Official Post Game Thread - Pats beat the Steelers

[supafly]

Just a note:

The Steelers' next two games are against the Seahawks at home, and then against the 49ers on the road.

We’ll have a much better read on them after week three. I don’t think they’ve done well traveling to the west coast during Ben’s time there, so a 1-2 mark may be likely. I’d love to see SEA pull off the win on Sunday, but you’ve got the west coast team traveling to the eastern time zone thing going on.

 

[Gumby]

I never caught this, or saw it anywhere else... but who was on the headsets calling the D tonight?

Ditto: same question I was going to ask. Anyone see sideline footage ?

 

[Gumby]

We’ll have a much better read on them after week three. I don’t think they’ve done well traveling to the west coast during Ben’s time there, so a 1-2 mark may be likely. I’d love to see SEA pull off the win on Sunday, but you’ve got the west coast team traveling to the eastern time zone thing going on.

I was hoping clev would be some competition for ratbirds. That may not happen and these guys don't look like they will be more than a speedbump to b-more. Right now I'd give 60-40 odds on squeelers being 0-3 at that point and then Ratbirds will be feeling comfortable.

 

[Wordsmyth]

I live in Pittsburgh and my wife is a Steelers fan since she’s from around here. We’re very civil though when the Pats play them. I work at a TV station here and it’s going to be very hard not to have a big smile on my face when I go into work in a few hours

I know the feeling. I live in the heart of Chiefs country.

 

[Wordsmyth]

I wonder what Max Kellerman will say tomorrow.

Something dumb.

 

[supafly]

I was hoping clev would be some competition for ratbirds. That may not happen and these guys don't look like they will be more than a speedbump to b-more. Right now I'd give 60-40 odds on squeelers being 0-3 at that point and then Ratbirds will be feeling comfortable.

I’m not as sure that they’ll drop both games. I think week one tends to bring out some overreactions due to recency bias and such a small sample size.

West coast teams usually don’t travel 3 time zones very well, and SEA looked terrible yesterday at home against one of the worst teams in the league. After that, SF is mediocre at best, and just beat a terrible Buccaneers team. That said, I don’t think Big Ben’s travels out west have gone too well over the years, so I’d be happy with seeing them split the next two to start the year off 1-2.

 

[luuked]

Yeah, I don't think Gunner is going anywhere to make room for AB. Sadly I think Meyers will go instead.

I'm not sad it's Gunner over Meyers. Just sad one of them will probably get cut.

I think Meyers is much more safe than DT who would most probably be released over Harry eventually anyway. One is a cheap young player on a multi year deal the other a veteran WR on the backend of his career.

With Gordon, Dorsett also on expiring deals I am not sure you wanna get rid of one of the only signed guys that showed promise.

They can also bridge this week by releasing LaCosse and using Kendricks' roster exemption to buy themselves another week if they want.

 

[luuked]

RB/FB - Not Michel's night. Up the middle wasn't there and he did little to make a play himself. For as much as we like Michel he's limited player and that should be held against him to some degree. White again proved he is the true star of this unit and unstoppable in small doses. Burkhead looked sudden and strong tonight. More so than I recalled him being last year. Unit grade: B White: A Burk: B+ Michel: C- Develin: B

While I agree with most of your post this part annoyed me a little bit.

I think this is a very shallow level view on things. On average when Michel was in the game he saw completely different boxes and a bigger Steelers defense than when White or Rex were there. And while his numbers looked worse the flipside is that it opened up play action much more. So on some level he needs to get some credit on the space e.g. Edelman had on some plays through the middle.

The RBs really need to be graded on a curve relative to what they are facing.

 

[luuked]

Agreed.

I have our W-L record at 15-1. 16-0 is NOT happening.

I don't think 16-0 is something to worry about but at the same time also not something to dismiss. If we avoid major injuries (fingers crossed on Cannon), Gordon is available for the whole season, AB stays sane and the defense keeps suffocating like this only the sky is the limit.

Washing away the bitter taste of 18-1 would be something incredible.

 

[MUFC7]

Honestly I've seen good Patriots teams but holy **** the potential/depth of this one is insane.

I think the most impressed I was with Wynn. Played bis first NFL game and looked amazing. Also the LB corps is the best since probably over a decade. Hightower, Collins, Bentley all played great and you add KVN to that mix.

This team is going to be amazing.

 

[luuked]

I never caught this, or saw it anywhere else... but who was on the headsets calling the D tonight?

Ditto: same question I was going to ask. Anyone see sideline footage ?

Sounds to me like it might really be a committee approach.

 

[pherein2]

What happened to pherein 1?

unfortunately, the admins haven't fixed it yet. I was knocked out for months, hopefully, they will ask me for a new email and phone number so I can get my old account back, really nice job tonight

 

[BobDigital]

Without doing a forum search I'm just gonna go ahead and go out on a limb and say you were one of the people desperately hopeful we'd cut Dorsett? Because saying it was cheap yards is ridiculous.

He ran the right routes, was where he should be, made the catches and got in the endzone more than the other receivers while racking up more yards than the other receivers and catching 100% of his targets while none of the other receivers who caught more than 1 pass could say the same.

Yet you give him a B....

I went back and forth but ended up on the keep him train. As for why I gave him a B i thought I made that clear. While he had a good game he didn't face the competition Gordon/Edelman did who had to make hard contest catches. They were not difficult plays for the most part.

Dorsett finished 4/4 for 95 yards and 2 TD with a long of 58. Let's look those catches a bit.

1st quarter 5:58 3rd and 5 @NE 40 - 8 yard catch - A nicely designed play. WIDE OPEN.

2nd quarter 3:49 1st and 10 @ Pitt 25 - 25 yard TD catch - I'm 99% sure his man gave up the top and inside a tad; expecting safety help over the top. The Edmunds took a REALLY bad angle and/or was WAY late. I can't tell who the CB was. It was a good play, not great.

2nd quarter 0:54 1 and 10 @ Pitt 27 - 4 yard catch - Honestly I don't remember this play all that well and couldn't find it. If anyone else can I'd love to see it. I THINK it was fairly routine going from memory but could be wrong.

3rd quarter 8:05 3rd and 10 @ NE 42 - 58 yard TD catch. - This was a blown play and he was WIDE OPEN.

It was a good night but let's not pretend he did anything special either.

 

[Husse]

Good win! It's hard to gauge but the Steelers are usually a good team and in that way the win was very encouraging. Still, it's only week 1.

The offense still has some kinks to work out. I think they were a little bit inconsistent. And at time I thought the Steelers got penetration on our OL a bit easy, and Watt is a handful for sure. Brady still stood in there and delivered, though. I hope Cannon is alright. Hopefully, the "questionable to return" designation speaks to the (lack) of seriousness of the injury.

Defense was obviously very good. Especially the DBs. I can't remember a game where our DBs were this competitive for 60 minutes. It felt like they were never far away, most of the time they were in position to swat the ball, and if they weren't they were close enough to immediately tackle the receiver. We were great against the run, but I felt like Roethlisberger got quite a lot of time to stand in the pocket.

Good start to the season. Let's keep going!

 

[BelichicksHoodie]

When they kicked that field goal from the one yard line, that was the white flag. How do you have a behemoth of a man at QB and in that position you kick it down multiple scores? I mean, I guess Tomlin didn’t want to have a goose egg on his record. That’s the only thing I can remotely think of.

 

[supafly]

Sounds to me like it might really be a committee approach.

If this is true, it is huge news. This makes for quite the interesting storyline, as everyone had assumed that it would be Jerod Mayo.

 

[supafly]

I think Meyers is much more safe than DT who would most probably be released over Harry eventually anyway. One is a cheap young player on a multi year deal the other a veteran WR on the backend of his career.

With Gordon, Dorsett also on expiring deals I am not sure you wanna get rid of one of the only signed guys that showed promise.

They can also bridge this week by releasing LaCosse and using Kendricks' roster exemption to buy themselves another week if they want.

It just feels like Demaryius Thomas still has a lot to offer, and their cautious approach in handling his hamstring issue likely gives us a hint at what they’re thinking he can potentially contribute. I’d be surprised if they released him.

I don’t think they want to expose a guy like Meyers either, but it’s got to be him or Gunner, and GO returns punts so it’s hard to see him cut, too.

 

[luuked]

It just feels like Demaryius Thomas still has a lot to offer, and their cautious approach in handling his hamstring issue likely gives us a hint at what they’re thinking he can potentially contribute. I’d be surprised if they released him.

I don’t think they want to expose a guy like Meyers either, but it’s got to be him or Gunner, and GO returns punts so it’s hard to see him cut, too.

The way I see it Edelman, Gordon and AB are obviously safe.

If they find a trade partner for Dorsett he might be an option to save money. Releasing him won't save that much if he just claims his termination pay since he was on the roster W1. Also lets not forget that he is the embodiment of DYJ and has not only an insane catch rate with Brady but also his trust.

Meyers is cheap and one of the few signed on beyond next year. He could grow into what Dorsett is now at a lower price point. He has done too much at this point to be a PS option.

Gunner clearly offers something on returns and after all the media attention his release/non-release has caused in addition to how decisive he looked against the Steelers will most certainly not make it to the PS.

That really leaves only DT. As you have said he also brings a lot to this offense. And he takes up even more cap space than Dorsett. But I think he has the same termination pay situation as Dorsett.

Either way it is not an easy decision but from everyone involved DT has had the least time in practice. Will be an interesting day.

 

[TomPatriot]

Was Isaiah Wynn good? Other than a penalty I don't remember if he played well or not.

Dupree didn’t sniff Brady all night.

 

[Gronkowski123]

Defense was great!! Big Ben still throwing at the end annoyed me. Stat padder!! Oh and Tom looked fantastic! All around great game