Don't have a problem with dressing an obviously limited Gronk nor should this game have any effect on McDaniels career. Was a shitshow though.
Not defending this as a response to winning the RexBowl, but...the BIlls just flat-out whipped the Pats in every facet of the game in Foxborough, a week after they stomped Arizona. Coaches get extended on much weaker evidence (see Fisher, STL)
Fisher is the most baffling situation in the league. I do think this gets Rex off the hot seat and he's safe until they get eliminated from playoff contention.
Yes, but Rex sucks so it has to be that the Patriots gave away the game and fucked up because he couldn't possibly be given any credit for a good game plan.
Are they really bottom half? They're 2-2, one game out of first in the east and with the tiebreaker.
Agree with all of this, same as last week virtually everyone agreed that everyone deserved a game ball. Was sort of happy that everything that went wrong would go wrong in the same game -- lousy reffing, poor discipline, weird coaching, penalties just...bad in all phases. Doesn't bother me too much because, meh, they're 3-1 and really good and have Brady coming back (and hopefully Gronk -- but beginning to worry about that a bit).
Cyrus has gone past the point of no return for me. Maybe he can help as a nickel DB but the dude is a fucking moron back there on returns.
Bolden flat out dropped a would be TD on Jacoby's best pass of the day. Also a 90 yard completion got called back.
Other than the penalties, I thought the OL was pretty solid. They moved the ball a little on the ground, and Brissett generally had a clean pocket to step up in.
AZ is losing at home to LA. Perhaps in the near future we'll be adjusting the value of those wins for both the Pats and Buff.
It's not clear that Arizona is very good and NE had their third-string rookie QB and an incredibly neutered gameplan. This is evidence of nothing.
This is really odd to me. The team was 100% dogshit today and got shut out at home. They did NOTHING right. What, exactly, were the fans supposed to cheer for?
Sometimes a loud stadium is what it takes to snap a team out of a funk. This is an adrenaline sport - fans can have an impact. Obviously at the very bottom of the list of why there's an "L" next to the team's name this morning but I think criticizing a lame crowd is fair game.
As I mentioned in the game thread, the Pats have won 93% of their home games over the past 7 years or so. I highly doubt the crowd is or has ever been a problem. The problem yesterday was that the team appeared woefully unprepared to play a football game. The crowd had nothing to do with that. If the team prefers a louder crowd, they should perhaps not play like total dogshit from the first play (Jones screwing up the kickoff) to the last.
They mostly looked fine to me.
I don't disagree. But the crowd can only control what the crowd does. And it should be loud every time the opponent has the ball since it can impact the game in the form of penalties. Again, fans were treated to a shit show so I understand the lack of noise.
I would not give the defense a pass. Poor play on D was a major factor in putting them in a 13-0 hole, and the D let Buffalo control the ball all game. They forced only one three-and-out and zero turnovers. Buffalo only had nine drives - they scored on four of them, missed a FG on a fifth, and had two drives where they dominated clock (running 4 of the last 5 minutes off in Q2 and running 6 minutes off in Q4) before punting.
I get that - but a large part of that is the offense going 3 and out most drives of the game. If your offense can only manage getting past the 50 three times in a game, your defense is going to wear down, and you're going to lose.
If the D "wore down" it was in part because of the O but also in part because they were totally unable to get off the field. Buffalo marched down the field with a 7:11, 12-play TD drive when the D was fully rested at the beginning of the game. Only on two drives was the D able to get the Bills off the field in fewer than eight plays, and one of those was the last drive of the game where the outcome was settled.
