I wonder if any reporter will ....
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I have no quibble with BB as the GM. His last few drafts have been excellent imo. Mankins...meh.
The OC and DC --> now we're in agreement.
From BR. It is a slide show so I'm posting the final grades for this shitshow. (I wouldn't have been so hard on the OL since they did well enough in the first half when it was still a game.)
<table border="0"><tbody><tr><td>Position Unit</td> <td>Overall Grade</td> </tr> <tr> <td>QB</td> <td>F</td> </tr> <tr> <td>RB</td> <td>D-</td> </tr> <tr> <td>WR/TE</td> <td>D+</td> </tr> <tr> <td>OL</td> <td>F</td> </tr> <tr> <td>DL</td> <td>D-</td> </tr> <tr> <td>LB</td> <td>F</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Secondary</td> <td>D</td> </tr> <tr> <td>ST</td> <td>B</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Coaching</td> <td>F</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Cumulative Grade</td> <td>D-</td> </tr> </tbody></table>
This was as poor a game as the Patriots have played in years, so no qualms if you would rather see a failing grade. A few positive glimpses—LaFell, Slater and Garoppolo in particular—caused me to slightly bump up the final grade.
Nonetheless, it is clear the Patriots are far from a viable contender at this point. AFC East supremacy, a title long taken for granted, may only come by default if the rest of the division continues to implode. For now, New England must measure itself against Buffalo, New York and Miami, as they are not even close to true AFC contenders like Denver and Cincinnati.
There is time for that sobering reality to change. But it is becoming increasingly hard to feel confident about New England's pedigree vaulting them back up the standings. Right now, the Patriots are a broken team that needs a deep introspection to stabilize these unfamiliar doubts.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...ll-report-card-grades-for-new-england/page/11
<table border="0"><tbody><tr><td>Position Unit</td> <td>Overall Grade</td> </tr> <tr> <td>QB</td> <td>F</td> </tr> <tr> <td>RB</td> <td>D-</td> </tr> <tr> <td>WR/TE</td> <td>D+</td> </tr> <tr> <td>OL</td> <td>F</td> </tr> <tr> <td>DL</td> <td>D-</td> </tr> <tr> <td>LB</td> <td>F</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Secondary</td> <td>D</td> </tr> <tr> <td>ST</td> <td>B</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Coaching</td> <td>F</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Cumulative Grade</td> <td>D-</td> </tr> </tbody></table>
This was as poor a game as the Patriots have played in years, so no qualms if you would rather see a failing grade. A few positive glimpses—LaFell, Slater and Garoppolo in particular—caused me to slightly bump up the final grade.
Nonetheless, it is clear the Patriots are far from a viable contender at this point. AFC East supremacy, a title long taken for granted, may only come by default if the rest of the division continues to implode. For now, New England must measure itself against Buffalo, New York and Miami, as they are not even close to true AFC contenders like Denver and Cincinnati.
There is time for that sobering reality to change. But it is becoming increasingly hard to feel confident about New England's pedigree vaulting them back up the standings. Right now, the Patriots are a broken team that needs a deep introspection to stabilize these unfamiliar doubts.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...ll-report-card-grades-for-new-england/page/11
This is about as negative as you'll ever see Mike Reiss.
http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/new-...4769161/time-for-patriots-coaches-to-reassessThis is what Belichick said in his pregame radio interview on the Sports Hub: "I think our guys are ready to go. It's been a long week, but I feel like we have improved in a lot of areas, so hopefully, we will see that tonight."
We didn't. Instead, we saw one of the ugliest games of Belichick's 15-year coaching tenure, another slow start and, ultimately, a postgame locker room in which some players acknowledged they don't know what they are right now, on either side of the ball.
That seems to be true with the coaching staff as well, specifically on offense.
This is a time of identity crisis.
The Patriots, under coordinator Josh McDaniels, have long prided themselves on being a game-plan offense that varies its attack on a weekly basis to exploit the opposition's weakness. The key has been having the varied and talented personnel to pull that off, but after Monday night, it seems obvious that those forces aren't currently in alignment.
One example: The Patriots entered with the intention of throwing the ball -- likely with the belief that the Chiefs' linebackers and secondary depth were areas of vulnerability -- as evidenced by having Brady in the shotgun on 17 of 23 first-half snaps (including penalties). It was a risky approach given the environment, a raucous Arrowhead Stadium that set the outdoor record for loudest crowd roar, for a team with just three pure receivers active.
[+] Enlarge<cite>Denny Medley/USA TODAY Sports</cite>The Patriots' 41-14 loss to the Chiefs on "Monday Night Football" was one of the ugliest of Bill Belichick's tenure with the team.
In going that route, the Patriots never truly committed to a running game or gave an offensive line starting rookies Bryan Stork (center) and Cameron Fleming (right guard) a chance to establish itself physically and settle things down. By halftime, when it was 17-0, it was too late to truly try.
Maybe it's not a coincidence that the Patriots' most consistent offensive performance this season, Week 2 against Minnesota, came when the game plan seemed most simple. The Patriots loaded the field with heavy personnel that day, got the play-action passing game going and achieved the desired balance.
On Monday night, there was hardly any balance -- seven runs at halftime against 15 pass attempts. By game's end, after Brady was pulled in the fourth quarter for rookie Jimmy Garoppolo, it was 16 rushes against 30 pass attempts.
Considering some of Brady's struggles, it again speaks to the identity crisis on offense and leads us to the conclusion that maybe the coaches are out-thinking themselves based on their personnel.
Brady completed just one of seven passes more than 10 yards down the field Monday and has now connected on a league-low 32 percent of such passes. Furthermore, according to ESPN's Stats & Information, Brady's off-target percentage (25.5) is second highest among quarterbacks to start every game this season and is four percentage points higher than he's had any season since 2006, when ESPN began tracking that data.
Some of that is on Brady himself, as his 11.6 total QBR on Monday was his lowest in a game since 2007. But it also speaks to the players around him -- from the offensive line to those catching the passes -- as nothing is clicking.
How to start the process of getting back on track?
Brady talked after the game about "finding out what we do well consistently" and then building from there, and it obviously starts with the coaching staff correctly identifying what that is. This is a position Kansas City's Andy Reid, whose offensive plan kept the Patriots off balance all day, has been in before.
"I've got the ultimate respect for Bill Belichick. We know the quality not only the coach that he is and the coaches that he has, but also their players," Reid said. "Sometimes, things get a little one-sided in the National Football League, but he still has a very good football team. I think they prove out with time."
Maybe it will, but an ugly performance like Monday's still leaves a mark.
Belichick thought the Patriots were ready to go, but they clearly weren't, which further speaks to the overall disconnect between the sideline and the field.
OP
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Pneumonic
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Really?
I wonder why this team is running nobodies behind our Steve Austin TE?
I wonder why stiffs named Velano and Jones are our DT's?
I wonder why we have no quality at DE after Jones?
I wonder why this team can''t find a quality safety not named McCourty?
I wonder why our OL is being manned by a bunch of JV players?
I wonder why we have the worst skill'd WR corps in the NFL?
Heck, I even wonder why Chung is our best option at KR?
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Depth.
If those ? were with depth players I'd be almost OK with it but, they involve starters, or players who play high numbers of reps. Our starting units on the OL and DL are so undermanned it's getting to the point of being comical.
anderson
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Hopefully Easley will get comfortable enough to carry a harder workload in the weeks to come. We seem to need something going on in the middle and if he can become a bit more disruptive than we've been seeing in the past few weeks then maybe the edge guys will have an easier time.
That wasn't a HoF OL we were playing last night and aside from the early CJ sack, we got almost zero pressure on Smith and it didn't seem to matter who or how many we sent.
That wasn't a HoF OL we were playing last night and aside from the early CJ sack, we got almost zero pressure on Smith and it didn't seem to matter who or how many we sent.
EasyBigFella
Got 6? YUP
Brady hid the flaws over the last few years. Now that Brady is a flaw himself, the team's warts are exposed. What bothers me is this team's problems are self-inflicted. Penny pinching, lousy drafting and the arrogance that anyone can be plugged in and succeed.
I can't ever remember a Patriots team I've disliked this much in the past. Rod Rust era?
anderson
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I'm not sure I agree with any of the talent assessments. Sure we have some players that may be considered slightly overrated, but on paper there's a lot more talent on this team than there was on last year's.
I don't think it's even close either.
I don't think it's even close either.
O_P_T
Why Be Normal
I don't understand the "penny pinching" comment either.
They spend pretty much to the cap every year, so they are spending the money.
Do they let guys go who have large cap hits and lose guys because some other team offers more?
Yes, but the salary cap is a zero sum game.
If they pay player A more, there is less to pay everyone else.
So if they paid 3 or 4 players more, how would that help them have better players at other positions?
I can accept that they may not have always invested wisely with some of the FA's and contract negotiations, but I don't see the "penny pinching" argument.
They spend pretty much to the cap every year, so they are spending the money.
Do they let guys go who have large cap hits and lose guys because some other team offers more?
Yes, but the salary cap is a zero sum game.
If they pay player A more, there is less to pay everyone else.
So if they paid 3 or 4 players more, how would that help them have better players at other positions?
I can accept that they may not have always invested wisely with some of the FA's and contract negotiations, but I don't see the "penny pinching" argument.
Jaric
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It comes from two sources. (IMO)
First, it's almost become a meme so people just kinda go with it. (For the record, if you see me talk about the Patriots being cheap its a tongue-in-cheek reference to this.)
The other is that people see the Patriots as unlikely to issue large contracts to players and make the mistake of assuming its because they just don't want to spend the money when it's actually simple cap management. I think its fair to argue they should have paid some players when they didn't although none immediately come to mind, but that's not being cheap, it's simply a difference in cap management.
Belichick statement: “In my year and a half with Aaron Dobson, he has always been respectful to me and to the rest of the coaching staff...He has never once been argumentative or confrontational.
The suggestion and reporting that his playing time was in any way the result of a ‘loud disagreement’ with a coach is completely false."
The suggestion and reporting that his playing time was in any way the result of a ‘loud disagreement’ with a coach is completely false."
Someone gave that to SMY. :shrug:
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And she ran with it before confirming it. Reiss tried to confirm it and was told the SMY report of punishment bc of an altercation wasn't even close to being true.
The same SMY who came to Borges' defense, I might add.
Reiss has integrity regardless of where he works.
I never said he didn't. He just doesn't get the same information that non-ESPN workers would get.