I think we need to find a little balance here in regards to last nights game. First Id like to take a look at the positives, which there were several incase some of you missed them.
Chad Henne - I was initially going to post about how Henne played pretty well. But, the more I have thought about it today, Chad Henne played ****ing great. I mean, lets just be real about it. The guy did a solid job. Aside from the redzone area on a few occasions and a couple minor errors at other points in the game, he was pretty much outstanding.
Here's what stood out to me about Chad Henne last night...... This isnt about stats at all. What was impressive was how I finally saw Chad Henne throwing some absolute STRIKES. The guy was throwing balls to open receivers, hitting them in full stride, and giving playmakers a chance to really do damage after the catch. Ive been wanting to see this from Henne for so long and the guy showed it to me.
Now, before we get carried away, just being real, it does matter that it was New England. We all know their defense is by no means great and Henne has had some decent games against them before. We must also be real and recognize that a chunk of that yardage came during times in which we trailed by 2 scores. When you couple that with the fact the Pats knew they could pretty much answer any score we produced if they needed to, you could understand their lack of concern about Henne piling up yardage.
However, none of that takes away from the fact that Henne's ball placement was as sharp as we have ever seen it. When you mix in the fact he looked more confident(at least to me he did) than we have seen in the past and stepped up like a leader out there, you cant help but consider that perhaps he has the potential to have a pretty good season and make a case to hang around with the phins longer than we expected following last season.
I loved Henne's enthusiam when he ran in the first score of the evening. He looked like he really wanted that score and it meant a lot to him. Good for Chad. Thats the kind of fire we have all been wanting to see. On top of that, how about all of the nice throws he made to deeper ranges of the field? The guy was dropping in some nice throws at different angles in the 20-30 yard range. Thats definately a positive sign.
As far as his redzone play, it wasnt horrible but definately could improve. To be fair, the guy was hampered with no threat of a rushing attack around the goal, and a couple of horrible play calls that made me wish Dan Henning were the redzone OC. I still dont grasp the 20 yard low percentage throw in an attempt to score it from 2 ft away.
Brandon Marshall - Feed the ****ing BEAST! With Henne throwing strikes and actually going downfield more, look for this guy to have a monster season that he was used to having in Denver. If we can just start getting this guy the ball more in the redzone, he will be a lock for Hawaii.
Jared Odrick - It was good to see this guy out on the field and contributing. It wouldve been real nice to see him and the rest of the DL actually generate some push and keeping Brady from having a field day, but at least we know this guy is going to be out there and have a chance to make an impact this year.
Anthony Fasano - You guys have to stop hating on this dude so hard. Ive seen plenty of threads giving Henne props on his game, but no one is talking about some of the nice catches and big plays Fasano had that kept us around for a little more than a half. Fasano isnt the greatest TE in the league, the dudes decent. He will have his bad games and a couple drops here and there, but what non great TE dosent? Fasano is a pretty solid piece of this offense and deserves more respect than he gets.
Now lets get to the worst part and do what must be done...... talk about the negatives.
The coaching staff - Sparano showed some balls on that first drive, passing on a fist pump and we wound up getting in the endzone. However, at 21-14 and considering how NE's offense was going, a FG on 4th and goal even from the 2 yard line, much less the 1 and a half was just gutless and more importantly, not smart. We needed that TD there. Besides, if we didnt get it, they were at least backed up. We were going to need another stop even if we kicked the FG. Either way, a stop was unlikely, so why not roll the dice and go for the tie. In a normal game, it might not have been a bad option to take the 3, but with us being fortunate to keep the Pats out of the endzone the few times we did at that point, it made no sense to kickoff to them down by 4.
What baffled me even more was the play selection on that sequence. I had no problem with the pass on 2nd and goal. However, once you almost get picked off there, you need to realize how important it is we score a TD in that spot. The optimal call on 3rd and goal from the 1 and a half, even if the D knows its coming, is a traditional rushing play. That way, even if you only gain half of the distance, you know you can go for it again on 4th down. Hell, even some kind of rush to the outside with Bush wouldve been a better option. Let him swing it out and try to pick a hole and burst up in there. If he loses 3 or 4 yards on a play like that, you kick a FG anyway on 4th.
So I didnt understand passing it on 3rd down in that spot. I wouldve even just went with a QB sneak. If I dont get in, I know Im not losing yardage with that play and I sneak it again on 4th. The play on 1st down made it evident that despite his size, Solial is no FB. He stood his guy straight up, but he needed to plow through. Bush just ran right up his backside and that stopped him because thats pretty much like running into a brick wall. Scratch that idea in the future. If we had just resigned Ricky, we couldve avoided the problem of not having a goal line area RB.
Overall, Daboll is an upgrade because I like how we try to attack, but his goal line play selection bothered me last night, even considering we were handicapped as far as having a nice redzone RB.
Lastly on the coaching, was it just me or did our team seem unprepared to play a 60 min game? I know our D was ran all over the place by Brady and his slew of WRs, but the entire D was cramping up. We finally started getting a little pressure on him in the 2nd qtr and the beginning of the 3rd, but once those guys got tired that came to an end at it was back to Brady shreading like he was in the 1st qtr.
The defense - Its not an excuse, but you folks do realize that Tom Brady will shread other defenses besides ours right? Sure, probably not to the tune of 500 yards every week, but it is Tom Brady. The dude is lazer precise out there. If you dont pressure him, he is going to destroy you. Its really that simple. That guys mechanics are flawless and he runs that offense like a well oiled machine.
But, yea there is really no way to excuse the performance of the D last night. They were beaten like a drum by the TEs all night just like last season. The pass rush was non-existant aside from a couple points in the middle of the game. The secondary made blunder after blunder in angles they took and plenty of guys missed tackles that wouldve prevented huge gains. That missed tackle Burnett had comes to mind. How bout the angle the safety took on the 99 yard play.(btw, did you notice how perfect of a throw that was? without the combination of a perfect throw and the safety taking a poor angle, that play dosent happen. Brady threw that thing in an absolute perfect spot, hitting Welker in stride and allowing him to make a simple stiff arm to take it the distance) If the safety takes an angle back down the field as opposed to coming up and in, he is at least in a position to try and make that tackle after the catch. Instead, he took himself right out of the play.
Basically, the defense was a ****ing joke all the way around. Woodhead and Green-Ellis had their share of production running the ball as well. Im sure they had a nice avg. per carry.
To look on the brightside, you know we had a good D last year. And yet, that defense had a few games where they gave up a lot of points. NE games come to mind. Its not like we shut down a bunch of power offenses last season. We did a good job in GB, but they had injuries and werent really clicking like they were at seasons end when we beat them.
I look for this defense to still be a pretty good group. We will perform well against teams like the Jests, Browns, Raiders, Broncos, Skins..... you know.... teams with average to bad offenses. We will have more problems with high powered offenses like NE and Houston. Thats pretty much how it goes for everyone. Only I think our D will still wind up being better than most.
Just look at last years schedule. Its not like we were shutting down the Pats every week. We got thick on a lot of mediocre and bad offenses last season. We played the AFC North, which didnt have a bunch of great offenses, as well as the NFC North which likewise didnt have any dominant offenses aside from GB. The only team in our division with a great offense was NE. So we really only played about 4 games against top notch offenses.
You know all this offseason talk, everyone just assumed our D would be just as good because we really didnt lose anyone and we managed to add Burnett and bring Odrick back from injury. However, its a new season and it was never a guarentee that guys will play as well as they did last season. So I wont be surprised if our D takes a step back. We will play some tougher offenses this year and it will show in the stat sheet. However, I dont think the D will be bad all year based off being destroyed on one night by Tom Brady. That guy has made many a great defense look bad in his day.
Reggie Bush - The guy played a great 1st qtr, but its just obvious he isnt an every down back. He isnt a guy who you want carrying it 10 times a game up the middle. He is a playmaker. He's a guy you want to get the ball to in space. N.O used him well. We need to do the same. And for the love of god can we see him return some punts. Bess just dosent cut it as a PR.
We definately needed a player like Bush on our team. He certainly adds something. However, we need to use him appropriately.
The OL - Do I need to say much here? Too many penalties, not enough running lanes, could improve in pass blocking, and for christ sakes get nasty around the goal line would ya.
Finally, I think cutting Sapp was a mistake. By no means is he great, but who else do we have right now? Cutting Will Allen was a major mistake and it isnt hindsight here. I said he shouldve been here all along. He's healthy enough to go with and he is a superior slot cover guy to Sapp. He gives us much needed depth and could start outside if someone were injured. Besides, if you ask me, Nolan Carroll was the worst player on the field last night. How is Sapp the scapegoat? This could be a really dumb, rash, decision.
All in all, those of you saying we are going to totally suck should probably back off for now. When you look at it as a whole and really stop to think, you know what we looked like last night...... a 7-9 team. Which is why I titled this get real, what did you expect? I mean, NE is a power. We all knew that. We all knew they crushed us twice last year. The problem is, this team isnt really improved. Even if Henne continues to play well, we simply dont have what it takes to matchup with the premier teams. We should win our share of games, especially if Henne is better all year, but in the end, were really nothing more than an average team right now.
This isnt to say we cant get things going and still make a run at the playoffs. Hell, if Henne keeps it up and Daboll really does change the entire look of the offense, were going to win a couple games we probably wouldnt have last season. The problem is, we still have two very tough teams in our own division and we know its damn near impossible to finish 3rd in your own division and make the playoffs. That requires beating out every 2nd place team in the other 3 divisions. The South and the West look weak enough that something like that is possible this season, but do you guys really think the Steelers or Ravens will fall flat. I know the Steelers looked bad in week one, but who thinks that will last? Also, dont forget about the Bills. I stated in my predictions thread that they were a sleeper this season. We definately have the best division in the conference.
I also dont discount the fact that losing at home again next week and another bad performance by the D vs. a high powered offense like Houston, could send this team spiraling out of control early. Plenty of us pointed this out before the season started. Not only would we be 0-2 at home, which is tough to swallow after going 1-7 last season, but we would be looking at 3 straight road games. Cleveland would be a must win and they wont be a cake walk. They beat us just a few regular season games ago.
Going 1-4 or 0-5 out of the gate, would make this a miserable season no matter how we played the rest of the way. There would be just no way to logically see us coming back and making the playoffs at that point. So that could be enough to put the team in the tank and hence making a team good enough to win between 7 and 9 games, all of sudden play like a 3-13 team, and wind up as such as a result.
All in all, we looked about what any rational person who follows this team wouldve expected. There were some minor differences from last season, but the overall level is right about the same. We got destroyed by the Pats just as we did twice last season. I dont think we should make too much of it either way. No need to be overly negative, and no need to get carried away about the few positives. Its about what we all really figured.
Now we just need to dodge a nightmare start in the W-L column. If we get to 3-2 with a win over the Jets in the process, we could talk playoffs. If we get to 1-4 or 0-5, we could talk suck for Luck. So despite this being a mediocre team as expected, I feel like this team will wind up going one direction or the other by the time things are said and done. We will either perform a bit better and get ourselves to 3 wins after 5 games, setting ourselves up for some easier games and perhaps a 10 win season. Or we will drop these tough games ahead and find ourselves in a position of seeing some easier games, but games that just arent signifigant and therefore looking at the possibility of playing just bad enough to lose games we should be able to win.
Chad Henne - I was initially going to post about how Henne played pretty well. But, the more I have thought about it today, Chad Henne played ****ing great. I mean, lets just be real about it. The guy did a solid job. Aside from the redzone area on a few occasions and a couple minor errors at other points in the game, he was pretty much outstanding.
Here's what stood out to me about Chad Henne last night...... This isnt about stats at all. What was impressive was how I finally saw Chad Henne throwing some absolute STRIKES. The guy was throwing balls to open receivers, hitting them in full stride, and giving playmakers a chance to really do damage after the catch. Ive been wanting to see this from Henne for so long and the guy showed it to me.
Now, before we get carried away, just being real, it does matter that it was New England. We all know their defense is by no means great and Henne has had some decent games against them before. We must also be real and recognize that a chunk of that yardage came during times in which we trailed by 2 scores. When you couple that with the fact the Pats knew they could pretty much answer any score we produced if they needed to, you could understand their lack of concern about Henne piling up yardage.
However, none of that takes away from the fact that Henne's ball placement was as sharp as we have ever seen it. When you mix in the fact he looked more confident(at least to me he did) than we have seen in the past and stepped up like a leader out there, you cant help but consider that perhaps he has the potential to have a pretty good season and make a case to hang around with the phins longer than we expected following last season.
I loved Henne's enthusiam when he ran in the first score of the evening. He looked like he really wanted that score and it meant a lot to him. Good for Chad. Thats the kind of fire we have all been wanting to see. On top of that, how about all of the nice throws he made to deeper ranges of the field? The guy was dropping in some nice throws at different angles in the 20-30 yard range. Thats definately a positive sign.
As far as his redzone play, it wasnt horrible but definately could improve. To be fair, the guy was hampered with no threat of a rushing attack around the goal, and a couple of horrible play calls that made me wish Dan Henning were the redzone OC. I still dont grasp the 20 yard low percentage throw in an attempt to score it from 2 ft away.
Brandon Marshall - Feed the ****ing BEAST! With Henne throwing strikes and actually going downfield more, look for this guy to have a monster season that he was used to having in Denver. If we can just start getting this guy the ball more in the redzone, he will be a lock for Hawaii.
Jared Odrick - It was good to see this guy out on the field and contributing. It wouldve been real nice to see him and the rest of the DL actually generate some push and keeping Brady from having a field day, but at least we know this guy is going to be out there and have a chance to make an impact this year.
Anthony Fasano - You guys have to stop hating on this dude so hard. Ive seen plenty of threads giving Henne props on his game, but no one is talking about some of the nice catches and big plays Fasano had that kept us around for a little more than a half. Fasano isnt the greatest TE in the league, the dudes decent. He will have his bad games and a couple drops here and there, but what non great TE dosent? Fasano is a pretty solid piece of this offense and deserves more respect than he gets.
Now lets get to the worst part and do what must be done...... talk about the negatives.
The coaching staff - Sparano showed some balls on that first drive, passing on a fist pump and we wound up getting in the endzone. However, at 21-14 and considering how NE's offense was going, a FG on 4th and goal even from the 2 yard line, much less the 1 and a half was just gutless and more importantly, not smart. We needed that TD there. Besides, if we didnt get it, they were at least backed up. We were going to need another stop even if we kicked the FG. Either way, a stop was unlikely, so why not roll the dice and go for the tie. In a normal game, it might not have been a bad option to take the 3, but with us being fortunate to keep the Pats out of the endzone the few times we did at that point, it made no sense to kickoff to them down by 4.
What baffled me even more was the play selection on that sequence. I had no problem with the pass on 2nd and goal. However, once you almost get picked off there, you need to realize how important it is we score a TD in that spot. The optimal call on 3rd and goal from the 1 and a half, even if the D knows its coming, is a traditional rushing play. That way, even if you only gain half of the distance, you know you can go for it again on 4th down. Hell, even some kind of rush to the outside with Bush wouldve been a better option. Let him swing it out and try to pick a hole and burst up in there. If he loses 3 or 4 yards on a play like that, you kick a FG anyway on 4th.
So I didnt understand passing it on 3rd down in that spot. I wouldve even just went with a QB sneak. If I dont get in, I know Im not losing yardage with that play and I sneak it again on 4th. The play on 1st down made it evident that despite his size, Solial is no FB. He stood his guy straight up, but he needed to plow through. Bush just ran right up his backside and that stopped him because thats pretty much like running into a brick wall. Scratch that idea in the future. If we had just resigned Ricky, we couldve avoided the problem of not having a goal line area RB.
Overall, Daboll is an upgrade because I like how we try to attack, but his goal line play selection bothered me last night, even considering we were handicapped as far as having a nice redzone RB.
Lastly on the coaching, was it just me or did our team seem unprepared to play a 60 min game? I know our D was ran all over the place by Brady and his slew of WRs, but the entire D was cramping up. We finally started getting a little pressure on him in the 2nd qtr and the beginning of the 3rd, but once those guys got tired that came to an end at it was back to Brady shreading like he was in the 1st qtr.
The defense - Its not an excuse, but you folks do realize that Tom Brady will shread other defenses besides ours right? Sure, probably not to the tune of 500 yards every week, but it is Tom Brady. The dude is lazer precise out there. If you dont pressure him, he is going to destroy you. Its really that simple. That guys mechanics are flawless and he runs that offense like a well oiled machine.
But, yea there is really no way to excuse the performance of the D last night. They were beaten like a drum by the TEs all night just like last season. The pass rush was non-existant aside from a couple points in the middle of the game. The secondary made blunder after blunder in angles they took and plenty of guys missed tackles that wouldve prevented huge gains. That missed tackle Burnett had comes to mind. How bout the angle the safety took on the 99 yard play.(btw, did you notice how perfect of a throw that was? without the combination of a perfect throw and the safety taking a poor angle, that play dosent happen. Brady threw that thing in an absolute perfect spot, hitting Welker in stride and allowing him to make a simple stiff arm to take it the distance) If the safety takes an angle back down the field as opposed to coming up and in, he is at least in a position to try and make that tackle after the catch. Instead, he took himself right out of the play.
Basically, the defense was a ****ing joke all the way around. Woodhead and Green-Ellis had their share of production running the ball as well. Im sure they had a nice avg. per carry.
To look on the brightside, you know we had a good D last year. And yet, that defense had a few games where they gave up a lot of points. NE games come to mind. Its not like we shut down a bunch of power offenses last season. We did a good job in GB, but they had injuries and werent really clicking like they were at seasons end when we beat them.
I look for this defense to still be a pretty good group. We will perform well against teams like the Jests, Browns, Raiders, Broncos, Skins..... you know.... teams with average to bad offenses. We will have more problems with high powered offenses like NE and Houston. Thats pretty much how it goes for everyone. Only I think our D will still wind up being better than most.
Just look at last years schedule. Its not like we were shutting down the Pats every week. We got thick on a lot of mediocre and bad offenses last season. We played the AFC North, which didnt have a bunch of great offenses, as well as the NFC North which likewise didnt have any dominant offenses aside from GB. The only team in our division with a great offense was NE. So we really only played about 4 games against top notch offenses.
You know all this offseason talk, everyone just assumed our D would be just as good because we really didnt lose anyone and we managed to add Burnett and bring Odrick back from injury. However, its a new season and it was never a guarentee that guys will play as well as they did last season. So I wont be surprised if our D takes a step back. We will play some tougher offenses this year and it will show in the stat sheet. However, I dont think the D will be bad all year based off being destroyed on one night by Tom Brady. That guy has made many a great defense look bad in his day.
Reggie Bush - The guy played a great 1st qtr, but its just obvious he isnt an every down back. He isnt a guy who you want carrying it 10 times a game up the middle. He is a playmaker. He's a guy you want to get the ball to in space. N.O used him well. We need to do the same. And for the love of god can we see him return some punts. Bess just dosent cut it as a PR.
We definately needed a player like Bush on our team. He certainly adds something. However, we need to use him appropriately.
The OL - Do I need to say much here? Too many penalties, not enough running lanes, could improve in pass blocking, and for christ sakes get nasty around the goal line would ya.
Finally, I think cutting Sapp was a mistake. By no means is he great, but who else do we have right now? Cutting Will Allen was a major mistake and it isnt hindsight here. I said he shouldve been here all along. He's healthy enough to go with and he is a superior slot cover guy to Sapp. He gives us much needed depth and could start outside if someone were injured. Besides, if you ask me, Nolan Carroll was the worst player on the field last night. How is Sapp the scapegoat? This could be a really dumb, rash, decision.
All in all, those of you saying we are going to totally suck should probably back off for now. When you look at it as a whole and really stop to think, you know what we looked like last night...... a 7-9 team. Which is why I titled this get real, what did you expect? I mean, NE is a power. We all knew that. We all knew they crushed us twice last year. The problem is, this team isnt really improved. Even if Henne continues to play well, we simply dont have what it takes to matchup with the premier teams. We should win our share of games, especially if Henne is better all year, but in the end, were really nothing more than an average team right now.
This isnt to say we cant get things going and still make a run at the playoffs. Hell, if Henne keeps it up and Daboll really does change the entire look of the offense, were going to win a couple games we probably wouldnt have last season. The problem is, we still have two very tough teams in our own division and we know its damn near impossible to finish 3rd in your own division and make the playoffs. That requires beating out every 2nd place team in the other 3 divisions. The South and the West look weak enough that something like that is possible this season, but do you guys really think the Steelers or Ravens will fall flat. I know the Steelers looked bad in week one, but who thinks that will last? Also, dont forget about the Bills. I stated in my predictions thread that they were a sleeper this season. We definately have the best division in the conference.
I also dont discount the fact that losing at home again next week and another bad performance by the D vs. a high powered offense like Houston, could send this team spiraling out of control early. Plenty of us pointed this out before the season started. Not only would we be 0-2 at home, which is tough to swallow after going 1-7 last season, but we would be looking at 3 straight road games. Cleveland would be a must win and they wont be a cake walk. They beat us just a few regular season games ago.
Going 1-4 or 0-5 out of the gate, would make this a miserable season no matter how we played the rest of the way. There would be just no way to logically see us coming back and making the playoffs at that point. So that could be enough to put the team in the tank and hence making a team good enough to win between 7 and 9 games, all of sudden play like a 3-13 team, and wind up as such as a result.
All in all, we looked about what any rational person who follows this team wouldve expected. There were some minor differences from last season, but the overall level is right about the same. We got destroyed by the Pats just as we did twice last season. I dont think we should make too much of it either way. No need to be overly negative, and no need to get carried away about the few positives. Its about what we all really figured.
Now we just need to dodge a nightmare start in the W-L column. If we get to 3-2 with a win over the Jets in the process, we could talk playoffs. If we get to 1-4 or 0-5, we could talk suck for Luck. So despite this being a mediocre team as expected, I feel like this team will wind up going one direction or the other by the time things are said and done. We will either perform a bit better and get ourselves to 3 wins after 5 games, setting ourselves up for some easier games and perhaps a 10 win season. Or we will drop these tough games ahead and find ourselves in a position of seeing some easier games, but games that just arent signifigant and therefore looking at the possibility of playing just bad enough to lose games we should be able to win.
