The New England Patriots: The Masters Era (M15)

[MajorSupreme]

I love seeing Patriots fans join together on these threads. Pretty good so far, ready for more.

[mattymatt1283]

Quote: Originally Posted by patriot1136

This is pretty awesome, I am really enjoying it so far. I am hoping you keep this going for a few seasons. I'm interested to see how the offseason turns out. I am a diehard lifelong Pats fan since I was a kid growing up in New England. When I play franchise mode, 99% of the time I use the Pats. I have a difficult time running a franchise with any other team. Or, if I do, I get tired of it quickly and go back to the Pats. On a side note, I think your writing is great and encourage you to keep it up. I know you're only 16 but it is very cool that you have an interest and passion for something. I would keep it up and go to college and you could easily turn it into a journalism career.

Thanks for the kind words! It also used to be a struggle for me to play as a team other than the Pats as well lol.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mattymatt1283]

Aaron Dobson celebrates after game-winning touchdown

Patriots Overcome Mistakes, Redzone Struggles to Stun Dolphins

The regular season of the NFL is here at last. Last year's series between the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins was a good one, and it picked up right where it left off. There was no better way to start your NFL Sunday than to watch this AFC East match-up.

Things could not have started off worse for the Patriots. After receiving the opening kickoff, Stevan Ridley gets smashed in the backfield and fumbles. Rashad Jones would pick the ball up and walk it into the endzone for the touchdown. Patriots got the ball back and looked in form until they reached the redzone, where they stalled and had to settle for a field goal. The two teams would exchange punts, as both defenses came to play. The first quarter would end with Miami up, 7-3.

Early in the second quarter, the Patriots would punt the ball to the Speedy Mike Wallace. He would break a few tackles then use his speed to outrun everybody to the endzone for the 83 yard touchdown. The Patriots would respond by marching down the field slowly and scoring on a 16 yard Shane Vereen run. It wasn't the prettiest of drives, as the Patriots had to recover two of their own fumbles. The Patriots run defense had been stout to this point, but that changed when Lamar Miller only took two plays to run 80 yards and get the score, putting the Dolphins up by 11. The Patriots responded again with a quick drive that ended in a lob touchdown to Brandon LaFell for 24 yards. With under two minutes to go, the Dolphins would go three-and-out and have to punt. Julian Edelman would receive the punt and fumble it, allowing Miami to recover at the NE 36. The Dolphins capitalized, scoring on Ryan Tannehill's 4 yard pass to Lamar Miller. With 31 seconds left, the Patriots would get a few big passes to get into field goal range. Stephen Gostkowski would nail the 46 yarder to end the half. Miami leads 28-20.

After stopping the Dolphins, the Patriots would go to work and put together a good drive, but again, they would settle for a 25 yard field goal by Gostkowski, cutting the lead to 5. Later in the quarter, the Dolphins would take a long drive and punch it in with a Lamar Miller 3 yard run to extend the lead to 12. After three, Miami still leads, 35-23.

After another nice drive, the Patriots would find themselves in the redzone yet again. They had a 4th down and 7 to go. Coach Chad Masters elects for the gamble, but Brady's pass to LaFell is broken up. The Patriots defense would force a fast stop, giving the ball back to the offense. The Patriots offense would then be held to a three-and-out. With too many yards to get for the first, the Patriots had to punt. The Patriots defense would come up big again, stopping the Dolphins fairly quickly. The Patriots knew that they could not wait any longer. Brady would lead a very nice drive down the field and hand the ball off to Shane Vereen for the 3 yard touchdown, putting the deficit back at 5. The Patriots defense would again force the stop, giving the ball back to the offense with around 5 minutes to go. Brady and the offense is unable to do anything, and is forced to punt it back to the Dolphins with about 3 minutes left.

The defense has already done enough today to keep the offense in it, but they would have to make one last stop. It was 3rd down and 4. The 2 minute warning was approaching. The Patriots had just 2 timeouts left. Tannehill would look to throw, but with nobody open he opts to scramble. After about the first yard Dominique Easley makes the tackle, forcing 4th down. It was his only tackle, but it has my vote for play of the game, as there was nobody there to stop him. The offense gets the ball back and struggles. They converted a 4th and 5, and a 4th and 8. But the play of that drive was a 4th and 17 where Brady found Gronkowski for the first down. Gronkowski would be injured on the play, using the Pats last timeout. He would return later on the drive. As time is ticking, Brady would move the offense inside the 10, and on a 1st and goal, Brady would find Aaron Dobson for the go-ahead touchdown with 15 seconds left. The Patriots would convert the 2 point play to have a field goal lead. The Dolphins would not be successful on the Hail Mary play. Patriots win 38-35.

Analysis
The offense really struggled this game. Brady did throw for 481 yards, but he was inefficient and made some poor throws. Shane Vereen had a decent game, but the Patriots really suffered from a lack of a consistent running game. The Patriots cannot make the mistakes they made and expect to win on a weekly basis. The defense was great, except for the drive Lamar miller took the ball 80 yards on 2 carries. Without the defense and those clutch 4th down conversions, the Patriots get blown in this game. My player of the game would have to be Rob Gronkowski. He played fantastic totaling 127 yards on 8 catches. Welcome back Gronk.

New England Patriots at Miami Dolphins
Sep 7, 2014	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
New England Patriots (1-0)	3	17	3	15	38
Miami Dolphins (0-1)	7	21	7	0	35

Team Stats Comparison
	NWE	MIA
Total Offense	554	280
Rushing Yards	85	167
Passing Yards	469	113
First Downs	28	13
Punt Return Yards	38	88
Kick Return Yards	101	76
Total Yards	693	444
Turnovers	2	0
3rd Down Converstion	5/15	4/11
4th Down Conversion	4/5	0/0
2-Point Conversion	1/1	0/0
Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals	3/2	2/0
Penalties
Posession Time	30:34	25:26

Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER SCORING		NWE	MIA
13:54	(MIA) R. Jones 18 Yd Fumble Recovery	0	7
7:32	(NWE) S. Gostkowski 22 Yd FG	3	7
SECOND QUARTER SCORING		NWE	MIA
10:49	(MIA) M. Wallace 83 Yd Punt Return	3	14
5:15	(NWE) S. Vereen 16 Yd Run	10	14
4:22	(MIA) L. Miller 52 Yd Run	10	21
1:51	(NWE) B. LaFell 24 Yd Pass from T. Brady	17	21
0:34	(MIA) L. Miller 4 Yd Pass from R. Tannehill	17	28
0:00	(NWE) S. Gostkowski 46 Yd FG	20	28
THIRD QUARTER SCORING		NWE	MIA
10:19	(NWE) S. Gostkowski 25 Yd FG	23	28
2:44	(MIA) L. Miller 3 Yd Run	23	35
FOURTH QUARTER SCORING		NWE	MIA
7:31	(NWE) S. Vereen 3 Yd Run	30	35
0:15	(NWE) A. Dobson 4 Yd Pass from T. Brady (2pt Conv. Good)	38	35

New England Patriots PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Tom Brady 36/61 481 2 0 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD S. Vereen 10 52 5.2 2 Jonas Gray 7 25 3.5 0 James White 3 11 3.6 0 Stevan Ridley 1 -3 -3.0 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Rob Gronkowski 8 127 15.8 0 Brandon LaFell 6 113 18.8 1 Julian Edelman 8 85 10.6 0 Shane Vereen 3 46 15.3 0 Danny Amendola 5 43 8.6 0 Joseph Fauria 2 29 14.5 0 Josh Boyce 1 21 21.0 0 Aaron Dobson 3 17 5.6 1 BLOCKING PANCAKE SACK Nate Solder 1 0 Sebastian Vollmer 1 1 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD Dont'a Hightower 7 0 0 0 Jerod Mayo 6 0 0 0 Devin McCourty 5 0 0 0 Jamie Collins 5 0 0 0 Darrelle Revis 5 0 0 0 Brandon Browner 4 0 0 0 Patrick Chung 3 0 0 0 Vince Wilfork 3 2 0 0 Kyle Arrington 3 0 0 0 Chandler Jones 2 0 0 0 Rob Ninkovich 2 0 0 0 Logan Ryan 2 0 0 0 Dominique Easley 1 0 0 0 Darius Fleming 1 0 0 0 Joe Vellano 1 0 0 0 KICKING FG XP PTS LONG Stephen Gostkowski 3/3 3/3 12 46 PUNTING NO YDS AVG IN20 Ryan Allen 2 104 52.0 1 KICK RETURN RET YDS AVG TD Danny Amendola 5 101 20.2 0 PUNT RETURN RET YDS AVG TD Julian Edelman 4 38 9.5 0

Miami Dolphins PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Ryan Tannehill 17/23 126 1 0 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Lamar Miller 22 140 6.3 2 Ryan Tannehill 3 25 8.3 0 Daniel Thomas 1 2 2.0 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Jarvis Landry 5 51 10.2 0 Charles Clay 4 37 9.2 0 Brian Hartline 3 20 6.6 0 Mike Wallace 2 17 8.5 0 Brandon Gibson 1 2 2.0 0 Lamar Miller 2 -1 -0.5 1 BLOCKING PANCAKE SACK Shelley Smith 0 2 Ja'Wuan James 2 0 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD Reshad Jones 11 0 0 1 Louis Delmas 7 0 0 0 Koa Misi 7 0 0 0 Jelani Jenkins 5 0 0 0 Cortland Finnegan 5 1 0 0 Brent Grimes 5 0 0 0 Jamar Taylor 4 0 0 0 Earl Mitchell 3 0 0 0 Oliver Vernon 3 0 0 0 Jalil Brown 2 0 0 0 Dion Jordan 2 1 0 0 Vince Williams 2 0 0 0 Michael Thomas 2 0 0 0 Jordan Tripp 1 0 0 0 Jason Trusnik 1 0 0 0 KICKING FG XP PTS LONG Caleb Sturgis 0/0 5/5 5 XP PUNTING NO YDS AVG IN20 Brandon Fields 7 366 52.2 0 KICK RETURN RET YDS AVG TD Mike Wallace 2 39 19.5 0 Lamar Miller 1 22 22.0 0 Dion Sims 1 15 15.0 0 PUNT RETURN RET YDS AVG TD Mike Wallace 2 88 44.0 1

Note: Not all stats were able to be recorded; I changed the quarter length from 15 to 14 before this game, considering lowering it to 13.

[mattymatt1283]

Ups and Downs - 2014 Week 1

Ups

Rob Gronkowski: In this first regular season game since his injury, he dominated yet again catching 8 passes for 127 yards. He also made a key catch on a 4th and 17 to keep the game alive.

Brandon LaFell: He added deep presence to this Patriots receiving core. He definitely got the better of a good corner in Brent Grimes. He had 6 catches for 113 yards and a touchdown.

Jamie Collins: He didn't get as many snaps as Mayo and Hightower, but he was a force in the Patriots' base defense, totaling 5 tackles against the run.

Dominique Easley: He hardly played, but he made a very athletic tackle to save the game for the Patriots.

Downs

Stevan Ridley: His only carry was a fumble returned for a touchdown. He was benched immediately afterwards.

Rob Ninkovich: Only two tackles and wasn't able to get any pass rush going.

Chandler Jones: He had a decent pass rush, but he disappeared on running plays.

Patrick Chung: He wasn't able to contribute much to the run defense. Disappeared at times.

[mattymatt1283]

2014 Week 1 NFL Recap

2014 Week 1 Scoreboard

Thursday's Games

GB 28 @ SEA 7

Sunday's Games

NO 22 @ATL 27

MIN 44 @ STL 38

CLE 10 @ PIT 24

JAX 10 @ PHI 20

OAK 20 @ NYJ 13

CIN 23 @ BAL 20

BUF 20 @ CHI 24

WAS 26 @ HOU 16

TEN 13 @ KC 34

NE 38 @ MIA 35

CAR 24 @ TB 10

SF 33 @ DAL 28

IND 30 @ DEN 30

Monday's Games

NYG 36 @ DET 17

SD 25 @ ARI 28

Players of the Week

AFC Offense: NE QB Tom Brady; 36/61 481 Yds 2 TDs

AFC Defense: MIA S Rashad Jones; 11 Tkls 1 FF 1 FR 1 TD

NFC Offense: DAL QB Tony Romo; 33/51 347 Yds 3 TDs

NFC Defense: ATL S Dwight Lowery; 8 Tkls 2 INTs

2014 Week 1 Major Injuries
Pos	Player	Injury Note
WR	Vincent Jackson (TB)	Pulled Groin - 2 Weeks
LB	Melvin Ingram (SD)	Pulled Groin - 4 Weeks
RB	Ahmad Bradshaw (IND)	Upper Arm Fracture - 4 Weeks
RB	DeMarco Murray (DAL)	Foot Fracture - 6 Weeks
WR	Jeremy Maclin (PHI)	Dislocated Knee - 5 Weeks
RB	LeSean McCoy (PHI)	Ruptured Disk - 4 Weeks
DL	Ray McDonald (SF)	Pulled Groin - 2 Weeks
DL	Greg Hardy (CAR)	Shoulder Tear - 4 Weeks
C	Max Unger (SEA)	Broken Toe - 4 Weeks
QB	Teddy Bridgewater (MIN)	Dislocated Hip - 7 Weeks

[mattymatt1283]

Patriots Cut WR Brian Tyms After Return from Injury

The New England Patriots have announced that they will cut WR Brian Tyms after his return from his ribs injury. With Tyms, the Pats had seven WRs on the roster, a number that is a bit too high. Tyms had a decent preseason and proved that he could be a serviceable WR in this league, but perhaps the Patriots felt that they had better options with Brandon LaFell and Aaron Dobson, who have already made big impacts.

This frees up a roster spot for the Patriots, and my guess is they use it for defensive depth.

[mattymatt1283]

Patriots Sign Veteran Safety Roman Harper

The New England Patriots have announced that they have used their free roster spot to sign 8 year vet safety Roman Harper. Harper was cut during the preseason by the Panthers. Before this year, Harper had spent all of his career with the New Orleans Saints, winning 1 Super Bowl. He has 655 career tackles and 7 career interceptions. He will wear his number 41. His contract is a 1 year, 1.4 million dollar deal with no guaranteed money.

I said perhaps the Patriots would sign some defensive depth, but Roman Harper is a guy that could start this week over the struggling Patrick Chung and Duron Harmon.

[mattymatt1283]

Matchup Preview *|* September 14, 2014
	@
New England Patriots (1-0, 1-0 Away)		Minnesota Vikings (1-0, 0-0 Home)
Offensive Stats Comparison 693 Total Yards 677 554 Total Offensive Yards 296 469 Passing Yards 216 85 Rushing Yards 80 38.0 Points Per Game 44.0 2 Passing TD 2 2 Rushing TD 2 28 First Downs 15 7 Red Zone Attempts 4 3/2 Red Zone TD-FG 4/0 71% Red Zone Percentage 100% Defensive Stats Comparison 280 Total Yards Allowed 334 113 Passing Yards Allowed 231 167 Rushing Yards Allowed 103 35 Points Allowed 38 2 Sacks 0 0 Fumble Recoveries 0 0 Interceptions 0 35.0 Points Per Game 38.0 2 Red Zone Attempts 5 2/0 Red Zone TD-FG 3/2 100% Red Zone Percentage 100% Injury Report QB Jimmy Garoppolo Abdominal Tear - 3 Weeks RB Adrian Peterson Broken Thumb - 1 Week DL Linval Joseph Broken Thumb - 1 Week OT Phil Loadholt Upper Arm Fracture -2 Weeks OT Matt Kalil Broken Thumb - 3 Weeks QB Teddy Bridgewater Dislocated Hip - 7 Weeks Game Notes (1) Matt Cassel, the starting QB for the Vikings, is Tom Brady's former backup. He started 15 games for the Patriots in 2008 after Tom Brady tore his ACL. As a starter, he was 10-5, and he almost lead the Patriots to the playoffs. (2) Both teams feature first year coaches between Chad Masters and Mike Zimmer. Both are looking for their 2nd career win. (3) This match-up features the two highest scoring teams from Week 1. (4) The last time these teams played in 2010, Brett Favre was Minnesota's starting QB in his final season.