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What happened to Smith BTW? That could be another big blow. Not that he's been used more than an old jar of hot sauce in the fridge, but we have ZERO TE depth. It looked like he got stepped on from behind, but the way he moved afterward made it look like it could be an achilles too... let's hope not.
Agreed all around. Matt has been decent and the turnovers /penalties are mostly the issue early on.
The ot playcalling wasnt overly terrible but its an example of where an experienced/great oc wouldve won it for us. A playaction pass on 2nd down probably fields an easy throw for Bailey when they were clearly selling out for the run. If not a pass, a bootleg giving zappe the option to run or a reverse could have also gone for a big play. We were too conservative and played right into their teeth.
I'm surprised so many posters had an issue with the OT play calling. Asked a few people and surprising they would have run it on all 4 downs. An interesting thought that kind of makes sense.
I will preface this by stating the Bill Belichick is my favorite Boston sports person ever. And it isn't really close. I will also say that I enjoyed the game yesterday pushing a supposed contending team to OT. Hopefully these disclaimers soothe those who want only pom-poms.
The play calling at the 50 in OT was garbage. The Packers were loading the box and were not going to allow us to run for a first down. The WORST thing you can do to a not-ready-for-primetime 3rd string QB is give him one passing chance on 3rd and long. His only shot, as evidenced earlier in the game, was surprising them on an early down with a play action. Using "but he almost threw an INT" when they let him throw is disingenuous at best, ignorant at worst. No shyt, he almost threw an INT. GB knew he was going to throw on 3rd and long. All pass plays are not equal. A play action on 1st or 2nd down would have had a much higher success chance then a by the books 3rd and long attempt. Run, run, pass was the safe choice. It was also the sack less choice. Go for the win.
On the subject of putting young QB's in the best position to win....the f'ing TE's. We have all been told from a young age that a young QB's best friend is a TE. Why this offense isn't designed to be completely TE-centric is mind boggling. Maybe Mac wouldn't be such an INT machine if the offense ran thru the TE's. There is a lot of bashing of Jonnu and Henry, but are they even being used correctly? Are they really being targeted? Mac has regressed badly from last year. That doesn't happen in a vacuum. Maybe Mac is what he is, a middling QB. But I think the coaching has been more culpable in this regression. At least I hope so because that is fixable.
This is a good post and I tend to agree, but I think we do have some young talent already on the team that can be a foundation for long term success. I think the last two drafts have been pretty good. Some of the young players I really like are:
-Cole Strange
-Michael Onwenu
-Chasen Hines
-Mac
-Rham
-Pierre Strong
-Tyquan
-Meyers
-Jack Jones
-Jonathan Jones
-Marcus Jones
-Dugger
-Barmore
-Sam Roberts
-LaBryan Ray
-Demarcus Mitchell
I only included our younger guys. I think these are the ones that we're going to have to build around in the future and add stars like Trent Brown, Judon, Adrian Phillips, God, Parker, Bourne, Agholor and Mills and I think our future has the potential to be very good.
Do you truly believe that young talent you listed compares favorably to the younger talent on the AFC powerhouses? Especially on the offensive side of the ball
The play calling at the 50 in OT was garbage. The Packers were loading the box and were not going to allow us to run for a first down. The WORST thing you can do to a not-ready-for-primetime 3rd string QB is give him one passing chance on 3rd and long. His only shot, as evidenced earlier in the game, was surprising them on an early down with a play action. Using "but he almost threw an INT" when they let him throw is disingenuous at best, ignorant at worst. No shyt, he almost threw an INT. GB knew he was going to throw on 3rd and long. All pass plays are not equal. A play action on 1st or 2nd down would have had a much higher success chance then a by the books 3rd and long attempt. Run, run, pass was the safe choice. It was also the sack less choice. Go for the win.
I think part of the reason they didn't do the play-action pass was the most previous play-action pass saw Zappe hold onto the ball too long with good GB coverage and took a sack.
Do you truly believe that young talent you listed compares favorably to the younger talent on the AFC powerhouses? Especially on the offensive side of the ball
I wasn't comparing them to other teams. I was stating the talented players that we have on the roster that are good building blocks. Add to the fact that we have a lot of cap space next year and I think our future is bright.
On the subject of putting young QB's in the best position to win....the f'ing TE's. We have all been told from a young age that a young QB's best friend is a TE. Why this offense isn't designed to be completely TE-centric is mind boggling. Maybe Mac wouldn't be such an INT machine if the offense ran thru the TE's. There is a lot of bashing of Jonnu and Henry, but are they even being used correctly? Are they really being targeted? Mac has regressed badly from last year. That doesn't happen in a vacuum. Maybe Mac is what he is, a middling QB. But I think the coaching has been more culpable in this regression. At least I hope so because that is fixable.
I'm a homer and haven't thought Patricia has done too bad of a job calling plays, but this right here is my biggest question mark. How are they not doing more with Henry?
The play calling at the 50 in OT was garbage. The Packers were loading the box and were not going to allow us to run for a first down. The WORST thing you can do to a not-ready-for-primetime 3rd string QB is give him one passing chance on 3rd and long.
Just curious, if we did the play action on 1st down and Zappe ended up throwing an int, how could you justify that , especially since we were running the ball down their throats all game. I get the runs weren't sexy, but I don't want to put the ball in the kids hands at that point against a great defense. Just my two cents.
I think part of the reason they didn't do the play-action pass was the most previous play-action pass saw Zappe hold onto the ball too long with good GB coverage and took a sack.
Don't get me wrong. Passing with the 3rd string QB is a risk. Of course. Run, run, pass was a surefire recipe to give the game to GB. I would rather give the young QB a fighting chance. Wasn't interested in a tie.
Don't get me wrong. Passing with the 3rd string QB is a risk. Of course. Run, run, pass was a surefire recipe to give the game to GB. I would rather give the young QB a fighting chance. Wasn't interested in a tie.
Yeah, I can see that. I just think BB was telling his running game to go win it. They were the strongest part of our offense and we have had luck running even when defenses knew we were running.
Don't get me wrong. Passing with the 3rd string QB is a risk. Of course. Run, run, pass was a surefire recipe to give the game to GB. I would rather give the young QB a fighting chance. Wasn't interested in a tie.
Just curious, if we did the play action on 1st down and Zappe ended up throwing an int, how could you justify that , especially since we were running the ball down their throats all game. I get the runs weren't sexy, but I don't want to put the ball in the kids hands at that point against a great defense. Just my two cents.
All game situations are not equal. We were running successfully for quite a bit of the game. On that drive, GB had to defend 10 yards or it was a loss for them. The box was stacked. Their attitude was clearly that the only way the Patriots were getting into FG range was in the air by a 3rd string QB. Given those circumstances, it should have been clear that they were not going to be allowed to run it 3 times for a first down. It wasn't happening on that drive in that game scenario.
So Zappe was going to have to throw it once. A first or 2nd down play action is much much more likely to be successful than 3rd and long.
I would rather take the chance and lose that take the safe loss while hoping for a tie.
I'm surprised so many posters had an issue with the OT play calling. Asked a few people and surprising they would have run it on all 4 downs. An interesting thought that kind of makes sense.
Im not sure why itd be any different from the 2nd half playcalling where there was plenty mixing it up and passes on 1st and second downs which bailey handled pretty well mostly. Sometimes with a young qb keeping the d off edge is the best recipe. we did exactly what they were expecting and it didn’t work, forced him into another predictable 3rd down pass actually.
All game situations are not equal. We were running successfully for quite a bit of the game. On that drive, GB had to defend 10 yards or it was a loss for them. The box was stacked. Their attitude was clearly that the only way the Patriots were getting into FG range was in the air by a 3rd string QB. Given those circumstances, it should have been clear that they were not going to be allowed to run it 3 times for a first down. It wasn't happening on that drive in that game scenario.
So Zappe was going to have to throw it once. A first or 2nd down play action is much much more likely to be successful than 3rd and long.
I would rather take the chance and lose that take the safe loss while hoping for a tie.
Yesterday was more on the LB's. Mack Wilson got benched and Tavai took over and wasn't effective. I think our d-line has been playing pretty well so far.
I wasn't comparing them to other teams. I was stating the talented players that we have on the roster that are good building blocks. Add to the fact that we have a lot of cap space next year and I think our future is bright.
All game situations are not equal. We were running successfully for quite a bit of the game. On that drive, GB had to defend 10 yards or it was a loss for them. The box was stacked. Their attitude was clearly that the only way the Patriots were getting into FG range was in the air by a 3rd string QB. Given those circumstances, it should have been clear that they were not going to be allowed to run it 3 times for a first down. It wasn't happening on that drive in that game scenario.
So Zappe was going to have to throw it once. A first or 2nd down play action is much much more likely to be successful than 3rd and long.
I would rather take the chance and lose that take the safe loss while hoping for a tie.
It's a moral victory but it still counts as a L in the lost column which makes next weeks game doubly important lose next week and the season is kinda over...too much to overcome in the current AFC.
LOL, I would have rather done that then punted! IF they were set on running 1st and 2nd down, might as well commit and run it 3rd and 4th. That wouldn't have bothered me as much believe it or not.
Run, run, pass was the problem. Zappe had to pass once. Do it when GB was least expecting it.
I think Bill thought that would be giving GB too good field position if they didn't get it, and the defense was playing well enough that he may have thought they had a decent chance to get the ball again.
