Was Sunday’s game in Foxborough an indication of poor play by the Patriots, or is this an indication that their run — their AFC East run — is coming to an end?
The reason I ask this, and the reason I’m even brining it up a day after the Patriots lost 33-14 to the Ravens at home, isn’t to throw Tom Brady, Bill Belichick or the other members of New England with Super Bowl rings under the bus. No, instead it’s to point out the obvious, because there were some glaring issues brought to our TV screens yesterday that we don’t usually see from Belichcik-coached teams.
For starters, they were so soft up front — tissue soft. Can you remember a New England playoff team folding like that at the point of attack? I’m talking about more than just the opening 83-yard TD run by Baltimore’s Ray Rice.
The Ravens ran the ball down the throats of that defensive front seven all game long: 52 total rushes in one game. Those are numbers we see at Georgia Tech or Navy — and they run the triple option. But it’s obvious that John Harbaugh and his staff in Baltimore saw enough of this New England team on film last week to know that running the football — constantly — is the way to not only move the chains but also to control the clock, keep Brady off the field and basically dictate the flow of the game.
At the end of the day: 234 total rushing yards. Embarrassing numbers if you’re a member of the New England defense because, well, it was simple schemes that beat them. This wasn’t the wildcat or some exotic formation that provides enough pre-snap window dressing to cause defenders to misalign or forget their responsibilities. Instead, this was the power off-tackle running game. The Power O, the Lead Strong and the Lead Open. The running package you install on the first day of training camp.
And the Ravens whipped New England doing it.
But it doesn’t stop there. The Patriots are poor on special teams. They were gashed in the return game, and that should tell us that they’re lacking depth on the roster of young core special teamers. On other teams, we wouldn’t make a big deal about this, but the Patriots are supposed to be the model franchise, and when you’re poor on kicking units, it’s a reflection of a lack of talent.
I understand it’s hard to judge Brady — one year removed from major knee surgery — based on a Sunday in the postseason. But going against a pressure team, his offensive line looked porous, and we saw Brady force passes, throw off of his back foot and look, well, unlike the Pro Bowl QB he is. Randy Moss looked average and disinterested, and even with a healthy Wes Welker, the result would have been the same.
Yes, this was a real bad loss for New England. Someone asked me last week if I thought the Pats were “sleepers” in the playoffs. I thought they were, and I would never bet against a Brady-led team at home in the postseason.
But what I saw yesterday showed me that this team — which isn’t very young at some key skill positions — could be in trouble in the future. The Jets and the Dolphins, two young and very talented teams, are going to improve for the 2011 season. Buffalo will hire a new coach and install a new system, so maybe it’s time to wonder if that AFC East dominance is over.
If anything, Sunday made us question the Pats for the first time in years.
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For some another take on Brady and the Pats, check out this story from Bleacher Report.
Great point about the special teams weakness evidencing lack of depth. What about all of those draft picks that NE accumulated in "trade downs". It would be interesting to see some analysis of those picks.
The Pats run ended with the Super Bowl 42 loss. The inability to hold onto coaches/management is kiiling this organization.
If you look at the defensive stats without Rice's long run, the Pats D gave up 3 yds/attempt on 51 attempts. Once the Ravens scored 17 pts off turnovers and got out to a huge lead, they didn't need to pass.
One point that I have seen referenced in certain places, is that the Patriots have not drafted very well over the past several years, and their free agent signings/trades have been odd recently. (I think I saw a note that only one player each remains on the roster from the 07 and 08 drafts.) While Belichick is a great coach (and that pains me to say as a Jets fan) he may not be quite as good at evaluating talent and seeing trade/draft opportunites as we been led to believe. Is part of the problem that there has been too much turnover over the past five years on the coaching staff and in the front office for the team to have continued to have built from withing? A problem I see, besides them being horriby soft on D, is that there are no players who show flashes of a positive future. Is the loss of Pioli going to be a killer?
Matt you're spot on about the Pats front 7 and their overall lack of talent -- which showed itself in their poor special teams play all season long. This team has a talent problem. They had zero playmakers in their front 7.
Banta Caine is a nice situational player. Wilfork, their best lineman is a free agent and Wright is a nice backup. The rest of that crew is either overrated, on the downside or not good enough. Most overrated are Thomas - who's played his last game as Pat - and Mayo who's nowhere near as good as they expected him to be.
No playmakers are the reason they folded so many times late in games. A key harbinger of their lack of talent -- bringing back 40 yr old Junior Seau so early in the season.
They've got some decent young secondary players - and a couple of other pieces. But a major rebuild job on defense is necessary at this point. Have a feeling the Pats may be trading UP in this year's draft vs down. They need a stud and an upgrade at just about every other position among their front 7.
Matt you're spot on about the Pats front 7 and their overall lack of talent -- which showed itself in their poor special teams play all season long. This team has a talent problem. They had zero playmakers in their front 7.
Banta Caine is a nice situational player. Wilfork, their best lineman is a free agent and Wright is a nice backup. The rest of that crew is either overrated, on the downside or not good enough. Most overrated are Thomas - who's played his last game as Pat - and Mayo who's nowhere near as good as they expected him to be.
No playmakers are the reason they folded so many times late in games. A key harbinger of their lack of talent -- bringing back 40 yr old Junior Seau so early in the season.
They've got some decent young secondary players - and a couple of other pieces. But a major rebuild job on defense is necessary at this point. Have a feeling the Pats may be trading UP in this year's draft vs down. They need a stud and an upgrade at just about every other position among their front 7.
I remember looking at the Pats roster after they traded Seymour and thinking, "This is a team that is made of three outstanding players (Tom Brady, Wes Welker, Randy Moss) and not too much else. They're in a ton of trouble is those three don't recapture that 2007 form." Honestly, Brady should be embarrassed that he made the Pro Bowl after a year where he was great at times but average far more often. Brady isn't the real issue though. The real issue is that a team that used to be all about teamwork and tenacity and adaptability and depth is now a one-dimensional attack with a roster sorely lacking in character and talent. The Pats supposedly superior front office has reportedly been reloading with extra draft picks sagely acquired from other teams, but recent drafts have been miles short of the standard set early in the Belichick reign.
Come on Jack, the Pats didn't get it done. Has nothing to do with "haters." The proof is in the box score from Sunday.
In case no one has noticed, the NFL is unpredictable. The only guarantees seem to be that the Pats and Colts will have double digit wins, someone who was last in their division this year will win their division next year, and Brett Favre will end his season by choking in the 4th quarter then retiring.
The only point of this article is to give Pats haters a place to gloat communally.
This team is weak on both lines / RB / and WR. The drafts have not been good, although I think 09 will yeild a lot of good players, and 07 - they traded 4 picks away to get Moss and Welker, so I would consider that a sucsesful draft.
Thier biggest problem is that without the winning Belichecks act gets pretty thin. He should retire, and they should bring in Cowher
check out all the articles from the playoff losses in 05 and 06 the theme was the same...the pats look to be losing there edge...maybe they have...or maybe like other great orginizations they take there lumps and m ove on ie the steelers...its very easy to see the negative...but how about the positive? People say brady should be embarrased to accept his probowl nod, and maybe he is, however i dont want anyone else under center...some of our drafts have been hit or miss...but we have a solid young group on D like Mayo, Meriweather, Butler, Myron Pryor, Guyton, plus some young pups on offense like Edelman, Vollmer , Hoyer, & Tate...that show alot of the patriot way...look we do need more help via draftin and freeagency, but bottomline is as a pats fan im not that disappointed however I am Proud...my team has been playing in january and february about 95% of this decade....instead of a team that hasnt made the playoffs very often or is always seemingly trying to at least be .500 ...i think very few fans outside steeler nation , the colts, the eagles, dallas, and a hand few of other teams know just how great it is to have hope every year! look we got 11 wins last year, 10 this, hey who knows whats in store next year....as we have seen maybe we catch lightning in the bottle like the wildcard teams this year...or maybe we have a first round bye! look how manning looked 2 years after his minor knee surgery...and how he looked the year after...they were bounced in threre 1st playoff game that year...
If you get pressure on Brady he will fold, but that's true for any QB, even the elite ones. Remember the '07 SB? The Giants made him miserable. I think everyone has figured out NE's version of the college spread. They don't really run the ball and Moss loses interest when he's the center of attention and getting whacked. He and Owens will go down as the best WRs never to have won a SB.
Get used to it, Pats fans. Now you know how the rest of us feel. You have a lot of holes and no quick fixes.
If you get pressure on Brady he will fold, but that's true for any QB, even the elite ones. Remember the '07 SB? The Giants made him miserable. I think everyone has figured out NE's version of the college spread. They don't really run the ball and Moss loses interest when he's the center of attention and getting whacked. He and Owens will go down as the best WRs never to have won a SB.
Get used to it, Pats fans. Now you know how the rest of us feel. You have a lot of holes and no quick fixes.
you forgot the letter g in the word "bringing" at the beginning of the second paragraph
Not a very good article. Anybody with half a brain began questioning whether the Patriots run was over a long time ago. Well before Sunday.
Kevin, the Pats had a bad year where they never could put it together and it showed up in a bad bad playoff loss. I won't apologize for that, or justify it any way. I also don't see how it has anything to do with the future. I'm happy to talk about where the faults with the Pats were, and what they need to do to correct and how challenging that might be, but thats not the premise here.
The premise is that the Pats window with Brady might be closed.
Thats just dumb superficial speculation, specifically given the radical changes coming to the CBA in the form of the known for 2010, and the unkowable for 2011 and beyond.
I truly beleive that if there was a mystique surrounding the team 2001- 2004 (if there is such a thing) it began to evaporate a while back. Think about it ....the 2005 team dominated the Denver Broncos in a play-off game but found a way to lose; the 2006 team had a huge lead against Indy late in the 2nd quarter of the AFC Championship and ended up giving that one away; in 2007 they could not finish the perfect season with a less than inspiring Super Bowl performance.
The notion that they could have still be on "a run" in 2009 would contradict what has happended the past 4-5 years - and appears pointless (anyway).
You need the right players and circumstances to retain championship form. Its been five years since they last won a Super Bowl - and if they don't address the many deficiencies this team has it may be some time before they get another one.
I don't believe in "mystique" or "runs" or even really "dynasties". Those are just hype words without any acceptable definition, used to spark debate for that very reason.
A team either executes on the field or it doesn't. Every season is its own entity, and while many teams carry successful elements from one season to the next, there are too many unpredictable variables and too many different paths to success to play stupid guessing games. the smartest of football minds couldn't tell you who would make the playoffs even 5 weeks ago. Don't give me any crap that anyone knows what teams are going to play well 1/2/3 years from now. Its rubbish.
I think the Patriots have a system in place that is still completely capable of producing a championship. Thats an opinion. Many people here disagree with that. Thats fine. You have an opinion and a prediction, too. Its not worth anything but conversation.
It's not that their run is over so much as it is that parity is kicking in as part of the cap era's design.
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Jan 11, 2010
12:54 PM
Belichick team with no defense.... that is not going to get it done next season.