The patriots are showing that you can have a hall of fame Coach and a hall of fame QB and still struggle.

 

Look at these numbers:

 

http://www.nfl.com/teams/profile?team=NE

 

What does this say about Caldwell?  After 2 offseasons with great draft picks and tons of cap space this team is just trash.  After 2 seasons of this, who is the fall guy?

 

I know you will always have some fans that will defend the personal to the death but the level of play for this team is unacceptable.

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I really believe the secondary will begin to gel as the season progresses. Look at the o-line. They were horrific at first and are at least decent now. It sucks having to be patient but in this case it will actually pay off. Trust between players is developed through playing. Not overnight. Not to mention, having Colvin on the sideline to step in at some point will help us.

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Fall guy is Gene Smith.  He put this roster at expansion level.  The four years of him, and the years earlier of Shack Harris have contributed to making this a very bad team.  We can't expect Caldwell to fix this leak with duct tape, because it's not a small hole in a bucket.  It's the grand canyon we're trying to patch.

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I was wrong about Trent Baalke. 

You are ignoring the fact that every quarterback has some bad games. I have seen Brett Favre get benched twice for performance reasons. Sometimes it just happens. I thought everyone knew the "any given Sunday" rule.

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You are ignoring the fact that every quarterback has some bad games. I have seen Brett Favre get benched twice for performance reasons. Sometimes it just happens. I thought everyone knew the "any given Sunday" rule.

 

exactly. Brady was winning SBs with Troy Brown at WR. He never had big names. 186 yards? thats ALL on Brady. especially when you're getting whooped and playing fom behind? luckily i still won my FF game with his 4 points. He's gone though. BUM!! lol. 

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You are ignoring the fact that every quarterback has some bad games. I have seen Brett Favre get benched twice for performance reasons. Sometimes it just happens. I thought everyone knew the "any given Sunday" rule.

I agree there is no way we can win today by doing what we have been doing...

I guess not everyone knows the any given Sunday rule...

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Coughlin when asked if winning will be a focus: "What the hell else is there? This is nice and dandy, but winning is what all this is about."

I believe this is the offseason we spend.. we have some great young pieces in place. I believe this team is a few improvements away from really making strides towards being playoff contenders. I believe one more solid draft and bringing in some nice pieces via free agency that fit our schemes will do wonders. We have our franchise QB, hopefully our long-term LT, a solid young group of WRs, a young secondary with some promise as they progress, a stud DT in Sen'Derrick Marks, and an aging but solid MLB in Posluszny. We have pieces.. we just need to continue to develop depth and fill in the gaps with better players than this garbage we currently have.

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Brady is not Brady anymore and Belichick as been worse and worse at acquiring players.

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Patriots were victim to defense not getting off the field ever... just like we have been. When one team gets such limited opportunities each play is crucial and magnifies the importance of each drive and each conversion, added pressure. If you don't show up and hold the ball as long as the other team you get blown out I don't care who you are.

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No pain, no gain.

What your seeing is bad drafting catching up with the patriots. Brady in his prime covered up a multitude of sins but Brady's not in his prime anymore.

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What your seeing is bad drafting catching up with the patriots. Brady in his prime covered up a multitude of sins but Brady's not in his prime anymore.

 

^^THIS

 

I think we overlook drafting mistakes, especially when you have a hall of fame type player at the Quarterback position.

 

We have been chasing our bad draft picks since the one player away debacle of 2008 when we went all in to put pressure on the QB.  Then we had a decent draft in 2009 but when you cashed in your 2008 draft you are betting on rookies.  And to throw salt on the wound we loaded up on over priced Free Agency.

 

We have been cycling this way until Caldwell took over.  As a fan, I want quick fixes because waiting for the pieces to play better is hard.

 

EDIT

Patience is hard.  As long as the QB position improves, this year will be a win.

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The Khan Years

Patience, Persistence, and Piss Poor General Managers.

The patriots are showing that you can have a hall of fame Coach and a hall of fame QB and still struggle.

 

Look at these numbers:

 

http://www.nfl.com/teams/profile?team=NE

 

What does this say about Caldwell?  After 2 offseasons with great draft picks and tons of cap space this team is just trash.  After 2 seasons of this, who is the fall guy?

 

I know you will always have some fans that will defend the personal to the death but the level of play for this team is unacceptable.

A lot of people would argue that the Patriots were never as good as they were before they got caught cheating...

cheaters...

 

I disagree I feel like you that the HC & QB are future HOFs but the team needs a supporting cast..

 

Not to mention how incredibly awesome Andy Reid is at coaching... he shouldve won coach of the year last year got robbed.

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There are several intuitive observations here.

 

All cannot be fixed in two years and the coalescing of both offense and defense will take patience.

Wanting / demanding full consistency immediately is understandable, yet realizing it will take time is painfull.

We are paying down the debt of sins of the past and it is not pleasant.

What we are building is going to be lots of fun.

 

 

The Patriots had a long run of sucessful drafts and trading players for picks that still had gas in the tank.

Their record of getting the last usefull years out of resonable free agent signings was a thing of beauty.

It would appear that the equation has changed early this season, I still won't count them out.

 

HeadSlap

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When they have no time,  they think about it!

When they go down hard, they think about it!

 

Just watch Peyton, Andrew, Caep even Mr. Bundchen.

When you have a quarterback, your never completely out of it.  The level of talent on the Patriots has been in decline for years and they have done enough to coach up and scheme what they have in place.  You reach a point where you can't do much more.

 

I think the changes to the CBA also impact team improvement.  When you limit coach interaction and practice days, the staff is limited on how much they can install.  These changes favor established staffs with veterans.  You have to double down on patience and that is hard as a fan.

 

We can all point to the quick turn around teams and it is tough when our Jaguars aren't going to be that type of team.

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The Khan Years

Patience, Persistence, and Piss Poor General Managers.

Fall guy is Gene Smith. He put this roster at expansion level. The four years of him, and the years earlier of Shack Harris have contributed to making this a very bad team. We can't expect Caldwell to fix this leak with duct tape, because it's not a small hole in a bucket. It's the grand canyon we're trying to patch.

So this is where the level headed folks are lol. Seriously though, This is the truth. People are failing to understand what kind of roster Cadlwell took over. There wasn't one player he could use going forward to build around. I think that hasn't happened since the first teams we created in the league lol.


Patience is required and this may take a little longer than 1-2 more years.

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Brady had a bad game. I think they haven't drafted well, that is why he is struggling. He still has the arm, but who he is throwing to is terrible.


Gronk is broken, Edelman is a midget, and that's all they have. One impact guy is all the defense has to worry about.


Brady will bounce back. It just sucks to start this slow on the downfall of his career.

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Brady had a bad game. I think they haven't drafted well, that is why he is struggling. He still has the arm, but who he is throwing to is terrible.


Gronk is broken, Edelman is a midget, and that's all they have. One impact guy is all the defense has to worry about.


Brady will bounce back. It just sucks to start this slow on the downfall of his career.

To be honest Brady hasn't been playing well the past 2-3 years. He still has the clutch factor and enough savvy to win but it may be closing out for him. The roster is bad and he isn't himself anymore. Brady is my favorite player ever so this is very hard for me to watch.

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The patriots are showing that you can have a hall of fame Coach and a hall of fame QB and still struggle.


Look at these numbers:

<a class="bbc_url" href='http://www.nfl.com/teams/profile?team=NE'>http://www.nfl.com/teams/profile?team=NE</a>


What does this say about Caldwell? After 2 offseasons with great draft picks and tons of cap space this team is just trash. After 2 seasons of this, who is the fall guy?


I know you will always have some fans that will defend the personal to the death but the level of play for this team is unacceptable.

I agree the level of play is not acceptable. Bradley has come out and said as much. I attribute it to the youth and a few needs that still need to be addressed. Experience is often overlooked as a factor on a successful team.

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I'm condescending. That means I talk down to you.

To be honest Brady hasn't been playing well the past 2-3 years. He still has the clutch factor and enough savvy to win but it may be closing out for him. The roster is bad and he isn't himself anymore.

Brady had a bad game. I think they haven't drafted well, that is why he is struggling. He still has the arm, but who he is throwing to is terrible.


Gronk is broken, Edelman is a midget, and that's all they have. One impact guy is all the defense has to worry about.


Brady will bounce back. It just sucks to start this slow on the downfall of his career.

 

Brady has been playing bad for a coupl eof years now. Welker knew this, and thats why he left. Brady is just washed up and no longer has the ability to make horrible players around him better. Oh well.

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If you think I offended you, don't worry, I meant to. #facts 
  
#iamlegend

Fall guy is Gene Smith.  He put this roster at expansion level.  The four years of him, and the years earlier of Shack Harris have contributed to making this a very bad team.  We can't expect Caldwell to fix this leak with duct tape, because it's not a small hole in a bucket.  It's the grand canyon we're trying to patch.

Exactly!

It took years of really bad drafting and wasting money on low performing f/a's to get us in this mess. One thing I would add to your 'fall guy' assessment however; former owner Wayne Weaver. Yes, Wayne Weaver. He brought NFL football to Jacksonville and for that we are grateful. However, he also allowed an obviously under performing GM (Gene Smith) to stay in that position long enough to put this franchise in a situation that will literally require years to fix! Once the franchise was 'on the bricks' he then sold it to someone else..... Thanks Wayne...

 

It should also be pointed out that as Jags fans we were (in a certain respect) 'spoiled' by having contenders right off the bat when the franchise was still almost brand new. That was only possible due to the NFL allowing some concessions which allowed us to acquire top notch players very quickly instead of enduring years of the slow building process through the draft.

 

But thanks to the excessively long leash that Wayne gave Gene Smith, this franchise has been brought back to what almost amounts to a traditional expansion level team.... now we have to endure the years of what amounts to 'building' a winning franchise from scratch.

 

Don't get me wrong; I don't find Dave Caldwell faultless. I (along with what I suspect is a rather large portion of the fan base) am not impressed with Toby Gerhart. Dave had to have known that our offensive line would be super weak (especially given the retirement of Meester) yet didn't adequately address the issue, instead picking up more receivers. What is more important, a good offensive line or good receivers? answer: the line. always, the line. Were there good lines men to be had in the last couple of drafts? Yup. The result of a weak line is that (among other things) it renders a running back like Toby almost worthless. A 'power back' he is touted... yet, this 'power back' needs good blockers or he can't get more than a yard or two on average. 'Power back'? Not...

 

Still... Dave brought in Bortles, who has the look of a franchise quarterback that we haven't seen since Mark Brunell; we can only  hope. Brunell had a host of quality players around him like Tony Bosselli, Jimmy Smith, Keenan McCardell, and Fred Taylor. What does Bortles have? A pretty girlfriend.

 

The point is... this situation didn't happen over night and it isn't going to get fixed in a couple of years. All we can do is hope the coaches won't tolerate sub-par performances (Bradfield and Guy were told to hit the bricks...). At some point, it has to be made clear to the players that the NFL is not a 'free ride'. I'm glad that Dave and Gus are doing this as we the fans deserve a better product that what we've 'endured' for over seven years now. If Khan can't (or won't) put people on the field... players and coaches... who get the job done, then he is a crummy owner, regardless of how much money he has. Maybe he really does want to move the franchise to London...but for now, it's 'be patient'. That's getting to be a mighty old line....

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I y'ams who I y'ams and thats all I y'ams...