There hasn’t been a more emotionally draining football game since the Super Bowl, and to find its regular season equivalent we might have to go all the way back to the 4th-and-2 2009 game. Wow. What a ball game.
Early on it looked just like the last three Giants games have looked. Eli and his bottom-of-the-depth-chart receivers making magical plays and moving the ball seemingly at will.
But this time it was Eli and the Giants who left just a little too much time for Tom Brady, and he made them pay the same way the Patriots had to pay the Giants the last three times.
So much to digest from this game, with Julian Edelman’s injury, one that will keep him out at least until the playoffs, if not longer, being at the forefront.
But for now here at the Posits on how the Pats finally beat their Giant mind block.
First, with the Broncos losing again the Pats are sitting in good position for a top two seed and the bye that comes with it. Honestly if this means we’ll have an almost-healthy Edelman for the playoff run it’s not the worst thing in the world. Better this than a Week 17 Welker ACL tear.
They’re paying Amendola plenty of money, he should be okay filling Edelman’s role for six weeks. He’s a much better option than rookie Edelman was filling in for Welker in 2009. I think we all generally trust him a lot more down than we did early in his Patriots career. He’s made a ton of clutch plays since mid-2014 and a big reason why the Pats not only won a Super Bowl, but are currently 9-0.
Big picture for the offense, they just need Vollmer and Cannon back and then we’ll see where we’re at. What this patchwork offensive line did against the Giants deserves a ton of credit. We still must wonder how healthy they can get, and then just how good that group is. We haven’t even seen Cannon at left tackle much at all. Obviously Vollmer’s return will settle things. Hopefully that’s not too bad of a concussion.
Now there’s another chance for Aaron Dobson
, who should find himself on the field more frequently. But I still think LaFell, Gronk and Amendola are a very experienced and tough trio.
Big picture on the defense, the pass rush was too quiet against the Giants. But overall they didn’t have as bad of a game as some on my twitter feed thought. They didn’t allow a touchdown in the second half. Yes, the long drive at the end was dreadful, but in the end they bent but didn’t break enough for Brady to pull it out.
This is what they do. No one should be surprised.
But overall what a gutty road performance by the 2015 Patriots. We might’ve lost Edelman for a bit but we learned a lot about this team. Every year is unique but this is another edition that will fight down to the last man.
Now, the small stuff:
This is just the kind of game I’ve been talking about with Chandler Jones and he had the nice sack at the start, but a relatively quiet day when the Pats were often only rushing a few guys. Would’ve liked to have seen more out of him, NInkovich and Easley.
Though Ninkovich did come through with the big sack that set up a punt near the end of the game. That was a game-saving play.
Easley and Hightower were also quiet on the pass rush front, while Sheard gets a pass in his first game back.
The run defense was once again excellent, one of the most pleasant surprises of the first Post-Wilfork season. Credit to Branch and Brown, Siliga and Hicks.
Malcolm Butler was on the end of a tough play to start the game but he bounced back extremely well. This might’ve been the best full game of his career. Take away Odell Beckham’s 87-yard touchdown and he had just 3 more catches for 17 yards. And that’s with 12 targets! Butler had three passes defensed.
I understand the thought to try to get Blount going with this makeshift line we’re running out there, but I still think he’s the kind of back that needs someone in front of him to soften the defense up before downshifting to Blount.
I wanted to see more of White, but they seemed to put away the Lewis portion of the playbook as far as he was concerned. There were a couple with Brandon Bolden, but the Pats passing down back offense hasn’t been ignored it was in this game very often.
This was a big third down game, neither team did much on first or second down. The Pats finished 7-14, the Giants 7-15. That one third down stop was literally the difference in the game. The pass rush can and will be better, and once that happens they’ll be fine.
Don’t think McCourty’s had his best season. There was the miscue on first touchdown, but there’s been a couple of those kind of plays from him this year. Not picking up a fumble earlier in the season and getting a “you’re a better player than that” from BB springs to mind as well.
For the second time this year I’ve thought that Matthew Slater
was done for the year only to see him return. Can’t imagine what his body is going through right now.
Rough penalty game with a lot of bad calls in key situations going the wrong way. Eli even Flacco’d us a bit.
Justin Coleman got picked on and eventually replaced by Melvin. I like Melvin’s size and that’s about it. Still think Coleman is the better player. As many catches as they gave up the tackling was pretty solid and there wasn’t much YAC.
The defense is different without Jamie Collins. Obviously. And Hightower has had a couple down weeks. Unfortunately the dropoff to Freeny and Mayo is huge. I don’t know how quickly Dane Fletcher can get up to speed, but they could use a guy like him.
Losing Dion Lewis
hurts man. This is one of the worst breakups I’ve gone through in some time. I’m trying to just not think or post about him, but wow did they miss his multiple first-down-outta-nothing plays against the Giants.
Amendola’s punt return what was really sparked the comeback, but Brady almost gave it away there a couple times. Really, they should’ve put them away much earlier than they did, but overcoming that is still pretty impressive. They know they can’t get away with that in big games against good teams.
I turned my TV off after I thought Landon Collins intercepted Brady on the final drive. Only one last look at twitter saved me from missing the real ending. Could you imagine?
What else is there to say about Tom Brady. This one felt good. It came at a price, but it was a warm feeling to finally give Eli a last second loss, even if it doesn’t mean anything as far as those Super Bowl losses are concerned.
Let’s get Vollmer and Cannon back this week!
