The Game Goat Thread: Wk 13 vs Eagles

[SeoulSoxFan]

The goats:

• Joe Judge: BB emphasized how critical ST plays were, and how Eagles were capitalizing on them. They gave up 14 inexcusable points
• Brady: as much as he fought to get back, that pick-6 was a killer. I think he's trying to do much, but who can blame them
• BB: they have to stop getting cute. Almost burnt them vs. Buffalo in week 2, and that WTF pooch punt gave Eagles life

10-2. Now a bye is no longer a certainty. Hope Kline is not out for long.

 

[SeoulSoxFan]

In fact, right now they're #3:

@RyanHannable If the playoffs started right now, the Patriots would be the No. 3 seed and host a game on Wild Card Weekend.

Very atypical game, but Pats are currently not right, obviously. After blowing a 14pt lead vs. Denver, this:

@RyanHannable The was the largest lead blown at home in the Bill Belichick era. They hadn't blown a lead at home of more than 7 points since 2000.

 

[DaveRoberts'Shoes]

Coaches. Fuck them.

 

[Ale Xander]

Everyone except James Redmond Faulk Vereen Lewis White and Collins

 

[Ale Xander]

But yeah, the punt team stands out for baaaashing

 

[Peak Oil Can Boyd]

The INT after the Brady trick play was way worse than he pick 6.

 

[SeoulSoxFan]

The INT after the Brady trick play was way worse than he pick 6.

Say wut? The pick-6 is at worst 10-point swing, maybe even 14.

 

[Manzivino]

Whoever called for the quick snap on first and goal from the 2.

Special teams - coaching and coverage units.

LaFell - Sleepwalked all game in a week they really needed him to step up.

OL for getting routinely abused

 

[NortheasternPJ]

In fact, right now they're #3:

@RyanHannable If the playoffs started right now, the Patriots would be the No. 3 seed and host a game on Wild Card Weekend.

Very atypical game, but Pats are currently not right, obviously. After blowing a 14pt lead vs. Denver, this:

@RyanHannable The was the largest lead blown at home in the Bill Belichick era. They hadn't blown a lead at home of more than 7 points since 2000.

Right but the 1 and 2 have to play each other so it's not really relevant if the playoffs started today.

 

[Cellar-Door]

Split between the punt team and Brady.
Punt Team gave away 14 points, Brady had 3 particularly ugly plays (the two picks, and the phantom sack that helped lead to the blocked punt.)

 

[ragnarok725]

Say wut? The pick-6 is at worst 10-point swing, maybe even 14.

I think he means in terms of how bad the decision/execution was, not how much impact it had in the game. It was a worse play, even if the consequences weren't as bad.

 

[dcmissle]

1. Special teams. Nuff said.

2. O-line. This is a horrific Eagles defense.

3. Coaching. Every coach save the ones on defense.

4. TB. Heroic yes, but in desperation, he helped dig the hole.

 

[SeoulSoxFan]

OL for getting routinely abused

And this is what gets at the heart of things. BB & Edelman saved a LOT of bacons for this unit, and it's showing huge holes (unfortunately, not for Blount to run through) consistently.

 

[CoffeeNerdness]

This is particularly bad strategy when the defense you're playing practices every week against an up tempo offense.

Edit - regarding hustling to the line and handing off to James White.

 

[j44thor]

Coaches - all of them
Pooch punt gave PHI life, End of 1st half was a comedic performance. Are you running the clock or trying to score? Indecision cost them 7pts. Second onsides kick was horrible call since there was over 3min and 2 timeouts.

 

[E5 Yaz]

If they had won in Denver, this was the type of game where you could say, "Welp, glad we got that one out of the way."

That as a fanbase, we've grown accustomed to not see back-to-back losses is a small price to pay ... if what's left of them get their shit back together next week

 

[DegenerateSoxFan]

Coaches

OL

Special teams

Edit: Oh, and dopes, why is this site now listing me as a lurker?

 

[H78]

Gronk better be back next week.

That is all.

 

[NDame616]

Coaches - all of them
Pooch punt gave PHI life, End of 1st half was a comedic performance. Are you running the clock or trying to score? Indecision cost them 7pts. Second onsides kick was horrible call since there was over 3min and 2 timeouts.

It was so strange. They weren't dedicated to running the clock out (which they shouldn't have been) but weren't really dedicated to trying to get to the 35 or so for a long FG. It wasn't hurry up and it wasn't a drive to end the half. It was bizarre.

 

[Stitch01]

Three plays cost them about 21 points of equity so basically everyone involved with those three plays. I don't care about the pooch kick, but the coaches take a share of the blame because the team beat itself today.

This is a really flawed offense outside of the Brady and the big guns. Obviously there is going to be a dramatic step down in performance but man this offensive line is not good. Brady obviously made some really bad decisions and an inexcusable one on the red zone int, but he is making chicken salad with chicken shit right now

Encouraged by the fight at the end though. This team is good enough to beat the AFC competition on the road if everyone is healthy, probably isn't good enough no matter where they play with the current pieces.

 

[SeoulSoxFan]

Edit: Oh, and dopes, why is this site now listing me as a lurker?

Post here, DSF: http://www.sonsofsamhorn.net/index.php?threads/major-sosh-upgrade-november-2015.11698/page-18

 

[Mugsy's Jock]

LaFell -- can't get open, and can't catch when the coverage neglects him.
Special teams, of course
Brady -- tough as can be, but that pick six is all on him.

Edit: Defense played pretty well all things considered

 

[Stitch01]

It was so strange. They weren't dedicated to running the clock out (which they shouldn't have been) but weren't really dedicated to trying to get to the 35 or so for a long FG. It wasn't hurry up and it wasn't a drive to end the half. It was bizarre.

The start of the drive made perfect sense. Why they slowed it down after that I don't know.

 

[mikeford]

Belichick and McDaniels and whoever the special teams guy is.

Bad decision making all day.

 

[bigsid05]

Special teams has basically cost them both games. Strange because it's typically been an asset of Pats teams in the past. Something has to change there.

 

[CoffeeNerdness]

Ebner: pooch needed to be further downfield (credit to the Eagles for the heads up recovery), he was the first man down field on the Sproles punt return TD and made a weak effort at tackling, and the onside kick, while not terrible, really didn't have much of a chance of being recovered.

 

[soxhop411]

“@leahysean: Belichick on pooch kick: ‘trying to do what we think is best’”

 

[bankshot1]

They lost their composure and didn't really regain it until the 4th quarter. This was a collective fuck-up but mostly I put this on the coaching staff that failed to get the team to settle down and play smart football.

 

[geoduck no quahog]

Seemed to me LaFell blew a lot of routes. I won't know until I read about it. Does he suffer from cranial/rectal inversion?

 

[pokey_reese]

LaFell looked pretty terrible today outside of one or two catches, and what's odd is that he seemed to be running the wrong routes, turning the wrong way, not looking for that ball over his shoulder at the end, etc. It's not like we just claimed him off the wire last week, he should know the plays by now.

Brady made some bad decisions with the ball, and even when the decisions were good, he made some bad throws as well, especially to Amendola (and Danny bailed him out with a few amazing catches). He really, really sucks at throwing the ball more than 20 yards in the air, and it's becoming more and more obvious.

The coaching staff made a lot of questionable decisions, but some of them would have been ok if the players had executed better. We generally have the best special teams in the league, so I doubt that they just started teaching them something new this week that led to the blocked punt or return TD.

Note: Based on the FiveThirtyEight.com system of predicting each team's chance of winning each game, this was the biggest upset of the year. I think that's what hurts so bad about this, is that it makes us wonder, "If the Pats can't beat the Eagles at home in December (when Brady and BB always stress is the time that you see who is actually good in the NFL), then why do we think they can beat playoff teams, potentially on the road?"

Ugly game, but hopefully they can bounce back next week, with or without Gronk.

 

[j44thor]

Ebner: pooch needed to be further downfield (credit to the Eagles for the heads up recovery), he was the first man down field on the Sproles punt return TD and made a weak effort at tackling, and the onside kick, while not terrible, really didn't have much of a chance of being recovered.

He isn't a kicker, tough to fault him for two plays that he has never tried in a real game. Goes back to the coaches not putting players in the best position to succeed. We assumed Harris made the mistake trying to make a play on the punt last week but given the hiccups in ST again this week I'm not so sure that was on him.

The collective coaching has left a lot of points and cost a lot of points the last two weeks. Not something we had seen the first 10 games when the coaching was near flawless.

 

[jablo1312]

-There is so much evidence that the quick snap run play doesn't work. It needs to be thrown out. It sucks.

-There was 0 reason for Brady to force that deep ball after the trick play. Throw was such a killer. He and Lafell didn't seem to be on the same page several times today.

-I thought the defense played really well. Nothing really jumps out as being stand out bad.

 

[DeadlySplitter]

Special teams
LaFell
Brady to an extent - you can moan about some of the playcalls but forcing it to Danny double teamed on 3rd & Goal was a 10 point swing

 

[MarcSullivaFan]

Pass blocking and special teams both make a strong case for Goat, with Brady not too far behind. I'm not worried about Brady or the ST, but the line is getting really scary and I'm concerned that there is no improvement, even with everyone (except Solder, obviously) healthy. Next Sunday will be a test.

The emergence of White was encouraging.

 

[Seels]

Obviously they can't do anything about it now given their extreme lack of depth, but I see no way Chandler is back next year. He's fucking awful. That game turned around the moment he decided to go for a ball that wasn't his.

Lafell sucks too. Stats be damned, he was atrocious today.

This is frustrating cause the team is a great team, but what are you going to do when you have the options this team does? Meh.

 

[jablo1312]

Also:

1. With about 4:50 left in the 4th quarter, Brady threw an incomplete pass and Kline got hurt during the play. They went to commercial, came back, got Kline off the field, and then the clock started running pre-snap. About 10-12 seconds went off of it for no reason. Not super impactful but just an inexcusable error.

2. On the fumble recovery, the Pats had the ball and like another 8 seconds went off the clock from when Barner lost the ball and the Pats recovered. Again, not the worst error, but the time should've been reviewed and added back on (unless I'm mistaken).

 

[Ed Hillel]

Twenty yards of field position did not cause them to give up 35 straight points. It was 3rd and 9 two plays later and they couldn't get off the field.

I also didn't like how the last drive of the first half started, but the fact is that they had good position after the first two runs, they tried at that point, and still couldn't move the ball because Chandler dropped the ball.

I thought Brady made a few poor decisions tonight, but the O Line really takes a large chunk of that blame. They really fucking suck right now, especially Kline and Cannon. Edelman and Gronk really cover up their warts, I think.

Nink was putrid for most of the game, but that's who he is. He'll make those inexplicable game-changing plays, but he'll have periods where he just blows. Thought he was going to make that huge play, but Peters shoved him away, so what's left of his game to tonight was ugly.

I like Ryan Allen, but getting trucked by Darren Sproles is about as embarrassing as it gets, even for a kicker.

Blah.

 

[Ed Hillel]

Also, LaFell has turned back into a pumpkin, thought it appears they are using him differently than they did last year, probably because of injuries. I wish they'd stop doing that. He's not DeShaun Jackson.

 

[Ed Hillel]

Also, LaFell has turned back into a pumpkin, though it appears they are using him differently than they did last year, probably because of injuries. I wish they'd stop doing that. He's not DeShaun Jackson.

 

[Harry Hooper]

Special teams
LaFell
Brady to an extent - you can moan about some of the playcalls but forcing it to Danny double teamed on 3rd & Goal was a 10 point swing

Yeah, on that play it was obvious at the snap that he had Chandler in the slot in man coverage with the linebacker, but he was looking only at Amendola.

I really hate the coaching staff mailing in the last possession of the first half for the second week in a row.

 

[j-man]

unlees u get gronk back in the next week u are looking at 12-4 and a 3 seed

 

[j44thor]

The poor coaching at the end of the half started when they let 15-20 seconds run before taking a timeout on PHI 4th down. It was just a bad sequence of events by a team that didn't seem to know what it wanted to do at that point. Were they concerned that PHI might go for it if they left too much time on the clock? That was Andy Reidesque clock mgt to end the half.

 

[Harry Hooper]

Also:

2. On the fumble recovery, the Pats had the ball and like another 8 seconds went off the clock from when Barner lost the ball and the Pats recovered. Again, not the worst error, but the time should've been reviewed and added back on (unless I'm mistaken).

Yeah, I remember thinking at the time this is the least aggressive officiating crew I've ever seen in terms of getting into the pile and finalizing the awarding of possession. They took forever.

 

[shawnrbu]

It is the inconsistency of the clock management prior to halftime that is the most puzzling. If you are worried about giving the ball back to Philly, then why are you even calling timeout after Philly's 3rd Down play?

 

[E5 Yaz]

It is the inconsistency of the clock management prior to halftime that is the most puzzling. If you are worried about giving the ball back to Philly, then why are you even calling timeout after Philly's 3rd Down play?

Especially since this is the second week in a row where it could be questioned. Clearly, the injuries limit the two-minute drill package ... but it's not as though Pats coaches didn't realize this a week ago

 

[paintcharge]

Why is Brady chucking it way downfield the last couple of games? He hasn't been great at that since the Moss days. The quick passes are the strength of this offense.

 

[RedOctober3829]

44 of 46 active players saw action today. Therefore, 44 players share the goat alongside the coaches. Pathetic effort across all 3 phases and coaching.

 

[Stitch01]

I think they waited to call the timeout because they wanted to make sure they got the last possession. So basically get it back and run a couple of times and then if it works try to get a field goal, if not the half is over unless, well, what happened happens. If they get backed up deep on the punt they can play it safe and to to the half with the lead.

I don't like it, possessions are valuable and half lighting one on fire seems bad to me.

 

[riboflav]

Why is Brady chucking it way downfield the last couple of games? He hasn't been great at that since the Moss days. The quick passes are the strength of this offense.

It probably has something to do with missing Edelman and Gronk.

 

[jablo1312]

44 of 46 active players saw action today. Therefore, 44 players share the goat alongside the coaches. Pathetic effort across all 3 phases and coaching.

Have to disagree here. I don't think the defensive effort was pathetic by any means. Wasn't very good, but they forced punts on 7 of 9 drives before forcing that fumble with a minute left. The 80 yard touchdown drive was a backbreaker, but they dominated in the first half. Allowing 14 points on their first 9 drives (before the Eagles recovered the onside kick) is more than enough to get the win.