--- THE OFFICIAL NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS THREAD --- OFFSEASON THREAD

What Are You Concerned About Heading Into This Season???

  • Linebacker depth

    Votes: 6 50.0%

  • Offensive line depth

    Votes: 2 16.7%

  • Brady turning 40

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Safety

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Gostkowski

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Other

    Votes: 4 33.3%
  • Total voters
    12
Show All
Any word on Hogan?

Some of those Brady passes were beautiful, but the offense wasn't sharp. The defense showed up and created some turnovers which was needed in this game.
 
DeadsetAce said:
it was a thigh injury that he was using a heating pad on and rubbing a golf ball on. hopefully it wasn't that serious.
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Yeah, just saw on Twitter that he's walking without a limp. I'm thinking he's going to be good. We'll need him for sure.
 
kinda wanna see pittsburgh i have a lot of faith in our defense.

i would go as far to say we have the best defense in the playoffs.

KC scares me more in a sense. they're silent but deadly and they have that X factor in Hill.

Pitt seems scarier because of Ben Bell and Brown but there's no reason we can't score on them.

This years team to me is a team where i'd rather have our offense get gimmes and let our defense win the game.
 
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amarano said:
kinda wanna see pittsburgh i have a lot of faith in our defense.

i would go as far to say we have the best defense in the playoffs.

KC scares me more in a sense. they're silent but deadly and they have that X factor in Hill.

Pitt seems scarier because of Ben Bell and Brown but there's no reason we can't score on them.

This years team to me is a team where i'd rather have our offense get gimmes and let our defense win the game.
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i still have no idea, man. stuck on that fence. i think i'll always trust the offense more if brady is at the helm. always. and containing bell and brown is a tall tall order. however, kelce and hill are no joke in their own right. i'll take the green rhino approach i guess.

i do think the chiefs will benefit from the conditions and homefield tonight. i think they'll be coming to the Razor next week.
 
For real. This may have been the best possible outcome. I'm hoping this offense comes out and looks sharp next week. Brady had ups and downs, but you still have to give credit to Houston for getting pressure and playing solid defense.

In regards to our defense, I don't know when they'll get any credit. All I see is how they've played trash offenses. You still have to come out and execute either way. I think they'll be ready for the challenges KC and Pitt bring.
 
mikejs210 said:
In regards to our defense, I don't know when they'll get any credit. All I see is how they've played trash offenses. You still have to come out and execute either way. I think they'll be ready for the challenges KC and Pitt bring.
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yeah i feel you. they've moved past bend don't break now. playing much better. taking the ball away. 3 and outs. it's been great since (hate to say it) Collins was shipped out and Sheard was benched a week. message clearly received by the players. and they can only play whoever is on the schedule. so i'm not going to fault them for who they played or haven't played.

you can even hear it from the players themselves in interviews. they hear the chatter and disrespect. especially the secondary guys.
 
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A couple other quick thoughts:

If this was Big Vince's last game, I'm glad it was at Gillette and us who got to see him walk off the field one last time.

I was happy to see McCourty get that INT. He's a veteran on this unit and it good to see him grab that one.

Harmon's annual playoff INT :pimp:

Logan Ryan balled out. I know he's taken some heat this season, but he showed up at the right time.
 
mikejs210 said:
A couple other quick thoughts:

If this was Big Vince's last game, I'm glad it was at Gillette and us who got to see him walk off the field one last time.

I was happy to see McCourty get that INT. He's a veteran on this unit and it good to see him grab that one.

Harmon's annual playoff INT :pimp:

Logan Ryan balled out. I know he's taken some heat this season, but he showed up at the right time.
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the Rutgers homies balled out back in the secondary. all three with an INT :pimp:


you think Vince signs a one day contract to retire a Patriot?
 
I like how many people are counting out the Patriots already :pimp:

Brady has played well against Pittsburgh historically. Ben in the red zone looked shaky. But containing Bell is going to be a problem.

Also, will Goodell show his face here next week?? :lol:
 
I've been hearing a lot lately about how New England's offense is the worst of the four remaining teams in the playoffs, but our defense may be the best. I would have never guessed that at the beginning of the playoffs.

It seems like in the Houston game, we felt the effects of not having Gronk as our offense struggled to find any type of rhythm outside of that 3rd quarter, 94 yard drive which ended with the TD pass to James White on the wheel route. Bennett is either being under utilized or isn't effective outside of being a blocker, Hogan and Edelman are weapons, but Hogan needs to stay healthy and on the field, if Dola is good to go, I'd rather he get more snaps than Floyd as I'm worried Floyd isn't 100% on the same page as Brady, if Mitchell has been out this long, I'm not sure how productive he can be or if he'll even play, Blount went back to being the Blount we saw last year where he was barely getting 2 yards a carry and would get stuffed at the line, but Dion Lewis can be the x-factor as long as he doesn't fumble.

And even with all of that, Brady's last two playoff games haven't been his best. His completion percentage vs. Denver last season and Houston last week were below 49% and he threw two picks in each game. If anything, I attribute those performances to those defenses as they were able to get pressure on Brady fairly consistently and both were considered the top defenses in terms of total yards allowed. Houston's defense was even considered by some to be the top unit left in the playoffs. While it's hard to imagine that Brady will put up back to back poor performances, it's a bit worrisome that the offensive line may get exposed in the interior as it was against Houston or we just don't have enough weapons without Gronk.

All in all, does the offense concern you in any way vs. Pittsburgh?
 
The New England Patriots are waiting to see their opponent for the AFC Championship title game, but I think the rooting guide is pretty simple: the Patriots would rather face the Pittsburgh Steelers than the Kansas City Chiefs.

Both teams are great; they’re the second and third seeds in the conference. They have the second and third best quarterbacks in the AFC playoff picture. They both have quality defenses and players that can score a touchdown on any given play.

But the Patriots match up much better with the Steelers than with the Chiefs, and here are the reasons why.

The key to beating the Patriots requires the third, fourth, and fifth offensive skill players to outplay the Patriots third, fourth, and fifth defenders. It also involves generating pressure up the middle against Brady, while having quality players drop back in coverage.

There’s no question that Steelers QB Ben Roethlisbeger is better than Chiefs QB Alex Smith; or that Steelers RB Le’Veon Bell is better than Chiefs RB Spencer Ware; or that Steelers WR Antonio Brown is bigger threat than Chiefs TE Travis Kelce.

But once you get beyond Bell and Brown, who represent 51.8% of the Steelers yards from scrimmage in 2016, there aren’t many other consistent threats in the Pittsburgh offense. WR Eli Rogers has 600 yards from scrimmage as the #2 receiver. No other player has more than 500 yards from scrimmage. If the Patriots can limit either of Bell or Brown, as they are capable of doing, then the Steelers offense would be greatly hindered.

The Chiefs have Ware and Kelce, but they also have WR Tyreek Hill (860 yards from scrimmage), WR Jeremy Maclin (535), and Chris Conley (530). Hill, Maclin, and Conley force a lot more stress on a defense and the Patriots #3, #4, and #5 coverage players than Rogers, WR Sammie Coates, or TE Jesse James of the Steelers.

Add in Smith’s willingness to checkdown and take the easy passes, while also avoiding turnovers, and you have a recipe for success on leading long, sustained drives against the Patriots defense. Roethlisberger might be more drawn to taking a deep shot, which would end up stalling a drive and helping out the Patriots.

Looking at the defensive side of the ball, the Chiefs boast multiple All Pros in the secondary, with SS Eric Berry and CB Marcus Peters locking down the deep field. Add in a deep roster of pass rushers like Justin Houston, Tamba Hali, and Dee Ford, and stout defensive linemen in Dontari Poe and Chris Jones, you have a recipe to stop the run and move Brady around in the pocket, while also featuring tight coverage down the field. Chiefs defensive coordinator Bob Sutton is a former disciple of Rex Ryan and his chaos defenses have the ability to fluster Brady if they get into a groove.

If the Chiefs have a weakness, it’s their loss of LB Derrick Johnson (achilles). Perhaps they could be vulnerable to a passing attack involving RB Dion Lewis and RB James White.

The Steelers defense crumbled against the Patriots in week 6, and if it weren’t for two fumbles by WR Chris Hogan and WR Julian Edelman, the Patriots would have run up a bigger lead. Pittsburgh doesn’t have their best defensive lineman as DL Cameron Heyward is on the injured reserve and Patriots RB LeGarrette Blount rushed for 127 yards and 2 touchdowns in the prior match-up.

Brady has a 7-2 regular season record against the Steelers and his 114.2 career passer rating is his best against any team with 5+ games against (Brady’s 88.2 passer rating versus the Chiefs is his worst). Brady takes advantage of the Steelers blitz packages to generate huge gains down the field and he’s done it throughout his career.

Texans head coach Bill O’Brien revealed an interesting mentality to SI’s Greg Bedard after losing to the Patriots in the Divisional Round. The Texans were able to batter Brady in the pocket and confound the offensive line- but only because that’s how they’ve played all season.

“I think the one thing about blueprint and stuff like that is each team is going to have to do their own thing,” O’Brien said. “What we did tonight, we’ve been doing it in different ways all year; we’re a very active front. So whatever the next team is, Pittsburgh or Kansas City, they’ve got to do what they do. That’s just how we do it.”
The Steelers and Chiefs are both going to play whatever defense they’ve been playing all year because it’s gotten them to this point. Brady has had far more success against the Pittsburgh defense than against the Kansas City defense.

The choice is simple. The Patriots would rather face the Steelers than the Chiefs.
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pretty cool article with good reasoning why this is a much better matchup for us. Those grind it out low scoring games have been are only vulnerability recently and idk if the Steelers have the personnel on defense to slow us down.
 
mikejs210 said:
I've been hearing a lot lately about how New England's offense is the worst of the four remaining teams in the playoffs, but our defense may be the best. I would have never guessed that at the beginning of the playoffs.

It seems like in the Houston game, we felt the effects of not having Gronk as our offense struggled to find any type of rhythm outside of that 3rd quarter, 94 yard drive which ended with the TD pass to James White on the wheel route. Bennett is either being under utilized or isn't effective outside of being a blocker, Hogan and Edelman are weapons, but Hogan needs to stay healthy and on the field, if Dola is good to go, I'd rather he get more snaps than Floyd as I'm worried Floyd isn't 100% on the same page as Brady, if Mitchell has been out this long, I'm not sure how productive he can be or if he'll even play, Blount went back to being the Blount we saw last year where he was barely getting 2 yards a carry and would get stuffed at the line, but Dion Lewis can be the x-factor as long as he doesn't fumble.

And even with all of that, Brady's last two playoff games haven't been his best. His completion percentage vs. Denver last season and Houston last week were below 49% and he threw two picks in each game. If anything, I attribute those performances to those defenses as they were able to get pressure on Brady fairly consistently and both were considered the top defenses in terms of total yards allowed. Houston's defense was even considered by some to be the top unit left in the playoffs. While it's hard to imagine that Brady will put up back to back poor performances, it's a bit worrisome that the offensive line may get exposed in the interior as it was against Houston or we just don't have enough weapons without Gronk.

All in all, does the offense concern you in any way vs. Pittsburgh?
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yeah i been hearing that and i totally disagree that we're the worst. people are nutting themselves because the packers barely outscored the cowboys, who have a mediocre to weak defense. pittsburgh couldn't even score a TD against KC. ATL is definitely the best offense left. i would actually put us with GB, if not better, since we're more balanced. PIT is great at home, but on the road? nope. even at home versus MIA, they were OK. MIA has a trash defense and it wasn't a blow you away performance on offense.

yeah our offense struggled. but people keep failing to realize the texans have a LEGIT defense. and they played great. even despite that, we completed 4 or 5 plays over 20 yards. we moved the ball on them. and we hung 27 (not going to count the kick ret td) on the board despite playing "poorly" on offense. people look at 2 INTs and 50% passing and assume it was all all bad. it was actually not a terrible game offensively. it wasn't great or good...but it wasn't bad. texans played us the same way the ravens and broncos traditionally have played us. pressure rushing 4 and covering the hell out of the outside WRs while doing some funky stuff in the middle. it's always been the blueprint for beating the pats. it's just very few teams have the horses to do it. the texans do. and again, 27 points despite all that. PIT, ATL, or GB are not doing what HOU did. no chance.
 
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^^^you need to get in touch with your buddy Chester and tell him to name his price to remove the avatar jinx.

i'm dead serious. i'm paypal ready and i'm scared of the chester jinx. it's real.





help us.
 
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amarano said:
^^^you need to get in touch with your buddy Chester and tell him to name his price to remove the avatar jinx.

i'm dead serious. i'm paypal ready and i'm scared of the chester jinx. it's real.





help us.
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that curse ain't ****, man :lol:

i know his game and what he's up to. i'm actually surprised he picked us this week instead of matt ryan. curse about to be broken though. question is if he's gonna leave it up for another two weeks when we beat pitt. if we beat pitt and the packers win, it'll stay on us. if we beat pitt and the falcons win, it'll move to matt ryan. if pittsburgh wins, it'll go to pittsburgh no matter who wins on the nfc side.

he's just trying to be right, not curse a team :lol:

i see you, Ches :smh:
 
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