Patriots 2021 season thread

I'm not ready to pile on the GOAT coach at this time. I still appreciate 6 Super Bowl wins too much to all of a sudden think I know better than him.

Just compare the skill players for the Cowboys to what the Patriots have. It's like Alabama playing Toledo. They sorely need some dangerous weapons or else every team can plan for them and win. It's actually incredible that they made such a good game out of the Tampa and Dallas games. The difference is that they don't have the GOAT at QB and don't have the dominant defense anymore. This team needs to rebuild completely. The coaching isn't the problem. It's the only reason why they're not Jacksonville.

Going for that isn’t throwing anything away at all costs, it was the logical thing to do regardless of your QB situation. I think it would have been GOOD for Mac and his development, regardless of if he converts or not. That OT decision is not a defensible decision. And I advocated for Bill on his fg attempt against TB. Yesterday was trademark coward ball and it was basically a forfeit.

And nobody is expecting Mac to be Peak Brady, but he’s certainly a competent NFL QB. Hell I’d say he’s better than rookie Brady was and Belichick would actually put his nuts on the table from time to time back then.

You’re acting like it’s insane to think they can get 3 yards in that situation and that it would stunt Mac’s development if he doesn’t get it. I think that’s ridiculous.

Losing teams always talk about how they were a play or two away from winning. That’s the NFL for you. They’re losing teams because they don’t make those plays. The patriots have shown time and time again this season that they don’t make those plays and that they’ll even shoot themselves in the foot extra by making dumb decisions to ensure they don’t win.


….like punting it in overtime on 4th and 3 at midfield and putting the cowboys elite offense on the field against a banged up and exhausted defense that hadn’t made a stop in the 2nd half. Like you don’t need to get deep into the playbook to come up with something for 3 yards. That’s not an excuse to not go for it. Where is the coach that saw the Seahawks sidelines scrambling and didn’t call a TO because he trusted the defense and his UDFA DB to make a play?? I want that guy back, not the guy who plays Loser Ball. There’s no other words to describe that OT decision. Loser Ball.

Interesting QB performance look. Mac Jones is... a little better than middle of the road! Which is basically Brady-like on the curve of 2021 rookie QBs.

That's about how I feel, can definitely win games on his back not too long from now. I feel better today than on draft day.

You're up 14-10 going into the half and get the ball to start the third with a rookie QB. Have you forgotten the early 2000s? Your comments make it seem like you only remember 2007-2019.

We can't only focus on the mistakes the Patriots made and say "well if they clean that up they'll be fine", we also have to apply the same logic to the opposing team. Dak may have scored the play before he was stripped, he threw a pick in the end zone, and Zuerlein missed a FG, so they could've easily scored 10-17 more points too. Does anyone seriously think the Pats outplayed Dallas yesterday? The Pats made some great clutch plays to stay competitive, but Dallas drove at will all day. The Pats had TD drives of one play, three plays and four plays, (plus the great 13 play TD drive). Dallas consistently moved the ball all day, Cowboys fans could say the defense was pretty solid and would've looked a lot better without one busted coverage play and if the offense didn't put them in terrible position on the opening drive. I don't think Dallas or Tampa played anything approaching their best game against the Pats, in the same way the Pats didn't play their best in a win against Houston. While we're counting losses that could have been wins, they could've easily lost the Texans game too. The Jets game is the only game they've controlled all year, despite playing four of six at home.

The only times the Patriots defense stopped the Cowboys in 11 possessions were the turnover on downs in the first drive, two turnovers, and one punt. The two turnovers were in the end zone. The Cowboys ran 35 more plays than the Patriots did. Bill voluntarily decided to surrender one possession before half, despite calling timeouts with the clear intent of getting the possession in the first place. He decided the Patriots had a better chance of stopping the Cowboys from a field goal than picking up a 4th and 3, which may have been defensible if they hadn't marched up and down the field all day and if you couldn't see the defense had nothing left. He rejected everything we saw for 60 minutes and wishcasted a defensive stop, as if ~40 yards in field position would swing the OT. After the first drive, the Patriots kept the Cowboys out of field goal range 10% of the time, so yeah, I'd go for it on 4th down (not to mention call a different second down play).

TLDR: It's really hard to win in the 2021 NFL if you don't trust your offense. The only path to succeeding with that situation is possessing a truly elite defense. The Patriots defense is far from elite right now.

Mac looks very promising, but the rest of the team looks pretty mediocre. The offensive line has been incredibly disappointing, and other units such as the linebackers, receivers, tight ends, running backs and secondary have performed below expectations to one degree or another. They really miss James White, who would have thrived in this offense.

I would generally be fine with how this season has played out so far but for the fact that they went on a record-breaking free agent spending spree over the offseason on guys who are only going to get worse from here. They owe a ton of dead money to guys like Agholor, Henry and Smith going forward, which is not great as they enter into the decline phase of their career. You needed to get surplus value on the front end of those contacts, and the only guy who has outperformed his FA salary thus far is Judon.

Also the blocked punt followed a pretty obvious terrible spot on 3rd down and he has his finger in his butt deciding on if he wanted to challenge it or go for it or punt, eventually rushed out the punting team (his 3rd best option), and of course the line screwed up when they had to rush and get the snap off.

That play was the embodiment of this season

Umm they forced a punt, gave up one TD and three FG tries,  with one missing. If we're being honest, forcing them to take a long FG was rather logical. You seem to be mixing up halfs.

The last four drives before OT the Cowboys went 80 yards, 66 yards, 50 yards, and 55 yards (not including the final 80 yard game winning TD drive). The punt gave the Cowboys the ball at the 20, picking up 34 yards of field position. Bill in his postgame comments suggested Zuerlein's big leg contributed to the decision to punt. Bill was banking on the Cowboys having their worst drive since the punt on their first possession of the second half, or the kicker to miss again (despite saying he had a big leg, which is the reason he didn't want to risk field position in the first place), because even their second worst drive of the second half went 50 yards, which would've put the Cowboys in range of a likely game winning field goal.

Bill was counting on the Patriots defense putting together one of their best three series of the entire game (given the turnovers happened when they were already in FG range) at at time when they were gassed and had literally kept them out of field goal range only twice: the drive to open the game, and their first drive after half. I'm being honest here, and I think it's far from logical, both analytically and based on the actual game results we'd seen from that point. The Pats chances to convert on 4th were probably less than 50%, but the gain in field position didn't offset the likelihood of the Cowboys scoring on their next possession. They could've lost either way, but I'd feel better about being aggressive and simply not making the play than playing it out and waiting for the inevitable.

I’m sorry they got a stop on the very quick first drive of the half and then proceeded to get absolutely marched on after that for drive after drive. You’d have to be insane to think the Pats defense would get a stop without allowing points at that point, especially with the injuries and the time on the field that they had. Everybody knew the game was over when they punted and that’s not hindsight, there’s a reason why it’s in the 97th percentile for cowardice.

That also hurts