The Game Ball Thread: Wk. 11 vs NYJ

johnmd20

mad dog
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 30, 2003
61,996
New York City
Zach seems really determined to get people to hate him.

That answer is absolutely insane. "I take no responsibility whatsoever."
 

Shaky Walton

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 20, 2019
717
Mac Jones get nothing and he better like it. Neither does the offensive line.

Game balls to the entire defense and Marcus Jones.
 

E5 Yaz

Transcends message boarding
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Apr 25, 2002
90,020
Oregon
That's a helluva job of scene-setting and describing the play as it unfolded by Socci, even going into hyper-speech at the proper moment
 

SeoulSoxFan

I Want to Hit the World with Rocket Punch
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jun 27, 2006
22,089
A Scud Away from Hell
That's a helluva job of scene-setting and describing the play as it unfolded by Socci, even going into hyper-speech at the proper moment
Bob Socci is so damn good.
He’s really good. And he knows how and when to get out of Zo’s way when he goes off.
Socci was so excited his hair came loose. (Or something like that, based on his look during the post game)
Love Socci. A belated game ball for that awesome call!
 

pokey_reese

Member
SoSH Member
Jun 25, 2008
16,247
Boston, MA
It doesn't matter how bad you think Wilson is. That is a team that FO had as the 19th best offense heading into the week (not good, but not horrible). They had ~100 yards on offense despite not committing a turnover. That's insane. This is an NFL team that had a solid record coming in here and just put up points to beat Buffalo recently. The Pats, for all that they missed FGs and couldn't get into the endzone, had about 300 yards on offense. Maybe it's just that BB is in their collective heads, but that was a beating.
 

8slim

has trust issues
SoSH Member
Nov 6, 2001
24,829
Unreal America
It doesn't matter how bad you think Wilson is. That is a team that FO had as the 19th best offense heading into the week (not good, but not horrible). They had ~100 yards on offense despite not committing a turnover. That's insane. This is an NFL team that had a solid record coming in here and just put up points to beat Buffalo recently. The Pats, for all that they missed FGs and couldn't get into the endzone, had about 300 yards on offense. Maybe it's just that BB is in their collective heads, but that was a beating.
The Jets put up 387 yards on us just three weeks ago. Their second half in particular today was unfathomably bad. A good deal of that was the Pats D, but I suspect some of it was being thoroughly psyched out.
 
Apr 24, 2019
1,278
Marcus Jones for an electric return that has felt inevitable since we all ran to YouTube on night two (three?) of the draft.

Mondre and Harris for running fearlessly hard and with a mix of creativity, relentlessness and focus.

Isaiah Wynn for just kidding.

Trent Brown for blossoming suck.

Judon, Wise, Dugger for ferocity and athleticism. And consistency.

Matty P the OC for my head’s gonna explode. (The 4th and 3 playcall, when plays from shotgun had already not been working, was a real low point.)

Matty P the OL coach for kill me now.

Bob Socci and Zo for the call.

Cloud to the silver lining: Mack Wilson Sr. - it wasn’t a block in the back. Whiny jets or jet fans pointing to that as unfair or whatever should can it. HOWEVER, it was close and that‘s unacceptably stupid and was, at that point, totally unnecessary. I can’t imagine the level of pissed off (at him) if that call had gone the other way.

Reprise: Marcus Jones for salvaging a brutally ugly and dispiriting performance. Bless him.

I love David Andrews. Heal up asap, buddy. (Edit: sounds possibly season-ending. Massive loss.)

edit typos
 
Last edited:

SeoulSoxFan

I Want to Hit the World with Rocket Punch
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jun 27, 2006
22,089
A Scud Away from Hell
Yeah odds of Folk missing 2 FG and McC dropping a surefire INT in a same game is pretty low.

I don't get why so many NYJ fans feel they have not just a better but a vastly superior team.
 

SMU_Sox

queer eye for the next pats guy
SoSH Member
Jul 20, 2009
8,878
Dallas
Of the 24 teams today who played (I am too tired to see if they didn't put in SNF):

57897

13th best dropback success rate against the Jets who have an outstanding defense. 6th worst running success rate though.

57898

2nd lowest air yards per play. They clearly adjusted their offense and scrapped a lot of the slower developing vertical pass plays that they used in weeks 1-3. They've been using more short passes which makes sense.
 

Eddie Jurak

canderson-lite
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 12, 2002
44,478
Melrose, MA
One thing I noticed: throughout Mac's time here, and especially this season, he has competed a lot of passes for very short or even negative yards. Not so much yesterday - he has completions of 3 and 4 yards to Jonnu (on a 1st and 10 and 2nd and 21) and one 3 yard completion to Rhamondre (on a second and 7), but everything else was at least 5.

The week before the bye, Mac was 20 for 30 for just 147 yards, and that was partly because he completed 7 passes of 3 yards or less. One of those was a TD, so leave that aside. Henry, Rhamondre, Jonnu, and Bourne combined for 6 catches for a total of 3 yards. Four of those were run on first and 10, 2 on second and 10.

The week before that, against the Jets again, Mac was 24-35 for 194 yards. That included 6 <5 yard completions for a total of 8 yards. Four 1st and 10 plays, a 2nd and 12 play, and a 2nd and 16 play.

The Bears game where Mac got benched, he was 3-6 for 13 yards and an interception - but that included completions of -1 (on second and 10) and 2 (on second and 7).

If we just consider all of those passes to be incompletions, then:

Bears: 1 of 6 for 14 yards
Jets #1: 18 of 35 for 186 yards
Colts: 14 of 30 for 144 yards
Jets #2: 20 of 27 for 236 yards

That looks like progress, though I would think it is less attributable to improvement from Mac and more to fixing the offense. But if that is the case, man, what a broken offense before the bye.
 

Mugsy's Jock

Eli apologist
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 28, 2000
15,069
UWS, NYC
Was listening to the radio broadcast yesterday and my favorite moment occurred after the Pats were forced into yet another punt in the second half, Socci gave a rundown of the Patriots' miserable offensive performance on the afternoon.

Zolak (dismissively): "The Jets are worse."
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
SoSH Member
Dec 16, 2010
53,850
I was surprised that he did not punt it out of bounds.
Saleh did say on postgame that the punt was not supposed to go down the middle. Wonder how much the wind played into it. Maybe punter thought he'd have some help and it died at the most inopportune time, or maybe he overcompensated and didn't want to shank it too far left.
 

8slim

has trust issues
SoSH Member
Nov 6, 2001
24,829
Unreal America
Saleh did say on postgame that the punt was not supposed to go down the middle. Wonder how much the wind played into it. Maybe punter thought he'd have some help and it died at the most inopportune time, or maybe he overcompensated and didn't want to shank it too far left.
I always find it funny how big tough head coaches who constantly preach big tough things leave so many game-deciding moments to little guys who kick for a living.
 

SMU_Sox

queer eye for the next pats guy
SoSH Member
Jul 20, 2009
8,878
Dallas
I was surprised that he did not punt it out of bounds.
I was watching SMU Houston last year. All tied up with 0:37 left to go and SMU was kicking off. I was watching under the table while at a dinner party but was muttering “Don’t kick it to Jones. Don’t kick it to Jones.” They did. He took it too the house. I yelped. Got some looks and was asked what was wrong. “They kicked it to Marcus Fucking Jones,” I replied. All I got back were blank stares. One friend, “Oh are you watching sportsball? I’m… sorry?” Partner: “They are putting their phone away aren’t they.”

Let me tell you it feels a lot better on the other side of it.

Oh and like this game the kick/punt was NOT supposed to go to Jones but somehow did anyway.
 

FL4WL3SS

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2006
14,913
Andy Brickley's potty mouth
I was surprised that he did not punt it out of bounds.
Not only that, but the punt was hit really hard on a line drive. Seemed like very little hang time and the punt coverage had no time to get down field. Jones was able to get a head of steam before even getting to the first line of defense. I knew at that point it was game over - he was either going to score, or get close enough for a FG try.
 

Van Everyman

Member
SoSH Member
Apr 30, 2009
26,993
Newton
I was watching SMU Houston last year. All tied up with 0:37 left to go and SMU was kicking off. I was watching under the table while at a dinner party but was muttering “Don’t kick it to Jones. Don’t kick it to Jones.” They did. He took it too the house. I yelped. Got some looks and was asked what was wrong. “They kicked it to Marcus Fucking Jones,” I replied. All I got back were blank stares. One friend, “Oh are you watching sportsball? I’m… sorry?” Partner: “They are putting their phone away aren’t they.”

Let me tell you it feels a lot better on the other side of it.

Oh and like this game the kick/punt was NOT supposed to go to Jones but somehow did anyway.
This is so great for many reasons.
 

cshea

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 15, 2006
36,047
306, row 14
My guess on the punt is that the Jets were worried about the Pats have one last shot. There was 26 seconds left and the Pats had a timeout. The LOS was the Jet 34 but the kicker was kicking into the wind and actually kicked the ball from the 23, I think they were worried a high punt getting knocked down by the wind or shanked or something giving the Patriots the ball around mid-field with 1 timeout left and ~16-18 seconds left. The way they executed it feels like they just wanted him to boot it as far as he could.

I'm not sure I buy that they were actually trying to kick it OOB. They were on the right hash and Jones fielded the punt just outside the kicking teams left hash. Not sure which way the cross wind was blowing, and I'm no punting expert, but if he was trying to kick it OOB I would think angling towards the short side of the field is much easier than trying to kick it back across the width of the field.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

Throw Momma From the Train
Moderator
SoSH Member
May 20, 2003
35,734
Deep inside Muppet Labs
I was surprised that he did not punt it out of bounds.
The wind was a huge factor. In that game situation, they may have been worried about a short punt, and his previous few punts that he had kicked OOB had been pretty short. So he had a football Sophie's Choice: punt it OOB and risk setting up the Pats on the 50 just needing a FG (with the wind) to win, or boom it deep, risk a return, knowing that the Pats' offense had been unable to sustain long drives all day.

He decided to go for distance in order to keep the Pats away from FG range. But he outkicked the coverage.