphins winning again, the AFCE is the 2nd best division in the conference
4. I REALLY hope the Jets stick with the Bryce Petty experience this week. Fitzpatrick has had a horrible season to date, but he IS capable of putting up some great numbers on a given Sunday, and I just don't want it to be NEXT Sunday.
5. I thought the officials did a good job today, by mostly keeping the flags in their pockets with only 15 being accepted. The Pats had one of their better days with only getting flagged 5 times for 40 yds with half of that coming on 2 concecutive plays (Solder and Brady) Most of the Niner penalties were procedure and off sides to go along with 2 unsportsmanlikes 68. IIRC there was only one long PI called that was a key play in the Niner's first drive, and it looked like a good call.
6. Looking ahead at the schedule, it looks like there are only 3 threats over the last 6 games, and 2 of those don't exactly have me shaking in my boots (Ravens, Dolphins) I oddly feel pretty good about the Bronco game as well. We shall see.
7. I didn't watch any of the post game stuff, so I'll leave that to you to fill me in.
OK 1:20am I give up. This should be enough to start the discussion. I await your comments....but not until tomorrow.
So be prepared for more of the same this week from the mediots, etc. You see the Pats are now forever graded on a higher scale than the rest of the league. It's a grade where mere wins are not good enough to satisfy the so called arbitors of what is good and bad and the week will be filled with criticisms and angst about the coming weeks. I know I won't be listening to it, just like I didn't last week. Try it, you blood pressure will be better for it.
But the game has some interesting insights to talk about and some real critiques to make on first impression. So lets get started, I want to watch Madam Secretary, Elementary, and still get this done before 2am.
The Offense:
1. The OL - Brady was sacked just once, and that was a one of those one handed sacks that we all hate to see happen since we've missed about a dozen of those sacks this season already....and the running game accounted 171 more yards. Doug Kyam tweeted that "Brady looked uncomfortable for most of the game", yet I would say the opposite. Brady looked entirely comfortable with his protection, which constantly gave him holes to step up or move within the pocket. In fact about the only time the protection failed was on Brady's TD pass to Amendola, when the protection failed to create middle that middle hole and Brady just made a fantastic play.
Solder WAS guilty of the hold that negated Blount's TD run and might have blown the game open early. But in his defense, at least his hold was at the point of attack and critical to the success of the play. So often we see killer penalties called that weren't germain to the play.
Finally Marcus Cannon was excellent.....AGAIN. He was never mentioned (always a good thing for an offensive lineman) but on a replay you could see him eat up a rusher. BTW- Cliff Avril, who got his 10th sack today (tied for first in the league) is the same guy Cannon stoned last week.
2. Receivers
a. If I were Marty Bennett, I'd be pissed. No Gronk and only 3 targets. Meanwhile SF was fully using their TE's to great effect (at least in the first half). I really hope only winning matters to him, because he was very underutilized in this game.
b. Edelman must have some of those Brady Italian pictures because he got almost half of Brady's 40 throws targetted to him, plus 2 runs. It seemed to be complete overkill to me on Brady's part. Meanwhile Edelman wound up with only 8 catches on those 16-20 odd targets, but he was open on more than a few of them, but Brady wasn't his usual accurate self on his long throws this week.
c. Amendola - was once again made the most of his targets and again made an impact on the game while playing limited snaps
d. Mitchell - Well if this is "a start of a beautiful relationship", it was a good one. Mitchell not only had 4 big catches for almost 100 yds, his best catch of the day was the OTB's catch. He showed great hands, good speed, and nice adjustments. He has already shown some flashes this season, and this one confirms all the good feelings we had about this kid. It was nice that he got his first TD today. Hopefully more will follow.
3. RB's. I know James White had done yoeman's work for us this season, but if today pointed out one thing, it was the talent gap between him and Dion Lewis is a big one. Everytime Lewis touched the ball he made at least one person miss, even on his one yard run. Everytime White got the ball, the first guy who touched him was the guy who got credit for the tackle.
I have been calling all season for the Pats to use LGB more in the passing game, if only to break some strong tendencies. Well it's clear no one is listening. BUT having Lewis back there DOES give us a decent run/pass option from the RB position that we don't have with Jame White back there. White is an excellent back up to have, but his limitations limit this offense for getting to be all it can be. I suspect his snaps will only decrease while Lewis is healthy.
b. LGB was at the top of his game, with over 120 yds, and 6.5 ypc. I really wanted him to get that TD at the end, but kneeling was the right thing to do. He may not be a great RB, but he is a very good one, and more than enough to make this offense work.
QB- Not Brady's best work of the year. He "only' completed 60% of his passes, and missed on a couple of long passes that were open and had about 50 yds taken away by mere inches on the sideline. Once again I was astounded by his footwork and escapablity in the pocket. I can't recall it EVER being better. Missing those few deep throws only made him seem human. That being said I have 2 complaints to lodge about Tom. First was he seeming obsession with getting the ball to Edelman most of the game. Mitchell actually could have 2 TD's today, if Brady had seen him wide open in the 4th when instead he went with Edelman for the first down. The 2nd is his seeming inability to throw the ball to a player who isn't completely open.
In a league where more and more QB's are throwing those 50/50 balls all over the place and getting results I wish Brady would do it more often. The perfect example was at the end of the first half, when he refused to let it go, even on the last play of the half. Watching him refuse to take a shot, when he was standing for 4 or 5 seconds without pulling the trigger sometimes pisses me off. I know someone is at least partially open out there. Bennett, Gronk, Hogan and Mitchell give him 4 bigger and stronger guys to throw to in those situations. Maybe 17 years of "throwing to the open man" is just too much for him to adjust to, but I wish he'd just do it a little bit more often.
4. Defense
a. DL - before we all over the DL for not shutting down the Niner running attack, concider the offense they run. Most of the time it's a true read option which takes away potential defenders from the point of attack to cover the QB and passing threats. Besides Hyde is a good RB playing on a bad team. Given that, the 110 yds they gave up was reasonable and really didn't hurt the defense. The 5 sacks and multiple pressures will be ignored by the whiners. It will never be enough, because most of those sacks were by design and NOT cause by individual effort, and we all know that individual effort is much more important that good results.
BTW- It was another strong game by Malcolm Brown in the middle Not much on the stat sheet, but I noticed him a lot.
LB's Well Hightower made at least one impact play with a strip sack, but otherwise was pretty quiet. He was too often a penny late and a dollar short in coverage, and I want more than 6 tackles from my top potential FA if in fact he wants to be my top free agent priority.
b. Elandon Roberts looked like a low round rookie today. He was lost in coverage and not much of a factor in the run game. LB's should have huge days against teams that run read option. He didn't.
c. Ninko, Van Noy both flashed on occassion, while McClellan, despite 4 tackles, didn't...at least to my eyes.
d. I still want to see Mingo get more of a run at LB in the regular D. I think we need his speed and long arms in coverage would be an improvement over Hightower and Roberts and if he's coming from the middle he has proven he can be a factor in the pass rush. Where I don't see him helping is as an edge rusher from the DE position. I saw him lined up there a few times at the end of the game and each time he got stoned on the LOS. Just not enough lead in the pants to do that job. If he's to rush off the edge he needs to do it from a LB position.
e. A MUCH better job by the DB's today. They didn't even try to throw on Butler. Ryan had a much better game and contested a lot of throws. Also Rowe gets a thumbs up. He provided tight coverage most of the time and got his head turned around on that key 3rd down deep pass that "might have gotten called if he hadn't.
MOST of the damage done by the Niners were throws to their RB's and TE's crossing in zone coverages or pick plays. That is stuff that can be fixed over the next 6 games I believe. But the improvement will have to come from LB's or dime backs. Maybe it's time for Cyrus Jones to make an impact in the secondary.
f. A quick check of the stats showed that, after a very slow start, the defense ended up only allowing a 35% conversion rate on 3rd down
g. My final comment about the defense is an old one and my biggest concern right now. Its the virtual lack of any TO's that is really starting to disturb me. Now SF fumbled 5 times according to the stats, and we got NONE of them. Statistically if you fumble the ball you have a 50/50 shot at getting it. Clearly we defied the odds. I haven't seen us miss so many fumble opportunities since the 2011 superbowl.
Taking the ball away a few times would make these games a LOT easier to win.5. ST's did solid job all around. I didn't even worry about Gotskowski's miss. It looked like a slip on his approach to me. If it wasn't that it was something different about his approach to that kick than his others. The rest of the coverage was excellent and DA did some nice work on punt returns
General Comments.
1. I did see a bit of the Dallas/Ravens game, and Dallas looks like the real deal. I'm not sure how good their defense is, but their offense is going to cause a LOT of problems for any team that faces them. Dax Prescott looked very impressive to me, both in his accuracy and poise. They have a lot of bigger receivers to throw 50-50 balls to and an Edelman clone as a safety valve. It took me a long time to get to this point, but they look like the class of the NFC.....thus far.
2. Always happy to see the Ravens lose, even though I usually root for the AFC team when it isn't the Jets, Colts, Ravens, or Denver.
3. With the Bills and Dolphins winning again, the AFCE is the 2nd best division in the conference
4. I REALLY hope the Jets stick with the Bryce Petty experience this week. Fitzpatrick has had a horrible season to date, but he IS capable of putting up some great numbers on a given Sunday, and I just don't want it to be NEXT Sunday.
5. I thought the officials did a good job today, by mostly keeping the flags in their pockets with only 15 being accepted. The Pats had one of their better days with only getting flagged 5 times for 40 yds with half of that coming on 2 concecutive plays (Solder and Brady) Most of the Niner penalties were procedure and off sides to go along with 2 unsportsmanlikes 68. IIRC there was only one long PI called that was a key play in the Niner's first drive, and it looked like a good call.
6. Looking ahead at the schedule, it looks like there are only 3 threats over the last 6 games, and 2 of those don't exactly have me shaking in my boots (Ravens, Dolphins) I oddly feel pretty good about the Bronco game as well. We shall see.
7. I didn't watch any of the post game stuff, so I'll leave that to you to fill me in.
OK 1:20am I give up. This should be enough to start the discussion. I await your comments....but not until tomorrow.
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