The Game Goat Thread: AFCCG @ Broncos

Soxy

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I hated the defensive approach on the first drive, with the corners giving such a huge cushion to the receivers. That was like a nightmare flashback to the Darius Butler/Jonathan Wilhite years. I get having a healthy degree of respect for Peyton Manning, but that approach plays right into his remaining strengths at this point.
Yup. They had a chance to force a three-and-out on Denver's first drive but on 3rd-and-10 Butler pretty much conceded the first down by playing so far off. It's a play almost nobody will talk about but it sparked Denver's first touchdown drive.
 
Nov 24, 2015
21
Chandler Jones should be at least 80% of Miller and on par with ware. I don't recall hearing his name once.
Though actually I think Malik Jackson was probably the bigger issue since Brady never had a chance to step up.
He would look real good in a pats uni next season.
This I agree with 100%. I had no idea how good Malik Jackson was. He was a beast tonight. Chandler jones is great but he isn't in the same league as the top guys. He is a step below and that clearly showed today. The linebackers looked great today and the D-Line felt mediocre. I guess we will see with the stats that come out tomorrow.
 

Harry Hooper

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I hated the defensive approach on the first drive, with the corners giving such a huge cushion to the receivers. That was like a nightmare flashback to the Darius Butler/Jonathan Wilhite years. I get having a healthy degree of respect for Peyton Manning, but that approach plays right into his remaining strengths at this point.
Zolak was all over this in real time on the radio. He hated the lack of aggressiveness.
 

Dahabenzapple2

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Yup. They had a chance to force a three-and-out on Denver's first drive but on 3rd-and-10 Butler pretty much conceded the first down by playing so far off. It's a play almost nobody will talk about but it sparked Denver's first touchdown drive.
for me the biggest play of the first half along with the Miller interception
 
Nov 24, 2015
21
I hated the defensive approach on the first drive, with the corners giving such a huge cushion to the receivers. That was like a nightmare flashback to the Darius Butler/Jonathan Wilhite years. I get having a healthy degree of respect for Peyton Manning, but that approach plays right into his remaining strengths at this point.
I still don't know why they weren't pressing the receivers all day. Manning had one big pass to sanders on a 50/50 play.nthe rest were misses by manning. I would have been pressing more on the receivers and blitzing more too.
 

loshjott

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You need to step away from the keyboard and go take a walk around the block. Was there contact on the play? Yup. Was it blatant and did it keep Gronk from jumping? No. Gronk couldn't jump because Gronk was battling cramps all day and had no spring at all.
Besides, that was offset by the non call on Gronk's obvious push off on the last TD.
 

luckiestman

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61 for the Pats was awful. McDaniels play calling was nothing great and the kicker missing an EP in Denver is laughable. I thought BB should have kicked the FG but I trust his judgement more than mine. Refs were fine.
 

IdiotKicker

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I'm not sure why anyone here is saying Ryan Allen sucked. He had an outstanding game by just about any metric out there - hang time, distance, direction. Gostkowski is clearly on the hook for his XP miss, but Allen was really good one week after he was legitimately terrible. Not sure how anyone can hang this one him.
 

JokersWildJIMED

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Oct 7, 2004
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There's a still out there, which I can't link, of the two point conversion. Shows Brady rolling right looking (seemingly) at Gronk as he breaks open. Can't believe Brady does not make that play as it was there and it's gotta be killing him.
 

steveluck7

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Not worthy of a game goat but more of a "wtf??" goat. 2nd quarter. Jaime Collins crashes down on a play action but makes a quick adjustment when Manning kept it and somehow Manning ran AWAY from #91 to throw it away. Also, letting Manning convert a 3rd and long with his legs in the 3rd quarter... wow
 

soxhop411

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I would have taken my chances with no Brown and banged up Ben.

But look, the Pats outperformed this year given their injuries. I am at peace.

Though I DO believe BB could have come up with an answer to Cam and Co in 2 weeks. It is frustrating.

But that's the thing. Pittsburg was THISSSSSSSSS close to beating Denver, but a fumble by their 3rd string (I think) RB lost them the game. If they scored on that drive instead of fumbling PIT would have beaten Denver
 

MiracleOfO2704

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I'm just curious why we didn't defer. Not thinking its a mistake, but wonder what BB felt was different about this game.
Maybe he thought it was important to get the crowd out of it with a TD in the first few minutes. Or that having the 7-0 lead before Manning takes a snap would force Denver to pass more. Like you said, it wasn't a mistake, it was just a deviation, and in close games, every deviation/breakdown is going to be unfairly scrutinized.
 

Harry Hooper

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Not worthy of a game goat but more of a "wtf??" goat. 2nd quarter. Jaime Collins crashes down on a play action but makes a quick adjustment when Manning kept it and somehow Manning ran AWAY from #91 to throw it away. Also, letting Manning convert a 3rd and long with his legs in the 3rd quarter... wow
Have to see it again, but it sort of looked like on that TD in the corner Collins gave up his one-on-one assignment on the TE and turned to see if he could join the action elsewhere.
 

j44thor

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There's a still out there, which I can't link, of the two point conversion. Shows Brady rolling right looking (seemingly) at Gronk as he breaks open. Can't believe Brady does not make that play as it was there and it's gotta be killing him.
Accidentally hit x when he meant to hit r1, hate it when that happens.
 

speedracer

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Jul 19, 2005
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Every time they ran it they got like two yards and then Brady got killed the next down. It seemed like they should have come out of the spread some because Fleming on Von Miller 1-on-1 or whatever was killing plays before they started, but I don't think adding more 1 yard runs into the equation was going to help much
I thought running more might have helped, but once it becomes evident that runs aren't adding any WP, just abandon them entirely and keep throwing until they make you stop.
 

dcmissle

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But that's the thing. Pittsburg was THISSSSSSSSS close to beating Denver, but a fumble by their 3rd string (I think) RB lost them the game. If they scored on that drive instead of fumbling PIT would have beaten Denver
I think Tom would have worn out their secondary, which Peyton couldn't. Football is a game of match-ups, which should be reinforced pretty clearly in two weeks. No way are they keeping Carolina to 18 points.
 

Captaincoop

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If you want to talk guys who disappointed the heck out of me this year, let's start with Scott Chandler. All he had to do was be an effective 4th or 5th option and change of pace on offense, and he could have really helped. He was invisible and useless all year.
 

( . ) ( . ) and (_!_)

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I get that some of those wheel routes to a running back are a mismatch on paper depending on who the defender is but it's such a maddeningly low percentage play. I get that it's a good thing that Brady recognizes and goes after mismatches but I hate that play so fucking much
 

steveluck7

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If you want to talk guys who disappointed the heck out of me this year, let's start with Scott Chandler. All he had to do was be an effective 4th or 5th option and change of pace on offense, and he could have really helped. He was invisible and useless all year.
Right. At least Reggie Wayne was man enough to quit in the pre-season
 

kelpapa

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Maybe he thought it was important to get the crowd out of it with a TD in the first few minutes. Or that having the 7-0 lead before Manning takes a snap would force Denver to pass more. Like you said, it wasn't a mistake, it was just a deviation, and in close games, every deviation/breakdown is going to be unfairly scrutinized.
This is exactly it. Forcing the Broncos to pass the ball to win would have been huge. Instead the Pats had to throw to win.
 

j44thor

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I think Tom would have worn out their secondary, which Peyton couldn't. Football is a game of match-ups, which should be reinforced pretty clearly in two weeks. No way are they keeping Carolina to 18 points.
I think people are giving this Carolina offense way too much credit, they run a bunch of go routes and rely on Newton and the OL to allow plays to develop downfield.
They are going to have a very hard time hitting those plays against den who can matchup on all three levels with them defensively.

Phillips is going to throw looks at Newton that he has never seen.
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

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There's a still out there, which I can't link, of the two point conversion. Shows Brady rolling right looking (seemingly) at Gronk as he breaks open. Can't believe Brady does not make that play as it was there and it's gotta be killing him.
You could see it on Brady's face right afterward. He knew he fucked up there. I think he just misread the coverage and thought Gronk was getting doubled, when for some reason Gronk actually had single coverage and a lot of space to break toward the corner.
 

PedroKsBambino

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There's a still out there, which I can't link, of the two point conversion. Shows Brady rolling right looking (seemingly) at Gronk as he breaks open. Can't believe Brady does not make that play as it was there and it's gotta be killing him.
Thought the same live, and actually suggested to friends based on the formation that this would be there.

There was a defender behind Gronk, and another between Brady and him, but still looked like he had an angle to get it there; certainly a better one than the throw to Edelman he made. My guess is he hesitated on the Gronk throw, and then thought the timing was gone. No doubt he's killing himself about it now, and will again on film.
 

AB in DC

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OMG enough about the coin toss. It's not like the overtime coin toss where winning actually gives you an edge. But the opening coin toss? It really doesn't matter.

Both teams had the exact same number of drives today.
 

RG33

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O-Line was disgusting, with Cannon embarrassing himself.

Belichick's 4th and 1 with 6 min left was brutal, and very un-Belichickian.

1st half Brady was awful, regardless of the pressure. 2nd half Brady was hearing footsteps and it affected him on plays where guys were open and he had a bit of time.

Ghost ended up costing them obviously, but a very minor point.

This one stings barely less than 18-1. Hard not to feel that the better football team lost today.
 

RG33

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Why not run the heavy formation, split out three TE wide (2 on one side; 1 on the other side) play for the 2 pointer?
I was waiting for that formation again all season. Seemed like they just conpletely lost faith in Chandler.
 

brandonchristensen

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Brady struggled on some really short throws, everything was low.

Watching Cam Newton effortlessly toss it 15+ is interesting
 

geoduck no quahog

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No goat. The Patriots got manhandled by the best defense in football on a field with the biggest home advantage in all of sports. Down by 8 I just don't see the point of kicking field goals. Why? Because the Patriots weren't going to score 3 FG's late and they sure as hell weren't going into the end zone. That final touchdown pass was the luckiest bullshit ever...a Hail Mary in the Red Zone made necessary because the Denver defense had Brady and his targets in their sites all game. I there anyone who had confidence that even if the game went to OT that the Pats were going to score? Nope. You don't blame the kicker for putting the team in a "1-point hole" in the first quarter under the assumption that a team like the Patriots couldn't recover from that over 3 quarters of play.

Pats got beat fair and square. It's a miracle they even made it this far with that O-Line and an injured Edelman.
 

danlmac

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Brady struggled on some really short throws, everything was low.

Watching Cam Newton effortlessly toss it 15+ is interesting
I wonder if a bunch of those low throws were deliberate, (and appropriately so.) I like to think that Brady was just protecting the ball, doing the wise thing, etc. Or maybe I'm just whistling past the graveyard.
 

brandonchristensen

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I wonder if a bunch of those low throws were deliberate, (and appropriately so.) I like to think that Brady was just protecting the ball, doing the wise thing, etc. Or maybe I'm just whistling past the graveyard.
Some definitely, but there were some that were just bad.
 

DeadlySplitter

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So the SOSH narrative went from we could blow these guys out to wow I can't believe we got this far. OK then
 

Franklin Fanatic

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Yup. They had a chance to force a three-and-out on Denver's first drive but on 3rd-and-10 Butler pretty much conceded the first down by playing so far off. It's a play almost nobody will talk about but it sparked Denver's first touchdown drive.
Agree 1000%. As well as the D played all year, they aren't very good on 3rd and long. 3 and out on the first Denver drive could've set the tone. Instead, Manning gains some confidence. I'm still pissed they lost.