FanPost

By the numbers: Week 5 PLAYMAKERS

Time to look at our playmakers for week 5, New England. We're looking for players who make the difference on both sides of the ball. Who are the pretenders and who are the contenders?

This week, we'll do comments, then data.

OFFENSE:

*I know he had a costly fumble again after a huge pickup, which really took the wind out of the offense's sails in the first quarter, but I gotta ask you what would that game have been like without Thomas? Decker was basically invisible except for his TD catch. Ditto for Stokley. The running game did basically nothing all game. We weren't moving the ball unless Thomas had it. But dang it, hold onto the ball! That goes for McGahee too. The late McGahee fumble was the final nail in the proverbial coffin.

*There are two play calls that really screwed the pooch today IMO. Let me set up the situations: #1 it was our first drive of the 3rd Q. Denver is down by 10. We just made Brady go 3 and out to start out the half. We start our drive with a nice 11 yd gain by McGahee. We get a meager 2 yard gain on a pass to Decker on first down, followed by a 4 yard run by McGahee which makes it 3rd and 4. What do we do? We put in Ball and he gains a yard up the middle. That was his first play in the game. We had done basically nothing all game running the ball and we've got PFM who was 3 for 4 on third down to that point! That drive was our best chance to keep this from getting out of hand after getting a 3 and out and we tried a Ball run up the middle. Puke.

Play #2: 5 minutes to go, down by 10. We're driving, Manning is carving up the defense. It's 4 down time. We've just recovered the Ridley fumble. We pass down to the NE 14, call a run play on 2nd and 14 and McGahee coughs it up. Game over. Why oh why did we try another running play in that situation? The announcers said they liked the call, but I'd rather lose on a pick at that point. It's one thing if our running game has been effective, but....

*In general I feel like we're getting out-coached in the first half of games. To the coaches credit, we tend to improve later in the game, but that's too late against good teams. I felt this way last year as well, and so I tend to blame this on Fox and McCoy over the newcomers, but it is something that worries me a lot.

NE

Total Pts

Turnovers

-3

Penalties

-1

10yd+rush

1

20yd+rec

1

1st Down

1

3/4th Conv

2

TD

6

3rd Down

Fail -1

Manning

41

-3

1

6

7

16

18

-4

McGahee

7

-3

1

1

5

4

-1

Ball

-1

-1

Hillman

-1

-1

DThomas

12

-3

5

1

10

-1

Decker

8

2

6

Stokley

6

1

6

-1

Tamme

3

3

Dreessen

6

6

TOTALS

39

-9

2

6

10

18

18

-6

DEFENSE

*Look at the table to see the performance Von Miller put on in this game. Unfortunately, he was almost the only one making plays. We had 6 forced 3rd down stops and Miller did 4 of them. He had 5 tackles for loss. We needed another 10 guys like that today.

*STAT OF THE WEEK: on 5 of their 3rd downs, New England gained 107 yds. For the game, they averaged over 8 yards per 3rd down. That is not getting it done. We had no answer for their hurry up running game at all.

*I'm not sure what else to say about our defensive performance. We were pretty much steamrolled. Giving up that kind of running yardage will lose a lot of games in this league, whether you've got PFM or not. I really thought we looked completely unprepared again in the first half which makes me wonder what our coaching staff is doing to get the guys ready for the first halves of games. We made some good adjustments for the second, but we've got to play a lot better if we hope to do much against these elite teams. I really, don't want to see NE again this season because that hurry up running game is scary. Honestly.

*Please please please let's try somebody else at MLB. I liked the LB group against Oak much better. Mays did jack against NE...again. He's always the last guy to come into the picture when I'm watching these games, and usually he's getting there right after the play has been whistled dead. Maybe I'm confusing him with someone else.... I really feel bad for him in game tape sessions. He'd be a great backup in the right situations.

NE

Total Pts

Pen >FD

-1

Pen <FD

-.5

Tkl 0-2yd

.5

PD

1

TFL

1

3 /4th Stop

2

FF/FR/INT/SY

3

TD

4

Dumervil

6.5

-.5

1

1

2

3

Vickerson

2

1

1

Bannan

1.5

1.5

Unrein

3.5

.5

1

2

Wolfe

1

1

Mays

-.5

-1

.5

Brooking

.5

.5

Woodyard

3.5

.5

3

VMiller

18

1

1

5

8

3

Adams

3.5

.5

3

Porter

.5

.5

Bailey

0

Moore

1

1

Harris

.5

.5

TOTALS

40.5

-1

-.5

8

2

9

12

12

Cumulative Playmaker Scores

TOTAL

Total Pts

Turnovers

-3

Penalties

-1

10yd+rush

1

20yd+rec

1

1st Down

1

3/4th Conv

2

TD

6

3rd Down

Fail -1

Manning

143

-12

1

20

33

48

72

-19

McGahee

49

-6

10

1

20

10

18

-5

Ball

10

2

3

4

6

-5

Hillman

4

1

1

3

-1

DThomas

39

-6

11

8

18

12

-5

Decker

28

3

7

8

12

-2

Stokley

26

2

4

10

12

-2

Tamme

13

-1

6

8

6

-6

Dreessen

20

-1

2

1

18

O-Line

-6

TOTAL

Total Pts

Pen >FD

-1

Pen <FD

-.5

Tkl 0-2yd

.5

PD

1

TFL

1

3 /4th Stop

2

FF/FR/INT/SY

3

TD

4

Dumervil

21

-1

-.5

4.5

1

4

4

9

Vickerson

7.5

-1

3.5

2

3

Bannan

7.5

3.5

1

3

Unrein

4

1.5

1

Wolfe

8

2

4

2

Ayers

2

-1

1

2

Brooking

8

5

3

Woodyard

21.5

3.5

7

8

3

VMiller

34

-2

3

1

13

16

3

Mays

3

-3

3

1

2

Adams

18

-.5

1.5

8

6

3

Porter

22

1

5

3

6

3

4

Bailey

6

-1

-.5

1.5

3

1

2

Moore

1

-2

2

1

Harris

13

1

1

3

8

Bruton

2

2

This is a Fan-Created Comment on MileHighReport.com. The opinion here is not necessarily shared by the editorial staff of MHR.