I feel like we need a "30 for 30" on this play. The fact that Drake never had to give up the ball from midfield on will always astound me. I mean, if they execute 5 or 6 laterals to win, ok, good job. But to have a couple simple laterals beat you is just amazing. At some point, guys like Harmon and Gilmore needed to stop playing lanes and realize that their defense had broken down and it was time to chase the ball.
I ifnd this year's team almost impossible to like.
Have you not watched the road losses? I fully expect them to lay an egg OTR.
The bigger concern with Gronk is not how he'll react to getting mocked for his role in the play. It's whether he'll show up on the injury report this week. He could have easily tweaked his ankle attempting to lunge at Drake. He also got hit in the back by one of the Miami players. All this happens in a game where he clearly was as close to vintage Gronk as we'll likely see this season.
PFRef has him at 9 of 17 for 127. I would say he was not as sharp in the second half, but that line doesn't include the brilliant throw on the 41-yard DPI that should have sealed the game. He was also getting no help from the run game, which went 15 for 42 in the second half, with only two rushing first downs - one by Brady. Basically, he had to be brilliant for the O to do anything. He was in the first half, he was more inconsistent in the second half. Why they ran the ball 15 times in the second half even though it wasn't working all day is beyond me. The offensive line has a lot of bad tape to look at.
Washington too, the field helping ruin RGIII's career before it got started.
for the record, I used their play-by-play to count up the stats and it's definitely 10/21 going by that; I did not account for his 7 yard sack in the yardage total.
I felt like White had been getting the @#$@ pounded out of him for a few weeks and maybe the Pats are trying to both 1) work Burkhead back into the game plan and 2) save some hits on White.
I think this is exactly correct and thought so during the game. White also got a little dinged up a week or two ago.
I love this team. I like this team. Edelman is back and he's a blast. Gronk isn't as good but he's always lovable. Develin scoring touchdowns? Awesome. Gilmore a stud? Love it. The Gordon redemption story? Amazing.
Turns out that DPI penalty saved the game for the Dolphins. Who'd have thunk it?
It's worth noting that Brandon Bolden ran untouched down the same sideline earlier in the game from a similar distance.
I can't decide if that makes it better or worse. At least we knew who to blame for 2009. This is a bunch of veteran leaders and youngsters and they play like a bunch of jerks sometimes.
The defensive performance was pretty concerning even without the last play. If I didn't know any better, I'd think they don't gameplan for road games. Three TDs in the first four drives for the 25th scoring offense? And easy TDs, too. Yikes. The Dolphins scored 34 points on 48 offensive plays yesterday. That shouldn't be possible. They did not even face a third down on any of their five TD drives; they only faced four second downs on those drives.
I haven't looked closer at these numbers to see where we differ, but the Pats only touched the ball four times in the second half and drove into FG attempts three times. That's pretty good, especially with not really trying to score a TD on the last drive. It would have been nice if they punched in another TD, and it would have been nice if Gostkowski hit the FG he missed, but the O was hardly stymied. And it goes without saying it was all Brady / the pass game; the run offense was putrid.
The other play like this was the 12 men on the field penalty that the Dolphins tried to call timeout for but didn't get. If they get that timeout and the Pats can convert a first down (which would have been tougher with a 1st-and-10 than a 1st-and-5, so not apples-to-apples), it's over. Of course, it should have been over anyway.
Reminds me a lot of Manny Ramirez's (widely misinterpreted) 'end of the world' comments while being down 3-1 in the 2007 ALCS.
It really can't be overstated how bad the run game was yesterday. Michel carried the ball 20 times and had 1 first down. Burkhead and White had four carries apiece with 0 first downs. 28 carries by RBs, 1 first down (Brady and Develin had one first down run each).
Someone sharp in the game thread called that out when it happened. Would have been better for the Pats if the blind officiating crew had granted that TO. Strange day.
This is where I kind of am as well. From his comments yesterday it sounds like B.B. was trying to defend against a deep pass (maybe some sort of tipped Hail Mary play) with Gronk and the multi-lateral play with everyone else. The fact that the lateral play got all the way to Gronk is an indictment of the rest of the defense’s execution. Jones came flying in way too hot on the initial reception. You don’t need to blow up the receiver or knock the ball away. Come in under control and wrap him up, or contain him a bit and give others time to get there. Instead he whiffed and let the receiver break free and it all went to shit from there.
Jones definitely came in too hot. No need to go after the ball on initial throw unless it’s right at you. However, I thought the most costly mistake was by Jackson. Instead of guarding against the lateral from Stills to Parker, he makes a half-assed attempt to tackle Stills with Jones right there and Gilmore covering if Stills goes towards middle of the field. This made the lateral from Stills to Parker very easy and at that point it really turned into a race. It almost looked like the entire defense was waiting for somebody else to make a play. They were so lackadaisical.
It felt like the Pats rushed 5 guys, all big linemen; and therefore there were only 6 guys back. Of course, they only rushed 2 or 3, so this wasn't the case. Never seemed to be anyone there at any point to make the play.
I don't really have a problem with the clock management at that point. I'm guessing they were hoping to get more out of the first down rush by White, either getting the TD (which would have ended the game right then and there) or getting to the 1 or 2 yard line for a more makable TD on 2nd or 3rd down. Miami had a timeout they were going to call anyway. But the OL got blown up as they had all afternoon by a really bad run defense.
I don't know--he seemed really good at getting short yardage. If ya know what I mean...
