We're on to Pittsburgh...

[supafly]

As originally posted "we are on to Pittsburgh" That should be a tough game in their house. I expect a different Pats team if they want to win.

Yep, hopefully last night was nothing more than a minor setback, and they’re able to regroup and refocus for a much bigger game this weekend.

 

[catent]

Yes, a loss on Sunday takes us down to the 3 seed and we no longer control our own destiny for a first round bye.

Jacksonville would take over, and their last 3 games aren’t exactly difficult:

HOU (11 point favorites)
SF
TEN

San Fran is playing much better with Jimmy G. at the helm. And as we know, divisional games are never 'gimmes'. Two of those games are on the road as well, which is relevant.

I'm curious how the tiebreaker between New England and Jacksonville works out should they end up with the same record... although I think it's more likely than not that New England will end up with a better record than Jacksonville.

 

[supafly]

If someone told me that we had to lose either this week or next week, I would have picked this week because essentially it's meaningless if they win out. Sometimes a dumpster fire of a loss is just what a team needs to light a fire under their ass. I'd bet my life they don't come out flat two weeks in a row.

Agreed. The only things that make me somewhat unsure are the injury situation and the fact that we’re playing a good team on their home turf, and they’ve been waiting for this revenge for awhile.

I highly doubt that we’ll be bad two weeks in a row, but I’m also more reserved than usual as it pertains to assuming a victory after a loss.

 

[catent]

Did you just speculate that Brady has an ACL issue? ************ dude, you're not only insufferable and miserable, you're also a ****ing moron.

if Brady had any kind of an ACL tear he would be out for the season, let alone have played tonight.

fans like you don't deserve the success of this team.

After some time to cool off I wanted to apologize for this post. While I *strongly* disagree with Pats1989's posts and think they're excessively 'gloomy and doomy', and quite frankly, inaccurate, I was insensitive and a bit of a prick in my post.

My apologies, as this is a really bad look. We're all dealing with stuff in our respective lives and I failed to keep that in mind.

All the best to you Pats1989, and I hope you're able to get things in your life together as you mentioned you're trying to do.

 

[supafly]

San Fran is playing much better with Jimmy G. at the helm. And as we know, divisional games are never 'gimmes'. Two of those games are on the road as well, which is relevant.

I'm curious how the tiebreaker between New England and Jacksonville works out should they end up with the same record... although I think it's more likely than not that New England will end up with a better record than Jacksonville.

That’s what the debate is regarding. Jacksonville takes over with a Pats loss on Sunday, as they would both have a 10-4 record. They’d be the 2 seed and it would be out of our control, unless they’d lose one of their last two games.

Going to SF may be the biggest challenge. I just can’t take TEN seriously. They’re barely favored over SF this week, themselves.

 

[FortressX]

Weather looks like showers and in the 40s at game time.

 

[GorBelSer]

It will be tough to beat good team with this makeshift, always banged up defense. And with the way Brady has played last night, things could get really ugly.

 

[luuked]

It will be tough to beat good team with this makeshift, always banged up defense

The defense has been playing better than the offense for the last 5-6 weeks.

 

[scott99]

Tonight's game just solidifies the ass raping Pissburgh will be in for next week. Aside from the fact that the Steelers are not a good team and NE matches up very well against them, NE will get key players back for that game and they'll be maniacs in practice all week after tonight's **** performance.

Easy 20+ point victory in that ****hole next week.

How is Pitt not a good team ? They are 11-2. They may have a suspect D, but they are most certainly a good team, and will take a HUGE effort by the Pats to beat them. Talk about ass raping, Jay ****ing Cutler just put up 27 points against us. And a 5-7 team made the Pats look like **** and held the offense to 20 points.Wish I was as confident (or naive) as you.

Hopefully this was the one usual BAD game the Pats played this year (always seem to have one crappy game per year). Still going to take their best effort all year to win, must win it with all 3 phases to win this game.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Need a vintage pats bounce back game and win here. I think it would really crush their souls. Theyve got 8 straight w’s, on an emotional high right now, best team theyve fielded since 2010, and theyre at home. We dont have jules or ht this year and very banged up overall, just got dominated by a bad Miami team. Brady looks human at the time and is clearly hurt. If they cant beat us this week they gotta be wondering how will they ever.

Pros - gronk will be back, hogan has a game under his belt, hopefully get flowers / kvn back, pitts d has looked very vulnerable lately even before losing Shazier. Brady's history against that team. our history after bad losses as alluded to above, im hoping we got alot out of our system last night and now we know the final 3 are must wins. Coaching advantage in a big game, Tomlin vs bb is usually a major mismatch.

Concerns - brady achilles , looked shaky in buffalo and awful yesterday, cooks has disappeared 2 weeks in a row after being very reliable/productive previously, wrs have not been getting open lately and bradys missing them when they are. Thuney/solder shaky of late and brady getting hit alot again. Injuries on d we have some real weak points if flowers and / or kvn dont make it back this week.

It can go either way but im hopeful

 

[Uptown]

 

[ashley]

We need to get both Van Noy and Flowers back....Can't expect the defense to hold up in Pitt with personel like Richards, Freeny, Roberts etc..On the field.
The bigger concern for me is how bad the offense looked. Thankfully Gronk is back next week. I think we see how bad this offense can be when there is both no Gronk or Edleman. One we can overcome, but both no way.

 

[YOUGOTMOSSED]

That would suck, but it wouldn't be the end of the world. A home game at Foxborough then a trip to Jacksonville to face a team led by Blake Bortles. Less than ideal, but hardly insurmountable.

 

[Kontradiction]

After some time to cool off I wanted to apologize for this post. While I *strongly* disagree with Pats1989's posts and think they're excessively 'gloomy and doomy', and quite frankly, inaccurate, I was insensitive and a bit of a prick in my post.

My apologies, as this is a really bad look. We're all dealing with stuff in our respective lives and I failed to keep that in mind.

All the best to you Pats1989, and I hope you're able to get things in your life together as you mentioned you're trying to do.

Don't apologize. You got hate in your heart, let it out.

 

[RhodyPatriot]

Tonight's game just solidifies the ass raping Pissburgh will be in for next week. Aside from the fact that the Steelers are not a good team and NE matches up very well against them, NE will get key players back for that game and they'll be maniacs in practice all week after tonight's **** performance.

Easy 20+ point victory in that ****hole next week.

You're crazy!! Nothing is going to be easy coming off a Monday night game on the road only to go back on the road the following Sunday against as powerful an offense as the Patriots will face this year. The only question in this game is will Brady and Co. be able to put up enough points to win it because the Steelers will score in the 30's against that average Patriots defense. If the Steelers are smart, they usually aren't, they would run Bell 30 times which keeps Brady off the field and chews up the clock. This is going to be a very difficult game for the Patriots to win. Don't care what the stats say, their defensive front/LB's are mediocre and the QB looks like he's 40 years old all too often lately.

 

[Kontradiction]

As for the Pittsburgh game, if Van Noy and Flowers back, it will go a long way toward helping solve what we saw last night. Van Noy in particular. The LB play, particularly in passing situations, was so bad last night that the team had to resort to playing Richards there late in the game again.

 

[Kontradiction]

You're crazy!! Nothing is going to be easy coming off a Monday night game on the road only to go back on the road the following Sunday against as powerful an offense as the Patriots will face this year. The only question in this game is will Brady and Co. be able to put up enough points to win it because the Steelers will score in the 30's against that average Patriots defense. If the Steelers are smart, they usually aren't, they would run Bell 30 times which keeps Brady off the field and chews up the clock. This is going to be a very difficult game for the Patriots to win. Don't care what the stats say, their defensive front/LB's are mediocre and the QB looks like he's 40 years old all too often lately.

Bell's skillset is actually a weakness against a two-gapping defense like the Patriots. The backs they struggle with are the one cut and go type. If they run Bell 30 times, they're going to get smoked.

 

[ivanvamp]

Brady looked like ass last week too. I am terrified.

And the five straight games before that:

126-175 (72.0%), 1415 yds, 13 td, 1 int, 118.2 rating

Buffalo's defense is terrific, and Brady more often than not struggles in Miami. So no concerns there. However, he usually lights up Pittsburgh. If he puts up a stinker next week, THEN you can be concerned. But I suspect he'll have a game that looks something like this:

29-42, 365 yds, 3 td, 0 int, and the Pats score like 38 points, with the Pats winning 38-34.

 

[RhodyPatriot]

///hb

Bell's skillset is actually a weakness against a two-gapping defense like the Patriots. The backs they struggle with are the one cut and go type. If they run Bell 30 times, they're going to get smoked.

Oh please!! Yeah that 2 gaping defense has folks shaking in their boots. Bell is a great running back and if they run him 30 times the Patriots are in big trouble.

 

[mosslost]

Bad D, Bad 40 year old QB, Horrible O line. What could possibly go wrong against an MVP calibre WR, elite RB, and dam good QB?

its about match ups. Pittsburgh does not match up against Brady.