Official Game Thread, AFC Championship, Patriots at Broncos

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shirtsleeve said:
The way to counter that D was to get Brady under center. Power I, with Gronk at fullback. Bolden at tailback. Single back set with Gronk at H-back. Run the ball straight at them a bunch, and throw off of that. Three step drop. The Pats D was doing a fine job with Denver after the first quarter. So what if it didn't work. It would have forced Denver out of that damn d they were playing. It wasn't like the offense was doing anything decent all day anyway.
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Not being able to run when they needed to is absolutely the only worry I posted pre-season that I had about this team going into the season. When a team is in the road and the passing game is exponentially more difficult due to a rabid crowd, it simply allows the defense to tee off on that one aspect. The whole game long, the announcers were saying how Phillips told them over and over how he could not believe that the Pats didn't run in that Nov game, could not believe it. It makes a DC's job that much easier when you can't.
 
It was the way that Miller was able to just sprint by Cannon without it seemed being touched that was shocking. He just was able to round him at high speed.
 
Also, if we are second guessing, the NYJ loss will always piss me off exponentially more than losing to Mia. Reason being, you beat NY, the Mia game is preseason. Having to eff around and try to win AND try to manage injuries vs. Mia was not good for the team, IMO.
 
WhiteWesWelker said:
Josh Kline was atrocious today. Absolutely horrible.
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Yeah he was, but I don't know that he was any worse than Cannon or Flemming.

:banghead:

---------- Post added at 11:34 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:30 AM ----------
Mazz22 said:
You can blame the Pats Oline as they were bad but the receivers were not getting open either. Denver's coverage was great. It was the Giants formula. Rush 4 get pressure and cover with 7. Hard to do all game and even then the Pats had their chances with multiple red zone drives at the end. I don't think a rehaul of the Oline is necessary when Solder comes back and the guards they drafted seem solid and both Stork and Andrews are good at center. Denver's line IMO was just that good.
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It's hard to get open when you are doubled. The only people getting open were the running backs (White and Bolden), and Brady missed them too many times.

---------- Post added at 11:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:34 AM ----------
Big/Sky/Fly said:
The Pats would have got rolled in the superbowl with this oline...let the donkos get ass raped instead.
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To be honest, I was worried about the Chiefs, the week before, because of our o-line. After they played OK in that game, I thought we'd be OK in Denver. I was wrong. They sucked.

:shake:

---------- Post added at 11:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:37 AM ----------
MontanaBrady said:
Too bad. How come the rules dont allow a play that's overturned by a challenge to count as a TD if the player ran it in?
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The refs blew it dead, so the argument is that a Bronco might have been able to tackle him before he scored.

---------- Post added at 11:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:40 AM ----------
bideau said:
Hind sight is 20/20. But at the time, how many of us had any confidence that the Pats could get back into scoring position again. One way or another, they needed to get into the end zone and they had sniffed it since the turnover in the 1st quarter. As was already stated, in the moment, I had no issue with the decision.
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I agreed with them going for it on 4th and 1. The other one is what I'd second guess.
 
That 4th and 1 though came on a drive after Denver got a FG. It would have been nice to have gotten points, or at least try the QB sneak, not a play action pass when you showed ZERO interest in running the ball the entire game.

There was still plenty of time left in the game and they still needed 2 scores either way. It would have been nice to get 3 there and kickoff, play D, and try to get the field position back on the other end.

Hard pill to swallow, no doubt. It's also hard to complain seeing they've played in the AFCCG 5 years in a row and they've given us so much to cheer about. IT's a shame that they lost 3 out of their last 5 games and couldn't get that game in Foxboro yesterday. Many people share the sentiment here that the only team that can beat the Patriots is the Patriots. Looks like a true statement today looking back 7 weeks
 
Patriots4ever said:
That 4th and 1 though came on a drive after Denver got a FG. It would have been nice to have gotten points, or at least try the QB sneak, not a play action pass when you showed ZERO interest in running the ball the entire game.

There was still plenty of time left in the game and they still needed 2 scores either way. It would have been nice to get 3 there and kickoff, play D, and try to get the field position back on the other end.

Hard pill to swallow, no doubt. It's also hard to complain seeing they've played in the AFCCG 5 years in a row and they've given us so much to cheer about. IT's a shame that they lost 3 out of their last 5 games and couldn't get that game in Foxboro yesterday. Many people share the sentiment here that the only team that can beat the Patriots is the Patriots. Looks like a true statement today looking back 7 weeks
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That 4th and one call, with the receiver catching the ball a yard short of the first down marker, was A LOT like the 4th and 2 from the Pats' 28 that Belicheck called against the Colts in 2009.

It's hard when the rushers are in the backfield instantaneously, but I would have loved to see the Pats try some of their trick plays to mix things up. Toss the ball to Edelman on the outside, so the defense all keys on him, then have him throw a downfield pass or toss it back to Brady, who would hopefully be under less pressure.

The intense crowd noise prevented Brady from audibling at the line to spontaneously make changes and keep the Broncos D guessing more.
 
Very uncharacteristic of the Patriots to leave that many points on the field though.

Does BB not trust Ghost? This isn't the 1st time he has done this, and like I said, they still needed 2 scores. Usually when you're on the road, you take the points. 4th and 1 I thought was an automatic QB sneak. That was what I was expecting

The 4th and 6 was just silly.
 
HSanders said:
Also, if we are second guessing, the NYJ loss will always piss me off exponentially more than losing to Mia. Reason being, you beat NY, the Mia game is preseason. Having to eff around and try to win AND try to manage injuries vs. Mia was not good for the team, IMO.
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For me it's the Miami game.


The Jet's game was on the road, against a division rival. A rival who knows you inside and out. A rival with a pretty good team with an above average defense. A rival that still had something to play for. And I believe that the Pats went into that game with one goal and that was to win it. They fought tooth and nail to win that game. It just didn't happen.

There was no shame in losing that game.

But Miami, sure they are a rival, but they were in disarray, with nothing to play for, with U-Haul's warming up in the parking lot. And the Patriots didn't even try to win that game, well, maybe a little bit in the second half. What did they open with.... tons of running plays and then opened up the offense a little bit in the third quarter? They should have come out and tried to break Miami's spirit from the opening kickoff. They didn't. They let Miami hang around and shorten the game to the point that the Dolphins said... what the heck, let's try and win one. And they did.

This is the game that will haunt me as we move on from 2015. Home field is everything in the playoffs and we let it slip through our fingers and into the hands of a team we historically have crap-ass success against in the playoffs.

It was ours for the taking and we decided not to take it.
 
Number Cruncher said:
For me it's the Miami game.


The Jet's game was on the road, against a division rival. A rival who knows you inside and out. A rival with a pretty good team with an above average defense. A rival that still had something to play for. And I believe that the Pats went into that game with one goal and that was to win it. They fought tooth and nail to win that game. It just didn't happen.

There was no shame in losing that game.

But Miami, sure they are a rival, but they were in disarray, with nothing to play for, with U-Haul's warming up in the parking lot. And the Patriots didn't even try to win that game, well, maybe a little bit in the second half. What did they open with.... tons of running plays and then opened up the offense a little bit in the third quarter? They should have come out and tried to break Miami's spirit from the opening kickoff. They didn't. They let Miami hang around and shorten the game to the point that the Dolphins said... what the heck, let's try and win one. And they did.

This is the game that will haunt me as we move on from 2015. Home field is everything in the playoffs and we let it slip through our fingers and into the hands of a team we historically have crap-ass success against in the playoffs.

It was ours for the taking and we decided not to take it.
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At the time, I was OK with the decision, as I felt that getting healthy was more important. I seem the remember them going into Pittsburgh for an AFCCG and winning.
 
dchester said:
At the time, I was OK with the decision, as I felt that getting healthy was more important. I seem the remember them going into Pittsburgh for an AFCCG and winning.
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But we werent going into Pittsburgh this time. That 2005 and the team now are completely different. We were going into Denver, where we can never win, Now Brady is 2-7 in Denver.
 
RodgerGoodell said:
But we werent going into Pittsburgh this time. That 2005 and the team now are completely different. We were going into Denver, where we can never win, Now Brady is 2-7 in Denver.
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I still think getting healthy was more important. It didn't work out, but I didn't want to risk additional injuries by rushing people back. If we had lost Edelman for the season, we wouldn't beat Denver in Foxboro.

If I were going to blame one thing, it would be the pick Brady threw, which set them up for an easy touchdown. The bottom line for me, is that they didn't the best they could with the cards they had left.
 
HSanders said:
Also, if we are second guessing, the NYJ loss will always piss me off exponentially more than losing to Mia. Reason being, you beat NY, the Mia game is preseason. Having to eff around and try to win AND try to manage injuries vs. Mia was not good for the team, IMO.
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The Philly game at home was the worst for me. We played like crap the entire game against a horrible NFC team. Losing to divisional teams especially at Miami is par for the course.
 
It's funny, it's often teams who overcome some kind of adversity during the season can end up very strong come the post season. We did it last season after that game in KC where we were written off totally. Broncos now are kind of doing that. Manning looked gone, finished and benched, they drift into the post season albeit as no.1 seed, and now are going to the big dance.

We had some adversity as well, but it was in the back end of the season when you didn't want it.

We'll be back though.
 
Good lord....I just watched NFL Network, they were talking about that 2 point conversion. And they're right to be shocked. Brady basically missed a lay-up....I hadn't seen this since the game, too painful to watch. But Tom had Gronk who was one on one and then free running to the corner as Tom was rolling to his right. As wide open as you could ever hope, yet he threw to Jules.

That was very bad from Tom it has to be said.

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Roberto71 said:
Good lord....I just watched NFL Network, they were talking about that 2 point conversion. And they're right to be shocked. Brady basically missed a lay-up....I hadn't seen this since the game, too painful to watch. But Tom had Gronk who was one on one and then free running to the corner as Tom was rolling to his right. As wide open as you could ever hope, yet he threw to Jules.

That was very bad from Tom it has to be said.
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I can't even blame him. The way that pass rush was on him, he probably didn't even have time to look at a second read.
 
Roberto71 said:
Good lord....I just watched NFL Network, they were talking about that 2 point conversion. And they're right to be shocked. Brady basically missed a lay-up....I hadn't seen this since the game, too painful to watch. But Tom had Gronk who was one on one and then free running to the corner as Tom was rolling to his right. As wide open as you could ever hope, yet he threw to Jules.

That was very bad from Tom it has to be said.

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Damn, I hadn't seen that until just now, that is a guaranteed 2 point conversion if Tom throws the ball that way and it looks to me like he had the time to do it.
 
Alk said:
I can't even blame him. The way that pass rush was on him, he probably didn't even have time to look at a second read.
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If he'd stayed in the pocket, Brady would have been sacked. But, because he scrambled right, he did have enough time to spot Gronk before the rushers got to him. Brady is nails, but after getting hit 23 times and pressured like that all day, probably no QB is going to be 100% his cool collected self. Edelman was completely covered.
 
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