Winston looked fine. Did you see Brate drop that TD?

Holly Crap.
They should have won that game.
All the things that went wrong with TB........the Pats were lucky.

How do you bring Folk back next week?
Its a mental block now.

Thought they should have ran up and spiked it after the long completion ( 24 yards ) out to their 49, with the clock ticking under :50 seconds as they are trying to get set.
especially in the middle of the field.........

The false start and 10 second run off followed. Brutal
Thats alot of young players running 25-30+ yards for the OL ( OL running from 5-10 yards behind line of scrimmage after pass ) to get set, hear the play, get in alignments and execute under pressure. Helter skelter moment for all those young guys running around.
You spike it, calm everyone down, collect some thoughts, huddle and go.
TB was moving the ball the whole 4th quarter, they had time to re-group.
Last three drives.....
Moved it from their own 3 to the Pats 13 ( missed FG )
Moved it from own 26 to the endzone for a TD
And even with that missed opportunity to spike, false start and 10 second run off....moved it from their own 25 to the Pats 19 in less than a minute, with no time outs.
Moved over 200 yards in last 10 minutes of 4th quarter.


Yet they still had a shot from the 19.
And yeah, Howard never even turned around.

Difference in this game.
Folk missing FG's, including the 31 yard chippy.
Gostkowski hit 4 FG's including a 45 and 48 yarder in the 4th. If he misses the 48 yard one. TB probably wins.
Then again, TB drives into FG range needing a FG to win........

That is a nice film study for every team in reviewing what to do in those situations.
Spike or snap is a decision made on Tuesday or Wednesday....not in the heat of a hurry up moment.

And then last thought on what may work best for one play from the 20 with 3 seconds left.
Seeing the Pats defense. Looked like they had 4 to 6 guys lined up in the endzone, 2 others lined up on WR's with a 10+ yard cushion who would eventually be defending right around the goal line, maybe rushing three. Hence, 7-8 defenders in the endzone or at the goal line.
Thats gonna be tuff to find a small window in the endzone. With all defenders spread out in endzone......gonna be tuff for any target to get even a 3-5 yard separation.

Maybe, just maybe, and I know this is school yard......... a hook and ladder is something that may work there.
Hitting someone on a curl at the 5-7 yard line and a toss back to a trailing receiver heading in the opposite direction.
the 5 to 7 yard line will have alot more space to work with and time for guy to catch and pitch.
anyway.

Happy Friday
Could have been alot happier.
And Swiss could have posted another Best Show on TV clip.

Pats have alot of things to work on.
Can'y believe Brady took off and scrambled on his last possession. Was nice to see him roughed up a bit.
They have 10 days to work on things.

The play in New Jersey vs the Jersey Jets. Who have been playing well.

I saw Winston miss open receivers all night. Yes Brate dropped a TD pass but Winston had chances galore against a very poor defense to put Pats to the sword.

Agree with most of this add two things to TB fuck up list:

1) Winston missing Jackson wide open for 6 and it really wasn't that tough a throw
2) Brate's drop was brutal and cost TB the game.

By my count TB left 17 points on the field:

1) Missing Jackson wide open
2) Brate drop
3) Missed FGs ( 49 & 56)

TB was handed a superb chance to beat a very ordinary Pats team and a woeful defense. TB did far more to make NE D look ok than NE did making plays. Drops and bad throws.

Winston missed some throws (the one to Jackson start of 3rd was bad), but I said he looked fine, hardly a world beater but compared to some of the other QB performances this season? Woof-da.

That was almost an unbelievable loss given the chances they had.

Patriots look very, very mortal this year.
The drop by Braite was brutal, but if Nick Folk hits one out of three - i'll give him a mulligan on the 56 yarder or whatever - he's got a shot to win the game for them on a redemption kick from just outside the ten. I'm shocked he still has a job this morning.

Onside kick was dumb.

Odds of successfully converting an onside kick when it's somewhat expected are very low, and Tampa had kept New England in check most of the night.

Therefore it was likely going to come down to Tampa needing to hold the Pats to three and out to win.

So kick it away- if you hold them to three and out, they aren't in scoring range and you get better FP.

Now- the ONLY issue is- if you kick it away, does a return allow the Pats to get the ball to the two minute warning before the snap? Got to be certain you can boom the ball out of the EZ and deny any clock-killing return.

Now of course- I'm not trusting Folk for the GW FG try from any yardage, so I don't know what you do should you stop them and get the ball back.

Exactly! And not just missing by a little, either. The same people saying "I thought he was pretty good" are the same people that jump all over Ben and give him a "D" for a performance like that, rightly so.....26/46, 1 TD and 14 points. That's a pitch-fork game with Ben.

Not a bad game by any stretch, but not good either.

Well, it's comforting to know that NE could easily be 1-4 right now. Uncomfortably, they're not.