The Game Ball Thread: Wk 9 vs Washington

[SeoulSoxFan]

The game ball goes to Googe & staff, who is magically holding the OL together.

Another professional win, who only gave up a garbage time TD.

But all eyes are on news on Lewis. Hope it's something he can come back in time for the playoffs. It's a game of attrition, but more than any other injuries this year this one seems to take the air out of the team the most.

Bolden & White, come on down.

 

[RedOctober3829]

Branch
Hicks
Googe

 

[Mugsy's Walk-Off Bunt]

Whichever fucking medical person fixes Dion Lewis FAST. Everything else is beside the point, or at least feels that way. But yeah, Googe.

 

[MuppetAsteriskTalk]

Blount
Stork
Fleming

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

Blount
All of the OL.

 

[j44thor]

WAS skill players for dropping virtually every pass.

 

[m0ckduck]

Even if we get Dion Lewis back this year, there's still the flying-under-the-radar Sebastian Vollmer head injury that might actually screw us over worse in the long run.

Oh, wait, this is supposed to be the exulting thread. Sorry...

 

[k-factory]

OL
Blount
LaFell - best game so far. Getting in a nice rhythm with Brady now.

 

[pappymojo]

Special shout out to my wife and kids. Everyone fell asleep so I got to have a beer and watch the game sitting on the floor in front of the sofa.

 

[Byrdbrain]

Blount - Was a beast, arm tackles wont' bring him down.
Lafell- Looks like he is back, a nice compliment to the other receivers.
DL - Great penetration on both the running and passing game.

 

[E5 Yaz]

Even if we get Dion Lewis back this year, there's still the flying-under-the-radar Sebastian Vollmer head injury that might actually screw us over worse in the long run....

I don't know what you're talking about. There's been plenty of concern about Vollmer; his injury is nowhere close to "under the radar"

 

[GeorgeCostanza]

Blount - Was a beast, arm tackles wont' bring him down.
Lafell- Looks like he is back, a nice compliment to the other receivers.
DL - Great penetration on both the running and passing game.

Re: Blount, I'd say it's about 50/50 between plays where he's tackled and plays when the refs blow fwd progress because no one can bring him down.

Awesome seeing JoJo get in a groove, had some fantastic YAC

Online with tremendous run blocking, receivers and Gronk too. How many times did we see the three of them seal the D and Blount bounced it out. But now how many lineman are left standing? I'm thinking that may have been behind some of Brady's throws today. He seemed a little off after Vollmer went down throwing over multiple dudes heads. He also needs to throw the back shoulder/end zone fades much better than he has lately. Those have been way off recently. The pick was rough. Combination of Brady not seeing the LB and Edelman sitting on the ball instead of driving toward it. I'd break it down 95/5 Brady's fault

 

[Al Zarilla]

wrong th

 

[Reverend]

wrong th

I think AZ is dead.

 

[E5 Yaz]

I think AZ is dead.

Nah, he just can't read

 

[sachmoney]

Penthouse:
LaFell - 100 yard day through the air
Blount - 100 yard day on the ground
OL - Did a great job protecting Brady
Logan Ryan - led the team in tackles (6), had two passes defended, and the INT

Dog House:
Turf Monster - potentially took out Dion Lewis' knee

 

[m0ckduck]

Interior D-line (Branch, Hicks) played very stout.

Pass rush was lackluster with no Collins, Sheard. Rushers seemed to get gummed up together on the inside a lot— perhaps this is just a matter of Skins O-line playing well.

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

Skins had only given up something like 8 sacks heading into the game, so that might be part of it

 

[dynomite]

The kind of ho hum game that so few teams manage to pull off consistently, but is essential for truly good teams. Ho hum 27 points scored with 4th and 5th tackles. Ho hum 3 points allowed until garbage time with the star LB out.

UP:

- Stork.... And Andrews, and Kline, and everyone who scouts, coaches and plays offensive line for us. I'm glad this story is getting national attention, because it deserves it. We ended the game with only 1 of Super Bowl 49s starters in the game -- and he was the center playing RT.

- Blount: Ran tough and hard, both when there were gaping holes blocked for him and when there weren't.

- Freeny: One of the most underrated players on a defense full of them. Got the green dot and seemed to handle it just fine, on an afternoon when the defense was casually suffocating for the most part.

DOWN:

- Human frailty and the randomness of fate and injury

Skins had only given up something like 8 sacks heading into the game, so that might be part of it

I think this is right, and would add that it seemed like they didn't feel the need to blitz Cousins all that much. Apart from a few mistakes the LBs and CBs had great coverage all day until that garbage time drive.

 

[amarshal2]

I think this is right, and would add that it seemed like they didn't feel the need to blitz Cousins all that much. Apart from a few mistakes the LBs and CBs had great coverage all day until that garbage time drive.

Are you sure this is right? I saw plenty of snaps where they showed 6 or 7 and brought 5. I saw corner blitzes, I saw Chandler Jones dropping into coverage,l and I saw HT blitzing/delayed blitzing a bunch of times. My impression was that they got pretty creative pretty often yesterday. Of course, it's just what I saw so it's all anecdotal. I looked around PFF for some sort of % of downs with blitzes stat for yesterday vs. the season for the Pats and couldn't find anything -- though I'm not very familiar with the site.

 

[DJnVa]

Look like we first hit that 99% win probability threshold in the first quarter. It dipped a tiny bit (never below 96.8%) and stayed over 99% from about the 12 minute mark of 3rd quarter.

 

[m0ckduck]

Are you sure this is right? I saw plenty of snaps where they showed 6 or 7 and brought 5.

Yeah-- my sense (also purely anecdotal) was that they brought pressure on many occasions in the first half, but that Washington picked it up well in basically every instance and it led to most of the situations where Cousins had a man open downfield (who luckily dropped the ball on seemingly every occasion). I thought they brought less A-gap pressure as the game went on and resorted to more 'exotic' blitz schemes (may I never use that annoying phrase again) or just played it straight up.

 

[dynomite]

Yeah-- my sense (also purely anecdotal) was that they brought pressure on many occasions in the first half, but that Washington picked it up well in basically every instance and it led to most of the situations where Cousins had a man open downfield (who luckily dropped the ball on seemingly every occasion). I thought they brought less A-gap pressure as the game went on and resorted to more 'exotic' blitz schemes (may I never use that annoying phrase again) or just played it straight up.

I saw them bringing 3rd down pressures but if real-time perspective can be trusted (perhaps not) I didn't see all that many instances when they brought more than 4. Sometimes it seemed unpredictable which 4, but I can't remember big blitzes apart from 3rd downs.

Others should feel free to correct me.

 

[nothumb]

I wasn't charting or anything but it seemed to me like they blitzed pretty regularly. Didn't seem like they got there often, and they gave up some completions as a result, but there may have been metagame benefits in terms of forcing Wash to keep in extra protection or keeping Cousins off balance.

 

[nazz45]

By my count, Patriots had five three-man rushes, 27 four-man rushes and nine five-or-more-man rushes (Cousins went 7 for 8, 76 yards + 1 sack). On one occasion, Hightower had a read/delay rush (adding a fifth rusher) when the RB stayed in to protect after play-action (ended in interception).

Both Washington tackles played well but the Patriots actually did a nice job trying to create interior pressure with stunts and zone rushes against a relatively inexperienced interior offensive line. Cousins just did a nice job sliding left/right in the pocket to avoid and buy time. He took a beating on that final drive when the Patriots accumulated most of their pressures.

 

[Ed Hillel]

How about a little love for Malcom Butler? I know Jackson wasn't in full game shape, but Butler erased him. What a find he's been.

 

[Al Zarilla]

How about a little love for Malcom Butler? I know Jackson wasn't in full game shape, but Butler erased him. What a find he's been.

Did Butler cover DeSean J? I heard the plan going in was Logan Ryan on him, but the source of that info wasn't great.