I know its too soon- BUT

[burmafrd]

Lets do a position by position comparison with the pats.

QB: Brady has been out of his mind but Romo is close. Edge pats right now.
BUT not a big one.

RB: our combo beats whatever they have right now.

FB; do they even use one? If so its strictly as blocker and I really like Hoyte.

TE: Witten is the best TE in football; their starter is good but not really that close; Fasano and Curtis make this position better- clear edge Dallas.

O Line: They might be better in pass protection but not by much. We wear down a D line and own them in the 4th. Neither line is all that great at run blocking. Overall a push.

WR: TO and Moss cancel each other out; without Glenn you have to give the edge to the pats for the rest. BUT if we get Glenn back and he is effective then its a push.

D Line: Seymour is the best D linemen on both teams but not by much over Canty as canty is playing THIS year. Wilfolk is very good at NT but our combo of Rat and Tank match. All others a push. Slight edge to pats.

LBs: Thomas has not been the monster they thought he would be. Vrabel is getting old; Colvin on IR; Seau still great but wears down. Ware is best LB on both teams; Ellis gives us the edge in pass rush; and our middle guys are very solid. I say good edge to US and not even counting Burnett.

CB: Our starting pair when healthy have an edge. Right now have to give the pats the edge. overall its close.

S: Harrison has lost a step; but Roy is struggling. So they kind of cancel out. hamlin and Watkins are playing quite well. Slight edge to Dallas.

I take our Kicker and punter; coverage teams edge to Pats.

Coaching: Red ball edge on offense; pats edge on D. push.

I say this is overall a push. What say you guys?

 

[kingwhicker]

I say, it's way to soon and they beat us by 21.

 

[twa]

I say, it's way to soon and they beat us by 21.

Way too soon and we beat ourselves,it will be a interesting game if we clean up our act.

 

[theebs]

Its too soon.

Lets find a way to beat the lions first.

 

[Crown Royal]

Heath Evans is a pretty effective fullback for them, so I'd say push at best.

I disagree with your assessment of WRs. Even with Glenn back, their WR corps is pretty amazing. TO has been out of his mind lately, but that group, to me, is better than I have seen in a long time, if not ever. Definitely one of their strengths.

As far as defense, I think on paper we equal them in talent, but I'm not sure if we are more effective. Our defense has and will continue to give up points to good offenses. It isn't that much better than it used to be, other than it is getting better pressure.

 

[tomson75]

Heath Evans is a pretty effective fullback for them, so I'd say push at best.

I disagree with your assessment of WRs. Even with Glenn back, their WR corps is pretty amazing. TO has been out of his mind lately, but that group, to me, is better than I have seen in a long time, if not ever. Definitely one of their strengths.

As far as defense, I think on paper we equal them in talent, but I'm not sure if we are more effective. Our defense has and will continue to give up points to good offenses. It isn't that much better than it used to be, other than it is getting better pressure.

I agree with everything except the assessment of our defense. I feel we are light years ahead of where we were last year. Tops in the league in INT's, top 5 in sacks and turnovers, and would be top five overall (IIRC) if it weren't for offensive and special teams scores given up. We haven't been giving up the deep plays that we were all expecting with Wades' scheme, and we're outstanding against the run. Much of the passing yardage we've given up to teams has been in garbage time, or due to sizable leads. The best part? This time last year we had already began to fall apart. This year we've seemingly just started to hit our stride.

I also feel that the Patriots TE's are a fairly solid group. I still feel we have a slight edge, but its not as dramatic an advantage as burmafrd assumes. I like Witten over any TE in the league right now, Fasano would start on many teams in the NFL, and Curtis has shown he's a NFL caliber player as well...but their group is talented and deep also.

 

[utrunner07]

Lets do a position by position comparison with the pats.

QB: Brady has been out of his mind but Romo is close. Edge pats right now.
BUT not a big one.

RB: our combo beats whatever they have right now.

FB; do they even use one? If so its strictly as blocker and I really like Hoyte.

TE: Witten is the best TE in football; their starter is good but not really that close; Fasano and Curtis make this position better- clear edge Dallas.

O Line: They might be better in pass protection but not by much. We wear down a D line and own them in the 4th. Neither line is all that great at run blocking. Overall a push.

WR: TO and Moss cancel each other out; without Glenn you have to give the edge to the pats for the rest. BUT if we get Glenn back and he is effective then its a push.

D Line: Seymour is the best D linemen on both teams but not by much over Canty as canty is playing THIS year. Wilfolk is very good at NT but our combo of Rat and Tank match. All others a push. Slight edge to pats.

LBs: Thomas has not been the monster they thought he would be. Vrabel is getting old; Colvin on IR; Seau still great but wears down. Ware is best LB on both teams; Ellis gives us the edge in pass rush; and our middle guys are very solid. I say good edge to US and not even counting Burnett.

CB: Our starting pair when healthy have an edge. Right now have to give the pats the edge. overall its close.

S: Harrison has lost a step; but Roy is struggling. So they kind of cancel out. hamlin and Watkins are playing quite well. Slight edge to Dallas.

I take our Kicker and punter; coverage teams edge to Pats.

Coaching: Red ball edge on offense; pats edge on D. push.

I say this is overall a push. What say you guys?

homer

 

[Crown Royal]

I agree with everything except the assessment of our defense. I feel we are light years ahead of where we were last year. Tops in the league in INT's, top 5 in sacks and turnovers, and would be top five overall (IIRC) if it weren't for offensive and special teams scores given up. We haven't been giving up the deep plays that we were all expecting with Wades' scheme, and we're outstanding against the run. Much of the passing yardage we've given up to teams has been in garbage time, or due to sizable leads. The best part? This time last year we had already began to fall apart. This year we've seemingly just started to hit our stride.

I also feel that the Patriots TE's are a fairly solid group. I still feel we have a slight edge, but its not as dramatic an advantage as burmafrd assumes. I like Witten over any TE in the league right now, Fasano would start on many teams in the NFL, and Curtis has shown he's a NFL caliber player as well...but their group is talented and deep also.

I agree that we are better in turnovers and sacks, and I'm thrilled about that. But until that translates into less points allowed, or the ability to get off the field on third down, I am tempering my excitement.

 

[burmafrd]

Freely is not that good a QB but he ate the Patriots up pretty good. Their weaknesses were clear.
As regards TE, I do not know how anyone can say we DO NOT HAVE a good edge there. Stats and everything else on TEs are way in our favor.
WR- frankly TO does more for us then Moss does for them. So Actually I should have given us an edge there. Crayton and Austin and Hurd fill in pretty good- I agree that without a relatively healthy Glenn the pats have a solid overall edge- but I did mention having a effective Glenn when I made the comparison. I think when you add the edge we have on TE to the WRs, then we have the edge overall there.

 

[lspain1]

WR: TO and Moss cancel each other out; without Glenn you have to give the edge to the pats for the rest. BUT if we get Glenn back and he is effective then its a push.

CB: Our starting pair when healthy have an edge. Right now have to give the pats the edge. overall its close.

WR and CB are where I disagree.

At WR, Welker and Stallworth are a significant upgrade over our guys because these two are so good at YAC. They made the difference in our last game against the Patriots. Welker won the game for the Patriots versus the Eagles. Our guys do not provide game changing plays to the same extent as these guys. I'll remind you we have not had Terry Glenn all season. If he comes back (a VERY large 'If'), there is no guarantee he will perform anywhere near the level of times past.

At CB, it's not that close and the simple reason is our guys are hurt. The truly unfortunate part of this is I expect we may not be healthy the entire season. These nagging injuries limit our flexibility and our coaching staff is working overtime constantly to mask the deficiencies. Against the Patriots, it's simply not possible.

Imagine the little girl from the commercial with the elephant...."it's the matchups"

 

[burmafrd]

I diagree. Welker and Stallworth vs Glenn and Crayton- that is not a great deal of difference there in overall results. How often does anyone use 4 WRs? And we would have Witten in anyway so I say that you put TO, Witten, Glenn and Crayton vs their 4 WRs and I say we have the edge.

CB: If Henry can get to 90% and Newman keep getting better then I say its a push.

 

[VietCowboy]

pats win if we cannot stop making dumb penalties. if we can stop doing that, it will be a hard fought game.

 

[ayjackson]

D Line: Seymour is the best D linemen on both teams but not by much over Canty as canty is playing THIS year. Wilfolk is very good at NT but our combo of Rat and Tank match. All others a push. Slight edge to pats.

Ty Warren is better now than Seymour. And both Warren and Seymour are better than Canty and Spears. Jarvis Green is better than Jason Hatcher and Wilfork is better than Tank/Ratliff. I love our line, it's very good and is getting better each game, but the Pats line is the best 3-4 line in years. It's the reason Bruschi and Seau have any plays left in them at all.

LBs: Thomas has not been the monster they thought he would be. Vrabel is getting old; Colvin on IR; Seau still great but wears down. Ware is best LB on both teams; Ellis gives us the edge in pass rush; and our middle guys are very solid. I say good edge to US and not even counting Burnett.
What say you guys?

Thomas hasn't been a monster, because he doesn't rush the QB much anymore. In games where he's played OLB, Thomas was a monster. Outside, Ware, Ellis, Vrabel and Thomas are all brilliant - but we have the edge. "Old" Vrabel, by the way, is half a sack behind Ware and one sack behind Ellis with a game in hand.

Inside, James has given us a definite edge - as well as Burnett in the nickel.

Your assessment is fair, though I disagree as noted.

 

[burmafrd]

I really don't think at either of their ends are playing much better then Canty is right now. Spears of course drags our rating down. I disagree about Wilfolk being all that much more then the Rat and tank have been. Pats have an edge but it is not that big of one. And I think the way our O line is now playing that they can move the Pats line out when they need to.