Content Post Idle thoughts: Moral victory, or Lost opportunity....

[patfanken]

Well I was sitting down to breakfast deciding to make my final decisions on the 5 games I was going to pick for my football pool. Actually I usually only have to pick 4 because I most always pick the Pats because I am a fan. Well we have to have he picks in by noon EST and I had 4 that I liked and I had just heard that NEITHER Owenu or Strange were going to play and Mafi and Sow were going to be the G's and a guy who hadn't gone to a practise until 12 days ago was going to start at RT. How could I pick us then even with 4 points. The REAL play here was Philly, but I have NEVER picked against the Pats in all the years I have been in this pool. So I decided to pick the Bears instead who were 1pt dogs to the woeful Packers who were without their best WR (Watson).

So that was my mind set. I couldn't wrap my head around ANY way to win other than 2 pick sixes and a few other TO's, a few broken plays plus superb D. AND mind this was going to be played against a Superbowl team, with the best OL, the best DL, one of the top 3 QB's, AND one of the best WR groups in the league.....with NO ONE on their injury report. Against a team starting 2 late round rookies, a throw away guy who was on NFI until 12 days ago. Without our top CB, (on IR), missing our #1 WR and dressing 11 rookies AND coming off a pretty bad season (at least for the Pats). I don't know what meds you take for depression, but if I had, I would have been looking for some. Anyone know if Mike Tirico would have given us an asterique

Now I know the first game of the season is hard to predict. Just look at the KC and Bengals games. BUT still, admit it, it DID look pretty bleak. The haters were just licking their chops getting their ant-Mac and Bellichick screeds set to go for Monday. (not that I think that will stop them anyway..

AND there we were after the first 10 minutes EVERY worst scenario we could think of......happened. Pick six, fumble on our own 30 in 2 successive plays led to 14 pts. Talk about digging yourself into even MORE adversity. And it didn't exactly turn around immediately after that either. But miraculously, or maybe it was Tom Brady day, they produced 2 great drives and Mac hit 11 passes in a row and it was 16-14 at the half, with the Pats getting the ball to start the 2nd half. Which made every Pats fan and all CBS sports executives THRILLED. And with that, the narrative part of this post will end and we will start to break it down and at the end we will decide, was this game a "moral victory", or was it a "lost opportunity"

OFFENSE

1. General thoughts. Well it was hard to think the offense was going to be stellar with 2 6th round rookies being your 3rd and 4th WR's on a day you will be in a spread offense a good portion of the time. It was hard to think you were going to be able to protect your QB with all the OL issues already mentioned. But somehow BOB put together an offense, and Adrian Klemm put together an OL that would pass for over 350yds and 3 TDs and not give up a sack until their less than 5 minutes left in the game. Not that there weren't some mistakes made by both the players and staff on this side of the ball. and we will discuss them.

In general there were about 3 or 4 of BOB's play calls or rather the kind of passes that were called that bothered me. The most egregious was the Andy Reid like call to go for it on 4th and 17 that Bill made with 4 minutes and all 4 TO's remaining. I was unhappy about the running game. When you have to pass 54 times in a game, your running attack isn't working Was it because of a poor design, poor running, poor blocking or was the other team just damned good. My guess it was mostly the latter, with a hefty dollop of blocking. Personally I would have moved my point of attack to off tackle after first dozen or so runs right up the middle into the teeth of the Eagle defense failed so miserably. Either that or do some stuff with cut backs and misdirection. But that's just me.

Overall I can happily say that at least it looked like the Pats now have a professionally run NFL offense that looks sharp at time. There weren't a lot of penalties until the end of the game (more on that later), and very few of the mental error kind. Very refreshing. The QB was far from perfect, and certainly has room to grow, but he also had his moments too and his stats are very respectable, especially given his OL and WR group.

QB- I think Mac showed that he's ready to move on from 2022 and be a respectable NFL starting QB and maybe more. He came back from a devastating start to ALMOST have a Brady moment. Whether he wasn't ready for it, or it was taken away from him because of 3 or 4 VERY questionable calls and bad luck, is up for discussion, but overall it was a pretty good job.

Now days' the "Mendoza line" for QB's is a 60% completions. 68%+ is excellent and Mac was at 65% meaning he was "good" but not great imo. He looked to me to be more mobile in the pocket and not just running around, but with those short moves inside the pocket. He had a couple of nice runs and a better one for the 2 point conversion that was made to disappear. And even though he isn't at all comfortable running the ball, he showed a bit of speed that he has. Maybe he'll do it more as the season goes on.

It is unlucky when a QB has a deflected pass returned for a TD. However it was an inaccurate pass to begin with, so ultimately it was his fault and I liked that he took the blame after the game. Initially I was actually more pissed at his piss poor effort on the run back than I was at the pass, (tho in the long run, it was probably the smart thing) But it wasn't a bad decision or a misread of a defense. 6 inches in either direction it's either a completion or a incomplete pass

In the end there is enough there to prove he's either on the right track OR he's never going have it, depending on where you want to go. Of course ANY general assumption on what a player will be like after one game is ludicrous. Joe Burrow threw for 85 yds while his team lost to their biggest rivals by 20 odd points so I guess he sucks now too.

OL - I am STILL stunned at the effectiveness of the OL given the personnel we threw out there on Sunday. They weren't great, but they allowed only 2 sacks and 7 QB hits in 54 drops vs the best DL in the NFL (or at least one of them). They didn't allow a free rusher all game (or at least one I saw) and it looked like they were always at least aimed at who they were supposed to be blocking. They were playing a fast tempo game and it looked like they handled the mental side of the game VERY well. A LOT to build on there.

And as I mentioned early, you CANNOT say too much about the job that Adrian Klemm has done to get three new guys ready to play this game when at the beginning of the week both Owenu and Strange were expected to play. Given that it was a REMARKABLE performance and bodes well as the season goes on. COACHING COUNTS and we saw it this first week. Adrian, welcome back to Gillette, buddy. We are glad you are here.

RB- No one would have guessed that Stevenson would average 2.1ypc, even with that OL. But I recall near the end of the game he had a 9 or 10 yd run, but the stats had him with a long of 5, so I'm questioning his stat line, even though overall it was poor, even if you add the long run. On the other hand he was a very good receiver and I wish BOB would have called his number more with routes over the middle that often gained big yd, instead of the out wide or screens that were OK but gained fewer yds.. He had 66 yds on 6-6 catches. He is going to be a force in that part of his game. Elliot had a nice debut averaged 4ypc running and over 8ypc catching the ball. He had one fumble though.

Before we make any judgements lets get our best OL out there. But the run game needs to improve.


TE- Henry was very good and might have made of the catches of the year. He also had one drop that cost the Pats about 14 yds on that 4th and 17. It didn't seem that important at the time, but the Pats drive that ended up at the 11 would have to have gone 14 yds less than it did after the fumble. But over all, this looks like a 10 TD 800 yd year for Hunter. Gesiki caught all 3 balls he was thrown for 12 ypc. I would have thought he would have been used more given the rookies we had a WR. I'll have to rely on someone who checks the tape to see if either was an effective blocker. I wasn't looking.

WR - The WRs accounted for about 140 receiving yds. Not horrible given who was out there. Not great either. Kendrick Bourne was the best of them with 65yds and 2 TD's. He's looking like the guy I hoped he would be LAST year. JJSS had just 4 catches and didn't particularly shine. Same goes for Douglas with who had 4 catches in 7 targets and only had 40. Maybe not a bad debut considering, but nothing impressive or made me go oooh!. Boutte unfortunately went 0-4 in targets, but had 2 which will likely be completions down the road, but not happening as a raw rookie. Too bad that both would have been key receptions. He also had one long route where he and Mac were clearly not on the same page. Not stellar given the great opportunity he had;

Still reps, even bad ones are critical for young receivers and both got a lot of them. I think Douglas will be fine and get snaps each game. Boutte, not so sure. Will he work his ass off to correct his mistakes, or will be make excuses and not learn. I don't know, but we SHALL see.

 

[patfanken]

DEFENSE -

What can you say - It was great. They essentially held one of the best offenses in the NFL. And offense with a top 3 QB, a top 3 OL, a top 3 WR group and a top 10 TE to essentially 12 points of which THREE of those FG's came from over 50 yds away including one from over SIXTY. They held Hurts to 170 yds of passing and the team to just 100yds rushing. That included 37 for Hurts on NINE attempts. Sorry but that is damned impressive. It was a masterful plan from Mayo and well called by Steve. They showed zone, man, and combo coverages. They even had a corner blitz. Bottom line, after the first drive of the game, they kept Philly off balance for most of the game and when they had to held them to LONG FG's. BOTTOM LINE - the defense will keep the Pats in most of their games. I still have no idea how many games we will win, but we are going to be every entertained in all of them.

DL- Jalen Hurts is one of the most difficult QB's to contain in the league as well as one of the most prolific passers. Overall I thought the front 7 did an OUTSTANDING job of pressuring Hurts and getting him off his spot. I thought they contained him pretty well. During the game it seemed like he was getting free to run too many times, but when you added it up it only came to 37yds on 9 carrys about 4ypc, so it wasn't like he was gashing them. The RB's only got about 60 more on 25 attempts, so they were contained as well.

The Eagles usually run Hurts a number of times on planned runs. I only recall them doing it once or twice this game, and I think its because Hurts was getting hit pretty hard all through this game and they wanted to limit his hits.

I thought Kion White pushed the pocket from the inside on a consistent basis. Didn't seem to do much according to the stats, but in this case the stats can be misleading. I thought he stood out. Looks like he only has an effective power move, but it is effective and forced Hurts off his spot several times. I'd be interested in seeing his PFF score. Barmore on the other hand didn't seem to shine as bright but he had his pressures and a QB hit and was good against the run. Still want to see more than just OK from him. Just name a DLman and he held his own. I'm not looking forward to seeing the Dolphins' WR's next week, but I can't WAIT to see what this DL/LB group does to their less than stellar OL.

LB's essentially ditto. Bentley is playing like Hightower now and led the team in Tackles. Tavai less so, but wasn't bad. NO one was bad no defense. I want to see Mapu more on 2nd and 3rd down at LB, but that can wait. He played both from S and LB, though I seemed to me that he was "lined up" as a S, but ended up with LB responsibilities, but I'd have to see the all 22 to make sure that is a correct assumption

DB's Sorry but this might be the best CB/S combination is the ****ing league, and they were MISSING their #1 guy and will be for the next 3 weeks. They played all over the field and the mixing and matching between the CB's and S's was fluid. It was hard to tell who was playing which between the LB's S's and slot CB's

The 2 guys that stood out to me were Gonzales and Peppers. I saw Peppers make a saving play on a long pass on the sideline and then destroy a RB 5yds past the LOS to cause a fumble. It was thrilling. Sorry, but if he's the new "FS" then, "Devon, who?". Well at least for one game. Peppers won't have near the instincts born of years of experience yet, but the speed is there and the physicality is better. One big question from this off season SEEMS to have been answered

And Gonzales was just SPECTACULAR. I knew he would be EVENTUALLY very good, but not THIS good THIS fast. Too soft? He was 2nd on the team in tackles and had a sack. He won most of his one on one battles with AJ Brown Most of his 7 catch came against soft zone coverages and the longest one he gave up Brown broke his ankles on an in and out move for 23yd - the rest of his catches averaged less than 7. Pretty good work for your first game against a top 10 receiver. (and some would put him higher). I liked his toughness. I liked his recovery speed. His 4th down break up late in the game gave the Pats its last chance when the Eagles went for it at around the +45.

The rest of the secondary shouldn't be left out. Mills looked like he might be covering Gaudart a number of time and could be the reason the TE, who had a great year and was key for them only had one TARGET and zero receptions I'm sure the were probably other guys on him as well, but I thought I spotted Mills more than a couple of times. Just another thing I'd love to check (forgot to record the game) Also clearly Marcus must have been doing a good job in the slot and Jon Jones a good job on Smith who had 7 catches but for just 47 yds Again when you look at this defense, remember not to try and fit these guys into some of the old position designations like FS SS.

BTW- interesting stat (at least to me) After Bentley who had 9 tackles, the next FIVE on that list were Gonzales, Bryant (yeah that guy) Peppers, Duggar, and Phillips.Our DL is fine, our Edge guys are good, our LB's are OK, but never forget the strength of this defense are the DB's and the ability of the defensive coaches to weave defenses that work, And it looks like the defense has bought in like the old days. At least for today. They played very good defense against a very good team. They'll face another one next week.

The Refs - I made a NUMBER for strong comments about the refs in this game in the game day thread.. It's kind of out of character for me. Sometimes I comment about a bad call or a missed call, but is more just a comment, because like missed blocks or tackles, the refs are human too and they are gonna miss stuff as well. It's just a part of the game like drops and deflected picks.

But here's the thing. I can see when there are non-calls. That's happening almost every play. And there are judgement calls that they see it differently. But there is NO excuse for just making it up. There were 2 holding calls on Anderson and Henry that we just made up and Eagle guys who were flopping. Even Romo noticed. And the defensive holding holding call was as weak as it gets as well. Romo lied when he pretended that it was an easy call. There were 100 far more egregious calls that weren't called over the course of game.

The defensive holding call wasn't critical, but the 2 invisible holding calls were extremely damaging to both the late drives the Pats had after they got to the red zone and pretty much killed both drives.

I asked a question in the game thread but got no answer. I saw on SEVERAL occasion where the Eagles snapped the ball before everyone was set for a full second Has the rule changed. DO you still have to be set for a full second before you can snap the ball?

ST's I'm going to be brief because it is almost 4am and I've been doing this TOO damned long. The Punter is REALLY good but can get better. He outkicked his coverage (Like did with my marriage ) one time and kicked just into the endzone once for a 23 yd net. He was very good but not perfect, but it was easy to see why he was drafted/

The 4th round FG kicker......not so much. His KO's were fine. But his 3 extra points made me nervous.. None of them split the uprights and the first one would have missed from 30yds out. and the 2nd from 40. The 61 yd FG Elliot hit was straighter than any of his extra points. Just doesn't give me a lot of confidence to this point.

OK - I'm done. Don't just read the damned thing. Let me know what you think and add your views and opinions. Was it a moral victory or a missed opportunity.....or both. Oh, apologies for any grammatical mistakes, too tired to edit. I'll do it when I wake up.

 

[DarrylS]

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant analysis..
For me it was a moral victory, but what does that mean?? I am encouraged with the offense that looked like NFL quality, cannot compare to the debacle we witnessed last year. BOB & Klemm deserve much praise.
As much as I like Mac Jones, not sure he is the guy.. couple of his passes were softball throws when bullets were needed and a few off targets. The TD's to Henry and Bourne looked good, but that was the exception rather than the rule. Did not see the fire and leadership from him I expect.
Defensively this is a very good group, came as expected.. lots of pressure and contained a very good Eagles offense.
The rookies look like they belong here and most played well. Gonzalez, White and Mapu stood out they look like excellent draft picks.
The ST's looked vastly improved, no longer an adventure...
What I liked best about yesterday that the justifiably maligned Pats were competitive up to the very end of the game and I wasn't disgusted with the offensive play calling and effort like I was last year.
The two TD's off of turnovers early on were the killers, but they came back strong and did not give up..

 

[RodThePat]

Lost opportunity. They were the better team for 50 minutes tonight. Offense had 13 drives, incredible field position all day long, multiple opportunities in the 4th and couldn't pull it off. It's not like they "battled" or "showed toughness", they outclassed the Eagles for the vast majority of this game. They way it unfolded, they should have won it.

 

[sturmrider]

Thank you once again Ken for your Idle Thoughts I look forward to them each game.

I would call it both a moral victory and a lost opportunity. The game showed this team will be able to play with anyone thus the moral victory. The lost opportunity due to the offense's poor play at the start of the game and at the end without the early turnovers I think we win this game and the late misses just compound that thought. I too am not sure Mac is the answer I do believe he will be at least slightly better than an average quarterback in this league, but I think we're looking for more. Who knows.

I think this team will do better this year then many prognosticators predicted. Who knows might even make the playoffs, but I don't think they would go far unless their offense tightens up over the season which is a definite possibility.

Again thank you for your idle thoughts look forward to more this year.

 

[Nunchucks]

I was at the game, so did not see much for replays. Looks like the OL pass blocked fairly well. Running the ball was fairly pathetic

The pick six has to be caught. The ball hit the guy in the hands, tough catch, but that's why they get paid.

Macs arm really looked deficient on that deep throw down the right sideline, he had Bourne wide open, but throws a high arcing pass when he should have been throwing on a rope to get the ball out there quickly. He let's the dB catch up. Other than that it was fine.

Got to kick the field goal with 9 minutes left.

Boutte needs to learn to toe tap.

Not great, but thrilled to see them compete to win at the end of the game after that disaster of a start.

 

[State]

Boutte needs to learn to toe tap.

This.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

No more moral victories. We have known since 2021 that we can hang with essentially any team out there. Which is a good thing for sure, the situation is not as bad as the doomsayers say. Roster wise , I think we have built a very respectable team and hopefully we see continued improvement.

But the fact is we don’t have the horses offensively to pull these games out regularly, or even once in a while when it comes to the leagues elites. Its always one thing or another and it will be that way until we find a true #1 guy or mac elevates his game/ starts eliminating the negative plays and sack taking when you can get rid of it . We also lack the intangibles from back in the day that used to make up for lack of a superstar wr. Yesterday was another game we won if we simply didn’t lose the turnover battle, make a play on st, avoid killer penalties (granted not all of that was our fault yesterday ), or coach better in key situations . Its become a trend the last few years unfortunately, IF the team ever gets over that hump then I could see us making some real noise. Im just hoping until then this doesn’t create a locker room divide with the defense being hung out to dry time and time again.

 

[Nunchucks]

I forgot to add, too many dropped balls by the receivers

 

[Scotty]

Thanks @patfanken for the analysis and comments which really help those of us who miss the game. I was please to see how well the OLine played (at least in the passing game) given the late call offs and injuries. Overall , so much better than last year.

 

[catent]

Yeah, I don’t know.

I hope they find meaningful success this season and I’ll root for it, but this game felt like more of the same from the past 3-4 seasons to me … eerily similar feeling.

Playing off the back foot from a game-plan/situational football perspective, turnovers, inability to dictate the game in terms of tempo/rhythm. I just don’t get the sense of collective identity, don’t get the sense of everyone pulling in the same direction at the same time. I don’t feel like the players are keyed-in on the most critical elements tactically where the game will be won/lost. My gut instinct on if they’ll have a good game - which for the longest time was really reliable - is completely off; I’ll sense a good game coming, for the better part of the past 3-4 seasons, but it just never comes together. There’s this sense of heaviness and gloom when I watch them play … just feels like a dark cloud hanging over this team at the moment. I realize this is melodramatic and subjective crap but it’s the sense I have, for whatever it’s worth (hopefully not much).

I’ll keep watching. It’s only week 1, absolutely nothing has been determined at this point. Week 1 is fluky, the team has some legitimate talent, they’re going to be better coached offensively than last season, the OL was remarkably impressive considering who was playing. I think they have real potential to compete with the talent on their roster, and not just for a playoff spot, but deep into the playoffs (contingent on high-level QB play of course).

Yet, with all of that said, there’s just a bad vibe I can’t shake about this team and that has been the case for the better part of 4 seasons now. It wasn’t Brady’s departure; I’ve had this sense something is fundamentally amiss since the AB saga. A superstitious person may say he put a curse on the team.

 

[Pape]

My biggest take away is about Mac Jones ... when he's on a roll, he's good... there were a few drives in the middle of the game where you could see we have someone we can work with...

But... there were times, especially late 8nnthe game where he holds on to the ball way too long... his sack avoidance in high pressure situations is nil at times... more of the same, really, where we can count on him to lose big time yardage taking a sack because he can't get the ball out...

So to me this wasn't a moral victory... it was yet another opportunity for Mac to stand up, have a statement drive and by extension a statement game... and he came up small again...

This game, despite the flubs at the beginning, was within reach... while the offense looks better, they aren't getting it done... the receivers are all complimentary players... which is a problem... it's still too easy for teams to square up on Rham because of that...

I will say I thought the line play was a lot better than I thought it would be... not great, but not the disaster I was expecting given the late scratches of Strange and Onwenu...

Impressive debutes by White & Gonzales... add that to the defense, and we got something brewing...

But ultimately unless the offense learns to kick it in gear early on, all that defensive talent is going to be wasted this season....

 

[Real fan 02]

This.

Agreed, and just rookie mistakes. He'll get with Troy brown and correct the issues. He impressed, I'm more impressed with DD & Boutee. Far as I'm concerned I'd rather continue to go with the rookies, and let them develop than depending on TT or Parker. They are just injury prone.

 

[SEA_Pat]

The ST's looked vastly improved, no longer an adventure...

I was disappointed in the Special Teams play. Whomever was responsible for the gunners was failing and almost getting Markus Jones killed. The punter couldn't keep the ball in play when we could have pinned them deep towards the end of the game and we gave up a big return on another punt. What did you see that was "vastly improved"?

 

[Lagaffe_07]

For me, it’s a clear lost opportunity. Moral victories are for losers. The best time to play the Eagles was week 1 and we should have won this game. In my opinion, the Eagles were truly unimpressive and were in a clear « it’s an extension of the preseason » mode. They were very conservative in their play calling. Hurst didn’t want to get hit. He was falling down when he ran everytime a Patriots defender was getting close. Funny enough, one of the only time he tried to fight for yards, he fumbled.

We had multiple opportunities to take control of this game and we didn’t seize them. Offensively, we did nothing good for a a quarter in a half and then score 2 TD in 5 minutes at the end of the first half and did nothing for a quarter coming out of the half with a chance to take the lead and take control of this game. We were effective at the end of both half, I don’t know if it’s because the Eagles D went more conservative defensively in those moments and BOB was able to take advantage of that.

I am too not sure if Mac will cut it but I think he was fine yesterday. Not great, not bad. But i will give him credit, he was very good in the RZ. The Henry TD and the first Bourne TD were great route and throw and the second Bourne TD was a beautiful double move.

But in the end, same old. Same old. We get into a hole making bad mistakes and we try to climb out of it and we fall short. I don’t think we lose many games when we play from the lead but when we don’t we can’t comeback. It look way better than with Patricia but in the end the result are the same. This team has to prove they can win those kind of games. The D played really well today but we still allowed 25 pts as a team. We are 0-I don’t know how many when we let the opponent score 25+ pts with Mac at QB. At this point, until they prove us wrong, it’s who they are. They need the opposing team to score less than 25 pts for us to win.

 

[BTTA]

My biggest take away is about Mac Jones ... when he's on a roll, he's good... there were a few drives in the middle of the game where you could see we have someone we can work with...

But... there were times, especially late 8nnthe game where he holds on to the ball way too long... his sack avoidance in high pressure situations is nil at times... more of the same, really, where we can count on him to lose big time yardage taking a sack because he can't get the ball

I consider this the first game of his second year. And everything you say here would be said about every second year QB who ever played the pro game.

 

[Pape]

I consider this the first game of his second year. And everything you say here would be said about every second year QB who ever played the pro game.

Except it's not his second year... it's his third season... despite the offense clusterhump that was last year's offensive experiment he still played, still faced those same exact situations... and is still coming up small in big spots... we have to make a decision about Mac Jones at the end of this season... we don't have the luxury of pretending it's year two...

 

[sb1]

Missed opportunity all the way. We’re not the Cardinals who would be ecstatic to compete with any good team or the 07 Eagles who nearly upset the Patriots juggernaut being 21 point underdogs, or even a Pats team not getting the doors blown off when Brady came to town in a Bucs uniform….those would be moral victories. We’re a .500ish team since Brady left that needs to learn how to win close games and we fell short again.

 

[sb1]

Except it's not his second year... it's his third season... despite the offense clusterhump that was last year's offensive experiment he still played, still faced those same exact situations... and is still coming up small in big spots... we have to make a decision about Mac Jones at the end of this season... we don't have the luxury of pretending it's year two...

That’s why I said this game doesn’t move the needle for me on Mac either way. I think people are overreacting to him looking half decent- we already knew from his rookie year he is decent when surrounded by a real NFL offense. If he’s the franchise he needs to be a lot more than this. Needs to win games not ride the team to wins.

 

[Rob0729]

My biggest take away is about Mac Jones ... when he's on a roll, he's good... there were a few drives in the middle of the game where you could see we have someone we can work with...

But... there were times, especially late 8nnthe game where he holds on to the ball way too long... his sack avoidance in high pressure situations is nil at times... more of the same, really, where we can count on him to lose big time yardage taking a sack because he can't get the ball out...

So to me this wasn't a moral victory... it was yet another opportunity for Mac to stand up, have a statement drive and by extension a statement game... and he came up small again...

This game, despite the flubs at the beginning, was within reach... while the offense looks better, they aren't getting it done... the receivers are all complimentary players... which is a problem... it's still too easy for teams to square up on Rham because of that...

I will say I thought the line play was a lot better than I thought it would be... not great, but not the disaster I was expecting given the late scratches of Strange and Onwenu...

Impressive debutes by White & Gonzales... add that to the defense, and we got something brewing...

But ultimately unless the offense learns to kick it in gear early on, all that defensive talent is going to be wasted this season....

Did Mac really come up small? Fourth and 11 on the Philly 20 with about 30 seconds left down by 5 with a time out left, Mac throws a perfect 12 yard pass to Boutte who doesn't drag his back foot and end up making an incompletion. If Boutte did what most WR would do in that situation, the Pats would have had first and goal on the eight with 27 second left. They were in perfect opportunity to have Jones lead a last second game winning drive. They may not have. But Jones made a big time play in a critical situation which failed because of someone else other than him.

You can't say he came up small when someone else's mistake ended the drive. Mac was robbed of the chance to show whether he could make a statement drive. He may have ultimately came up small in the first and goal series, but it wasn't his fault he didn't have that opportunity.

I will tell you this. If Parker was playing (Boutte was playing the X in his loss), he wouldn't have worked the sidelines far better than Boutte did. Boutte is a rookie in his first game. So I don't want to come down hard on him, but he is the one who came up small at the end of the game.