The Game Ball Thread: Week 14 at the Chargers

[SeoulSoxFan]

Yup. I had picked the Chargers to win an ugly game and it almost turned out that way with unexpected f*ckups. Thank the Football Buddhas for Edelman and the D. 
 
Good to get back to giving out Game BallZ!

• Edelman: huge play, obviously
• Collins: beast all game, wearing the green dot no less

Pats run the "gauntlet" with a 3-1 record, and now come back home for 3 important divisional games. This D is looking better than any unit since 2004. 

 

[gammoseditor]

The entire defense.  Gave up 7 and should have had 7 of their own.  

 

[Mooch]

Gotta give one to Nink. He made plays all over the place with constant pressure on Rivers.

 

[Jed Zeppelin]

Where the hell was Revis all night? Guy was totally invisible.....

 

[bluefenderstrat]

Revis, he's the key. Good solid play all around otherwise.

 

[amarshal2]

Up:
Edelman
Gronk
Collins
Revis
All defenders not named Arrington

Down:
Arrington
Run blocking
Solder in pass protection for a half

 

[H78]

The D
Edelman
Blount for softening up the D in the 4th

Now let's finish these last three shit teams off and get a week off before welcoming inferior teams to Foxboro in January.

 

[H78]

Where the hell was Revis all night? Guy was totally invisible.....

Which was perfect.

 

[Ralphwiggum]

Up: Collins, Revis

Down: game thread participants

 

[H78]

Up: Collins' gold grill!

 

[nothumb]

whole D but especially Collins, Nink, Revis, DMC
 
on offense, Edelman and Gronk made enough plays to do it for us.

 

[ernieshore]

Collins, Collins' grill, Edelman and Revis.

Honorable mention to that Chargers cheerleader.

 

[GeorgeCostanza]

Not quite the 14pt win I predicted, was getting ready to eat a bag of dicks for that one but Edelman, Gronk and the defense were nails. I think I need to start drinking during these games.

Keenan Allen is a damned good receiver. Revis is sick good. Fucking sick.

Solder is my least favorite Patriot right now since Brandon Merriweather

 

[Jed Zeppelin]

Collins, Collins' grill, Edelman and Revis.

Honorable mention to that Chargers cheerleader.

 
She pulled me out of a pretty dark place in my life, way back in the 1st half.

 

[Stitch01]

The league has a real officiating problem on these helmet to helmet plays. One of those is going to cost a team a season, they throw three or four flags a week for icky looking hard hits that are 100 percent legal under the rules. Adopt the BB standard of all plays being reviewable or change the officiating grading so they are held accountable for missing those calls.

Defense was great, Bolden made a huge play, LaFell showed his bad side, the OL mostly sucked, and Brady was middling but they did enough

Remind me not to play Tim Wright in any more road games.

Vereen seems to be losing snaps/reducing his role as we come down the stretch.

Can close to wrap everything up next week with a win and a Denver loss.

 

[Devizier]

Jamie Collins
Darrelle Revis
Julian Edelman

 

[Kliq]

Brady had a pretty strong game, minus the ugly pick, considering that he was facing a lot of pressure for most of the game. The run blocking was awful for most of the game, tough sledding when the offense becomes one dimensional.
 
The whole D played well, especially the interior lineman. Wilfork, Siliga and Branch all did a good job opening up wholes for the zip gut blitz and held the SD running game in check.

 

[Phragle]

Collins - Superstar. How you guys feel about Cordarrelle Patterson now?
Revis - Erased Keenan Allen, made it easy for everyone else.
Siliga - Finally 100%, played great, and with Branch and Wilfork ate SD's line for breakfast.

 

[Super Nomario]

Antonio Gates had 5 catches on 8 targets, but for just 34 yards. It looked like McCourty was a factor there, especially on third down, and I'm guessing Chung got a lot of work there, too.
REVIS
Gronk and Edelman
Matt Patricia had a nice game plan, scheming pressure with A-gap blitzes and throwing wrinkles (like Ayers dropping into coverage on the pick) that kept the Chargers off-balance
And Brandon Bolden had maybe the play of the game
 
 

Patricia- great game plan, dominance on 1st and 2nd down. Players responsibility to get off the field on 3rd and long and they didn't always

Chargers were actually just 4 of 13 on 3rd down. I'll take that any day.
 
EDIT: should have Collins, too

 

[Devizier]

The league has a real officiating problem on these helmet to helmet plays. One of those is going to cost a team a season, they throw three or four flags a week for icky looking hard hits that are 100 percent legal under the rules. Adopt the BB standard of all plays being reviewable or change the officiating grading so they are held accountable for missing those calls.

 
I don't mind the officials playing it safe but making the calls reviewable would be smart

 

[Dan to Theo to Ben]

Can't forget about BB either
 
Brandon Bolden with the blocked punt

 

[crystalline]

The league has a real officiating problem on these helmet to helmet plays. One of those is going to cost a team a season, they throw three or four flags a week for icky looking hard hits that are 100 percent legal under the rules. Adopt the BB standard of all plays being reviewable or change the officiating grading so they are held accountable for missing those calls.

Defense was great, Bolden made a huge play, LaFell showed his bad side, the OL mostly sucked, and Brady was middling but they did enough

Remind me not to play Tim Wright in any more road games.

Vereen seems to be losing snaps/reducing his role as we come down the stretch.

Can close to wrap everything up next week with a win and a Denver loss.

NFL doesn't want those plays reviewed, they want hits like Browner's penalized. Current rules are good for reducing concussions. I bet officials are told to call anything close to helmet to helmet that hurts a guy.

 

[Oppo]

Def- Revis
ST- Bolden
Off- Edelman

 

[MyDaughterLovesTomGordon]

Jamie Collins, you have anyone you wanna say hello to?
 
Nah. 
 
Because he's too busy blowing shit up. He was everywhere tonight. With Hightower and Chandler coming back, the Pats have a bounty of riches on D. 

 

[Stitch01]

Longer term, given the realistic choices, we want Marvin, the Red ROFL and company for a rematch in the divisional round right?

 

[Yaz4Ever]

Jamie Collins, you have anyone you wanna say hello to?
 
Nah. 
 
Because he's too busy blowing shit up. He was everywhere tonight. With Hightower and Chandler coming back, the Pats have a bounty of riches on D. 

"Yes, I'd like to say hi to Giselle and Tom's mom, too." Blow kiss at camera and walk off. That would've been awesome.

 

[Stitch01]

NFL doesn't want those plays reviewed, they want hits like Browner's penalized. Current rules are good for reducing concussions. I bet officials are told to call anything close to helmet to helmet that hurts a guy.

That's fine too, but the rules need a rewrite then because legal plays are getting flagged. The refs are being told exactly that and graded as such.

 

[nothumb]

I said it in the game thread, but the Browner helmet-to-helmet call looks less terrible after the heat of the moment. He does seem to leap into him a bit, which to a ref in real time has to be one of the things they look for. Though I don't think it's a foul, everyone knows it's a point of emphasis and he could have gone a bit lower.  I totally agree with those being reviewable, but of all the horrific officiating we've seen this year, that one actually doesn't rank that high for me. It's incredibly unlucky that it happens on a play that would otherwise be a pick-6, but that part is almost irrelevant to the call - the flag is out before DMC even catches the ball.

 

[koufax32]

Collins was phenomenal tonight.

When Revis allows a completion I find myself reacting how I did when Pedro gave up a line drive. "How did that happen?" What a great player.


If 1st half Solder shows up next week MIA will have 46 sacks. His adjustment makes me feel slightly better though. Way to rebound.

 

[Tony C]

Where the hell was Revis all night? Guy was totally invisible.....

 
 
heh...overrated bum.
 

Collins - Superstar. How you guys feel about Cordarrelle Patterson now?
Revis - Erased Keenan Allen, made it easy for everyone else.
Siliga - Finally 100%, played great, and with Branch and Wilfork ate SD's line for breakfast.

 
My 3, too - and a shout out to Bolden for the block. Siliga's a binkie, and so glad to have him back and seemingly in good form. Amazed how the Pats picks these guys up off of the trash pile.

 

[DJnVa]

Collins, Collins' grill, Edelman and Revis.

Honorable mention to that Chargers cheerleader.

 
I missed the cheerleader, but saw some references---what happened?

 

[ifmanis5]

We really don't have a screenshot of the based Charger cheerleader?

 

[koufax32]

We really don't have a screenshot of the based Charger cheerleader?

Gamethread fail

 

[crystalline]

That's fine too, but the rules need a rewrite then because legal plays are getting flagged. The refs are being told exactly that and graded as such.

But what's an objective standard to change the rule to? No contact within 6 in of the head is unrefereeaable. No injuring the WR is an invitation to flop. Maybe "no contacting the WRs helmet with any part of your body"?

Right now its no launching and no helmet to helmet on a defenseless receiver. Those are both strong and pretty objective. The refs extend it to anything close that leads to a concussion.

That call on Browner gets called 95% of the time in 2014.

 

[RedOctober3829]

Revis
Collins
Siliga
Edelman
Bolden
DMC
 
This should have been a 30+ point game by this team.  They left 10 pts on the field between the Brady pick and the botched red zone opportunity to open the game plus the 7 that should have gone to DMC.  Otherwise, a dominating game by both defense and special teams.  

 

[Ralphwiggum]

12 straight years of 10 plus wins.

That is amazing.

 

[Harry Hooper]

Special Teams overall merits a ball.

 

[eddiew112]

Collins is the stand out for me. Made great plays rushing the QB, against the run, and in coverage. Just a fantastic game from him. Hopefully he is a star in the making.
 
Casillas, Ayers, and Branch all deserve a mention for coming in midseason and not only contributing, but making big plays. 

 

[riboflav]

I said it in the game thread, but the Browner helmet-to-helmet call looks less terrible after the heat of the moment. He does seem to leap into him a bit, which to a ref in real time has to be one of the things they look for. Though I don't think it's a foul, everyone knows it's a point of emphasis and he could have gone a bit lower.  I totally agree with those being reviewable, but of all the horrific officiating we've seen this year, that one actually doesn't rank that high for me. It's incredibly unlucky that it happens on a play that would otherwise be a pick-6, but that part is almost irrelevant to the call - the flag is out before DMC even catches the ball.

 
Twitter claims it was a late flag. Michaels didn't mention it until McCourty was at the 10 and he thought it was a foul on the run back.

 

[crystalline]

Defense- bears repeating. Someone last week said the defense would be in serious trouble if Hightower went down. They just kept chugging. The secondary has been solid all year but they got some good pressure this game too.

 

[nothumb]

 
Twitter claims it was a late flag. Michaels didn't mention it until McCourty was at the 10 and he thought it was a foul on the run back.

 
Don't have access to DVR, so you might be totally right... I think I remember seeing the graphic pop up before Michaels says anything, when he said "maybe a hold on the return?" I was already thinking it would be a PF on the hit.

 

[bankshot1]

Game ball to the D
 
brilliant game
 
against a pretty good offense we saw what this D can do
 
and they're missing Jones and Hightower
 
BB-& Patricia are gonna have this freakin unit humming in January-Feb

 

[Super Nomario]

Defense- bears repeating. Someone last week said the defense would be in serious trouble if Hightower went down. They just kept chugging. The secondary has been solid all year but they got some good pressure this game too.

I think Hightower's loss would hurt more against a team with a better running game (Chargers entered the game 30th in YPC).

 

[ifmanis5]

Amazing that the D could look this good without C.Jones, Hightower and Mayo. Great job stepping up.

 

[DeJesus Built My Hotrod]

Gostkowski
Bolden
Slater
Edelman
Collins and the entire D including Browner.  Receivers hear his footsteps.  

 

[bsartist618]

Browner is a magnet for questionable flags, but I love what he brings to the defense.
 
For me:
Edelman
Collins
Revis
Siliga
 
Honorable mention to Bolden for his moment of glory.

 

[RedOctober3829]

SD's drive chart in the 2nd half
Punt
Punt
INT
Punt
Punt
Punt 
Downs
 
105 yards total offense 

 

[steveluck7]

SD's drive chart in the 2nd half
Punt
Punt
INT
Punt
Punt
Punt 
Downs
 
105 yards total offense 

This
I think they "earned" 3 first downs in the 2nd half and crossed the 50 once?

 

[RIrooter09]

Collins and Revis are the clear choices for me.  Collins was all over the field, and Revis completely shut his man down.

 

[Super Nomario]

SD's drive chart in the 2nd half
Punt
Punt
INT
Punt
Punt
Punt 
Downs
 
105 yards total offense 

Plays per drive:  3, 3, 4, 5, 3, 4, 4. Only one drive all game longer than 30 yards.