New England Patriots Thread Mod Warning Post #253

saw the highlights.

as great as Brady is, that NE offensive line was absolutely astonishing. to be able to give Brady that much time, and take that much pressure off him was astounding.

it's like the team finds the regular season too mundane and decide to be the real deal come post-season.

Incredible.

Brady's accuracy on that last drive was something else, ball reaching Edelman microseconds before the defender could get there. His touch on the td for Dorsett was lovely too.

So many amazing performances. Hogan with a career highlight reel catch, and the one which was (wrongly imo) ruled incomplete.

White with some disgusting clutch catches, especially the one on 3rd where it looked like he reached backwards around the defender. He was also really strong between the tackles.

The run blocking was brutal. Develin's hit for Michel's 2nd was Savage, pancaked his man. Gronk was immense too.

My heart can't take Pats playoff games

irishrover99 wrote: »

No issues with any of the calls other than the face mask call on Brady which was a bit bogus but that is also down to the new rules.
Edelman did not touch the ball on the punt return and the Pats had a bogus call against them for pass interference near the end so they evened themselves out i think.

I'm glad in hindsight that the Pats turned the ball over straight after the Edelman "non-fumble". I'm sure there'd have been a lot written about it if we scored on every drive after that to win it.

lawred2 wrote: »

Since when did the Patriots run the ball so freely and creatively..

That game was great drama

Patriots are nearly always one of the top teams in running the ball. They just do it by committee so don't have a star name that gets the media attention. It was clear from picking up an RB in the first round of the draft that it was going to an important focus again.

Chiefs also have one of the worst run defenses in the league which helped a bit last night.

Son Of A Vidic wrote: »

I don't even know what to say anymore about Tom Brady, what can you say? There are no words left in the dictionary. A lot of personnel moves before the season started, left me not expecting much from our offense this season. Yet were going to another Superbowl. The way things are going, we probably won't need to draft Brady's heir for another 4-5 years.

If we can keep the OL at the level they were at in the last game, Brady isn't even being touched let alone sacked or knocked down. He's playing pitch and catch and there's no reason he can't do that till 45!

These Patriots are scheduled to become free agents on March 13

ERFA - Cody Hollister
RFA - Jonathan Jones

UFAs

Gostkowski
Hogan
Jason McCourty
Patterson
Malcom Brown
Flowers
Shelton
Ryan Allen
Trent Brown
Waddle
Dorsett
Simon
Ulrick John
McClellan
Humber
Schewnke
Rowe
Hill

I presume Gost and Trent Brown would be priorities. I'm sure Flowers would be welcomed back, but history would suggest otherwise!

Everyone is complaining and saying it was a terrible game but I really enjoyed it #6

What a great defensive struggle. Paying for it now as I didnt book the day off work like normal but i'm glad I stayed up to watch it.

Our defense played well above the sum of their individual talents, very few big names but get the job done against a new era QB and coach.

Come on Tom, lets make it 10 bowl appearances before retiring at least!!

eagle eye wrote: »

There are a lot of top DE's free to move this year and tackles too. I think there is a good chance that we get to hang on to both Flowers and Brown.


Develin didn't get many mentions last night and he was immense. He cleared holes and blocked exceptionally well last night. It's nothing new either, an all rounder, he can catch the ball too. Absolutely should have been all-pro this season and last season too. Best full back in the league and there is nobody even close to him.

Genuinely baffling to me. His blocks against the Chiefs were savage, loved the one for Michel's 2nd td. Absolutely pancaked his man.

You're not wrong Elm, but would than not make him more likely to be a 1st team All-Pro?

Okay, silly me.

I think it is hard to justify him being AP if there is no dedicated FB slot. I wouldn't have him within an asses roar of Elliot, Gurley or Barkley.

eagle eye wrote: »

Absolutely should have been all-pro this season and last season too. Best full back in the league and there is nobody even close to him.

Kyle Juszczyk is a better FB. In 2018 he had 5 times the receiving yards and 4 times the rushing yards, while still doing the bread and butter of the FB position.

ELM327 wrote: »

Fullback is not really about receiving or rushing yards though. The main criteria for a fullback should be blocking in both the pass and run game.

Perhaps it's my pats fan bias but it's hard to put anyone even in the same league as Develin at the position right now. He's just pancaking everyone!

That’s like saying you shouldn’t include Cam Newtons running ability in assessing him because your belief is that the main criteria for a QB is throwing or similarly excluding the catching ability of Bell when ranking him as a RB.

More than fan bias, I’d wager you haven’t watched much of Juszczyk in the last 2 years. He can block in both pass and run but also offers so much more on top of that.