Idleless thoughts: The none edition.

[patfanken]

I have a confession to make. As usual I ventured down to Foxwoods on Saturday morning to ply my craft playing poker for profit. It is the one competition that I can still excel at. However, like most competitions it sometimes is a very HUMBLING experience.

As many of you know who play the game poker is a very up and down venture where you try to manage the downs and maximize the ups. Well my friends there are downs and then there are DOWNS. I went so far down the rabbit hole this time that it took me until 3am Sunday Morning to even see the pinprick that was the light at the end of the tunnel, and it was not until 9am that I was close enough to even to declare victory and leave the scene of the crime and feel like a winner all the way home.

After stopping off for breakfast, I got home in plenty of time to review all the pertenent information to prepare for this game. Got the laptop out to take notes and participate in the GDT. I actually watched the first 5 or 10 minutes of this stinkfest, and it was clear from the very beginning that this wasn't going to be the Pats day.

Now I don't know if it was some kind of unconscious protective reflex, but with the score only 3-7 I fell dead asleep and didn't wake up until 60 minutes was on. Unfortunately it didn't take me long to find out that it didn't get any better over the course of the 50 minutes or so that I missed.

So given the fact I blessedly missed most of the game, I can hardly do a post of my observations. Had dinner and nodded off only to wake up to post this apology around midnight. Sorry about that. I guess I look forward to reading all that will be written on what might be the worst defeat since the 2000 season.

Between this game and the Lions, you have to wonder if the BB alumni doesn't know something that the rest of the league has been missing all these years. Again, hopefully next time I won't fall asleep at the switch.

 

[Joker]

"they hate their coach"...

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

I DVRd the game. First live one I’ve missed in a long, long time. Fortunately it looks like not a terrible outcome. A Loss (not good, but ultimately it’s binary, whether it’s one point or twent-four) and no injuries I’m aware of.

And I can skip a couple hours of frustration.

I actually thought about betting on the Titans this game. I saw the spread at Pats -6.5 and thought what the heck...way too big. Then all week a lingering feeling of the overconfidence going into games against “inferior” teams on the road with guys like Mangini and Patricia and getting not just beat but demolished. And to top it off, saw a panel of seven “experts” who ALL picked the Pats even giving 6.5 points. Didn’t understand the crazy amount of confidence against the leagues number one defense on the road, with an offense that’s both banged up and seriously lacking compared to past years. And finally a mobile QB who generally sucks and is inaccurate, the Patriots kryptonite. I know this sounds like hindsight, but I really felt like an L was coming all week.

 

[Flash]

The entire team didn't show up to play, like the Celtics as of late. It's not often you see a Belichick team play this poorly on both offense and defense. Ex. Gilmore getting destroyed by Corey Davis of all people after having a stellar season, Brady freezing out Chris Hogan entirely, etc.

The BYE week becomes super important, get some of the hobbled players back to full health and review the game tape.

 

[DarrylS]

Statistically my thoughts can probably be refuted, but my eyeball sees a general decline in the Pats performance on the field for the past several weeks.. with #12 getting closer to the end of his spectacular career. Are we witnessing somewhat of a decline??.. then there is the D sometimes up and sometimes down, then there are special teams..

Sometimes the Pats crap the bed, yesterday there was a serious bout of uncontrollable diarrhea in Memphis.. I even turned off the game when it was 34-10 as I was not enjoying that debacle, don't ever remember doing that.

One thing we do know that the standard of excellence we have come to know from the Patriots will diminish, is the a harbinger of things to come??

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

They pretty much gave up after ghost missed the fg. Before that the offense was actually driving consistently and the d was starting to turn it around. It looked like the classic start slow, adjust, and grind out a tough w but then they just quit.

Everyone played bad from the usual suspects like Davis / Shelton to the most reliable performers like Gilmore / Brady. Special teams was bad, Coaches were bad. It was pathetic.

Right now I’m most concerned about run d and punt coverage because those were two things we used to be able to automatically count on but have repeatedly been an issue this year. Also Brady continues missing hogan being open on key plays, that is concerning because In a good amount of playoff games since he has signed with us, Hogan has been huge.

 

[archstanton543]

The entire team didn't show up to play, like the Celtics as of late. It's not often you see a Belichick team play this poorly on both offense and defense. Ex. Gilmore getting destroyed by Corey Davis of all people after having a stellar season, Brady freezing out Chris Hogan entirely, etc.

The BYE week becomes super important, get some of the hobbled players back to full health and review the game tape.

Yeah, Brady is too locked in on Gordon...the O-line couldn't block my grandmother and the D looked old, slow and disinterested. And the Pats have been slow to react to the new group of QB's in the league that have success when flushed out of the pocket.

 

[Pat the Pats Fan]

the way the Pats played, they must have been at the table next to you, the whole time. They basically looked like they fell asleep too.

 

[TomPatriot]

It looked to me like almost no one on that team wanted to play yesterday.

 

[Soliel]

Had their focus on the bye week is all this is

 

[Jackson 2]

Like many here, there are lots of things bothering me about the team lately. But one thing that goes further up my wazoo than anything is the insistence on playing cutesy on kickoffs by have Ghost try to land them inside the 5 thereby forcing runbacks. Great coverage might land you a first and 10 from the 15-20, at best. ****ty coverage, such as that which seems more common lately, gives the opponent great opening field position and early momentum - like yesterday. I want Ghost to bang it through the end zone every time he can. Now, once in awhile weather prevents that, but not often.

 

[RelocatedPatFan]

Between this game and the Lions, you have to wonder if the BB alumni doesn't know something that the rest of the league has been missing all these years. Again, hopefully next time I won't fall asleep at the switch.

Sounds like the Jets would drive hard to hire McDaniels (if they assume the same thing)

 

[archstanton543]

Like many here, there are lots of things bothering me about the team lately. But one thing that goes further up my wazoo than anything is the insistence on playing cutesy on kickoffs by have Ghost try to land them inside the 5 thereby forcing runbacks. Great coverage might land you a first and 10 from the 15-20, at best. ****ty coverage, such as that which seems more common lately, gives the opponent great opening field position and early momentum - like yesterday. I want Ghost to bang it through the end zone every time he can. Now, once in awhile weather prevents that, but not often.

The Pats are slow to react to the new kickoff rule changes this past off season and have personnel best suited for the old rules.

 

[everlong]

1. When receivers were open and the OL held up Brady hit them. This isn't declining skills.

2. Hogan is either injured or simply done. I think the all-22 will show he's never open.

3. I know the Titans have a stout DL but after White got stuffed for a 5 yard loss they never committed to it.

4. Vrabel took a page out of Bill's book. James White was not going to beat the Titans. They keyed on him no matter where he went.

5. Both Gordon and Gilmore had their worst games of the season on the same day. Why was Corey Davis so difficult for Gilmore to cover? He's faced better receivers than that. Gordon who appeared to be getting on the same page with Brady continuously missed adjustments and his effort once they got down seemed to diminish. If that's going to be his character this will be his last year on the team.

6. Officiating wasn't the reason they lost but that was definitely a home crew. The penalties on Gilmore were legit but why wasn't there a holding call on whoever was coving Hogan? Yes the ball was uncatchable but he was held all the way down the field. On the Hollister play over the middle the defender was clearly there early just like Gilmore was on the TD down the left sideline.

7. The OL needs to be healthy for this team to compete in the playoffs. Waddle isn't going to get it done vs a good DL for an entire game at either tackle spot.

8. They need Gronk and Edelman healthy to make a run as well. Dion Lewis and his under 3 YPC can screw. The guy I wish they didn't cheap out no is Amendola. In general after trading Cooks and letting DA walk along with Hogan seemingly declining fast, Gronk unable to stay healthy and JE entering his middle 30's this team needs to invest some capital in the receiver position going into next year. Really a receiving TE, a slot guy and an outside guy. I had liked what I had seen from Gordon before yesterday but that effort in the second half was crap.

9. If I was to pick the player who showed up most yesterday it goes to Jason McCourty. He's been locked in from day one.

10. They might need to keep Michel and White on the field together a lot more often with the receivers not getting it done. Hopefully Burkhead can contribute and stay healthy as well. Maybe one of them can play the DA role to help keep moving the chains. That graphic yesterday where the Pats average 3rd down was something like 8.8 yards to go was telling. Against a pressure defense you aren't going to pick up a high percentage of those.

 

[Soliel]

This is what I saw. The pats were comming in against the number one defense minus several key components. You have Michel come back but sort of weakly and should have really not played. Gronk out, there’s obviously something not right with Gordon’s hand. There are more issues as well but I am not trying to make excuses for losing. They beat us and that’s one thing but you can’t ignore facts like these and be honest in any estimation. These guys looked awful the first theee games. They started to hit a groove and won six straight but got some guys hurt. We came out flat in Tennessee which surprises me not at all. Historically, the pats lose more often in southern states no matter who’s there. Bottom line for me is they simply seemed like they didn’t focus on the game, they were thinking time off, heal, reset etc.

The patriots are lucky to be 7-3 right now really. We’re in the hunt and it’s all good this was just another messed up game. We’re on to the jets

 

[nabwong]

Hogan, Dorsett and Patterson have been relatively open by NFL standards this year. But I’m not sure if they don’t have Brady’s trust because of practice or that they’re not supposed to be where they should be. Brady’s accuracy has been pretty inconsistent. There were a few throws which wasn’t even in the same zip code. Again, not sure if it’s the route or his accuracy.

 

[Soliel]

Hogan, Dorsett and Patterson have been relatively open by NFL standards this year. But I’m not sure if they don’t have Brady’s trust because of practice or that they’re not supposed to be where they should be. Brady’s accuracy has been pretty inconsistent. There were a few throws which wasn’t even in the same zip code. Again, not sure if it’s the route or his accuracy.

I think they are out of position or something. Yesterday there were accuracy issues after he got hit a bunch of times

 

[1960Pats]

The Pats are slow to react to the new kickoff rule changes this past off season and have personnel best suited for the old rules.

It seems as though they feel they have the right stuff on STs or they'd have Gostkowski kicking it through the end zone instead of trying to drop it on the one. It burned them yesterday.

 

[203Pat]

Brady looked jittery in the pocket from the get go. His decision-making has been odd as of late seemingly trying to force the ball instead of a check down. There was a third down he tried to go to Gordon along the sideline and had White wide open underneath. I don’t think Brady’s subpar play is as much physical as it is mental. He doesn’t look comfortable out there lately.

 

[1960Pats]

I have a confession to make. As usual I ventured down to Foxwoods on Saturday morning to ply my craft playing poker for profit. It is the one competition that I can still excel at. However, like most competitions it sometimes is a very HUMBLING experience.

As many of you know who play the game poker is a very up and down venture where you try to manage the downs and maximize the ups. Well my friends there are downs and then there are DOWNS. I went so far down the rabbit hole this time that it took me until 3am Sunday Morning to even see the pinprick that was the light at the end of the tunnel, and it was not until 9am that I was close enough to even to declare victory and leave the scene of the crime and feel like a winner all the way home.

After stopping off for breakfast, I got home in plenty of time to review all the pertenent information to prepare for this game. Got the laptop out to take notes and participate in the GDT. I actually watched the first 5 or 10 minutes of this stinkfest, and it was clear from the very beginning that this wasn't going to be the Pats day.

Now I don't know if it was some kind of unconscious protective reflex, but with the score only 3-7 I fell dead asleep and didn't wake up until 60 minutes was on. Unfortunately it didn't take me long to find out that it didn't get any better over the course of the 50 minutes or so that I missed.

So given the fact I blessedly missed most of the game, I can hardly do a post of my observations. Had dinner and nodded off only to wake up to post this apology around midnight. Sorry about that. I guess I look forward to reading all that will be written on what might be the worst defeat since the 2000 season.

Between this game and the Lions, you have to wonder if the BB alumni doesn't know something that the rest of the league has been missing all these years. Again, hopefully next time I won't fall asleep at the switch.

While on the subject of poker, did anyone else see the hand that led to the final table for the 2018 WSOP? Incredible.