Ups and downs?

If Boyce wasn't playing last night it would have been a better game.
Boyce didn't catch a pass from Brady that should have been caught. Jimmy kept throwing to him 9 times and he caught 2 and IMO was responsible for the INT.

I felt Boyce played himself right off the team.

Most impressive MB at CB.

I thought Zac Moore played well at DT. Still wish the new tight end, #85, had played

I was impressed with Sheard, thought he played well. He did have one bad penalty if I recall correctly.

Butler was a beast. Glad he had a few opportunities against the Packers' #1 offense.

In the few situations where Garop had a pocket, I thought he showed great poise, standing in there with the rush breathing down his neck, and delivering what were mostly good throws. He did badly underthrow receivers (I think Boyce both times I am thinking of). On the other hand, I thought he threw an excellent deep ball that seemingly went right through Boyce's hands.

Boyce has got to be behind (and probably well behind) Gibson and Dobson now.

Gray was impressive. I still think Blount is definitely the starter, but I have a feeling Gray will take some touches.

Tough to say if White or Bolden will be the 3rd down back, but I thought White did some nice things.

Mason and Jackson showed some very promising signs. It would be nice to see line up with actual NFL quality tackles (and Stork too).

After Butler, I honestly have no idea how to order or rank our CBs. It appears McClain is going to be the slot guy. As for #2, I guess it's probably Brown based on what I've read from camp. I thought Fletcher had one or two nice plays, as did Roberts. We aren't going to have last year's secondary, but I think these guys can be a better unit than people have assumed.

Gostkowski keeps doing his thing. Thought Cardona had a few good snaps and a few shaky ones. I recall Allen having to almost pick the ball up off of the ground for one of his punts.

I think the edge rushers, Flowers in particular, looked good. LB play looked solid. Pass protection was about what I expected it to be with the guys they had available to them. Boyce should probably be cut at this point. Butler looked solid in coverage and competes hard for the ball when it's thrown in his direction. Outside of him, though, there's a lot of question marks at the position. Logan Ryan got torched again. Garoppolo's decision making can be questioned. The throw to Boyce was ill advised, for example. But it's hard for me to be able to discern how much of that was on him and how much of that was on the horrific pass protection that he had to endure. So I'm withholding judgement on him for now until I see him play some quality snaps with the starters. Jonas Gray needs to make the team. He doesn't do anything flashy but he's a one cut and go downhill, smash mouth style runner and the offense can really benefit from having both him and Blount at it's disposal.

plusses:
flowers - looked better than sheard
easley - disrupted the pocket when he was out there
butler
white - different but has the ability to take vereen's load....was actually pretty solid at picking up some blitzes
garoppolo short game - which is what he will do if he has to play regular season
mason/andrews/jackson - not bad considering 1st game
gibson - could be solid depth
rufus johnson - cuz we need a rufus on the team

minuses:
freeny - can't cover
boyce - useless
logan ryan - he sucked...he looked like a rookie

not going to comment on the OL in the 2nd half since we have no chance of seeing that in regular seaon

QB's
Brady was off, but who cares.
Garoppolo was a work in progress. Hard to assess, given the line and receivers. 15 of 15 once Boyce, and the starting GB defense was off the field, looked better.

WR/TE
Gibson and Harper up.
Boyce way down. Lack of awareness, terrible hands, decent but not elite field speed. In his defense, on one Jimmy G pass he had separation toward the end zone and the ball was underthrown.

RB
Gray and White up. Gray showed some speed and elusiveness. White showed great hands and a strong cut after the catch.

OL
Solder, Vollmer, and Stork up. They were missed.
Mason up. Really mobile, moves defenders. Great pull on the 55-yard run by Gray.
I would say Devey down, but that's probably not possible. Did not notice Yarn Orgy.

Inside DL
Easley was a little disruptive up front. Note that the defense had several fourth-down stops against the Aaron Rogers offense.

Edge
Trey Flowers up. Sheard up. Chandler Jones up - he is back from injury and explosive.

LB
Freeney up - ST stalwart played a ton. Collins with a very nice fourth-down take-down from behind.
Martin up - he got the start. Right now, based on one preseason game, Freeney and Martin are the top ST/back-up LB candidates out of the large corps.

CB
Butler up. Very good in short area. Good hitter after the reception.
Fletcher looked pretty good. McCain looked good. Based on earning a start, Roberts up, but he didn't look great.
Logan Ryan way down. He was terrible. Poor technique. Out of position. Lack of speed.

S
Nothing of note.

ST
Gostkowski up. Hit the 56 yard field goal after a Jimmy G sack. Good leg on kick-offs.
Boyce looked good on KR, but that won't save him.

I'm scratching my head at the "McClain looked good" talk. After a particularly bad play, I keyed on him for significant portions of the first half and thought he was lousy. One or two visible good plays, but otherwise he looked like a guy who was an easy first cut. Frankly, I didn't even know it was McClain, it was more, "man, #22 is terrible."

What am I missing?

Who is the backup LT on this team? Assuming that Barker isn't the guy, the Patriots' philosophy seems to be that they'll move a natural RT (Vollmer, Cannon, Fleming) into that spot. There are too many RT-types on the roster.

Looks to me like Logan Ryan has lost his confidence. I think he'll need to go to another team to get it back, and I think he may get that chance.

Oswlek said:

I'm scratching my head at the "McClain looked good" talk. After a particularly bad play, I keyed on him for significant portions of the first half and thought he was lousy. One or two visible good plays, but otherwise he looked like a guy who was an easy first cut. Frankly, I didn't even know it was McClain, it was more, "man, #22 is terrible."

What am I missing?

Click to expand...

I think, other than Butler, the rest of the cornerback play is nebulous at best when trying to gauge performance after last night's action. There was some good, interspersed with some not so good that muddies the picture, so to speak.

Hopefully, the depth chart at the position becomes clearer as we push towards September.

sevengables_2207 said:

I think, other than Butler, the rest of the cornerback play is nebulous at best when trying to gauge performance after last night's action. There was some good, interspersed with some not so good that muddies the picture, so to speak.

Hopefully, the depth chart at the position becomes clearer as we push towards September.

Click to expand...

I agree, but I watched McClain specifically and came away with a radically different opinion than the apparent concensus. I wasn't just watching him on throws in his direction, either.

Oswlek said:

I agree, but I watched McClain specifically and came away with a radically different opinion than the apparent concensus. I wasn't just watching him on throws in his direction, either.

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Oh no doubt. This was what I was trying to point out in my post, but, perhaps I did not properly elucidate it.

A bit OT, but one of the things I noticed was the differing approaches the opposing coaching staffs took in this game.

The Patriots seemed to treat it as a way to probe or self-scout their own personnel in different situational football scenarios. There was no game-planning or scheming involved from what I could tell.

The Packers, OTOH, treated this more along the lines of an "actual" game. They kept their starters in throughout the first quarter (and I believe but am not certain that I saw a few sprinkled in with the back-ups in the second quarter). McCarthy actually threw a challenge flag, with I thought was, shall we say, interesting. And their defense was coming with jailbreak blitzes deep into the fourth quarter.

All in all, the Patriots seemed to use this game as a way to self-scout and collate information for the future.

The Packers came out and tried to win this game; they played like it actually had meaning in the standing or something. Heck, even seeing Ted Thompson on the Packers sideline seemingly underscored this notion, IMO.

sevengables_2207 said:

The Patriots seemed to treat it as a way to probe or self-scout their own personnel in different situational football scenarios. There was no game-planning or scheming involved from what I could tell.

The Packers, OTOH, treated this more along the lines of an "actual" game. They kept their starters in throughout the first quarter (and I believe but am not certain that I saw a few sprinkled in with the back-ups in the second quarter). McCarthy actually threw a challenge flag, with I thought was, shall we say, interesting. And their defense was coming with jailbreak blitzes deep into the fourth quarter.

Click to expand...

I completely agree. I didn't put much stock in the challenge flag, that could be explained as simply ensuring the staff was as prepared as the players, but the approach to play calling was abundantly clear. In the second half, it seemed like McCarthy was positively giddy about all the pressure his blitzes were creating whereas NE used it to learn how his players would react if the play call wasn't properly aligned.

Oswlek said:

I completely agree. I didn't put much stock in the challenge flag, that could be explained as simply ensuring the staff was as prepared as the players, but the approach to play calling was abundantly clear. In the second half, it seemed like McCarthy was positively giddy about all the pressure his blitzes were creating whereas NE used it to learn how his players would react if the play call wasn't properly aligned.

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After his coaching meltdown in the NFCCG, perhaps McCarthy needed the catharsis that only jailbreak blitzes against the Jordan Deveys of the world can provide, in order to move on.

Sticky Caulk said:

The more I see of Ryan, the more I believe he is meant to play safety.

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Yes. He does infinitely better with the play in front of him.

Fencer said:

I didn't watch the game, but I gather:

• Passing numbers were horrible when targeting Boyce. (1-8). And the media guys say he wasn't fighting for or holding onto the football.
• Passing numbers were actually very good when targeting anybody else.
• The "starting" OL was horrific.
• Two young pass rushers -- Flowers and Johnson -- each showed well and then got injured.
• Gostowski boomed a FG.
• Logan Ryan had a very mixed night.

What else?

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Butler looked a stud, Fletcher was solid in the secondary. Very impressed with our speed. Sheard looked explosive.

On offense we had Jimmy G stay in the pocket and not do any rollouts or be in the move which i think is a good idea to help with his pocket awareness. He threw too much to Boyce who had a bad game. Jimmy wasn't awful, but wasn't good. He was a bit slow with his release and didn't look for his checkdowns as much as i would have liked (but we're spoiled with the smartest QB in TB). Special Teams (other than Gost) didn't look good, but Slater didn't play (he alone changes our STs).

By not watching the game, you know as much as everyone else does about who may make the team. It's just the first game and all the expert analysts are praising or condemning.
Next game who knows, maybe some starters actually play and it may be more telling. But this game....not so much!

I think Jimmy Jean has a much better chance of working at Jimmy John's than in the NFL.

I am concerned about the arm strength of JG. His short passes have no velocity, and I really didn't see the quick release that I've heard others talk about. Can't seem to deliver the ball outside the numbers. Just doesn't have the high-velocity, super accurate, point-down delivery on short passes that Brady has. This could really be an issue in bad weather.

Don't know if this has been posted but it's a great read :

http://www.todayspigskin.com/afc-to...ots-in-preseason-opener-vs-green-bay-packers/

Spiral said:

I am concerned about the arm strength of JG. His short passes have no velocity, and I really didn't see the quick release that I've heard others talk about. Can't seem to deliver the ball outside the numbers. Just doesn't have the high-velocity, super accurate, point-down delivery on short passes that Brady has. This could really be an issue in bad weather.

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Funny, I have no concerns about this at all. Jimmy's arm strength appears to be perfectly fine to me, no worse than I recall Tom's being his first few years.