Comments for Losing Sleep Over It at http://www.18to88.com , comment 1 to 15 out of 15 comments http://www.18to88.com Wed, 08 Feb 2012 07:18:43 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/november/losing-sleep-over-it.html#comment-3142 Maybe I'm hearing you wrong, but saying the Patriots are the better team is incredibly stupid pessimism and are nitpicking at what went wrong. They were the better team for three quarters. The better teams play all four and win in the fourth. They better team was the one that came out in the fourth and made the Patriots feel they were not worthy of standing on the same field. Seriously, it's not even funny how one-sided that fourth quarter was. Second, they were the better team in the first 3 Qs because of stupid mistakes that are uncharacteristic of us. All the young guys (i.e. Bullitt, Session--constantly misreading Faulk, Powers, Lacey, Brown, Garcon, and Collie) were crapping themselves they were so nervous. Moss and Welker are a little too seasoned for that. Manning's first pick clearly slipped out of his hands, which may happen one out of every thousand passes. And how many times do Reggie and Peyton miscommunicate? Once the nerves wore off, Peyton remembered how to grip the ball, and sans the one miscue, we still won. Interesting how when we clicked and loosened up, the Patriots margin of victory was gettin smaller and smaller by the minute. Moss is incredible and is a matchup nightmare, and it was he who should have received 99% of the credit for the long TD catch, not Brady. Moss caught that with Bethea laying across his arms. Yet, he is a magician on the field in that he shows up big and then disappears as frequent. He killed them in the 07 playoffs and will do it again. This Colts teams needs improvement, and once Gonzo and Hayden get back, and all indications say they will be, we will be as complete as it gets. The Patriots played great, but are not the team people want to believe they are. Their early dominance was a result of our miscues and young player mistakes, not because they were better. I honestly think they will lose possibly two or three more games. They are not better than us, nor San Diego, nor Cincinnati, nor Pittsburgh. - npb1985 Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:51:46 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/november/losing-sleep-over-it.html#comment-3118 Ack, I screwed up there knocking Bullitt - maybe he deserved it too, but watching the replays, the player I had in mind was actually someone else. Having now inserted my foot into my mouth, I'll shut up on the individual players. Sorry! - filiusdextris Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:44:31 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/november/losing-sleep-over-it.html#comment-3114 It's always tough to tell with scheme what exactly is going on but I agree that we didn't seem to be doing a great job with Moss. As Dr. Z always says (said?), you gotta jam Moss early and often and he'll probably slack off. But as you pointed out, at some point they flipped a switch and the D manned up. I don't know what adjustments they made (if any), but perhaps Coyer and/or Caldwell deserves credit for helping the D turn things around - psvirsky Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:32:30 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/november/losing-sleep-over-it.html#comment-3090 "I listed Manning's ownership of Belichick under "Reasons I'm flying"." It's something, granted, but you "kill him" later and that praise is hardly its opposite. "I disagree about the defense in the first half. There was a scheme problem. 24 points in less than 15 minutes...10 the rest of the game. Covering Moss with just a safety couldn't have been the plan." That's a pretty arrogant statement, but, admittedly, it could be right. Still, if they double-team Moss that could open up Welker or another target. As it was, it took a couple perfect throws by Brady to abuse the defense, a lesser quarterback makes our defense look good on a couple of those drives. "The offense put up 14 points in the first quarter. That's solid production against the #2 scoring D in football. 24 points allowed by the #1 scoring D is NOT ok." This is faulty reasoning. Scoring 14 against an alleged good defense sounds good, but is, in fact, bad if you should have had scored 21 on them or very bad if you should have scored 28. There were several drops, bad throws, missed blocks, bad luck (stumble out of bounds), that the offense could and should have scored on some of the drives they punted. If the Colts punt 4-5 times in the first half, you have to wonder why they failed to execute that many times - it wasn't the excellence of the Pat's defense on every one of those drives. So, I still purport that the offense was more at fault than the defense in the first half. (But, I grant you Bullitt in the first half was horrible.) - filiusdextris Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:14:51 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/november/losing-sleep-over-it.html#comment-3088 and this was very much a similar game (Pats rolling, then deciding to go pass-wacky with a huge lead which let's the Colts back in). However, this time we did not throw a fade to Aaron Moorehead (still cannot believe that call), but a nice route to Wayne. So satisfying. Hayden and Gonzalez have to come back strong. I'm pretty sure with our current players, we would be even, since I doubt we single Moss ever again, but we need Gonzalez. I am sick, sick, sick of Garcon. - dmstorm22 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:50:13 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/november/losing-sleep-over-it.html#comment-3087 I listed Manning's ownership of Belichick under "Reasons I'm flying". I disagree about the defense in the first half. There was a scheme problem. 24 points in less than 15 minutes...10 the rest of the game. Covering Moss with just a safety couldn't have been the plan. The offense put up 14 points in the first quarter. That's solid production against the #2 scoring D in football. 24 points allowed by the #1 scoring D is NOT ok. - DZ Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:50:01 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/november/losing-sleep-over-it.html#comment-3086 Some points: Collie's first half penalty was on a timing issue across the field, he was blocking the person he was supposed to, Peyton didn't release the screen when he was supposed to - no need to blame him. Also, you don't praise Manning "all the time" - he didn't make either of your two positive lists and he was the team MVP obviously despite his two picks and other bad throws - give him a lot of credit this game instead of taking him for granted. Freeney, as others have said, was great - not his fault that Vollmer was up to the task of his greatness. Also, you can hardly fault the D on several of the throws in the first quarter - Brady to Moss especially on several throws were perfect throws and catches, totally indefensible, if a team can execute that perfectly, you just have to take off your hat. The first half blame has to go more to offensive lack of execution. - filiusdextris Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:42:42 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/november/losing-sleep-over-it.html#comment-3083 Looks like the Patriots found a franchise LT in the 2nd round. Vollmer will beat out Light. Freeney can beat him, but not in 3 seconds. Gaither or Oher will be tough guys next week. That bad stretch, I think Coyer was too conservative. He should have shown more blitz and some wrinkles in coverage. The refs let Bodden get away with anything, the Colts DBs should have been more aggressive too. Is it better to let Moss catch it 50 yards down the field, than to be called for PI? It's the same. I hope Bullitt and Bethea are OK, their body is taped together. - Attila Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:14:21 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/november/losing-sleep-over-it.html#comment-3050 I haven't watched the tape. Please remember that whatever I write Monday morning or Sunday night is an emotional reaction. - DZ Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:11:22 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/november/losing-sleep-over-it.html#comment-3049 Now, that's just not fair to Freeney. The first sack by Mathis only happened because Freeney on so much on Brady's face, that he had to run into Robert. - J.A. Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:08:03 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/november/losing-sleep-over-it.html#comment-3045 I understand that schematically, what they did to Freeney helps in other ways. By invisible, I just mean he didn't get to Brady often. - DZ Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:00:26 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/november/losing-sleep-over-it.html#comment-3044 Yeah, Freeney didn't get any stats, but he had a big impact on the game. No chance we win this game without him. - Guy. Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:59:52 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/november/losing-sleep-over-it.html#comment-3042 Go through Cincy?? Like Keyshawn (who I love) and Chris Carter (who I can't stand) would say......C'monnn mannnnnnnnn. Think those clowns will win out?? Seriously? And God Forbid (see I capitalized it) we go through CINCY!!!!!!! DZ: Freeny wasn't invisible tonight bro. Not to me, Jim McG, Joe McG, Tommy and Jimmy Angell. He was at the top of the screen every friggin snap scaring the piss out of us until Tom got the ball out. In the end it was Mathis that really won the game. He's a freak too. - J.C. Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:46:53 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/november/losing-sleep-over-it.html#comment-3040 Of course it's Seattle time. The biggest nit I have to pick with the above post is this: The Ravens may have a comparable passing game on paper, but they do NOT have Randy Moss. Andre Johnson, I'll grant you. But we handled him adequately a couple weeks ago--did not shut him down, but if we keep him under 90 yards I like our chances. It's not a general weakness in our Pass D--It's Moss. And damn is Welker good with the ball in his hands. How many punts has he returned this year? Did I miss something or was that just for us? I was wrong when I said there was no Bethel Johnson to bail Brady out this year--his name was Welker. Playoffs: Pretty strong chance we get #1 seed, which is great news. Facing the Pats again is not exactly comforting, but it looks pretty likely that they'll be #3. If so, they'll have one more playoff game and probably have to go through Cincy. That helps a bit. I have not seen the Bengals this year, but I have seen (and been impressed by) Pitt and Cinn beat them twice, so I will assume they're better. Still think NE is better. So I hope the longer road to the AFCCG presents some attrition issues to weaken them. - Bob M Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:37:01 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/november/losing-sleep-over-it.html#comment-3039 For everyone that is feeling bad about our team after this game, I have this to say: We learned nothing new. We knew our defense would get shredded by Moss and Welker. We knew our rookie wideouts were inconsistent. We knew our offensive line was porous and our run game non-existent. We didn't look good in this game until the very end. We may not be the best team in the AFC. We may not be a better team than the Patriots. But, guess what? We have a 2-game lead on the conference. We should get home-field throughout the playoffs fairly easily. Does a first-round bye and great weather in the postseason sound good to anybody else? Yeah, I thought so. If the Giants can turn around their season in 07 and win 3 road games and then complete the greatest upset in super bowl history, than the Colts can win two games at home and then go to Miami and beat the Saints or the Vikings on a neutral field. The Patriots would kill to be in our position right now. From where I see it, we can only get better from here. All the injured players we have and we come back from 17 points down to win in the 4th quarter? That's ridiculous. Only the Colts could do that. Only the Colts. Chin up. - Guy. Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:32:50 +0100