Just watched NFL Replay

I'm going through the game right now on the directv short cut (no pressing fast forward! ) I'll try and fill you in on what you missed.

 

I'm sure you know where to find a play-by-play of events, but that doesn't tell you what you really need to know. Enjoy!

On the Pats' first possession, Suish kicks it out of bounds. Oy. They start at the 40.

First down, "cross fire x" blitz I believe it's called, with Sylvester and Foote. Picked up easily. Brady real quick hitter to Hernandez 4 yards downfield. Timmons misses a tackle, ugly. Gay misses a tackle, ugly. Clark goes in for the kill, whiffs, nails Timmons. Ugly. Hernandez is almost completely untouched at this point, but loses his balance from all the fakes and falls down. 8 yard gain. We looked like the three stooges, and I got worried we might be in for a long day...

Second down, hand off left to BJGE. Ike Taylor reads it and darts in like Polamalu, forcing GE inside. Gets him around the ankles, and then BIG SNACK lays the wood on him in a play not unlike the one to the left of this post. <----- Hampton outran (you heard me) Waters who tried to cut him, form tackled GE and landed right on top of him. A big guy fell on me once like that and it felt like the ball went through my stomach and out my back. GE looks like he's handling it better than I would. Big Snack is happy. That is need to know information. Loss of one.

Third down, they spread us out, shotgun, and every one of their receivers has a Pittsburgh DB locked right onto them at the line of scrimmage. It does not look like us at all. Gay on Branch, Mundy on Gronkowski, Ike on Welker in the slot, and Lewis on Johnson. Polamalu lined up at inside backer, looks like man-to-man on Faulk who is in the backfield. Brady takes the snap, waits half a sec and fires one to Branch on a quick slant. Gay has perfect coverage, reaches out and knocks it down. Branch doesn't really have a chance. Double-u, tee, eff did I just see.


They skip the drive Pittsburgh had after NE's field goal just before halftime. We were going to run out the clock with a draw to Moore, but Moore went and got 16 yards on a badass run. He pulled an absolute Barry Sanders on Devin McCourty at the line of scrimmage. Sent him flying in the wrong direction. Love MeMo, but never seen him do that before. Then he fakes out #44 at 10 yards, stops fast and makes #25 and #95 crash into each other like Timmons and Clark earlier, Pouncey gives him a push and he powers his way for 5 more yards. Now we're looking for a hail mary. Dropoff to Sanders gets us to midfield, call timeout with 8 seconds left. Then Ben throws something like a short hail mary to Sanders, out of bounds. This is where it gets weird. Even my directv short cut misses a play! Time expired, but the ref ruled (correctly) that the clock ran way too long after the ball landed and ordered two more seconds on the clock. So we try for another hail mary, but Ben dumps it off to Moore instead of throwing it deep. Don't know why. Maybe he was paranoid that someone was behind him? Moore runs 20 yards and goes out of bounds, looks frustrated. That's from memory.


Next time they skip a NE drive is at the start of the third quarter. First down at the 22, toss right to BJGE. Why do people run this play against the Steelers? Timmons chases him down from the far side, grabs him around the waste and is about to bring him dow--BOOM! Ryan Clark levels the guy. Beautiful hit. Took him off his feet. Timmons too. It was helmet to helmet, which is of course legal on a ball carrier (for now). BJGE is a big guy, this was a great hit and they should have shown this drive because of it. Gain of one.

Second down, Brady play-action, says "Oh sh--" Woodley matched up single on #82, backup TE. Beat him with speed around the corner and would have planted Brady but Tom saw him coming. If only it was his blind side, he'd be in a full body cast right now. Brady steps up to avoid it but is now way too far up in the pocket and has to throw right away. Goes to Welker on a 12 yard stop route on the right sideline. Too high, out of bounds, blanketed by Ike anyway.

Third and 9, Keisel standing up at ROLB stunts around the left side of the center. Gets by him, looks to have a clear shot at Brady, runs right by. D'oh. He was going too fast and a small shove from the C sent him too far. Should have slowed down, dealt with the C and run right at Tom. Not like he's going to fake you out. Brady completes to Gronkowski on an out 7 yards upfield. Cortez Allen meets him immediately, sorta jumps on his back but not bringing him down. Gay comes in and wipes out Gronk's legs. Ron got really close to a first by stretching out as he went down, but not close enough and they punt. Allen was very physical with Gronkowski. In his face. They were hand-fighting on screen, then they went off screen when he got open. He probably pushed off is my guess, but Allen was really physical with him too. Good sign from him. Not afraid to tackle, either. Got right in there. However, he looks like the skinniest guy on the team.


Now it's the 4th quarter, 11:26 left. First down from the 20, Brady drops back, has time. Timmons bull rushes Matt Light right into Brady, who has to scramble to his right a bit, but there's no one there for us. Clark's coming up to nail him, and Brady throws a bomb to Price, who was actually open if it had been a good pass. Brady throws it behind him and Ike breaks it up.

Second down, shotgun draw to Faulk, big opening on the right side. They ran it right at Carter/Foote/C. Allen. Allen does not recognize, looks lost. Clark makes the tackle after 8 yard gain.

Third down, they run a rub play. Gronkowski does an arrow route, catches the ball right at the first down line. Allen meets him there, but was too far away and let Ron get a head of steam. Allen jumps on his back like he's his younger brother and finally gets him down after 7 more yards.

First down, play action, you can tell from body language Brady wants to go deep. No pass rush at all coming from our guys (Carter, Ziggy, Keisel, Timmons). Brady just stands there, the coverage must be good. Finally he heaves a long one to #85, who is extremely well covered by Keenan Lewis, who did not bite on the fake he was supposed to. Ball goes over both their heads.

Second down, funny play here. Brady's in shotgun, Hernandez is in motion like in a wildcat play. Trips bunch to the right, Hernandez heading that direction. Brady takes the snap and hands it to him, it's a straight sweep. Chris Carter, of all people, who is playing LOLB and is right where they're attacking, gets an incredible jump on the ball, sprints right between Gronkowski and Vollmer, and runs right passed Hernandez (d'oh!)... Although it still made the play. Not only did Hernandez did have to slow down to let Carter pass (d'oh!), but Gronk crashed into Vollmer and slowed him down even more. Next thing you know Hernandez is in front of all of his pulling blockers, and Gay makes a solid tackle for a 2 yard gain.

Third down, this was even wackier. I can't believe they didn't show this drive! Brady in the shotgun, Faulk to his left, and it's a direct snap to Faulk. He sweeps to the right side with a convoy of blockers. Foote slides through and is about to get him when Mankins basically tackles him by the neck and throws him down, and they throw a flag. After awhile Faulk pulls up, and throws the ball back to Brady, who is on the far left side of the field all alone, about 8 yards upfield by the time he catches it. He has nothing but green in front of him. This was actually kind of fun to watch since I was so sure it was coming back anyway, so I enjoyed watching him run at that syrup-dripping pace of his. But he makes it about 25 yards before Polamalu catches up with him, and as much as I hate to say it, Brady bowls him right over. Polamalu made the mistake of diving for his knees, and Brady just lowered his shoulder and Troy bounced right off. Kind of like Jeremy Shockey in that Houston Texans Hall of Fame game in 2002. Brady made it another 10 yards before Clark finally shoved him out around our 25. Stupid Marcia didn't know about the penalty, so he was all beating his chest like he was some kind of badass, taunting the crowd. I was embarrassed for Troy.

On the replay of third down, Heyward and Carter broke through before Brady had much of a chance to do anything, and he scrambled to his right. Ziggy cut him off and he scrambled left, making it around Heyward who took a horrible angle. If he'd been following Tom instead of running to where he was going, like he was the only one chasing him, he would have creamed him. Instead Tom survives an extra second before Foote joins the party, and they all close in on him. He tosses it it (literally) over their heads, up in the air. Brady goes down, but it's not really a hit, we just sorta fall on him. It's very, very unsatisfying. Faulk catches it, but he's 6 yards behind the line of srimmage. Ziggy stalls him a bit but misses, and Carter eventually brings him down. On this play Taylor got hurt going to make the tackle, and he looked unconscious. But he returned later. Then they punt.

I think that's the last play of the game they didn't show, except for ones in the middle of drives like one yard runs, but I don't have the mojo to look for all those.

 

Excellent play by play, Snack !!!!!!!!!!

 

I know, damn....

That must have taken forever...

 

Anyone else notice they heavily edited the crowd noise? I heard no HEEEAAATTTHHHH chants. Go back and watch it...its weird....

 

I too have felt the sting of an edited NFL Replay. I was analyzing every play anyway, like I always do in the middle of the night, and what else am I at a message board for if not to give my opinion to strangers? ...So did I have you going on that pass to Brady? At what point did you realize it was a complete lie?

 

I'm not sure it was edited at all. I can hear some HEEEEATHs in there. I think the HEEEEATHs are being drowned out by regular cheers. It was exciting!

 

Ha! I was like, when the **** did that happen? When I was making guacamole?!!! I thought it was way gone by then. Nice one though.... Now I know to look out for B.S....

 

I think if that play happened in real life, Brady would hit the deck with Troy about 15 yards away. If he didn't, he'd probably wind up missing a body part or two.