Official Post Game Thread -Pats @ Dolphins

[fnordcircle]

Brady is clearly distracted due to his ongoing feud with Josh McDaniels.

 

[RobertWeathers]

OTOH, Xavien Howard was damn good being (mostly) left on an island against Cooks last night. Two picks and a couple other PDs, plus a couple of misses by Brady ...

Agree. That kid can ball.

But I expect Cooks to raise his game in those situations.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Brady is clearly distracted due to his ongoing feud with Josh McDaniels.

"Mike! It clear these guys hate each other!"

 

[long distance]

I try to keep things in perspective and stay away from superlatives.

That said, Dwayne Allen may have the worst hands of any human being on the planet earth. I am supremely confident that a kangaroo would be have better success handling the cotton soft lobs that he can’t catch. When he does actually manage to secure a football in his arm, it’s only after bobbling it and tripping over himself. Somehow he was on the field as a wide receiver throughout the game. Malcolm Mitchell must be really hurt.

Hard to grow confidence if you're ignored/marginalised.. these things go both way.

VV and MM are both seen in locker room more last weeks. Hopefully both are ready to go and BB waits with designation (which has to be done on first day practicing - an anti-rule to me btw) to see who's needed more..

 

[primetime]

I agreed with Gruden' suggestion (THE APOCALYPSE IS UPON US!) that the intent may have been to simulate a fumble and get a Miami player to touch the ball first without recovering it. If that's the case, it might've helped if the ball had been made to bounce a bit instead of just rolling along the ground.

I suspect the intent was to have 6 people hit the guy as soon as he touched the ball, hoping he didn't field it cleanly, and have others in place to recover the now-live ball. It wasn't a terrible design, Miami's guy just held onto it.

 

[maineman209]

Cutler completed 66% last night, and the Pats only had two PBUs - one of which was by Lawrence Guy at the LoS deep in the Miami end (a pick-six would've been nice there).

 

[primetime]

I don't want to be too hard on him but I'm expecting more out of Cooks than 1 catch.

It's hard to be a downfield receiver when your quarterback can't throw an accurate pass over 5 yards to save his life. Brady deserves the blame for last night, I just hope it was the once a season bad game and not something indicative of a chronic injury.

 

[RobertWeathers]

It's hard to be a downfield receiver when your quarterback can't throw an accurate pass over 5 yards to save his life. Brady deserves the blame for last night, I just hope it was the once a season bad game and not something indicative of a chronic injury.

It was a systematic failure last night. Line, Tom and Cooks not winning his battles.

Re:Tom- I am concerned. My fear is because of the right Achillies he can't drive the ball. With all the one hoppers last night he might as well play cricket

 

[Ring 6]

Who said Bengals? I don't care how many championships we have won, we can vent. We lost today. We didn't win. I agree with you on the stupidity and thats why I have been agreeing with posts written by Bruins in this thread, but we can vent at least.

Why?

 

[ANGR89]

Yes, this team played horrible last night, definitely don't want to see any highlights, but after reading this board, I hope the Steelers see it the same way as some as these posters, a easy win for them next week, and than they come out and play like the Patriots we love not whatever that was last night!

 

[maineman209]

Agree. That kid can ball.

But I expect Cooks to raise his game in those situations.

It might not have mattered as much that one guy was able to shutdown Cooks (it happens), if Brady had had someone (?) besides Amendola and a recovering Hogan to target at greater depth than the RBs.

I'm not sure that Dorsett even got any snaps last night. Even if Brady wasn't going to target him, he's certainly capable of pulling some coverage away.

 

[TinhWoodhead]

It's hard to be a downfield receiver when your quarterback can't throw an accurate pass over 5 yards to save his life. Brady deserves the blame for last night, I just hope it was the once a season bad game and not something indicative of a chronic injury.

the bomb to cooks that webster int was pretty accurate except xman was glued to cookie all night

 

[maineman209]

Hard to grow confidence if you're ignored/marginalised.. these things go both way.

VV and MM are both seen in locker room more last weeks. Hopefully both are ready to go and BB waits with designation (which has to be done on first day practicing - an anti-rule to me btw) to see who's needed more..

After seeing Cooks get shutdown last night, I'm firmly in the MM camp.

 

[Keyser Söze]

Why is Richards still on this team...I know he has a high football I.Q but damn Belichick. He can’t play in the NFL

 

[RobertWeathers]

After seeing Cooks get shutdown last night, I'm firmly in the MM camp.

Seeing how they gave up 183 yards on the ground vs BUF and Drake pounded the rock last night, I'm wondering if Valentine still makes more sense.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Why is Richards still on this team...I know he has a high football I.Q but damn Belichick. He can’t play in the NFL

Agree. Hes better at cap management and helping Ernie with analytics.

 

[long distance]

I agree with you that last night's game must have given PIT some ideas. They already feature a heavy run game and split Bell out wide at times. Lots of RB screens. He’s had 9 or more catches in 3/4 past games.

Pats D's are better equipped to deal w Bell than scatbacks though..

 

[maineman209]

Seeing how they gave up 183 yards on the ground vs BUF and Drake pounded the rock last night, I'm wondering if Valentine still makes more sense.

I think that's more on the lack of LBs than on the DL. I was frankly surprised that they activated Wise and sat Harris. Harris might have been able to plug the A-B gaps, leaving the other LBs (and Chung) to focus more on edge-contain. That also might've allowed Chung or another DB (instead of Roberts) to cover Drake lined up wide.

As it was, it looked like they eventually brought Rowe in to play a sort of "Star" role (and he actually had a couple of run-stops in the middle).

 

[ivanvamp]

Brady's history in Miami:

10/7/01 - L, 30-10, Brady: 12-24, 86 yds, 0 td, 0 int, 58.7 rating (SB win)
10/6/02 - L, 26-13, Brady: 17-31, 240 yds, 2 td, 2 int, 74.7 rating
10/19/03 - W, 19-13 (OT), Brady: 24-34, 283 yds, 2 td, 0 int, 115.2 rating (SB win)
12/20/04 - L, 29-28, Brady: 18-29, 171 yds, 3 td, 4 int, 73.3 rating (SB win)
11/13/05 - W, 23-16, Brady: 21-36, 275 yds, 2 td, 2 int, 77.9 rating
12/10/06 - L, 21-0, Brady: 12-25, 78 yds, 0 td, 0 int, 55.1 rating
10/21/07 - W, 49-28, Brady: 21-25, 365 yds, 6 td, 0 int, 158.3 rating
12/6/09 - L, 22-21, Brady: 19-29, 352 yds, 2 td, 2 int, 101.5 rating
10/4/10 - W, 41-14, Brady: 19-24, 153 yds, 1 td, 0 int, 107.1 rating
9/12/11 - W, 38-24, Brady: 32-48, 517 yds, 4 td, 1 int, 121.6 rating
12/2/12 - W, 23-16, Brady: 24-40, 238 yds, 1 td, 1 int, 74.8 rating
12/15/13 - L, 24-20, Brady: 34-55, 364 yds, 1 td, 2 int, 85.7 rating
9/17/14 - L, 33-20, Brady: 29-56, 249 yds, 1 td, 0 int, 69.7 rating (SB win)
1/3/16 - L, 20-10, Brady: 12-21, 134 yds, 0 td, 0 int, 76.3 rating
1/1/17 - W, 35-14, Brady: 25-33, 276 yds, 3 td, 0 int, 130.4 rating (SB win)
12/11/17 - L, 27-20, Brady: 24-43, 233 yds, 1 td, 2 int, 59.5 rating

TOTALS: 7 wins, 9 losses, 343-553 (62.0%), 4014 yds, 29 td, 18 int, 87.9 rating

No need to be worried about a loss in Miami, in terms of its predictive value moving forward. Brady has had a LOT of awful games in Miami, even in years where they've won the Super Bowl.

I don't know why they struggle so much in Miami, but they just do.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Well the wind chill was 54 degrees.

That means Miami deflated the k-ball on the onside kick. This explains everything! Somebody call New York!