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In the run up to this game I opined that this will be a fun game to watch and we shouldn't read too much into the result regardless of how it went. In every season what happens in September rarely indicates what is going to happen in December. No doubt being 1-0 is a much better result that the other alternative, especially given you are going to be playing the 3 top superbowl favorites in the next 3 games, 2 of which are on the road. Going into October with a 2-2 record will be a great accomplishment for this team. Anything better will be a miracle, anything worse will hardly be a death knell.
I said this game will only give us "inklings" of what this team can become. Lets start discussing some of those inklings.
1. The offense:
a. General offensive thoughts
1. I don't think we will see many games in the future where Cam has 16 designed runs (2nd highest in his career). This is the new Patriot offense on training wheels. It did enough to win a game even though we left 10 points on the field and probably more given the poor series after Phillips pick. Here is what I think we know for certain. The OL is the biggest strength of the team. This team will want to establish the run in every game and NEED to play the game from the lead. It is NOT a team that will be at its best in a shootout.....and given the offenses of the next 3 teams I will be hard pressed to see how it won't need to be able to win a shootout some of the time. We shall see.
2. So I thought it was a REALLY good job of creating a game plan by Josh. Seemed like there was good communications going on between the OC and QB. The team was amazingly disciplined for so early in this disjointed season as I don't recall a single offside, illegal motion, or even a holding call. That is a really good sign going forward.
3. As more and more teams see film on this offense, I suspect teams will start to present a lot more 8 man fronts, just like Miami started to do with some success midway through the 2nd quarter. They will also see more attacking LB's to combat play action passes and try to get immediate pressure on Cam while his back is to the LOS. (as we saw in the 2 sacks Cam took.
B. QB- my first realization about Cam that I hadn't fully understood was just how damned BIG he is. There was a play where he got up among all the Miami DLmen and Pats OLmen, and Cam seemed like he was bigger than many of them. The dude is HUGE. But overall I think this was a great FIRST outing for him. Josh gave him a lot of simple reads and designed runs to execute and for the most part he did them well. He wasn't exactly stretched much in the passing game with only 19 throws, mostly in the short range level. But on the plus side he looked like he was very accurate and had plenty of zip in his arm. All of which bodes well for the future.
If I had one complaint, it would be that he didn't get out of the 2 sacks he incurred when Miami penetrated the gap left by the pulling G and Cam had his back turned. Cam needs to either change the play or at least change the blocking scheme.
C. OL - Pretty much as good as advertised to my eye. The 2 sacks were a large part the result of a scheme flaw compounded by the fact the QB didn't get out of the play or the blocking scheme. The biggest questions where about the effectiveness of Eleumanur/Onwenu combination at RT. And while I didn't see them make any huge plays, the fact I didn't hear their names called at all, was as good as I wanted to see. I'm sure when all the breakdowns are done by mid week, we will see the both played adequately well.
Great to have David Andrews back in the middle. He makes a huge difference.
D. TE- Ryan Izzo made a great adjustment to his route on his 20+ yd catch and run, Anasassi didn't play any meaningful snaps in the passing game, so his impact to this team and the TE position is yet to be known.
E. WR - Jules killed a drive with drop. Not a bad drop, but one he wishes he had back. Harry's fumble through the endzone turned out to be a 15 point swing in the game and a lesson he will not soon forget. Granted he was trying to make an extra effort play, BUTTTT, nothing is more important than the possession of the ball. Situation football lesson. ON first down, there is nothing wrong with making a gain and having 2nd and goal on the 1.
I would have liked to have seen some production out of Meyers and Byrd, but they didn't get any targets so I don't know if they were open or not. We should know by later in the week.
2. Defensive general thoughts: It was good where we thought it would be, better than we thought where we had worries
a. The front 7 - Well we all knew the 2ndary was going to be good.....and we weren't disappointed, but I thought the DL was stronger than I thought and we got great contributions all across the front seven. Miami had only 87 total rushing on 27 rushes and that includes a 12 yd scramble from Fitzy. And before you start telling me that the Phins were the worst rushing team in the league last season, THAT team ran all over and around us in week 17 against a team that INCLUDED, Shelton, Collins, Hightower, Roberts and Van Noy.
b. Jennings got the start along with Bentley and they for the most part they filled their gaps pretty well. Room for improvement, but still...
c. Winovich was a guy who we all hoped was going to make the jump, and it seemed he did. He had the 2nd most tackles on the D and got most of them in an area of weakness for him last season, the run game.
d. I'm going to put a comment here on Adrian Phillips in this group since he played most of his defensive snaps at LB leading the team with 9 (8 solo) as well as picking up a pick in coverage. Pat on MY back (
) since this confirms (at least so far) didn't lose anything from Chung's opting out and might have just upgraded the position.
e Kudos to Adam Butler and Byron Cowart who got a lot of meaningful snaps and did a nice job clogging up the middle. Cowart flashed a couple of time to me, and I'm hopeful his contributions will grow as the season wears on.
f. Secondary - Good as advertised. Gilmore got tagged with a couple of ticky tack calls imho, but neither lapsed into the category of "bad calls". But like Romo pointed out on several occasions, Gilmore seemed to be running the WR routes like he knew they were coming. Worth every penny. JC got a direct kudo from Bill in his post game comments (unusual btw) and the rest of the secondary was just as solid.
1. I was wondering when and how we were going to see JJ Williams used this season, and now we know the answer. Between JJones, JC, Gilmore, and JMcCourty, there aren't a lot of snaps available at CB for him. I still think that eventually he WILL become a guy who can shut down a big WR, but now he's just a luxury at CB. Today we saw him where he is likely to get a lot of run this season as Covering the oppositions top receiving TE. Last season Gesicki had 53 catches for 570 yds. and 5 TD's - Similar to Gronks rookie numbers except for the TD's. Bigger things were expect of him this season. But when the Pats put Williams on him in man coverage, Gesicki managed only 3 catches and 30 yds and every ONE of those catches were fiercely contested by Williams in very tight coverage, requiring a great pass and a good catch to manage those meager yds.
I am eagerly looking forward to see if they put him on Kelce in 2 weeks vs KC.
2. This team seems to thrive on man coverage. They have have the size and speed to match up with a lot of offensive threats and make lives difficult for even the best of receivers. By utilizing Phillips as a coverage LB and the 6'4 Williams as a TE specialist, they have the depth and positional flexibility to go to man coverages a lot more than most teams.
3. On the downside, this team isn;t going to be one that can generate a consistent and effective pass rush with individual efforts. Like much of last year, pressure needs to be choreographed and schemed around the talents of the group to create effective pressure. It's a fact of life. No Aaron Donald's on this team. Timing and great schemes will be needed....as well as great coverage, to create sacks and hurries.
4. Derrick Rivers got the the only sack for the Pats this game. Good for him. A nice reward for a kid who has spent the better part of his 3 year career rehabbing. Now he's going to get his chance to see if all the Pats patience with was worth it.
SPECIAL TEAMS
a. The punter and his coverage team were excellent this game. no more need to be said.
b. FG's - not so much. The FG had literally no chance from the moment it left Faulk's foot. It was an ugly miss wide right, VERY wide right. I noticed that even his successful extra points all drifted right. The last one seemed to be his best kick of the day, so maybe this is a fixable situation and it will improve as the season goes on. We shall see. This team isn't good enough, at least at this point, to blow people out, so I think we are going to see a LOT of one possession games this season and having a reliable FG kicker will be a necessity.
Other thoughts from the NFL today -
I watch a little bit of the Bucs Saints game and I came away with one GLARING observation. Every time the camera panned to Brady on the sidelines he was looking at replays on his device and talking to his back up. Never, not once, was their a coach in the picture sharing his thoughts like we've seen all these years with Charlie and Josh. I found that odd.
Other than that, I thought he moved well in the pocket and had plenty of zip on the ball, but he didn't look comfortable or as in control as he did while he was there. Granted it is VERY early, but I expected more from a Buc offense that had so many offensive weapons.
In other news the Jets, Colts Philly and the Cowboys all lost and that makes me smile.
I said this game will only give us "inklings" of what this team can become. Lets start discussing some of those inklings.
1. The offense:
a. General offensive thoughts
1. I don't think we will see many games in the future where Cam has 16 designed runs (2nd highest in his career). This is the new Patriot offense on training wheels. It did enough to win a game even though we left 10 points on the field and probably more given the poor series after Phillips pick. Here is what I think we know for certain. The OL is the biggest strength of the team. This team will want to establish the run in every game and NEED to play the game from the lead. It is NOT a team that will be at its best in a shootout.....and given the offenses of the next 3 teams I will be hard pressed to see how it won't need to be able to win a shootout some of the time. We shall see.
2. So I thought it was a REALLY good job of creating a game plan by Josh. Seemed like there was good communications going on between the OC and QB. The team was amazingly disciplined for so early in this disjointed season as I don't recall a single offside, illegal motion, or even a holding call. That is a really good sign going forward.
3. As more and more teams see film on this offense, I suspect teams will start to present a lot more 8 man fronts, just like Miami started to do with some success midway through the 2nd quarter. They will also see more attacking LB's to combat play action passes and try to get immediate pressure on Cam while his back is to the LOS. (as we saw in the 2 sacks Cam took.
B. QB- my first realization about Cam that I hadn't fully understood was just how damned BIG he is. There was a play where he got up among all the Miami DLmen and Pats OLmen, and Cam seemed like he was bigger than many of them. The dude is HUGE. But overall I think this was a great FIRST outing for him. Josh gave him a lot of simple reads and designed runs to execute and for the most part he did them well. He wasn't exactly stretched much in the passing game with only 19 throws, mostly in the short range level. But on the plus side he looked like he was very accurate and had plenty of zip in his arm. All of which bodes well for the future.
If I had one complaint, it would be that he didn't get out of the 2 sacks he incurred when Miami penetrated the gap left by the pulling G and Cam had his back turned. Cam needs to either change the play or at least change the blocking scheme.
C. OL - Pretty much as good as advertised to my eye. The 2 sacks were a large part the result of a scheme flaw compounded by the fact the QB didn't get out of the play or the blocking scheme. The biggest questions where about the effectiveness of Eleumanur/Onwenu combination at RT. And while I didn't see them make any huge plays, the fact I didn't hear their names called at all, was as good as I wanted to see. I'm sure when all the breakdowns are done by mid week, we will see the both played adequately well.
Great to have David Andrews back in the middle. He makes a huge difference.
D. TE- Ryan Izzo made a great adjustment to his route on his 20+ yd catch and run, Anasassi didn't play any meaningful snaps in the passing game, so his impact to this team and the TE position is yet to be known.
E. WR - Jules killed a drive with drop. Not a bad drop, but one he wishes he had back. Harry's fumble through the endzone turned out to be a 15 point swing in the game and a lesson he will not soon forget. Granted he was trying to make an extra effort play, BUTTTT, nothing is more important than the possession of the ball. Situation football lesson. ON first down, there is nothing wrong with making a gain and having 2nd and goal on the 1.
I would have liked to have seen some production out of Meyers and Byrd, but they didn't get any targets so I don't know if they were open or not. We should know by later in the week.
2. Defensive general thoughts: It was good where we thought it would be, better than we thought where we had worries
a. The front 7 - Well we all knew the 2ndary was going to be good.....and we weren't disappointed, but I thought the DL was stronger than I thought and we got great contributions all across the front seven. Miami had only 87 total rushing on 27 rushes and that includes a 12 yd scramble from Fitzy. And before you start telling me that the Phins were the worst rushing team in the league last season, THAT team ran all over and around us in week 17 against a team that INCLUDED, Shelton, Collins, Hightower, Roberts and Van Noy.
b. Jennings got the start along with Bentley and they for the most part they filled their gaps pretty well. Room for improvement, but still...
c. Winovich was a guy who we all hoped was going to make the jump, and it seemed he did. He had the 2nd most tackles on the D and got most of them in an area of weakness for him last season, the run game.
d. I'm going to put a comment here on Adrian Phillips in this group since he played most of his defensive snaps at LB leading the team with 9 (8 solo) as well as picking up a pick in coverage. Pat on MY back (
) since this confirms (at least so far) didn't lose anything from Chung's opting out and might have just upgraded the position.e Kudos to Adam Butler and Byron Cowart who got a lot of meaningful snaps and did a nice job clogging up the middle. Cowart flashed a couple of time to me, and I'm hopeful his contributions will grow as the season wears on.
f. Secondary - Good as advertised. Gilmore got tagged with a couple of ticky tack calls imho, but neither lapsed into the category of "bad calls". But like Romo pointed out on several occasions, Gilmore seemed to be running the WR routes like he knew they were coming. Worth every penny. JC got a direct kudo from Bill in his post game comments (unusual btw) and the rest of the secondary was just as solid.
1. I was wondering when and how we were going to see JJ Williams used this season, and now we know the answer. Between JJones, JC, Gilmore, and JMcCourty, there aren't a lot of snaps available at CB for him. I still think that eventually he WILL become a guy who can shut down a big WR, but now he's just a luxury at CB. Today we saw him where he is likely to get a lot of run this season as Covering the oppositions top receiving TE. Last season Gesicki had 53 catches for 570 yds. and 5 TD's - Similar to Gronks rookie numbers except for the TD's. Bigger things were expect of him this season. But when the Pats put Williams on him in man coverage, Gesicki managed only 3 catches and 30 yds and every ONE of those catches were fiercely contested by Williams in very tight coverage, requiring a great pass and a good catch to manage those meager yds.
I am eagerly looking forward to see if they put him on Kelce in 2 weeks vs KC.
2. This team seems to thrive on man coverage. They have have the size and speed to match up with a lot of offensive threats and make lives difficult for even the best of receivers. By utilizing Phillips as a coverage LB and the 6'4 Williams as a TE specialist, they have the depth and positional flexibility to go to man coverages a lot more than most teams.
3. On the downside, this team isn;t going to be one that can generate a consistent and effective pass rush with individual efforts. Like much of last year, pressure needs to be choreographed and schemed around the talents of the group to create effective pressure. It's a fact of life. No Aaron Donald's on this team. Timing and great schemes will be needed....as well as great coverage, to create sacks and hurries.
4. Derrick Rivers got the the only sack for the Pats this game. Good for him. A nice reward for a kid who has spent the better part of his 3 year career rehabbing. Now he's going to get his chance to see if all the Pats patience with was worth it.
SPECIAL TEAMS
a. The punter and his coverage team were excellent this game. no more need to be said.
b. FG's - not so much. The FG had literally no chance from the moment it left Faulk's foot. It was an ugly miss wide right, VERY wide right. I noticed that even his successful extra points all drifted right. The last one seemed to be his best kick of the day, so maybe this is a fixable situation and it will improve as the season goes on. We shall see. This team isn't good enough, at least at this point, to blow people out, so I think we are going to see a LOT of one possession games this season and having a reliable FG kicker will be a necessity.
Other thoughts from the NFL today -
I watch a little bit of the Bucs Saints game and I came away with one GLARING observation. Every time the camera panned to Brady on the sidelines he was looking at replays on his device and talking to his back up. Never, not once, was their a coach in the picture sharing his thoughts like we've seen all these years with Charlie and Josh. I found that odd.
Other than that, I thought he moved well in the pocket and had plenty of zip on the ball, but he didn't look comfortable or as in control as he did while he was there. Granted it is VERY early, but I expected more from a Buc offense that had so many offensive weapons.
In other news the Jets, Colts Philly and the Cowboys all lost and that makes me smile.
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