BTW if you look at the box score at first it looks like Brady had a great day .... 358 yards, 3 TDs, no interceptions.
You would think the offense was good but the defense let the team down. Also Gostkowski.
Except the Pats were 9-16 on third downs. They had 11 drives to score 33 points. They were 3-6 in the Red Zone.
They lost despite having an edge 35 min to 25 min in time of possession, and despite running 75 plays to the Dolphins' 45.
They averaged 2.6 yards per carry and barely over 5 yards per play.
The offense is grindy and painful this year. The defense is slow.
They look like Danny Glover out there: too old for this ... stuff.
Honestly this Pats team makes me feel sad and tired, too. Like maybe iit'll be best for everybody for this to just be over. I have more fun and feel less emotionally invested watching the Chiefs or the Saints or Rams play arena ball.
All good points. I miss the "spice" this offense used to have in years past, being aggressive, playing for a TD no matter what, and creative play calling. Feels like nowadays the offense is just vanilla where they sometimes are just playing for FG's and/or simply playing to make it a more manageable 3rd down instead of attacking, going more up-tempo, etc.
Even in this game, Gostkowski's misses didn't help, but I thought in that final drive they needed to be more creative and go for the TD to seal the deal. Instead just 3 predictable runs up the middle. In previous years they'd try screens or some fake end-around or something like that.
The red zone in general is torture. Feels like we're seeing way more throwaways and/or short runs up the middle because the offense plays with less aggression down there and more caution.
Brady taking that sack right before the half was uncharacteristic of him. Guaranteed 3 points and they blew it. He threw it away the first two times, but not the 3rd when nothing was there? That was golden field position after the 2nd blocked punt of the game, and they completely blew it.