Speculating on my optimism

[PatsFanInVa]

mind your own business then hoe nobody was talking to you lol

 

[PatsWSB47]

mind your own business then hoe nobody was talking to you lol

That makes a lot of sense? lol. You asked me a question, duh. This thread is about optimism for the Patriots season., not about the ghost of Tom Brady haunting you. He can't hurt you anymore.

 

[A Defiant Goose]

That makes a lot of sense? lol. You asked me a question, duh. This thread is about optimism for the Patriots season., not about the ghost of Tom Brady haunting you. He can't hurt you anymore.

Dog. I was just trying to troll the troll. Let me do my thing and don't get caught in the trolling crossfire lol

 

[PatsWSB47]

Dog. I was just trying to troll the troll. Let me do my thing and don't get caught in the trolling crossfire lol

Sorry. I'm kind of dense sometimes

 

[A Defiant Goose]

Sorry. I'm kind of dense sometimes

It's ok I still love you

 

[mgteich]

The entirety of pre-season performance on the offensive side of the ball, leaves very little to feel optimistic about.

However, I go into the season very optimistic. Defensively, I think the team will be faster at the second and third levels, but with an emphasis on the 2nd level. I also believe the DL will be very disruptive.

Now onto the offense. I am optimistic for a few reasons and the first two are speculation or observations by me (and I am sure by many others).

1. BB's relaxed attitude and approach. This is odd and out of character. I interpret this as a quiet confidence in the team personnel.

2. I think they will cut back on the stretch plays early on. I highly doubt they abandon the system all together, because that is clearly the vision they have moving forward. But to be competitive and win, I think we see more of the bull dozing early on as they work on the stretch plays throughout the early part of the season.

It's a much easier adjustment for a lineman to go back to in line blocking than it is to learn zone blocking. I would be ready to have a few head scratching drives where they look like **** because they went zone for a series and then the next drive they look good as they went back to drive blocking.

3. Mac hasn't regressed. IMO it's a product of the offense as a whole implementing a new system.

4. I have no idea why people are sleeping on the offensive personnel this team has.

If Smith gets it, and by all accounts the offense is dumbed down a bit. So, if he gets it, we will probably have the most productive group of TEs in the league.

The WRs are not the Rams, but they are solid and deep. Parker's health is the only real question mark. And that is with the pre-season version of Bourne. If Bourne wakes up and plays up to his potential this WR group will be more than enough to win.

5. The stable of backs are outstanding. One of the best one-two punches in the league.

I get the pessimism, especially around the coaching staff and the pre-season performance. But folks seem to harp on the bad and ignore the good. Just remember if we see it then they are seeing even more. BB has never been one to "do what we do", if it's not working he's going to scrap it or use less of it while they work the kinks out.

Can't wait for Sunday!

We have two huge losses from 2021: Josh and Jackson.
It will take a lot to make up for that.

Also, we brought back 4 of our 6 OL's and have Strange and Hines for the other two positions.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

I do not know who Von Miller is.

I do know that he and his Donkeys teammates should be sending Bill Belichick a thank you note every year for going for it twice in the fourth quarter of the AFCCG in field goal range.

I was never intimidated by Marino, Fouts, Manning, Kelly et al.

Not intimidated by Allen.

 

[Rob0729]

I noticed people this offseason have been saying "the defense is faster" rather than "the defense is better", even though the implication/context is usually the latter.

The LB corp looks like it should be better than last year. Hightower sucked last year. Van Oy was inconsistent. Collins had like one or two good games. So the bar isn't set so high for the corp. But until we see them perform on the field, we cannot know for sure.

I think the front seven may be able to cover up for the weakness at the #1 CB. We saw last night that a strong pass run these days can cover for deficiencies in the secondary.

 

[VrabelJr]

I can see us being 5-12 or 12-5 but I’m leaning towards 12-5, being an optimist and all. It all comes down to the OL and Linebackers. Another important one is Jonathan Jones staying healthy.

 

[farn]

I do not know who Von Miller is.

I do know that he and his Donkeys teammates should be sending Bill Belichick a thank you note every year for going for it twice in the fourth quarter of the AFCCG in field goal range.

I was never intimidated by Marino, Fouts, Manning, Kelly et al.

Not intimidated by Allen.

Despite overall success, I was always weary of P Manning. I just felt in those early dynasty years that ‘it was a matter of time’. In a weird twist, in years PM eliminated NE, it « wasn’t him » doing the damage. First he won on Sanders (the safety) having an incredible post season + NE having the flu pass through the locker. The second time, with Denver, he has an all star at every position and NE had lost so many key players, they no longer had enough (and were still a two point conversion from keeping it going).

But, in 2003-2006 I always « feared » Peyton M.

 

[maust]

It's ok I still love you

 

[pats99]

I do not know who Von Miller is.

I do know that he and his Donkeys teammates should be sending Bill Belichick a thank you note every year for going for it twice in the fourth quarter of the AFCCG in field goal range.

I was never intimidated by Marino, Fouts, Manning, Kelly et al.

Not intimidated by Allen.

When

I do not know who Von Miller is.

I do know that he and his Donkeys teammates should be sending Bill Belichick a thank you note every year for going for it twice in the fourth quarter of the AFCCG in field goal range.

I was never intimidated by Marino, Fouts, Manning, Kelly et al.

Not intimidated by Allen.

So when you say you are not intimidated by Marino, Fouts, Manning, Kelly and not Josh Allen. What exactly does that mean.

 

[PScottman]

The O Line play this pre-season stands right now as that unit's state of readiness, until we see them play at a different level.

Same as last year - when the OL played well the Pats won in the middle of the season - when they didn't - they struggled. Likely another reason for the Strange pick was the now three straight years of very slow OL season starts.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

When

So when you say you are not intimidated by Marino, Fouts, Manning, Kelly and not Josh Allen. What exactly does that mean.

We beat all of them, a lot actually. We had very good defenses. We never beat Elway because he never started against Grogan or Flutie.

Going a bit further back, we beat Bert Jones, and Griese, and Namath in the 70's.

So we'll see how good our defense is this year.

I'm not saying Allen (or Mahomes) stink; they're very simply beatable. There's no team in the league the Patriots can't beat, if they play well, if they're coached well, and if they develop team chemistry and determination.

 

[mgcolby]

We have two huge losses from 2021: Josh and Jackson.
It will take a lot to make up for that.

Also, we brought back 4 of our 6 OL's and have Strange and Hines for the other two positions.

McDaniels is definitely a huge loss. I think the loss of JC is manageable, well both are really. But I think the loss of Josh will be more noticeable.

I believe with the improvement on the DL and hopefully the youth movement at LB will speed up the rush and will give the secondary some protection. I also think the Rookie Jones is going to have a really good year. And the Safeties are among the best groups in the NFL.

 

[WinstonSmith]

McDaniels is definitely a huge loss. I think the loss of JC is manageable, well both are really. But I think the loss of Josh will be more noticeable.

I believe with the improvement on the DL and hopefully the youth movement at LB will speed up the rush and will give the secondary some protection. I also think the Rookie Jones is going to have a really good year. And the Safeties are among the best groups in the NFL.

I seem to be in the extreme minority, but I don't think that the McDaniels loss is that big of a deal. I believe that it's important for a long standing coach to have new challenges and have new coordinators every so often. Bill, who taught Josh, is apparently the offensive coordinator with Judge and Patricia serving in more of a supporting role. And for all of the doom and gloom being reported in the preseason there are a lot of little things that point to this setup not being a complete disaster - such as Mac actually increasing his TC completion percentage (71%) while facing the number one defense more often than he did last year

 

[PatsFanInVa]

LOL I'm not intimidated because I'm not on the field. If Von Miller comes to my house, I am intimidated.

 

[mgcolby]

I seem

 

[WinstonSmith]

##$$%%, you beat my edit by a few seconds...

 

[Stu Pidassle]

I seem to be in the extreme minority, but I don't think that the McDaniels loss is that big of a deal. I believe that it's important for a long standing coach to have new challenges and have new coordinators every so often. Bill, who taught Josh, is apparently the offensive coordinator with Judge and Patricia serving in more of a supporting role. And for all of the doom and gloom being reported in the preseason there are a lot of little things that point to this setup not being a complete disaster - such as Mac actually increasing his TC completion percentage (71%) while facing the number one defense more often than he did last year

The team survived the loss of McD once before. This time he took his logical successor with him. The media does not give BB credit for the real issue in that the coaching/front office brain drain has been going on year after year for a number of years. With no logical successor the team was forced to get creative. Who knows if it will work. There should be some comfort in the fact that BB has shown that he is willing to fail fast and change direction if it does not.