We won comfortably and Pat is, well, Pat. Seeing the NE game deflated me tho. We have to travel there and if we lose they’ll hold the tiebreaker - and their schedule is almost criminal. Hard to see us winning there in January. Thomas and Brown didn’t even play and it shows they don’t even need decent WR.
Am I being defeatist, anyone else feel that way? [Reply]
The Pats offense looked like it was basically in mid-season form, which is kind of unusual in recent years. They have been a perennially slow starting team.
However, I was more surprised by the Steelers on both sides of the ball. They looked heartless, as in their hearts were ripped from their chests. Except for one sack, I didn't see them put any kind of pressure on Brady (I could be wrong, as I missed some parts of the game; I kind of skimmed it).
And we all know that if you just let Brady stand there in the pocket and read your D, and throw, you're going to lose. The formula for beating Brady has always been get pressure up the middle and force him to backpedal/move off his spot. This doesn't work 100% of the time, of course, but it works often enough to hurt his completion percentage/yards per attempt/TD-INT ratio on the stat sheet. And we've seen teams do it enough to know this is what we have to do.
The Steelers didn't seem to do any of that. I saw Brady stand there in exceptionally clean pockets, read the D then deliver way too much. Against a defense that tied for the most sacks/pressures in the league last year.
Offensively, except for one drive, I didn't see Ben consistently work his team down the field into scoring position. It looked like a lot of 3-and-outs/short scoreless drives. And Ben didn't look into the game at all. IMO, he looked like he didn't even look like he wanted to be playing football (this may be pure speculation). [Reply]
Originally Posted by TribalElder:
**** the cheatriots
Pittsburgh sucks and they handed their ass to them
Oh well, by the time we meet both teams will be different
Indeed they will! Too true. Gronkowski was saying he'll be back for week 14. Of course he was joking around. Probably. Maybe?
By then though regardless what happened week 1 will have no bearing on anything. If it's anything like last year's games between the two teams it will at minimum be entertaining. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Giant Octopodes:
Indeed they will! Too true. Gronkowski was saying he'll be back for week 14. Of course he was joking around. Probably. Maybe?
By then though regardless what happened week 1 will have no bearing on anything. If it's anything like last year's games between the two teams it will at minimum be entertaining.
Still don't get why it isn't a rule that if you retire, you have to sit a year out...avoid bullshit situations like this. [Reply]
Indifferent. Sure, i'm disappointed they werent a dumpster fire.
But beyond that? NBD.
Lets see if Tom's arm fades down the stretch. Lets see what injuries occur. There's simply too much football left to feel particularly strong one way or another. [Reply]
The Chiefs went on the road, in stifling heat and humidity, and put 40 on a top 5 Defense. Could of put up 50, and basically without Hill. If anything, the Patriots should be deflated. [Reply]