New England Patriots @ Buffalo Bills Wild Card Round

[biggie.]

1 hour ago, mission27 said:

Tbh I really don't know what happened to this team.  What a weird season.  Slow start was understandable but the way they came together in October and November, the collapse in December and this embarrassing loss are pretty shocking.  I wasn't Super Bowl or bust by any means.  But what happened after week 13?

We stopped playing bad teams.

[The Third Rider]

7 hours ago, Hunter2_1 said:

Route running is subpar because the wide receivers are bottom 3 or 4 in the league as a corps

Also teams now, especially Buffalo, know to stick to our receivers like glue because Mac isn’t good vs man coverage. Last time he has a rating of 17. Against man coverage. 
 

it’s no wonder, really. It’s like asking a fiesta to keep a Porsche behind him on a freeway 

Separation is one thing but these guys were dropping passes while also being wide open, it was infuriating.

 

1 hour ago, mission27 said:

Tbh I really don't know what happened to this team.  What a weird season.  Slow start was understandable but the way they came together in October and November, the collapse in December and this embarrassing loss are pretty shocking.  I wasn't Super Bowl or bust by any means.  But what happened after week 13?

The reason is because they started playing good teams down the stretch. They were still steam rolling bad competition like the Jags but when they had to match other teams of the same caliber they quickly fell apart.

[Crimmage]

37 minutes ago, The Third Rider said:

The reason is because they started playing good teams down the stretch. They were still steam rolling bad competition like the Jags but when they had to match other teams of the same caliber they quickly fell apart.

I think this is exactly it. 

 

Good teams consistently beat bad teams. The Patriots this year were a good team because they beat up on bad teams. Good teams also lose to other good teams sometimes because they aren't great teams ( Dolphins / Colts). 

They lost to great teams ( Bucs / Cowboys / Bills) because they aren't at that level yet. The Bills have a super bowl roster and a super bowl QB.. but they are inconsistent which is their biggest issue. If they were consistent they would be a no brainer to be in the Super Bowl imo. I will be super interested in seeing what could happen next year if they lose both their OC and DC though. I don't think their HC is that great.. if they had a great HC they wouldn't be this inconsistent. 

 

This Roster needs more talent and time together being that so many new pieces were added this season. They are still trying to play catchup from having ~5 years straight of mediocre to terrible drafts. This draft was great, last years is still up in the air.. they need 1-2 more GREAT drafts to be able to be a super bowl contender 2 years from now imo. 

 

The other key is this coaching staff needs major help. The top guys are stretched too thin.. BB needs to hire some more people from the outside to help out .. the 1st quarters being horrendous is 100% coaching. Other teams out coached them on opening scripts. Joe Judge is just the start.. they need to bring him back to help on special teams. They never replaced Chad O'Shea being the redzone guy either.. the league has no cap for coaches and BB seems to always have one of the smallest staffs in the league. 

[mission27]

8 minutes ago, Crimmage said:

I think this is exactly it. 

 

Good teams consistently beat bad teams. The Patriots this year were a good team because they beat up on bad teams. Good teams also lose to other good teams sometimes because they aren't great teams ( Dolphins / Colts). 

They lost to great teams ( Bucs / Cowboys / Bills) because they aren't at that level yet. The Bills have a super bowl roster and a super bowl QB.. but they are inconsistent which is their biggest issue. If they were consistent they would be a no brainer to be in the Super Bowl imo. I will be super interested in seeing what could happen next year if they lose both their OC and DC though. I don't think their HC is that great.. if they had a great HC they wouldn't be this inconsistent. 

 

I hear what you're saying, but they came very close to beating the Bucs and Cowboys, they beat the Bills in Buffalo a month and a half ago, and they steamrolled the number 1 seed in the AFC back in November.  They were competitive with good and great teams all year. 

The team that took the field last night or against Indy or against the Dolphins was not competing at anywhere close to the level of the team that lost to Tampa Bay, Dallas, or went on a 7-0 run.  Its more than just tougher competition. 

It reminds me of years the Pats fell apart because of a few key injuries, but the team stayed relatively healthy this year.  It feels like a lot of players got tired down the stretch or lost confidence in the team or something.

[Crimmage]

1 minute ago, mission27 said:

I hear what you're saying, but they came very close to beating the Bucs and Cowboys, they beat the Bills in Buffalo a month and a half ago, and they steamrolled the number 1 seed in the AFC back in November.  They were competitive with good and great teams all year. 

The team that took the field last night or against Indy or against the Dolphins was not competing at anywhere close to the level of the team that lost to Tampa Bay, Dallas, or went on a 7-0 run.  Its more than just tougher competition. 

It reminds me of years the Pats fell apart because of a few key injuries, but the team stayed relatively healthy this year.  It feels like a lot of players got tired down the stretch or lost confidence in the team or something.

Sticking around with great teams is a sign that you are a good team.. the same with getting blown out by great teams.. it's the flip of a coin. This last month they fell apart though, I agree. I think it will be interesting to see if we hear about any disfunction or anything related to the biweek. Maybe being a young team they got too cocky during the break and just never had time to pick up all the pieces. I'd blame the coaching staff for that too tbo. 

 

The first game against the Bills really shouldn't count given the conditions. That game was made for the Patriots to win. No excuses but can be noted that the Bills were all healthy.. and the Patriots had a bunch of injuries. Maybe if they didn't they would have gotten a couple field goals.. maybe even a punt! 

 

Regarding the defense, some thoughts:  

- The DL is average at best.. Barmore if he keeps his work ethic will be elite.. but he was also injured. I didn't even expect him to play. Lawrence Guy is getting up their in age too so he could be a concern moving forward. 

- Davon Godchaux isn't the player they thought he would be .. he isn't a NT .. he doens't help the run and even admitted that he prefers playing DE. They need to find a poor mans Vince Wilfork.  

- Judon only played 20 snaps.. he wasn't the same since the bi week.. maybe an injury we didn't know about? We can only hope he isn't Chandler Jones and falls off after the first half of the season. 

- BB's love of 260 pound LB's needs to end.. thankfully Mcgone is 230 and Uche is very athletic. How does Uche go from being amazing in training camp to falling off the map. He needs to play significantly next season or that's another 2nd round bust. 
- Bentley is slow.. KVN is slow.. the Bills are a TERRIBLE matchup for this defense given how good their receiving corp is. This LB group needs to be totally revamped. 

- Hightower and McCourty seemed to get worse as the season went on.. as players on the wrong side of 30 you can understand that it can be tough for them to keep up this late in the season

- Dugger had a club hand.. he missed last week and fought to get through this one. I respect that and can understand that he wasn't 100% 

- No Mills hurt the secondary.. he isn't an elite CB.. but he isn't a practice squad guy either.. he played A LOT better this season than I expected. 

- Myles Bryant did as well as you can ask .. but John Jones is a 4.3 guy that can keep up with McKenzie.. you can't expect Bryant to keep up with a 4.3 WR one on one

[Hunter2_1]

3 hours ago, mission27 said:

Tbh I really don't know what happened to this team.  What a weird season.  Slow start was understandable but the way they came together in October and November, the collapse in December and this embarrassing loss are pretty shocking.  I wasn't Super Bowl or bust by any means.  But what happened after week 13?

Started playing good teams?

nah it’s more complicated than that. The way we made Brady’s life awful up here in October, you’d think we’d offer more resistance to BUF, MiA and IND. the defense dropped off bad

[SBLIII]

1 minute ago, Hunter2_1 said:

Started playing good teams?

nah it’s more complicated than that. The way we made Brady’s life awful up here in October, you’d think we’d offer more resistance to BUF, MiA and IND. the defense dropped off bad

Defensively we were an absolute and utter joke post bye week.

Reasons, 

1) Judon dropped off a cliff and we simply have just this one pass rusher

2) Hightower looks really old and needs to retire and be gone

3) The Dugger injury.

[Hunter2_1]

1 minute ago, SBLIII said:

Defensively we were an absolute and utter joke post bye week.

Reasons, 

1) Judon dropped off a cliff and we simply have just this one pass rusher

2) Hightower looks really old and needs to retire and be gone

3) The Dugger injury.

With this game, I think we were noticeably scared of Allen running. I think that hampered our pass rush.

But as for other games. I really don’t know what happened.

[Hunter2_1]

I heard that the Bills offensive performance is the best in NFL history against a top 5 ranked D by DVOA.

we just got done by one of the greatest performances in NFL history. Just take your hat off.

[SBLIII]

Just now, Hunter2_1 said:

With this game, I think we were noticeably scared of Allen running. I think that hampered our pass rush.

But as for other games. I really don’t know what happened.

I think they are just old and slow.

I hope people start to realize these savy vets, playing smart, tough etc.

These statements and cliches are just getting old.

The Patriots need real, elite talent in the front 7 on defense.

[Hunter2_1]

3 minutes ago, SBLIII said:

I think they are just old and slow.

I hope people start to realize these savy vets, playing smart, tough etc.

These statements and cliches are just getting old.

The Patriots need real, elite talent in the front 7 on defense.

We need fast LBs something chronic, yes.

There won’t be another, but someone in the mould of Parsons would be ideal. Or even…Deion Jones (?) that freaky fast ATL lb. 

[SBLIII]

3 minutes ago, Hunter2_1 said:

We need fast LBs something chronic, yes.

There won’t be another, but someone in the mould of Parsons would be ideal. Or even…Deion Jones (?) that freaky fast ATL lb. 

sheit, the Packers transformed their defense with Devondre Campbell.

Either way, there needs to be something figured out. Bentley or Hightower are not the solution for next year.

[Crimmage]

2 minutes ago, Hunter2_1 said:

We need fast LBs something chronic, yes.

There won’t be another, but someone in the mould of Parsons would be ideal. Or even…Deion Jones (?) that freaky fast ATL lb. 

- Uche and McGrone are fast.. we should use them lol ( McGrone was injured, so I don't blame them there) 

- Ronnie Perkins has a lot of potential.. hopefully he can at least split snaps with KVN

 

- You can let BB resign Bentley for cheap to be his leader / Thumper then draft one more fast LB to totally revamp the LB Corp in an offseason. 

[Hunter2_1]

5 minutes ago, Crimmage said:

- Uche and McGrone are fast.. we should use them lol ( McGrone was injured, so I don't blame them there) 

- Ronnie Perkins has a lot of potential.. hopefully he can at least split snaps with KVN

 

- You can let BB resign Bentley for cheap to be his leader / Thumper then draft one more fast LB to totally revamp the LB Corp in an offseason. 

Wasn’t Uche a pure pass rusher in college? I fear he will be exposed taking over Hightower/Bent’s position: they’re mostly in the centre of the field calling shots and reacting. 
 

maybe he’s had more time at ILb than I’m remembering, but I say he is categorically not the answer.

excited to see McGrone though. He’s very aggressive

[Crimmage]

4 minutes ago, Hunter2_1 said:

Wasn’t Uche a pure pass rusher in college? I fear he will be exposed taking over Hightower/Bent’s position: they’re mostly in the centre of the field calling shots and reacting. 
 

maybe he’s had more time at ILb than I’m remembering, but I say he is categorically not the answer.

excited to see McGrone though. He’s very aggressive

If I recall correctly he also played some inside in college and that's part of why BB wanted him so badly. Versatility. He has been a great pass rusher, the problem has been setting the edge ( similar to Winovich) which has caused him to get benched. Funny thing about that.. Judon was pretty bad at that too .. and we noticed his snaps lower the last few games of the season too, so guys are going to need to figure out how to keep the QB contained in the pocket while pass rushing or they won't play on this team. 

 

I also think that Perkins was drafted to be KVN's replacement, if they already had Uche to be KVN's replacement.. why draft Perkins? 

 

I don't necessarily think Uche is the answer to be full time ILB but if he can split time inside with Bentley ( because he's so slow) that would really help.. along with splitting time on the outside to keep guys fresh. 

 

I still think they need one more LB to replace Hightower. I doubt another team pays Bentley big money and BB will want to keep him because of his leadership and thumper qualities. If he is cheap i'm ok with that.. but he is not a 3 down guy.