Mounting frustration in Denver locker room: "Any time we hold Brady to 16 points, we expect to win!"

[mosi]

I will add a few unpopular opinions.

The Denver D played better than ours. They gave up more points cause they faced a much better offense. Many of Denver's "offensive" points this year have been a direct results of STs or D either out right scoring or setting them up for scores. It is one of the worst Os in the NFL and when asked to drive down the field to score it rarely delivers. It is absolute trash and that is cause they invested nearly no money into it compared to the D.

However that being said the way the Pats D has played the last 5 games I would say besides Denver and Seattle there is no D I'd rather have and it really looks like it closed that gap a good amount to nearly be right there.

They make up for their lack of the eye popping talent you see from those teams on D with being the smartest D in the NFL and really good in the red zone. No D right now is playing better in that area IMO including Denver and Seattle. Also worth noting the last time the D surrendered a TD that was on a long drive with the game still in the balance was against the Jets. They have had 12 quarters of not letting a team drive down the field for a TD.

I would agree with that. They should be happy to have only given up 16 points to that team. The Pats D did what they had to do and shut down the Denver offense.

 

[AtomicDawg]

It's not just the D that's whining.

 

[Joey007]

With that question, is your goal to debate the actual performance of the Broncos D yesterday?

Yeah, I'm just saying they played good. But where were those turnovers they always force to put their O in better position?

 

[Soul_Survivor88]

It's not just the D that's whining.

Someone is being salty

 

[TBR]

It's not just the D that's whining.

They really are the douchiest team in the league. Wow.

Some people would say Seattle - but no, it's not even close.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Yeah, I'm just saying they played good. But where were those turnovers they always force to put their O in better position?

They didn't force any. Pats were very careful w the ball and no one made any dumb mistakes.

I don't think that necessarily means they didn't play a great defensive game.

 

[RobertWeathers]

It's not just the D that's whining.

Very salty.

...and yes, Malcolm was on ES like a fly on poop all day.

 

[AtomicDawg]

Very salty.

...and yes, Malcolm was on ES like a fly on poop all day.

He acts like Malcolm doesn't do this on the regular. Ask Antonio Brown or OBJ what it feels like to be erased by Strap. He got Strapped, is all.

 

[FourierSeries]

That was kinda the plan.

The goal was to keep TB12 in check and they only yeilded 16 points to this offense. That is a major accomplishment in itself.

That was part of our gameplan, too. The offense's job was simply to manage the game, not to sling it all over the field. Given the weather, the way our defense was playing, and the offense we were facing, that was the right call.

 

[RobertWeathers]

That was part of our gameplan, too. The offense's job was simply to manage the game, not to sling it all over the field. Given the weather, the way our defense was playing, and the offense we were facing, that was the right call.

It was totally the right call.

The other reason is they have elite DBs and a pass rush so the NEP kinda needed to play that way.

 

[Joey007]

They didn't force any. Pats were very careful w the ball and no one made any dumb mistakes.

I don't think that necessarily means they didn't play a great defensive game.

Force some fumbles.

 

[TomPatriot]

It's not just the D that's whining.

Hmmm. It didn't seem like they were in Cover 2 that much yesterday.

 

[fnordcircle]

Hahaha, Emmanuel Sanders is such a little *****.

 

[BradyFTW!]

They didn't force any. Pats were very careful w the ball and no one made any dumb mistakes.

I don't think that necessarily means they didn't play a great defensive game.

They forced one, but Dion got a very lucky bounce and was all over it.

 

[RobertWeathers]

They forced one, but Dion got a very lucky bounce and was all over it.

Seemed like the ball crossed the EZ line before he fumbled but yea.

 

[PF_SU]

They forced one, but Dion got a very lucky bounce and was all over it.

Lewis fumble occured as he was reaching out the ball to break the plane. If the Broncos had recovered it, it would have ended as a Patriots TD.

 

[FreeTedWilliams]

Like others have said, the reason the Pats only scored 16 points is that was more than enough yesterday. Once they got up by two scores the Pats made sure that they did not expose Brady to any blindside hits (like the one that caused the strip sack, that Tuney recovered). For a few years, the Broncos have been living off making huge turnovers and scoring plays on defense. The Pats offensive approach was to limit those opportunities. If they had needed to, I think they could have scored more (at the risk of turnovers), but it was the smart thing to do.

Any half way smart player would realize that the Pats were making low risk calls on offense throughout the second half, they routinely ran the ball on first and second down, and did a lot of 2 or 3 WR routes with max protect in throwing situations. Even the call at the end of the game to go for it on 4th and 3, I thought was smart. Don't risk a blocked FG returned for a TD just to increase the lead from 13 to 16. Run Blount and if he doesn't make it, then force Denver to score twice over a long field under 2 minutes with no timeouts.

So a lot of Denver's crowing about holding Brady to 16 points should be negated by saying that is 12 points more than he needed to score!

 

[fightingirish595]

It was totally the right call.

The other reason is they have elite DBs and a pass rush so the NEP kinda needed to play that way.

But in the gameday thread people were slamming the gameplan in the 1st quarter

 

[LightSkinSmurf]

You can "expect" to win all you want, you still lost.

 

[RobertWeathers]

But in the gameday thread people were slamming the gameplan in the 4th quarter

God forbid the NEP isn't up 37-3 in the Q4.