Agreed, Buffalo is just god awful. And the Jets still lost. Must be tough to be a Jets fan today.

Maroney had a good game. He deserves the all the credit for it. That being said, based on my unprofessional eye and observations, it appeared to me that his style of running was the same as it has always been. I still saw slight stutter steps and small jukes. I didn't see him pounding the ball through holes as his critics have wished he would.

Now with this style of running, when it fails, people call him indecisive and hessitant. When it succeeds, people say he's patient and waits for the hole to appear. Again based on my unprofessional amateur eye, I hypothesize that the slippery conditions were a significant factor in allowing the oline create running holes and were thus a plus when combined with Maroney's style.

Id love to know what the deal is with Adalius Thomas being sat against the Titans without any injury apparently.
BB said the personnel he went with for the Titans game he thought was a better fit but can that possibly be the truth/reason? In my head AT is a superb LB who should just auto start as long as healthy so obv somethings up or im way wrong.

I have no idea wtf is going on. Banta-Cain gets released and then re-signed in two days?

BSPN was saying they were trying to nab Peppers. So I think he had a handshake agreement with the Pats to get cut and come back after the deadline or something in case a trade went down.

I just got a ticket to the game in London on Sunday. Anyone else going?

it was just a contract/procedural thing

edelman reportedly broke his arm against the titans.

Which shows you how little they think of Galloway by releasing him when they are real short at this postiion now.

They say that but I heard another rumor that they were trying to broker a trade for Julius Peppers.

without going through the #'s, I find it hard to believe that would have worked under the cap

No it couldn't possibly, probably just a false rumor or other moves would have been needed.

Read this this morning: NE has Tennessee's 2010 2nd round pick. Jacksonvilles too.

god, 3 2nd rounders in consecutive years

Pats actually used 4 2nd rounders last year, but 0 1st rounders

we have a 1st, 3 2nd's, but no 3rd next year. but the Tenn 2nd is likely to be very high, the Jax pick decent

so far for 2011 we have the extra 1st rounder from the Raydahs

I'm so pissed out I missed out on that London Game. It would have been an awesomme time as that stadium looks incredible.

OFenom,
let us know what the atmosphere was like in there. Did a lot of gringos cross the pond just for the game, were they US transplants, or local yobbos. The crowd seemed to show a lot of just NFL fans in general who took the opportunity to watch some football closer to home.

The schedule going forward:

Week 8: bye
Week 9: Miami
Week 10: @ Indianapolis
Week 11: NY Jets
Week 12: @ New Orleans
Week 13: @ Miami

That's three division games and two games against undefeated teams.

interesting trends in defensive snaps played. all from Mike Reiss

from Week 1:

LB Adalius Thomas -- 54 of 54 snaps
CB Leigh Bodden -- 53 of 54
LB Gary Guyton -- 52 of 54
S Brandon Meriweather -- 52 of 54
DL Vince Wilfork -- 43 of 54
DL Ty Warren -- 42 of 54
DL Jarvis Green -- 39 of 54
DE Derrick Burgess -- 38 of 54
S James Sanders -- 38 of 54
CB Shawn Springs -- 38 of 54
DE/OLB Tully Banta-Cain -- 31 of 54
CB Jonathan Wilhite -- 25 of 54
CB Darius Butler -- 18 of 54
S Brandon McGowan -- 18 of 54
DL Mike Wright -- 18 of 54
OLB Pierre Woods -- 15 of 54
LB Jerod Mayo -- 9 of 54
LB Rob Ninkovich -- 5 of 54

and from this past week

ILB Jerod Mayo -- 56 of 61
S Brandon Meriweather -- 56 of 61
S Brandon McGowan -- 56 of 61
DE/OLB Derrick Burgess -- 53 of 61
CB Leigh Bodden -- 53 of 61
DE/OLB Tully Banta-Cain -- 50 of 61
CB Darius Butler -- 49 of 61
ILB Gary Guyton -- 47 of 61
CB Jonathan Wilhite -- 47 of 61
S Pat Chung -- 36 of 61
DE Ty Warren -- 27 of 61
DL Myron Pryor -- 26 of 61
DT Vince Wilfork -- 24 of 61
DL Jarvis Green -- 23 of 61
OLB Adalius Thomas -- 18 of 61
ILB Junior Seau -- 16 of 61
DL Mike Wright -- 15 of 61
S James Sanders -- 12 of 61
S Bret Lockett -- 5 of 61
CB Shawn Springs -- 2 of 61

Adalius Thomas has famously seen his role reduced. Mayo is now contributing whereas he was hurt for a while. but there have been other big changes. Pat Chung has quickly developed into a contributor on sub packages. Darius Butler is playing a much bigger role, as is Brandon McGowan. Shawn Springs has disappeared. Junior is of course in the mix. Myron Pryor is doing what people expected Ron Brace to do

some of this is matchup based, but its nice to see so many young guys in key roles.

combined with key roles on offense being played by Vollmer, Edelman (pre injury), and an impressive debut (in terms of snaps) by Brandon Tate, this years draft may gone down as the best in the BB era (excl the Brady pick). time will tell but it looks great

How many strong safeties make the Pro Bowl per league? If its two do u guys think Merriweather will get in this year if he keeps playing at this level? (Obv the first spot going to Polamalua)

i thought it was one ss, one fs but last year the afc one at each position and then a 3rd, while the nfc just took one of each


09:
afc-- reed (fs), polamalu (ss), hope (fs)
nfc-- nick collins (fs), adrian wilson (ss)


edit: that's a just an error on wikipedia i guess. nfl.com has one at each position, which makes more sense

Ah the bye week time to relax, but wait! We must see where we are if we want to know how far we need to go!


MDoranDs Bye Week Boredom -...Otherwise known as Team Stats And my probably unwelcome thoughts on the matter!

Total Offense (thru 7 weeks):

1. 2842 yds New England
2. 2739 yds NY Giants
3. 2681 yds Pittsburgh
10. 2359 yds NY Jets
32. 1546 yds Oakland


Cant complain here!


Passing Offense

1. 2037 yds New England
2. 1999 yds Houston
3. 1932 yds Pittsburgh
4. 1865 yds Indianapolis
26. 1065 yds NY Jets
32. 896 yds Oakland

or here obv. Can we keep the #1s coming?


Rushing Offense

1. 1294 yds NY Jets
...
...
9. 805 yds New England
32. 360 yds Arizona


Above avg. I think we will def take that right now seeing where our passing game is heading. Surprised obv to see the Jets do anything well.


Total Defense

1. 1575 yds Denver
...
...
16. 2000 yds New England
18. 2083 yds NY Jets
32. 2904 yds Cleveland

Exactly average for the league. Although some were expecting better, with the loss of so many veterans in the offseason average doesnt sound so bad.


Passing Defense


1. 898 yds Carolina
...
9. 1234 yds New England
10. 1270 yds NY Jets
32. 1864 yds Tennessee


Top 10 in passing defense so far this year is id guess one of the biggest and most pleasant surprises weve had. Merriweather might be the 2nd best Strong Safety in the AFC.



Rushing Defense

1. 405 yds Aizona
...
...
...
21. 766 yds New England
24. 813 yds NY Jets
32. 1207 yds Buffalo

Unfortuantely this is a drop of what we were expecting this year. Preseason (or before the season started) this team was a shoe-in for a top 5 rush defense. Mayo's return to the lineup plus Brady putting up more points lately will help this number go up hopefully. Still above the Jets btw.


3rd Down Conversions

1. 53.8% Miami
5. 44.8% New England
...
18. 36.7% NY Jets
32. 21.0% Kansas City


Top 5 take that all year.


Opponent 3rd Down Conversions


1. 26.9% Denver
...
15. 36.1% New England
16. 37.2% NY Jets
32. 51.6% St Louis


Right in the middle. About par for what we can take from our defensive numbers thru 7 weeks.


Oviously some teams have had a bye and others havent, but this info is very telling regardless.

I got to say im pleased where we are at right now!

Where are we in scoring defense? That's the stat BB really cares about.

in terms of defensive points allowed, I believe the Pats are actually #1 in the NFL. we are 3rd in Points Allowed (Denver 91, Indy 96, Pats 98) but opposing defenses have scored 3 of the TD's iirc, which is more than than other top teams.

pretty good bye week. Jets lose at home to the Dolphins, Broncos lose. an Indy lose would have been amazing but I'll take those results.

Next weeks game will be huge for the dolphins. I don't see how they are going to win. Henne has been absolutely terrible and teams are selling out the rush. The dolphins pass defense has been better of late, but I still think brady is going to be able to pick it apart. Hopefully it will be a good game.

A lot of those defense stats will be changed after next week though. The stats for Pats/Jets are v v close, and the Jets get their BYE next week.

Of course, that means the offensive stats will be even more changed apart, since, the Jets are on their BYE.

****