Mloe68

He hasn’t been playing for a reason.

That’s part of the deal when you play at NE though. Part of the reason they haven’t lost at home since 2017. 16 straight wins.

How many teams have won at New England the last decade? They are far superior at home.

This is incorrect. Non con games are not a tie breaker. Common opponents would be. But yes you are right every game matters because it impacts the overall record. Weighted based on importance though, they are the least important.

Something I’d never thought about but why can’t the NFL squeeze all the bye weeks into a month long period in November? Eight teams on bye four weeks.

Losing Kareem took its toll at crucial times in my opinion. Teams didn’t and don’t respect running game enough and it allows more safety help in coverage. Oline has clearly regressed too although maybe Fisher can work his way back to near full speed which would help. And no doubt it’s tougher to pass in windy cold conditions. Pieces to upgrade running game need to happen in the offseason. For now we just have to hope Andy can find some things that work to keep defenses semi honest.

Is this a gritty team that kept itself in the race despite a ton of key injuries or a team who’s weaknesses have been found and exposed too often to create consistent play? Tough call but I’m betting on the team with the elite QB.

Timing of bye week is big. I think it’s 17 game schedule with 1 international game and two bye weeks is going to happen. I would think they would need to space those bye weeks a month or more apart which would help every team and the general quality of play.

No style points in the NFL so I’ll gladly take a 1 point win. But I completely agree we haven’t put a complete game on the table since maybe week 1 and a peaking team heading into January needs to start showing it. That said deep passes are gonna be impacted by high winds on Sunday so hopefully Andy can get our finally healthy WRs in space with more slants completely missing vs LA. Ride our speed to victory. On defense need to swarm the ball on Jacobs runs and screens. Their oline is really good so we need to be physical and disciplined. And cut down on the unforced errors for goodness sakes.

Heading into December pretty healthy gives me some optimism our best football is still ahead of us in 2019.

Yes. X was a starter day one. And obviously Speaks was going to be a big part of rotation both outside and in on sub packages. Dlines are by far the most important part of a defense too and we’ve got a TON of talent there. But 6 of our 8 guys have missed multiple games.

You are correct sir! 😂

It feels like Saturday. But why the heck would I try to shortchange myself a day off! On point though the wind issue is for Sunday.

Wind tomorrow 20-30 MPH with gusts 40. That’s gotta have some impact on passing game.

Great points Fanatic and I found this pretty telling passage from a Boston Globe article. Most of his moves are subtle. Bill Belichick says that he’ll only make a midseason trade if he knows the exact role that player will fill, and it’s easier for him to determine where a defender will plug in, versus someone on offense. The Patriots typically like to add a former starter that lost their job due to a coaching change and a new scheme. Sanu was a very rare offensive move necessitated by the release of Gordon.

We know all about Peters though. Logic is thrown out the window when dealing with that guy.

You said yourself the trade deadline is normally a very overhyped event. We've defintely seen an uptick in trades the past few years but I think a guy like Scherf would have made a lot of sense IF he was available. But we have no idea. Also consider at some point we need to keep the first round picks and get the 5 cheap years that go with him. It looks like the Rams sold their future for Ramsey and are actually going backward. So I'm torn here.

Brady and Otto Graham would be my two QBs personally.

Reiter graded out well over a short sample size and the offense looked good with him in there. I do think it was always a short term plan though. They had him under contract and I really thought Algretti was a guy drafted to potentially replace him next year. But no way I can be confident in that. I'm fine if we go into free agency and sign either the best guard or best center available. I'd even be fine if we draft the other on day two. Lets make protecting the MVP a priority and it would really help close out games as well. Hopefully that guy can play tackle in a pinch too and we can release Cam Erving and save a whopping 4.6 million with no dead cap. As for deadline help. I didn't see any quality interior linemen moved. And the two quality corners who were traded for 1st round picks we were in on both. Our defense has improved enough this year to get it done IF the offense can get back anywhere near last year. So far we haven't seen any sign of that since week 1.

Fulton played well here at center. He's a solid player I would have kept. NO WAY i would have signed Morse to the big contract the Bills did with all the concussion issues. I applaud Veach for running from an oft injured player. Now lets get Watkins off the roster and find a red zone threat we can consistently count on (and HOPE Watkins comes up big down the stretch)

We were missing 4 guys from the expected Dline rotation last week. Getting Okafor back couldn't come at a better time.

I think you are spot on that the interior oline needs to be addressed for real. Both to protect Pat and give our slower developing routes time to develop downfield. And with woeful run blocking. But I also think Andy’s offenses thrive with a go to RB.he trusts. It would be nice if Fisher could even get to 80 percent this year so we could evaluate it better though. Cameron Erving and the Fisher we saw vs LA have been so bad it skews everything.

It is true the officials will often tell a player. If you watch closely though the official who threw the flag had his hand on it ready to throw at the snap. Why? No clue. But yesterday I’m watching one of the games and this time the WR is across the line. Flag. Announcers bring up the point officials normally tell the player but decided not too. And then chastised the player for a stupid penalty. And we are back to Dee Ford.

Our Oline was absolutely destroyed in that game and its been a huge problem in a lot of these ugly sluggfests we've played this year. Fisher working his way back to form would be gigantic in my opinion. He however didn't look like he was ready to play at all vs LA. But 8 of our 11 games have been decided by a TD or less. That's alot of stressful 4th quarters.

We haven't been healthy or played well in general most of the season but still sit 7-4 with wins over two division leaders. IF we can figure a few things out and get some luck with injuries, we are still a major part of this thing.