We are on to Wild Card Round, vs Tennessee

[Sicilian]

OR...they're scoring TDs and not needing FGs.

Which makes sense, because they look (to me) like an offense that is built on feast of famine. Brown had 1000 yards on ~50 catches this year. Most games he only caught a few passes, but would top 100 yards because one of them would be a breaker. Plus they have a great running game and good tight ends, so it makes sense that they're either going to score a long TD, convert in the red zone, or (with how many sacks they give up), stall and have to punt. There's not really an in between with them.

Defense needs to get off the field quickly, or the Titans could wear them down.

 

[RobertWeathers]

I'm calling it. Cowart will be active.

 

[NYCPATS4LIFE]

Win or lose this team better fight tomorrow. It will be disappointing if they went down quietly with a whimper in a blowout.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

Win or lose this team better fight tomorrow. It will be disappointing if they went down quietly with a whimper in a blowout.

They have been in a every game this season except for Houston...

 

[Arialgg]

They have been in a every game this season except for Houston...

They were in the 2nd half against Houston.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Win or lose this team better fight tomorrow. It will be disappointing if they went down quietly with a whimper in a blowout.

That won't happen. Nothing to worry about there.

...but if they lose i'm sure some idiots out there will cite that as a reason.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

They were in the 2nd half against Houston.

Not really...they scored 2 garbage time TDs in the 4th quarter

 

[Sicilian]

Not really...they scored 2 garbage time TDs in the 4th quarter

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, but it does bring up an interesting debate about what constitutes "garbage time". They were a few inches away from recovering an onside kick that would have given them 50 seconds to go half a field for a tying (go-ahead with the extra point) touchdown. If there's still enough time for a team to come back and win a game, is it garbage time? I think of garbage time as having two minutes left, down by two touchdowns, and they get into the endzone with like 14 seconds left to make it one score. Makes it look worse, but was never really a danger of losing. On that drive you're trading time for the score.

Now, if you want to argue that the Texans let off the gas and allowed them to move the ball too easily, that's more than fair. But there was still enough time for them to come back, and they almost did. I at least admire the fight, and wish I could look at an alternate reality where Bolden comes up with that kick.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

This is probably the least confident ive felt about hosting a wild card game against a team with matching letters for the city/nickname and a cb named logan

 

[SHOWTIME15]

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, but it does bring up an interesting debate about what constitutes "garbage time". They were a few inches away from recovering an onside kick that would have given them 50 seconds to go half a field for a tying (go-ahead with the extra point) touchdown. If there's still enough time for a team to come back and win a game, is it garbage time? I think of garbage time as having two minutes left, down by two touchdowns, and they get into the endzone with like 14 seconds left to make it one score. Makes it look worse, but was never really a danger of losing. On that drive you're trading time for the score.

Now, if you want to argue that the Texans let off the gas and allowed them to move the ball too easily, that's more than fair. But there was still enough time for them to come back, and they almost did. I at least admire the fight, and wish I could look at an alternate reality where Bolden comes up with that kick.

They were down 23-9 with 10 minutes left in the 4th quarter...and their only TD up to that point came at the very end of the 3rd quarter. Really, they were dominated on the scoreboard for most of the game. On the hand,. in the Ravens game, the Pats kept it close up through the 1st drive off the 3rd quarter until the Edelman fumble and the wheels fell off. In the Chiefs game, we all know what happened - the Pats came back in the 2nd half only to have a TD taken away due to a ref mistake.

 

[Sicilian]

They were down 23-9 with 10 minutes left in the 4th quarter...and their only TD up to that point came at the very end of the 3rd quarter. Really, they were dominated on the scoreboard for most of the game. On the hand,. in the Ravens game, the Pats kept it close up through the 1st drive off the 3rd quarter until the Edelman fumble and the wheels fell off. In the Chiefs game, we all know what happened - the Pats came back in the 2nd half only to have a TD taken away due to a ref mistake.

They were down 28-12 with less than 10 minutes to go in the 4th quarter and giving the ball BACK to the Falcons in Super Bowl 51. And the only TD for them to that point was also at the end of the 3rd quarter. Was the rest of that game garbage time?

 

[SHOWTIME15]

They were down 28-12 with less than 10 minutes to go in the 4th quarter and giving the ball BACK to the Falcons in Super Bowl 51. And the only TD for them to that point was also at the end of the 3rd quarter. Was the rest of that game garbage time?

The Pats were down 23-9 with 4 mins to go against Houston...then they scored a TD with 3:42 left and another with 50 seconds left. I would call those garbage time TDs, although I realize other people might have a different definition.

 

[Froob]

They were down 28-12 with less than 10 minutes to go in the 4th quarter and giving the ball BACK to the Falcons in Super Bowl 51. And the only TD for them to that point was also at the end of the 3rd quarter. Was the rest of that game garbage time?

Did the Super Bowl win even really count because they won it in garbage time?

 

[Sicilian]

The Pats were down 23-9 with 4 mins to go against Houston...then they scored a TD with 3:42 left and another with 50 seconds left. I would call those garbage time TDs, although I realize other people might have a different definition.

Absolutely. Again, I'm not trying to say you're wrong, I just think it's an interesting discussion. To me there's a difference between garbage time, where there isn't enough time for a team to realistically come back, versus a defense maybe playing a bit too loose and allowing an offense to get in rhythm. It's harder to tell what was happening there (IMO) because we've seen the Patriots make such improbable comebacks so many times, it's hard to say which yards they earned due to soft defenses and which they earned because they identified a weakness and finally executed properly.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

Absolutely. Again, I'm not trying to say you're wrong, I just think it's an interesting discussion. To me there's a difference between garbage time, where there isn't enough time for a team to realistically come back, versus a defense maybe playing a bit too loose and allowing an offense to get in rhythm. It's harder to tell what was happening there (IMO) because we've seen the Patriots make such improbable comebacks so many times, it's hard to say which yards they earned due to soft defenses and which they earned because they identified a weakness and finally executed properly.

I think at the end of the day the Pats will play hard tomorrow. No need to worry about them not showing up. I think they will play better than most people around the league think.

 

[Guts]

I would love to see them use Bolden in some plays as well. Seems like every time he's on the field on offense good things happen

 

[bormio]

I think at the end of the day the Pats will play hard tomorrow. No need to worry about them not showing up. I think they will play better than most people around the league think.

Like many of us, they probably tired of hearing about how good the 9-7 Titans are.

 

[farn]

I'm calling it. Cowart will be active.

Please add. Do we use him as FB and move Roberts out wide and pass to Cowart because TEN is guarding against Roberts.

 

[masterbouncer]

In the Chiefs game, we all know what happened - the Pats came back in the 2nd half only to have a TD taken away due to a ref mistake.

You call it a mistake, actually it was Goodells game fixing crew around Boger managing things as usual

 

[SVN]

Pats need to a)not make stupid penalties like illegal shifts b) commit to running the ball and not go away from it inexplicably like they did vs houston and miami and c)run the ball at least twice in the RZ . Really , RZ conversions will go a long way in improving this offensive production.