Surveying The Damage
Well I’m sure it’s going to be open season on the Pats now. Every Tom, Dick and Harry are going to be dissecting this team and trying to figure out what needs to be fixed. So I might as well save everybody a lot of time and energy and tell you what has to be done. Forget about blaming this on any one player or any one part of this team. It’s not just Brady or the play calling or the defense that needs to be fixed per se. Instead it’s about a philosophical shift that needs to take place. The Patriots have gone from being a defensive punch you in the mouth type of football team to a finesse football team. I’m not sure if this was a conscious or subconscious decision, but somewhere along the way we decided that it was more important to give Brady weapons to throw and scoring 900 points a game than being physical. Don’t get me wrong I love Wes Welker and Randy Moss. I loved watching us go 16-0 and setting all sorts of scoring and TD records. But every time we play a tough ass team we struggle. Even during the 16-0 season. It used to be the exact reverse around here. We were the tough ass team that would come in and stomp on the fancy QB and win by running the ball and managing the game.
And when push comes to shove that’s still what wins 9 out of 10 times in the NFL. Sure you’ll have the The Greatest Show on Turf, and a couple teams like that have success from time to time, but over the long haul it’s the physical style that generally wins out. That’s how we won our 3 superbowls. That’s how Pittsburgh won their superbowls. By beating the exact type team we have become. So it’s not just about signing a certain player or having Brady play better. It’s about the style of play. Brute force wins. Who fucking cares if the offense doesn’t click on all cylinders or look sexy? You can’t be a pass happy team and still maintain a physical identity at the same time. It just doesn’t work. Let’s get back to what made us a dynasty to begin with. Smash mouth football. They type of football that Belichick is famous for. Enough with keeping Brady and the offense happy with big names. It’s time to go back to what wins.
PS – I absolutely don’t buy into the argument that we shouldn’t have let Seymour and Vrabel go. Assante Samuel may be a different story, but the facts are this defense was getting old. We need new blood. We need new Vrabels, new Harrison’s and new Bruschi’s. Hopefully we’ll use the Seymour draft pick to help find one of those guys. My point is that an emphasis was made on giving Brady weapons and developing the offense to compete with Peyton Manning after we lost to Indy in the AFC Championship game. That was a mistake. WR’s should never be a priority. It should have been about rebuilding the aging defense right then and there. And right now the focus has to be on getting away from the spread, pass happy offense and back to punching people in the face.
So everyone was ripping me over the season when I said multiple times that they would win a weak division and be one-and-done….
” 5mm you don’t know what you’re talking about…”
“5mm you are the biggest idiot on this board…”
“5mm you have no clue”
Apologies accepted
Listen, you can’t expect them to win the superbowl every year. Every Pats fan should be riding Brady and Belichick’s jock for the job they did the past 9 years. Unfortunately for the Pat’s fans, all good things must come to an end, and it did. This team is no longer the force they were and it will be a while before they are again. So, do whatever it is you do with your duckboats, you won’t be cueing them for the Pats for a long time…..
It was truly amazing to see how quickly that game got out of control: watching Matt Light play footsie with Terrell Suggs, Brady making uncharacteristic intereceptions (not Ed Reed – I mean Carr’s), and watching every single screen play in the first quarter get blown up – it was pretty miserable
We looked cold, nervous and unprepared and I think you’re on the money EP, we lost our physical mentality completely, and not just on defense. This draft should be a good one for us and I’d be shocked to see the Pats draft any RB/WR/TE/QBs at all in the first 5 rounds.
We got punched in the mouth and went down like a sack of potatoes
BB should get some credit for getting a 10-6 team out of this mess. Seriously. At the beginning of the season, they had Welker at hit and miss (he missed two games at the start of the year), Brady coming off of surgery, and a patchwork defense (given, it was their own creation.)
But the NFL eats its own young. If you don’t change, you will get eaten. They had to get rid of Vrabel and Seymour and all those older guys. They need younger guys, with smaller cap numbers. Simple as that. Especially when we are approaching an uncapped year.
As far as “is the Patriots run over?” I would say all links to the “Patriot Run” probably died in Denver, 2006. For god’s sake, after that, it’s been a different team. In case anyone forgot, THEY DIDNT MAKE THE PLAYOFFS LAST YEAR! I’d say that ends a “run,” wouldn’t you?
They don’t really have a LOT to fix. They need one or two veterans on Defense, and they need a WR. I think it’s clear that Donte Stallworth and Jabar Gaffney were a lot better than we all thought.
Brady will actually get a chance to work out in the offseason, the DB’s will be better (or they’ll be gone), and I think they go like 11-5 next year.
As far as reinventing themselves and becoming a “smashmouth” team, you get what you get. They draft players, and they coach them to their strengths. You can’t FORCE guys to be a certain type of player, and you certainly can’t force 11 guys on one side of the ball to be a certain way. It would be like trying to make KG a tough, under the basket, grind-it-out type guy, when that’s not what he is. So you take his abilities (high post passing, jumpshooting, pick setting, run-the-offense through) and you work with it. If they get aforementioned smashmouth guys, then that’s what type of team you get.
I don’t think they are that far off. I think that in BB’s eyes, this was a transition year and they did much better than they thought. He will NEVER say that, but it’s pretty obvious you don’t get rid of 6 starters, some of them two weeks before the season starts (Seymour), and then expect to be contenders.
I would have kept Vrabel and Seymour on for this year. This team lacked veteran leaders like those guys. All and all, Belichick had rough offseason this past year and just a bad year in general coaching.
Agreed on getting back to smash mouth football though. I’d say bye to Moss and Maroney. On offense, we need more guys like Faulk, Welker and Edelman. They typify our old style of offense. We need a reliable young back that can get the tough yardage as well.
On defense, AD is gone, Vince may be gone too but I’d do anything to bring him back. We have to get deeper at LB and I’m hoping Mayo returns to his rookie year form with a healthy knee next season.
This team needs a lot of work but I am sick of getting pushed around by tougher teams. Baltimore punched us in the mouth and we had no response. It was pretty depressing.
The thing that makes it sting a little worse is that The Jets kind of fit the model EP was talking about (running the ball, smashing people in the mouth, control over finesse). The Pats lost the swagger on D this year, noone feared going over the middle anymore on this team. I’m a loyal Pats fan but I have to admit Sanchez and Fatty Ryan have a brighter future right now than Brady and BB with all the defincies and lack of tough playmakers.
As much as this might’ve been an obvious rebuilding year, I don’t think anyone expected the total breakdowns that they had on both sides of the football.
As far as playing players to their strengths- what about Thomas? I would bet anything he would’ve been productive in his usual position as an outside rusher…or really anywhere but where BB had him. That’s only one example…what I don’t understand is why BB continued to run players in positions they didn’t perform well in, when other options were available.
I think I agree with pres here…a total attitude shift is going to have to happen for them to be really competitive again. They’ve actually shown glimpses of being a pretty physical team on defense this season, albeit it was early on. And for the love of God, please replace Kaczur permanently with Vollmer.
BTW-Flacco’s line? 4-10, 34 net passing yards. We got beat by a guy who threw the ball for 34 yards….Yet, they were able to go 10-16 on 3rd down. Which means that out of the 16 times they had 3rd down, the Pats defense, despite giving up only FOUR completions ALL DAY, couldn’t stop them 10 times. So the defense played great, but the numbers also lie…As far as Moss goes, in THIS game, he was the best player on the field statistics wise. He caught 5 passes for 48 yards, which is more than all the other Ravens receivers combined and more yards than all the other Ravens receivers combined. Same thing for Endleman, and he had two TD’s to boot.
The problem going forward just may be the team’s ability to attract and keep talent. So strap on your hard hat, this may take some time to turn around.
Player’s had come here over the past few years for a shot at a title and without that….and working with a front office that shows little or no loyalty by trading guys; not working on contract extensions easily and treating players like interchangeable pieces… combined with a coach that does very little to foster a positive / cooperative environment…. Added to a pretty shaky drafting resume….This just may take some time to turn around.
And oh yeah, I’m an idiot that doesn’t know what I’m talking about – for the rest of you football ‘experts’, spring training is right around the corner.
Oh yea, and let’s not forget about the dissapointment that was Jonathan Wilhite. How he ever got as much playtime as he did blows my mind.
If you look at this franchise at a more macro level, you will realize that the Pats have only had four seasons, since 1960, worthy of admirable discussion.. Hardly consistent and hardly worth a breath in the discussion of the leagues most dominant franchises.
RIPPED OFF WAS TAKING HOMER SIMPSON OFF THE SITE!!!
BRING BACK HOMER!
BRING BACK HOMER!
BRING BACK HOMER!!!!
PLEASE!!!
Everyone is missing the obvious here: Gazelle had a kid, what, a month ago? Let me tell you, when you come home at night from a hard day’s work, and your formerly spectacular, now busted wife is shoving a screaming baby at you, telling you you ruined her life, she gets no sleep, you don’t help, why did you do this to her, etc etc. It messes with your life. Now JET Moynahan didn’t bother Lucky Tom because Bridgy had the kid and thats the last he ever saw him. Outta site, outta mind. But Giz got him married up and is waiting there every night. Tommy boy probably hasn’t gotten laid in the better part of 3 months, either. He’s probably starting to check out Matt Light at the line as a viable partner and questioning his sanity in general.
As a Jets fan, I can only hope he continues to swirl down the drain, but I have a feeling he’ll bounce back next year.
agree with EP 100%, they need to get tougher on both sides of the ball. BB also needs some help, I think he has bitten of more than he can chew, they need a good experienced OC and let BB worry about the D.
5mm- you really think that they will have a tough time bringing in FA?
as long as Brady and Belichick are here this is still a destination for veterans that want to win
EP sounds like you want a team with the number one rush offense, number one defense, shut down corner, a huge swag about them and, oh yeah, still in the playoffs… plenty of room on the rex ryan bandwagon… (that was figuratively because literally that dude would take up all the room)
If I can fit it in my schedule, I can spend 15-20 minutes a week doing a write-up on this team. I think it would put more people at ease by seeing reality rather than the WEEI rah, rah crap-o-la.
Those guys think the Pats are playing the Chargers this week.