I'm very happy watching the OL handle the Falcons all day. It was impressive watching Light stand Abraham up on a play, hopelessly trying to get to Brady. One of his finest highlights, IMO.
That said, I want to see consistency, I don't want to see this just against a weak DL like the Falcons. The Ravens will be a solid measuring stick for this team. That's playoff caliber competition, it's going to be interesting to see if we can keep Brady standing straight against a defense like that.
If the Pats convert a few more plays, we're seeing a blowout. We're an on point Brady away from being unstoppable. If he hits a wide open Moss running in the middle of the endzone, if Moss catches a sure TD pass, you're looking at a 30 point beat down. The game plan was about versatility on offense. They attacked with a lot of passing yet still played a ball control type offense.
While they may not score as much with the passing game being on point, any defense has to respect the passing or running game this offense offers. This is why it's so hard to stop them from scoring because we can mismatch with teams in so many areas on offense. Again, a few more games of Brady improving and I don't quite know just how good we will be, because I see monster potential.
Now for the defense. I liked what I saw, I'm glad they withstood losing big Vince like they did. They almost looked better without him. However, we still cannot get to the QB consistently enough yet to beat the better offenses. As good as Ryan is, I don't think he's on Manning's or Bree's level quite yet. We need to get better at making the QB get out of the pocket more and actually taking them down.
Burgess has been a huge disapointment thus far to me. He has done nothing, and was again invisible today. Jarvis Green still is not getting to the QB, and it seemed as if ADT was in coverage all day. I'm happy with the results, we're no doubt better than last year when it comes to 3rd down. I just want to see them make plays, create turn overs. I'm not seeing that yet.
They're doing a phenomenal job with coverage. They cling to the receivers and only leave the RB open in the flat, giving up junk yardage. I've seen some think that's bad but it's actually how the defense wants it to be. On 3rd & 10 or 15, a RB getting 6 yards is irrelevant.
I liked the game plan, but we need some improvement as well. We're getting better.