He also went through a stretch where every kick was like Wakefield's dancing knuckle. Most of yesterday's kicks seemed- less knuckly?
The Game Ball Thread: Wk 13 vs Rams
- Thread starter SeoulSoxFan
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High ankle sprain for Amendola.
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/patriots-lose-amendola-to-high-ankle-sprain-hope-hell-be-back-by-playoffs/
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/patriots-lose-amendola-to-high-ankle-sprain-hope-hell-be-back-by-playoffs/
Blergh. As good a timing as you could ask for with how much season is left before the playoffs and the timeframe for the injury.
Hope that's it for injuries. And dammit Jones.
Hope that's it for injuries. And dammit Jones.
What's more amazing is how many times he's being allowed to screw up given Belichick's hard stance on previous players. What's the difference between Jones and Ridley other than we somehow have been incredibly lucky in recovering Jones' fumbles?
In the past I think BB has had other options, how he doesn't in Week 12. We saw it last year with the Chris Harper disaster in Denver that helped cost the team a bye. He put Amendola out and now he's injured.
I'd just put Jules out there and tell him to fair catch everything.
James White is pretty surehanded as well. I get not wanting to expose key offensive personnel particularly in light of Gronk's injury but at some point Cyrus is going to Harper this team.
I don't have a big problem with his use of Jones. There are only a couple kicks each game that are returnable so the sample size is small. It looks like he's only actually returned 17 kicks this year. He had bad mental errors early on which could have been partially others' fault, and some fumbles which are maybe fixable. It's kind of like fumbles for running backs -- we hated how BB would immediately bench Ridley based on a small sample.
BB did bench him for I think three games earlier in the year and I'd imagine he's not dropping every kick in practice. The team has a huge lead on the division and should win most games comfortably. The upside here is finding a good reliable kick returner with breakaway upside who isn't Edelman. I think that's probably worth a fumble against the Rams when you have a decent chance of recovering it (which they did) and they literally can't move the ball against you anyway.
It would really suck to lose Edelman on a punt return because you had no one else. Maybe that's where we end up anyway but I'd like to give a guy who returned 4 punts for TDs in his senior year a fair shot at being a threat for the Pats.
BB did bench him for I think three games earlier in the year and I'd imagine he's not dropping every kick in practice. The team has a huge lead on the division and should win most games comfortably. The upside here is finding a good reliable kick returner with breakaway upside who isn't Edelman. I think that's probably worth a fumble against the Rams when you have a decent chance of recovering it (which they did) and they literally can't move the ball against you anyway.
It would really suck to lose Edelman on a punt return because you had no one else. Maybe that's where we end up anyway but I'd like to give a guy who returned 4 punts for TDs in his senior year a fair shot at being a threat for the Pats.
Wasnt Jones a ST Stud at Bama? A KR savant? How many Fumbles did he have in Tuscaloosa?
So how does a guy simply forget to hold on to the ball? Technique? Nerves?
Maybe BB and the staff are (or were...) banking on the idea that this is just the yips and that he is just taking time to adjust.
Are there any (in)famous examples of guys who came out of college with a good record and then became the Chuck Knobloch of Returners?
So how does a guy simply forget to hold on to the ball? Technique? Nerves?
Maybe BB and the staff are (or were...) banking on the idea that this is just the yips and that he is just taking time to adjust.
Are there any (in)famous examples of guys who came out of college with a good record and then became the Chuck Knobloch of Returners?