The Game Ball Thread: Wk 2 vs Phins

[SeoulSoxFan]

That was way too nerve wrecking for my taste. Brissett did a great job considering the circumstances, but JG needs to be back soon.

For all the crappy things that happened, it's always good to hand out game balls:

• Harmon: he's got a knack for INTs to seal games
• OL: the final drive killed a lot of clock, even if Ghost missed a chip shot
• LGBT: his weight loss program during the off-season has really paid off

Man, it's going to be a tough game on a short week vs. Texans.

 

[E5 Yaz]

Jimmy G. Someone had to put up the early points.
Unicorn

 

[SeoulSoxFan]

Best pick up on D has to be Chris Long.

@PhilAPerry
Chris Long had a monster day. Had him down for four QB hits, two of which led to attempts that were picked. Also had a sack and a PBU.

 

[Ale Xander]

Air McDaniels and Bennett

hm to Jimmy and LGBT

 

[SeoulSoxFan]

Press conference will start to stream live soon at http://www.patriots.com/

 

[crystalline]

Press conference will start to stream live soon at http://www.patriots.com/

I've still got a door.

 

[SeoulSoxFan]

I've still got a door.

And on cue, BB comes in looking really, really pissed.

 

[MuppetAsteriskTalk]

Jimmy G
Blount
Unicorn

White impressed too.

Nobody really jumped out (to me anyway) on D, which is strange considering 4 turnovers.

 

[bluefenderstrat]

Bennett is a stud.

 

[( . ) ( . ) and (_!_)]

Blount. The Oline got blown up on more then one play during that Pats last drive but he made more then something out of nothing. The game thread hates him because he is not Adrian Peterson, but Blount is a pretty darn good NFL running back.

 

[crystalline]

And on cue, BB comes in looking really, really pissed.

First question:
"Coaahch, over heah. Great staaht. How did you feel about the great staaaht?"

 

[PedroKsBambino]

First question:
"Coaahch, over heah. Great staaht. How did you feel about the great staaaht?"

Why is Cafardo there?

 

[SeoulSoxFan]

Of course, I buy everything BB sells, but he's much calmer and very complimentary than I thought he'd be (esp. after the 2nd half shitshow).

He knows his team needs to quickly turn it around and get their confidence back up.

 

[E5 Yaz]

Of course, I buy everything BB sells, but he's much calmer and very complimentary than I thought he'd be (esp. after the 2nd half shitshow).

He knows his team needs to quickly turn it around and get their confidence back up.

"We have to coach better and play better. Do our jobs."

 

[crystalline]

Belichick is ANGERED. No questions getting answered. Never deviating from a deep scowl.
Sounded like Reiss threw him a softball about Miami going to the two-minute offense and changing the tempo to see if BB would talk football strategy. Belichick passed.

Blount. The Oline got blown up on more then one play during that Pats last drive but he made more then something out of nothing. The game thread hates him because he is not Adrian Peterson, but Blount is a pretty darn good NFL running back.

The one positive comment Belichick made was that the offensive line and Blount played well. "Chewed up some yards, chewed up some timeouts." But: "Obviously we needed a takeaway at the end to close it out so they didn't play THAT well."

 

[MuppetAsteriskTalk]

Maybe Solder could have kicked the FG at the end?

 

[DJnVa]

A win AND a pissed Belichick could be fun.

 

[Old Fart Tree]

Bennett and Blount deserve gameballs IMHO. Big games out of both.

 

[bluefenderstrat]

At this point, I'll take 2-2 or 3-1 with Brady, Gronk, Ninkovich, Hightower, and maybe Lewis coming back. For a game & a quarter +, it looked like the league's worst nightmare was playing out but they'll be in a great position regardless.

 

[BoSoxNut]

Why can't anything be easy?

 

[Eddie Jurak]

Jimmy, Blount, Bennett - in any order.

 

[Stitch01]

House money to me at this point. Worst they'll be when Brady is back is 2-2 and the AFC East is awful (and the one other competitive team isn't on the schedule for a bit). Thursday is a tough spot, but they probably split without a QB a lot here. Big picture hard not to feel good

 

[Hoya81]

Chris Long had a pretty good game, sack and a FR.

 

[Tony C]

tough graders -- house money and doing well with it, I say.

1: JG -- still not quite enough to say he's really something, but getting pretty close. Frankly if he's out for the next two games and then doesn't play for the rest of the season his play has earned him 1st round trade value.

2: Brissett -- and there's a decent back up in the house. Loved what he did. Limited, of course, but kept within those limits. Definitely has a lot to work on (like some touch on the ball), but just having a back up who didn't self-destruct is something. And shows promise to be a decent backup.

3: Bennett has to be the call, but can name a handful of other guys....mostly on the offensive side, but Long on the defense, too.

 

[JimD]

IMHO, Brissett deserves at least an honorable mention. Any time a freshman third-string QB is thrust into action and doesn't crap all over himself, it's a plus. He acquitted himself well given the circumstances.

 

[SidelineCameras]

IMHO, Brissett deserves at least an honorable mention. Any time a freshman third-string QB is thrust into action and doesn't crap all over himself, it's a plus. He acquitted himself well given the circumstances.

This is a great point and a hat-tip to the coaching staff as well.

We (rightly) take such a high level of competence for granted around here that we should stop and appreciate that lots of teams in this situation would have puked on their shoes.

 

[8slim]

This is a great point and a hat-tip to the coaching staff as well.

We (rightly) take such a high level of competence for granted around here that we should stop and appreciate that lots of teams in this situation would have puked on their shoes.

Correct. The shoe puking was done by the D.

 

[Al Zarilla]

I only saw some of what NFL Redzone had to offer. Jimmy and Martellus Bennett, who also is great to listen to (on CSNNE).

 

[Ed Hillel]

Chris Long had a pretty good game, sack and a FR.

And he forced an INT hitting Tannehill's arm. He looks so fast out there, just have to hope he stays healthy.

One thing we know early about this team is they have depth. If they can even win of these next two, it's a semi-miraculous 3-1 for Brady and presumably Gronk. I will take it.

Bennett is a beast, Jimmy had a great game as well.

 

[Mugsy's Jock]

Three up:
1.) Jimmy G. The Pats have two wins in the bank during in the interregnum, and he can take as much credit for it as anybody. Poise, accuracy, mobility.

2.) LGBT. Worked hard, and his moving the chains with all the runs around the left side in the fourth quarter were essential.

3.) Marty. Felt like his play to start the second half really helped Brisket get a decent measure of comfort.

Three down:
1.) Pass rush. I'm sure the game plan was to focus more on coverage than pressure, but geez, some pass rush once in a while would help keep the Fish honest.

2.) Ryan Allen. Pointed out in the game thread -- second lousy performance in a row.

3.) Karma. Hey, fuck you Karma.

 

[axx]

Blount. At the end, I was thinking they really needed that drive to end in points; and Blount (with a little help from Brissett) got it done. Then Ghost shat himself.

 

[lexrageorge]

Game balls:

Jimmy G for fast start in a game where they needed every score.

Blount.

Bennett.

Honorable mentions:

Brissett: Showed some prowess picking up a couple of big first downs via the QB sneak, and did everything that was asked for a rookie asked to step in mid-game.

Harmon.

Long.

Dishonorable mentions:

Ghost. Those are the kicks you have to make.

David Andrews: Joe Thuney: OK, I had the name wrong originally. It was still a dumb holding penalty that dumb holding penalty negated a nice first down scramble by Jacoby, and set up the play that led to the strip sack/fumble on 2nd-and-long. However, I'll chalk it up to a rookie mistake.

Seemed like the secondary had some issues tackling the big Dolphin receivers near the end and let some easy yards go by.

EDIT: Thanks EJurak for the correction

 

[Eddie Jurak]

Thought that was Thuney who got the hold?

 

[Ed Hillel]

Thought that was Thuney who got the hold?

It was. He has two called today that I thought were pretty tough given what's usually allowed.

 

[( . ) ( . ) and (_!_)]

Ryan Allen is becoming an issue. Twice in the 4th quarter he failed to execute on pinning the Dolphins deep. He is going to be gone unless he slips out of this slump.

 

[Eddie Jurak]

It was. He has two called today that I thought were pretty tough given what's usually allowed.

Darth Goodell?

 

[Saints Rest]

I'd like to give a warm welcome back to Nate Solder who looked pretty damn good to me, especially run blocking.

In fact, other than the two holding calls on Thuney, I thought the OLine played very well. Mario Williams, Ndamakung Suh, and Cameron Wake were kind of invisible all day. There was talk early on in the game thread that there was no point trying to run on Miamis front four; well, that was not the case today, even when everyone knew that it was going to be a heavy dose of LGBT

 

[Toe Nash]

I'm not wading into the game thread but I wouldn't be worried about the D at all. They had no Hightower (who I personally believe is their best defensive player) and were clearly playing not to lose, which is sound in that situation. The only way you lose is a pick six or allowing a couple huge plays for TDs. As it was if they make the FG, you're not even sweating.

They could have played better even with that strategy but it's not like the Miami passing offense is bad.

 

[BaseballJones]

I do think the D will play better on Thursday, but it was mighty uncomfortable watching their second half performance. To be honest, I got worried when the Dolphins came down and scored at the end of the first half - just a FG, but you could see them starting to click. And then it seemed like the Dolphins just moved the ball at will in the second half. I know they were playing soft, but still. They could have buried them and didn't.

For me, game balls go to:

- JG. Splendid performance. Honestly looks like a very good (not just passable) NFL quarterback. Good arm, nice feet in the pocket, can make all the throws. He's going to be a very rich man soon.

- Blount. Hammered away in the second half when they needed it most. He's so athletic for a big guy too, the way he hurdles people.

- Bennett. He's a beast, plain and simple. When he is asked to run block, he crushes people. Very good hands. Fast. Big. He's essentially a slightly lesser version of Gronk. I cannot wait for the two of them to be on the field together.

On the flip side... Ghost. Man oh man. This game isn't even a sweat if he nails that chip shot. Instead it turned into a nail-biter. Hope that's out of his system.

 

[JokersWildJIMED]

On the up side I would go with White with a huge fumble recovery...on the down side (besides special teams which were exceptional last week and horrible this week) I would point to clock management, which was terrible in the fourth quarter...if you are trying to bleed the clock don't snap it with 30 seconds left on the play clock, which they did on a late punt. They were also consistently snapping with 12-15 seconds left on the clock, and though I understand that JB is a huge part of that philosophy, that is simply unacceptable.

 

[m0ckduck]

I'm not wading into the game thread but I wouldn't be worried about the D at all. They had no Hightower (who I personally believe is their best defensive player) and were clearly playing not to lose, which is sound in that situation. The only way you lose is a pick six or allowing a couple huge plays for TDs. As it was if they make the FG, you're not even sweating.

They could have played better even with that strategy but it's not like the Miami passing offense is bad.

This isn't very analytic, but: I would add that there's simply a zone that decent-to-good QBs often get into when they're so far behind that they decide they have nothing to lose and start winging the ball into tight windows and building confidence doing so. Tannehill clearly found that zone yesterday— the degree of difficulty to many of the pass plays the Dolphins were converting in the early second half was pretty extreme. Once he got there and the Pats were forced to play super vanilla on offense themselves, it was pretty apparent that the game was going to wind up decided by 1-2 scores.

 

[Super Nomario]

I'm not wading into the game thread but I wouldn't be worried about the D at all. They had no Hightower (who I personally believe is their best defensive player) and were clearly playing not to lose, which is sound in that situation. The only way you lose is a pick six or allowing a couple huge plays for TDs. As it was if they make the FG, you're not even sweating.

They could have played better even with that strategy but it's not like the Miami passing offense is bad.

No Hightower hurts - I'd argue he's the most irreplaceable player on the defense, if not the best - but if one injury takes you from decent to ... whatever we saw yesterday, you don't have a good defense. Perfect health is the exception, not the rule. At any rate, the "top 5 defense" chatter before the season looks silly in light of yesterday. The good thing is that the D has a chance to redeem itself in the next two games. They needed the D to win them two games late in the year last year and they failed, but they've got a shot to do better Thursday and next Sunday.

The red zone defense is especially concerning. Miami settled for a FG late in the first half (for time reasons, not because of a stop), but the D has allowed a touchdown on every single other red zone possession this year.

 

[kartvelo]

On the flip side... Ghost. Man oh man. This game isn't even a sweat if he nails that chip shot. Instead it turned into a nail-biter. Hope that's out of his system.

The point after on the TD prior to the FG had an odd slice on it as well.

 

[lexrageorge]

No Hightower hurts - I'd argue he's the most irreplaceable player on the defense, if not the best - but if one injury takes you from decent to ... whatever we saw yesterday, you don't have a good defense. Perfect health is the exception, not the rule. At any rate, the "top 5 defense" chatter before the season looks silly in light of yesterday. The good thing is that the D has a chance to redeem itself in the next two games. They needed the D to win them two games late in the year last year and they failed, but they've got a shot to do better Thursday and next Sunday.

The red zone defense is especially concerning. Miami settled for a FG late in the first half (for time reasons, not because of a stop), but the D has allowed a touchdown on every single other red zone possession this year.

I'm not so sure I agree with the bolded. Or I feel it's a bit too early to make that conclusion. The first half defense was exceptional: before that FG drive at the end of the half, the D allowed a total of 19 plays and 63 yards in 6 series, which is about as good as any defense can play. That level of play was probably not sustainable. And Tannehill, Landry, and Parker are all decent players. While I don't put the Pats D in the same class as Denver's, they also held a Cardinals team that put up 40 yesterday to 21 points.

While it was not exceptionally hot yesterday in Foxborough, the humidity was up there. Makes me wonder if the D got a little tired later on in the 4th quarter. Not saying that there's nothing to worry about with regards to the defense. Just saying we still have a small sample size, and the D has played well during most of the samples in the 2 games.

 

[Stitch01]

No Hightower hurts - I'd argue he's the most irreplaceable player on the defense, if not the best - but if one injury takes you from decent to ... whatever we saw yesterday, you don't have a good defense. Perfect health is the exception, not the rule. At any rate, the "top 5 defense" chatter before the season looks silly in light of yesterday. The good thing is that the D has a chance to redeem itself in the next two games. They needed the D to win them two games late in the year last year and they failed, but they've got a shot to do better Thursday and next Sunday.

The red zone defense is especially concerning. Miami settled for a FG late in the first half (for time reasons, not because of a stop), but the D has allowed a touchdown on every single other red zone possession this year.

The two linebackers are the key to the defense. When one is out its problem. I dont really know if Id say that's not a good defense, but its definitely not a deep one at linebacker.

 

[DJnVa]

And people can claim they don't change their mindset, but when it's 31-3 there's no doubt you do. The Pats win probability never dropped below like 88% after the first 5 minutes of the game.

 

[tims4wins]

I'm not so sure I agree with the bolded. Or I feel it's a bit too early to make that conclusion. The first half defense was exceptional: before that FG drive at the end of the half, the D allowed a total of 19 plays and 63 yards in 6 series, which is about as good as any defense can play. That level of play was probably not sustainable. And Tannehill, Landry, and Parker are all decent players. While I don't put the Pats D in the same class as Denver's, they also held a Cardinals team that put up 40 yesterday to 21 points.

While it was not exceptionally hot yesterday in Foxborough, the humidity was up there. Makes me wonder if the D got a little tired later on in the 4th quarter. Not saying that there's nothing to worry about with regards to the defense. Just saying we still have a small sample size, and the D has played well during most of the samples in the 2 games.

I think the D did get gassed. Miami had the ball twice inside 2 minutes before the half; then started the 2nd half with the ball; and generally had the ball a lot in the 3rd and 4th quarters.

 

[Bowhemian]

I would like to give a game ball to the fans at the game, who were certainly making noise. That was the loudest I have ever heard it at Gillette for a regular season game.
Now that could be due to the fact that I was watching the game from the end zone of the non-closed end (up fairly high). I never went to my seats (first time ever). Let me tell you, it is a great spot to watch a game. Downside is that you are standing the whole time. Upside is the view of the field. You can see everything.

The place was rocking, though it did get quiet when the Pats were giving away free points to the Phins.

 

[Super Nomario]

I'm not so sure I agree with the bolded. Or I feel it's a bit too early to make that conclusion. The first half defense was exceptional: before that FG drive at the end of the half, the D allowed a total of 19 plays and 63 yards in 6 series, which is about as good as any defense can play. That level of play was probably not sustainable. And Tannehill, Landry, and Parker are all decent players. While I don't put the Pats D in the same class as Denver's, they also held a Cardinals team that put up 40 yesterday to 21 points.

While it was not exceptionally hot yesterday in Foxborough, the humidity was up there. Makes me wonder if the D got a little tired later on in the 4th quarter. Not saying that there's nothing to worry about with regards to the defense. Just saying we still have a small sample size, and the D has played well during most of the samples in the 2 games.

This is rose-colored nonsense. They are 15th in points allowed, 25th in yards allowed, 21st in points per drive allowed. They were playing a Dolphins team that finished 27th in points (26th in yards) last year and scored 7 points in Week 1.

The two linebackers are the key to the defense. When one is out its problem. I dont really know if Id say that's not a good defense, but its definitely not a deep one at linebacker.

I don't disagree that the linebackers are the key, but I think what you saw yesterday is that to some degree they're covering for the rest of the D with the Hightower / Collins combo. The pass rush was shockingly awful. That was only the fifth time Tannehill played a game without being sacked, and he threw 45 times.

 

[kenneycb]

Those Dolphins figures are disingenuous too since Tannehill wasn't allowed to even audible during last year's dumpster fire of a season with Philbin and Campbell at the helm and last week they played one of the best D's in the league at home.