Malcolm Butler Mega Thread

[PatriotsNumero1Fan]

What lost us the game was our listless defense that couldn't manage a stop. If Brady had caught the ball do we win? Maybe. If Cooks gets the first down on the sweep or we make a better play call? Maybe.

But we scored 33 points on offense. The only reason our team was not totally embarrassed on the field was because our offense thrashed the Eagles constantly and scored three straight touchdowns in crunch time.

When it was 33-32 the defense had a chance to make a stop and didn't. That drive went for over 7 minutes and basically let the eagles defense rest.

 

[Ring 6]

As parcells said, Belichick doesn’t see the big picture sometimes. By benching Butler, he is hurting 52 other guys who did nothing wrong. This ain’t the army where if 1 guy dogs it the whole platoon has to clean toilets. It’s the friggin’ super bowl.

Parcells didn’t say that.

 

[chumpchange]

Why do you lay all the blame on the d? You can’t use the oline blame excuse here, can you?

"Why do you lay all the blame on the D?" ? ...Because he watched the game, maybe? Is there another conclusion he's supposed to draw?

 

[Chris Stevenson]

That’s not the point I was making. Could you inagine Jimmy johnson benching michael irvin for the super bowl for partying?

Can you imagine michael irvin turning down a lucrative contract, being ungrateful and possibly ruining the team’s chances by being selfish with the ultimate goal on super bowl week?

I can’t either because it never happened.

Again, bb does not care partying, he cares about all 53 moving in one direction.

This “bb is a meanie” routine is a concocted premise by felger and mazz for 10 years on sports radio and some fans are forced to feel a need to take brady over bb, another ruse by the media.

Stop taking the cheese. Butler made his bed and it is very disappointing.

 

[RobertWeathers]

According to the Eagles coaches, the decision to bench Butler was "crazy". They then changed their game plan to target Rowe, a former Eagle, whom they knew well and considered a "mismatch" for their new plan. THAT was what put us at a competitive disadvantage, and that's straight from the account of the opposing coaches.

I'm glad Eagles coaches think BB is crazy.

The entire D sucked. Specifically the front 7. Zero pressure. Rowe was not the reason they lost.

 

[Satchboogie3]

Maybe it did but in BBs estimation having Malcolm out there put them at a competitive disadvantage.

That's just a ridiculous statement though. It's the reason why there's so much confusion around this to. BB stating it was purely a football decision is just b*llshit. In no world is sitting Butler an advantage. And surely after the first half this should have been obvious....

Oh ****, no, you're right. It was a competitive disadvantage... for the Eagles.

 

[Kdo5]

When it was 33-32 the defense had a chance to make a stop and didn't. That drive went for over 7 minutes and basically let the eagles defense rest.

Even when we got the lead, I didn't feel elated. I knew that our defense hadn't shown the ability to stop them at all. A scoring drive by the Eagles felt inevitable it was just a matter of whether it'd be a TD or FG.

 

[RobertWeathers]

That's just a ridiculous statement though. It's the reason why there's so much confusion around this to. BB stating it was purely a football decision is just b*llshit. In no world is sitting Butler an advantage. And surely after the first half this should have been obvious....

Oh ****, no, you're right. It was a competitive disadvantage... for the Eagles.

It was multiple factors. BB basically said that. In his estimation Malcolm was not going to help the team.

You can accept that or not.

 

[Betterthanmost]

Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely. No checks and balances within this organization. There is no one to tell BB he is cutting his nose to spite his face.
I will absolutely love someone like BB himself to come to this organization. I watched the 2 Bills and he has no one challenging him like he challenged Parcells.

 

[Satchboogie3]

Can you imagine michael irvin turning down a lucrative contract, being ungrateful and possibly ruining the team’s chances by being selfish with the ultimate goal on super bowl week?

I can’t either because it never happened.

Again, bb does not care partying, he cares about all 53 moving in one direction.

This “bb is a meanie” routine is a concocted premise by felger and mazz for 10 years on sports radio and some fans are forced to feel a need to take brady over bb, another ruse by the media.

Stop taking the cheese. Butler made his bed and it is very disappointing.

How does causing all that drama heading into the Superbowl 'move all 53 in one direction?'. Telling the captains the night before, but then not the rest of the players until kickoff? Dressing him but not using him? Chemistry and mindset are so important. The last thing this team needed was to f*ck with that right before the Superbowl. The best decision for the team would have been to address it after the game, not bring it into the f*cking game.

 

[Chris Stevenson]

"Why do you lay all the blame on the D?" ? ...Because he watched the game, maybe? Is there another conclusion he's supposed to draw?

What about philly’s d, the fake td by clement and awful gostkowski yet again? Sometimes games are shoootouts. This was one of them and our offense was as asleep out of the blocks in a super bowl again.

Why is it ok for brady and mcdaniels to be confused for an entire first half against a crap pass d?

 

[Kdo5]

I'm glad Eagles coaches think BB is crazy.

The entire D sucked. Specifically the front 7. Zero pressure. Rowe was not the reason they lost.

Rowe was not the reason. He was who I knew he was. A 3rd corner, not a starter. The results were that he got taken advantage of by a top receiver. He wasn't terrible but he wasn't good.

Horrible tackling, Bademosi and Richards on the field, Butler decision causing friction in the locker room just before game time (if you believe the rumor)...all major contributing factors.

 

[chumpchange]

I'm glad Eagles coaches think BB is crazy.

The entire D sucked. Specifically the front 7. Zero pressure. Rowe was not the reason they lost.

Bud. Come back down to Earth.

"While the choice to bench Butler left Patriots fans scratching their heads, it also had a similar impact on the Eagles’ coaching staff. Philadelphia undoubtedly had game planned around attacking, or staying away from Butler, and one of their assistant coaches admitted they were shocked he wasn’t on the field. “After the first series or two,” one assistant told TheMMQB about when they realized Butler wasn’t in the game. “‘We were like, ‘This guy’s not in the game! They have 23 (Patrick Chung) in there. That’s crazy!'” With Butler out of the game, Chung found himself with the difficult task of guarding Nelson Agholor in the slot, while Eric Rowe was outmatched on the outside against either Alshon Jeffery or Torrey Smith. “To go after 25 (Rowe),” the assistant said of the Eagles’ game plan with Butler out. “We could get Alshon (Jeffery) out there against him. We had Rowe on our team here in Philly, we knew that was a mismatch.”

Read more at: Eagles Assistant Coach Reacts To Patriots’ ‘Crazy’ Malcolm Butler Benching

 

[Satchboogie3]

It was multiple factors. BB basically said that. In his estimation Malcolm was not going to help the team.

You can accept that or not.

I don't know, you saw that game. Would you say that defense could have played any worse? Pretty easy to call ********. Seriously, in the 4th quarter when they desperately needed a stop and Rowe gets beat for like the 6th 3rd down conversion on him... Malcolm couldn't have done any worse. Just stupid

 

[EddardSnow67]

It's really not particularly logical to lay blame on the offense. The Eagles were top 5 in both yards and points allowed... The Patriots offense put up almost twice their average points allowed and doubled up their average yards allowed. They averaged 8.5 yards per play! Brady averaged over 10 yards per attempt! Come on now.

 

[Chris Stevenson]

How does causing all that drama heading into the Superbowl 'move all 53 in one direction?'. Telling the captains the night before, but then not the rest of the players until kickoff? Dressing him but not using him? Chemistry and mindset are so important. The last thing this team needed was to f*ck with that right before the Superbowl. The best decision for the team would have been to address it after the game, not bring it into the f*cking game.

You are crazy. Butler was not part of the gameplan because he couldn’t be trusted due t his antics. That is on butler. Sad he made the choices he made and made it about himself.

Are you aware he turned down 8 mil per and had a down year trying to pump stats and freelancing by showing up teammates?

 

[Ring 6]

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. No checks and balances within this organization. There is no one to tell BB he is cutting his nose to spite his face.
I will absolutely love someone like BB himself to come to this organization. I watched the 2 Bills and he has no one challenging him like he challenged Parcells.

And you are complaining about the results?

 

[PatsFanInVa]

I think it's valid to ask the questions folks... I am just unimpressed at many of the answers. So far, "sometimes you have a crap game" seems most convincing to me.

Whatever reason, Butler sat last night. BB says it's because he wasn't in the personnel that gave us the best chance to win. Any elaboration is double super top secret.

The NE Patriots lost the football game.

All these theories read like Shakespearian drama. BB to the Gintz. Tom to retirement. We sat Butler because of a transgression, punishing him unjustly. He had the flu. He f***ed Bill's milf-friend. Whatevah. Blah blah blah.

When anybody else loses a Super Bowl, it's because they didn't score as many points as the other guys. When the Pats do, it's Richard III. No wait, Jordan Richards III.

I've started to read some breakdowns here, too busy to dive in... I like reading what people think happened on different plays.

The Pats didn't install a defensive game-plan they thought would lose. That's what it did, and badly. They thought it was the best possible game plan. I think it's likely they were wrong. But again, we have not taken into account that there's a non-zero chance that it would have been worse with any other given defensive game plan... I wouldn't hang my hat on that.

Whatever he said at the podium, BB is most likely going to take a day or two then get back to it. The draft's in what, April? Tick tock and all that.

Of course if the yammering is true for some reason (proof would be in the pudding), Bill's resigning on a napkin tonight, Kraft is unexpectedly giving the team to Jonathan's slow second cousin Joey Kraft, TFB is retiring, Gronk is retiring, and we have a new logo featuring a red white and blue portrait of 1980s pop culture icon Max Headroom.

Presently, we have no evidence of any of the above having transpired. I will remain naively optimistic.

 

[Kdo5]

Can you imagine michael irvin turning down a lucrative contract, being ungrateful and possibly ruining the team’s chances by being selfish with the ultimate goal on super bowl week?

I can’t either because it never happened.

Again, bb does not care partying, he cares about all 53 moving in one direction.

This “bb is a meanie” routine is a concocted premise by felger and mazz for 10 years on sports radio and some fans are forced to feel a need to take brady over bb, another ruse by the media.

Stop taking the cheese. Butler made his bed and it is very disappointing.

Butler should have played. So what? He may have smoked some weed, he may have been a little tardy. If that's the case be through with him a few hours later.

Bill ****ed up. He refused to see the bigger picture.

 

[bormio]

I don't know, you saw that game. Would you say that defense could have played any worse? Pretty easy to call ********. Seriously, in the 4th quarter when they desperately needed a stop and Rowe gets beat for like the 6th 3rd down conversion on him... Malcolm couldn't have done any worse. Just stupid

Philly scored on 8/10 drives - should have been 9/10 if Jeffrey does not drop a ball into the air for an INT. The defense could not have been any worse.