New England Patriots Links 12/21/09 - Thanks To Buffalo, Patriots Win One For The Road
by Marima on Dec 21, 2009 10:58 AM EST
in New England Patriots News
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PrintRandy Moss thanks his fans for their support after the game.
I'm gonna make it real brief. Y'all had all two weeks to do all y'all's talking. Let me do mine. It has been really a tough couple weeks but you move on. That is the nature of the game. I am happy that we got this victory and I appreciate all the support from [pause] my true fans, the players, the coaches, my family and loved ones and I have been in this league 12 years and I have been through a lot. These shoulders I have on my body you could put the earth on it. Just to let you know I bounce back. I appreciate it.
Tom Brady talks about the need to play more consistently.
I think at times this year we played pretty good football for spurts. It is a 60 minute game and doing that consistently has been a challenge for this team , for players, for leaders of this team , for coaches. We are just trying to find ways to make those critical plays, when we get in the red area we have to score touchdowns, on third down we have to convert. We didn't convert well in the second half we didn't have many points, we were on the sideline and couldn't sustain those drives. I was proud of that last third down. That was a big play for us to run out the clock there at the end. There just needs to be more of that.
Bill Belichick on the defensive scheme.
"We played a 3-4 most of the game. Our sub-defense, we used linebackers and six defensive backs. We were a little short on defensive linemen, so we let [them] concentrate on the running game, and our linebackers and that sub-group concentrate on third down and the pass rush."
"I thought we had good pressure on the quarterback for the most part. They've got good receivers and they were trying to throw a lot of screens on us. They hurt us on the screens in the first game, so I thought we reacted to them fairly well over all. They've got some really good skill players who are tough with the ball in their hands, and sometimes we had a little trouble tackling them."
"We tried to mix it up. We had a lot of different guys coming. We had some DB's and our linebackers try to stem the front and move it around a bit; just make them work to pick it up. Sometimes we got there, sometimes maybe we caught them a little off guard, or a little bit hesitant trying to figure out who's who."
TEAM TALK
- Game Notes: Patriots at Bills. Team and player milestones, records and achievements.
- Erik Scalavino offers his analysis of the Patriots' just-good-enough-to-get-by win in Buffalo.
- Post Game Pressers: Bill Belichick (6:14 min. audio), Tom Brady (6:38 min. audio), Randy Moss (35 seconds), Wes Welker (3:22 min. audio), Tully Banta-Cain (3:26 min. audio) Plus Transcripts.
- Patriots Post Game Quotes.
LOCAL LINKS
- Shalise Manza Young analyzes all phases of the game, concluding that the Patriots did just enough to win.
- Albert Breer focuses on the Patriots' success with their pass rush (did I just type that?), effectively confusing the Bills' QB and O-Line.
- Mike Reiss breaks down the defensive wrinkle that helped the Patriots beat the Bills. Adalius Thomas called it "organized chaos."
- Shalise Manza Young recaps the game, finding that order has been restored among the Patriots.
- Karen Guregian points out LB Tully Banta-Cain has been the club’s most consistest harrasser of opposing QBs this season.
- Albert Breer offers five quick hits from the Ralph.
- Christopher Price lists his ten things we learned yesterday.
- Albert Breer credits the defense coming up big when needed, and excessive penalties by Buffalo for the win.
- Duane Rankin says the Bills gift-wrapped a win for the Pats with yellow flags.
- Karen Guregian notes that Randy Moss clearly appreciated the support that poured in from his teammates and his true fans last week, contrary to the stance taken by the media.
- Kirk Minihane calls it redemption Sunday for Moss, Maroney and the Patriots defense.
- Monique Walker notes Wes Welker set a career high in receiving yards in a season.
- Mike Reiss looks at the snaps played by Patriots offensive skill position players in the team’s 17-10 win over the Bills. Ben Watson is on top with 52 of 59 snaps.
- Mike Reiss reports Adalius Thomas didn't doubt that he'd play this week and finished with three tackles.
- Ron Borges notes these Patriots are well aware of the Dolphins breathing down their necks.
- Mike Reiss presents his list of who's up and who's down in yesterday's win.
- Rich Thompson says the play of the game was Welker coming through, hauling in a crucial third-down pass late in the game to help the Patriots beat Buffalo for the 13th straight time.
- Ron Borges offers the best and worst of Sunday's win.
- Mike Reiss notes that while the Patriots are closing in on one of their first goals each year -- winning the division -- they aren't doing so convincingly.
- Mike Reiss breaks down the sub package and offers his analysis.
- Dan Shaughnessy digs his heels in with the Moss-is-a-dog mantra, and lauds the expertly played hand by Belichick and crew supporting Randy to keep him in the game. [Wonder how BB convinced Merill Hoge, Ron Jaworski and Greg Cosell to lie about their film study just to keep Randy happy.]
NATIONAL NEWS
- NFL Game Center: New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills. Recap, analysis, drive chart, stats and that nifty highlight video.
- Tim Graham (ESPN) Moss speaks little, says a lot.
- Tim Graham (ESPN) Trent Edwards goes in, down and out.
- Tim Graham (ESPN) $50K to bolt St. Louis? Fine with Incognito.
- Peter King (SI) MMQB: Cowboys win, Vikes lose, Tomlin's call makes Week 15 more compelling.
- Don Banks (SI) Week 15 Snap Judgments. Latest Bronco collapse, Big Ben's big day, and more.
- Andrew Perloff (SI) Week 15 Against the Grain: "Why won't the media rip Mike Tomlin as much for his late onside kick as they did Bill Belichick for going for it on fourth-and-two against the Colts"
- Matt Bowen (Nat'l Football Post) Sunday Rewind: Week 15.
VIEW FROM BUFFALO
- Sal Maiorana (Rochester D&C) Buffalo Bills fall to New England Patriots.
- Mark Gaughan (Buffalo News) Bills' popgun offense produces dud.
- Sal Maiorana (Rochester D&C) Buffao Bills' opening drive set bad tone.
- Allen Wilson (Buffalo News) Bills' secondary contains Patriots passing attack.
- Tim Schmitt (Niagara Gazette) Bills wear stare of humility.
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The sports media really are a bunch of hypocrates
1.) They don’t make a big deal out of Tomlin’s call and his “I didn’t think we could stop them” statement. Had Belichick said that everyone would be ripping him right now.
2.) The way they dealt with the Randy Moss issue is downright sickening.
I have no idea
why other fans think espn ‘loves’ the Pats. Perhaps because they give us attention, but the Pats don’t want god damn attention. Trust us, it sucks. The media wants us to be bad guys so they can create this bs drama everytime we appear to have cracks, and then everyone can have an orgy about the possibility of Belichick’s downfall. That’s their job, to create drama. It’s entertainment before news.
"These players, a lot of other people didn't believe in them, but they believe in themselves. And that is all that matters."- Bill Belichick
Welker's number would have been higher
When he was running across the middle, the was a linebacker who kept hitting him (within 5 of the LOS) and would knock him 2 yards off his route. That resulted in at least 3 miscues that I saw.
They were also holding him at the line (similar to the Saints). Sometimes they got away with it, sometimes they didn’t.
My life has been a trivial pursuit. Trivia: where three roads meet.
The more you know, the more you know that you don't know.
by SlotMachinePlayer on Dec 21, 2009 11:17 AM EST reply actions
2nd half
I don’t know if they just aren’t adjusting, or if the adjustments they are making just aren’t cutting it, but something is seriously flawed with the second-half play calling. It’s as if the coaches are brilliant during the week (resulting in generally good-to-great first half game plans), but somehow leave their thinking caps at home on Sundays.
I tend to think the issue, here, is experience – making good on-the-fly decisions comes with maturity and poise, which both directly result from experience. That explains why our offense has sputtered under the tutelage of O’Brien in the 2nd half.
With the defense, however, there’s no excuse. Pees is in his 4th year, and has been in the NFL a while. Belichick is also pretty active, I’m assuming, on the decisions made on that side of the ball. Although this week was better, holding a less-than-stellar offense to only a TD, there are still some real problems at the coaching level which this week’s W did little to assuage. I know Pees has never coached a defense that’s let up an average of over 20pts/game, but I really don’t believe that tells the whole story. The points come at the worst times, and that seems to be the result of failing to put players in the proper positions to make plays in the 2nd half.
On the defense
You do realize that the NE defense is 3rd in the league in pts allowed at a miserly 17.4?
Outside of the Saints game, where they really stunk (played WAY to soft on coverage) and the last period of the Colts game (when they had no depth at defensive line or linebacker and were just plain exhausted) the defense has played very well.
The defense is simply not the problem on this team.
In almost every game where this team has struggled, the problem can be directly attributed to the offense. Specifically the offense’ inability to move the chains in the second half. Turnovers by the offense have also directly contributed to opponent’s scoring or short fields leading to scores.
pass rush is the problem
BB believes in the front 7 to get to the qb. Secondary needs to good enough to hold on. Thats why BB doesn’t go in FA or the draft and get a top end CB/ S (except for Meriweather-b/c he is a ed reed style play maker). Thats why he didn’t spend millions to keep ASamuel and Ty Law.
That why he spent 35 million on useless AT and had to pay R Seymour when he held out in training camp.
you can have the best 2 CB and 2 SS/FS on the team, but if you have a useless front 7 that can’t get to the qb…your’re screwed.
look @ the Ravens, Steelers and the Giants
they all do/used to have an awesome front 7 and ok secondary (Ed Reed n the Hair are playmakers)
We need a Edge OLB then a 3-4 DE in the nxt draft.
Fire BabeParilli.
i loved the 0-6-5 prowl D and the 1-5-5- Prowl Defense
that should be the staple of our D on 3rd downs occasionally.
Fire BabeParilli.
hmm...
I am pretty sure staple and occasionally contradict :D
I understand what you are saying though… the prowl has worked well against us in the past, I am surprised it took so long for us to try it out
I wonder if that was a Belichick decision, not Pees
It certainly smelled Hoodie, especially since it was a roster-inspired move – the Pats just didn’t have the linemen to play the regular set.
Token southern hemisphere guy - 14,688km from Foxboro. That's 9128 miles, for you heathens.
by Comedic.Sans on Dec 21, 2009 4:36 PM EST up reply actions
Which begs the question
is Pees the right person at DC? If it took this much time, along with some Hoodie influence, to employ schemes that actually accentuate the strengths of the players we have on D, do we have the right guy heading up that unit?
I know all about how we have a great scoring D this year, and Pees has always presided over a great scoring D, but it just seems like there is something missing from the typical “bend-don’t-break” approach this year. There is just that little creative edge missing that was always there under RAC; that blitz call late in the 4th that seals the win, etc. Not saying Pees doesn’t run a generally excellent unit, but his play calling doesn’t seems to meet BB’s “60 Minutes” mantra.
Agreed
I don’t mind Pees’s regular scheme – it has been fairly successful at clamping down on scoring overall, something like third fewest points given up, and the Pats have played the Colts and Saints. That’s an achievement.
However, in those close games there are always turning points in which the team that can make the big play wins. Those always come up in playoff games, where the teams are matched up pretty well by the nature of finals football. The vanilla Pees-schemed defence hasn’t been great at coughing up turnovers or big 3rd- and 4th-down stops – that’s when I’d like to see those special Belichickian blitzes or zone overloads or every-guy-on-the-field-is-a-D-back plays. Pees is okay for 95% of the time, and the stats on defensive points reflect that. But in those games that are decided by a TD or less, it’s all about one big play, and that hasn’t happened thus far under the vanilla scheme. Pees might learn that – he is only new, after all, and a lot of it probably has to do with confidence – it’s a change from the bend-but-don’t-break that has worked pretty well thus far. But if Hoodie can make risky plays on offence, there surely must be some latitude sometimes to try it on D; especially when Hoodie is taking risk on offence because of a perceived lack of confidence in the D.
If Hoodie thinks his D will break in close games anyway, he might as well call a couple of risky plays when the D is on the field in close games. If Wilhite can’t quite cover Reggie Wayne, send him on a blitz or something.
Token southern hemisphere guy - 14,688km from Foxboro. That's 9128 miles, for you heathens.
by Comedic.Sans on Dec 21, 2009 5:29 PM EST up reply actions
It annoys me how everyone's saying the Bills gifted us a win...
…with their penalties. The vast majority of the yardage on the penalties were PI calls that prevented 2 TD passes. Instead of getting passing yards, we got penalty. Same result, different stat.
Hire OC.
by Richard Hill on Dec 21, 2009 4:08 PM EST reply actions 2 recs
But admitting that means that they can't:
a) Claim the Bills gifted the game to the Pats; and
b) Claim Brady had an awful game. Saying he threw for 100 yards means you get to knock him; claiming he threw for 100 yards and picked up another 100 in penalties means you can’t rip him.
Token southern hemisphere guy - 14,688km from Foxboro. That's 9128 miles, for you heathens.
by Comedic.Sans on Dec 21, 2009 4:21 PM EST up reply actions
or did we gift them the chance to almost win it - then take it away at the end?
If Brady didn’t hand the ball over to his buddy Shoebel earlier, the Pats wouldn’t have needed the Bill’s fumble at the end of the game.
Give-Take-Give-Take – s’ football!
This is a very key point
And there was another missed PI call on the pass down the sideline to Aiken that should have been called.
If not for the ‘cheatin’ Bills (heh heh) the Pats could have wracked up about 260 yds passing easy – which looks a lot more impressive than 115. :-)
Drawing PIs has sort of become part of the passing game these days (because it moves the chains forward) and arguably is one of those stats that should be added in when evaluating a WR – especially flankers. Poor defenders tend to HAVE to hack and pull at superior WRs. Sort of like foul calls in basketball.
I wonder if anyone tracks that?
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