Patriots Pregame Thread Patriots Chargers Sunday @ 8pm - pregame thread

[PatsFan2]

Allen route running is slick . I don't expect Carlton davis to be a good matchup for him. And if we pressure then soon, Allen will be the safety valve . At least gonzo will make him ineffective.

Seeing Keenan Allen still effective at age 33 gives me hope for Diggs and Barefoot next year.

 

[SVN]

its going to come down to maye. as has all season. if he doeant have a bad game which he really hasnt had at all , we can pull this out. not much faith in the defense-they look okay statistically at the end of the game but fail the eye test at least for me - but they can beneift from maye giving them the cushion. We arent winning this 16-13 for sure.

 

[VrabelJr]

This won’t be the usual finesse Chargers team that folds like a lawn chair but I still think we have a better coach, QB, and run game.

I could see us holding the Chargers to 10 points or less. As long as we avoid putting ourselves in bad situations in the first half I think we will be ok. As has been the case in all of our losses: we are our own greatest enemy.

 

[Real fan 02]

I'm sure that the Pats will look at a CB in the draft. Someone who can push Davis, but will spend a year as the 4th CB. I see the Pats looking at Corner the same way I seen them looking at WR. Day 3 pick unless someone they love falls into the late Day2.

Edge and LB are bigger needs.

EDGE: - Chaisson is a decent Edge guy, but someone's going to over-pay for him. Landry has lost a step and he can't stay healthy. I think the Pats will do him a solid and keep him around next year. Ponder looks to be rounding into a solid rotational guy. He could become the new Chaisson. Jennings is a solid rotational guy and the best the Pats have at setting the edge. Swinson has underwhelmed and is likely headed back to the Practice Squad. The Pats need an upgrade here.

LB: The issue at LB is that none of them can cover a TE very well.. It's been, arguably, the Defense's Achilles Heel this year. While Elliss did a decent job in 2024 (71% completion allowed), he's been schooled far too much this year (87.9% complete allowed). Spillane is the leader of the LBs. His injury has been very telling. Spillane has been asked to cover far too much. He's been targeted 62 times and allowed 55 receptions. Gibbens is a UFA. Gibbens has done a very good Job stepping in for Spillane, though Gibben's short-comings are obvious. He's better suited to Special Teams and stepping in to give one of the top 2 a breather for a couple plays. Tavai is a thumper. With the change in the defense to being more aggressive, Tavai doesn't have the speed necessary to be a full time player in it. This needs to be addressed in the draft. A quality, side-line to side-line LB who can play in coverage and but can also play the run well.

Great post. Agreed with essentially everything you stated. I mentioned that coming off 4-13 seasons that we would have to bad to overpay someone and Davis was that guy. He hasn't been terrible. I also truly believe what's affecting the secondary as a whole from creating more TOs is the pass rush.

Once edge is addressed in the offseason/draft i believe we see the secondary benefit next season.

 

[Uptown]

Good. I like Pharms..

 

[Uptown]

A number of these guys are starters..

 

[Uptown]

Denver’s run game is actually very pedestrian.
16th in the NFL. We are 6th for context.
Not bad, but definitely not a strength.

Yep..and Dobbins is gone for the year (what else is new?…)

 

[PatsFanInVa]

As someone in the UK, not happy having to stay up to 4am.

Just get up early. PS, really hope we don’t have to rumble w u guys over Greenland. This happened all the time in Risk.

 

[manxman2601]

Just get up early. PS, really hope we don’t have to rumble w u guys over Greenland. This happened all the time in Risk.

We'll be too busy in Kamchatka.

 

[Uptown]

 

[Uptown]

I wonder what the correlation between those 4 seasons were…Hmmmm…

 

[Uptown]

 

[Uptown]

As it relates to NE & LAC..

 

[Uptown]

Crazy how our last home playoff game was a loss to our current head coach. Full circle…

 

[Zoomnbyu]

Two weeks to heal while he uses it less than usual but still has practices and game prep competing with healing time. It might be better but it’ll still be affecting him.

Having Williams back will be a big help. Jennings has been coming on recently, as has Durden. It would be great for Tonga to be back but Durden’s development will be helpful.

EDIT TO ADD: now is the time for our two headed DC team to step up and show us how well they can game plan. Hopefully TW can be fully involved for the playoffs so we see improvement and Zak can be there to help while giving more attention to his duties with the LBs.

Imagine TW and Z walking out of the tunnel together at Gillette for the first playoff game and being on the sideline with a headset ? I'm not sure there'd be a dry eye and I think the D would be charged with manslaughter for what they would do to the LAC.

 

[Zoomnbyu]

Why put gonzo on Marcus? lol, jk.

Seriously though we just saw that Marcus can blitz effectively. Not sure I’d feed them a steady diet of that but it could be effective in key situations.

I'd suggest that Marcus blitz worked because no one expected to be blitzed by an Oompa Loompa. That's a once a game thing at best.

 

[denverpatsfan]

Their pass defense is #1 and their run defense is #12. That would match up well against our #1 pass offense and #8 run offense.

On offense they're at #10 pass offense and #11 run defense. That would match up okay with our #19 pass defense and #7 run defense.

It's going to be a tough game.

The more I look into this game it is a bad match-up for the Pats. Pats have been thriving on the big play this year. Chargers are the best in the league at preventing the big play. This will be a very close game. A real good test for Maye.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Crazy how our last home playoff game was a loss to our current head coach. Full circle…

Sorta like belichick beating us in 94 then getting us to the playoffs in 01 way faster than we thought he would. although 94 was a road game.

 

[patchick]

Chargers At Patriots (Wildcard Game) | Pre-game Discussion - The Powder Blues

GAME DAY THREAD START: https://www.thepowderblues.com/forum/forum/los-angeles-chargers-forum-nfl-forum-padres-forum/the-los-angeles-chargers-forum/2127645-chargers-at-patriots-wildcard-game-game-day-thread?p=2137652#post2137652 ---- Last night, I was messing around with the ESPN Playoff Machine...

www.thepowderblues.com

Read post #185

Solid. But I laughed out loud at this insight from a later post:

“a key to this game is can the offense stay on the field and can the defense get the Pats off the field.”

Next thing you know they’ll be focused on outscoring the opposition!

 

[Uptown]

A few names to get familiar with for those who aren’t as conversant with some of the Chargers’ newer players…