BobDigital
Pro Bowl Player
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2013
- Messages
- 16,350
- Reaction score
- 15,044
BB and the Pats organization say a lot of things and yet manage to say almost nothing. The only way to judge what they really think is too look at their actions IE, snap count.
Lets talk about it as i think it is rather revealing.
Offense
OL - A few things stuck out to me here. One is how much they managed Cannon. He started the game and ended the game. They took him out in the middle for a few drives to give him a break. Clearly he is not all the way back yet. Considering it was a 70/30 split I expect him to not be able to handle 100% of the workload week 2. It is possible but that seems like a big jump to make. The other OL starters played every snap.
TE - Gronk playing every snap. Can't say i'm a fan of that. On the bright side he is well on his way to hitting all his incentives. Allen was out there for about 30% of the snaps and used pretty much solely as a blocker. Hollister was benched. I don't think they should bench him for McCarron again. For all the talk about him being in the TB circle of trust the fact he didn't get on the game day roster may put a lie to that perhaps.
WR - Patterson one out there for only 1 more snap than McCarron. If he can't take those snaps now than he is never taking them. McCarron was just there to run his route and take up guys. No matter how bad a WR may be you still can't leave him wide open and assume he will drop it. McCarron and Patterson were each targeted just one time in the passing game. I think McCarron's was just a throw away though IIRC. This to me signals they plan to give Patterson only 20% of a games snaps give or take regardless of who is in there for this season perhaps. 2 of his 4 touches when for good plays though. Nothing i saw out of Hogan's or Dorsett's snap count surprised me.
RB - The fact they used Burkhead so generously with a fully healthy Hill (at the time is Illuminati). He and White pretty much went 50/50 with the snap count. He may have a lingering injury but clearly the Pats don't feel they need to manage him. It will be curious to see how Michel changes this.
Defense
DE was really interesting to watch. Davis got more snaps than both Wise and Clayborn. I don't know what to make of that. Maybe they like the way he sets the edge? His only contribution to the stat sheet was a single QB hit. Clayborn's only contribution to the stat sheet was 2 QB hits. I don't think that stat sheets tell the whole story, but it is interesting to see him out there for about half the defensive snaps and not get even a tackle. DE is a situation to watch going forward. Also they decided to sit Rivers for Davis.
DT - As usual it was a rotation here. The order of snaps was Shelton, Brown, Guy Butler. Not much really to say. All the guys contributed and did there part. This looks like, at least through week 1, the DT group will work the same as it has in past years.
LB - Bentley/Hightower/Van Noy pretty much all were out there for the same amount of snaps (51/50/49 respectively). Bentley made his presence felt big time and clearly has already taken the 3rd LB job. Obviously Hightower is still the guy in the long run. The fact that they felt they could manage his snaps and not feel the loss of his absense for much of the game is interesting. Roberts was out there for 20 snaps. I wonder why at this point. It is worth noting when they were getting gashed with the run plays in the late 3rd it was a 4-2-5 which featured Hightower/Roberts. I am not going to be blaming Hightower. Overall besides that laps the LB play was encouraging.
DBs - Gilmore/Rower/Chung/McCourty pretty much played all the snaps. The 5th DB was Harmon (played 2/3rds) and the 6th was Jones (played 1/2 the snaps). There was not much to complain about from this group for this game. Jason McCourty was put out there as a Safety for 8 snaps and not a CB really. He did have a nice break up on a deep pass. It's something.
Lets talk about it as i think it is rather revealing.
Offense
OL - A few things stuck out to me here. One is how much they managed Cannon. He started the game and ended the game. They took him out in the middle for a few drives to give him a break. Clearly he is not all the way back yet. Considering it was a 70/30 split I expect him to not be able to handle 100% of the workload week 2. It is possible but that seems like a big jump to make. The other OL starters played every snap.
TE - Gronk playing every snap. Can't say i'm a fan of that. On the bright side he is well on his way to hitting all his incentives. Allen was out there for about 30% of the snaps and used pretty much solely as a blocker. Hollister was benched. I don't think they should bench him for McCarron again. For all the talk about him being in the TB circle of trust the fact he didn't get on the game day roster may put a lie to that perhaps.
WR - Patterson one out there for only 1 more snap than McCarron. If he can't take those snaps now than he is never taking them. McCarron was just there to run his route and take up guys. No matter how bad a WR may be you still can't leave him wide open and assume he will drop it. McCarron and Patterson were each targeted just one time in the passing game. I think McCarron's was just a throw away though IIRC. This to me signals they plan to give Patterson only 20% of a games snaps give or take regardless of who is in there for this season perhaps. 2 of his 4 touches when for good plays though. Nothing i saw out of Hogan's or Dorsett's snap count surprised me.
RB - The fact they used Burkhead so generously with a fully healthy Hill (at the time is Illuminati). He and White pretty much went 50/50 with the snap count. He may have a lingering injury but clearly the Pats don't feel they need to manage him. It will be curious to see how Michel changes this.
Defense
DE was really interesting to watch. Davis got more snaps than both Wise and Clayborn. I don't know what to make of that. Maybe they like the way he sets the edge? His only contribution to the stat sheet was a single QB hit. Clayborn's only contribution to the stat sheet was 2 QB hits. I don't think that stat sheets tell the whole story, but it is interesting to see him out there for about half the defensive snaps and not get even a tackle. DE is a situation to watch going forward. Also they decided to sit Rivers for Davis.
DT - As usual it was a rotation here. The order of snaps was Shelton, Brown, Guy Butler. Not much really to say. All the guys contributed and did there part. This looks like, at least through week 1, the DT group will work the same as it has in past years.
LB - Bentley/Hightower/Van Noy pretty much all were out there for the same amount of snaps (51/50/49 respectively). Bentley made his presence felt big time and clearly has already taken the 3rd LB job. Obviously Hightower is still the guy in the long run. The fact that they felt they could manage his snaps and not feel the loss of his absense for much of the game is interesting. Roberts was out there for 20 snaps. I wonder why at this point. It is worth noting when they were getting gashed with the run plays in the late 3rd it was a 4-2-5 which featured Hightower/Roberts. I am not going to be blaming Hightower. Overall besides that laps the LB play was encouraging.
DBs - Gilmore/Rower/Chung/McCourty pretty much played all the snaps. The 5th DB was Harmon (played 2/3rds) and the 6th was Jones (played 1/2 the snaps). There was not much to complain about from this group for this game. Jason McCourty was put out there as a Safety for 8 snaps and not a CB really. He did have a nice break up on a deep pass. It's something.
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Yikes that might not be possible Patterson didn't come in this league last night I think this is it.
