The Game Ball Thread: Wk 7 vs Bears

SeoulSoxFan

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A Scud Away from Hell
No Gronk, no Michel, no problem. A bit of drama, especially at the end, but no problem.

Game ball time!

Mine goes to White on the offensive side & the secondary for the defensive side.

The first road win is pretty sweet. I bet BB has a 4-hour chew-out film session come Monday though.
 

johnmd20

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No Gronk, no Michel, no problem. A bit of drama, especially at the end, but no problem.

Game ball time!

Mine goes to White on the offensive side & the secondary for the defensive side.

The first road win is pretty sweet. I bet BB has a 4-hour chew-out film session come Monday though.
There were a lot of problems.

White gets a ball and so does Harmon because he saved the game.
 

Ale Xander

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James White

honorable mention to Gordon (bonus points for taking over Gronk safety role), Jonathan Jones, Hogan, Michel while he was in, and of course Harmon for the Gino
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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Patterson for coming back after his mistake.

Hightower for what may have been the game winning play.
 

SeoulSoxFan

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There were a lot of problems.
Thankfully, the rest of the AFCE has 99 more.

Pats with a game ahead of the QB-less Dolphins (with a head-to-head win in hand). Jets go 2-13 in 3rd-down conversions losing to the Vikes at home (Darnold with 3 INTs). Bills are the Bills again.

Edit: speaking of the AFCE, here are the points allowed after today's matches:
  • NEP: 179
  • MIA: 177
  • NYJ: 176
  • BUF: 175
 
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DJnVa

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White and whatever defender I'm told had a good day after film review.

Still waiting for a clean game. Handed them 2 short fields, and then that late INT.
 

Over Guapo Grande

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CP for making amends - not only with the TD return, but the one he brought out to the 40. It became a field position game at that point, and literally every yard counted
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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Trey Burton. I think he is on the Patriots squad even though he wears the uniform of another team given how freely they let him roam around the field today. If Burton is not a Patriot, he must have a treasure trove of pictures of New England linebackers and secondary players in various states of compromising positions. And by compromising positions, I don't mean the "Ole!" stance when he runs by them either.
 

dbn

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The Bears for being awful.

On the more serious side, White for sure on offense, and probably Gilmore on defense (I only remember seeing him once all game, and it was knocking down a pass with a nice play on his part).
 

McDrew

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This week feels like there were a number of guys that made great plays, but also didn't show up and got exploited on others.

Blind side OL, especially Trent Brown.
James White for being the swiss-army-knife of usefulness that he is.
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

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Kind of a crazy game. Two easy picks were dropped by the defense, yet they managed two incredible if not complete blind luck interceptions.

Patterson had two bad takes out of the end zone including one which resulted in the fumble, turnover and TD, but also a return TD.

Trubisky looked like Barry Sanders, but only on plays where the coverage was fantastic and the rush got to him forcing him to get out of the pocket.
 

Bowhemian

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Whichever coach came up with the plan to neutralize Khalil Mack. Plan was perfect, and executed to perfection
 

JokersWildJIMED

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DURON HARMON IS NOT 30 ANYMORE OMG PEOPLES
Stop this please. Everyone knows Harmon is 21 now. It was Harmon, number 21 who made the stop at the goal line. McCourty was was holding on for dear life but without Harmon there he scores.
 

Ed Hillel

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Stop this please. Everyone knows Harmon is 21 now. It was Harmon, number 21 who made the stop at the goal line. McCourty was was holding on for dear life but without Harmon there he scores.
McCourty is strong as a horse, had him easy. I preemptively accept your apology (I didn’t see Harmon come in, my bad).

Game balls to Gilmore and Gordon. Hopefully the latter isn’t hurt, that last play was...weird.
 
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lexrageorge

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Game ball to James White. Honorable mention to Brady, and reluctantly to Patterson (KO return TD's do count). Also a shout out to Hightower who seems to be much improved over the first 3 weeks.

Game goat to the injury gods. Here's hoping that Michel's injury is not career ending. And the folks on WEEI seemed concerned about White during the post game. Horrible weekend injury wise for the local sports teams.
 

MuppetAsteriskTalk

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McCourty is strong as a horse, had him easy. I preemptively accept your apology (I didn’t see Harmon come in, my bad).

Game balls to Gilmore and Gordon. Hopefully the latter isn’t hurt, that last play was...weird.
Watch the play again. He scores easily if Harmon doesn't step up and hit him at the 1.
 

BaseballJones

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Game ball to James White. Honorable mention to Brady, and reluctantly to Patterson (KO return TD's do count). Also a shout out to Hightower who seems to be much improved over the first 3 weeks.

Game goat to the injury gods. Here's hoping that Michel's injury is not career ending. And the folks on WEEI seemed concerned about White during the post game. Horrible weekend injury wise for the local sports teams.
Wait what the heck happened to White that had people concerned??
 

Briz

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McCourty is strong as a horse, had him easy. I preemptively accept your apology (I didn’t see Harmon come in, my bad).

Game balls to Gilmore and Gordon. Hopefully the latter isn’t hurt, that last play was...weird.
As said up-thread, watch it again. Harmon showed great presence and patience waiting for receiver to come down and make his move. He then met him solid at the 1 and saved a TD. Nobody else was stopping him, and I would think the majority of dbs in the league in that situation charge the pile and get burned by the spin move. Harmon gets a game ball for that in my opinion.
 

lexrageorge

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Wait what the heck happened to White that had people concerned??
I don't know, because I didn't see it myself. But one of the talking heads thought White was limping after the last running play where he was stopped for no gain on 3rd down.
 

Spelunker

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As said up-thread, watch it again. Harmon showed great presence and patience waiting for receiver to come down and make his move. He then met him solid at the 1 and saved a TD. Nobody else was stopping him, and I would think the majority of dbs in the league in that situation charge the pile and get burned by the spin move. Harmon gets a game ball for that in my opinion.
Yeah, there was maybe a 5% chance that McCourty- who had him from the side- was going to stop his momentum. If he was tackled the most likely result would have been him falling forward, into the end zone.

Harmon was the push away from the end zone. Without him, he scores.
 

Super Nomario

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This was a weird game. The O wasn't really firing on all cylinders, but they also "missed" three drives because of the Patterson fumble, Patterson TD, and blocked punt TD. Ultimately they scored 24 points on 10 drives, which is pretty good and also doesn't factor in the Michel fumble drive or the last two drives when they were mostly just trying to kill clock.

By the same token, the D was sort of not that bad, because they faced 14 drives (two were end-of-half drives). They also were handed two short fields on the fumbles. The Bears had a ton of yards (453), but 121 of those were on end-of-half drives that were basically prevent situations. The odd thing is when they bent, they broke - Chicago went 4-for-4 in the red zone. They were really a couple red zone deflections away from a good defensive performance, but then, that is one of the risks of playing "bend but don't break"; if you break, things get ugly. They were also awful at keeping contain on Trubisky, which is one of the things they usually prioritize.

I think Hightower's punt block was the play of the game. The offensive performers were not really crisp: Brady had a couple misfires, he and Gordon aren't quite on the same page, even White dropped one he usually catches. There were a lot of B- type performances, and then also some guys like Patterson and Jackson had games of wild extremes.
 

Harry Hooper

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Game ball to NFL HQ. This is exactly the type of game they want to market going forward with the recent rules.
 

Ralphwiggum

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Someone else mentioned it but I’ll throw Josh Gordon out there. Two massive receptions including a great individual effort on 4th down and his first 100 yard game as a Patriot.
 

Eddie Jurak

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This was a weird game. The O wasn't really firing on all cylinders, but they also "missed" three drives because of the Patterson fumble, Patterson TD, and blocked punt TD. Ultimately they scored 24 points on 10 drives, which is pretty good and also doesn't factor in the Michel fumble drive or the last two drives when they were mostly just trying to kill clock.

By the same token, the D was sort of not that bad, because they faced 14 drives (two were end-of-half drives). They also were handed two short fields on the fumbles. The Bears had a ton of yards (453), but 121 of those were on end-of-half drives that were basically prevent situations. The odd thing is when they bent, they broke - Chicago went 4-for-4 in the red zone. They were really a couple red zone deflections away from a good defensive performance, but then, that is one of the risks of playing "bend but don't break"; if you break, things get ugly. They were also awful at keeping contain on Trubisky, which is one of the things they usually prioritize.

I think Hightower's punt block was the play of the game. The offensive performers were not really crisp: Brady had a couple misfires, he and Gordon aren't quite on the same page, even White dropped one he usually catches. There were a lot of B- type performances, and then also some guys like Patterson and Jackson had games of wild extremes.
Yes. My game balls are Brady, White, and Gordon. Patterson's KO return was worthy of a game ball, but his fumble was almost as damaging as the kick return was good. JC Jackson's interception was legitimately a great play (as was Jones'), but his 3 penalties hurt the Pats badly. As you say, the Pats defense was, on the whole, very good, but they were lousy in the red zone and came as close as possible to yielding a game tying Hail Mary TD as it is possible to come without actually giving it up.

One thing that stood out to me: After Trubisky's 39 yard run to set up a TD early in the second half, he had 6 rushes for 81 yards. He didn't run the ball again in the game. Was there a Patriots defensive adjustment at that point or was that just stupidity on the Bears' part?
 

moondog80

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Someone else mentioned it but I’ll throw Josh Gordon out there. Two massive receptions including a great individual effort on 4th down and his first 100 yard game as a Patriot.
He had a great game, but am I the only one who thought it looked like he wasn’t running all that fast in that long reception?
 

NortheasternPJ

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He had a great game, but am I the only one who thought it looked like he wasn’t running all that fast in that long reception?
He said he was out of gas and not in great shape because of his hamstring based on what I heard on the radio this morning.

Amazing they're at 5-2 and rolling into Buffalo when 23 days ago they were on the verge of going 1-3 against a surging Dolphins team. The 3-0 Dolphins are now 4-3 and the vaunted Jags just got smoked by the Titans and are at 3-4.
 

BaseballJones

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Any win in the NFL is a good win. Especially on the road. Here's how spoiled we are as Patriots fans: It felt like they played pretty poorly but they were only favored by 3.5 on the road against a team with a winning record. And they won by a touchdown. If you win by a touchdown on the road in the NFL against a decent-to-good team, that's a very good win.

Game balls to: Brady, White, Gordon, Harmon, Hightower, and Patterson. Yes the fumble by Patterson was huge, but he more than made up for it with two huge returns.

Win at Buffalo and suddenly they're at 6-2 and winners of five straight going into their week 9 game against Green Bay. On pace for another 12-4 season. Ho-hum.
 

johnmd20

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McCourty is strong as a horse, had him easy. I preemptively accept your apology (I didn’t see Harmon come in, my bad).

Game balls to Gilmore and Gordon. Hopefully the latter isn’t hurt, that last play was...weird.
This is a really odd hill to die on, especially because you're wrong. I don't understand what you're talking about.
 

Ed Hillel

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This is a really odd hill to die on, especially because you're wrong. I don't understand what you're talking about.
This is Jason and Devin McCourty’s mother, Phyllis Harrell. I’d like you to look her in the eyes and tell her that her son Jason is not strong enough to tackle that Bears guy before he made it into the end zone. She is the one on the right:
ImageUploadedBySons of Sam Horn1540211669.944094.jpg

Otherwise, please accept my apology, as I watched again and was clearly wrong. The “I didn’t see Harmon come in, my bad” was meant to convey that over the sarcasm of the horse strength stuff, but apparently a number of you were not picking up what I was putting down. And for that, I apologize times two; one for me and one for you.
 
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BaseballJones

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The Pats put up 38 points and 381 yards without two pro-bowlers: Gronk and Cannon. And without a possible ROY in Michel for three quarters. First time they've ever scored 38 in four consecutive games, which is hard to believe given some of the seasons they've had. 38, 38, 43, 38 = 157 total

Other great four-game scoring runs:
2007: 38, 38, 38, 34 (weeks 1-4; 148 total)
2007: 34, 48, 49, 52 (weeks 5-8; 183 total)
2010: 39, 31, 45, 45 (weeks 10-13; 160 total)
2011: 41, 27, 49, 45 (weeks 15-18 (playoffs); 162 total)
2012: 45, 37, 59, 49 (weeks 8-12; 190 total)
2014: 51, 43, 42, 34 (weeks 8-12; 170 total)
 

SirPsychoSquints

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The Pats put up 38 points and 381 yards without two pro-bowlers: Gronk and Cannon. And without a possible ROY in Michel for three quarters. First time they've ever scored 38 in four consecutive games, which is hard to believe given some of the seasons they've had. 38, 38, 43, 38 = 157 total

Other great four-game scoring runs:
2007: 38, 38, 38, 34 (weeks 1-4; 148 total)
2007: 34, 48, 49, 52 (weeks 5-8; 183 total)
2010: 39, 31, 45, 45 (weeks 10-13; 160 total)
2011: 41, 27, 49, 45 (weeks 15-18 (playoffs); 162 total)
2012: 45, 37, 59, 49 (weeks 8-12; 190 total)
2014: 51, 43, 42, 34 (weeks 8-12; 170 total)
Some other overlapping ones:
2007 : 49, 52, 24, 56 (weeks 7-10; 181 total)
2012: 59, 49, 23, 42 (weeks 11-14; 173 total)
2007: 48, 49, 52, 24 (weeks 6-9; 173 total)
 

Saints Rest

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I’m amazed at how few have given game balls to Brown and maybe an Honorable Mention to Waddle. All I heard coming into this game was Mack, Mack, Mack. Here are his stats: one tackle, no quarterback hits and no sacks. That’s dominance from your OTs.
 

Ed Hillel

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BigSoxFan

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I think the secondary deserves a game ball. Should have only given up around 280 yards and had 2 game changing INTs, both of which were pretty amazing plays. This is the blueprint for this defense. They’re going to give up yards but if they can get 1-2 turnovers every game, we’ll be very tough to beat given how good the offense is.

Next game ball goes to James White for picking up the slack after Michel’s injury. He now has 7 TDs in 7 games and is virtually impossible to cover out of the backfield. Brady and he are so in sync right now.

Final game ball goes to Gordon. Brady deserved one as well but Gordon’s catch and run was a huge play. It’s incredibly encouraging that this dude isn’t even in shape yet and he’s still getting 100 yard games. Feel like a 2 or 3 TD performance is coming soon.
 

SirPsychoSquints

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Some other overlapping ones:
2007 : 49, 52, 24, 56 (weeks 7-10; 181 total)
2012: 59, 49, 23, 42 (weeks 11-14; 173 total)
2007: 48, 49, 52, 24 (weeks 6-9; 173 total)
Because why not:

Fewest points scored (going back to 1994) - they overlap:
1995: 3, 3, 17, 3 (weeks 2-5, 26 total)
1994-1995: 13, 17, 3, 3 (weeks 16-3, 36 total)
1995: 17, 3, 3, 17 (weeks 1-4, 40 total)

Fewest allowed (going back to 1994):
2003: 0, 13, 16, 0 (games 13-16, 29 total)
2005: 3, 7, 0, 21 (games 12-15, 31 total)
2012-2013: 0, 21, 10, 3 (games 16-3, 34 total)

Most allowed (going back to 1994):
1993-1994: 27, 39, 38, 28 (games 16-3, 132 total)
2017: 42, 20, 33, 33 (games 1-4, 128 total)
1995: 28, 30, 37, 31 (games 3-6, 126 total)