Reiss: Pats give out game-balls :: What it says about this team.

[unoriginal]

I would have given a game ball to the secondary as a unit. Too many people playing well, and playing together. Lots of big plays:

- Leigh Bodden for the INT in the red zone at the end of the first half.
- Darius Butler for his play at the end of the game. Without him, we lose the game.
- Meriweather and McGowan, as already mentioned.

We don't know if they also made bad plays, missed assignments, etc.

 

[JSn]

This team has reloaded well.....not an overpowering defense, but a very good one it looks so far. And.....they look better when they let them play aggressively,,,,hope it keeps up!

I'm floored by the wisdom of having minimal high-cost players on D, still bigtime players, mind you, and that it allows for the drop from your "starters" to back-ups to be a lot less painful.

Instead of a DL that's maybe a 9/10 and a back-up that's a 6/10, you fill the roster with 7-8/10 guys who cost less and who can give you more team confidence for an entire season.

I don't if anyone Besides Bodden, Green, and Wilfork have to be resigned or let go next year, but with this class, that seems a reasonable challenge, getting at least two of them tied up (man do I hope Bodden is one of them).

 

[JSn]

We don't know if they also made bad plays, missed assignments, etc.

I think we can assume it pretty safely, but as long as the good outweighs the bad (and bad this year in comparative terms - so far - is at least not breaking the offenses back) we should be good to go.

 

[mayoclinic]

We don't know if they also made bad plays, missed assignments, etc.

I'm sure they weren't perfect, but we know that overall they had a terrific game.

 

[shmessy]

Isn't eight game balls a lot to give out? Never heard of so many for one game.

Would've been nine, but Fireman Ed never showed to pick his up.

 

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

Re: Reiss: Pats give out game-balls.

I also think they are the quickest as well.. no more backs of Pats Jerseys chasing WR's down the sidelines...

This is hands down the quickest overall defense we have seen under BB.

Watching Guyton and Meriweather and everybody chasing down Ravens skill players, even on broken plays, was much different than what we have seen in the past. Team Speed.

Plus an all world offense when healthy.

 

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

Equally interesting is what it says about this boards ability to assess a players value pre season... Alexander and Jarvis were clearly on the armchair chopping block...either for suckitude or because they were overpaid...and Wright wasn't too far behind...

IBBWT isn't homerism, it's just common sense after observing how well he constructs teams for 9 seasons.

Heck we heard complaints about Jarvis this week, lol.

 

[JackBauer]

Equally interesting is what it says about this boards ability to assess a players value pre season... Alexander and Jarvis were clearly on the armchair chopping block...either for suckitude or because they were overpaid...and Wright wasn't too far behind...

IBBWT isn't homerism, it's just common sense after observing how well he constructs teams for 9 seasons.

I'll be the first to admit I was wrong about Alexander and Green.

 

[tbrown]

YouTube - NFLWeek 4 - Patriots 27 - 21 Ravens Highlights

For you guys' viewing pleasure so you can see what I saw. Go to the 5:45 mark of the video and wait for the second, slow motion replay of the pass. You can see Clayton's head/eyes shift over to McGowan for a second as McGowan is closing in for the hit. It's ever so slight, but you can see it and it was obviously enough to take his attention off the pass.



Yeah, 2003 secondary was definitely awesome. The 2001 secondary just always comes off as more physical to me because I have great memories of them roughing up the Rams' receiving corps throughout the entire Super Bowl.

I couldn't see the game, but watching this video again, three things stood out to me (there were many, but these three were pretty sweet):

1) LOVE the INT by Bodden. Incredible athletic ability and concentration - he looked like a top notch receiver on that play with the footwork
2) The Morris run for the TD was really nice, and Moss's blocking was great - nothing spectacular at all, but did the job
3) How did TB get the ball away on the Moss TD ??!!?? That was amazing. When I first saw that, I thought "How could he be any BETTER than he already is?"