I know that they say there are no ‘moral victories’, but I think that game was about as close as it gets. To go into Foxboro, with most pundits thinking you’re going to get blown out, and to be in the game right down to the final seconds …

And it was Devard freakin’ Darling who caught the big pass to keep us in it! What the — ?! Who’d’ve expected that?

I haven’t seen any stats on it yet, but I’d like to know how many passes he dropped in this game. The one at the end was particularly disheartening. I’m not talking about the 4th down play that Deltha O’neil got away with the arm-bar pass interference… I’m talking about the 1st down play that went right through his mits – perfect pass that was right where it should have been.

other thoughts
Gonz was awesome, velcro hands and still very difficult to bring down.

Darling finally caught a pass! That was so awesome… but his “blazing speed” couldn’t save the day.

Dorsey gets his first sack – I thought he played well this game. I can’t wait to watch him grow.

Our defense was schizophrenic… looking great at times and looking terrible at others. I don’t know how things would have turned out if Brady didn’t go down.

Croyle made some good throws under pressure, and he took some pretty hefty hits. I wonder how bad his shoulder is hurt?

The sooner we can get MacIntosh out of the starting O-line, the better. It seemed like every time someone was running free and clear at the QB, it was from his side.

In the end, we played better than I expected, and I’m glad we were in it till the end. Nobody gave us a chance, every nimrod on the radio/tv thought this would be over by halftime. I hope this gives us a little fire in the belly and we go take Oakland to the woodshed next week.

the loss did hurt but we played good just couldnt make enough plays…..we should have got into the endzone on 4 trys though!!

Not tremendous, sure, but DJ got in there for a couple of plays. Pat Thomas, IMO, is not a NFL-starter in quality, but the OLBs all played fine, I thought, particularly DJ and Demorrio.

Regarding the QB, I sure hope that no one even halfway considers playing Huard at all more than he has to. He had a good drive when he first came in (just like Cassell did), but played like, well, Damon Huard afterward, getting lucky with DVD running wide open with no one even close to him and watching him run down field. Now, to his credit he did make a near-perfect pass there to throw it to DVD in stride, and he made another good pass on 1st down in the Goal-to-go situation to D-Bowe, but his other two passes were poorly thrown, particularly the force-job he made into Tony G on 3rd down.

All-in-all, Damon made some decent plays, but he still played fairly poorly, holding on to the ball too long and forcing some major balls.

Overall, the game was pretty awesome, I thought. I’m still major pissed, but we played really, really well overall, I thought, and our D kept us in the game throughout all 60 minutes, including some big-time awesome 3rd down stops.

A lot of good, and some great, stuff to take away from this game, just the ending makes the whole thing taste sour.

Still, given what we expected coming into the game and the season, and considering that we all know we are going to be pretty bad this year and that we are building for 2010 (and, to a lesser extent, next year) the game was definitely a success. The rookies all played really well (Albert only got beat once IIRC, Flowers and Carr had some awesome defensive man-on-man coverages and Cox played pretty well, not to mention the fastest human alive this side of Usain Bolt [Jamaal Charles], Dantrell Savage’s nice return and Glenn Dorsey’s sack), and most of the young players played well as well. Not to mention that Croyle played ‘good’, and could have played better had they allowed him the liberty they allowed Damon Huard.

Sure, there are some negatives mixed in there, but it was a positive afternoon all around. By a longshot, IMO.

That I wasn’t out here in Hawaii working so I could have watched it. Started at 7am out here, that’s nuts! Going to watch it when I get home… FINALLY GETTING THE HELL OUT OF HERE!

Larry was so productive his first few years because it was the Hall of Fame line he was behind w/ Roaf, Shields, and Waters. I agree with the calls about McIntosh. We need to reexamine the front line or its going to be another long year. I like our backfield and think we built it well with picks Smith & Charles but they can only create so much

(When is Smith scheduled to return to lineup, next week?)

I know that I will sound like a poor sport or a whiner, but that is not where this comes from. It seems over the past few years that the Patriots get an overwhelming amount of calls for and non-calls against them. This was evident today in 2 game changing situations…… The non-call of the safety in a drive that was allowed to continue and result in a Touchdown and the non-call of pass interference on the 4 & goal. I would hope you will look at the replays and comment back as to whether I am correct or watching with a skewed view because of my devotion to the Chiefs….. however it also sucks when it happens to the Colts, Chargers, Green Bay, etc etc etc

Despite the clumsy looking play of the KC Chiefs, I still think there is alot to look forward to this season. it would seem that Herm Edwards hasn’t completely destroyed the team we once knew…. He’s just close.

But i realllly hated that 4th down play call.. the catch that D Bowe would have made is usually such a longshot anyway.. why even call that play.. run something over the middle to T Gon or something.. thats what really pissed me off.. not to mention the drop on 2nd down when we should have tied it anyway

about assessing our inabilty to both run the ball and stop the run let’s remember that the Patriots have a Pro Bowl LT, LG, and Center, as well as three Pro Bowl Defensive Linemen in their 3-4…the Patriots whole front seven is quite impressive and although we weren’t as effective running the ball as we wanted to be, they did better than I thought they would in pass protection – especially Albert. He has missed every preseason game but kept Seymour out of our QB’s ass all day.

He played well considering the circumstances. He did put all our points up and that has to count for something. His reps will go way up this week and he’ll be better next weekend Get used to seeing him……….
Our Q.B.‘s need a better effort from of the right side of the line. MacIntosh cetainly didn’t distigush himself today !! Limited lateral mobility – his knees must really be giving him trouble. The Chiefs need to address that quickly or else Thigpen will be playing by the third quarter next week. Either Richardson steps up or they’re going to have to bring someone in.
-Has Larry lost a step or are we not opening any holes big enough ??
-The defence was inconsistant but overall I think they show promise.
-This might not sit well with some here but Sams dId a good job today !!

I hate losing, who doesn’t ? – but looking forward, I’m optimistic…..

I will take that performance against the Pats. I think we need to use Charles a bit more in the first half, and get teams tired with his speed. Then in the second half we can give more of LJ with his tough running. LJ just seems to want to run into people and bowl them over. The whole game I was pissed about Darling, thinking that guy has not caught anything in a game!! Then he goes and makes me jump out of my chair!! One less twinkie this past week and he could have been in there!! As for the last four plays, we should have run on first down for sure. If we made any yards, and got out of bounds, run again. If we had to use the time out, then finish up with some passes. Or, if they want to pass every down, then on second down when they clearly came out in a run formation, they should have play actioned and rolled out.