Game Day Thread Official Post-Game Thread: Week 1 - Pats lose to Dolphins 17-16

[SHOWTIME15]

Me too. Sadly Gronk seems to have had enough of BB and wasn't coming back here.

Gronk was only going to play with Brady. If Brady came back, Gronk would be here. I heard Gronk say on an interview recently that being in NE was the best 10 years of his life. Basically, Gronk and AB follow Brady around like little pooches.

 

[50-yard-line]

What the hell are you talking about? Is this a semantics trick to say they’re top 15 TEs getting paid top 15 money without specifying where in the top 15 they’re ranked/paid? If you’re going by the #10/#12 rankings, as referenced before, the #10/#12 TEs are making 7-8M. That’s a 50% increase in salary based on their ranking. Even with the argument that this has to do with contract recency, it doesn’t come close to covering it.

The #15 guy makes $6M. We just lump in top 15 salary like 12.5M and 6M are grouped together?

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I’ll cite some if I have time later. You use the argument that if 31 teams thought the price was too high, then BB was right to pass…but if BB outbids them, you merely claim that’s just the market and who cares.

Go for it.

When you start comparing salaries on non-rookie contracts, begin with WHEN they were signed, and what are the ages of those players.

When Gilmore was paid, it was top-top $$...now he's holding out.

Go down the list on the players behind Henry and Smith.

HOOPER has some good years in the Shanahan Falcon team and is quite equitable with Henry (but Smith is more explosive, I believe). Cleveland got a good deal on him at 10.5/per LAST YEAR...but he's done little with Mayfield (435 last year).

ERTZ signed his contract in 2015.

PITTS is a rookie. Pats never had a chance at him.

THOMAS Has had 1 year out of 6 where he's been over 175 yards. ONE.

GRAHAM is the walking dead at this point.

GRONK...well, we know all about that. Yes, Tampa got a steal.

WALLER - a steal sure, and he had 178 yards TOTAL over three years with the Rams before he signed it.

HIGBEE Never got over 300 yards in a season until he signed that deal in 2019.

DOYLE JAG and old

BOYLE JAG

UZOMAH JAG

BRATE Maybe close to the two the Pats got - maybe - signed his contract in 2018

EVERETT Meh - small and not great.

RUDOLF Old and done

EBRON Okay receiver - not even really a tight end.

JARWIN JAG

HOCHENSON Rookie Pats never had a chance at him.

COOK Old, wanted him two years ago, Thanks Gronk.

LEWIS 37 years old...

So, you were saying? Tell me how they fix their TE problem better than they did.

The market advantages this year were well known - COVID dropped the cap, which was a huge break for the Patriots as they were clearing the books in 2020, leaving them with all kinds of money at just the right time, whereas other teams were scrambling just to stay under, pushing money way down the road. In short, they lucked out

Both of these contracts will look cheap in a couple of years, as TE is one of the barest cupboards in football, particularly if you're talking about ones who can block and catch.

 

[ashley]

Seeing Bolden attempt to return a KO, on the other hand, was physically nauseating.

lol, captain, yes, hopefully we won't see that anymore this year!!!!

 

[ashley]

 

[ashley]

Some interesting points from Reiss on last weeks game...thing that stands out the most is Hightower wasn't on the field for the final Miami drive

 

[PScottman]

Hightower wasn't on the field for the final Miami drive

Reports are he was injured. Unknown severity or type.

 

[captain stone]

I have to disagree. Roberts just flat-out steam-rolled him. But you're right in that Jakob Johnson appears to have missed his assignment. Really wish Devlin didn't retire....

I wonder if Bill is more strongly considering promoting Ben Mason... Seems he would need to eventually or risk losing him to another team...

 

[ivanvamp]

True... However, in the first place, Rham did Not technically fumble; video evidence proves that he was down by contact...
And in the second place, when the only other RB to whom your HC/OC is giving carries is running on fumes, then you Must give at least some of those carries to Somebody Else.

The Omen's fumble is almost as much Bill & Skippy's fault as it is Harris'.

Actually....technically he DID fumble. I know he was down and so it was a bad call, but technically, that was the call the refs made, and upheld it on replay review, so technically yeah, he fumbled.

That wasn't why he was benched though. He was benched because he got absolutely steamrolled on blitz pickup, and that's a big big no-no for BB.

But this team can't actually afford turnovers.

 

[mike_usagisan]

Is that, like, a serious question?

A bit. I don’t understand the These TEs are Overpaid argument. I look at it as either we’re a better team with them or if we hadn’t spent that money and didn’t have them as TEs. I think we’re better than we were a year ago, which makes me ok with having overpaid for them.

 

[oldrover]

This is like reading a game day thread.

For my own mental health, I'm gonna pretend I got banned by Ashley.

 

[venecol]

Reports are he was injured. Unknown severity or type.

Man that would royally suuuuckkkkk

 

[Deus Irae]

Why just simply correct someone when you can also be patronising and obnoxious too

You mean like your post was in the first place? Matthew 7:3

 

[Deus Irae]

Two months ago 90% of the posters wanted Sony gone, now I see a lot of them saying "why did we trade him"? Can't make it up.

To be fair, people probably didn't expect the coach to bench the RB2 after just 5 snaps. That'll really change a way of thinking.

 

[Tapats]

It was a good loss. I’m getting so sick of good losses.

This was a self inflicted loss, unfortunately.

Too many bad penalties. I don't blame Stevenson for the 1st fumble. He was down, and he has the known thumb issue. The coaching staff must have high expectations to seemingly have him penciled in for a large role prior to the fumble.

The issues are all fixable. They're discipline related, even the few Mac-10 miscues I fully expect to be rectified next week. The deep ball to Meyers that J McCourty closed out likely is completed against most other safeties (chasing down the Ram wide open in the EZ during SB, anyone?). He's got a ridiculously accurate arm and seemed to throw guys out of harms way most the time. His arm isn't + by NFL standards, but it sure as hell isn't a liability either. He slung that one into Agholor up the middle, between the lbs and in front of the safety without issue. That was the closest thing to a hospital ball we saw.

There were 2-3 swing plays where he rushed the throw (think 2 were roll outs, 1 he never got set) that I have little doubt will get adressed in practice this week.

Can we scratch the quick toss? Seemed they were as likely to be negative plays as positive...

Harris took a beating. He isn't meant to be a bell-cow. Stevenson needs to sure up those hands or the RB room is going to be a mess by week 4. The RB room that is an undoubted strength of this team.

TEs look like pros, man was that nice to see. I didn't notice them in the run game, but wasn't paying too close attention either.

The best news? Mac had a damn game against a good d, against a division rival where the HC knows the Pats offense well. Mac-10 is as advertised.

Bills lost, so we have that going for us. This team seems to have all the pieces to put together down the stretch, presuming health. I'll be shocked if we keep seeing the stupid penalties and miscues. This will be a fun season to watch play out.

0

So you would have given Stephenson the ball in the redzone after he fumbled and not Harris? Could you imagine if he would have fumbled a 2nd time there?

Turnovers and bad officiating aside. The Dolphins had 2 touchdowns and a FG with their 3 excursions into the red zone. The Patriots got one TD and 3 FGs in their 4 trips. That’s the game folks.

The Dolphins wanted to run the ball in the red zone and the Pats failed to stop them twice. The Patriots wanted to run the ball in the red zone and the Dolphins stopped them all four times they tried including the Harris fumble which was good, swarming defense as much as it was carelessness with the ball.

There are lies, damn lies and statistics. You can play with numbers and averages all you want, but the Pats have to be able to stop offenses from running the ball on them at will on short yardage, goal line and end game situations or they’re going to lose games the rest of the team is good enough to win like today.

On offense, McDaniels game calling was very uneven. He put too much on Jones at times and too little at other times. They’ve got to throw the ball more out of run formations especially in the red zone to stop teams from selling out so much stopping the Pats run game.

L

I'm sure Bill will trade for a RB now, if Taylor isn't the answer. Great thing about BIll is that once he recognizes he screwed up he'll admit it and try to fix it.

Not having Taylor available hurt their attack since Stevenson was left out. Taylor could have been active and Anderson inactive as he logged a meager 3 snaps. The Pats have Guy, Godchaux, Wise and Barmore for DT.
Is Anderson more important than Taylor?

 

[Deus Irae]

Not having Taylor available hurt their attack since Stevenson was left out. Taylor could have been active and Anderson inactive as he logged a meager 3 snaps. The Pats have Guy, Godchaux, Wise and Barmore for DT.
Is Anderson more important than Taylor?

This (not necessarily the exact position, but the general idea) is the issue. The coach made a decision to activate the players he did. Then he benched a rookie RB for doing rookie things, leaving the team understaffed at RB. At least as far as we all know, there was not an injury issue here.

That's a coaching error.

 

[amfootball]

This (not necessarily the exact position, but the general idea) is the issue. The coach made a decision to activate the players he did. Then he benched a rookie RB for doing rookie things, leaving the team understaffed at RB. At least as far as we all know, there was not an injury issue here.

That's a coaching error.

In hindsight, they should have used White and Bolden more the first 3 quarters. I would love to have known what the game plan was for Stevenson. 12 carries?

 

[Deus Irae]

Bedard:


"Big picture, the Patriots got outcoached."

 

[Deus Irae]

Bedard


"I thought defensively, they were just sloppy"


Trouble on the interior run
Never stopped the slant
No clue about how to line up
For all that they've done, they are slow in the front seven
Phillips looked great in the second half
"Personnel choices are a concern of mine"
Wise played 48% of the snaps and did nothing
Hightower looked "challenged" in that game

 

[Deus Irae]

Bedard on offense


A couple of times Mac Jones checked down when downfield plays were open (Not a huge criticism, but a couple of missed opportunities)
Mentioned 3 micues, noted small margin for error
Trent Brown was a huge loss (not a size joke)
Mason did not play well

 

[ashley]

To be fair, people probably didn't expect the coach to bench the RB2 after just 5 snaps. That'll really change a way of thinking.

I think most posters were tired of Sony and wanted him out of here, I think it will be interesting to see if JJ is active this week. One thing we both know, if a running back is going to fumble the GOAT is not going to play you.