Jack's Axe game tid bits/thoughts

First a couple Notes: Chad didnt start. The WRs were Branch and Welker, and Aiken as our #3 guy. Ridley didnt play. On defense Barret started next to chung, and Ras-I started opposite McCourty. At first guyton started, but was then pulled out on the 3rd defensive drive for Fletcher (yes!!!).

Offense dominant in almost every facet:

*Actually I should say EVERY facet. Miami had absolutely NO answers against our offense. TB12 dissected the miami's top 10 (on paper) defense, and our TEs shredded their secondary all day long. Hernandez was fantastic, and it seems Brady has chose his #2 welker. Gronk is continually showing me why he may be the best TE in the league. The guy is huge, great route runner, good speed, and soft hands. Both of them reminded me why TE's may be THE most important part of our offense (other than Brady).

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In other news, we rushed for over 100 yards people. Gotta love that RBBC. BJGE continues to show WHY he is great goal line back, and is very dependable runner, only he got 7 attempts for 34 yards (4.9 average).

*The bulk of the carries went to Danny Woodhead! The guy made great runs all game, picking up 69 yards on 14 carries (4.9 avg.). 

Branch had a great game, and shows why chemistry is very important Between a QB and his receiver. Both of them have been on the same page for most of the game, picking up great connections on important passes. He's JAG though right? Fine with that. Brady loves him, and I can see why.

*Mathew Slater made a name for himself with that one catch. He almost caught another, but the guy has speed, and underrated route running ability and body control.

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What;s funny is is that we only passed to our RB ONCE the entire game. our TEs and WRs picking up the work very nicely.

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Edelman does good on returns. But I feel that he is ALWAYS trying to make something out of nothing. And I'm worried he'll fumble the damn ball. But he is, after all, DANGEROUS in open space, and I'll cut him some slack of first game jitters.

*Oh yeah, and Welker is healthy, and doing work. Tom Brady and the Offense shows why they are THE #1 offense in the league. When they get going, they can nearly be unstoppable.

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Solder man handled Wake all game. He was a raw prospect, but Coach S. shows why he is the best OL coach in the league, and coached up solder into what looked like a dominant LT/RT. Our OL overall did great, keeping Brady up 90% of the time. Connely did a great job filling in for Koppen considering his matchups with a solid front 3 and NT. Waters did great as if he was in pro bowl form (except for perhaps a couple snaps and a penalty).

Defense making progress:

At first, we were all admittingly confused at how are defense was doing at the first possession. However, I will say that pretty much happened to ALL the defenses in the league. After that though, they displayed glorious amounts of pressure on Henne, and since some of us like sacks, we picked up 4 of them (1 Andre Carter, 1 Chung)1 Anderson, .5 for wilfrk and pryor). McCourty played alright. He gave up 3 big catches to Marshall but hey.... its freakin marshall. I believe one of our guys or BB called Marshall as a bigger Wes Welker (not as quick obviously). Overall he did solid.

*Ras-I did awesome. For a rookie, he blanketed Marshall all day long. I don't think Marshall caught more than 2 passes against him. Overall he did a solid job on Bess too. Fletcher did great subbing in for Guyton, who cannot get off of blocks to save his life (he was a big reason why we gave up runs and a pass or two on our first defensive stand). Barret did great as our starting safety. Henne could not pass in his direction, which can only be a good thing. He ended up with 4 tackles on the day.

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Big Al did amazing on the inside. Constantly getting pressure up the middle, and he and the rest of the DL causing holding penalties (I remember a play where two holding penalties were called on miami's OL). Pryor did great filling in for WIlfork and Haynes, and showed WHY I said on an email to a PFW post game show that Pryor is an underrated interior lineman.

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Miami could not run on Shaun Ellis. They hardly ever tried to run in his direction. Leading tackler is McCourty with 10 tackles, Chung with 9, and Mayo with 5. Bush was at first doing damage, than we responded well.

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Our special teams did great. Edelman did well on returns overall, and mesko is amazing at punting. Gostkowski had a missed field goal, but I dont really expect that to happen again for a looooooong time.