soxfan121 said:
Please show your work.
I have heard, on talk radio and from other media, that the Patriots "inability" to give Tom Brady weapons is the reason for the offense struggling. And there may be a small element of truth buried in there.
But go back two seasons, to when the defense was historically bad. So they spent a ton of picks and assets to build a defense. Chandler Jones, Hightower, Easley, Revis, Browner, Jaime Collins, new contract for Vince, Tommy Kelly (briefly), etc.
This, after two seasons of bringing in your offensive playmakers (Gronkowski, Hernandez, Vereen, Ridley, Dobson, etc.)
Part of team building is resource allocation decisions. You simply cannot do everything you want, every year.
Should the Pats have known Logan Mankins was going to fall off a cliff (giving up NINE sacks and nearly twenty pressures) as a pass blocker? Should they have known Solder was going regress or that Hernandez was gonna murder some people?
You can argue they should have but that's an impossible standard to meet, let alone prove.
The bottom line is that winning double-digit games every single season, and making the Conference Championship and/or Super Bowl four times in five seasons DOES NOT HAPPEN ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE NFL.
The Patriots have either won or tied for the division lead for FIFTEEN CONSECUTIVE SEASONS. That is unprecedented, unless your only knowledge of football history is your Madden 2005 team on the Easy-setting.
Criticism is fine, but let's put a little effort into it? Show your work if you want to claim they could have "made better decisions". And if you can't, wonder why you can't and give the guys who have proven - for a decade and a half - that they know what they are doing the benefit of the doubt and then try to learn what they are doing. Maybe that'll help direct the criticism into productive, interesting analysis instead of unfocused whining.
Unfocused whining is the media's job. Don't Shank. No one likes a Shank.
Sigh. Who doesn't know that the Pats have had enormous success and who isn't incredibly grateful?
Reciting their run of success repeatedly as if it's some new concept is unnecessary and proves nothing.
Again, one can criticize individual moves or a series of moves and, shockingly, still fully realize what we have in Bill Belichick and how wonderful this run has been. I've been a die hard Pats fan since around 1972 and I well appreciate what other eras looked like.
As to my work, I cited an article in yesterday's Globe by Volin that makes several of my points and makes them well (in regard to what Bill could have done).
That said, I will make a few points here:
- I thought that Bill made a mistake last season when he went into the campaign with 3 rookies in the mix at WR. Sure, Hernandez was a major curve ball, but I thought that he should have obtained a free agent WR or done more to give Tom at least one more proven alternative at WR. I liked the Amendola move (not that I understood letting Wes go) but saw him as more of a slot guy and as someone who was injury prone, so I thought they needed more, especially on the outside. Going into this season, I continued to think that they were light at WR. I was cautiously optimistic about LaFell but he is not a burner and had a penchant for drops in Carolina. Again, I thought Bill should have done more to arm Tom and still do. I was NOT confident that Thompkins, Boyce or Dobson would emerge, though I hoped the happy talk I was reading about Thompkins was accurate and that getting past the rookie learning curve would make a difference.
- They added Wright late (and at the expense of Mankins), but I was concerned all off season that since Gronk's health was no sure thing and the rest of the existing TEs were simply not good enough, that they hadn't addressed an important need. Now sure, they did attempt that with Wright, though he was known as a poor blocker in Tampa. But they did it very late and perhaps part of why we're not seeing much of Wright is that he doesn't yet know the system well enough.
- I thought all off season that they should have made it a focus to get a pass rusher on the outside. The 2013 Pats did not get a lot of pressure on the QB and while I thought that improving the secondary would lead to some coverage sacks, and that getting Mayo back would help, that Bill could have done more at that position.
Now sure, of course, with a salary cap you can't do everything. A lot of these things are easier said than done. The point about resource allocation is well known and appreciated. And like others, I applauded the Revis move. But I don't think it's asking for too much for Bill to have bulked up these three areas or at least some of them. He might have had to cut a player or two to get there, or made other creative moves. I don't claim to have a fully baked, all encompassing solution, but that doesn't prevent me (and others) from seeing a few holes and wondering why there wasn't more of an effort to fill them. Last, I also appreciate that Bill may well have tried and was just unable to get it done.
