Idleless thoughts: The none edition.

[Steve102]

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.

I haven't done a film breakdown, nor will I, but there were a handful of plays where I felt that TB12 was bailing out because of phantom pressure way to early. Bad throws, bad decisions and bad mechanics. I was watching it, thinking that he looks like a shell shocked 41 yr old guy in there.

 

[203Pat]

I haven't done a film breakdown, nor will I, but there were a handful of plays where I felt that TB12 was bailing out because of phantom pressure way to early. Bad throws, bad decisions and bad mechanics. I was watching it, thinking that he looks like a shell shocked 41 yr old guy in there.

Yea he seemed to be “seeing ghosts” again which he has done much less frequently the last few years. I don’t think Karras played as well filling in for Mason as he did last week so maybe that was part of it but Brady seemed to be expecting a sack on a lot of plays well before the pressure was imminent. Brady prides himself on footwork and technique (so much so he won’t autograph a picture if it’s mechanics look off) but lately he looks like he’s throwing off balance on his back foot or shying away on his follow through. I keep assuming he will pull out of this and end up with one of those 75% completions for 350 and 3 TD games but a few bad games is starting to form a pattern.

 

[Steve102]

Yea he seemed to be “seeing ghosts” again which he has done much less frequently the last few years. I don’t think Karras played as well filling in for Mason as he did last week so maybe that was part of it but Brady seemed to be expecting a sack on a lot of plays well before the pressure was imminent. Brady prides himself on footwork and technique (so much so he won’t autograph a picture if it’s mechanics look off) but lately he looks like he’s throwing off balance on his back foot or shying away on his follow through. I keep assuming he will pull out of this and end up with one of those 75% completions for 350 and 3 TD games but a few bad games is starting to form a pattern.

Yeah, you're correct. I have to assume he's going to snap out of it too, because he always does. However, he's 41 and sooner or later he's not going to.

Having said that, he's not the reason they lost. Tennessee looked better in all three phases of the game. They've gotta play better than that. the good news is they've got two weeks of being pissed off about this loss before they have the Jets. I'll be shocked if they lay another egg against them.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Someone here needs to tell Ken that DVRs exist.

 

[sb1]

The offense isn't so much Brady this year - it's Michel and White. That's how they beat KC.

The Titans demonstrated what happens when that is taken away. Pats coaches better fix that because it's now on tape for the rest of the league.

 

[luuked]

The Titans demonstrated what happens when that is taken away. Pats coaches better fix that because it's now on tape for the rest of the league.

Don't take it personally but if there is one phase that I hate reading its this phrase.

How often have we heard about all those major flaws of Pats teams of the past that are "now on tape" or "the blueprint is out" ?

Football is a matchup sport, every game is different and other teams won't be able to do things that the Titans did to us because they will have different players with different strengths and we will field an almost completely different team on offense. Hell, Waddle had snaps at both LT and RT yesterday.

That is not supposed to be a defense of the team. They played like **** on all units and almost every single player -- starting with the rarely seen ST players and ending with the GOAT himself -- will need to improve to win any of the remaining games.

And everyone who feels discouraged about KC being two games up should really just let that go and not think about HFA. Those are worries to have in early weeks of January. They have about 8 weeks to fix their **** and given the history of this organization and its coaching staff and how much improvement there already has been relative to the first 3 weeks I am optimistic about our chances.

 

[Mike the Brit]

Someone here needs to tell Ken that DVRs exist.

Scooped me!

 

[neuronet]

I haven't done a film breakdown, nor will I, but there were a handful of plays where I felt that TB12 was bailing out because of phantom pressure way to early. Bad throws, bad decisions and bad mechanics. I was watching it, thinking that he looks like a shell shocked 41 yr old guy in there.

Don't panic people. Vrabel knew exactly how to plan for Brady, and executed very well. The coaches laid an egg, which didn't help (e.g., never adjusting to give Gilmore safety help over the top). Brady was too focused on Gordon the entire game, he needs to get over that and spread it out more.

It was a perfect confluence of a great defense from the Titans, a coaching stinker, and some other factors. Plus, no Gronk.

We will be back strong against the Jets. Brady is still great.

 

[n6249c]

Don't panic people. Vrabel knew exactly how to plan for Brady, and executed very well. The coaches laid an egg, which didn't help (e.g., never adjusting to give Gilmore safety help over the top). Brady was too focused on Gordon the entire game, he needs to get over that and spread it out more.

It was a perfect confluence of a great defense from the Titans, a coaching stinker, and some other factors. Plus, no Gronk.

We will be back strong against the Jets. Brady is still great.

Plus there seems to be (or have been) illness running through the locker room. Players missed practice being sick but played, maybe not well. Slater was announced as sick day of game. Maybe others. Certainly didn’t help.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

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??

It’s a combination of things:

Edelman
Hogan
Gronkowski

All of them are clearly in the twilight of their career. I noted Edelman was a close to the end before his injury in 2017. Gronk, we’re lucky he’s made it this long with back injuries that cause most player to not even be drafted. Hogan is around 30 despite the perception there’s a lot more football in him.

Not one of these guys can consistently get separation, though Edelman is surprisingly adequate though definitely not what he was.

So essentially the only receiver that can get open consistently is a guy who joined the team six weeks ago and has never had a training camp with TB12.

Brady himself? Hard to say. It isn’t apples to apples with his receiving corps of past years. He looks essentialy the same, but losing a couple MPH on his passes may be also causing him to be more conservative, compounding the issues already stated.

 

[n6249c]

....

Brady himself? Hard to say. It isn’t apples to apples with his receiving corps of past years. He looks essentialy the same, but losing a couple MPH on his passes may be also causing him to be more conservative, compounding the issues already stated.

Yesterday I thought Brady threw it away sometimes when it used to be that he would zip it into the tight window for a completion. Not sure if he doesn’t trust his receivers, doesn’t trust himself, cares more about avoiding INTs than completing passes, or what. Probably some combination of all of the above.

 

[SVN]

Brady's performance has nothing to do with age although its the easy theory. He has had bad/worse games before vs pees/ravens. Happens.

 

[Pat the Pats Fan]

Two of pats losses have been against teams they beat in last years playoffs. Their Super Bowl this year? Both played with much more fire at home against a pats team missing key players. Pats healthy should bounce back.

 

[Hyped]

Comments:

1.) This should have been titled, "Idle Thoughts: Remember The Titans Edition". This Patriots team needs to remember this game. Nobody played well nor did the Coaches coach well, IMO. Total breakdown.

2.) Ken, you can't play Poker during the daytime? Glad you found the light at the end of the tunnel and missed this train wreck of a game.

3.) Where do I start with my thoughts....I think I'll do them quick here:

- Brady is fine. Just needs to get back on the same page with his receivers.
- The OL played terrible yesterday. The unit was consistent all season until now, not concerned yet.
- The WR's...we really really need Hogan or Dorsett to step up in that #3 role. How many attempts to Hogan the last 3 weeks? I don't think it's more than the number of fingers I have on my right hand!
- Good to see Hollister out there, but he had to catch that one over the middle.
- Good to see Michel out there, but was it worth it? Just happy he didn't get dinged.
- James White did all he could, he was targeted big time yesterday..this is when we need to go elsewhere.
- Is Dwayne Allen OK???
- Terrible showing by the defensive line. The run D was OK vs. Dion Lewis...you are gonna miss tackles with Lewis....but Derrick Henry? That should have been stonewalled. And we did OK with containing Mariota for the most part.
- Linebackers....Roberts had a sack...Hightower had one good play for a loss before Gilmore gave up a TD. Need to rewatch the game to see what else they did...don't remember much.
- Secondary....man Gilmore had a BAD game. Still, it was the same stuff Jacksonville did to us...just run rub routes across the field....those are hard for our guys to defend.
- Kicking....Goskowski missed a 52 yarder that we NEEDED badly.
- Coverage units...the 58 yarder to start the game was not good. And we should just have Gostkowski kick it out of the EZ for rest of the year, IMO.
- McDaniels/Brady: Can we stop going for BIG plays on 1st/2nd down when trailing? Just churn out yardage on those downs and take risks at better times, IMO.

 

[Patriot Missile]

2nd half was the worst. Vrabel’s adjustments with the delayed pressure up the middle was the difference. Brady’s used to having outside pressure as he just steps up and does what he does. Yesterday he was stepping up to a defender right in his face.

Good job by Titans, poor job by coaches and oline who couldn’t come up with plays, adjustments via game plan.

 

[luuked]

I keep seeing people blame Hogan for a game where Brady kept pushing the ball to Gordon while not giving Hogan a single target.

Say that Hogan is underperforming all you want but you can't do that without asking a) why the hell Brady is not giving him at least a shot and b) why Hogan keeps getting played over Dorsett.

The answer to b) must be that he does his job fine in practice. In terms of a) no clue whatsoever.

 

[PatsDeb]

That was butt ugly. One thing I came away with is this - BB and/or Tom Brady do not do well against former associates the first time out. Vrabel, Patricia, McD when he was in Denver, Mangini, and didn't Romeo beat BB with Cleveland the 1st time they played? What is it? They are too predictable? Their weaknesses are too well known and un-cover-up-able? And the injuries yesterday to the line, yikes. I hope Edelman is ok and was just taken out early as all hope was lost anyway.

I need a bye from yesterday.

 

[Steve102]

Don't panic people. Vrabel knew exactly how to plan for Brady, and executed very well. The coaches laid an egg, which didn't help (e.g., never adjusting to give Gilmore safety help over the top). Brady was too focused on Gordon the entire game, he needs to get over that and spread it out more.

It was a perfect confluence of a great defense from the Titans, a coaching stinker, and some other factors. Plus, no Gronk.

We will be back strong against the Jets. Brady is still great.

I'm not panicked, not even a little. We've seen Brady have horrible games before. Pretty much every time he bounces back with a huge game. The Jetes are not good.

 

[Tony2046]

This is not excusing the offensive or defensive performances but the ST's has been driving me nuts. I do not understand what they are trying to do.

The Titans had 10 points on drives that started at their 25 or less.

The Titan's drives past their 25?

Start of drive - Result:

NE 40 - Touchdown
NE 49 - Field Goal
Tenn 42 - Punt
NE 37 - Touchdown
Tenn 32 - Punt
Tenn 42 - Touchdown.

This was a garbage performance by the Pat's kick off team. Garbage.

 

[PatsDeb]

This is not excusing the offensive or defensive performances but the ST's has been driving me nuts. I do not understand what they are trying to do.

The Titans had 10 points on drives that started at their 25 or less.

The Titan's drives past their 25?

Start of drive - Result:

NE 40 - Touchdown
NE 49 - Field Goal
Tenn 42 - Punt
NE 37 - Touchdown
Tenn 32 - Punt
Tenn 42 - Touchdown.

This was a garbage performance by the Pat's kick off team. Garbage.

Agreed. Why they are not making every kick-off into the back of the EZ is beyond me.