****** Official Unofficial Patriots/Rams Postgame Observations Thread ******

[PATSNUTme]

Let's all get our panties in a bunch over a pre-season game.

Chuck Norris does not approve.

 

[Sivy]

Let's all get our panties in a bunch over a pre-season game.

Chuck Norris does not approve.

My panties are just find.

I'm excited about the Off..

I'm excited for the deffense to get this chance to learn and improve.

 

[Kontradiction]

Let's all get our panties in a bunch over a pre-season game.

Chuck Norris does not approve.

A 1-15 team from last season put their second string offense in and then proceeded to march down the field on what was the vast majority of our starters on defense. To put it simply, there's a reason why Belichick is pissed.

 

[RhodyPatriot]

A 1-15 team from last season put their second string offense in and then proceeded to march down the field on what was the vast majority of our starters on defense. To put it simply, there's a reason why Belichick is pissed.

It's called a lack of effort. Belichick isn't pissed if his team performed to their talent level. What set him off and should is that the entire team didn't come ready to play. The O eventually woke up but even they were sleep walking in the 1st half.
How did the same defensive unit play against vastly superior teams in the Saints and the Falcons??
The effort is what was lacking last night.

 

[FredFromDartmouth]

The team is tired and worn out and discouraged. They have been thrashed hard in camp and pre-season; the brutal camp backfired.

 

[Kontradiction]

It's called a lack of effort. Belichick isn't pissed if his team performed to their talent level. What set him off and should is that the entire team didn't come ready to play. The O eventually woke up but even they were sleep walking in the 1st half.
How did the same defensive unit play against vastly superior teams in the Saints and the Falcons??
The effort is what was lacking last night.

No denying that. The talent on our first string defense is obviously superior to the talent on their second string offense.

 

[PatsBoy12]

Forget "The Jets Suck." We suck. We made a rookie QB look like a Pro Bowler. Why can't we find a pass rusher. GRRRRRR. Okay, I'm done. Luckily it didn't count and we have 2 more weeks to straighten everything out.

I agree.

It's funny, I got reamed in another thread for saying exactly what happened tonight. Everyone was popping champagne at the fact that the Jets looked so horrible against the Panthers. Then I said that if it were the Patriots, everyone would be clamoring about how it's just preseason. Guess what happened in the game thread? I'll give everyone one guess.

 

[Rob0729]

The team is tired and worn out and discouraged. They have been thrashed hard in camp and pre-season; the brutal camp backfired.

And "They hate their coach". Seriously, do you reallly believe some of the crap you bring up.

 

[102 Pat]

Maybe a loss like this is good to bring things "back down to earth" after the good performances of the first 2 pre-season games. There was some good things to take from the game and hopefully the bad can be fixed. Sorry, no chicken little moments for me...

 

[Don Kipines]

I'm betting this team is going to be a little like 2007, only in reverse. In the first half there are going to be a lot of shootout games as the young defense struggles to put teams away. We'll lose some of those games for sure, and probably some bad ones, but there'll be some good wins in there, too.

In the second half of 2007 an older defense broke down a little; I'd expect it to be the opposite with this team. BB teams over the years almost always tightened up on defense in the second half. What I saw last night were a lot of missed assignments and breakdowns in addition to the troubling problem of giving too much ground on the line (although they did better, believe it or not, when Brace was in there). They should get better in that area as time goes on. You're not going to have linebackers forgetting to set the edge on the first play of the game (or whatever that was).

There's a lot of talent and speed and tackling ability on this D -- plenty to work with. Much more to work with than last year, anyway. That was just bad team defense last night. A few fewer back-breaker penalties on third down and we're feeling a lot differently today.

Meanwhile they were explosive on offense, as they have been all summer. Moss looks dominant and Welker is going to play. Throw Gronkowski in there, and Tate and Edelman and Hernandez, and they're going to score buttloads of points. Moreover they haven't turned the ball over. If they keep scoring in the red zone and taking care of the ball, they're going to be fine with even a merely mediocre defense. Not saying I feel good about what went down, but they at least seem to have addressed some of their issues on offense from last year.

 

[condon84]

Belichick didn't look all that happy tonight. I have a feeling that there's going to be a lot of gassers run this week as well as some berating in film study.

Has Belichick ever looked happy?

 

[Buchanty]

I know it was a preseason game but Spagnuolo might have our number. Despite the comeback in the 3rd quarter he shut down our O in the first. While protection on Brady was fair, there were no seams for Morris or BJGE to target, the former had to go wide for little and the latter ran North South for less. It is interesting the drop off in the Giants since Spagnuolo left. I see him taking the Rams deep into the playoffs in the near future (not this year though). Another stat that alarmed me on the offense was 28% completion on 3rd downs. It belies the impression created by Brady's 158.0 passer rating. On the positive side I was most impressed by Crumpler and love that he is in the team to help Gronk (star of the game) and Hernandez develop. When he caught that touchline grab and then stood up and pumped the air you know he is fired up to be with the Pats. Not one of the vaunted off-season acquisitions but in my mind one of the better ones in the league.

Others have commented long and wide on the defense and there is not much more I can add. I did like one of the commentators points that 9 or 10 players can be executing well but defense fails because of the mistakes by 1 or 2 others. I think the comment was generous as I couldn't count 9 or 10 players in D playing well, I couldn't even get off the first hand (ie 5 or less). The penalties were expensive - 3 roughing the passer (one of which was gratuitous), and our 3rd down defense was just atrocious no matter the distance - soft whether it was long or short. On the RTP penalties I did get annoyed at referee inconsistencies - none on Brady though he got hit late twice (no evidence of cry-babyism there), and 3 on the other side. There was a late one for Hoyer in garbage time but still.

I have no idea why the Pats came out so flat, perhaps they thought that this would be an easy game, maybe they were tired from the long training sessions but they were dull and that prevents the two things that were needed last night and more importantly will be needed in a few weeks time - awareness and presence.

On the positive side GRONK :singing: Tate :rocker: Brace oh and I cant finish without giving a thumbs up to TFB - smooth and precise - its easy to take him for granted but I never will.

 

[Triumph]

1. The Rams wanted this game bad. They have a lot to prove and the Pats never knew what hit them.

2. Sam Bradford is pretty good. Some nice throws even when there was good coverage and pressure on him.

3. The NE defense is going to be a work in progress.

4. I obviously liked the KO return, but it kept the NE offense off the field from the get go.

 

[IllegalContact]

The defense is simply going to be mediocre this year. Not as bad as what they showed yesterday, but the game plan needs to take the shackles off of some of these guys to make more plays. The zone is worthless if they ain't reading things right

The offense will be fine. I guess the game plan was based on Taylor and maroney being hurt which a real possibility during the season.

 

[sbpatfan]

It's amazing how much people will ***** and moan about a PRESEASON game. The Colts were thrashed for just about 60 points last night making them 0-3. Does anyone honestly think the Saint Louis Rams / Buffalo Bills are better than the Patriots / Colts? The score means absolutely nothing in these games. You have to take both the positives and negatives with a grain of salt.

 

[condon84]

I think the main issue that I saw last night was lack of effort (which a lot of posters have pointed out) and the fact that we again went into a soft zone against an unproven QB and set of receivers. Our soft zone allowed the Rams to get into a rhythm and build confidence. We've seen this before with our defense and it's as frustrating in the preseason as it is in the regular season. (Shades of Orton and Henne looking All-Pro come to mind immediately). I don't understand the logic going back to this type of defense against a team like the Rams. It is preseason, but last week and the week before were also preseason games and we played their receivers a lot closer to the LOS and the two previous teams' offenses are more dynamic with proven playmakers. Why show Bradford respect by giving his unproven receivers large cushions?

I think we have the athletes on defense to be more aggressive, but if they're asked to play techniques that are not going to take advantage of their athleticism, then what's the point?

ON the positive:

Brady and our set of receivers alone will get us double digit wins.

Brace looked good yesterday

Gronk made tough catches over the middle that Watson seemed to always have a hard time with.

Tate looked pretty good returning kicks and catching balls.

Mayo made some stops closer to the LOS.

 

[NYCPatsFan]

It's amazing how much people will ***** and moan about a PRESEASON game. The Colts were thrashed for just about 60 points last night making them 0-3. Does anyone honestly think the Saint Louis Rams / Buffalo Bills are better than the Patriots / Colts? The score means absolutely nothing in these games. You have to take both the positives and negatives with a grain of salt.

You are correct but in a way, the team's performance in the first two games and the fact that the third game is usually the more serious one with starters remaining late might have set up this game as a good indicator of what's ahead.

So, I can understand the angst at the D's performance at home against an 'inferior' team last night.

 

[Ryan]

Every time the Patriots play poorly, they're accused of having a lack of effort. I'm so sick of hearing that. They looked like they were giving just as much effort as when they won the last two games. It's the standard thing the media and a lot of posters on this forum turn to nowadays and it's annoying.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

First, last, and most importantly: I hate myself for not hating Zolak on the sidelines. I thought he did a good job.

That was the one overall bright spot on the evening, they discovered a way to mitigate Cross and Criqui's abyssmal meandering pre season performances. Although I do believe late in the game I caught a reference to QB Zac Richards haircut... There was actual play by play analysis for once!!!

 

[PatsWSB47]

Every time the Patriots play poorly, they're accused of having a lack of effort. I'm so sick of hearing that. They looked like they were giving just as much effort as when they won the last two games. It's the standard thing the media and a lot of posters on this forum turn to nowadays and it's annoying.

Well they were lost then....Seriously it looked that they were way less intense.