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Forget Brady vs Peyton 17, how about Brady vs Brock 1? Wooooo what a game! How about that defense? How about that Quarterback? How about that running back? This game took the entire team to win, and the entire team stepped up to the plate and defeated the undefeated.
Where are the doubters now?
"You know, I'm not 2-0, this TEAM is 2-0" ~ Brock Osweiller
And THAT is what I want my starting QB to say post-game on the field.
I'm not going to lie after the Patriots carved up our defense on their opening drive like a Thanksgiving turkey, I was worried. Very worried. But our defense tightened up and our offense was at least moving the ball a little. A low scoring game is what I was hoping for at this point because I didn't want to try to match Brady punch for punch.
But boy was I wrong! Osweiller out-dueled Tom Brady. And hey, look at that, a QB sneak on 3rd & inches. Novel idea. Why does Brady need to hold the patent on that? My beef with Brock in the first half was holding the ball too long. You have to know when to throw it away in the dirt to the line, or simply allow a 5-yard sack to be a 5-yard sack. No need to be careless with scrambling backwards and knocking us out of field goal range with a 14-yard sack. But that's inexperience. He's already matured since last week in his reads, so I have no doubts that this will be corrected relatively soon.
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The defense being stupid, not aggressive, but stupid, is really costing us. Aquib Talib needed to calm way down and not gift 25 yards in penalties to the Pats. We are seeing way too many stupid personal fouls from our defense. I love the aggression, but these personal fouls are getting out of hand. There's playing physical and playing stupid. We need more of the former and less of the latter.
Huge shout out to CJ Anderson and Ronnie Hillman. Again, it's no coincidence that having the true Kubiak system in is a running back's best friend. Bootlegs and stretch runs are the bread and butter, and you need an athletic quarterback to get it done.
But still, what can any of us say about CJ's final game winning run? He ran his ass off all night and I thought he was hugely effective when Hillman was busy being invisible. And then Ronnie started warming up and CJ kept staying hot. And then CJ broke off that beautiful 48 yard TD. Just wow!
And then there's Brock. What more does Brock need to do? When things were looking bad, he came back. When the clock was ticking down and we all lamented about the imminent loss, Brock came back. Need a touchdown to simply keep the door open for being competitive? This offense didn't blink, it got it done. Need a clutch TD to ice the game? EZPZ. Although Tom surged back to take it to overtime, I had seen enough, Brock has ice in his veins. This kid as moxy and stones that would make Giorgio Tsoukalos take a second look.
And again, CJ, it's all about CJ baby!
C.J. Anderson FTW! https://t.co/PDWhVZIJ6T pic.twitter.com/Gonx06w3MD
— SB Nation (@SBNation) November 30, 2015
On Defense, they balled out of their brains. Mainly Derek Wolfe. That cat was all over the place, and each time we needed a key stop, he made the stop.
Hell, we even saw a holding call or illegal hands to the face call on Von. Imagine that, him getting held at the line. But when we needed a stop, Von stepped up.
My biggest beef with the defense aside from the personal fouls, was the wide open easy throws Brady will ever complete. Where was the coverage on guys who had nobody around them for 15 yards?
And if i'm nit picking, I can't stand prevent defenses. I just can't. So why is Wade dialing them up? We are too talented to do that.
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Clutch special teams and shout outs to Cody Latimer for his forced fumble go out to you! Way to make plays and not let special teams beat us.
There you have it guys, an amazing victory that I'm still not sure I believe. Such a swing of emotions from "this sucks" to "we have a shot" to "Am I stupid for allowing Brock to give me hope?" to "OH ____ YEAH BABY!!!!!"
What do you think? What are your reactions? Has Brock shown you enough to straight win the starting gig for the rest of the year? I mean, I haven't seen Emmanuel Sanders smile like that since week 2! His smile is back, and our mojo is back. 30-24 baby! Suck it chowder heads!