Grogan's Grade: Week 5: New England at Denver

MB: Listening to the post game stuff, there were plenty of reasons to go around about why what happened really happened. Some people talked about the defense and some people said the offense didn't put up any numbers in the second half. I think, what the game boiled down to me was, "We didn't take advantage of opportunities when they presented themselves". What do you think Steve?

S.G.: No, no they didn't. There were a couple of opportunities to put the game in a better situation but we didn't. I think you also have to give Denver a lot of credit though. They were 4-0 going into the game and they are a good football team, a lot better than people around here thought they were going to be.

MB: Everyone made a big deal about the McDaniels/ Bellichick relationship. One of the big points of the day was teacher/ student, but he's not a student anymore, I think you have to give props to McDaniels. He was 4-0 in the NFL as a head coach, he's not a student anymore.

S.G.: You're right, he's not. He's a good football coach who took a marginal quarterback from Chicago and he looked like a world leader yesterday.

MB: It does seem though that when we can't catch a break, we really can't catch a break. Whether it be the coin toss or Matt Light getting hurt which is another big loss for the Patriots, don't you think?

S.G.: Yes, you don't want to lose your left tackle It's a very important positon, and it will be interesting to see who they come up with. Of course you won't hear anything about it, but hopefully you'll see him back in the lineup next week.

MB: It's been 5 weeks now and you have to wonder when you're going to see Brady being Brady. What do you see, other than a lack of accuracy?

S.G.: He looked great last week, I thought he had a lot of things worked out. There still seemed to be a lot of miscommunications between he and the receivers. When you only get the ball to Randy Moss once, that to me is puzzling. I hate to criticize coaches, but it seems to me that he doesn't seem to confident in this new guy that's calling plays for him and they don't seem to have any rhyme or reason on offense right now.

MB: It seemed to me he was way more productive in the first half, I think he was 14 of 17. What did we do different in the second half or what did the Denver defense do differently in the second half. Did they just do a better job of adapting?

S.G.: Denver played better in the second half, there is no question. You could see Brady in the second half missing Welker when it looked like Brady thought he was supposed to sit in the hole but Welker saw that the middle of the field was open and ran and he ended up hitting Welker in the foot. They're just not on the same page, they're not thinking along the same lines as they have in the past and who knows whose fault that is.

MB: How often does Brady, if at all, have the opportunity to change the call at the line of scrimmage?

S.G.: I think there are times he has a pass call and a run call in the huddle and he makes the call at the line of scrimmage. From what I understand there is a lot of changing from pass to pass however they do, the receivers, in this offense have to recognize the coverage as well as the quarterback. They make a lot of adjustments on the run is what i'm trying to say.

MB: You were talking earlier about the offensive coordinator and how he isn't connecting with Brady. Does a guy of Tom Brady stature go to Bellichick and say 'Hey what are we going to do?' What is his recourse if this are going well between him and the offensive coach?

S.G.: There is not a lot of recourse, you sit down and you talk more about what you feel comfortable with and why were you calling this in this situation coach, maybe I'd have felt better if we had called that. He is the guy for the year, thats his Offensive Coordinator so they have to find a way to get them on the same page.

MB: So what are Grogan's Grades for this week?

S.G.: I gave the Offense a B-. I thought the first half was good, and the fact they were 2-for-2 in the Red Zone was also good. As I said the fact that Randy Moss only had 1 catch wasn't good. They were also 0-6 on third down in the 2nd half and that is horrible. They'll need to improve there.

I gave the Defense a C. I thought it was just an average performance against a good offensive team. However, they made Kyle Orton, (who finished 35-of-45 passing) look like John Elway. Defense allowed Knowshon Moreno to average 4 yards per carry, and let Denver convert 42% of their 3rd downs.

I gave the Special Teams a C+. They had good coverage, but made bad returns. They also missed a FG. They definitely need to be better.

Overall I gave them a C+. I guess you have to look at who they were playing. Denver is a good football team, they're 4-0. The Patriots lost in overtime so they just didn't get enough done to get them over the hump.