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<p style="margin-left:40px;">No-one expected to beat the Patriots. I wouldn't be surprised if they went unbeaten again. Brady is clearly a man possessed and I would think cement his GOAT position this season. The main frustration comes from 3 things.

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<p style="margin-left:40px;">- Terrible preparation and coaching. I also include the time management and that terrible decision to fake punt in our own territory. But worst of all was the playcalling on the crucial 2 minute drive before half time. It was not the time to go gung-ho.

<p style="margin-left:40px;">- They scored on all 9 (nine) possessions they had. They had a record equalling 35 first downs. Yes its tough to defend against the Brady, Gronk, Edelman trio, but not forcing 1 punt in the game is unacceptable. As many have said, playing zone was suicide as it played to Brady's biggest strength of the 5-15 short pass game. Not to mention the run defense and general tackling again was terrible.

<p style="margin-left:40px;">- Bortles had a terrible game. His throws were on the whole inaccurate. The throw for the pick sailed very high, and he could have been picked off twice more, especially the Butler one. It feels like he's plateauing, which is very worrying. To pick a QB at 3 when he has a fundamental problem with throwing the ball just seems stupid, especially as Mack was there to be taken, and the draft also contained Bridgewater (who isn't himself lighting the league on fire) and Carr. Blake feels like a 3rd or 4th round QB. I really like Yeldon, but the playcalling on the run game, and execution by the OLine has been terrible all year.

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<p style="margin-left:40px;">Its all very well people saying that the Patriots are the best team, so it doesn't matter. The problem with that is, to actually advance in the post season, assuming we ever make it that far, we'll play teams of the calibre of the Patriots. Quite clearly we're 2 or 3 years away still of being remotely able to compete.

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<p style="margin-left:40px;">I'm still amazed that a team which has had so many top 10 draft picks in the past 10 years is still so bad.

 

Totally agree.

 

Especially on the Blake interception: you have just come out of the 2 minutes warning, you are 1st and 10 on the 50y and you just don't go out and throw a pick like that. That completely killed the game.

 

I really felt bad for Yeldon yesterday, I really like him but the run blocking was outrageous they kept giving him the ball against a wall of defenders on the LOS.

 

What let me down was in fact the poor performance of the offense, it was understandable to suffer with the defense (although I think our game plan was wrong there as well) but the offense had (apparently) the tools to put up a better game against a not so great (on paper) Patriots defense. That was worrying.

 

I really hope they can turn it around against the Colts which is another team that on paper should allow our offense to make its plays. We'll see.

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