idle thoughts....

[DarrylS]

With regards to the spearing comment, Brady is hurt, heard on WEEI yesterday he did not go to California yesterday because of it... he will probably play, but look for big fines in this case.. The refs should've called it, cannot be a more obvious foul.

TBC's lack of contact is a lesson learned for him, bet he will never make this mistake again.. neither will any of the pats front 7 or complete defense.. stuff like this happens in these 6 seconds of mayhem, but probably will not happen again.

 

[Mike the Brit]

Watching the game again, I counted a minimum of nine bad throws by Brady when not under pressure and another three that were arguably his fault. His receivers really did bail him out. What's more, five of those throws were to Troy Brown, so there's no question that it was a matter of an inexperienced receiver running the wrong route.

On the other hand, in other respects Brady's play was astonishing. The smarts and bravery not to give up the ball in that pancake sack, the scrambling -- especially the third down where he scrambles and gets speared by Ingram. Arguably, that's the play of the game for us.

Looking again at the penalties, my two cents is that if either the Thomas touchdown or the Garrard fumble had been ruled the other way on the field they shouldn't have been overturned. They were both very, very close calls and it didn't look to me as if there was "indisputable visual evidence" either way. The Ingram roughing the passer was absolutely correct -- and it's a good rule, too. If you allow little "love taps" after the pass there is no way you can draw the line. Seeing it again, I had my doubts about the Seymour roughing-the-passer call. I'm not a referee, but it wasn't that late and there was no way Seymour could have rushed the quarterback and stopped in time.

Oh, and finally, the worst play of the game from our point of view was the Graham false start penalty that killed a great drive.

 

[PromisedLand]

Sorry neighbor, a little over the top on my part. I was fired up by several other comments in various threads on the play, my apologies for letting you catch the stronger than needed response.

Thanks, Box, apology accepted. I actually thought my comments were pretty low key and couldn't quite figure out what I said that got you so fired up!

edit: PS I agree with those who said TBC has generally been playing well. I actually thought he stood out Sunday with several good plays. My comments were only in regard to the one play where he let Jones-Drew "escape" for the touchdown, a costly mental mistake IMO, and were in response to that one point in PFKen's generally excellent post.

 

[Brownfan80]

TBC should have tackled/TBC couldn't because of the potential for a flag

On the TBC-MJD issue: No, TBC shouldn't have piledrived him with a late hit, but he SHOULD have at least touched Drew when he was down. If he'd even moved in that direction with that thought pattern then as soon as Drew began to get up, then TBC would have had every right to give him a nice huge 'stay down' shot.

To be clear: I'm not on this anti-TBC bandwagon that seems to have sprung up over that play, but there was a happy medium for TBC that should have been executed. It wasn't either "Hit him and get a flag" or "stand there like a lump and do nothing". It should have been: "Two hand touch the guy to make sure he's down since there was no whistle."

Ah well, isht happens. lol

 

[patfanken]

Thanks, PFK -- great food for thought, as always. Two small points of disagreement.


I don't agree with your pessimism about Hobbs. He's in a cast, remember (like Bruschi) -- and you have to accept that cornerbacks will sometimes just get beaten. But let's say that "all" he turns into is an outstanding nickel back. That would free him up for more kick returning at which he is absolutely terrific. What's more, I can't see anything about him that wouldn't make him very suitable as a punt returner. Return man plus nickel back? Not disappointing to me....

Complete agreement from me here. My comment wasn't designed to bury Hobbs, but recognize he is what he is, and that's not bad. BTW - being a nickel back is very much like any other starting defensive position. Against a lot of teams in the NFL a good nickel back with get more snaps during a game than a lot of LBs. So my assessment of Hobbs isn't that he's a bad DB, but his skill set, IMHO, are better served covering slot receivers than on the outside.

One thing I'd like your views on is: has this got to do with wet weather? No quarterback likes the rain, of course, but I have to wonder whether it doesn't upset TB more than some others. Do you remember the glove-or-no-glove debates of 2002? It was pretty wet too when he was comprehensively outplayed by Pennington in the home loss to the Jets (as I can well remember!)

Interesting point. It is my understanding and experience that the wind is a much bigger factor in the passing game than the rain, snow, or cold. Not that those elements aren't A factor, just not a huge one. The wet can cause some ball control issues for the receivers and ball carriers, but I've been told that by and large wet conditions DON'T affect the QB's ability to throw the ball that much. I think it has something to do with the current NFL ball getting tacky in the wet, IIRC, I heard or read something to that effect.

As to the glove/no glove issue when the weather gets real cold, I guess that's a comfort matter assigned to each individual QB.

I very much sympathize with your polemic about spearing. It seems to me that helmet contact is something that the league is much less fierce about than it could be. On the other hand, I'm not convinced that the helmet contact was not accidental in this case. At least, there's doubt.

Thanks again.[/QUOTE]

 

[Oswlek]

On the TBC-MJD issue: No, TBC shouldn't have piledrived him with a late hit, but he SHOULD have at least touched Drew when he was down. If he'd even moved in that direction with that thought pattern then as soon as Drew began to get up, then TBC would have had every right to give him a nice huge 'stay down' shot.

To be clear: I'm not on this anti-TBC bandwagon that seems to have sprung up over that play, but there was a happy medium for TBC that should have been executed. It wasn't either "Hit him and get a flag" or "stand there like a lump and do nothing". It should have been: "Two hand touch the guy to make sure he's down since there was no whistle."

Ah well, isht happens. lol

I think that MJD was already off the ground by the time TBC would have gotten to him, but I agree with the sentiment of your post. There is no reason why he couldn't have done the "stay down shot".