Game Day Thread Official Post Game Thread- Bills beat the Pats

[Lagaffe_07]

No one who ever walked the Earth is close to Brady.

The pass to Agholor in the first quarter was a perfect throw. The defender made a great play.

It wasn’t a perfect throw. It was short and on the wrong shoulder. That is what allowed Hyde to make a great play

 

[PaulThePat]

Jones may develop into a decent QB, but he will never be anything close to Brady.

Thanks for the update.

 

[Kontradiction]

@Kontradiction @RobertWeathers

I really feel that little Steven might be the problem. This D has played flat for a few games now. Tells me the championship level leaders are not bought in to what they are doing. Looking back, Slate was talking about guys stepping up. Perhaps that’s what he’s talking about ?

I dunno. Just how I feel. Something is amiss on that side of the ball. There’s still vet leadership there, but something just ain’t right. I’d like to hear your opinions.

I don’t see how we can get a good idea of what Steven is or isn’t with the personnel on defense. Just take a cursory glance at that side of the ball:

1) We don’t have anyone at DT that can realistically line up at the 0 and eat up double teams.

2) No DEs/OLBs that can set the edge consistently. This exposes our LBs, who have lead in their asses.

3) Hightower is cooked. KVN is on the back 9 and Collins freelances. Bentley is decent, but ineffective because of point 1. When your Mike is registering over 100 tackles on the season, that isn’t in a good thing. It means the DTs are holding up at the point of attack. He’s also having to shed blocks with regularity as guards are climbing to the next level to get a hat on him.

4) JCJ is not a top corner in the league. He struggles against top wideouts when he can’t haul in an INT. He’s ideally a top CB2 but he will price himself out of here. What we have outside of him? Yikes.

5) McCourty just doesn’t have the elite closing speed that he used to. He’s played 12 years of football, often long into the postseason. He’s logged a lot of miles. He’s a Pats HoFer, but it’s probably time for him to hang them up and go out with Hightower.

There’s needs all over the defensive side of the ball. The team speed, in general, is terrible. On both offense and defense. We got completely outclassed in that area. Looked like a D3 team playing Alabama.

 

[Steve102]

I don’t see how we can get a good idea of what Steven is or isn’t with the personnel on defense. Just take a cursory glance at that side of the ball:

1) We don’t have anyone at DT that can realistically line up at the 0 and eat up double teams.

2) No DEs/OLBs that can set the edge consistently. This exposes our LBs, who have lead in their asses.

3) Hightower is cooked. KVN is on the back 9 and Collins freelances. Bentley is decent, but ineffective because of point 1. When your Mike is registering over 100 tackles on the season, that isn’t in a good thing. It means the DTs are holding up at the point of attack. He’s also having to shed blocks with regularity as guards are climbing to the next level to get a hat on him.

4) JCJ is not a top corner in the league. He struggles against top wideouts when he can’t haul in an INT. He’s ideally a top CB2 but he will price himself out of here. What we have outside of him? Yikes.

5) McCourty just doesn’t have the elite closing speed that he used to. He’s played 12 years of football, often long into the postseason. He’s logged a lot of miles. He’s a Pats HoFer, but it’s probably time for him to hang them up and go out with Hightower.

There’s needs all over the defensive side of the ball. The team speed, in general, is terrible. On both offense and defense. We got completely outclassed in that area. Looked like a D3 team playing Alabama.

I agree with your analysis

 

[Hammer of Thor]

I’m going to say the 2021 Patriots were one of the most identity-less teams I’ve ever seen. No, it isn’t a negative moniker. I just have absolutely no idea how good they actually were.

• They had one of the best point differentials in the NFL but went just 10-8.
• They annihilated ****ty teams like the Jets and Jags, and they won easily against middle-lower class teams, but they went 3-8 against teams with winning records.
• It seemed they underachieved much of the season. But during their 7-game winning streak, their overachieving was on a historic level, as they played way above themselves.

It seems like for every statement you make about this team, there’s a counter statement.

I think you kind of summed it up though. Enough talent and coaching to annihilate bad teams or teams missing key components. But enough talent holes and not enough game smarts to do well when another talented team starts punching back.

 

[aluminum seats]

The offense scored ten points, the last TD came against the Bills second stringers

That’s not the way it works

 

[upstater1]

You are right of course although research has shown that a large majority of people can't organize their thinking with sunk cost as a guiding principle. The emotional disappointment is far more potent than the logic of sunk cost.

I agree that's how you evaluate but good luck finding a $5m receiver in free agency who is better than Agholor. Not happening.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

Run D hasn’t been good since 2016. Ranked in the bottom third or quarter of the league every year except for 2019 when they were 14th and played nobody for the first half of the season.

We haven't had a true NT since Wilfork left...

 

[Patriot Missile]

It wasn’t a perfect throw. It was short and on the wrong shoulder. That is what allowed Hyde to make a great play

It wasn’t a perfect throw but it certainly was a good one. It was still in the receivers basket. However it needed to be a little bit farther out, especially with the double team.

 

[upstater1]

No one who ever walked the Earth is close to Brady.

The pass to Agholor in the first quarter was a perfect throw. The defender made a great play.

I am a big Mac defender, and I don't know how much was caught on TV because I saw the play live, but it was not a perfect throw. Agholor was wide open for a long time because he beat the defender when Mac fake pumped. Agholor was all alone behind the defender. Mac will learn but he needed to throw it immediately after the pump and he needed to throw it further because Agholor had to slow up. It needed to be more in the corner as well.

 

[Hammer of Thor]

Thanks for the update.

The “curse” of having the GOAT as your QB. Mac could develop into Carl Yastrzemski and people would be *****ing that he wasn’t Ted Williams. Because that actually happened around these parts.

No, Mac is not that good right now. But he’s shown nothing that indicates that he’ll be a bad NFL QB. Just need to see what happens the next couple of years with his development.

 

[Lagaffe_07]

It wasn’t a perfect throw but it certainly was a good one. It was still in the receivers basket. However it needed to be a little bit farther out, especially with the double team.

Good is not good enough when you play good teams. The difference between a perfect and a good throw was 7 point and a tie game in the 1st quarter of a playoff game

 

[Kontradiction]

We haven't had a true NT since Wilfork left...

Yeah, we have. But that stopped in 2017 and hasn’t been filled since. We’ve instead gone with one-gapping 3-techs at DT. We badly need a 0-tech toilet clogger. That’s Jordan Davis. Hopefully he falls to us.

 

[Hammer of Thor]

Good is not good enough when you play good teams. The difference between a perfect and a good throw was 7 point and a tie game in the 1st quarter of a playoff game

So I take it that you blame Brady for Wes Welker’s drop in 2011 then?

 

[Kontradiction]

The “curse” of having the GOAT as your QB. Mac could develop into Carl Yastrzemski and people would be *****ing that he wasn’t Ted Williams. Because that actually happened around these parts.

No, Mac is not that good right now. But he’s shown nothing that indicates that he’ll be a bad NFL QB. Just need to see what happens the next couple of years with his development.

He was also clearly playing injured. I know the AC joint was mentioned, but if you watched him jog off the field last night, it’s hard not to notice a bit of a hitch in his step. Could be the injury from the National Championship last year that got aggravated at some point during the season and it would explain why there was so much air under the deep ball to Agholor that got picked. Not excusing Agholor there either. He should have adjusted and turned it into a jump ball. But that ball had way, way, way too much air under it. If the knee is bothering him, he’s not going to be able to generate enough velocity to drive that ball downfield and will need to put some arch into it. Just my hypothesis.

 

[Lagaffe_07]

So I take it that you blame Brady for Wes Welker’s drop in 2011 then?

They both share the blame. Brady’s throw wasn’t good enough but a receiver of the caliber of Welker should still have caught it.

if Brady doesn’t make a perfect throw to LaFell against Baltimore in 2014, we are eliminated in the divisional round again

 

[Lagaffe_07]

He was also clearly playing injured. I know the AC joint was mentioned, but if you watched him jog off the field last night, it’s hard not to notice a bit of a hitch in his step. Could be the injury from the National Championship last year that got aggravated at some point during the season and it would explain why there was so much air under the deep ball to Agholor that got picked. Not excusing Agholor there either. He should have adjusted and turned it into a jump ball. But that ball had way, way, way too much air under it. If the knee is bothering him, he’s not going to be able to generate enough velocity to drive that ball downfield and will need to put some arch into it. Just my hypothesis.

It didn’t showed when he broke a sack and out run Bills defenders on a 16 yards scramble on 3rd down on the first drive of the game.

 

[Hammer of Thor]

He was also clearly playing injured. I know the AC joint was mentioned, but if you watched him jog off the field last night, it’s hard not to notice a bit of a hitch in his step. Could be the injury from the National Championship last year that got aggravated at some point during the season and it would explain why there was so much air under the deep ball to Agholor that got picked. Not excusing Agholor there either. He should have adjusted and turned it into a jump ball. But that ball had way, way, way too much air under it. If the knee is bothering him, he’s not going to be able to generate enough velocity to drive that ball downfield and will need to put some arch into it. Just my hypothesis.

The knee brace was very noticeable on one of the hits he took, I didn’t realize just how big it was, and I did see him limping a bit after that. Wonder if we’re thinking of the same play. Will be interesting to see what he looks like with an actual offseason and a chance to rest/rehab.

 

[Kontradiction]

It didn’t showed when he broke a sack and out run Bills defenders on a 16 yards scramble on 3rd down on the first drive of the game.

I’m not saying the injury was devastating. Just hampering, if there is one. There’s also adrenaline involved with running away from 250-300 pound men.

 

[Kontradiction]

The knee brace was very noticeable on one of the hits he took, I didn’t realize just how big it was, and I did see him limping a bit after that. Wonder if we’re thinking of the same play. Will be interesting to see what he looks like with an actual offseason and a chance to rest/rehab.

We are.