The Official Week 1 Thread: NE vs. the Herminator

[Basketball Jesus]

What: Kansas City @ New England
When: 1:00pm
Channel: CBS


Ah, there's nothing better than September in New England.


Analysis to follow.

[l2RDO]

Go Pats!

[Next Coming]

The match up between the league's best team and the leagues worst.

That's my analysis.

[greenbeans]

I never thought I'd be excited for this team again.
here I am. . . . again

[greenbeans]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Blm5-8XoXDg

a nice little video to get ya ready for the new season


and hey, no Brady on the injury report. thats the first time in what? 50-75 weeks?

[BadWolf]

hm, you shouldn't mention that

[sh00n]

Well. . . guess we'll be seeing you next year, Brady.

[Truthiracy]

sh00n you sound excited about a player tearing his ACL, why?

[sh00n]

That sounds like excitement?

Okay.

[Basketball Jesus]

A few observations:

- There was nothing cheap or deliberate about the hit. To suggest otherwise is absurdly idiotic. A momentum-driven roll-up like Pollard did happens all the time in games; most of the time they don’t happen into a star QB’s legs causing injury. It was a freak occurrence. If you want to blame anybody, blame the line for Morris having to pick up a blown blocking assignment.

- Speaking of the line: it looked awful yesterday. While the Chiefs have a very underrated and upcoming front seven, there still was no excuse for half of the communication errors and blown assignments. You simply can’t chip a speedy weakside defensive lineman on outside running plays and think that’s enough to take him out of the play entirely. Nor should a veteran tackle allow a bullrushing end to completely outmaneuver you. While Cassel does deserve some of the blame for hanging on to the ball too long at times, he was pressured much more than he should have been. If there’s any reason this team doesn’t make the playoffs, it’s the line, not Brady’s injuries, that will be to blame.

- There were only three negative aspects to Cassel’s game yesterday that I saw. First, he had a Bledsoesque tendency to double-clutch the football during progression through his reads (usually an obvious sign of indecision). Second, he didn’t have a good touch on deep routes, often not setting his lower half before throwing, causing the ball to be a bit inaccurate (this was probably in part to the pressure he felt all game long). Third (as this has always been a big problem), he takes off out of the pocket at the first sign of pressure. Sometimes it leads to smart runs for modest gains but, most times, it led to him being forced to throw on the run or, worse, sacked out of the pocket.

- On the whole I think Cassel acquitted himself nicely. He looked sharp on timing routes, he didn’t force throws into tight coverage, taking (sometimes too much) time to progress through his reads, and his running ability was a decided change of pace from Tom Brady’s home-run trot. Moss and Welker and the run-blocking ability of the line are going to make Cassel a legitimate quarterback in the same way Plaxico Burress and the run-blocking line of the Giants make Eli Manning a legitimate QB.

- Don’t put too much stock into Tony Gonzalez’s having his way with the defense: the Patriots defense by design usually allows talented tight ends to put up the occasional chain-moving play. However, if Dwayne Bowe didn’t wear his Mark Blount mittens yesterday, the Patriots would have most likely lost the game. The secondary is going to have trouble against big, physical receivers like Bowe.

- The Patriots limiting Larry Johnson to 76 yards in 800 or so carries is impressive given their struggles in exploiting running lanes against power-running teams. Conversely, Morris and Maroney looked good yesterday, picking up consistent chunks of yardage against a very good run-stopping front seven.

Rodney Harrison and Mike Vrabel both looked ten years younger yesterday. Especially Harrison, who was hitting anything that moved with aplomb. Jerod Mayo quietly had a productive day (6 tackles), but he looked overmatched crashing in on occasion.

[Next Coming]

BBJ you are so effing concise. Is that the right word? You're on top of everything.