New England Patriots Discussion

[Jvig43]

Yeah Giants should be heavily favored imo. I'm actually pretty worried, idk what I'll do if we lose to the Giants in the SB again.

[BradysKnee]

Have a little confidence you pussies! lol.

[ryno626]

Stupid question but could Torrey Smith have been called for offensive facemask for basically dragging McCourty the last five yards by his facemask?

[ElectricEye]

Originally Posted by BradysKnee

Have a little confidence you pussies! lol.

Where are those extra ten points you were sure we were getting? The Ravens playing us tough in the past sure looked like it meant nothing yesterday.


I think the best we can hope for is a shootout. The Giants have issues in coverage all year. They're covering up a lot of that stuff with the way they're rushing the passer, but there's still some vulnerabilities to exploit. A lot will be made of the Giants being healthy in the receiving core, but you got to remember that we're playing much better defensive football than we were back then. They're still going to be able to move the ball and score on us. If we're going to win this game, we're obviously going to require a better effort from Brady than we got yesterday, but even that may not be enough. They're simply playing better football than we are right now on both sides of the ball and have some serious matchup advantages on us, with a much better constructed roster top to bottom.

I just hope we can come out far more prepared to play than we did last week. That just looked really, really ugly from a playcalling and overall readiness perspective.

[BradysKnee]

Originally Posted by ElectricEye

Where are those extra ten points you were sure we were getting? The Ravens playing us tough in the past sure looked like it meant nothing yesterday.


I think the best we can hope for is a shootout. The Giants have issues in coverage all year. They're covering up a lot of that stuff with the way they're rushing the passer, but there's still some vulnerabilities to exploit. A lot will be made of the Giants being healthy in the receiving core, but you got to remember that we're playing much better defensive football than we were back then. They're still going to be able to move the ball and score on us. If we're going to win this game, we're obviously going to require a better effort from Brady than we got yesterday, but even that may not be enough. They're simply playing better football than we are right now on both sides of the ball and have some serious matchup advantages on us, with a much better constructed roster top to bottom.

I just hope we can come out far more prepared to play than we did last week. That just looked really, really ugly from a playcalling and overall readiness perspective.

Don't start. It didn't mean anything. They played a great game yesterday. Just like 2007 doesn't mean anything in 2 weeks. Week 4 does however. I will be rewatching that one.

This is going to be a tough game. Both teams have favorable matchups. Cruz and Nicks are going to devour our secondary. The Giants OL looked really bad so pressure is our only hope.

They are going to have a hard time with us passing. I have alot of confidence in our OL at this point, especially with Vollmer back. I do expect alot of 3 TE sets with Solder playing TE and us pounding it and hitting the seams with Gronk and Hern and Welker underneath.

[BradysKnee]

Originally Posted by ryno626

Stupid question but could Torrey Smith have been called for offensive facemask for basically dragging McCourty the last five yards by his facemask?

I'm sure he should've. I've seen it called several times in that situation.

[cmarq83]

I'm still a little shocked we're in the Superbowl with this team. This year's edition is probably the worst Pats team in the past 10 or so years if you don't include the Brady injury/recovery years.

Unfortunately we're playing a situation eerily similar to what happened in 2007: wildcard Giants go on a run late in the season and into the playoffs, depose of the established NFC teams, and their pass rush is on fire. Conversely the Number 1 seed Patriots enter on a run, destroyed a vastly inferior divisional round opponent with a historic offensive day, and then win with some luck win on Championship Sunday despite being off on offense all day. Hopefully we have a different result this time around.

The Giants match up with us pretty well, but at the end of the day we need to protect Tom Brady. I have more confidence in our line than I did during 2007, and here is where all the investment on the starting 5 needs to pay off. In all honesty we did a pretty good job on Doom/Miller and Suggs/Ngata the past 2 weeks, but against the Giants we're facing an entirely different animal. I hate the matchup of Tuck vs. Solder because NS just doesn't have the mass to deal with a guy like Tuck. It's a shame Vollmer isn't healthy because I think he could do a great job against a bigger guy like Tuck.

I think conversely the Patriots have an enormous edge when it comes to Aarob Gronkandez vs. the Giants linebackers. They're going to have to be huge and attack that cover 2. Delay Hernandez and just dump it off to him and make a play under the linebackers zone drops. Outside of Boley the Giants linebackers really suck, so we need to be able to win there.

We also have to stick with the run a little bit. The Giants are a porous running team, and our defense tends to get very streaky. If we can control the clock and force the Giants to stay our of rhythm (pass rush and passing offense) we can win this game.

In the end we're still facing an inconsistent 9-7 team, but they're far more talented than their record indicates. They're even less balanced than we are, and it's a one game season. All I can say is....

LETS GET THIS!!!!

[nepg]

Originally Posted by ElectricEye

....and then there's the elephant in the room. If he hits Gronk, completely different game.

Those floaty passes were weird too. I really hope we stop trying to throw to Edelman from now on though, seems like something happens bad every time. Might as well just move him to defensive back full time.

Yeah, if he hits Gronk there... Game over.

[cmarq83]

It's going to be tough for sure. Wilfork, Love, and Anderson are essentially going to have to be the difference for us to win. They have played great the past 2 weeks, and are starting to look like the foundation we need to turn this defense around.

I like our front 7 for the most part now, but obviously the secondary is still a ****show. It's officially at the point with McCourty now where I'd rather see him on the sidelines than on the field. He definitely cannot be a outside corner matched up in man vs. Nicks or Cruz.

Chung played pretty terribly too last game and routinely let guys get past him. Fortunately, against the Giants we don't have to worry about the rushing attack as much as we did against the Ravens and the Broncos, so hopefully we can keep Chung and the safeties out of the box.

[cmarq83]

Also, does anyone want to help me kidnap Bernard Pollard before next years game against the Ravens?

We need to keep that man far away from the Patriots.

[Jvig43]

The only thing I disagree with you about here cmarq is that I think the Giants can run the ball well, and if we sell out to stop Cruz, Nicks, Manningham Jacobs and Bradshaw are going to run all over us. Like I said, if we don't practice and play to the hardest and best of our ability for this chance we don't deserve it because this is the est thing Brady and BB could have asked for, going through the team that derailed our perfect season. + rep to you tho when I can rep people, I'm out for the next 24 hours.

[Nalej]

Most hated man in NE. Has to be. #Pollard

[Jvig43]

Yeah also we need to murder Pollard. It is really going to suck if Gronk isn't 100% for the superbowl in a couple weeks. I have no doubt he'll play but if he can play healthy is another story.

Also side note, did anyone watch first take this morning when they showed Gronk just blowing up Suggs all game? There was this one play where Gronk just hammered him right onto his ass and then ran his route. It was amazing.

[Nalej]

Originally Posted by Jvig43

Also side note, did anyone watch first take this morning when they showed Gronk just blowing up Suggs all game? There was this one play where Gronk just hammered him right onto his ass and then ran his route. It was amazing.

I didn't but now I have to

[Razor]

Link anyone? I remember saying that this was necessary for us to win. I love it when my analysis holds true, even though it doesn't happen very often... :(

[Blackluck]

My estimation of Terrell Suggs has gone way up.

[BradysKnee]

**** he's a beast.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATNd01-hlxE

[ElectricEye]

cmarq bringing good stuff yet again. I actually sort of like our offensive matchups on them the more I think about it. If we can get the ball out quick and into space, we should be able to move it pretty well. The no huddle was largely awkward an ineffective yesterday, but once again it could be a good way to neutralize some potential issues with the pass rush.

I said it earlier in the year, but I would really like to see the backs get involved a bit in the passing game and this would be a real good time to add that wrinkle in.

[BradysKnee]

Originally Posted by ElectricEye

cmarq bringing good stuff yet again. I actually sort of like our offensive matchups on them the more I think about it. If we can get the ball out quick and into space, we should be able to move it pretty well. The no huddle was largely awkward an ineffective yesterday, but once again it could be a good way to neutralize some potential issues with the pass rush.

I said it earlier in the year, but I would really like to see the backs get involved a bit in the passing game and this would be a real good time to add that wrinkle in.

You are right. We've very minimally used our RBs in the passing game this year.

I wouldn't count out the no huddle. I think most of that was Brady playing like ass.

[FlyingElvis]

That was just horrible to watch. From the minute they showed the graphic about the -7 yards through 3 Ravens possessions, I was in aneurysm mode. It was a constant loss of momentum and I just kept saying "first downs and field goals don't win championships." Then they finally scored and momentum was all Ravens. Then Woodhead fumbled and I wanted to cry.

Crazy swing . . .

Has the media been blabbering on and on about clock management and the wasted timeout by the Ravens? The coverage was . . . weird . . . with Simms saying the field goal unit was coming on but they were still showing replays of (HERO) Moore's plays to prevent a TD. Then they finally cut to live and Cundiff was rushing down from midfield to lineup with 15 seconds left on the play clock. By the time they were (hastily) set I was sure they'd just call a TO since the playclock was down to 5 seconds. I simply thought "definitely not a spot where you ice the kicker" and sure enough . . . awful FG attempt, missed kick, SUPER BOWL!!

Eli scares me with Nicks, Cruz and Manningham. But I think our offense can matchup well as long as we can contain the pass rush. This has the look of a shootout SB that will be eerily similar to 2008, with a last-possession-wins finale.

[ElectricEye]

The field goal thing is getting a lot of play on the radio. I didn't notice it live, I think I had my hands on my head or something, but apparently there was some confusion on the part of the Ravens. Cundiff sprinted out and only got set with like 2 seconds on the play clock. Might have been expecting us to ice him or something, but that never came.

[FlyingElvis]

That makes sense. The coverage made me think it was all fairly routine but then when they finally cut from the replay there was Cundiff hustling into position with precious few seconds left.

I was shocked they didn't call their last TO. And I honestly thought as it was happening that they were in serious jeopardy of ******* it up. Which somehow lead to me being even more highstrung in the last few ticks of that kick.

[ElectricEye]

Just a lot of things went wrong on that play before Cunfiff even missed it, between that and the confusion about what down it was. There was just some real bad situational football for both teams throughout the course of the game, between that whole issue for Batlimore and the drive for us before that one.


Smoke, mirrors, luck, and Vince Wilfrok was enough luckily.

[Jvig43]

I am going to start advocating now to get some running back and TE screens in here.

[FlyingElvis]

Vince was beastly, that's for sure. He was probably pissed off b/c he wasn't mentioned in the "best DE of the playoffs" thread.