Game Day Thread Official Post Game Thread - #1 Seed Pats beat the Bills

[slam]

McDermott's rant was dumb, but honestly other than playing a cleaner game, as far as game management goes, I'm not sure what he could have done better. Pats out muscled them. Not sure there was a better strategy for them.

Honestly at this point opposing defenses should count NKeal Harry as another OL and adjust accordingly. Especially under conditions like yesterday. Five DL, maybe? If there were a DE aligned outside Harry then maybe the Pats can’t threaten the edge like they did.

Quite weirdly, Harry is a major part of the Pats offense. But a lot of it hinges on opposing D’s considering him as a pass catcher instead of a primary blocker and being continually surprised that he blocks down on their edge.

 

[FreeTedWilliams]

If the Bills deferred their choice to the second half, the Patriots get to choose how to start the game - they choose whether to receive or kick. Of course, in this scenario, it would be insane to kick since the BIlls would just choose to receive the ball at the beginning of the second half.

To start the game, if you win the toss you can choose to kickoff, receive, or which end you want to play from, or defer your choice until the second half. Whoever chooses first, the other team gets to pick which direction they wish to defend.

The Bills won the toss and choose to defer thier choice, so the Pats elected to receive (and the Bills elected to take the wind in the 2nd quarter).

At the start of the second half, the Bills elected to receive, they could have elected which end of the field they wanted to defend instead (meaning take the wind in the 4th quarter as BB did in Buffalo years ago). If they did that, then the Pats would have elected to receive the 2nd half KO as well.

So yes, the Bills could have had the wind in the 4th quarter, but they would have had to KO to the Pats to get it.

 

[Bobby T]

If I was born and raised in Western NY rather than NH, my life probably wouldn’t be much different. My upbringing, family relations, education, career would likely be the same. The only real difference is I would be a Bills fan rather than a Patriots fan and that would suck. Sports fandom isn’t an important part of life, but it does matter. Rather than so much trivial celebrations and happiness, I would have so much frustration and anger. I’m so thankful that I was born and raised where I was and enjoy the schadenfreude of our western neighbors’ tears.

I’m from Boston but have lived in San Diego for over 30 years. My kids are 30 28 and 27. They are all Boston fans except my wife’s brother corrupted one of my sons to be a charger fan when he was like 8. The Patriots have been top dog they’re entire football watching lives. We all rag on my son unmercifully for making the worst decision in the history of our family and it never, ever gets old. At least he redeemed himself with the Bruins Celtics and Red Sox though.

 

[Betterthanmost]

“The same reason that they turned it over on their punt return team — I wasn’t willing to do that. So, I wanted to put a guy back there that I trusted that was gonna make good decisions with the ball.”

This coach is treading dangerously, will not be surprise if they implode going forward.

 

[ashley]

Godchaux and Van Noy both played great last night...some love:

 

[slam]

It never happens, but this could be how it goes:

Bills win toss.
Bills: we defer
Pats: we want this side of the field.
Bills: we’ll receive

2nd half
Bills: we’ll receive
Pats: we want this side of the field

 

[VectorPrime]

Bills were down 4 and got into the red zone twice and came away with 0 points. Coaching has to take heat for that.

 

[bresna]

A few thoughts...

That roughing call was one of the worst one of those I've seen this year. Allen was stretching out for the first down when Bryant, with both feet inbounds, pushed him out short. Was he supposed to let him get the first down?


Why do all of the announcers this year continue to talk about Rhamondre Stevenson's fumble in the Dolphins game being the reason he was benched for 3 games? That is a disservice to Stevenson. He dislocated his thumb in practice earlier that week and probably shouldn't even have been on the field. The fumble was more likely a signal to the Pats staff that they brought him back too soon. Besides, it wasn't even a fumble.

N'Keal Harry's block on the Harris TD run was a big reason why it worked. I agree that he shouldn't have been out there on that punt, but he needed to be out there on that run.

There was one long Allen run where the replay showed an offensive lineman with a choke hold on a Patriots' lineman. It was right out in the open. That should have been a flag.

One last point - I was so glad I wasn't at that game. Those cold & windy games really suck.

 

[Deus Irae]

I'm not the only one posting here who'd like to see the same sort of weather game in the rematch, am I?

 

[mike_usagisan]

I'm not the only one posting here who'd like to see the same sort of weather game in the rematch, am I?

I enjoy weather games no matter who they're against. Bruschi's snow-fireworks game is one of my all-time favorites.

 

[slam]

I'm not the only one posting here who'd like to see the same sort of weather game in the rematch, am I?

If I could choose an outcome, I’d love perfect weather and the Pats torch the Bills going 5 wide all day after the Bills spend all week prepping for the running game.

 

[RobertWeathers]

And then he hurt it some more. He didn’t go back in after that.

Post game he seemed fine.

 

[Vindicate]

Lmao McDermott - then why tf do you even have a job? Your job is to make sure you players are both game planned and mentally prepared to make most of opportunities. In fact, the unique nature of this game is a bigger marker of that than most others.

I love how every single person sees this as a display of being outcoached except the other head coach. If I were an owner/GM, I'd be having a talk with him. Idgaf about what he intended to say, that phrasing is deleterious to your leadership. It's a shifting of accountability, and a very meek way of saying "look, this didn't come down to coaching."

I'm sorry but the whole time I was like "damn, coaching woes are showing their heads this game" about the Pat's quite often. Muffed kick return on Harry. Some holding calls. Personal foul calls. Flags at really bad times. I wasn't tearing apart the coaching and loved the gameplan, but I did have moments where I was like "damn, here's another 'discipline' moment" - all that to say, shut the duck up McDermott, this did come down to coaching, ESPECIALLY given the opportunities that our lapse in discipline offered. Somehow our coach kept a confident team that stayed poised even after their foibles. That's almost _all_ coaching.

 

[JarOfMayo51]

After the game during an ESPN interview, he said he got hit with Hightower's helmet and it knocked the wind out of him. He said he was fine.

Ive had to explain to my father how big of a deal getting the wind knocked out of you can be, because apparently he has NEVER had the wind knocked out of him in his life

Playing tackle football around the neighborhood growing up, and playing padded football, i cant even remember how many times ive had the wind knocked out of me

Not a fun time, but i was surprised he had never experienced it

 

[Zuma]

Post game he seemed fine.

yeah he did but pulled up short limping to the sideline. hammy's can last a looong time. but your probably right.

 

[RobertWeathers]

yeah he did but pulled up short limping to the sideline. hammy's can last a looong time. but your probably right.

Yea we'll see.

 

[slam]

A graphic on the Bills forum showed that Indy and NE this year called the most consecutive running plays in a row in league history against the Bills this year.

 

[rochrist]

How do you figure that GB is virtually guaranteed to go 5-0? How is it that you think Cleveland and Baltimore are just going to roll over for the Packers?

As for your 2nd paragraph, do you generally just make crap up? Could you show me where even remotely implied that Brady would not take the game seriously? You do realize that just because Brady is 27-3 lifetime against Buffalo means nothing, right? He's in Tampa Bay now. The same TB that barely beat the Patriots earlier in the season when the Patriots weren't playing their best football. This is the same TB that bracketed their BYE week with losses to the Saints and Washington. Just because Brady is TB's QB doesn't mean they are guaranteed to win against Buffalo.

A) I figure that because GB is having a great season and Cleveland and Balt aren't very good.

B) I just think you're making way more of Buffalo's chances having to go down to Florida on a short week and beat the guy who for all intents and purposes owns their team, that's all.

 

[Hyped]

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

I'm on the ESPN playoff machine, and I think the Patriots are really in the driver's seat for the #1 seed. I expect the Titans and Ravens to lose several more games. The Patriots have the tiebreaker over the Chiefs.

If Tampa Bay beats Buffalo next week, I think the Patriots will get the #1 seed even if they lose another game. The Chiefs might run the table, but I wouldn't bet on it.