Not to take the preseason too seriously, but the Patriots have gotten off to a great start with a 47 - 12 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Studs of the Game:
- Stevan Ridley
- Ridley rushed for 2 touchdowns and 64 yards in a great performance. I wasn't to high when we drafted him, but after this game I can't wait to see more of him. That and he's going to be a fantasy sleeper for me this year.
- Dane Fletcher
- Fletcher looked like a star out there (granted against backups). He had a quarterback hit and two tackles for a loss. As Russ Goldman said, it was the Dane Fletcher show.
- Brian Hoyer
- Hoyer showed that he can manage and run the offense effectively. He was 15-of-21 for 171 yards and a touchdown, with a quarterback rating of 111.4 on the night. I'm hoping we can trade Hoyer for picks from a QB hungry team in the future...
Duds of the Game:
- Patriots Special Teams
- In back to back plays, the Patriots failed a 2 point conversion (resulted in Zoltan Mesko having to kick the ball out of bounds) and then gave up a nice chunk of yards to Deji Karim who made it to the 18-yard-line before being tackled. Also, a penalty on Jonathan Wilhite took away a big punt return by Taylor Price.
- Darius Butler
- Its not that he struggled, but its that he struggled against backups and 3rd stringers. Butler is placing himself on the bubble with performances like this.
- The Refs
- The general consensus on Twitter is that it took too long for the refs to review the two touchdowns. It did slow the game down considerably and I would rather just have coaches challenge the play rather than reviewing the play if its close. Its going to take some time to get used too.
Players who helped themselves:
- Daryl Richard
- Taylor Price
- Kyle Love
- Matthew Slater
- Richard Medlin
- Eric Moore
- Buddy Farnham
Other Thoughts:
- Mark Anderson is a 3rd down pass rusher
- Fletcher really surprised me... It seems NEPatriotsDraft was right the whole time (last year they were super high on Fletcher)
- Taylor Price will beat out Brandon Tate
- Ryan Mallet is the future
- Could Buddy Farnham unseat Butler?
- Terrence Wheatley still isn't good
This is an archived article originally published on
August 12, 2011.
Content reflects the editorial context of its original publication date.
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