so...safe to say Welker dropped the superbowl championship?

[jgod213]

Isn't it kind of silly that we're getting mad at a 5'9'' slot receiver for not making a spectacular catch on a ball thrown way up in the air?

That play is just a glaring, painful example of why the Patriots need a receiver who can be a legitimate vertical, down field threat.

should have caught the ball, read my post from 2 posts ago in this thread , if anything welkers height makes it harder on brady to hit him perfectly than it does for welkers ability to catch the ball. Why does welkers height have anything to do with a ball that hit him right in the hands on a catch every receiver in the NFL works on constantly. That is such a cop out

He should have made the catch

getting your hands on the ball is one thing . . . holding onto it and keeping it the entire way down when you have 4-5 feet to fall is another.

welker could have, and perhaps should have, made that play.  but that's not really his game, most of the time.

to me it's kind of like getting mad at Rondo for missing a wide open potentially game-winning 3 pointer.  it's not a high percentage play, and it's not his role.

C'mon.  It's not Welker's role to make difficult catches? It's the reason why he's the best slot receiver in the game!  Most of the catches Wes has to make in every game are of a very high degree of difficulty.  He had two hands on the ball!

[mkogav]

The pass was a lil behind him but you gotta make that catch. If he catches that its almost a guaranteed win. To a lesser extent Aaron Hernandez's drop was bad too but wow welker's gotta make that catch

Walker drops a touch catch. Manningham makes a difficult catch and keeps his feet in-bounds. That's the difference between the two teams.

Mk

[jgod213]

We all love this kid.  This stuff is tough for me/all of us to read today but he knows that ball needs to be caught.

It's one of those plays I made 1,000 times,” Welker said.

“The ball is right there,” he continued. “I’ve just got to make the play. It’s a play I’ve made 1,000 times in practice and everything else. It comes to be the biggest moment of my life and I don’t come up with it. It’s discouraging.”

“Just trying to make an adjustment on the ball and it’s a play I’ve got to bring in,” he added.

“Yeah it hit me in the hands,” he admitted. “I mean it’s a play I never drop. I always make. Most critical situation and I let the team down.”]“It’s one of those plays I made 1,000 times,” Welker said.

“The ball is right there,” he continued. “I’ve just got to make the play. It’s a play I’ve made 1,000 times in practice and everything else. It comes to be the biggest moment of my life and I don’t come up with it. It’s discouraging.”

“Just trying to make an adjustment on the ball and it’s a play I’ve got to bring in,” he added.

“Yeah it hit me in the hands,” he admitted. “I mean it’s a play I never drop. I always make. Most critical situation and I let the team down.

”

[PosImpos]

Isn't it kind of silly that we're getting mad at a 5'9'' slot receiver for not making a spectacular catch on a ball thrown way up in the air?

That play is just a glaring, painful example of why the Patriots need a receiver who can be a legitimate vertical, down field threat.

should have caught the ball, read my post from 2 posts ago in this thread , if anything welkers height makes it harder on brady to hit him perfectly than it does for welkers ability to catch the ball. Why does welkers height have anything to do with a ball that hit him right in the hands on a catch every receiver in the NFL works on constantly. That is such a cop out

He should have made the catch

getting your hands on the ball is one thing . . . holding onto it and keeping it the entire way down when you have 4-5 feet to fall is another.

welker could have, and perhaps should have, made that play.  but that's not really his game, most of the time.

to me it's kind of like getting mad at Rondo for missing a wide open potentially game-winning 3 pointer.  it's not a high percentage play, and it's not his role.

C'mon.  It's not Welker's role to make difficult catches? It's the reason why he's the best slot receiver in the game!  Most of the catches Wes has to make in every game are of a very high degree of difficulty.  He had two hands on the ball!

His job is to make difficult catches on certain kinds of throws -- particularly ones that are low to the ground or in tight coverage between the numbers.

It's not his job to sky it and catch a ball thrown way up in the air.  He's not Calvin Johnson.

[dtrader]

People keep talking about how difficult that catch was (I dont agree that it was very difficult), but really, the level of difficulty isnt even the issue. The ball was in his hands.  If it's in your hands, youve got to hold it in.  If the ball sailed over his head, or he couldnt reach it behind him, it'd be different.  That pass was IN both of his hands. He just failed to secure it. Thats an unacceptable mistake.

If we get that 1st , the game is totally different. Worst case, we'd take another minute or two off the clock, and leave the Giants with the clock pressuring them down the field.  Or we make one more 1st, and are in FG range (making us only down a FG even if they get a TD), or we score a TD, go up 2 scores with 2 minutes on the clock, and have the game absolutely sealed up.

That catch was everything, and it should have been made.

[TheReaLPuba]

Manningham's catch was harder also.

He was covered and had to make an over the head catch while keeping his feet inbound.

Welker was wideopen and probably was thinking about the landing more so than focusing on the catch...hit him right in the hands and you could tell by his own reaction that he thought he should have made the catch.

Maybe not 1000 times out of 1000....but 950 times out of 1000.

He makes that catch and we're all talking about how great of throw and catch that was by both Brady and Welker on our way to another SB win.

[greenpride32]

For those of you saying that Brady threw the ball awful , do you not remember the David Patten throw from the superbowl against the Rams where he caught the exact same pass for a TD? It was the exact same throw, actually the throw to Patten was even more difficult because he has to keep his feet in and the ball was thrown higher

Big difference between the plays; Patten had turned around and had plenty of time to adjust.  He did not even come close to turning 180 degrees as Welker had to do.  Since Patten knew the ball was coming outside and high he was able to adjust and jump for it.

You need to watch the cloesup replay they showed during the game of Welker's footwork during the play.  He basically stumbled to his right because he had to change his momentum last second.  His feet did NOT leave the ground becaue of this; he basically fell to this right and back.  If he had as much time to adjust and to jump as Patten did he probably makes the catch. 

When you're running full speed one way and have to stop and go the other soley on reflex it's not easy; just ask Bradshaw.

[wiley]

In real time it was a very difficult catch to make.  In slow motion of course he should have caught it.  First comment from the booth:  "Brady threw behind him."

Then Collinsworth, who's never dropped a pass I guess, puts it more on Welker.  Collinsworth was tougher on the receivers all game...I guess putting them against his own greatness.

[slamtheking]

I wouldn't put it on Welker.  It was a tough catch.  We've seen him make those so often that it doesn't seem right he didn't get this one.  I think it was on Brady to make passes that were more catchable for Welker and the one to Branch after that.

Bottom line,
-the Pats offensive line allowed too much pressure on Brady
-Brady wasn't on the mark at the end and made some bonehead plays like that grounding call and that interception.  If he doesn't throw the interception and just gets a first down or two, I think the Pats may have pulled it out.
-the defensive line didn't apply nearly enough pressure on Manning
-the secondary didn't play solid enough on coverage, particularly on that last drive.
-the Pats were not coached well enough -- 12 men on the field?  Really?  no excuse there.

Pats could get back there next year but they have got to improve that defense significantly.  Relying on Brady to be superhuman to win is not going to cut it.  The team won prior superbowls because their defense could actually stop other teams from scoring.  That's no longer the case.

[elcotte]

It was a bad pass to Welker...Brady cannot make those soft, touch passes.

[Eja117]

The pass was a lil behind him but you gotta make that catch. If he catches that its almost a guaranteed win. To a lesser extent Aaron Hernandez's drop was bad too but wow welker's gotta make that catch

Walker drops a touch catch. Manningham makes a difficult catch and keeps his feet in-bounds. That's the difference between the two teams.

Mk

Exactly. And Welker knew it was his his fault and that is why he reacted the way he did. A receiver knows when he hasn't done his job.

[KGs Knee]

Gotta say, Brady just missed that throw.  Welker was ide open.  The throw was on the completely wron shoulder.  If the throw was on point, Welker could have bery well turned that into a TD.

Welker deserves a little blame, any time you can get two hands on the ball, you have to make the catch.  It just should have never came to that.

[Eja117]

Tom needs to get his wife under control

http://www.tmz.com/2012/02/06/gisele-tom-brady-super-bowl-patriots-lose-giants/

If the Giants fans can't take what they dish out to a man's wife it's not my problem.  

She threw Tom's co-workers under the bus.  I am sure Tom doesn't want or need that being out there.  

Actually I think it's perfectly fine for his coworkers to hear his wife getting heckled 50 on 1.  The Pats have a saying "Do your job." He did his. They didn't do theirs.  If she gets heckled and says what a lot of people are thinking that shouldn't be his problem. A couple of them  need to watch their backs in this upcoming draft and worry about getting better, not what Gisele is saying to heckling fans.
If you think Belichik is being supportive and is offering a shoulder to cry on to any of the receivers right now, I gotta say I think you're way off.

[StartOrien]

Thought Brady threw the ball where it had to be.

[BudweiserCeltic]

For those of you saying that Brady threw the ball awful , do you not remember the David Patten throw from the superbowl against the Rams where he caught the exact same pass for a TD? It was the exact same throw, actually the throw to Patten was even more difficult because he has to keep his feet in and the ball was thrown higher

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1NCr1U4GJ0
(The David Patten play is at 4:30 in the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or1nSVUJeq8

Brady clearly threw it to his back shoulder IMO because they work on this type of play all the time. THESE ARE CATCHES YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO MAKE IF YOU WANT TO WIN SUPERBOWLS

I am not saying Brady was flawless , but in reality he made 2 bad plays, the safety and the interception( which really didn't hurt the Patriots because it was more like a punt with the Giants starting behind their own 10, and they got the ball right away without giving up points .


I don't care what anyone says, that dropped pass was the game changer/ killer for the patriots. In 2001 they make that catch with a fringe NFL WR, In 2012 they drop that pass with a multi pro bowl receiver with an easier catch to make.

Then you throw in the catches that Tyrie and Manningham made to help the Giants win and you realize just how catchable that ball to Welker was

And please stop with this Welker's too short to make this kind of catch the ball hit him right in the frakin hands it's not like he had to jumkp 5 ft in the air and it grazed off his finger tips, if anything it makes it harder for Brady to hit such a small target perfectly down field(gronkowski is a lot easier because you have such a big window to throw it to where he can catch it ). But lets not say it was an impossible catch for welker because he is only 5'8 , that's ridiculous.....

I'm sorry, but if you think that's the same type of situation you're not looking at the plays clearly. Both ball positioning and body positioning were completely different. That pass to Patten was easy, Welker makes that catch on his sleep (adjusting of course to player's height).

And for those talking about getting 2 hands on the ball, that actually made the catch more difficult. The problem with the catch was actually reaching the ball more than anything, he barely got two hands on the tip of the ball. What he should've done was go after it with one hand, to extend his reach and then bring the ball towards himself and secure it with the other hand, but it's a reactionary play to a bad pass with poor footing on the play due to the adjustment he had to make just to be able to touch the ball.