The Game Goat Thread: Week 3 at Detroit

[eustis22]

what the hell is wrong with Hogan?

Edelman and Amendola. I have always thought them three complementary parts toi a whole. Cover any 2 of the three and the third would always be open, especially on 3rd downs. Even though 'Dola's not putting up yowge numbers at Miami, his loss, after Dion Lewis', is the biggest blow this offense took. The Pats are probably not going to get that kind of synchronicity back on offense, Gordon or no.

 

[Super Nomario]

So the Pats D played 74 snaps last night and the edge rushers - Wise (31), Clayborn, (31), Davis (18), Rivers (13), and Grissom (3) combined for only 96 snaps. So they played much of the game with only one pass rusher on the field. Which provides some excuse for how poor the pass rush was. On the other hand, it makes me concerned that Belichick and / or Flores has brain damage.

 

[DJnVa]

I walked away from Jax willing to give them a pass and call it like the other years and not panic.

I’m not panicking yet....but my expectations are that for this team to make a run probably less likely than we are used to. Offense will Edelman, Gordon. Etc...but the D is what it is and right now what it is is bad

Yeah--I mean, maybe Jax was just a road loss to a good team and the Detroit loss was our WTF loss. But still....

 

[eddiew112]

So the Pats D played 74 snaps last night and the edge rushers - Wise (31), Clayborn, (31), Davis (18), Rivers (13), and Grissom (3) combined for only 96 snaps. So they played much of the game with only one pass rusher on the field. Which provides some excuse for how poor the pass rush was. On the other hand, it makes me concerned that Belichick and / or Flores has brain damage.

Wise getting only 31 snaps is criminal. Maybe they wanted to manage his load because of the injury, but he is the only guy on the line that made any plays last night.

 

[BigJimEd]

Belichick had talked about the first 4 games being an extension of the preseason. Rotation and lack of snaps may be part of that.

 

[Marciano490]

Also, GOAT status to whoever picked (Welcome Home) Sanitarium to play over the Gordon discussion.

 

[Jed Zeppelin]

So the Pats D played 74 snaps last night and the edge rushers - Wise (31), Clayborn, (31), Davis (18), Rivers (13), and Grissom (3) combined for only 96 snaps. So they played much of the game with only one pass rusher on the field. Which provides some excuse for how poor the pass rush was. On the other hand, it makes me concerned that Belichick and / or Flores has brain damage.

That this is the case and the run D was blown up anyways is pretty troubling.

 

[soxin6]

There isn't much point to singling anyone or any part of the team out for blame, they all failed. Patricia clearly knew what the front 7 couldn't handle and they kept going back to the run over and over again. The Pats got pushed around, couldn't get any pressure, and got picked apart on 3rd

 

[BaseballJones]

They lost a TON of individual, one-on-one battles. It's difficult to scheme your way through that. If guy X has an assignment, and he can't handle it, not matter what scheme you run, it's going to be a problem. And they had that issue up and down the line on both sides of the ball last night.

 

[RedOctober3829]

Everyone talks about getting off the field on 3rd down, but the utter incompetence of this team on 1st and 2nd downs is astounding. I went back and looked at 1st and 2nd down and here is what I've found.

1st Down Defense
Rush Defense:19 carries for 105 yds (5.5 YPC)
Pass Defense: 8-10 67 yards 1 TD
2 defensive penalties
1 sack

2nd Down Defense
Rush Defense: 8 carries for 18 yards
Pass Defense: 12-15 126 yards 1 TD
6 1st downs gained

I'll throw in their 3rd down defense. It was easy the first 5 series of the game because the Lions did not have one.

3rd and 5: 4 yard pass forced FG
3rd and 7: 16 yard pass 1st down
3rd and 3: 6 yard run 1st down
3rd and 2: 5 yard run 1st down
3rd and goal: incomplete pass FG forced
3rd and 4: interception
3rd and 9: 16 yard pass 1st down
3rd and 1: 4 yard pass 1st down
3rd and 1: 3 yard gain 1st down
3rd and 6: incomplete pass 3 and out
3rd and 6: 20 yard pass 1st down
3rd and 8: 16 yard pass but holding on offense
3rd and 18: 16 yard pass punt forced
3rd and 7: -2 yard run FG forced

That's 14 3rd downs and 7 resulted in 1st downs. Only 1 3 and out.

 

[Seels]

Everyone talks about getting off the field on 3rd down, but the utter incompetence of this team on 1st and 2nd downs is astounding.

Yea my take from it is that this team couldn't play on first down either way yesterday. Defensively they gave up 5-6 yards every time, offensively they had play calling from the 1930s.

Lots of talk about roster construction but the coaches know many of these players. I have a hard time blaming the players for this one -- the coaching was bottom 3 game in the Belichick era.

Reminds me a lot of that end of year Miami game in 2015. Heavy focus on the rush in an attempt to see what you have with basically no allowance of the best QB ever to actually play the game. I understand you want to see what Michel has to offer, but it seems like that was the only clear strategy of last night.

 

[RedOctober3829]

Yea my take from it is that this team couldn't play on first down either way yesterday. Defensively they gave up 5-6 yards every time, offensively they had play calling from the 1930s.

Lots of talk about roster construction but the coaches know many of these players. I have a hard time blaming the players for this one -- the coaching was bottom 3 game in the Belichick era.

Reminds me a lot of that end of year Miami game in 2015. Heavy focus on the rush in an attempt to see what you have with basically no allowance of the best QB ever to actually play the game. I understand you want to see what Michel has to offer, but it seems like that was the only clear strategy of last night.

You have a hard time blaming the players? The players are the ones who aren't tackling, can't get to the ball carrier, or are getting blown off the ball and moving the LOS 5 yards down the field every play. Coaching matters too, but it comes down to execution and they aren't winning any 1-on-1 matchups. That goes offensively too.

 

[lexrageorge]

First down plays for Pats on offense are below. + indicates the play did what you would hope to get out of that play in that situation. - means the opposite. * means first down on the play:

1: Michel for 5 yards (+)
2: Brady to Michel for -1 yard (-)
3: Michel up the middle for 2 yards (-)
4: Brady 9 yards to Gronk (+)
5: INC (-)
6: White run for 5 yards (+)
7: Brady 6 yards to Hogan (+)
---- (halftime) ---
8: Michel for 12 yards (+)*
9: Defensive penalty (+)*
10: Offensive holding (-)
11: Brady 19 yards to Gronk (+)
12: INC (-)
13: Brady 9 yards to Hogan (+)
14: Intentional Grounding (------)
15: Michel for 9 yards (+)
16: Michel for 2 yards (-)
17: Brady to Gronk for 8 yards (+)
18 through 21: Garbage time, so ignoring.

6 run, 8 pass, 2 penalties, 1 def penalty

Interestingly, the first down doesn't appear so bad with 10 positive plays. Michel had 5 runs for 30 yards, and White did the job in the one run he had. Brady was 6-8, but only for 49 yards.

On to 2nd down:

1: Michel for 1 yard (-)
2: INC (-)
3: Brady 7 yards to Burkhead (+)
4: Brady 0 yard pass to White (-)
5: Brady 15 yards to Gronk (+)*
6: Brady 19 yards to Burkhead (+)*
7: Michel for 3 yards (neutral)
---- Halftime ----
8: Brady for 2 (+)*
9: Michel for 2 yards (-)
10: Michel for 7 yards (+)*
11: INC (-)
12: Brady 12 yards to Patterson (+)
13: Michel for 6 yards (+)*
14: INT (------------)
15: Brady sack for -10 (-)
16: Garbage time, so ignoring.

6 run, 9 pass. This was terrible. Michel had a couple of good runs for first down, although the Lions D was probably OK with him getting the 6 yards in the 4th quarter. But he also had a couple of runs where he went nowhere. Brady was an ugly 5-8 for 43 net yards with 1 INT and 1 sack. No big plays and only 5 first downs. Ugly.

3rd down:

1, 3rd-and-4: INC (-)
2, 3rd-and-11: INC (-)
3, 3rd-and-1: Michel for -1 yard (-)
4, 3rd-and-1: Michel for 2 yards (+)*
5, 3rd-and-1: Michel for -2 yards (-)
---- Halftime ----
6, 3rd-and-8: Brady 10 yards to White for TD (+)
7, 3rd-and-10: INC (-, third of 3 straight incompletions)
8, 3rd-and-8: Brady sacked for -3 yards (-). This was the drive that started with the Brady intentional grounding.
9, 3rd-and-12: INC (-)

Only 2 positive plays all night on 3rd down, despite having only one 3rd-and-long in the first half. Hard to blame the play calling; it shouldn't be that hard to pick up the yard.

 

[bsj]

The 1st half runs on 3rd and short were incredibly out of character

 

[BigSoxFan]

The 1st half runs on 3rd and short were incredibly out of character

You almost wonder if Josh lost a chess game with Matty P due to their familiarity with each other. Ok, he knows we always throw on 3rd and short so here comes a run!

 

[DJnVa]

The 1st half runs on 3rd and short were incredibly out of character

There's a "WTF with this playcalling??" game or 2 every season.

 

[lexrageorge]

About the play calling on those 3rd-and-short runs, it may help to recall the context.

The first one was on the Pats 3rd drive. By then, the D had been on the field for over 12 minutes out of the 17 played to that point. McDaniels probably figured that if there was a good time to stretch the clock a bit, that was it.

On the 2nd attempt, the Pats defense had been on the field for nearly 20 minutes. And the play worked as Michel picked up the first down. By the time of the next 3rd-and-1, the Pats had a nice drive going, and were even running the ball OK. Seems like they were hoping to pick up the first and hope they could get the TD on the next set of downs while keeping the offense on the field until the half expired.

Again, the players should be able to get the yard in most circumstances.