PostGame Thread OFFICIAL: Romo Strikes Back - Pats Squeak Past Falcons w/ Win, 24-23

[Bill Lee]

If they go in and beat Tampa Sunday, does that change your mind?

Nope. At the eyeball level the team to me is winning yet not executing consistently at a SB level. That works really great, till it stops working. Also, we've been pretty lucky with injury history. Same 5 OL making start after start, for instance. Now it looks like one injury at a key spot, Boutte, could de-rail the season. Next man up is Kyle Williams who looks lost out there. Drake London just showed our DBs are vulnerable to a true WR1. I don't think we a SB team. Of course I'm willing to be proven wrong, but that's what I'm seeing/feeling right now. Beating Tampa isn't going to change my opinion, unless I see consistent SB level execution.

 

[TommyD4207]

Nope. At the eyeball level the team to me is winning yet not executing consistently at a SB level. That works really great, till it stops working. Also, we've been pretty lucky with injury history. Same 5 OL making start after start, for instance. Now it looks like one injury at a key spot, Boutte, could de-rail the season. Next man up is Kyle Williams who looks lost out there. Drake London just showed our DBs are vulnerable to a true WR1. I don't think we a SB team. Of course I'm willing to be proven wrong, but that's what I'm seeing/feeling right now. Beating Tampa isn't going to change my opinion, unless I see consistent SB level execution.

It changes my mind. Quite a bit. That's a tailor-made loss for even a contending team.

 

[mayoclinic]

I think people are missing the point of the post but it's fine, it is what it is. I understand people just want to see as many W's as possible after the last few years.

No, that's not the point.

If course we want to see as many wins as possible, but I don't think it works to take your foot off the pedal. Win or lise, you play each game 60 minutes to win, and don't let up.

 

[Guts]

Nope. At the eyeball level the team to me is winning yet not executing consistently at a SB level. That works really great, till it stops working. Also, we've been pretty lucky with injury history. Same 5 OL making start after start, for instance. Now it looks like one injury at a key spot, Boutte, could de-rail the season. Next man up is Kyle Williams who looks lost out there. Drake London just showed our DBs are vulnerable to a true WR1. I don't think we a SB team. Of course I'm willing to be proven wrong, but that's what I'm seeing/feeling right now. Beating Tampa isn't going to change my opinion, unless I see consistent SB level execution.

Missing a true #1 WR, red zone defense is abysmal and Maye can hero ball alot.
OL is shaky at times too
Not SB level I agree but hey we are tied for the #1 seed halfway through the season

 

[bormio]

Why would we take a knee… hmmm… I don’t know… maybe because the Falcons D has been blitzing and getting to Maye pretty regularly and maybe, just maybe, they might get to him, cause a fumble and allow them to score.

Hey - wow - that’s just what happened.

This is insanely stupid. It is the first half. There is plenty of time left to score. You are at the 50. If they took a knee at the point the entire stadium would have gone WTF. This is not worthy of further discussion

 

[Ring 6]

I've made this point before. The team next year will be better, but their schedule will be brutal:

6 games against AFCE
4 games against AFCW (KC, Denver, LAC, Las Vegas)
4 games against NFCN (Detroit, GB, Minn, Chicago)
AFCN 1st or 2nd place
AFCS 1st or 2nd place
NFCW 1st or 2nd place (Seattle, LAR or SF)

They could be much better, and have a worse record than this year.

This has been my observation from the start.
Year 1 is just as much of an opportunity as future years.
We could be a .500 team and win 11 vs this schedule.
They still count and once the playoffs start anything can happen.
Next year the schedule gets tougher but we are in year 2, theoretically improving and adding talent to compete against a better schedule.
There have been a lot of teams that hired HCs who won 9 or 10 games I their first year badge weak schedule and then stunk it up after. They were 7 win teams that got the benefit of the schedule, didn’t recognize it and didn’t improve.
Drake Maye is literally carrying this team on his back. By next year we will upgrade more if he positions that need it and become a stronger team. The plan wasn’t to accept mediocrity this year. It’s to scratch and claw and win every game we can and come back next year with a bigger arsenal to keep it going. Everyone knew there were 8 games against 12+ loss teams from last year, so everyone knew a playoff season was in reach.

 

[Ring 6]

I don’t know what you are trying to say with your silly picture, but you should stop ripping on Maye

 

[PaulThePat]

For all the amazing deep balls, laser throws and scrambles, I personally think the 3rd and 5 play to ice the game was the moment even some Pink Hats probably thought, yep, this is the guy. The booth was calling for a run and I'm sure plenty of fans were too. Nope, the coaching staff trusted their man, went for the win and he pulled it off. Big, big moment for Drake and the Pats.

 

[Tunescribe]

We are the Jets of fan bases.

No, Jete fans are the Jete of fan bases. What you seem to be referencing is inbred New England pessimism.

 

[Family]

It changes my mind. Quite a bit. That's a tailor-made loss for even a contending team.

Mine too.

A road win against a 6-2 team whose QB was talked about as League MVP a week ago.

Maybe we caught Buffalo by surprise or maybe they're no longer elite, but another road win like that????

 

[PatsFanInVa]

A squeaker win is better than a recitation of how little we lost x games by, and how if we scored Y more points we'd be 7-2 not 2-7.

At the end of the game when all we had to do was hang on after the Romo miss, I have to admit I was like "they'll find a way to lose this." I mean, besides the discomfort of a "just survive until the clock reads 0:00" position with a one-point lead... I think I'd been conditioned to think that Pats teams no longer had agency. I think even in a spotty performance, that's not who we are anymore... and even in the tough win with a spotty QB performance, the QB is no longer turning in a sub-200 yard, 0 TD performances. It was bad by this team's standards... that used to mean bottom 5-10 teams bad. Now it's ""fix it for the next game" bad, not "Aw geez I'd love to win 2 in a row" bad.

So yay, that said, TB week... not a bad idea to fix NOW. (watching the trade deadline like everybody else...)

 

[Ring 6]

No, Jete fans are the Jete of fan bases. What you seem to be referencing is inbred New England pessimism.

It is as embarrassing as being a Jet fan

 

[pazrul72]

He wasn’t “careless with the football”. He didn’t lose another fumble.
66% is worse than the highest number ever but higher than the league average. That’s not bad.
Of course they have faith in him, he has carried this team on his back. With an average Qb we are something like 3-6.

I don't know what you call it when there is a defender right on top of the QB and he only has one hand on the football but in the vast majority of peoples vocabulary that's careless with the football. Especially in that situation, it almost singlehandedly got them back in the game. I said he ALMOST lost another fumble, which he did. Look I'm not bashing Drake he has been really really freaking good for most of the year, better then we had any right to expect. However, it's hard to take your analysis seriously if you can't acknowledge the 23 year old kid who is still growing had a bad game. It happens and his response to it and working thru it is encouraging.

 

[Ring 6]

This is insanely stupid. It is the first half. There is plenty of time left to score. You are at the 50. If they took a knee at the point the entire stadium would have gone WTF. This is not worthy of further discussion

You don’t take a knee at the 50, you out a knee on their throat.
Everyone knows that except for fans who have nothing better to do that find something to ***** about because the players playing the game almost got in the way of the fans entitlement to get the win.

 

[TommyD4207]

I don’t know what you are trying to say with your silly picture, but you should stop ripping on Maye

Did he not try to heroball and drop the ball?

You can't even say what happened? He played a B- game and they still won. He's a kid. He's going to make mistakes and learn from them.

I've seen zero people 'ripping' on him. But you can hang out in toxic positivity land if that's your happy place on your spectrum.

 

[The Gr8est]

They are better than their record, i don't care what Parcells says

Imagine if they had hired BB.

What would they look like?

I would like to see BB get the all time wins record but sadly I think that ship has sailed.

 

[Ring 6]

I don't know what you call it when there is a defender right on top of the QB and he only has one hand on the football but in the vast majority of peoples vocabulary that's careless with the football. Especially in that situation, it almost singlehandedly got them back in the game. I said he ALMOST lost another fumble, which he did. Look I'm not bashing Drake he has been really really freaking good for most of the year, better then we had any right to expect. However, it's hard to take your analysis seriously if you can't acknowledge the 23 year old kid who is still growing had a bad game. It happens and his response to it and working thru it is encouraging.

We just win the 6th in a row and have the best record in the NFL and have won because the QB has carried the team in his back and whatnot choose to talk about post game is to criticize the qb.

He was trying to avoid the rusher. He has done that many times this year. Let’s subtract all the plays he made by doing that, and we are worse off.
I just don’t get the thinking that everything that goes wrong is something you have to cry about. The defender punched the ball out. It happens. Without Maye, with an average qb, we lose that game. That is the antithesis of “he had a bad game”.

 

[Sect140]

Drake London is an amazing Receiver.

I wasn’t too familiar with Drake London but after seeing him live I sure am now.

 

[Real fan 02]

Nope. At the eyeball level the team to me is winning yet not executing consistently at a SB level. That works really great, till it stops working. Also, we've been pretty lucky with injury history. Same 5 OL making start after start, for instance. Now it looks like one injury at a key spot, Boutte, could de-rail the season. Next man up is Kyle Williams who looks lost out there. Drake London just showed our DBs are vulnerable to a true WR1. I don't think we a SB team. Of course I'm willing to be proven wrong, but that's what I'm seeing/feeling right now. Beating Tampa isn't going to change my opinion, unless I see consistent SB level execution.

"Kyle Williams who looks lost out there... "

Can/will this change? As he is a rookie of course..but if Boutte is sidelined for any amount of time K. Williams is the guy outside the numbers that has the speed and skill set to have an impact. I've noticed every target to him the past few games is incomplete.

On superbowl level performance. If you go back to teams who made the superbowl lately use KC for example.. they were winning games by the skin or their teeth last season.. no one would say they played superbowl winning ball for large parts of last year.. 2018.. were weren't playing in comparison to past patiots teams superbowl ball that season.. but we made it to one.

To me it's going to come down to survival of the fittest the way the AFC is wide open this season.

 

[The Gr8est]

Depends on the cost, but sure we need depth at the edge and we need players there for the future.

Is there any chance Judon could help?

He would be dirt cheap, and “coming home” might be enough to motivate him for the stretch run.