The offical Patriots vs Saints preseason game thread

[Dragda]

Worst Pats rookie performance...Wilson, who in a possibly career ending move, put on a Saints jersey and played for the opposition on D. When the Pats coaches catch this when reviewing film, the kid is done here. Done!

What do you expect with that last name. He has no hope with the surname of Wilson. Nobody does.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

What do you expect with that last name. He has no hope with the surname of Wilson. Nobody does.

What's a surname?

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Mallett is NOT Bledsoe
Mallett can actually throw a screen pass. Remember Bledsoe?
That said, I don't think Mallett can hit anything close to 50% on passes that aren't screens. Scatterarm. And unlike The Statue, he looks really fidgity in the pocket.

I'm giving Mallett his "bad game" like one of Brady's stinkers before I throw in the towel, but I'm far from optimistic.

The problem with Mallett is...he is what he is. Hoyer developed well enough to back up a goat solo in his rookie season. Cassel developed well enough to send Flutie into retirement in his second season. Mallett missed out on OTA's last season - everyone did. That was over a year ago. He had a full TC, a full season as a #3, a full off season complete with OTA's and mini camps, is halfway through his second full TC and on the field he's the same player he was when he was drafted. Bill basically said last week that he knows the offense a lot better than he did when he was sent out there last season. Knowing it and having the capacity to execute it are two different things.

Belichick essentially has three weeks left to decide whether this kid can even be viable #2 by year 3, because after that he's not going be running this offense - he'll be running the scout team unless Hoyer retains that gig too... And Hoyer won't be here one way or another next season. Unless they decide to wildly overpay for security, but I doubt Hoyer will want to take one for the team even at an overpay. And philosophically I doubt Belichick would want a guy who would at this juncture. Smacks of being willing to coast without doing everything he could to become a starter. He wants a shot to compete somewhere where he has a legit shot to start. There are lots teams with no franchise QB or snakebit wannabe franchise QB's and one or more of them will decide to take a shot on signing a Hoyer to a 2-3 year deal to compete.

Next pre season I forsee 4 QB's on the roster, three of whom are competing for the backup job, including a draftee and an UDFA or possibly a failed developmental starter from another system or a retread veteran jag. Mallett's arm, a curse and a blessing, and to an extent BB's ego, will likely save him from the KOC fate this season. It won't by next season.

 

[signbabybrady]

Brandon Lloyd "physically" looks like Joey Galloway and Ochostinko The hype about this guy in camp was crazy, but nothing stood out tonight He doesn't have the physicality of a Fitzgerald or an Andre johnson nor the grace of a Moss or Rice.....I am not surprised, but there was so much hype about this guy in camp and how he was going to outdo Moss of 07 and how the Pats offense was gonna match the 07 one.....lots of pressure for this guy to perform

First off were you watching the same game? Lloyd had a couple of grabs nothing special. He did have one nice one called back on a Solder hold and another one he was likely open for a TD but Brady way under threw him. Certainly not a great day but he showed enough to keep me excited.

Now to the second part of your post I dont think anyone expects him to outdo Moss. Many people have said we have a deep threat that we havent had since Moss left. Others me included have surmised that with Lloyd playing the Moss role and the Gronknandez duo far outshining Watson of 07 that this offense could be a more balanced attack and harder to stop with the potential to be as good an offense as 07 if not better. I think we all made this statement meaning as whole and no one likely meant Lloyd will be better than Moss. Also I think we all ignored the Oline when making this statement or just assume Vollmer, Mankins and Waters will return.

 

[Keyser Söze]

What's a surname?

really?...

 

[bostonia3333]

I'm just hoping that Brady and LLoyd get on the same page REAL quick. Moss and Brady were the same heartbeat on offense, their chemistry was insane from day 1 in preseason. In defense of LLoyd, I think Brady's poor throws were largely due to his lack of confidence in his blind side protection.

That deep throw by Brady was just a bad throw that should have lead LLoyd better as he was cutting right. The Mike Reiss(and others) talk about Lloyd making spectacular, vertical acrobatic catches in camp had me way too excited about this game. I think Lloyd is gonna be a positive factor to this team, so I am excited, but maybe I shouldn't be 07 Moss excited I guess you can say I had visions of Lloyd being like Moss was against Miami in 07 in Miami making one-handed catches against 4 defenders in the endzone lol

 

[Jackson 2]

I'm just hoping that Brady and LLoyd get on the same page REAL quick. Moss and Brady were the same heartbeat on offense, their chemistry was insane from day 1 in preseason. In defense of LLoyd, I think Brady's poor throws were largely due to his lack of confidence in his blind side protection.

That deep throw by Brady was just a bad throw that should have lead LLoyd better as he was cutting right. The Mike Reiss(and others) talk about Lloyd making spectacular, vertical acrobatic catches in camp had me way too excited about this game. I think Lloyd is gonna be a positive factor to this team, so I am excited, but maybe I shouldn't be 07 Moss excited I guess you can say I had visions of Lloyd being like Moss was against Miami in 07 in Miami making one-handed catches against 4 defenders in the endzone lol

Moss was hurt right at the start of camp and didn't practice or play until the first regular season game as I recall.

 

[signbabybrady]

I'm just hoping that Brady and LLoyd get on the same page REAL quick. Moss and Brady were the same heartbeat on offense, their chemistry was insane from day 1 in preseason. In defense of LLoyd, I think Brady's poor throws were largely due to his lack of confidence in his blind side protection.

That deep throw by Brady was just a bad throw that should have lead LLoyd better as he was cutting right. The Mike Reiss(and others) talk about Lloyd making spectacular, vertical acrobatic catches in camp had me way too excited about this game. I think Lloyd is gonna be a positive factor to this team, so I am excited, but maybe I shouldn't be 07 Moss excited I guess you can say I had visions of Lloyd being like Moss was against Miami in 07 in Miami making one-handed catches against 4 defenders in the endzone lol

When I stack the 07 talent up against the 2012 talent and ignore positions I compare Gronk to Moss as I consider them to be the #1 target in the respective offenses. This will get a little confusing as we have some duplicate players from both that year and this one but if we are just talking production wise and stack 07 up vs this year here is what I expect.


07 Moss compares 12 Gronk as they will be the top targets (Moss' numbers will exceeds Gronks as WR1 usually out performs TE1)

07 Welker obviously compared to 12 Welker (as he is older we will give the nod again to the 07 unit but 12 will win the rest and this one is only a slight variance if not equal)

07 Gafney (by the end of 07 he was ahead of stalworh as WR3) compares to 12 Hernandez with Hernandez likely far outperforming 07 Gafney.

07 Stallworth (overal production wasnt to far behind Gafney in 07) compared to LLoyd and here is where my excitement really comes in for this offense as LLoyd as WR3 should again like Hernandez far outperform 07 Stallworth

07 Watson and the rest of the TE and WR group really didnt put up big numbers that year and this compared to the 2012 group of the rest which includes Gafney, Branch or Stallworth (whichever makes it), and edelman should put up slightly better numbers and I say slightly as like in 07 it will be tough for the bottom of the WR/TE position to get much with the above getting so much.

This excludes RBs which at current time I would easily give the nod to 07 as far as RBs in the passing game.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

I've been anxious to read Bedard's take on the game, but since the Globe is intent on being a pay for content site I've had to resort to alternative outlets:

2012 The Saints Preseason Game - Page 12 - Patriots Planet - New England Patriots Forums and Message Boards

His 5 up and 5 down assessment is enlightening since he does it after reviewing the game film. Lots of defenders up including dominating honerable mention. Most of the OL made the down list via being in the 5 down or the dishonerable mentions. Hightower was among his downs but he couches that assessment with the fact he was asked to play multiple positions. Says he was thinking too much.