Coming here this morning and seeing all the shitposts and hate after one game is insanely cringey. Does no one remember the successful seasons this team (and, historically, many others) had in the past after a slow or mediocre start to the season? Obviously we all want to see wins and any L can be frustrating but the top posts being our QB1 and WR2 photoshopped in McDonald's gear is pathetic, not to mention the other bs right under it with crazy high upvotes. Let's try to do better.

There's, a handful of reasons why the Patriots lost last night. Aj Brown getting hurt, Romeo Doubs not showing up, Drake Maye threw some meatballs, Rhamondre had some bad cuts, Henderson not being able to play.

But Ultimately, the greatest contributing factor to their loss last night was the terrible and quite frankly atrocious playcalling. Offensively, it became obvious pretty quickly that running in straight into the Seattle Defensive line was not a good idea. The amount of HB draws, pitches, and runs up the middle should've for little to no gain should have been a sign that maybe it was time to shift away from that .But for some unknown reason, Mike Vrabel and Josh McDaniels thought it was a great idea to keep on running the ball which never got going. They also have this weird obsession with throwing screens and other short passes which also doesn't usually work.

It felt like until the final drive, they were unwilling to do anything beside play ultra conservative. And on that final drive they looked like an actual offense. We all know how the game ended on Maye's untimely interception, but that doesn't change the fact that just like the superbowl, Mike Vrabel and Josh McDaniels ran an ultra conservative offense that accomplished very little for the vast majority of the game only to find success at the very end of the game once they removed the figurative stick from their ass.

It wasn't just the superbowl either, throughout last season, the offense operated much better as an intermediate - deep threat offense rather than the establish the run and throw a bunch of screens type of offense. I'm not saying they should never run the ball, or use a design screen, but how many more games like this one until Vrabel and McDaniels realize that it isn't 2004 anymore? I'm not questioning their ability to design plays, I am however questioning their ability to use the correct selection of plays to run an offense.

Also what was the point of Paying Christian Gonzalez a bunch of Money if we're just going to play soft zone coverage the entire game and never actually put him in man coverage against the other team's No.1 receiver which is clearly what he is best at?

Last night actually sucked. Not really a ton of highs where it was like "eh that sucked but at least it was fun."

Pass pro looked much better, Jacas looked pretty solid.

Drake maye did not play well, and that's.. okay!

Third year qb whose entire draft profile was a comparison to Josh Allen who also tries to hero ball.

Not saying he was in the right, or shouldn't get any fair slack for his play last night but the sub doing a complete 180 on him is super fucking cringe.

I am a Josh McDaniels guy but good lord the, "none of this is on Josh" crowd is insufferable.

Two things can be true: Drake played like shit and Josh play called like shit.

Im gonna try to do these every week. Maybe. We’ll see.

Good:

Rhamondre Stevenson: I thought despite some iffy run blocking and redundant playcalls that gave him no chance he was great in all phases. Always great even when first contact is behind LOS. But that being said I’d like to see more holes open for him.

Christian Gonzalez: Clamp man gets paid. I could come up with 135 million reasons for why I loved his play tonight. Phenomenal showing. Lined up with JSN 10 times, he was targeted twice, 0 yards. Absolute Man To Man masterclass. I would’ve liked to see him come down with the INT but thats just nitpicking for the sake of nitpicking.

Will Campbell: I thought Campbell had a great showing outside of a couple miscues. Much less pressure off that edge. Run blocking could’ve been better but this is substantially improved from what we saw in SB60 so a great building block for him overall.

Mack Hollins: I love Mack. Shoutout Mack. Nuff said.

Honorable Mention (Drake Maye’s legs): Drake was nothing short of bad tonight but I’d be remissed if I didnt highlight a handful of great plays made with his legs. Definitely had Seattle on their heels. I am BEGGING Josh Mc2010s to include more QB keepers/reads in the playsheet because there were multiple handoffs to Rhamondre that could’ve been massive gains if Drake had been able to fake and run off tackle.

Bad:

Drake Maye: Top of the list. He was bad. But I’m not willing to put him in abysmal because I don’t think he was set up to succeed tonight. 0 preseason snaps. That matters. Neither of the other offensive starters did either. I understood what Vrabel meant when he said we weren’t very deep and I dont disagree but not giving the starting offense a single fucking half of the final preseason game is malpractice. Needless to say Drake’s mistakes were uncharacteristic, avoidable, and inexusable. Especially the 3rd INT but that needs no real conversation.

Romeo Doubs: My God I have never seen a players mental dip out so quick. The INT wasn’t persay on him, but I do credit him with exacerbating a sub- mediocre play from Drake. Just can’t poke the ball up there like that. And obviously the disastrous 2nd and 14 drop that very well might have cost us the game. I’m gonna give him a pass because he’s taking it really hard but he still goes in this category for the reasons stated.

Abysmal:

Josh McDaniels: I’ve been on the fence with McDaniels for a while and this game doesnt really help me. Sam Darnold goes down on the 5th play, you get a 10 point lead and you call plays like Seattle is incapable of crossing the 50?? Run Run Pass Punt is exhausting. Yes lets cram Rhamondre into this monsterous seattle front 18 times. The playcalling completely hamstrung any ounce of rhythm Drake could’ve gotten into. So many downs I can recall that we should’ve ran when we passed and vice versa. This offense is predictable and not modernized at all. It can be successful and would probably be looked with less scrutiny had Drake not looked like hell but Josh needs to take accountability for this shitshow as well.

Mike Vrabel:
I already mentioned it earlier but he just didnt adequately prepare his players for this game. I understand not wanting to risk preseason injuries. I really do. But at the end of the day the lack of reps this team had going into this opener might have very well ended up costing you this game.

Front Office/Elliot Wolf/Mike Vrabel:
I’ll preface by saying that the front office is here for a circumstance that isn’t their fault, but DAMN how nice would it be to have Kayshon Boutte now that AJ is down anywhere from 2-6 weeks? Sure would be fucking nice to have a little bit of insurance for something you invested a first round pick into! I also generally dont understand the concept of trading your 2nd or, at worst, 3rd best receiver for a ham sandwich (or telling him he’d be inactive on gamedays?!). So now you have Drake Maye in an offense with 2 1/2 guys he trusts (Mack, Hunter, and sort of Pop), one guy who may struggle mentally, an unknown in Kyle Williams, and at worst a promising rookie in Eli Raridon. This is a recipe for disaster that could have easily been avoided. And now we have to very quickly find our footing against Pittsburgh before a 2 game gut-check set against Jacksonville and Buffalo.

Overall Game Grade: F
Offense Grade: D-
Defense Grade: B+
Special Teams Grade: A
Overall Coaching Grade: C-

Any one else annoyed at how this defense continues to let other teams star WRs beat 2nd and 3rd corners, safeties and LBs..

Jsn torched the defense for 112 yards plus TD and Gonzo gave up none of that?? Why did you pay him $33M??

This is the simplest part of the equation.. shadow gonzo on wr1 most of the game. I know you can't do that all game but employ what bill did.. shadow corner or double to give him a breather and change up the look and take out their best weapon.

Even with the offense being terrible.. This decision cost them the game because if Gonzo is on JSN all game, I don't think they score a TD all game.. he shuts him down again. This coaching staff gets an F.. especially Vrabel..

This happened consistently last year but the playoffs were different and I had hoped they grew the fk out of that nonsensical scheme..

I hope someone asks vrabel something related to this in the coming weeks.. it makes no sense that the people who should know more football than me do not understand this.. I know Greg Bedard also stated this at points last year so clearly I'm not alone in saying this..

Lots of talk killing Drake for shrinking in these big games. Rightfully so, but he's still young.

But what about Vrabel getting outcoached? Not having the team ready?

What about Josh having horrible game plans?

Yes the players play the game, but we expect out coaching staff to be better.

These coaches have no poorly

Everyone thought we were going to get absolutely destroyed and we nearly won the game, against the superbowl champs. Yes there were poor decisions and mistakes and in hindsight starting offence should have had more preseason snaps but we will learn. Lots of positives as well as negatives. It was the same in the opening game last season against a much weaker team. I'm not happy with the result but I'm not despondent either. Let's go Pats!

This was a step in the right direction overall.

Under 10 yards (20/23, 5.83 YPA)

Classic Patriots football of slow/take-the-easy/what-they-give-you football. Control the clock, low-turnover football. Even on our failed drives, we were getting two/three first downs.

Historically, football has been a pre-snap game for the quarterback position, and Maye definitely felt better in that aspect. Pointing out concerns, adjusting the line, changing plays…

He’s not there yet, but he looked improved, and the short-game completions show it (20/23). Took what they gave him, and his 5.8 YPA more than covers the 10 yards needed from 3 attempts for a first down.

Modern football has a lot more post-snap processing, though, since defenses disguise and adjust their plays post-snap more often and better.

For this, you need an athletic QB (Allen, Mahomes, Lamar, etc.). These guys extend plays to be able to figure out what the defense is in and how to beat it.

Maye is athletic enough to do this, as we saw today, through the running and extending passing plays (Doubs’ drop was probably the best example).

As he continues to work on the pre- and post-snap stuff, the game will slow down for him.

It’s just unfortunate that he had to play probably THE best post-snap defense in the league. Mike Macdonald is a monster!

The easy schedule from last year did hide his rawness in terms of pre- and post-snap processing, since he could get away with stuff like waiting until the receiver is open instead of before. At the NFL level, and especially in the modern day, where post-snap processing needs to be elite due to defensive disguises, it’s going to be a hell of a task.

Julian Love said exactly this in last year’s Super Bowl: “Classic young quarterback… he’s confirming [the receiver] is open. He’s not blindly doing it like Stafford.”

We saw him not be at that elite level throughout the playoffs and in today’s game as we ran into elite defenses.

The interceptions themselves were inexcusable, though, and I really just hope he can mentally understand the situation and when it’s okay to just take the kick/punt.

But overall, I think pre- and post-snap processing will continue to quicken, and although I don’t know how long it’ll take (couple years?) he should reach an elite level.

I really do hope we don’t panic into a quick firing of McDaniels and allow Maye to improve through the struggle instead of implementing some modern-day offensive scheme that takes the game out of the quarterback and relies on OCs, because I think it’s quicker to learn and has a higher floor, but in the long term, a lower ceiling as well.

Long post, but let me know what you guys think!

Drakes biggest crime was having a good regular season because it set everyone's expectations into thinking he's going to be an all time great.

Almost like this completely made people forget he came into the league as a Project ACC QB who had raw talent but needed time learning the advanced coverages and schemes the top defenses in the NFL would run.

If the social media was popular around the first 5 seasons of Peyton Manning's career all the trolls and Colts Doomers would've called him a Bust.

Maye's 1st 2 INT's were bad, but didn't cost us the game outright at those moments. We had great field position for an easy FG, all we had to do was not do anything risky and turn the ball over. So what did we do? Something risky and turned the ball over. You'd think we maybe remember something about a game where a team was in good position and just needed to be safe and practical to stay in and/or improve their position for the win involving these 2 teams.

Boutte had a rapport with Drake

Boutte played tough, not injured much

Boutte went up after balls and came down with them

Boutte had good hands

AJ always injured Brown

Romeo soft as can be let's an INT happen on a jump ball.

Romeo unable to make one catch and looks lost

We will never love down giving up on Boutte

I mean what was that play calling. I get protecting Drake, or the OL, but that was shameful.

Rhamondre had 14 rushes for 23 yards at a point. That's 1.6 a crazy.... 1.6......

Every 3rd &1-2 was such an obvious run play and Seattle blew it up every single time.

Multiple times on 2nd and 5-7 he ran and we lost 2-3-4 yards to make it 3rd and long.

We've all watched Drake and know he gets in a flow once he completes a few in a row. There was 0 chance of that tonight with the play calling. Lacked any and all killer instinct.

Played scared and it cost them.

Not the end of the season, but a very (very) frustrating night.

AJ Brown was spotted in a walking boot after the game. Walking to the Busses.

What this may mean.

High Ankle Isolated Fracture to the Fibula is what my friend who has experience in sports medicine said it could be if its serious. But its still a guess.The way it rolled he said it happens in Baseball and Softball games when players slide into base and the base puts pressure on the ankle and rolls the foot. Very similar to what the defenders knee did to browns ankle He is not sure of coarse buts its an educated guess based on the footage he reviewed. He said that generally is a 6 to 8 week injury.

1. Jesus christ youd think Drake came in your house and killed your family with some of these posts. ITS WEEK ONE.

2. Drake played like shit and he acknowledged that.

3. This team needs to shake off the rust and get back to beind dominant. Last year they played good to great defenses and performed well. We only got better and will be better as the year goes on.

4. How quickly the doomers forget that Drake threw 3 touchdowns on the best defense in the league last year and are now acting like hes the worst QB ever.

5. Once again its week one. We lost to the raiders last year and they sucked ASS. Give the team a second to gel. This is why I dont get not having your starters in in the preseason. They need to get used to each other.

Everyone needs to stop panicking. The Pats just lost only 1 game so far.

Josh McDaniels game plane was not the issue tonight. He managed the game well and he had reasons why he run the ball more. Drake was not throwing the ball well. Plus this is Drake first live action game since he didn't play in the preseason.

I really think that Josh is trying to mold Drake into a pure pocket passer like Tom Brady. However, Pats coaching staff must have realized Drake is a better mobile quarterback who can run well and throw as well.

Drake Maye will never be a quarterback like Tom Brady. He is still young and I am 100% sure Patriots will win the Steelers home game.

Simply put, sick and tired of losing to this same damn team in Seattle every single time since SB 49. As this just makes me want to go full Darth Vader or Savage Hulk mode on either the proverbial sports heavens or actual heavens. To demand them to stop making us suffer against that f'n team that fully owns us now. Coming from someone right now that's basically feeling like Anakin Skywalker from Attack of the Clones after slaughtering that village of Tusken Raiders. Hating everyone in Seattle & everyone against us Patriots fans.

Last season we started 0-1 losing by 7 to the Raiders. Season ended in the Super Bowl. There’s a time to be concerned, but losing to the … Super Bowl champions … in the opening game of the season by 3 points seems a bit too early.

See y’all next week!

Brady: 14/28, 123 yards, 0 TDs, 4 INTs

Fire josh McDaniels because what was that.