Will our WRs make plays out of the slot? + Will Brady be able to adapt and master the vertical game?

[ChessToCheckers]

Tough loss! Chiefs played us very well. Tom was uncharacteristically inaccurate throughout most of the game. Looked like he had plenty of time to throw but kept missing. Not converting fourth and inches two times was brutal as was giving up the big plays on D. Chiefs deserved their victory.

I expect the Pats to learn from their mistakes and regroup.

Go Pats!

 

[RhodyPatriot]

I'm by no means clairvoyant on football stuff but I was afraid this was going to happen.

If the NEP offense was a song, JE11 is the beat, rhythm and harmony.

Whenever things go sideways, JE11 is there to keep the offense moving and on track.

Very similar to the olden days when Wes was here then got hurt.

DA is the next best thing but clearly he got hurt and not sure he can make it through the season.

Hopefully TB12 can develop a rhythm with Cooks or someone else....soon.

Think the play calling was as big a problem as anything. Needed to utilize the backs in the passing game. Also some horrible situational play calling. Those 2 4th down calls were pathetic. Still lots of talent on the offense. Just need to be smarter on how to use it.

 

[luuked]

I'm by no means clairvoyant on football stuff but I was afraid this was going to happen.

If the NEP offense was a song, JE11 is the beat, rhythm and harmony.

Whenever things go sideways, JE11 is there to keep the offense moving and on track.

Very similar to the olden days when Wes was here then got hurt.

DA is the next best thing but clearly he got hurt and not sure he can make it through the season.

Hopefully TB12 can develop a rhythm with Cooks or someone else....soon.

If you have to lose Edelman at least it happened early enough in the season so there is time to try to work through it. Not a big silver lining but losing him like in 2015 midseason would be considerably more problematic timing wise.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Think the play calling was as big a problem as anything. Needed to utilize the backs in the passing game. Also some horrible situational play calling. Those 2 4th down calls were pathetic. Still lots of talent on the offense. Just need to be smarter on how to use it.

I try not to fall into the "bash the playcalling/blame to coordinator" game but there did seem to be some questionable play calls.

With that said Charlie Weis and Ray Perkins used to drive me crazy and look how that turned out.

Part of me thinks they were being vanilla because they still have a ways to go with personnel packages, etc.

They'll get better. Too much talent and the coaching staff is too good.

Just a bad, bad, bad night.

 

[RobertWeathers]

If you have to lose Edelman at least it happened early enough in the season so there is time to try to work through it. Not a big silver lining but losing him like in 2015 midseason would be considerably more problematic timing wise.

Agree

It was a miracle he made it back for the playoffs.

There is plenty of time to recover.

 

[PatriotReign]

I'm more concerned that our linebacker room looks like 2005. Too many run thumpers that offer nothing in the passing game. Van Noy looked lost in every facet of the game, the D-line didn't set the edge well ( I will admit that Roberts got held on that last big run though), and outside of Branch a pedestrian O-line got way too much push in the heart of the defense.

The loss of Mitchell can't be discounted. He's different than Edelman, but is a solid route runner with strong hands and a rapport with Brady.

 

[Kontradiction]

Gronk regaining confidence in his knee, which should happen sometime around Week 3 or 4 if the past is any indication, will go a LOOOOONNNNNGGGG way to opening up the passing game. By then, Brady should be acclimated to playing without Edelman and the offense should have more of an identity. But Gronk was clearly not himself last night and won't be for a couple of weeks. His return to form will coincide with the offense hitting their stride. The issues on offense are more correctable than the issues that plagued them on the defensive side of the ball last night.

 

[patsfan13]

No Carr would not have been part of the answer. The coaching staff thought so little of him that they didnt want to keep him around even with Mitchell heading for IR.

Yeah going into the season with 2 slot receivers on the wrong side of 30 worked out great last night.

 

[ausbacker]

Think the play calling was as big a problem as anything. Needed to utilize the backs in the passing game. Also some horrible situational play calling. Those 2 4th down calls were pathetic. Still lots of talent on the offense. Just need to be smarter on how to use it.

Especially when you could see how effective both Gillislee and White were.

 

[luuked]

Agree

It was a miracle he made it back for the playoffs.

There is plenty of time to recover.

I get that people expect nothing less than 12+ win seasons out of the team but in the end the only thing that matters is a) getting to the playoffs and b) having a clicking team at that point and not in September.

 

[luuked]

Yeah going into the season with 2 slot receivers on the wrong side of 30 worked out great last night.

If Carr made the team we still would only have 2 slot receivers that are 30+ so no difference.

 

[Sciz]

With the Mitchell news, I'm wondering how much Hogan actually practiced in the slot. They went into the game with three WRs excluding Dorsett, and Amendola was obviously going to be the main slot guy there. They'll need Dorsett to get involved in a hurry if Hogan will be needed in the slot.

 

[TeamFirst]

we will need to sign a few WRs this week with Mitchell on IR and Dola hurt.

They will also need a pr!!

Problem is there won't be enough time to get them up to speed for next weeks game.

What I don't understand is if your game plan is throw deep why not play Dorsett more and just have him run deep routes all night?

The Patriots are going to see a lot more man coverage this year which has shown to be a issue with this offense.

 

[Soul_Survivor88]

If you have to lose Edelman at least it happened early enough in the season so there is time to try to work through it. Not a big silver lining but losing him like in 2015 midseason would be considerably more problematic timing wise.

What's crazy is that unlike 2015, this Patriots team has far more depth at WR on its roster. With the talent that's there, does Amendola have any business with being Brady's number one target????

 

[Love The Drake]

The Chiefs hurt us the most when we gave up a pick for Oshan instead of drafting kittle and then he dives at Mitchells surgically repaired knee.
That hurts the most these injuries aren't small injuries.
Mitchell Edelman won us a Superbowl without them we don't get number 5 last season.
We drafted a d end who finally looked like a pass rushing stud and he goes down.
We trade for Ealy and him and coaching staff never saw eye to eye.
I like Marsh potential but he needs time.
How could the team not see these linebacker and say we need to upgrade here.
They will get roasted by backs in coverage.
We took no fliers on athletic coverage backers In the draft.
Gilmore is a stud thats a great signing I'm not concerned about one miscommunication from Mccourty and Gilmore.
Butler is all of a sudden just looking like another guy out there.
I may be crazy but maybe trade him and Dion Lewis last year of his contract for some linebacker help.
Receivers we kicked Lucien out the building and we should be on the phone with him now.
If we bring Boldin in I don't like bringing in a 37 year old receiver to match with our 40 year old Quarterback.

Thoughts?

 

[PatriotsNumero1Fan]

This team got taken to school in every facet last night. It's one game but it won't get any easier next week on the road. This defense has to show up! I expected the offense to struggle because of the new guys. It will get better.

 

[PatriotsNumero1Fan]

The Chiefs hurt us the most when we gave up a pick for Oshan instead of drafting kittle and then he dives at Mitchells surgically repaired knee.
That hurts the most these injuries aren't small injuries.
Mitchell Edelman won us a Superbowl without them we don't get number 5 last season.
We drafted a d end who finally looked like a pass rushing stud and he goes down.
We trade for Ealy and him and coaching staff never saw eye to eye.
I like Marsh potential but he needs time.
How could the team not see these linebacker and say we need to upgrade here.
They will get roasted by backs in coverage.
We took no fliers on athletic coverage backers In the draft.
Gilmore is a stud thats a great signing I'm not concerned about one miscommunication from Mccourty and Gilmore.
Butler is all of a sudden just looking like another guy out there.
I may be crazy but maybe trade him and Dion Lewis last year of his contract for some linebacker help.
Receivers we kicked Lucien out the building and we should be on the phone with him now.
If we bring Boldin in I don't like bringing in a 37 year old receiver to match with our 40 year old Quarterback.

Thoughts?

Butler won't be traded. No way. If butler continues to struggle he will only hurt himself from a chance to make millions.

 

[Triumph]

Injuries are a poor excuse.

The Pats have never been about 1 player responsible for wins and losses including Brady. Amendola is gone for likely 4 weeks. There has to be somebody that can play the slot and give some production.

 

[JMC00]

Cooks did not run crisp routes and doesn't yet seem to understand the offense enough to reach his potential.

Gonna have to thoroughly disagree with this. Guy was held or interfered with 5-6 times last night. Probably would have had 2 TD if he wasn't. Then there was that deep pass that got batted that if it was just a tiny bit more up the field wouldn't have got batted and Cooks likely walks into the end zone and maybe were talking about a different result.

Only negative play from Cooks last night was the drop on 3rd down and maybe him not getting his foot down but it still would have been 4th down.

 

[luuked]

What's crazy is that unlike 2015, this Patriots team has far more depth at WR on its roster. With the talent that's there, does Amendola have any business with being Brady's number one target????

Everyone can be the number one target in any given week based on the gameplan developed by the staff. I wish I could be a fly on the wall inside Gillette because if we have learned one thing from both DJY documentaries its that we have an intelligent and detail-obsessed coaching staff - most probably the best in the business. I am sure there are good reasons for most of the choices yesterday on both sides of the ball and its not a matter of someone "going full ******" as some of the bozos in the GDT put it so eloquently.

Finally, what should not be ignored is that we are at best when we know what we are facing so the more the season goes on the better and better designed those gameplans will become because there is more tape available. I dont think it is fair to compare a version of a team that gels (e.g. end of last season) with one that has their first real game behind them. Lets not ignore that even after Brady returned last year there were some stinkers on the way (Bengals first half, 49ers almost whole game...) until things started to click more and the defense finally became more complex.