Pats Pulpit: An SB Nation Community

Navigation: Jump to content areas:


Sports blogs for fans, by fans.
Around SBN: Follow the @sbnation MLB Twitter List

Game Review: Patriots @ Chargers

Moss-denied_medium

Ugly, very ugly.  I was looking at this as a litmus test: an away game against a good opponent and, historically, a big game for us.  Instead, the defense absolutely falls down, stupid penalties kill us, and the Offensive line simply stank up the joint.

But, the absolute worst set of downs, the 4 plays that would eerily define this entire game, was the failed TD drive.  Down 3-17, the Pats could've come within a touchdown of the Chargers.  Instead, they blew it at the goalline and SD would later score a TD, widening the lead to 21 points.

Offense

  • Cassel to Moss - Forget it for now.  It's simply not working.  I'm starting to believe it's not a lack of developing a relationship, but more Cassel's ability to get the ball to where only Moss can catch it.  He's consistently underthrowing.
  • Short passing game - Where was it?  Dump to Faulk.  Toss to Welker.  Forget the medium and long balls.
  • Offensive Line - Kaczur goes out and things turn from bad to worse.  Cassel was spending far too much time scrambling and he never had enough time to find his open guys.  Credit to the Chargers - their pass rush was relentless.
  • LaMont Jordan - We seriously missed Jordan tonight.  Case in point: goal line stance.  Jordan would've blasted right through that defensive line.
  • Jammer vs. Moss - Moss was rendered ineffective by Jammer; Randy just couldn't put it together.

Defense

  • Deltha O'Neal - Deltha was simply abused by Vincent Jackson.  He had no sense of where to be, like Jammer was with Moss.  The Chargers targeted him and it turned out to be the right move.
  • Pass Rush - Or lack thereof.  Pitiful, absolutely pitiful.  There was no pressure on Rivers and he was practically throwing at will.  Long, short, it didn't matter.  WRs were getting open and Rivers was hitting them.
  • Defensive Backs - Absolutely murdered by the long ball.  Deltha wasn't the only one falling down.  The Pats simply couldn't contain the Bolts' receivers and take the open field away from them.  They were running routes all over the place and caught our DBs flatfooted and unaware, almost as if there's was no film available on SD.

Like I said above, ugly, very ugly.  There will be lots of people hammering on Cassel.  He's one piece of the puzzle, albeit a fairly important piece.  It's as if there's no energy with Matt under center, no zip.  Gas up guys and fire up the supercharger.  This crap has got to end.

0 recs  |  Comment 4 comments |

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Display:

oi

Our inability to pressure Rivers was our defensive problem. I actually thought the secondary did an ok job considering Rivers had all freaking day to scan the field. On the two big Deltha passes, he did actually have his arms in the mess but wasn’t able to break it up, so I felt he at least was fighting for it.

I didn’t see many Belichick blitzes, so it’s possible that coaching shoulders some of this blame.

Cassel looked horrible…on the 4th and 1 Watson is wide open and he tries to run it in? Cassel seems to have lost confidence in his arm so he just runs instead of trusting his arms and his receivers hands. After the first step there were like 4 chargers on him. On the first play he could have probably scored on a bootleg to the right, but he looked left and then through the ball away. He just does not seem to see the field at all, so he just goes to dump passes because they are safe. He also holds on to the ball too much, refusing to trust his arm or throw it away or to a place where there is a low interception chance. I appreciate Brady more today that’s for sure.

I wanted to support him but I feel like his play was atrocious, when you compare him to Rivers he looked like he was in high school.

I felt our Oline did alright…the running game was generally good for not having good running back depth.

by Mainiac on Oct 13, 2008 12:00 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Protection was ok...

…I thought Matt had enough time back there, but just couldn’t make his reads fast enough. To me he looked utterly confounded sometimes, like he didn’t know where his primary was going to be. Growing pains, definitely, but usually with young QBs you see them just zero in on the primary and not see anyone else. Tonight he seemed to have trouble doing even that.

Though I felt the protection was good, I kind of thought the O-line really got dominated in the first half as far as run support goes. Morris was pretty patient, but it seemed like the holes never opened for him. It was painful to watch him run laterally a bit, just waiting to slash, and after a second having to just put his head down and hope for the best and invariably run into a wall of powder blue defensive tackle. I couldn’t watch the 4th quarter!

by jctsai12 on Oct 13, 2008 12:50 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

The defense

looked confused at times, definitely didn’t get any pressure on Rivers, and with the CB and S situation, PR ate our lunch and took our milk money. Matt still at times has that look and body language like the old dog on the Looney Toons: “Which way did he go, which way did he go?” He is having to learn so much, and I’m not talking about the playbook, he should have extensive knowledge of it, but I mean timing. The only way to get that game speed timing is to play as much as possible. He is still holding the ball a tad longer than he needs, but he got through some of his progression fairly well, just wasn’t anything there. Quentin Jammer put on a pro bowl performance against RM. I don’t know if the coverage was really that great or if Cassel’s ball placement by not getting the ball deep enough had an impact. Just my opinion, Cassel needs to try to overthrow RM and let him run to the ball instead of holding him up waiting on the ball. Getting Randy deep and completing the pass needs to be priority number this week and every week from here on out. Stretch the field, put them on their heels, put in the back of the defenders minds that you can cheat up if you want, but we are gonna burn ya on a long one every chance we get. I’m not ready to give up on these guys yet because I see tons of potential on both sides of the ball. We got to catch a break with the injuries though, or we aren’t going to have any bodies to replace our losses.

"Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory...lasts forever."-Shane Falco, "The Replacements"

by Ironman63 on Oct 13, 2008 5:54 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Randy Moss

didn’t free himself from Jammer only because he had to keep pace with Cassel’s underthrown passes. Rivers looked appropriately like a kid in a candy store — so many open targets to choose from, plenty of time to make a decision and look, the store managers aren’t even watching so I can take my candy for free!

Keep the faith!

by Marima on Oct 13, 2008 8:19 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Comments For This Post Are Closed


User Tools

A New England Patriots Blog Community Guidelines Commenting Guide
Start posting about the Patriots »

Join SB Nation and dive into communities focused on all your favorite teams.

FanPosts

Community blog posts and discussion.

Recent FanPosts

Picture_161_small
Joey Porter and Charlie Brown
Images_small
Ribbing Massachusets
12-22-07_1831_small
Ramblers, let's get rambling...
Small
The Hill's Week 9 Power Rankings
Belichick_2_small
Week 9 Power Rankings
Small
Pats play spoiler in weeks 10 and 12 (T.O. get your popcorn ready!)
Phinsider_s_small
Ask The Phinsider
Small
Check out NFL Fan in ENGLAND's pics from Pats game in LONDON baby!
Small
Who Will Replace Troy Brown (aka the Naked Patriot)?
Dalailama_large_small
17, 16, 10, 14, 20, 0, 7 - or why the outlook at the midway point is great

+ New FanPost All FanPosts >

Latest NFL Headlines from SB Nation

Field Gulls
Open College Football Thread
Mobile Live
Edgerrin James Messes With The Wrong Fullback
Mobile Live
Matt Hasselbeck's Square Wheels

SPONSORS


Managers

Patspulpit_small MaPatsFan