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

[ivanvamp]

Well Taylor was inactive for some reason. Makes you wonder should we have traded Sony? I thought the reason he was traded was because they had faith in their dearth of running backs

They suited up four RBs - Harris, Stevenson, White, and Bolden. They are almost never going to suit up all five. But they like all five, and having that depth is great to keep guys fresh and in case of injury to one of them. But you'll never really see all five active for any particular game, I don't think.

The bummer - and I'm sure this caught the coaches by surprise - was that Stevenson, who looked SO great in the preseason and in camp, had the fumble (which wasn't actually a fumble, but whatever), and then got absolutely blown up in pass protection, almost getting Mac Jones' knees destroyed. That's a huge, huge no-no for BB. So the benching wasn't "just" for the fumble, because he did come back in the game. It's that shortly thereafter, he failed in one job that BB highly values and it almost got his new QB killed.

Stevenson earned his benching, I'm sorry to say.

Hopefully he'll get better and they can move forward in good shape.

 

[patsinthesnow]

Top 12 performance delivered in week 1.

A QB shouldn’t be pressured 19 times with a 2.39 average time to throw. OL has to be better.

 

[venecol]

Well Taylor was inactive for some reason. Makes you wonder should we have traded Sony? I thought the reason he was traded was because they had faith in their dearth of running backs

JJ was inactive because we had to call up our backup QB and starting K from the PS because Bill wants to protect Nordin from LinkedIn recruiters. What a joke.

 

[Ring 6]

Harris was gassed at the end of the game. I blame the coaching staff because they benched Stevenson because of his fumble. And Taylor wasn't active

This team can't afford bill punishing guys for turnovers

What indicated that Harris was “gassed”?

Are you really saying ball security shouldn’t be a priority? Should not getting steamrolled and subjecting your qb to a dangerous hit?
Did you see Stevenson absence of any effort whatsoever to recover his fumble? That was probably a bigger factor in benching him than the fumble itself.

 

[Ryan]

I was very happy with how Mac played. His promising performance took away a bit of the sting of the loss. Really, the Pats just have to get better at not shooting themselves in the foot. Fumbles, drive-killing penalties, etc. I know they always mention on the broadcasts that the Pats are one of the least penalized teams in the league, so I don't know if it's just me, but since the beginning of last season they seem to get a very high amount of offensive holding penalties that really kill their offensive momentum.

 

[Pats2000]

Didn't they bring Stevenson back in only for him to be rinsed in pass protection leading to a hit on Mac?

They did, he wasn't pulled just because of the fumble, he also completely whiffed on a block that almost got Mac killed.

 

[Uptown]

 

[captain stone]

Your biggest complaint is that the Pats signed the best free agent TEs at top of the market rates when they couldn’t get any of the great ones who were locked up? Would you feel better today if they got them at $9 million annually? What difference would it make?

Is that, like, a serious question?

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

These two were paid market value. Every metric puts both of them right around where they were paid. You're making it sound like these were huge overpays, but look at the contracts for the top 15 TEs. This is what they make

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?

And please point out where I do that which you just accused. I don't usually get into the money thing at all unless it's an analysis of what the coach might have been thinking regarding a player - or a contract that's way over the top. For example, I wanted them to keep Thuney and Flowers, but I understood why they might have chosen not to do that (and I'm not in the voidable years camp) given the huge contracts both received.

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.

 

[Scotty]

@DropKickFlutie .......article in Boston.com re Patriots offence stuck in a rut ????

 

[captain stone]

Didn't they bring Stevenson back in only for him to be rinsed in pass protection leading to a hit on Mac?

Yes, it was quite embarrassing

To be fair to Stevenson, Roberts was Jake Johnson's block but Jake guessed the wrong gap from which he would come... Then by the time the Rham was given the fake handoff, Roberts was already on top of him and Rham didn't have enough time to plant his feet in anticipation...

The play begins at 3:54...

 

[captain stone]

Yep. He is about to join Ray Lewis and Jordan Richards on my voodoo doll shelf. I actively pray for them to perish I flames

Don't forget Marcus Pollard too!

 

[venecol]

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?

View attachment 35672


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.

Honestly would rather have Gronk @ $8M than Hurting Henry @ $12.5M

 

[Pats2000]

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?

View attachment 35672


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.

That's the price of inflation, get over it

 

[TomPatriot]

It's not only after a loss that things are a lot different. This offseason was nothing short of perplexing. We hand out a record amount of millions in guaranteed $$ during FAcy and we honestly act like Jete fans. Even Kraft said so. Then we win the draft, we win the preseason, we annoint the QBOF as Brady-like before he takes his very first snap. What other team fans did all these things that we always laughed at? Yup, the Jete.

I can only assume this is some sort of post Brady PTSD going on, but it's damn embarrassing.

The team is better than last year "on paper." Let's see what happens. The future looks hopeful. There's a lot of new moving pieces, so communication and coordination is going to take a while to click.

The league is full of good QB that can complete passes and move the ball between the 20s but lack the IT needed to be clutch and make things happen when it counts. We just don't know what we have yet. What's funny is that Mac knows this. I guarantee he's not happy, at all, with the loss. I like him.

Mac probably leads them to a winning score if Harris doesn’t fumble. Not even Brady could make his RBs hold onto the ball.

 

[captain stone]

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.

It's almost as if being objectively right isn't important and people just love to moan

90% of the posters also ass-umed that JJ Taylor would've been active to make up for Sony's absence... Bill however wanted to make sure that ALL of his special teams pets were awarded Opening Day Participation trophies... The least he could've done was give Bolden more carries... Seeing Bolden attempt to return a KO, on the other hand, was physically nauseating.

 

[captain stone]

This team can't afford turnovers.

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'.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

That's the price of inflation, get over it

Damn…inflation must have increased prices like 50% since last offseason when Kittle and Kelce set the market.

Get over it…and let me clarify I plan to ignore what you said and make up absurd things like citing “inflation” as I brush off your data.

 

[sb1]

Honestly would rather have Gronk @ $8M than Hurting Henry @ $12.5M

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

 

[SHOWTIME15]

To be fair to Stevenson, Roberts was Jake Johnson's block but Jake guessed the wrong gap from which he would come... Then by the time the Rham was given the fake handoff, Roberts was already on top of him and Rham didn't have enough time to plant his feet in anticipation...

The play begins at 3:54...

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....