Complete, dominating win. It's been a while since we had this kind of a game, eh?
GAME BALL TIME!!!!
GAME BALL TIME!!!!
Agreed those should be the home uniforms for every game..those uniforms. they've given up seven points over eight quarters in those uniforms.
I’m with Van E here. I can barely think of any negative plays, let alone players. Simply outstanding game in all three phases, plus coaching.Can I give one to everyone?
Aside from gronk being a bit jumpy I agree. No pregame coke for him anymore.I’m with Van E here. I can barely think of any negative plays, let alone players. Simply outstanding game in all three phases, plus coaching.
The drives thing shows how the final score undersells the offense's performance. 23 points is meh, but 23 points on 8 drives - the last one of which they weren't even trying to score - is awesome. They didn't punt after the first quarter, scoring points on all of their drives except the last one when they ran the clock out.Here's a stat for you that I think really captures the game.
Falcons had only 8 drives, one of which was the 15 second drive at the end of the first half. So, effectively 7 drives.
In the last six games, the Patriots' opponents had 14, 10 ,12, 9, 12, and 12 drives.
The Patriots had a ball control offense that kept the Falcons off the field and gave their defense a chance to be great. Over 160 yards rushing, averaging 4.5. Burkhead and Lewis were both over 5 yards per carry. Brady had one big carry to keep a drive going. The Falcons could just get no rhythm, because the Patriots were just taking huge chunks of time off the clock every drive.
The other thing that stood out was the Patriots tackling. I don't know where the stats are kept but I would think the Patriots had their best opponents' yards after first contact that they have had all season.
They were shooting off fireworks after TD’s? Is that new? Is he getting that confused with the minute men?
Someone wrote in the game thread, FOGGATE! And everyone was like lol whatevs... but, never underestimate the fragility of the NFL ego!
(James) White FragilitySomeone wrote in the game thread, FOGGATE! And everyone was like lol whatevs... but, never underestimate the fragility of the NFL ego!
Is this a new joke? This is a great joke.James Tecumseh White has to be among the most disliked men in Atlanta these days.
Of course the Patriots got blown out by 15 at home in week 1, barely beat HOU by 3 pts at home in week 3, Lost to Carolina by 3 in week 4, and then blewout the Falcons at home.Vegas oughta set the default HFA for the Pats at -5 rather than the usual -3 since they manage to get so far into everyone's heads when they come to Gillette.
Pretty sure it was pre-game fireworks. The start of the game was smoky and that soon gave way to a beautiful blanket of fog. Weak excuse making from Julio. Lost a tiny sliver of respect for him seeing those quotes.They were shooting off fireworks after TD’s? Is that new? Is he getting that confused with the minute men?
Yes.They were shooting off fireworks after TD’s? Is that new? Is he getting that confused with the minute men?
Another point I made in the gamethread was that I was somewhat stunned that Jones spent as much time during a pregame interview he did with Tirico(?) about his Super Bowl catch. The *only* acceptable answers to that question is "It doesn't matter, we lost," "This is a different season" or possibly "That wasn't even the best catch in the game." Instead he went on about it for, like, two minutes including a ridiculous humblebrag that it wasn't a big deal because he's so used to making catches like that. It was just ... wow.
It seemed like they doubled him a lot early in classic "take away #1" mode but with the big lead in the second half they played more vanilla zone and he caught a bunch of shorter stuff. He ended up with 9 catches but none longer than 16 yards.Jones actually had a good game. This clearly was not one of those "take away their number 1" kind of defensive schemes and instead seemed a bit more focused on overall defense and run stopping.
From football outsiders. That is some serious Wtf material.One last thought. I spoke to Matt Chatham at halftime, he had D.J. Shockley on his podcast to preview the game. Shockley was Ryan's backup for a couple of years, does a lot of football media down in Atlanta since he was both on the Falcons and the Bulldogs. Shockley said that before the season, Sarkisian had Matt Ryan come in and told him, look, I know you have had something like six different offensive coordinators, I don't want you to have to learn anything new at this point. And he told Ryan that he could put together a playbook with his favorite plays from all of the offensive coordinators he has played with, and that's the playbook that the Falcons are using. I think that provides some interesting insight on the stagnation of the Falcons offense. I would imagine that most of that playbook is still Shanahan stuff. But no matter whether Ryan got to pick out plays he liked or not, Sarkisian is the one calling the plays during the games each Sunday.
Once they got the ball back at the end of the half, I knew they'd just march down the field. Blind faith.I'm not a religious person, but the absolute blind faith that I have in BB / TB to get the job done must be the closest thing there is to believing in some sort of god. Is this how religious people feel about whatever god they worship?