The Game Goat Thread: Wk. 1 vs Miami

Captaincoop

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I just re-watched the game. I though that other than the fumble, Harris ran great. He often got yards when nothing was there. Mac made a ton of great throws, often under duress. The receivers were solid and the TEs were good.

Hard to not be really encouraged by what I saw. The penalties and fumbles and otherwise the offense looks like it could be very good.
Everything that we saw go wrong seems fixable. My biggest long term concerns are the shitty play of Hightower and Bentley, and the D line getting pushed around more than I would have expected.
 

macal

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Jul 31, 2005
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Everything that we saw go wrong seems fixable. My biggest long term concerns are the shitty play of Hightower and Bentley, and the D line getting pushed around more than I would have expected.
Although he may well be toast, I wouldn't count Hightower out yet. I remember the first couple of games of the 2018 season, after he was injured and out for much of the 2017 season, he looked incredibly slow and toast. The one play that stood out was when he got easily beaten around the corner by a runner. He looked like a 350lb lineman trying to turn the corner. Maybe he just needs some full speed game time to get back to where he was. Granted, he was 3 years younger, but I would wait a few games before being overly concerned.
 

Captaincoop

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Although he may well be toast, I wouldn't count Hightower out yet. I remember the first couple of games of the 2018 season, after he was injured and out for much of the 2017 season, he looked incredibly slow and toast. The one play that stood out was when he got easily beaten around the corner by a runner. He looked like a 350lb lineman trying to turn the corner. Maybe he just needs some full speed game time to get back to where he was. Granted, he was 3 years younger, but I would wait a few games before being overly concerned.
Definitely not counting him out, I remember the same. But that was not a good show for him yesterday, something to keep an eye on.
 

RedOctober3829

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Everything that we saw go wrong seems fixable. My biggest long term concerns are the shitty play of Hightower and Bentley, and the D line getting pushed around more than I would have expected.
Hightower will make his fair share of plays. Bentley, however, should not be out there as long as he was. He should be a sub player. It's way too easy to isolate him on a running back and that is a mismatch every time. It is with Hightower as well, but he needs to be out there.
 

bakahump

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Yea there were a couple plays where he literally stood as a guy ran around him. Bad look. Even with him doing his best Fire Hydrant imitations (Smart experienced Hydrant to be sure)..... Miami still only scored 17....ran for 74 and passed for 185.

Defense was not the problem.
 

TomTerrific

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Jul 15, 2005
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That's fair. He's an excellent poster and clearly knows his stuff. It just feels to me like more often than not, his analysis is one that shows the Pats as not being as good as people think.

He may be 100% right about that, by the way. But that's how it comes off to me.
Even if SN were deliberately giving us a negative spin, I want to read that to force me to examine my assumptions. (BTW I think he comes off pretty level-headed)

We are going to be biased in favor of a good news story for the Pats in this forum. That’s just the nature of things. As long as they’re bringing a cogent argument, I want some voices leaning against that narrative
 

BusRaker

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Some of the talking heads were discussing the lack of starter reps in preseason is leading to a lot of Week 1 mental mistakes. Maybe our illustrious coaching staff needs a goat mention for not having the players in better mental shape?
 

steveluck7

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Some of the talking heads were discussing the lack of starter reps in preseason is leading to a lot of Week 1 mental mistakes. Maybe our illustrious coaching staff needs a goat mention for not having the players in better mental shape?
I don't know. Veteran team, veteran coaches. I gotta believe they staff did what they felt was best to prepare the team. Veteran players should know what it's like going from pre-season to regular season.
I do wonder if there needs to be something done with the week 1 schedule since we are now only playing 3 pre-season games...
It seems somewhat unfair (not sure that's the right word) to have some teams playing against the other conference, some playing against a different division, and some playing against a divisional opponent. It seems that the equitable thing would be to standardize week 1 so that everyone is playing the same "category" of opponent
 

54thMA

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Everything that we saw go wrong seems fixable. My biggest long term concerns are the shitty play of Hightower and Bentley, and the D line getting pushed around more than I would have expected.
Two horrible 15 yard penalties, the first one wiped out a first and goal to go.

I thought the front seven was going to be a strength of this team; it wasn't yesterday for the most part, the line as you said got pushed around by a hot garbage offensive line.

Disappointing; my God do I hate losing to the Dolphins.

The team I've loved to hate with a passion since they came into the league.
 

54thMA

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I don't know. Veteran team, veteran coaches. I gotta believe they staff did what they felt was best to prepare the team. Veteran players should know what it's like going from pre-season to regular season.
I do wonder if there needs to be something done with the week 1 schedule since we are now only playing 3 pre-season games...
It seems somewhat unfair (not sure that's the right word) to have some teams playing against the other conference, some playing against a different division, and some playing against a divisional opponent. It seems that the equitable thing would be to standardize week 1 so that everyone is playing the same "category" of opponent
It's going to get worse in a few years when they go to an 18 game schedule; pretty soon the NFL will be like college and there will be no preseason games.
 

johnmd20

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It seems somewhat unfair (not sure that's the right word) to have some teams playing against the other conference, some playing against a different division, and some playing against a divisional opponent. It seems that the equitable thing would be to standardize week 1 so that everyone is playing the same "category" of opponent
I don't get this at all. What difference does it make? You have to play your games and every team gets an equal amount of preparation time. Every Week counts the game.

edit - if the Pats had won, would you feel the same? It's not unfair, or whatever word, it's just the result. They played a game and lost. It was Week 1. Some teams won, some lost, some were in division and some weren't.
 

CoffeeNerdness

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Anyone else get caught off-guard by Harlan calling Josh Uche a "rising star"? I mean, he seems promising for sure, but I think "rising star" might have been a bit of a stretch.