Mango

A few things that I think doesn't get enough credit on the board this week: The Pats defense has been statistically phenomenal. On paper they have been dominant. They are the secret sauce to Mac Jones, who basically does a bit more than "enough". The Pats have one of the best starting field positions in the league, and their opponents have one of the worst. They don't allow many points and create a ton of turn overs. The Pats offense is remarkably efficient. Mac Jones sucks throwing deep, but they are good enough underneath that it has not been a deterrent to their success. The Pats are second in the league in drive time and % of drives ending in points. 50%. Buffalo was 2nd in the league last year with 44% for reference, we are top 10 at the moment at 40% now. The Pats are winning games by keeping you off the field and scoring almost every time they have the ball with a short field. I don't think our defensive game plan is my worry this week. Buffalo cannot afford to have any stalled out drives. They have to score points when and where they can get them and try and force NE and Co. to play catch up/keep up, which is not necessarily their wheelhouse. But that is a tough ask of any team against that NE defense.

There is no too early once you are drafted to TM your own name. You can only be too late. If a Pats fan wanted to do it from Cambridge a week earlier he would be toast.

I am out of pocket. But I believe they are at 40 or 41%. They finished last season at 1 or 2 in the league with 44%. 50 is a really impressive number. But there is a lot of football left. Defense sets them up nicely. They win the field position battle. Average drive start is the 37 I think. Opponents is 25.

The Pats put up points in 50% of drives. Their average drive time is something like 2:55 which is in the top 5. Sure the Pats have gotten lucky woth other teams injuries. The haven’t been explosive but they’re remarkably efficient. I don’t mean this as a TB12/MJ10 comparison at all, but the way these Pats play the game reminds me a lot of the early aughts before Brady was Brady. NE has a top 5 defense in nearly every metric. I think the key is getting out ahead by a couple of scores. But getting a 2 score lead is pretty difficult on that defense.

This is why what Mac is doing makes a ton of sense. TB12, RG3, JA17. It has been common the last decade or so (+/-) for QB's to go by an initial and number moniker. If they become super stars, it helps them market their brand. At worst it costs a millionaire like $500 to $2000 dollars and they never need it. It is almost irresponsible not to trademark it at this point. What a nothing-burger.

The replies range from: “he’s just messing around” to “he’s injured” to “it was great having you. Best of luck.”

I don't necessarily think that the Patriots are the second best team in the league. They do have the hottest hand at the moment though. This Pats team sort of reminds me of the Pats teams of the early aughts before Brady became Brady. A very good defense and an offense that matriculated the ball down the field and accumulated first downs without a whole lot of mistakes. it isn't wild to think they could win the SB. But no. 2 seems a bit high and a bit early.

I have cousins, nieces, nephews, etc. who do the same thing. It is wild. Like, why not just, you know....play the video game? I actually just plugged in my SNES two days ago. I am pretty impressed with Super Mario World's game play and graphics on my 70" Samsung even though it was built for 16:9 in 1990. I think that game was probably a bit a head of its time, kind of like Game Gear was as a hand held console.

This is good info. I have admittedly been hard on the DL/Beane based on salary range. I still think a lot of our DE investment is underperforming and could be served better by getting out of the rotation sum. I did some googling of snap count and most top tier DE are in the 70-85% range.

NE is a tough test, and Tre is about as major of a loss not named Josh Allen as this team can take. But the world is ending and we have not even played a game without him yet. Those same people will start 63 threads Monday Night if Dane Jackson has a pick 6 and/or the Bills work the Pats in front of a national audience that Beane over paid White. Don't even get me started on the group text I am on....

I agree with you. I also meant to write a little. I just re read my post, and I was like, “Jesus that’s an aggressive stance”. Haha.

Honestly I wish Allen had a bit more Brady/game manager in him. As amazing as he can be sometimes, when he refuses to play to the sticks and isn't hitting on chunk plays it costs us drives. Brady has been vocal his entire career that basically he is always playing for the first down. At some point a first down will be a touchdown. I don't want Colt McCoy behind center either. But no QB can be consistently reliable at converting 3rd and 7 over and over again, because you keep taking shots deep on early downs.

Why not, in broader terms, the Bills lack the ability to consistently pick up 3 to 5 yards. The passing game traditionally likes chunk plays and the running game seems to average out over the course of the game, but feels like it is a 7 yard run with three 1.5 yard runs only to average out to mediocre. Matt Brieda just averaged 2.9 yards per carry, and people were ecstatic

He is fine as a depth player. And as much I as I would like him to be better now, maybe the injury helps the Bills. He could be tied up for 3 years for super cheap and well outplay his contract while we also find a better version of Star.

Dude, if we didn’t have ACL’s walking would be tough, let alone football.

If you look close, half the time teams don’t play with stitched jerseys.

Part of the issue is I am not confident in Wallace. I think he already gets help a lot, and 39 gets beat a bit.

That was the game after Adrian Wilson sent Trent Edwards back to 1988.

Agreed fully. If our highly paid OL and DL were playing at their pay grade we could easily address DB…but here we are…

Also, didn’t Josh throw one in the playoffs? So maybe a regular season record, but not a record record even if it was.

Two things happening here. 1. I think Dawkins is generally over rated by Buffalo. He is a very good LT. A player we don’t have to worry about. But not great. The Hall of Very Good. 2. Dawkins had a rough go with Covid and is now struggling because of it. While an issue right now, it’s not fair to conflate point one with this year.

They delay the late game for OT, right?

First NFL game ever is Thanksgiving. I like Stevenson, big time first game on a big time team. Good luck my man!

At this point it’s about the luck not the look. Aren’t we something crazy like 2-7 in blue pants with any jersey the last two seasons?

I really like the all blue and all whites. I think they’re easily our two best looks. NO in all white is cool. Wish they went all black so we could go out in the whites. It is what it is.