PostGame Thread REACTIONS: Preseason Game 1: NE vs HOU

[TomPatriot]

Yup, the TV coverage was dreadful. Just awful. Zo went off his usual dreary tangents and when he tried to get technical, he used geeky insider football terms that were probably only used 20 years ago inside the the huddle..."and there is the green cheese wheel route with the blue on the flat..." And don't forget the idiotic focus on Mayo's shoes.

They were interviewing the McCourty bros and basically missed a play.

 

[moosekill]

Would have liked to see more of Boutte and Douglas. One nice catch from Thornton.

Felt Zappe was more tentative, he had guys, did not pull the trigger. His strength is throwing the ball in rhythm, he should lean into that. It's preseason, holding the ball behind a bad ol is terrible.

Douglas didn’t play. 3rd string o line didn’t hold up against Texans starters and 2nd string.

 

[PP2]

Starting LT? Didn’t play.
Starting LG? Didn’t play.
Starting C? Didn’t play.
Starting RG? Didn’t play.
Starting RT? Didn’t play.

Backup LT? Didn’t play.
Backup LG? Assuming it’s Bill Murray, didn’t play.
Backup C? Played one or two series.
Backup RG? Played.
Backup RT? Played - but he played LT, not RT.

They were down their top OL and then also down three out of five of their backup OL, and after a couple series, four out of five. And the one backup that did play more than a couple series - Russey - got hurt and left.

Sir, you speak too much sense.

 

[Crazy World of Troy Brown]

Sir, you speak too much sense.

What about Houston? They played their Starters? Pats back-ups in O-line went up against Houston Starting Defense?

 

[Family]

Those guys are going to look better with more experience, and they will benefit from having a good player next to them when it counts.

Of course, playing next to Andrews helps, but they really don't look like NFL players to me.

Hope I'm wrong.

 

[Family]

WBZ's coverage of this epic game made it impossible to get a sense of how these players might look in prime time. The split screens of Paul Perillo in his Bob-O-Pedic rumpus room babbling about Tyquan Thornton taking the top off defenses made me beg for a power outage caused by climate change.

And did we really need to listen to Zolak congratulate himself for getting the Cross Insurance trivia question right because he was on the team 30 years ago when Curtis Martin got >1,000 yards rushing for two seasons in a row? Good for you, Zo. Now get back in line before the chipped beef and apple sauce run out at the buffet.

The lowlight was the two boxes over live coverage of the last seven minutes of the 1st quarter with the McCourty twins and the two white guys in the booth playing grabass like they were in the pickle ball finals at Bob Kraft's pool party. Can we just watch the rookies? Please!?! We all know you went to Rutgers, do everything together, and can't believe how much you crack each other up. We just want to watch the game, not reruns of the Smothers Brothers on Laugh-in.

WBZ drove almost as many people to the phone to call Penn Mutual Life to lock in low rates for final expenses tonight than Matt Patricia did last year when the Pats were in the Red Zone.

Yup, the TV coverage was dreadful. Just awful. Zo went off his usual dreary tangents and when he tried to get technical, he used geeky insider football terms that were probably only used 20 years ago inside the the huddle..."and there is the green cheese wheel route with the blue on the flat..." And don't forget the idiotic focus on Mayo's shoes.

Horrible.

 

[BTTA]

So if I'm getting this, we played a lot of backups, backup backups and JAGS who will never be good enough and so we shouldn't worry at all about the score, performance or in fact any of it. What was the point of the game again?

Practice. It is a practice game.

 

[Crazy World of Troy Brown]

Not one starter from Houston last year on Defense played last night. Look it up yourself.

Texans 20-9 Patriots (Aug 10, 2023) Box Score - ESPN

Box score for the Houston Texans vs. New England Patriots NFL game from August 10, 2023 on ESPN. Includes all passing, rushing and receiving stats.

www.espn.com

 

[upstater1]

Ive been saying that this board tends to wildly overrate McDermott. He's not capable of being a starter. This is his 6th year in the league

 

[BTTA]

What about Houston? They played their Starters? Pats back-ups in O-line went up against Houston Starting Defense?

Exactly. Practice for individuals. No relevance to upcoming season performance of either team.

 

[Tunescribe]

@Ian

Suggested alternative postgame (preseason) thread titles:

Knee-jerk Commentary

What The Hell's Going On Out There?

The Sky Is Falling But I Don't Know Why

All Is Lost, Don't Ask Me To Explain

What Should Be Happening Isn't Happening

I Just Don't Understand

Don't Tell Me, Let Me Guess

 

[chasa]

it's the preseason the only thing we're looking for here is to see if the new guys, or the backups are capable of playing during live action

 

[Clonamery]

Offence was back in mid season form already!

Offense taken.

 

[patsinthesnow]

A reminder how good the pats pass rush was when judon, uche & barmore played:

Fans can dispute how good the defense was last year. What cannot be disputed is the pass rush. Some of their best performances include:

• • 21 pressures & 2 sacks vs. the lions. They dominated a top 5 OL in football
• • 25 pressures & 4 sacks @ the browns. Another elite OL
• • 22 pressures & 5 sacks @ the raiders. A pretty good OL with the Uche having 5 pressures vs. Kolton Miller
• • 26 pressures & 2 sacks vs. the dolphins. Even with Teddy Bridgewater starting the only way the pats were winning was with a dominant performance up front with mills, jack jones & marcus jones not playing
• • 26 pressures & 2 sacks @ the bills. This performance is continually ignored due to 2 kickoff return TDs & Josh Allen taking advantage of long TDs vs cover 3 zone
• 
  
• Judon, Uche & Barmore played together in all these games. Uche was the only pass rusher in the NFL with 6 straight games with atleast 5 pressures. Barmore was dominant in his last two games with 11 pressures. This group performed as well as anyone in the league & they didn't have big leads either.

Hearing about Keion White's first step already at OTAs has me excited thinking about him as the 4th pass rusher in this group. I'm amped up in general about the defense & having man coverage behind this unit as opposed to jonathan jones, marcus jones & bryant in zone will make a big difference IMO.

The main takeaway is white. He showed he has the athleticism to play on the EDGE rather than being primarily an inside player. They'll be able to have uche & white rush from the outside and move judon around. This group has a chance to be as good as any in the NFL IMO.

 

[Clonamery]

that shoulder injury ruined him

unlike brees, he was never the same after it

He once broke his wrist falling to the ground. Poster fellah for peanut brittle.

 

[Lagaffe_07]

Not one starter from Houston last year on Defense played last night. Look it up yourself.

Texans 20-9 Patriots (Aug 10, 2023) Box Score - ESPN

Box score for the Houston Texans vs. New England Patriots NFL game from August 10, 2023 on ESPN. Includes all passing, rushing and receiving stats.

www.espn.com

Steve Nelson says hi.

 

[Joey007]

Ive been saying that this board tends to wildly overrate McDermott. He's not capable of being a starter. This is his 6th year in the league

He’s a type who can be a stop gap starter that won’t burn the house down.

 

[Joey007]

We ultimately can take very little from the offensive performance yesterday. Most of the players seen will not be who is starting come September.

But man, I really hope the offense doesn’t waste this defense. I can already tell the defense could be very special this year.

 

[sb1]

I think it's a safe bet we won't be seeing any team go 7 for 7 on TD drives with no punts vs this defense.

 

[TheBeers]