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

[luuked]

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.

I would argue the third down "drop" was more on Brady and where he put the ball than on Cooks. The ball arrived at a place where the KC defender was able to make a play. I am not sure if he touched it but he definitely made a catch pretty difficult.

On the long bomb to Cooks I gotta say that Brandin could have used his body a bit better but in the end it was just another great play by a defender.

 

[luuked]

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.

Lucien was evaluated and after a year there was nothing he brought to the table that would have helped the team. Please get over it.

And Boldin wont happen because the Bills have his right and I see no reason for them to release him so he can help their AFCE rivals. Also, another WR is not the solution but giving the WRs that we have the time to make everything work with Brady.

We have so many new pieces on both sides of the ball that it is not exactly surprising that things dont automatically work.

 

[Nehalem]

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????

That is what happens when you fail to use your fleet of good pass catching RBs and Chris Hogan has one catch the whole game.

 

[luuked]

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.

Another amazing insight. So the offense gets a pass because of new guys but the defense who in todays NFL has a pretty hard job needs to step up even though they have at least as many new people on the unit ? The **** ?

 

[long distance]

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

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

Great JE analogy. Kudos

Re. Dola he's not so close to Jules (game wise i mean) and works best in pair w Julian. Carr is not an answer for Jules because he's more like Dola. Good use of free space and sure hands.

Julian is not only about the slot, most importantly he's about the 3rd down (blocking included). Brady knows he can throw him the ball inside the marker because most of the time Jules will make a missing yard or two on his own with his toughness etc. With Dola he doesn't have that. There were some clear examples of this last night where Dola catches the ball 1yd short and can't convert. It almost happened in SBLI on two point conversion (thankfully the play was fast enough and Falcons gassed enough that he made it that one inch over the line).

The main issue is 3rd downs and to think there is a slot receiver out there who is the answer is a bit “************” like. Maybe they bring someone like Boldin but most of all its a process - it was the first outing of many new skill players Tom and McD will have to work this out with and most of them were out for significant part of preseason.

PS
I believe this offense will become a song soon enough, albeit w a different beat..

 

[PatriotsNumero1Fan]

Hogan being locked down didn't help and when amendola left with the head injury it was much worse.

 

[RobertWeathers]

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.

Yep.

Hell the first 4 games in the last 7 years
3-1
4-0
2-2
4-0
2-2
3-1
3-1

Total: 19-7.

Excellent but shows they sometimes hit some speedbumps as they figure things out..

 

[luuked]

Part of me things 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.

Wish I could just upvote this a thousand times.

I honestly wonder if the board has become filled with bandwagon fans or why so many just refuse to see that yesterdays game is easily par for the course of the September Patriots of the last 5-6 years. The only difference between the Chiefs and Patriots yesterday were two turnovers by downs, a blown coverage, a weak PI call at the end of the first half and a well-crafted matchup where the Chiefs attacked Marsh and a dropped PBU/INT by Chung.

Those are literally 6 plays of the entire game. We lost all of them. If we go 2-4 on them we win the game and the talk is how there is still a lot of work to be done but nowhere near this level of doom and gloom.

The 2012 Pats had stinkers against the Cards at home in W2, 2013 we won on a Ghost gamewinner in Buffalo W1, had one of the worst games ever in W2 against the Jets that we won 13-10 at home. In 2014 we had 3 stinkers in September (Dolphins loss, Raiders win via Vince INT and the epic loss in KC). Sometimes things click faster than other times like in 2015 but as we all know more often than not BB uses September as extended training camp to figure out who the team is. And the game yesterday was just a normal part of that.

 

[patsinthesnow]

I give Danny credit. He looked awesome last night. The offense should've put up 30+ points in 3 quarters when he was on the field.

It's a shame about his durability. If the Cards could just start 0-4/1-5 somehow...Fitzgerald is a full time slot WR now with 1 year left on his deal & maybe before retirement. Definitely an intriguing midseason trade target if the Cards suck.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Wish I could just upvote this a thousand times.

I honestly wonder if the board has become filled with bandwagon fans or why so many just refuse to see that yesterdays game is easily par for the course of the September Patriots of the last 5-6 years. The only difference between the Chiefs and Patriots yesterday were two turnovers by downs, a blown coverage, a weak PI call at the end of the first half and a well-crafted matchup where the Chiefs attacked Marsh and a dropped PBU/INT by Chung.

Those are literally 6 plays of the entire game. We lost all of them. If we go 2-4 on them we win the game and the talk is how there is still a lot of work to be done but nowhere near this level of doom and gloom.

The 2012 Pats had stinkers against the Cards at home in W2, 2013 we won on a Ghost gamewinner in Buffalo W1, had one of the worst games ever in W2 against the Jets that we won 13-10 at home. In 2014 we had 3 stinkers in September (Dolphins loss, Raiders win via Vince INT and the epic loss in KC). Sometimes things click faster than other times like in 2015 but as we all know more often than not BB uses September as extended training camp to figure out who the team is. And the game yesterday was just a normal part of that.

I dunna know. I don't want to come across like I'm a better Pats fan than others but I'm too old (not that old) to overreact to games like last night. Seen too many of them with this current dynasty and teams in the 90s and 80s....

I think there is a demographic of fans on this board that is young or new to being a fan of this team and has a sense of entitlement to winning and simply can't handle a bad play or a bad loss. Its like the team has committed a personal affront to their right to happiness. Its nuts. Don't get me wrong. I was annoyed as hell last night and I have concerns moving forward but this organization, coaching staff and group of players has built up way too much good will and confidence with me.

If they are below .500 at the end of October then there is enough of sample to make a call on what this team is all about.

 

[AvocadoIceCream]

To answer the OP

NO lol

and DA couldn't even make it through week one.

Chucking the ball down the field 40 yards every play isn't going to work and Brady isn't very good st it.

He better find a new Binkie soon

 

[Patstopia]

I think that if you can't move the ball 1 yard three different times, then it seems that you have more of a problem than slot.

 

[PatriotsNumero1Fan]

They won't play until next week. Chances for brady to get more reps with these wrs and Dorsett maybe learning the playbook. May not have amendola or Hightower next week. Who knows.

 

[SalemPats]

I thought we should have played more two back sets and utilized White a bit more - but i have to give credit to KC, Berry was a beast last night and Peters played incredible.

 

[JMC00]

RBs need to be involved in the pass game much more going forward. They have 2 very good ones in White and Lewis and Burkhead seems solid. I think that's what cost the offense in this game. They didn't even really attempt to get them involved ya there was 8 attempts to RBs but watching that game it felt more like those plays were more of Brady seeing a RB open and going to him then they were of actually trying to use the RBs to move the ball in the passing game.

Absolutely no reason why McDaniels shouldn't be implementing packages that feature 2 RB in the passing game especially after this game.

 

[Soul_Survivor88]

^^(This is % of attempts, not success rate)



KC clearly took Brady out of his comfort zone... this isn't how he typically plays.... but luckily, he has the weapons to achieve this (if the chemistry is there)

 

[Sciz]

I'm assuming 2015 regular season at Denver is up there too, affectionately known as the "deep incompletion to Scott Chandler" game. It's no secret that when nobody gets open, Brady's "throwaways" are deep bombs hoping for a penalty.

 

[BradyFTW!]

I thought we should have played more two back sets and utilized White a bit more - but i have to give credit to KC, Berry was a beast last night and Peters played incredible.

Agreed, Peters and Berry just limit what you can do.

I also agree that with the WR depth taking such a beating, the Pats will probably look long and hard at RB and TE heavy sets. When you have the depth that the Pats have at both of those positions, and so little depth at WR, seems like a no brainer to go that route.

 

[supafly]

With the talent that's there, does Amendola have any business with being Brady's number one target????

You are actually surprised that the team decided that the experienced veteran they brought in to replace Wes Welker was the main target for an offense that's reliant on the quick, timing routes? Seriously?

He had 6 catches for 100 yards before taking the knee to the helmet on the punt return. It was working just fine. They had 27 points in the third quarter, and almost certainly would've scored again, had he not been injured.

 

[tasmlab]

the pats simply did not game plan to win........sorry, but 4 of 8 to the RB's in the passing game tells me they were just trying other ****

and the defense? you can't tell me that having Richards out there is the staff trying to put the team in the best position to win the game

top it off with 2 4th and inches where all Brady has to do is lean forward and they try the same thing twice

kick off coverage was pretty good

It's a conspiracy! BB wanted a bad loss so the team wouldn't be complacent as winners.

To the OP, the back-to-back bombs in the late drive were head scratchers. We've seen how Brady comes back to win at the end for 16 years, and it's not by doing that.