The Game Ball Thread: Divisional Round vs Chiefs
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I returned home early in the afternoon after a two-week trip to the UAE, and by the end of the game I was occasionally nodding off. I didn't see the tipped ball completion to Edelman until watching the highlights this morning. That was a good play to miss live for my heart health.
I thought the key to the game was how the offense converted the one turnover of the game into a touchdown. I don't recall who forced that turnover, but game ball to that guy.
I thought the key to the game was how the offense converted the one turnover of the game into a touchdown. I don't recall who forced that turnover, but game ball to that guy.
The most memorable Chung play was him blowing up a screen pass by destroying two blocks, and Butler cleaning up the tackle.
Or the play where he caught the Tight End by the tail of his jersey and just held on until others could finish the tackle
One thing about this game that seems strange now is that KC was never really playing at the same level as the Pats, but their incredible slow, deliberate offense combined with the Patriots' don't-get-burned-on-the-big-one defensive strategy to really make the game seem tighter than it probably was.
The Patriots only punted three times but the Chiefs ran 83 plays and had the ball for 37:71.
The Patriots only punted three times but the Chiefs ran 83 plays and had the ball for 37:71.
Yeah the game wasn't nearly as close as the score. Brady missed one or two throws early, a couple of drops from Edelman and White, the 3rd down scramble when the score was 21-6 that should have been a sack... that game was much closer to being like 41-6 than it was to the Chiefs winning
That was an incredible play. Tight ends are constructed to bust through tackles where they are fully wrapped up - to hold on to a (very good) NFL tight end by the jersey is the equivalent of an action hero grabbing on to a piece of rebar while falling from a 50 story building - physically it just ain't supposed to happen.
I really enjoy seeing Chung play so well - his career has such a seminal BB twist. High draft pick DB who pretty much flames out, goes to Philly and sucks there too, returns to Pats because BB still has faith (while the fans are incredulous), and suddenly is good.
I see Ras-I Dowling getting resigned next year, and Tavon Wilson in 2017.
I was guessing maybe CBS didn't have its normal high camera position in the first half because of fog? Was this ever clarified, because the game was hard to watch. Many punts and kick offs had that awful bewildered from behind the kicker.
Finally, for all the bitching about Dan Fouts, on balance I'd take Eagle/Fouts over Nantz/Simms every time.
I see Ras-I Dowling getting resigned next year, and Tavon Wilson in 2017.
I was guessing maybe CBS didn't have its normal high camera position in the first half because of fog? Was this ever clarified, because the game was hard to watch. Many punts and kick offs had that awful bewildered from behind the kicker.
Finally, for all the bitching about Dan Fouts, on balance I'd take Eagle/Fouts over Nantz/Simms every time.
Tebow game and last years super bowl are the only ones I can think of that would be better. He was big balls incarnate last night.
This is a fair point, but Fouts was especially stupid yesterday. Even so, you're right.
Everyone else has hit on the major ones (Gronk, Brady, ChungC Jules) but I think one being over looked is McDaniels for the (scripted?) play calling to open their first drive of the second half after the fumble. Picked a bunch of plays where they had established tendencies by KC defenders from the first half and used them against them to absolute steamroll the Chiefs D. I haven't looked at the drive chart but I don't think they got to third down. The TD play to Gronk worked so well that everyone was making "you gotta at least cover him" jokes except that he WAS covered by Eric Berry! They just sold that stop and go route with the pass fake by Brady and then you've got Gronk just wide open by himself steps from the end zone.
Incredible.
I also was totally on board with a pass at the end of the game but didn't like that TB chose to try that specific pass.
Also I was giddy at the sight of a Gronk seam route for the first time in decades. Watch out defenses, they're opening up his playbook.
Incredible.
I also was totally on board with a pass at the end of the game but didn't like that TB chose to try that specific pass.
Also I was giddy at the sight of a Gronk seam route for the first time in decades. Watch out defenses, they're opening up his playbook.
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What I loved about this play was Fouts saying that the KC guy should have blocked Butler, as if Chung gave him any option.
Edelman-- because as many predicted, he'd make the O-line better.
Brady--because if its remotely possible, he's underrated.
chung--I think he was responsible for Kelce not going wild.
Whoever it is that was responsible for ASmith only having 1 ball-busting 3rd down run.
Brady--because if its remotely possible, he's underrated.
chung--I think he was responsible for Kelce not going wild.
Whoever it is that was responsible for ASmith only having 1 ball-busting 3rd down run.
My rationale is that there's usually 3-5 of those calls which go against us, so yeah, I'll take a game with only one that didn't add a ton of stress for me (personally).
Funny how we dwell on the few early off target passes Brady had (and the Edelman drops), and what the score might have been if he was perfect, but how about Smith overthrowing his receiver on what seemed like every pass longer than 10 - 12 yards. You know the expression "it is what it is", well, the game was what it was.
I was involved in one of the corporate events at Gillette where the hosting firm paid for Rodney Harrison's appearance for a QA and autograph session. Someone asked him about those late drives and he mentioned that at one point when the Eagles were taking forever to set up, that he stood up out of his stance and called over to Bruschi and asked "what are they doing?" and Bruschi called back "these guys are idiots."
But Smith sucks and always does that. If his receivers can't get YAC their offense stalls because he can't get chunk yards any other way.
Edelman is much more likely to make those catches than Smith is to suddenly get accurate downfield (or even attempt those throws -- he only threw twice more than 15 yards in the air against Houston I believe).
As someone who was pretty damned concerned with the offensive line coming into the game, I would have to go with them...with respect to pass blocking.
They did not attempt many runs but when they did, it seemed like not many holes were being opened up.
Josh McDaniels and Guges should get them too. Great game plan and getting that line to play like that deserves some praise.
They did not attempt many runs but when they did, it seemed like not many holes were being opened up.
Josh McDaniels and Guges should get them too. Great game plan and getting that line to play like that deserves some praise.
Yeah as @Toe Nash said I disagree. Forcing Alex Smith to throw 50 time s is a winning recipe. The Pats D didn't play awesome and still kicked their ass.
I don't agree with that. There were bursts of excellence on both sides of the ball for the Pats but it did not feel like a dominant win. KC had a number of methodical drives and dominated time of possession - 38 mins to 22 mins.
Don't get me wrong - lots of promise in this game with the return of some electric playmaking from TB12, Edelman, Gronk, White, Martin, O-line, CJ, Butler, Nink et al. but definitely a lack of polish too with unforced errors from LaFell, Edelman, White, Ryan Allen and not the impressive pass rush we imagined.
To be expected since its been a while these guys have all been on the field together and KC is not a layup opponent.
All that to say I never felt this game was dominated by the Pats. They were not nearly as crisp as they are capable of being.
Game ball to Dan Fouts. He was perfect in the prediction department: anything that he said was gonna happen, the exact opposite occurred
The "methodical" drives were part of the gameplan. If it takes you 17 plays to go 62 yards as it did on the Chiefs' first drive, (or 11 plays to go 60 in their other long drive in the first hald) that's not a sustainable plan. You might confidently pick up 3-5 yards all the way down the field but sooner or later you're going to not execute or get a penalty and then the drive ends. So the Pats looked to give them the short stuff and make sure to tackle and force them to make those third down conversions.
If that is your offense, and your defense isn't getting takeaways, you're not going to beat a team that can pick up 10+ yards at a time like the healthy Pats. The Chiefs are basically built to win in one fashion, especially with a limited Maclin, and if you take that away from them they have little chance.
To the Chiefs' credit they made a lot of those third down conversions, but it wasn't near enough, and then when they tried to come back they didn't have the receivers or the quarterback to be able to make long plays. They started out converting 5 of their first 6 third downs and then only converted 1 of their final 6.
The Patriots got 21 first downs and 15 of those came on 1st or 2nd down. The Chiefs had 27 and 14 were converted on 1st or second (and the disparity was probably higher before the 4th quarter when they got desperate).
The line he had about one of the lineman being 320 pounds "but that was probably before Christmas" made up for a lot of it.
I get the point being made about the Chiefs needing to convert third downs, but they did. And fourth downs. They had more first downs, more yards, more time of possession, and had better balance. Like often happens in the playoffs, turnover differential matters, and in the final analysis the fumble was an enormous play in this game. It likely took points off the board for the Chiefs and led to a quick hit score the other way, so definitely an honorable mention to Jones for what may have been the most important play of the game.
I mean, they did on the first drive. Then they didn't. Nor could they get it into the end zone. And that was by design for the NE D.
TOP difference was basically due to that first drive, which they only got three points out of.
Our seats were in the South Endzone, and I have to say watching Patricia pregame and on the sideline all game was fascinating. He was fired up and hi 5ing players coming off the field (offensive and defensive) all game. Brady was animated as well, but Patricia was intense the whole game.
I knew that would be the comeback, but if you look at the reasons Tom is great, or Joe Montana was great, it's a lot more than throwing accuracy. Intelligence, leadership, and little things like ability to keep plays alive by moving in the pocket, checking through all receivers if the primary guy isn't open, not staring at that primary guy, and many more things. Sure, Smith isn't generally as accurate as Tom, but he's not that poor for accuracy normally. I think he had an off day. My point was we dwell on the few misses Tom has, and what the score could have been if he was perfect, while assuming other QBs are supposed to be lousy. I mean, Smith did lead KC to 11 straight, in spite of Andy Reid.
I thought what really killed them was Smith's inability to hit anywhere near the back corner end zone on the couple times his receivers had the pats beat back there. He over threw those by 8-10 yards easily.
Apologies if it has been discussed but has there been mention that according to Zolak, the refs left the K balls at the hotel then had to police escort to get them or some such shit? #integrity
Minus the pick in the end zone last year, yeah that Super Bowl was definitely one of his greatest by far.
On downfield throws? Yeah he's usually that bad. He has good attributes but downfield accuracy isn't one of them. That was a pretty good Alex Smith game.
According to Zo, they left the K balls AND THE GAUGES at the hotel and needed a State PD escort to get them retrieved at the hotel. They got them to the stadium just in time for kickoff. Cant make this stuff up.
I agree bend-but-don't-break was part of the game plan, but I'm not sure it worked as well as you seem to. The Patriots broke twice in the last 18 minutes of the game, and the defense was on the field for the most snaps all season even though the offense was pretty efficient. Ultimately they allowed 20 points on just nine drives, which is pretty bad.
This was what was funny about the Pats' game plan - I would have thought they would try to take away the run and short passing game and make Smith and a bunch of subpar receivers beat them deep, but they basically did the opposite. It seemed like the Chiefs were happy to take that.
This is a concern for me heading into Denver. The Steelers seemed to get worn down and couldn't tackle for crap late in the game yesterday, which is the same thing I saw when the Broncos played Cincinnati and when they played the Pats earlier in the year. If the defense doesn't play better than they did on Saturday, Denver could run all over them late.
Several people have mentioned the OL but my game ball goes to Sebastian Vollmer. Could barely walk as little as a few days ago, based on the Reiss video of him not so much 'jogging' as 'shuffling'. Goes out there, plays 100% of offensive snaps, and his footwork is absolutely nails all day, despite him often being on an island in pass protection. Poe, Bailey and Howard did jack and shit all game, and while that was mostly a team effort by the OL, Vollmer stood out to me.
Also, in the category of "The Nation's Tears", here's Mike Golic offering his 'opinion' on the Amendola block that was flagged for a PF:
http://es.pn/1OAx74a
TLDW: He says if you're going to block there, you have to keep your head up and "see what you hit", and that lowering your head will lead to a helmet-to-helmet hit. The funniest part to me is the idea that Danny Amendola, all supposed 5'11" of him, bending down when blocking Jamell Fleming (also 5'11"), would somehow make it more likely to hit him in the head.
Also, Bill Belichick says it was a legal hit, so Golic can go pound sand.
Also, in the category of "The Nation's Tears", here's Mike Golic offering his 'opinion' on the Amendola block that was flagged for a PF:
http://es.pn/1OAx74a
TLDW: He says if you're going to block there, you have to keep your head up and "see what you hit", and that lowering your head will lead to a helmet-to-helmet hit. The funniest part to me is the idea that Danny Amendola, all supposed 5'11" of him, bending down when blocking Jamell Fleming (also 5'11"), would somehow make it more likely to hit him in the head.
Also, Bill Belichick says it was a legal hit, so Golic can go pound sand.
All it takes to blow up a drive like this is a single false start, holding, etc. Even a bad running play kills the drive.
The Patriots are one of the few teams in the league that can consistently execute the short stuff at a level to sustain drives. It's not easy just because its short - you need to be successful on the vast majority of plays, whereas if you're throwing downfield, you only need to be succesfull about 35% of the time.
On that note, I was utterly shocked how many times Alex Smith managed to escape what looked like a sure sack only to throw the ball to a WR 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage, and end up with a 3-4 yard loss. If you're going to run a short pass/running based offense, those absolutely have to be thrown away.
Part of that is because the Patriots mostly neutralized Smith's big play runs, which were usually the *out* during the season for Smith when he avoided the rush.
KC ran 82 offensive plays and held the ball for over 37 minutes of game-time. They weren't efficient (4.6 yards per play), but they converted 12/20 third downs. That's not gonna cut it going forward.
I think the Pats will play very aggressive man defense vs. Denver. Until and unless Peyton starts hitting throws over 20 yards, I wouldn't give him anything from -5 to 15 yards out.
I think the Pats will play very aggressive man defense vs. Denver. Until and unless Peyton starts hitting throws over 20 yards, I wouldn't give him anything from -5 to 15 yards out.
From that same show though, they were talking about the no-name receivers Rodgers was throwing to at the end of the season. Greenie asked Tom Waddle, who was on the set, if he'd heard of Jeff Janis or Jared Abbrederis before. He said something like "there isn't an obscure white receiver I've never heard of." Thinking of our guys, not that they are unknown like Edelman was once, but that was funny. He also said the Patriots, now that they are healthy, or much more healthy, are easily the best team in the AFC right now.
The counter-argument is that PIT played super-soft coverage while blitzing a lot and that ALSO worked pretty well— 8 of 11 Denver drives ended in 5 plays or less. Had PIT done a better job early on with field position, several of those DEN drives would have sputtered out short of field goal range. PIT's gameplan only backfired because they couldn't string together enough drives of their own to keep the D from fading in the final quarter.
I'm really curious to see which way they'll play it— logic would suggest that you make Manning beat you deep. But there's a pretty good recent historical (as in, one day old) argument for playing soft coverage. To my untrained eyes, it seemed that Manning simply doesn't have the zip or accuracy on his short passes to set up any real YAC, so it's easy to beat down the receivers after the catch.