The Game Ball Thread: Week 8 vs. Bears

SeoulSoxFan

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A Scud Away from Hell
A resounding win vs. a locker room weary team in disarray. Early lead helps out the defense. Now it's Game Ball Time!
  • Brady: 30 of 35 with 4 drops. 5 TDs
  • Gronk: scary for the opposition: still not 100%
  • LaFell: most impressive? Catching everything thrown his way
  • Browner: a tough, hard-hitting, tone-setting corner -- yup, I'll take that
  • Nink: as consistent as anyone
  • Hightower: ably filled in for Mayo along with Collins
An honorary game ball goes to the coaching staff for keeping this team focused coming out of the mini-bye, not looking pass the Bears with the Broncos coming to town.
 
P.S. A dunce cap goes to Lamarr Houston for pulling a Tulloch.
 

Myt1

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Not that he even deserves to be in the conversation, but I swear that this O-Line is a different animal when Stork is going.
 

soxhop411

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Record for TB

“@CorkGaines: Tom Brady is just 2nd QB ever to complete 30 passes, throw 5 TDs and have no more than 5 incompletions (Brees, 2011)”
 

bradmahn

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Game balls go to those in bold.
 
The secondary in general was huge and it's great to see them playing so well together going into this stretch of games. Revis looked fantastic. Do you match him up with Sanders, have Browner mug the shit out of Demariyus and put Ryan/Arrington on Welker? They might be able to go toe-to-toe with the Broncos receivers. Revis gets a game ball for locking down Marshall.
 
Brady, naturally.
 
Special teams - Edelman and Don Jones especially.
 
Is Gronkowski back to being the best TE in the game?
 
The offensive line was very good against the vaunted Bears' front. Short of the goal line stand, they got what they needed when they wanted it in the running game and kept Brady clean. Aside from a few penalties and the botched snap, they were fantastic.
 

Ed Hillel

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Of the 5 incompletions, 4 were drops, and one was a bad read by Edelman. Brady was literally perfect today. Might have been the best game he's ever had.

When Tom Brady has one of, if not, his best game ever, he gets a game ball.
 

SoxVindaloo

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Brady--Perfect
Gronk--Please stay healthy for the rest of the year.
O Line--Really good all around.
Browner--Love the smash mouth stuff. His vaunted Zero YAC reputation was in full effect today.
 

PayrodsFirstClutchHit

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Got to give Josh McDaniels some love.  I love to kill the guy as much as anyone, but I do not recall a gamethread moment where we wanted his head. That should merit some props.
 

Tony C

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JohnnyK said:
Is there anyone who does not deserve a gameball? Jules for the drops maybe?
 
Yep. Amendola wasn't present and I saw him miss a block, too. Whoever that LB was who whiffed on that tackle in the first quarter -- was that Skinner?
 
But this is about the positive. Basically
 
1: Brady Brady Brady....so good.
2: the big receivers, mostly Gronk but LaFell and Wright more than helpful. I've always envied teams those big targets.
3: the OL -- Stork didn't look great to my eyes, but the unit as a whole has had 2 excellent games with this starting unit. Key to get him and Connolly back, obviously
4: the DL -- I thought Easley was impressive, and Nink had a real good game.
5: DBs: across the board excellent.
 

MyDaughterLovesTomGordon

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PayrodsFirstClutchHit said:
Got to give Josh McDaniels some love.  I love to kill the guy as much as anyone, but I do not recall a gamethread moment where we wanted his head. That should merit some props.
 
Got a little run happy on that first goal-line fail. After that, though, he smartly put it in TB's hands for the rest of the game. 
 
Brady was just unbelievable today. Just one other game with 5TDs and only 5 incompletions in the history of football? That's pretty solid. 
 

cshea

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JohnnyK said:
Is there anyone who does not deserve a gameball? Jules for the drops maybe?
Wild ass guess- Anyone think Edelman is nursing a finger/hand injury? It'd explain some of the drops and Amendola taking a few punt returns away from Edelman. 
 

Deathofthebambino

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Gronk/Lafell/Wright:  27 targets, 27 completions, 334 yards, 5td's. 
 
That's pretty much inconceivable in an NFL game.  Brady is so fucking good, and we are so, so lucky to have had and still have him as the quarterback of this team. He puts the ball exactly where it's supposed to be almost every single time.  Every one of his struggles in the early part of the year can be directly attributed to the offensive line and the receivers not playing well.  Now that they are, this is the type of game you can come to expect from him when they match up against a below average secondary.
 
I'd also like to mention something that's gone unnoticed.  The wind today was significant.  This was not an easy day to throw the ball, or catch it for that matter.  To be able to succeed in those conditions, you have to have incredible arm strength and the ability to throw a tight ass spiral.  These are the little things that most casual fans don't see because all they note is the sun shining and figure conditions couldn't be better.  Throwing into that wind is fucking hard.  I hope that any talk about Brady's arm strength diminishing can be officially put to rest.  His arm is as strong now as it's ever been.
 

Stitch01

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Brady's deep struggles have never been about arm strength.

So beat Denver at home next week and the one seed is in play.
 

Eddie Jurak

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Strong work early in run defense (I thought Easley for one did a nice job setting the edge on running plays).  And very good game from the secondary.  
 

crystalline

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PayrodsFirstClutchHit said:
Got to give Josh McDaniels some love.  I love to kill the guy as much as anyone, but I do not recall a gamethread moment where we wanted his head. That should merit some props.
On the fourth down play canceled by a false start, Chicago had 10 in the tackle box and the Pats called a run play.

Nitpicky, I know.

Today was an amazing day. Brady looked like he had a cannon attached to his shoulder and Gronk was catching them as if they were globs of stickum.
 

Ed Hillel

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Stitch01 said:
Brady's deep struggles have never been about arm strength.

So beat Denver at home next week and the one seed is in play.
Today was a good day for seeding. If the Pats can go even 3-2 over their next five, they have a pretty good shot at a bye, especially if they beat Indy.
 

Stitch01

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Yeah 11-5 and beating Indy head to head might get it done and sweeping the division foes to go to 12-4 does it a huge percentage of the time.
 

DJnVa

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bankshot1 said:
Game ball to Bill Murray for his FOX pre-game bulletin-board bit.
 
Didn't see this---what happened?
 
 
Also, Brady is about to a QB rating of 104.7 for the year.
 

mulluysavage

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Tom Brady

Rob Gronkowski - Gronk is fully back. Impossible to bring down on that 46 yd TD

Brandon Lafell - 11/124 and now so many big red zone targets along with Gronk and Wright

Jimmy Garoppolo - TB wasn't perfect, but JG was :)
 

Ed Hillel

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Cross posting, but:

#Patriots Tom Brady didn't have a single off-target pass per @ESPNStatsInfo, first time that's ever happened since tracking started in 2006.
https://twitter.com/PP_Rich_Hill/status/526557440729702400
 

Koufax

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Brady's QB rating was 148.4.   The highest possible is 158.3, so he has work to do. 
 

Oppo

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Koufax said:
Brady's QB rating was 148.4.   The highest possible is 158.3, so he has work to do. 
Missed perfect rating because his yards per attempt did not reach 12.5
 

Ralphwiggum

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Brady has achieved a perfect rating twice in his career (Miami in 2007, Detroit in 2010). If not for a couple of drops he may have had it again today.
 

SoxinSeattle

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My balls go to the coaches and captains for getting to this point when they could have easily come up with several excuses to suck.  God damn I love BB and TB.
 

SumnerH

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Lose Remerswaal said:
Not sure it's a record when you are the second to do something
 
Also, "records" slicing 2 different stats are bad enough.  Put arbitrary cutoffs on 3 stats and you're through the looking glass.
 

Stitch01

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LaFell was absolutely phenomenal.  Not sure how or why the light switch finally clicked on, but outside of Moss I don't think there's been a better stretch from an outside receiver in the Brady era.
 

DaughtersofDougMirabelli

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Stitch01 said:
LaFell was absolutely phenomenal.  Not sure how or why the light switch finally clicked on, but outside of Moss I don't think there's been a better stretch from an outside receiver in the Brady era.
 
His hands have looked incredible this year. For all the worries about his drops last year he has been picking the ball out of the air (with guys drapped on him). Sticky hands for sure.