Pats vs. Eagles: Official Game Thread

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So what happens if they lose 3 in a row....when's the last time that happen....who will get fired?
 
TommyD420 said:
1) Gronkowski won't be back. He won't be back before the playoffs.
2) Hightower doesn't play special teams.

It's easy to just say it's an abberation, but this is a couple weeks in a row of terrible special teams.
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Bring back Scott O'Brien eh......
 
TommyD420 said:
1) Gronkowski won't be back. He won't be back before the playoffs.
2) Hightower doesn't play special teams.

It's easy to just say it's an abberation, but this is a couple weeks in a row of terrible special teams.
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Lol..........did I say he played special teams? He's the capt of the defense and a key run stopper.

Special teams was not even half as bad against the Broncos as it was against the Eagles, how you can even compare the 2 is ludicrous. And yes, it's very easy to say it was an aberration because that's exactly what it was.
 
AkPatsFan said:
Lol..........did I say he played special teams? He's the capt of the defense and a key run stopper.

Special teams was not even half as bad against the Broncos as it was against the Eagles, how you can even compare the 2 is ludicrous. And yes, it's very easy to say it was an aberration because that's exactly what it was.
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Broncos had a punt return TD called back on an iffy penalty, and a dropped punt by Harper lost them the ball game. Last I checked, those were special teams plays. :rolleyes:

It was pretty bad. It was worse last week, but that's two straight weeks of poor special teams.
 
Right, forgot about that dropped punt, that was probably the worst ST blunder to happen in either game, changed the momentum completely in that game.
 
Curran:

FOXBORO – The second-guessers, backseat drivers, and owners of 20-20 hindsight who bemoaned Nate Ebner’s drop kick kickoff against the Eagles have something to feel good about.

If Bill Belichick was clairvoyant, the Patriots would have done something different.

“If you knew for sure that at the end of the play that’s where the ball is gonna end up [at the Eagles 41] and that’s where it will be then, yeah, of course, it’s 100 percent obvious. You do something else.” Belichick allowed on a conference call Monday afternoon. “But if the ball hits the ground and rolls around back there and you recover it, that’s something else. Or it rolls back there and it gets to the 20-yard line, it’s one less play that [Josh] Huff gets to return. It’s easy to sit here when you know the outcome of the play and say, ‘Well, yeah, we could have done something else.’ Sure. No question.”

The majority opinion locally is that the Patriots forfeited momentum when, leading 14-0, they let Ebner “mortar” the kickoff over the Eagles front line in an effort to get it to drop untouched in a dead zone in the Philly kickoff return team. As Belichick said on Sunday evening, it was a low-risk play.
But, the argument seems to go, the Patriots weren’t just gambling with field position, but trampling the Eagles pride.

Eagles wide receiver Jordan Matthews indicated as much.

“In a sense it is kind of like, man, you know, that’s disrespectful,” he said. "They’re trying to go ahead and get the ball back that quickly so they can put points on us. We’ve got men in our locker room, too. When a team’s trying to do that and trying to impose their will on us the way they were trying to, it was important for us to go out and score that next drive. And we were able to go do that.”

If that’s all it took to inspire the Eagles to reel off a touchdown drive, 14 points on special teams and seven more on defense, Chip Kelly must be wondering today why Philly’s been spending all their time in the film room and game-planning. Apparently, his team just needed its self-esteem to bottom out.

Citing that play as a turning point is dining on low-hanging fruit. There were much bigger plays in the game than that one, including the 20-yard, third-and-10 conversion to Matthews that came three plays later. Did the Eagles need to suffer through the insult of a failed onsides dropkick to be inspired to make that play? Doubtful.

Belichick further explained the logistics of the play on the call, saying, “A lot of times when teams have six guys up on the line of scrimmage like Philadelphia did, like we usually do, then that leaves five players to cover the field and there’s quite a bit of space back there. If the ball gets into that space then it’s hard to set up a return and it’s possible that it could roll around or not be handled and you can make a play on it. It definitely puts pressure on the return team to handle that ball and get a good organized return.

“[You try to] disrupt the timing and put the ball in a location that’s not easy to handle and put the pressure on your opponents to make the right decision adjust the blocking and so forth,” he added. “The concept of that play is a lot different than a true onsides kick, where you kick the ball 10 yards. It’s a totally different play.”

Whatever it was, it didn’t work out. And it’s going to live on in 2015 infamy no matter how much I keep saying it was relatively inconsequential.

http://www.csnne.com/new-england-pa...have-done-something-else?p=ya5nbcs&ocid=yahoo
 
570Patriot said:
The Pats simply played a poor game and the Eagles made the most of their opportunities. The only way NE was going to lose this game was by allowing the type of big returns like they did. The Eagles benefited greatly by Bradford having to make only a handful of key plays all game. He's better than Sanchez but not by a whole lot.

Next week is a must win, well duh. If they can beat Houston on the road they get Tenn at home. Win the next two games, avoid anymore key injuries and they should have their mojo back heading to the Jets. Cincinnati and Denver both have tougher schedules. 14-2 and I'm 100% confident NE gets the #1 seed. At 13-3 I think they still get a bye. Either Denver, Cinci or NE are going to lose 2 more games imo which will determine the byes. Hopefully it's not NE going 12-4. I honestly don't think the #1 seed is THAT important. When healthy this team will be able to win anywhere. Next week is the key...
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They don't need the number 1 seed but they do need the 1st round bye (to help players to recover), thus they do need at least the 2 seed.

My two cents.
 
TommyD420 said:
Broncos had a punt return TD called back on an iffy penalty, and a dropped punt by Harper lost them the ball game. Last I checked, those were special teams plays. :rolleyes:

It was pretty bad. It was worse last week, but that's two straight weeks of poor special teams.
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Agreed. IMO, the special teams play was the main reason behind both losses. I'm wondering if the injuries have led to some people spending more practice time working on other roles, causing them to lose their focus on special teams.

Whatever the cause though, it needs to get fixed ASAP.
 
Undertaker #59* said:
Curran:

FOXBORO – The second-guessers, backseat drivers, and owners of 20-20 hindsight who bemoaned Nate Ebner’s drop kick kickoff against the Eagles have something to feel good about.

If Bill Belichick was clairvoyant, the Patriots would have done something different.

“If you knew for sure that at the end of the play that’s where the ball is gonna end up [at the Eagles 41] and that’s where it will be then, yeah, of course, it’s 100 percent obvious. You do something else.” Belichick allowed on a conference call Monday afternoon. “But if the ball hits the ground and rolls around back there and you recover it, that’s something else. Or it rolls back there and it gets to the 20-yard line, it’s one less play that [Josh] Huff gets to return. It’s easy to sit here when you know the outcome of the play and say, ‘Well, yeah, we could have done something else.’ Sure. No question.”

The majority opinion locally is that the Patriots forfeited momentum when, leading 14-0, they let Ebner “mortar” the kickoff over the Eagles front line in an effort to get it to drop untouched in a dead zone in the Philly kickoff return team. As Belichick said on Sunday evening, it was a low-risk play.
But, the argument seems to go, the Patriots weren’t just gambling with field position, but trampling the Eagles pride.

Eagles wide receiver Jordan Matthews indicated as much.

“In a sense it is kind of like, man, you know, that’s disrespectful,” he said. "They’re trying to go ahead and get the ball back that quickly so they can put points on us. We’ve got men in our locker room, too. When a team’s trying to do that and trying to impose their will on us the way they were trying to, it was important for us to go out and score that next drive. And we were able to go do that.”

If that’s all it took to inspire the Eagles to reel off a touchdown drive, 14 points on special teams and seven more on defense, Chip Kelly must be wondering today why Philly’s been spending all their time in the film room and game-planning. Apparently, his team just needed its self-esteem to bottom out.

Citing that play as a turning point is dining on low-hanging fruit. There were much bigger plays in the game than that one, including the 20-yard, third-and-10 conversion to Matthews that came three plays later. Did the Eagles need to suffer through the insult of a failed onsides dropkick to be inspired to make that play? Doubtful.

Belichick further explained the logistics of the play on the call, saying, “A lot of times when teams have six guys up on the line of scrimmage like Philadelphia did, like we usually do, then that leaves five players to cover the field and there’s quite a bit of space back there. If the ball gets into that space then it’s hard to set up a return and it’s possible that it could roll around or not be handled and you can make a play on it. It definitely puts pressure on the return team to handle that ball and get a good organized return.

“[You try to] disrupt the timing and put the ball in a location that’s not easy to handle and put the pressure on your opponents to make the right decision adjust the blocking and so forth,” he added. “The concept of that play is a lot different than a true onsides kick, where you kick the ball 10 yards. It’s a totally different play.”

Whatever it was, it didn’t work out. And it’s going to live on in 2015 infamy no matter how much I keep saying it was relatively inconsequential.

http://www.csnne.com/new-england-pa...have-done-something-else?p=ya5nbcs&ocid=yahoo
Click to expand...
That play didn't work out as they hoped, and it might have motivated the Eagles, but it wasn't the main reason they lost. It was 3 returns for touchdowns (2 on special teams), that cost them the game.

I think too much is being made out of that kickoff by the media. The defense didn't have to let them drive right down the field and score. IMO, Fleming letting the rusher come in untouched to block the punt, is a much bigger problem.
 
Hawg73 said:
* I don't remember when the last time we attempted 3 onsides kicks in a game was, but I thought the failed Nate Ebner drop-kick was an interesting wrinkle. It struck me as maybe a more consistent method to loft the ball over a front wall than kicking the ball into the ground and waiting for it to hop up and I wouldn't be surprised to see it used again, although hopefully not early in a game that we were doing well in. If anybody has ever used that Ebner technique in an NFL game then I don't remember seeing it.
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In retrospect, I actually liked the call for the Ebner kick, (just not how it turned out). It forces teams to have to pay more attention to that area, which might lead to the teams being less effective in their initial blocks on the kickoff.

The guy on Philly had good hands when he snagged the ball right away. If it had squirted out of his hands, maybe people would have said what a great call it was. It didn't, so BB has to take the blame. I just don't think it's the big deal some are making it out to be, though.
 
dchester said:
That play didn't work out as they hoped, and it might have motivated the Eagles, but it wasn't the main reason they lost. It was 3 returns for touchdowns (2 on special teams), that cost them the game.

I think too much is being made out of that kickoff by the media. The defense didn't have to let them drive right down the field and score. IMO, Fleming letting the rusher come in untouched to block the punt, is a much bigger problem.
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I remember not minding the call at the time. It was 20 yards difference in field position and the Eagles returner did drop it. At that point the D was handling the Eagles no problem. I was surprised actually to see them let up that drive but it was only 14-7. The blocked punt was the killer at the end of the first half. I don't believe Brady forces that throw to Amendola at the goal line if it is 14-7 and not 14-14. He would have gladly thrown it away and taken the 17-7 lead.
 
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