The Game Goat Thread: Wk.7 vs 49ers

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
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Byrd is fast. The young TEs look pretty fast. Harris is athletic and obviously White at RB.

The offensive skill position guys are totally wasted with this QB situation, I don't put much of this on them at the moment.

Now LB...sure, that's where we have no athletes. But I think Dugger is meant to be part of the answer there.
Devin McCourty is a hell of an athlete. Jackson is terrific. Gilmore is athletic. J Williams is athletic for a guy his size. Uche is an athlete.

And Cam is an athlete. One hell of an athlete. They have plenty of athletic guys. Byrd has gotten open a lot down the field but Cam can't find him.
 

rodderick

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Something looks weird about Cam when he throws, in my very, very humble opinion. It almost looks like he's straining to put every bit of his body into it, and then the ball still looks a little slow. The Patriots obviously have much better eyes on this so either it's my imagination, or they still think Cam is better than Stidham. If it's the latter, it's quite a mystery how they had planned to go into the season with Stidham as the starter.
Looks like he's throwing a medicine ball.
 

RedOctober3829

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Devin McCourty is a hell of an athlete. Jackson is terrific. Gilmore is athletic. J Williams is athletic for a guy his size. Uche is an athlete.

And Cam is an athlete. One hell of an athlete. They have plenty of athletic guys. Byrd has gotten open a lot down the field but Cam can't find him.
The defense is struggling because there is a lack of size besides Guy up front and a lack of size amongst the LB group. Bentley is the only one with size, but he's slow and gets exposed in the passing game. They are actually pretty athletic when they have Phillips and Dugger playing LB roles but their size really affects their ability to stop the run.
 

BaseballJones

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The defense is struggling because there is a lack of size besides Guy up front and a lack of size amongst the LB group. Bentley is the only one with size, but he's slow and gets exposed in the passing game. They are actually pretty athletic when they have Phillips and Dugger playing LB roles but their size really affects their ability to stop the run.
Finding big guys who are also really fast (not to mention smart and skilled) is really hard to do. I remember when Miami used to play Nebraska in the 80s, it was always that Nebraska had the big strong guys, and Miami had the smaller, uber-fast guys. When Nebraska had it going, they'd bludgeon Miami's smaller guys. When Miami had it going, they'd outrun Nebraska's bigger guys.

If you had to pick in today's NFL, would you rather have bigger, slower guys or smaller, faster guys? (assume similar levels of football intelligence and skill)
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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I was a little surprised to see that we had such a glaring weakness on defense that could be exploited by finding just a couple of very simple ways to widen the field. It's generally hard for opposing coaches to see something on film that they can hammer and succeed with for more than a quarter. But the simple throw across the field to a wide receiver standing behind the line of scrimmage outside numbers just clobbered us all game. Easy ten yards every time.
 

Captaincoop

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We're all on the same page that when they come back next week and beat Buffalo we're going to do a 180 and pretend all of these conversations never happened, right?
 

rodderick

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We're all on the same page that when they come back next week and beat Buffalo we're going to do a 180 and pretend all of these conversations never happened, right?
Unless they win by consistently moving the ball through the air, which is something they haven't really done aside from 1+ quarter at Seattle, I won't change my opinion of this team, anything else and the concern remains.
 

staz

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The cradle of the game.
This season was a farce from the get-go. Opt outs, your QB learning a new system without preseason games, shutting down the facility here and there. What exactly was everyone expecting?
 

Captaincoop

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That feels like a bit of a copout. Everyone in the league is dealing with the Covid restrictions. The Pats just got boat raced at home by a non-contender currently missing 14 contributors to injury.

This looks like a mediocre team that's getting bottom-five-in-the-NFL quarterback play. And here we are.
 

timelysarcasm

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The under 35 crowd is really in for a rude awakening here.

There were many times as a Pats fan that we'd have been encouraged that we already have two wins by Halloween.
Slightly older than 35, but for me, I'm kind of taking this in stride. It's hard to get too mad about what is inevitable in the NFL considering how mind bogglingly fortunate we've been as fans.

I feel like we've been outrunning the grim reaper for awhile and I'm fine with some down years to regroup and rebuild.
 

54thMA

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Slightly older than 35, but for me, I'm kind of taking this in stride. It's hard to get too mad about what is inevitable in the NFL considering how mind bogglingly fortunate we've been as fans.

I feel like we've been outrunning the grim reaper for awhile and I'm fine with some down years to regroup and rebuild.
A 19 year run that IMO will never be matched again; in the salary cap era where dynasties are not supposed to happen, they ripped off 6 Super Bowl wins, 9 trips, 13 trips to the AFCCG, 17 division titles, the "worst" record in that run was 9-7, they missed the playoffs twice in 19 years.

Seemed like every year they were either in the running for the #1 or #2 seed, HFA, a bye and a trip to the AFCCG.

It's a far cry from the teams of the 70's, 80's and 90's that were good but never quite good enough.
 

tims4wins

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It should be fun to see how they rebuild this thing. We know Belichick is motivated to do it one more time without Brady.
My “fear” is that BB is too stubborn to rebuild - that he’ll try to max out wins every year. And therefore maybe hold on to pieces too long. With all of their DB depth they should absolutely trade Gilmore. Should probably trade Thuney too.
 

johnmd20

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This season was a farce from the get-go. Opt outs, your QB learning a new system without preseason games, shutting down the facility here and there. What exactly was everyone expecting?
After the first 3 weeks? A lot. I was expecting a lot.

And then Cam got Covid and the team is completely different.
 

Ralphwiggum

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I have no issue with a re-set year, it was long overdue, they've been able to consistently avoid it for two decades which is crazy, and they sort of pushed all of their chips in last year in a way that they haven't typically done, which has set them back a bit. I don't worry about their ability to re-load in general, they are in need of talent in several key areas but things can turn around quickly in the NFL and I still do trust their process of roster building over any other team's, current roster notwithstanding. The only thing I worry about right now is that it seems like they have no plan at QB, and BB isn't getting any younger. BB is 68, realistically how many years is he going to stick around and groom a rookie QB (assuming they go that route) into a guy who can help them contend again, and that assumes they draft the right guy to begin with? Tannehill aside, picking up a reclamation project QB just doesn't seem like a realistic route, and feels more like kicking the can down the road (sort of like Cam). Not to be a broken record but you can't win in the NFL without elite play at that position and I just don't know where they are going to find that within a reasonable window where BB still has his "A" game coaching wise.
 

joe dokes

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My “fear” is that BB is too stubborn to rebuild - that he’ll try to max out wins every year. And therefore maybe hold on to pieces too long. With all of their DB depth they should absolutely trade Gilmore. Should probably trade Thuney too.
The next time BB "holds on to someone too long" is likely to be the first time. Whatever other issues we can speculate about with regard to a BB rebuild, that isn't one that worries me. I would be surprised if he tries to "max out" a team that he doesn't think can make the playoffs or is a likely WC game loser..

It should be fun to see how they rebuild this thing. We know Belichick is motivated to do it one more time without Brady.
That's where I am. It's not as good as winning, but it can be exciting and interesting in its own way.

That said, I'm not done with his year quite yet.
 

SeoulSoxFan

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Hello, folks. I've stayed away from all Pats media for a couple of days and have calmed down a bit.

I'm thinking that Cam is definitely injured, whether it's the (surgically repaired) shoulder or the "Covid-fog".

This team may not make the playoffs but I'd be shocked if they haven't hit rock bottom past Sunday.

That's all I got.