Gilmore on Evans - nicely done, maybe wrap up when tackling, but yeah, an impressive job against a superior WR. Meanwhile, maybe his teammates can shut the F up, getting on media members who had the temerity to criticize him for being LEGITIMATELY AWFUL. I appreciate the circling of wagons and sticking up for teammates, but the idea that tonight retroactively constitutes an "I told you so" moment for Gilmore is a fucking joke. He was crap. Tonight he wasn't crap. Probably nodding humbly and quietly bucking him up is a better idea.
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Nah.
1. It's objectively good that the team is sticking up for their brand new teammate, especially when there was potential strife with him and Butler. We like that.
2. Unless we've determined that the communication errors were solely on Gilmore (To me they're on him and McCourty, who's been here way longer...plus Rowe had a big mistake too), he wasn't any worse than the rest of the secondary. He had two ticky tack hands to the face penalties called at the worst possible times and a PI on an underthrown ball that Watson shouldn't have thrown but otherwise he was just as mediocre as anyone against HOU and CAR.
3. He was a very good player in Buffalo. What's more likely, he had 3 bad games or he's done at age 27? A little I told you so is fine, especially since the media (with a couple exceptions) are terrible, and love to overreact to anything they can.
I don't think the pass protection was that bad either beyond Solder who has something else going on (and needs to get better or get benched IMO). They're running a lot more longer-developing plays and Tampa took a few liberties with late hits that could have been flagged (one down low early in the game was pretty dangerous). It's a tough matchup against TB's scheme without Edelman and with Cooks not fully there -- if a guy isn't open right away Brady's going to have to hold the ball. The fumble was actually on Brady for not recognizing the blitz, no (and a good playcall by Tampa)?
I thought the offensive playcalling was confusing. I would have used more runs with Develin and Gillislee, and the empty backfield in the second Q on 3rd and 1 was a terrible call.
On the plus side, yeah, Brady, Patricia, McCourty, Chung, Gilmore get balls from me. Seemed like the strategy was to take away Evans and make Winston beat you going elsewhere and he showed he wasn't there with his decision-making and accuracy.
Folk sucked but yeah the team plays differently if he makes any of those, so you can't say that's why they lost. I would have gone for the 4th and 3 at the end honestly -- you convert and you win, and if you don't you're only up by a FG but they'd shown they couldn't make those...