You know there are games that you lose and you feel still feel positive about what you saw. Conversely there are game that you win by TWO TDs, and when the final whistle blows you find yourself thinking...."nice escape" Lots of mixed emotions in this one.
On the plus side.
1. This is an offense for the ages (if it remains healthy) Record setting passing game. 30+ point expectations week after week, and shock and dismay whenever they are forced to punt. It is very scary to think that with all that, there is still some upside.
2. We caught a flash of what Ocho is going to bring down the road, in games where 3 WR sets are going to be the main focus. He also gives us injury flexibility WHEN injuries strike. If'/when Branch goes down, we have will have a bigger stronger replacement. If a TE goes down, we have a 3 WR combination that can keep the offense in high gear. He was better than the first game, and will be better in the next.
3.The OL faced a VERY good DL and passed the "what's going to happen AFTER Dan Koppen" test with flying colors. Dan Connolly was particularly competent against a very good nose tackle. 2 sacks and only a couple of hits was also a very good result against a very good front 7. btw it should also be noted that neither sack came against an OLman (Gronk, and Woody)
4. Gronk and Hernandez are changing the way the league is using TEs. I believe that the rest of league went to school in the off season, given the success we had LAST year with them. THIS year they have taken it to an entirely new level. I find it hard to believe that 80% of Hernandez's catches are made when he is WIDE open.
5. One of the things that stood out to me was the comparison of how much separation the Pats receivers had, vs what the Chargers had. Sure Brady made so throws into tight windows, and Rivers had some throws to open receivers. BUT..... Rivers had throw a lot more ball into VERY tight windows compared to Brady. If he was having just a slightly off day, he'd have had a lot more than just 2 picks
7. By now you must have noticed that I haven't mention the defensive side of the ball at all. Well there is good reason and that will be discussed in due course. HOWEVER, that being said, I'm going to say that in the over all scheme of things, I thought the DBS played fairly well under less than ideal conditions.
There was no pass rush to speak of. Rivers was uncannily accurate for the most part, and for the most part the DBs were in position. Folks have got to remember that at THAT level, you CANNOT stop a completion if the pass is thrown in the right spot, especially under the current rules. We have to acknowledge reality and stop whining about the DBs whenever a completed pass happens. Completions are going to happen. Yards are going to be accumulated. AND points are going to be scored. Its the new reality of the NFL. Deal with it.
8. While not being as effective as we would like, the D was very timely, FORCING 4 turnovers and making some very timely plays in the red zone.
9. And don't dismiss the GREAT job that the Pats did on Gates (Kudos to Chung). Clearly the Pats decided that he was the guy to stop and they did it.
The BAD.
1. Most of my concern comes from the play of the DL. Not only did they NOT give us a consistent pass rush, but they also weren't that effective against the run. Now granted they only gave up 98 yds, which isn't a horrible number, its wasn't what I expect from this front 7.
2. In defense of the defense I have to make 2 observations.
First is that it is clear to me that the LBs still aren't comfortable in their 4-3 responsibilities. Mayo's play on the SD rushing TD is a good example. Now playing on the outside, he was sucked INSIDE and didn't fill HIS responsibility as the outside LB, and thus created the hole that led to the score. As someone who played on the inside and THEN was moved to OLB, I can relate. He's had 3 years playing on the inside, his instincts were to commit to the inside fake. At this stage of the season, the results were predictable.
Secondly I wonder if anyone noticed that when the Pats DL rushes they don't seem to be trying to get off the blocks ,and seem content to simply control the offensive lineman and stay in their rush lanes. Is this a function of their lack of skills, or is it a function of their responsibilities. We rarely seemed to hit GAPS when we rushed. We rarely seemed to scheme so that we had a free guy coming in on Rivers, even from the outside. We certainly didn't blitz much. Perhaps TOO much respect for Rivers.
3. Here are the guys that IMHO were defensive no shows. Albert, Spikes, Guyton, Carter, Barrett Hopefully there will be better days to come from these guys
4. The injury situation. We saw a lot of guys go down in this game. Dowling IMHO, is the the one that will be the most impactfull. Hopefully its just a groin pull and he'll only miss a few weeks, but this one will hurt.
You got to love what Hernandez is doing, but do you really think if he's out the next week, that suddenly the Pats offense is going to stop moving? I will be on pins and needles to see who is practicing on Wednesday. We had 11 questionable guys last week. This week the number is going to be higher.
Miscellaneous thoughts
1. Rivers truly is one of the best QBs in the league. He has the toughness and grit that would have made him a big favorite if he played for us.
2. I thought Ryan Matthews was a supposed to be a bust. Clearly he isn't. BTW- what Vincent Jackson did on Sunday could have be the best performance by a WR in the league this year. Not only because of the yards he got, but because so many of his catches were so hard. You can hate it, but you have to admire it as well
3. Anyone else notice, that one BJGE's TD run, it was Solder who played TE and made a great block. I mention it only because there were several of us, after the loss of Smith and Yeatman, who thought the best use of Solder would be as the regular blocking TE. Well for this play, at least, it worked.
4. The officiating was once again VERY inconsistent and in this case it went heavily AGAINST the Pats. The most obvious were the 2 QB plays. Carter being called for the most perfect form tackle I've seen this year (which evidently is now considered illegal
) while the low hit on Brady (TWICE) wasn't.
The other less obvious was the 2 very ticky tack illegal contact calls, while Gronk was being literally TACKLED down the middle of the field in full view of multiple officials.
What's bad isn't that they went against the Pats, but more that the inconsistency seems to be league wide. Until they start calling plays CONSISTENTLY, players aren't going to know how to play the game, and coaches aren't going to know how to coach their players.
Personally I don't what I'd say to Carter.....except good job.
5. Dan Connolly may actually be an upgrade over Koppen because he's bigger and provides more strength against a push up the middle when we pass. Where we might miss Koppen is when we run the ball. He was excellent in getting to the 2nd level in the run game.
6. If you look around the league and consider the amount of yardage that is being put up against OTHER good defenses, you might start looking at our defense a with a little more positive attitude. Yes the defense gave up 400+ yds again, but name me the defense that played a competent offense (that's everyone NOT named the Jags) that DIDN'T. If our defense sucks, then so do the defenses of the Packers, Bears, Ravens, SD, the Saints, etc
Its fine to be concerned. Its fine to want to see improvement. Buts its ludicrous to harp on it to the point of panic and despair.
7. This could just be round one with SD, I can't see how anyone in the AFCW is going to beat them for the division
27Likes
idle thoughts ... next day observations, Chargers at Pats
- refer to situational football to explain why the D played the way it played. 
Linear Mode
