I should say 2 sequences that cost us a chance at the game. Anyway, the first was at the end of the 1st half down 10-0 and on the 3rd down play Chad runs out of bounds instead of taking the sack and either allowing time to run off or making NE spend their last TO then obviously the atrocious punt. if we can get out of the half down only 10-0 the game would have ben completely different. The next sequence was down 24-14 w/ 1st and 10 at the NE 17 and we settled for 3. That QB sneak then the giveaway run up the midle set up 3rd and long, we had been throwing w/ ease up and down the field the last few possesions but we got conservative inside the 20 and settled for 3 then Brady put on a masterful time consuming drive to basically end the game. I was frustrated for 2 1/2 qtrs but we showed some guts, I gope this is something we can build on not something they can be happy w/. No moral victories, we need to get the bad taste out of our mouths next week against a pretty good Bills team. Boy will our run D be tsted against McGahee who normally kills us.
I thought Chad running out of bounds was perfectly fine. I certainly did not want him to get hit. The 20 seconds that he cost us by that could possibly save us 14 games w/o Chad. I hate seeing him get hit. His only other option was to throw it away which would have made it 9 more seconds on the clock because the scarmble took off time.
He didn't have to get hit, he neeeded to just get down in bounds once he realized the play was going nowhere. The extra time was critical to NE scoring.
I can't argue with either of those, but what lost the game is that we couldn't run the ball and we couldn't stop the run. If you can't do either of those, you aren't going to beat many good teams.
Graham obviously blew it but that was a major mental error by Chad, something we aren't used to seeing.
IMO, we should have lost by alot more. Im not going to claim that were headed for the bottom of the barrell, but those two touchdowns we scored should really be considered more as "freak accidents" than "consistent football". Our backfield is in desperate need of a facelift, and Id like to see some consistent play out of our line as well
Couldn't agree with junc more here. I was annoyed at the time when Chad went out of bounds and obviously even more so when it led to points for the Pats. A good punt would've gotten him off the hook but it was still an absolutely terrible play. I don't think the FG to make it 24-17 was all that damaging, it got them within a score which was obviously huge. The inability to get off the field on 3rd down and that drive in particular really hurt the Jets. The worst was probably the play where Vilma ended up split out wide on Faulk(?) who made a little stop move and was wide open for the easy conversion. The Jets needed to take a TO there and get the right personnel on the field.
The 3 3rd and long conversions on that drive obviosuly killed us as well but they wouldn't have been as big if we knew we could give up 3 there. We may not have scored a TD but to run it twice in a row whne we had little success all day i think they settled for 3 and that puts alot of pressure on the D against the game's best QB and against a quality running game.
Junc you are an astute observer as always. However I'm not going to fault Chad for running out of bounds on that play--he had no protection at all and he was running for his life. But you are right, it was just a bad sequence of events. We handed them seven points on a platter, and that's something you just can't do if you want to beat the patriots.
Those two were definitely contributing factors, but the bottom line is we were manhandled in the trenches. Their DL dominated our OL, and their OL dominated our DL. Everything else falls behind that.
This is true but we are working with what we've got. Our OL is inexperienced and underweight, we have no RB, we have a first year defensive system that is missing its centerpiece (NT). If we are going to win games this year it is going to have to be in spite of those things, and we're going to have to pick up the slack by not missing up the things junc pointed out.
I think it's unreasonable to expect Chad to tell himself he needs to stay in bounds. I mean if you had three linemen chasing your ass, would you say "hmm, i think i'll let him crush me so we can keep the clock moving"? i'm sure you wouldn't. I mean how would you feel if Chad got hurt because he took the hit instead of going out of bounds? I'd bet you'd be killing him right now for not being smart enough to go out of bounds
I agree, line is definitely our biggest weakness right now, on BOTH sides of the ball. But if I could only upgrade one side, I think offensive line is the bigger need
And all those reasons are why it's likely going to be the main reason for the games we lose this year.
All he's got to do is slide down. He'd already escaped the rush and wasn't in danger of getting clocked, all he had to do was sit down in bounds instead of running out.
One play that I did not see mentioned was the 4th and 1 and running play on the first drive of the 2nd half from the Jets' 45. They ran the same play up the middle that had not worked to that point in the game. Pats stopped it, then scored a touchdown on the subsequent drive that led to a 24-0 lead. If you're going to make a balsy call to go on 4th and 1, don't run it up the gut like that. Play action, or something.
The sequence that really cost us the game was New England's last drive, where they got some 3 first downs on mid range 3rd down rushes. That was just embarrasing.
