Malcolm Butler Mega Thread

[bormio]

Agreed. It was clearly more important to Bill to punish Malcolm than it was to win this game. Maybe he'd gotten spoiled and felt Brady could win it without a Defense. Tom certainly came very close. It's unheard of for the losing Super Bowl quarterback to set the record for most passing yards in a SB game in history, keep his team from punting even once the whole game, and have a better QBR and more yards than the winning quarterback and SB MVP. If I were Tom--with all I'd done and everything I'd sacrificed, only to have my head coach snatch victory away from me because he was busy throwing a temper tantrum and couldn't be bothered to do his job--I wouldn't want to see Bill's face until training camp.

But the meeting ....

 

[RobertWeathers]

Then why the f*ck was Malcolm still standing on the sideline, with his helmet on, in the 3rd and 4th quarters watching the secondary get carved up? What rational reason is there? Even if he's sick or high, he can't possibly be worse than Bademosi or Rowe. And if it was disciplinary, then BB is a f*cking moron. You don't bench your best defense player for an entire SUPERBOWL. This isn't just a normal game.

Because Malcolm ****ed up in a major way.

If you want to sit there and put BB on a spit you should also be open to doing the same thing to Malcolm.

There is a reason this franchise is a dynasty and I guarantee one of them is a coach not caving in and letting a malcontent player skate along without reprocussions.

You want BB to run this team you need to accept the whole package. A code and core tenants to a culture are not things to arbitrarily pick and choose when to apply them.

 

[mosi]

This year, Malcolm Butler led the Patriots' defense with 5 turnovers and 12 passes defensed.

Man, this all seems like a bad dream. Calgon take me away!

 

[Chris Stevenson]

Then why the f*ck was Malcolm still standing on the sideline, with his helmet on, in the 3rd and 4th quarters watching the secondary get carved up? What rational reason is there? Even if he's sick or high, he can't possibly be worse than Bademosi or Rowe. And if it was disciplinary, then BB is a f*cking moron. You don't bench your best defense player for an entire SUPERBOWL. This isn't just a normal game.

Bademosi played 11 snaps. Stop making dumb comments and trying to scapegoat others simply to boost brady’s legacy. Scapegoating bademosi who barely played is insanity. Agoholor would have destroyed butler and so would have jeffery.

The only flaw was not giving rowe help to take away the deeper balls. DOes anyone realize foles made some great throws?

Garoppolo was traded and maybe, just maybe special privileges for brady has backfired.

Brady wants to play until 45, so we are locks for the next 5 sbs, right?

 

[drewskie]

Because Malcolm ****ed up in a major way.

If you want to sit there and put BB on a spit you should also be open to doing the same thing to Malcolm.

There is a reason this franchise is a dynasty and I guarantee one of them is a coach caving in and letting a malcontent player skate along without reprocussions.

You want BB to run this team you need to accept the whole package. A code and core tenants to a culture are not things to arbitrarily pick and choose when to apply them.

We can acknowledge BB as the GOAT but it doesnt mean he doesnt make mistakes, and if the story of why he benched Butler is true then this is IMO one of the worse coaching decisions I've ever seen.

 

[SVN]

No I think you missed my point. If Rappaport is correct, then this makes no sense at all.

Well it makes no sense either to activate 98% snap count DB and have him play on 1 special teams punt play. I wish they hadnt activated him and used someone else who couldve maybe done something with pass rush.

 

[Satchboogie3]

Because Malcolm ****ed up in a major way.

If you want to sit there and put BB on a spit you should also be open to doing the same thing to Malcolm.

There is a reason this franchise is a dynasty and I guarantee one of them is a coach caving in and letting a malcontent player skate along without reprocussions.

You want BB to run this team you need to accept the whole package.

Without repercussions? He is a FA next year. Let him walk. But ok, he's benched to start the Superbowl. Fine, don't like it, but fine. But when you see your team getting killed, you think it it's 'caving' in to put in the player that gives the team the best chance to win? What kind of message does THAT send to the team? "Fred screwed up, so no matter how badly we might need him in the biggest game, he's not available'. That is NOT in the best interest of the football team.

This also wouldn't be a problem if we were talking about a position with depth... but your starting corner when you have no other real talent on defense and the corner depth sucks? That's just ****ing dumb.

If you are content trading a Superbowl 'because benching for a half a superbowl isn't enough', well, congrats....

 

[Chris Stevenson]

Because Malcolm ****ed up in a major way.

If you want to sit there and put BB on a spit you should also be open to doing the same thing to Malcolm.

There is a reason this franchise is a dynasty and I guarantee one of them is a coach caving in and letting a malcontent player skate along without reprocussions.

You want BB to run this team you need to accept the whole package. A code and core tenants to a culture are not things to arbitrarily pick and choose when to apply them.

I think it is funny people are so unaware what has made this dynasty, that one of them is not allowing primadonna’s to push a selfish agenda.

I was thrilled when bb dealt moss for example, because i knew he wanted stats for a new deal.

I cannot believe butler was so selfish, he would ruin this possibility of 3/4 years, but he did.

How on earth he turne down 8 mil per year shows his delusion. The crying on the sidelines shows he was not focused and may have issues. If it is true his locker was cleaned out before his private flight out, it may have been just one more reason. And if he had bad practices, that didn’t help him either. Just one thing after another snd gilmore’s big play to end the title game, butler probably wasn’t thrilled with.

What butler pulled this week is the anti-patriot way.

 

[Bella*chick]

I see Tom Brady pissed in someone’s Cheerios.

What’s the matter? Did you try some avocado ice cream and get the runs or something?

 

[Chris Stevenson]

Without repercussions? He is a FA next year. Let him walk. But ok, he's benched to start the Superbowl. Fine, don't like it, but fine. But when you see your team getting killed, you think it it's 'caving' in to put in the player that gives the team the best chance to win? What kind of message does THAT send to the team? "Fred screwed up, so no matter how badly we might need him in the biggest game, he's not available'. That is NOT in the best interest of the football team.

This also wouldn't be a problem if we were talking about a position with depth... but your starting corner when you have no other real talent on defense and the corner depth sucks? That's just ****ing dumb.

If you are content trading a Superbowl 'because benching for a half a superbowl isn't enough', well, congrats....

Did you see the philly secondary get killed? I don’t think either d played well.

 

[RobertWeathers]

We can acknowledge BB as the GOAT but it doesnt mean he doesnt make mistakes, and if the story of why he benched Butler is true then this is IMO one of the worse coaching decisions I've ever seen.

If the ONLY reasons were that he was weakened by the flu and a minor curfew violation then I tend to agree.

But I don't believe Rapafart one bit.

I'll bet my bottom dollar BB made it plain what was expected of him and Malcolm continued a pattern of behavior and did something that was so egregious he pushed BB to the point he need to put him on ice.

 

[chumpchange]

For me personally this is a lot more difficult to take than 2011 and even 2007.

What bothers me is that we had historic, incredible performances by Amendola who had over 150 yards, Gronk with 116 and 2 TD, Hogan with 128 and a TD and Brady with 505 and 3 TD, plus great game by the offensive line except for one play and excellent games by Burkhead and White.

All of that down the drain because the defense was atrocious and for some reason the coaches thought not playing a guy that has had tons of great plays and has missed one start in three years wasn’t good enough.

I just can’t get over it.

Some fun facts in case you missed it upthread (this will keep you up tonight):

1. Our 613 total offensive yards are the most ever in NFL history (regular season and post season) by a team that lost the game.

2. Tom now has the distinction of the best performance ever by a QB in a losing game. Brady passed for 505 yards, with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Sunday’s game was just the sixth in NFL history — regular season or postseason — in which a quarterback threw for 500 yards with three touchdowns and no picks. And it was the first time a quarterback (regular or postseason) has done that and not won the game.

We were historically good last night and we didn't lose this game; our coach screwed us over on purpose and stole it from us.

 

[fnordcircle]

So, based on the picture being painted by the fragmented rumors/speculation I think it's fair to say that Butler could have played. If he could have played he would have helped.

I'm dismayed that BB didn't play him by the 3rd when it was clear we could really use a defensive stop. I disagree with the choice to sit him - again assuming the picture we are getting is roughly accurate.

That being said, if the price of having BB as our coach is that sometimes he's going to make these type of principle-over-pragmatism choices when it comes to expecting players to behave like grown ass adults, then fine. I'll take it. I don't like it but he's still the greatest to have ever donned the mantle of NFL coach and it's part of how he has built teams who have functioned as a greater whole than the sum of their parts.

 

[TBR]

Man, this all seems like a bad dream. Calgon take me away!

I messed it up slightly. 1 of his 3 forced fumbles wasn't recovered so it technically doesn't count as a "turnover". Although the others were turnovers. In any case, he'd be tied with Harmon for 4 turnovers total (who had 4 INTs). Point still stands though. He's a playmaking defender.

 

[Satchboogie3]

Bademosi played 11 snaps. Stop making dumb comments and trying to scapegoat others simply to boost brady’s legacy. Scapegoating bademosi who barely played is insanity. Agoholor would have destroyed butler and so would have jeffery.

The only flaw was not giving rowe help to take away the deeper balls. DOes anyone realize foles made some great throws?

Garoppolo was traded and maybe, just maybe special privileges for brady has backfired.

Brady wants to play until 45, so we are locks for the next 5 sbs, right?

Over the years we have seen what has happened with Patriot secondaries that get changed up. Just look how awful the secondary was to start the season, until they figured out how to play together. You don't just decide to f*ck with that change up the secondary for the biggest game of the year. We aren't talking about changing the rotating 3rd or 4th corner on different packages, were talking about the starting corner that's played virtually every snap all year. That's a huge change to make right before kickoff...

But throw all that out the window. The last 15 weeks the defense looked serviceable and the secondary the strength. The ONE game you change it up, they are getting killed and can't cover anyone. You seriously think that going back to your starting corner, you know, the unit that played well the last 15 weeks, isn't going to make a difference over Eric f*cking Rowe? Seriously? I mean, you have to at least try, right?

 

[RobertWeathers]

Without repercussions? He is a FA next year. Let him walk. But ok, he's benched to start the Superbowl. Fine, don't like it, but fine. But when you see your team getting killed, you think it it's 'caving' in to put in the player that gives the team the best chance to win? What kind of message does THAT send to the team? "Fred screwed up, so no matter how badly we might need him in the biggest game, he's not available'. That is NOT in the best interest of the football team.

This also wouldn't be a problem if we were talking about a position with depth... but your starting corner when you have no other real talent on defense and the corner depth sucks? That's just ****ing dumb.

If you are content trading a Superbowl 'because benching for a half a superbowl isn't enough', well, congrats....

For whatever reason BB lost confidence in Malcolm's ability to carry out the game plan .

Look. I'm pissed at BB too. Part of me wishes he was John Calipari and let players do what they want as long as they win.

But that's not who he is and I don't think in the 18 years he's run this team he hasn't changed a damn bit.

 

[mosslost]

Brady wants to play until 45, so we are locks for the next 5 sbs, right?

"lol"

 

[Todd Bradley]

bad practice or still not sticking with the gameplans?

pretty cool that on monday with the flu, he was guaranteed to be ready for sunday, when the flu is completely unpredictable, especially this season’s version of it.

Nelson Agholor had the flu and received an IV two days before the game. He played excellent.

Butler was on the field, suited up and ready to go. There’s no excuses for what Belichick pulled.

 

[mosslost]

Over the years we have seen what has happened with Patriot secondaries that get changed up. Just look how awful the secondary was to start the season, until they figured out how to play together. You don't just decide to f*ck with that change up the secondary for the biggest game of the year. We aren't talking about changing the rotating 3rd or 4th corner on different packages, were talking about the starting corner that's played virtually every snap all year. That's a huge change to make right before kickoff...

But throw all that out the window. The last 15 weeks the defense looked serviceable and the secondary the strength. The ONE game you change it up, they are getting killed and can't cover anyone. You seriously think that going back to your starting corner, you know, the unit that played well the last 15 weeks, isn't going to make a difference over Eric f*cking Rowe? Seriously? I mean, you have to at least try, right?

without question, Belichick idiotic coaching last night.

 

[mosslost]

it will be interesting to see if we can some FX mic'd up stuff from this game just to get a feel of how bad Belichick messed up the morale.