Pats Went 1-4 to End Season. What Was The Cause of Implosion?

[amfootball]

Take it for what it is worth, but according to Greg Bedard, his sources say after the bye there was a disconnect between the players and coaching staff and the players stopped to buy into the defensive strategy. His take on the information he got is that Bill took over the game after the Cowboys' loss and after the bye he gave the defense back to Steve and Mayo.

That makes more sense than the mirage crap people are saying. During the seven game win streak the defensive was aggressive they were more of an attacking defense. After the bye, the defense turned into mostly a soft defense with players playing off the line and giving up the short and intermediate stuff.

The question is why did Bill step back? I mean the defense is his baby.
This just further confirms that we need new coaches.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

We seem to hear this regularly but then nothing comes of it.

This is hard to say. Where was fatty Matt Patricia? The defense seems a lot more soft Patricia. I want to confirm what Patricia's influence was.

 

[TomPatriot]

Take it for what it is worth, but according to Greg Bedard, his sources say after the bye there was a disconnect between the players and coaching staff and the players stopped to buy into the defensive strategy. His take on the information he got is that Bill took over the game after the Cowboys' loss and after the bye he gave the defense back to Steve and Mayo.

That makes more sense than the mirage crap people are saying. During the seven game win streak the defensive was aggressive they were more of an attacking defense. After the bye, the defense turned into mostly a soft defense with players playing off the line and giving up the short and intermediate stuff.

I think Mr. Kraft might have to tell Bill to fire or demote his kids.

 

[TheRainMaker]

The question is why did Bill step back? I mean the defense is his baby.
This just further confirms that we need new coaches.

This is hard to say. Where was fatty Matt Patricia? The defense seems a lot more soft Patricia. I want to confirm what Patricia's influence was.

Sounds like he put his son on a timeout as he does with his players, then gave the duties back to him. No wonder we didn’t see Steve much on the sidelines since his couple games of weird faces.

 

[Rob0729]

The question is why did Bill step back? I mean the defense is his baby.
This just further confirms that we need new coaches.

I think they need a DC. The two headed monster doesn't work. Either or Steve Belichick or Mayo might actually be good DCs without the other, but with both you are not getting one vision.

 

[jmt57]

What isn't being said (unless I missed it) is expectations. To me it appears that many fans of the Patriots bought into the national media hype that implied the 2021 New England Patriots were a super bowl caliber team. Then when the club failed to meet those lofty and unrealistic goals, those same fans were upset and felt short changed.

The reality is that the 2021 Patriots should have never been considered to be that good - but outlandish statements generate clicks and commentary. The Pats were in a rebuilding stage with a rookie QB; to expect more than they achieved was a fantasy.

More than half of the NFL finished between 7-10 and 10-7; the Pats were one of them. Better than the Broncos and Falcons, sure; but never in the same class as say the Bills, Rams or Chiefs.

What happened at the end of the season should have come as no surprise, considering the quality of those opponents. Had the Patriots finished the season with games against the Falcons, Panthers and Jets, they still would have been the same exact team. The wild card outome would not have changed.


* On a side note, after all the hoopla of another team making the playoffs and a 17th game, what did we get? In week 17 the only drama was which 9-8 teams would make the playoffs, and nobody fighting for a bye. And in the first round of the playoffs the division winners went 5-1 versus wild card teams; the only exception being a wild card team from the NFL's best division defeating a division winner from the league's worst division.

I don't understand why so many are finding any of this to be a big surprise.

 

[203Pat]

Take it for what it is worth, but according to Greg Bedard, his sources say after the bye there was a disconnect between the players and coaching staff and the players stopped to buy into the defensive strategy. His take on the information he got is that Bill took over the game after the Cowboys' loss and after the bye he gave the defense back to Steve and Mayo.

That makes more sense than the mirage crap people are saying. During the seven game win streak the defensive was aggressive they were more of an attacking defense. After the bye, the defense turned into mostly a soft defense with players playing off the line and giving up the short and intermediate stuff.

When things are bad: not Bill. When things are good: Bill. He really does have it made.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

I think they need a DC. The two headed monster doesn't work. Either or Steve Belichick or Mayo might actually be good DCs without the other, but with both you are not getting one vision.

Problem is more OC.

Defense played great, smoke and mirrors great despite huge personnel deficiencies at NT, ILB, and CB.

Team only won because of the defense.

Offense stalled all season long and stat chased against league worst teams

 

[Rob0729]

When things are bad: not Bill. When things are good: Bill. He really does have it made.

Or it could just be true. Either way, it is on him. He is the head coach and if his coaches are underperforming the buck stops with him. This rumor if true doesn't exonerate him. If he knew his players weren't buying into what Steve and mayo were selling, he needed to step in and take back over the defense or coach up his coaches.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

Or it could just be true. Either way, it is on him. He is the head coach and if his coaches are underperforming the buck stops with him. This rumor if true doesn't exonerate him. If he knew his players weren't buying into what Steve and mayo were selling, he needed to step in and take back over the defense or coach up his coaches.

Steve is doing a good job. The weak link is the offense loaded on talent but keeps under performing. The Pats D has to play perfect to carry the mediocre Pats OC.

 

[Boston Boxer]

That is the kind of season that gets coaches shown the door. Will be interesting to see what changes are made.

this is one reason its not good to give all the power to one person. BB is not going to fire any of his coaches and it is apparent some need to move on

 

[Rob0729]

Steve is doing a good job. The weak link is the offense loaded on talent but keeps under performing. The Pats D has to play perfect to carry the mediocre Pats OC.

Yes, I get that you hate Josh McDaniels. It wasn't offense's fault that in two straight games vs. the Bills that the Bills scored on every drive of in the game. Sorry.

 

[Boston Boxer]

the reason for the implosion (in my opinion) is that we ran into a tough last half of the schedule and teams were more talented. What stands out to me most is when i watch other teams and they have players just flying around the filed...just really fast personnel that stands out. You look at our team and they look very slow. Nobody on our team jumps out as being super fast or athletic. That is a issue that doesn't get fixed with one draft.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

Yes, I get that you hate Josh McDaniels. It wasn't offense's fault that in two straight games vs. the Bills that the Bills scored on every drive of in the game. Sorry.

Fair enough. Pats offense only had 3 points going into the 4th quarter of the Bills playoff game embarassing loss, due to Josh McDaniels ' brilliance. Got it.

 

[sb1]

This will never happen but Bill moving over to full time DC and find a new younger HC? That would really be thinking outside of the box.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

This will never happen but Bill moving over to full time DC and find a new younger HC? That would really be thinking outside of the box.

Why not stay at HC and add Wolf as GM? (And a new OC)

 

[FCB02062]

What superstars did Belichick have when he won 6 Super Bowls? Sure he had Brady, but that is all. He developed players like McGinist, Bruschi, Law, Butler, Jackson , Gronkowski, just to name a few. He has made quite a few UDFA millionaires through the years. Veterans would sign here and run through walls. The Patriots in 22 years never had a team with the most talent, except maybe 2007 and how did that season end?

Maybe his coaching style is stale, maybe some players just don’t want to run through walls to win. 9 Super Bowl appearances in 20 years doesn’t happen if your coach isn’t able to take it to the next level with average to above average players.

what are you talking about? Law, Bruschi, and McGinest (and a good portion of the 01-04 SB teams) are Parcells players and developed by Parcells.

 

[FCB02062]

I don't agree with this at all. The Pats Offense was just fine, you had a rookie QB that put up 3800 yards, 67.6% completions, 22 TD's and 13 interceptions. Let's compare that with a few other notable rookies who are now playing extremely well:

Josh Allen
2018 - 52.8% completion, 2074 yards, 10 TD, 12 INT
2019 - 58.5% completion, 2089 yards, 20 TD, 9 INT

Lamar Jackson
2018 - 58.2% completion, 1201 yards, 6 TD, 3 INT
2019 - 66.1% completion, 3127 yards, 36 TD, 6 INT
2020 - 64.4% completion, 2757 yards, 26 TD, 9 INT

Joe Burrow (normalized to 17 game season, since he only played 10 games)
2020 - 65.3% completion, 4569 yards, 22 TD, 9 INT

Mac is right up there with these other starting QB's in the league his rookie year. The guy is going to be a stud. The NFL is hard for rookies. Year 2 will tell us a lot about Mac's growth.

Josh Allen has diggs, Jackson has his feet (and brown) and Burrow has Chase....and Mac Jones has ......jacobi Myers.....big difference

 

[FCB02062]

The 1991 Browns were 6-7 and in the playoff hunt but lost their final three games.

The 1992 Browns were 7-6 and were in playoff track but lost their final three games.

The 1993 Browns were 6-6 and in the playoff hunt but lost three of their last four games.

The 1995 Browns, coming off that playoff season, were 4-4 before collapsing with a 1-7 finish, which most people write off to the team‘s imminent relocation.

The myth that Belichick teams always get get better late in the season is rooted in two things: Tom Brady (weird, huh…the Bucs are 12-1 after Thanksgiving), and the cake schedule to end the 2008 season, where the last four games were against teams that were a combined 25-39, with three of those games at home (and yes, I’m aware the Cardinals went on a Cinderella run to make the SB.)

I’m not crapping on Belichick, though I’ve learned you can’t state facts here because there are too many crybabies. What I like to do is point out that many of the perceived advantages aren’t actually there and are simply confirmation bias. With Brady, Belichick won at a .750 clip. So many of the winning trends are explained by regular dominance and expected winning pct rather than by some other 5D chess factors. This includes:

• Belichick teams have a built-in advantage after a bye week.
• Belichick teams don’t get blown out because they’re so well prepared.
• Belichick does better than expected against rookie QBs.

Again, when you combine a .750 win pct with these other factors, the results make sense. For example, winning at .750 against all teams, means you’ll be winning at a really, really high rate against rookie QBs who have a conglomerate winning pct. of .350 to .400. The teams don’t get blown out much because they’re dominant. They win a lot after the bye week because they flat out win a lot.

Without Brady, you can see that when Bill has had non-elite teams, all of these splits tend to be right on the bell curve.

potential post of the year here, especially for the ban hammer fan boys. it's becoming increasingly clear that Brady was the "reason for the season" (of playoff wins and super bowls). We only had the Cleveland experience to compare but now with 19-21 with 19 with a totally disengaged Brady, 20 with Newton, and 21 w Jones, Coach Bill has been an abject failure in Dec/Jan. so it's clear that Coach Bill is nothing more than a perhaps mediocre post Turkey Day coach unless he has a 100% bought in laser focused Brady ...otherwise Coach Bill is a post Turkey Day loser

 

[DropKickFlutie]

potential post of the year here, especially for the ban hammer fan boys. it's becoming increasingly clear that Brady was the "reason for the season" (of playoff wins and super bowls). We only had the Cleveland experience to compare but now with 19-21 with 19 with a totally disengaged Brady, 20 with Newton, and 21 w Jones, Coach Bill has been an abject failure in Dec/Jan. so it's clear that Coach Bill is nothing more than a perhaps mediocre post Turkey Day coach unless he has a 100% bought in laser focused Brady ...otherwise Coach Bill is a post Turkey Day loser

Not the Pats of old.

Time to clean house on the staff. It fails in Dec/Jan. Get rid of Ace and Gary roommates named Ziegler and McDaniels.

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