SNF BAL @ NE

[NateDawg]

Hard to count them out but I don't really see the Patriots in the playoff picture even after tonight.  Still a huge uphill battle. 

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

4 minutes ago, NateDawg said:

Hard to count them out but I don't really see the Patriots in the playoff picture even after tonight.  Still a huge uphill battle. 

zero percent chance they make it in

[Apparition]

5 minutes ago, AFlaccoSeagulls said:

zero percent chance they make it in

They currently hold tiebreakers over the Dolphins, Raiders and Ravens, which helps them a lot. They'd still need help making it but I "zero chance" seems like an exaggeration, especially since they seem to be well on their way to having ironed out the issues that plagued them earlier. 

[Troy Brown]

18 minutes ago, AFlaccoSeagulls said:

zero percent chance they make it in

lmao 

[Apparition]

Every remaining game for the Pats feels winnable IF they can maintain their current identity. Next week should be a layup, since the Texans can neither run the ball nor stop the run. But then after that is their toughest remaining game, against Arizona. 

I think it'll come down to their final three, which are all in the division. I think they'll be 7-6 going into that final stretch.

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

20 minutes ago, Starless said:

They currently hold tiebreakers over the Dolphins, Raiders and Ravens, which helps them a lot. They'd still need help making it but I "zero chance" seems like an exaggeration, especially since they seem to be well on their way to having ironed out the issues that plagued them earlier. 

Idk, I'm just not putting too much stock in this whole "we're turning it around!" narrative after beating the Jets and then beating the decimated Ravens in a monsoon. Patriots are a one-dimensional offense with virtually no defense to speak of, that's not a good recipe to climb a steep hill to even make the playoffs in the first place.

[Apparition]

7 minutes ago, AFlaccoSeagulls said:

Idk, I'm just not putting too much stock in this whole "we're turning it around!" narrative after beating the Jets and then beating the decimated Ravens in a monsoon. Patriots are a one-dimensional offense with virtually no defense to speak of, that's not a good recipe to climb a steep hill to even make the playoffs in the first place.

They've gotten a couple of their main pieces back on defense, with Guy and Butler. They should have Gilmore back next week as well. That will at least staunch some of the bleeding and allow them to use the kind of packages in the front-seven that they did when they were more successful stopping the run early in the season. The offense just needs to play mistake-free, which they're definitely capable of. It'll be frustratingly conservative, but they have enough talent at RB to grind out games, so long as Harris stays healthy.

Also, here are the rankings of their remaining opponents in rushing yards per carry and YPC allowed

HOU 26/31

ARI 2/23

LAC 19/29

LAR 14/6

MIA 32/28

BUF 25/25

NYJ 18/9

 

They should be able to move the ball on the ground effectively against most of these teams. The Rams will be tough, but I like their chances in that matchup because Jared Goff has looked like his rookie self every time he's gone up against the Belichick defense (and I'm including his game against the Dolphins this year in that). 

The biggest issue will be not falling behind by 2 scores. If they can manage that, I think they can win enough games to sneak in as the 6 or 7 seed. 

Edited November 16, 2020 by Starless

[diamondbull424]

Honestly Cam Newton should be commended, outside of the few games he dipped from COVID and missing practices, his impact on the Pats offense has been huge. I don’t know the stats on it, but in the three games I’ve watched this season of them, they’ve looked like a better offense than last season.

If only the defense were operating at a similar level. I think if 9 games somehow gets the AFC 7th card into the playoffs, they’ve got a strong shot at making the playoffs... in that scenario. I do think 10 wins will be the magical number though. We’ll see how it all plays out. Tough field in the AFC, a lot of competition that have different matchup bonuses and flaws to one another. A good team or two will still miss the playoffs, such a deep conference right now.

[Soko]

Highly doubt NE makes a run. There are five teams with 6 wins...that aren’t 1st in their division. A WC run is a looooong shot, IMO.
 

They have a better chance of winning the division on tie breakers than they do getting in as a WC, tbh. And even that would require both an insane run by the Patriots and some serious -ball dropping by the Bills/Dolphins. At best, I think this will be a fun long shot scenario come Week 16/17, where the Pats ultimately miss. 

Only possible change is if the playoff format gets jumbled into a bracket for some strange reason, but still, they’re way behind the eight ball.

[Hunter2_1]

4 hours ago, SkippyX said:

Just FYI, Big Ben came back from down 10+ to win in 2 of the last 3 weeks.

As someone pointed out earlier, if Jackson does that tonight it will be his first time ever.

Ben also has a couple of those shiny things you get for winning a bunch of playoff games in a row.

He's also top 10 in QB rating this year and his team is undefeated.

Lamar hater!

[Hunter2_1]

Massively surprised. Happy, but surprised (also $40 dollars lighter...)

 

Letting our run game do that to you isn't the greatest of shame, this does look like one of if not THE best OLs Bill has had, and Harris has really stepped up this year. I'm not about to blame Lamar for the loss, and I can excuse a few errand throws in that weather - what I don't understand is why you didn't run the ball down our throats all day long. Even if down by a score, run run run, we do not have an NFL calibre front 7. Attempting 34 passes in that weather is a head scratcher, for me.

I think we won because Baltimore took the ball off the ground, and we did the opposite, running very efficiently and picked up key yards when we needed to.

I DON'T think we are a playoff team, I just think this is a classic NE @ NE game coached by BB who got a blueprint from last season's a-whooping from the Ravens

[ChazStandard]

....wish I'd said this before they won, but I actually predicted the  Pats to win this one. Just a gut feeling.

[Hunter2_1]

Was that a bad game from Queen? I've seen him getting DROY buzz on here, but he looked like OUR linebacker. Assume just one of those days

[diamondbull424]

56 minutes ago, Hunter2_1 said:

Massively surprised. Happy, but surprised (also $40 dollars lighter...)

 

Letting our run game do that to you isn't the greatest of shame, this does look like one of if not THE best OLs Bill has had, and Harris has really stepped up this year. I'm not about to blame Lamar for the loss, and I can excuse a few errand throws in that weather - what I don't understand is why you didn't run the ball down our throats all day long. Even if down by a score, run run run, we do not have an NFL calibre front 7. Attempting 34 passes in that weather is a head scratcher, for me.

I think we won because Baltimore took the ball off the ground, and we did the opposite, running very efficiently and picked up key yards when we needed to.

I DON'T think we are a playoff team, I just think this is a classic NE @ NE game coached by BB who got a blueprint from last season's a-whooping from the Ravens

Nick Boyle is one of the best run blocking TEs in the league. His injury and not having a replacement backup shifts the personnel groupings. Furthermore the Ravens were having trouble moving the LOS in the run game. The RBs minus a Lamar only averaged 3.5 YPC rushing the football and kept putting us behind schedule. Passing the ball wasn’t the problem, but a solution. The one good thing Roman did in the game, even if he was somewhat forced into it with the injury to Boyle.

The problem wasn’t that we didn’t run the football enough, the problem was simply the OL. DJ Fluker was abused in pass protection, yes, but also was terrible in finding a hat to block in space before he got himself benched. Skura and Bozeman also had multiple reps lost in the run game.

And this is the second game in a row where Matt Skura’s errant snaps have been terrible. Last game Lamar kept Skura’s mistakes from ruining drives, but this game as anyone could see Lamar did all he could do to keep Skura from ruining the game, but Skura still managed to derail a drive that Lamar still found a way to overcome and score on and then Skura went on to completely destroy two other drives when the terrible direct snap to Ingram as well as the snap to Lamar when we had the momentum swing from a key defensive stop.

While the losers will blame Lamar for not “coming back” in this game. Each time he had the offense in position to do so, Skura snapped the ball with impossible ineptitude. I don’t know how today wasn’t one of the worst performances from an OL all season. Below average blocking plus consistently terrible snaps all game plus next level terrible snaps that led to a combined loss of roughly 30 yards and basically two critical downs. That was the problem. And whether we were running it or passing it those snaps impacted the quality of our execution all game long.

The one criticism I have of Lamar in this game is the same issue Baker dealt with in OBJ. Dealing with a WR that wants opportunities but isn’t actually as good as his ego would have him believe. After those Twitter comments Lamar has been making a concerted effort to force feed Hollywood Brown and his biggest mistakes have typically come when throwing passes into Brown’s direction since then. Brown is good, but not force feed good. Lamar needs to get back to just looking to pass to the open man as opposed to looking towards his boy for big plays to appease Browns ego.

[RavensTillIDie]

1 hour ago, Hunter2_1 said:

Massively surprised. Happy, but surprised (also $40 dollars lighter...)

 

Letting our run game do that to you isn't the greatest of shame, this does look like one of if not THE best OLs Bill has had, and Harris has really stepped up this year. I'm not about to blame Lamar for the loss, and I can excuse a few errand throws in that weather - what I don't understand is why you didn't run the ball down our throats all day long. Even if down by a score, run run run, we do not have an NFL calibre front 7. Attempting 34 passes in that weather is a head scratcher, for me.

I think we won because Baltimore took the ball off the ground, and we did the opposite, running very efficiently and picked up key yards when we needed to.

I DON'T think we are a playoff team, I just think this is a classic NE @ NE game coached by BB who got a blueprint from last season's a-whooping from the Ravens

Having a low grade, less than healthy center and having to reshuffle a bunch on the O-line due to a combination of injury and underperformance is probably the major culprit for the deviation from the run game. Though the Ravens tend to do that even when completely healthy due to the ineptitude of our OC. Also, behind a porous O-line, one of the worst things you can have is a three headed attack at RB. Edwards was clearly our most effective downhill runner, especially considering the weather, but out of loyalty to the veteran we kept giving touches to a returning, but largely ineffective Ingram. And while Dobbins may be our most talented runner, when all his play calls are easily telegraphed runs to the outside, it's easy to sniff out for the opposing defense.

Excuse the pun, but this really was just a perfect storm of crap for the Ravens. Between injuries, lack of distinguishable talent at the skills positions, and an inept, unimaginative offensive coordinator, the Ravens 100% have problems. Some of which are unlikely to be resolved this season. However, taking out the elements beyond our control, such as the weather. And with the likes of key defensive players such as Campbell, Williams, LJ Fort, and Jimmy Smith healthy. If we replace our center or at the very least shift him to guard, I think this Ravens team, even with its many flaws can compete with just about any team currently in the NFL.