Just a complete ball game. Everyone gets a game ball, especially the ST unit.
It's game ball time again!
It's game ball time again!
this is a trash take for a game ball threadPains me this team, a very good team, is going to finish #8 in the AFC, and *just* miss a rematch with the Chiefs. That's my take.
10-6 gets them in. Yes its a long shot, but I believe this is still in their control.Pains me this team, a very good team, is going to finish #8 in the AFC, and *just* miss a rematch with the Chiefs. That's my take.
It was a bad take indeedthis is a trash take for a game ball thread
Gunner/Special Teams
Damien Harris
Our coaching staff
The direct snaps to Harris added an intriguing angle. Maybe they just wanted to put something different in coaches's minds and they won't use for more than what we saw. Or, maybe they have a few other plays in that package that they didn't want/need to show one things got out of hand. Either way, it shows a morphing of the offensive mindset from what we've seen for decadesCam Newton, Harris and the running game. I cannot imagine opposing coaches getting excited to play the Patriots offense - even with a terrible passing game (ex-Stidham) they present a huge problem given their varied, diverse run attack. The bonus here is the terrible weather that occurs around the playoffs now tilts to NE's favor.
Yeah, this is where I am. A solid team should be able to take advantage to an opponent's glaring weakness. Making what had been that team's strength look as bad as it did was what was most impressiveThe Charger D and ST are just awful, but that's a really talented offense that was flat-out crushed. Truly impressive work by the Pats D to shut them out.
Game balls to the Pats ST (not just the runbacks, but punts and kickoffs too), the previously maligned linebacking corps and edge rushers. They were clobbering Herbert and his receivers, forcing drops and limiting the short passes to limited gains. Herbert had a full-on Manning face there by the end.
Holy crap yes, I'd completely forgotten about the Wildcat! Cam just split out and did nothing at all, but that could easily turn into receiving or blocking in a heartbeat.The direct snaps to Harris added an intriguing angle. Maybe they just wanted to put something different in coaches's minds and they won't use for more than what we saw. Or, maybe they have a few other plays in that package that they didn't want/need to show one things got out of hand. Either way, it shows a morphing of the offensive mindset from what we've seen for decades
Those last 3 runs were completely meaningless; he basically was told to run into a stacked box to run out the clock on a 45-0 game. Those plays literally do not matter.It is 100% cherry picking (it's not like he had a bunch of runs from the 1 yard line, and if he had broken one of runs for a long gain it would be used as evidence that he'd had a good day), and even then his average is under 4. Regardless, my comment wasn't even based on his numbers - he didn't look that good, on a day in which the Pats O-line spent plenty of time pushing around the other team. 11 touches, and he had just two real nice plays (his first run and his one reception).
My memory may be off, but it seemed like they used Sony in quite a few RPO packages. I think all of his best runs came out of it, Cam had a couple of nice gains out of it as well, IIRC.Nice to see Sony be productive after all the grief he gets here. He's had a good season when healthy.
That was a nice catch--that ball was rifled.File this a notch below honorable mention (though dishonorable mention isn’t quite right), but I was happy to see Harry do ANYTHING positively noteworthy. Nice TD catch. Please build on that. By a lot.
Yeah, they definitely - and Slater made this point after the game - have hit their stride. Will it be enough? The odds are against their running the table with a slate that includes three good, if beatable, teams, but it’s nice to see they are getting after it with purpose when a contingent of the fan base wants losses so they’ll perhaps pick 11th rather than 17th or whatever.I give the Josh McDaniels a game ball. He is doing everything he can to work with a limited group.
That said the effort level and togetherness of the team is obvious. This is one of my favorite teams to watch in the last few years.
I'm with you - when things really felt like they were going off the rails a month or two ago, the hardest thing to swallow outside the prospect of a meaningless back half of the season were the minimal contributions let alone actual promise from the young, potential building block guys outside of Onwenu. Several Harris, Meyers, Gunner, Dugger etc breakouts and flashes later that's clearly no longer the case. Get something out of the rookie tight ends and go into the offseason a real threat to be interesting.Earlier, BB mentioned playing a lot of younger guys than usual. It looks like those players are finally getting more comfortable on the field.
It'd be great to make the playoffs. However, I love that this team will make the fans really look forward to the off-season. Developing young players + tons of cap space will certainly do that.
Their special teams is really, really bad. They're 7th in offensive yards, 9th-best in defensive yards, but they below average in points in large part because they're 30th in starting field position offensively and 29th in starting field position defensively. They are 2nd-worst in FG%, 2nd-worst in punt return average against, 4th-worst in KR average against, bottom-10 in punting average, bottom-10 in punt return average, bottom-10 in kick return average.When they signed Chris Harris this off-season I thought the Chargers would be a top 3 defense in the league and a serious playoff contender. I mean, Harris/Hayward is as good a corner pairing as you’ll find in this league, and up front they’ve added Linval Joseph and Jerry Tillery to their stud Bosa/Ingram pairing.
Obviously, losing Derwin James in the preseason hurt them, but how is their defense THIS bad? It feels like every year the Chargers are worse than the sum of their parts.