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- Jul 11, 2005
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Hard to put anything into print when you are watching a game on TV and don't have a good sense of who is playing on any given play. But I did come away with several thoughts that I hope some will prove interesting. In no particular order
1. We were missing our two starting T's plus Herron and had Ferentz in a RG moving Owenu to RT. Any OL having Ferrentz in at any posit]n other than C is at a distinct disadvantage. I wish the Pats had at least put Hambright in at RG instead of Ferrentz and we likely wouldn't have had that sack on Mac in his second series.
2. I have upped the Panthers to my hated teams list. From all the reports I heard the Panthers clearly instigated most of the fights that occurred this week and Matt Rhule never seemed to ultimately control his team. I also didn't like that he didn't use either Mayfield or Darnald in this game. But as the game unfolded I understood why. The Pats dominated the Panthers OL all week based on reports and Rhule didn't want his top QB's to look bad. I really believe had Mayfield and Darnold played the results would have been any different.
3. Baily Zappe threw just a HORRENDOUS pick six, but he bounced right back. He's clearly not ready for prime time, BUT he is a legitimate NFL QB prospect. He has some zip on the ball, AND some zip to his legs. He completed 64% of his passes and only took 1 sack on his 25 attempts behind very mixed OL.
4. The run game improved incrementally averaging 4.2ypc. Harris looked like he was ready to start the season averaging over 5 ypc, while Stevenson not so much, but he only had 2 carries. The best runner of the day was JJ Taylor at 5.5 ypc. Strong got 7 carries but didn't show off his vaunted speed and looked pretty pedestrian. Ty Montgomery further cemented his role as the 3rd down back IMHO and a guy who seemed to be an after thought signing looks like he will a regular contributor to his offense. I LIKE our running back room. What a great blitz pick up by JJ.
5. Mac Jones didn't have a great night. He missed 2 open receivers high in the first 2 drives, but had 2 balls I thought should have been caught which would have extended those first 2 drives. The 3rd drive was a thing of beauty, and we all loved the long ball. I'm not worried about Jones. This was his first real live action. I wouldn't expect to see perfection. We shall see what happens next week in Vegas. It will be a better indicator against a better team. And I'm sure between Josh and Bill they will create a series of practices that will maximize the teaching and learning for both teams. Just like I'm sure this will be the LAST time we have dual
practices withy Carolina
5b. As for the OL, I think that did a pretty good job aside from the Ferrentz whiff. The question on Strange was going to be if could anchor against a strong DT. I watched him fairly closely and he DID on every occasion I watched. He also got to the second level on a number of outside rushes took on a block and road his man out of the play. He was definitely better than last week and that's all we can ask. Another guy that stood out was Cajuste. He was forced to play LT and I didn't see him miss any blocks and he held up well in protection. A good night for him.
6. The receivers did OK. I know LJ Humphrey is on the outside looking in. But the fact remains that every time he has a chance to get on the field, he MAKES plays. And the play he made on ST's was just a thing of beauty. He's going to be a very hard cut. Nixon made his share of catches with no drops, in fact the only 2 drops were by Parker and Aghular, and I may be stretching it to call Aghular's a drop, Thornton didn't make much of an impact with only one catch on one target. I DID like the fact he stuck his nose into a pile to try and gain another yd and was HARD to put down. The kid doesn't play like he's a 180lbs. He plays strong,
7. Hard to assess the TE's when Henry didn't dress and Smith didn't play much if at all. Assiasi once again caught everything that was thrown in his direction including one great grab. Maybe the 3rd year is the charm. Sokol is a camp body
My two biggest disappointments about the offense was the Parker drop and Stevenson's lack of any impact.
8. Clearly holding any NFL team these days to 3 points is a great accomplishment. But it looks like this group is both deep AND effective on all 3 levels.
9. The DL, which was a big question mark after last year's sh!t show the last quarter of the season when it looked like we couldn't stop anyones run game. There was no Christian McCaffrey, but that might have been a good thing for him because the Panthers run game averaged 2.5ypc on 23 carries last night. The starters stuffed the run and so did the subs all night long. And with very little blitzing the Pats DL accounted for 5 sacks and 5 QB hits and several pressures. Davis, Roberts, Ray, and Anderson didn't let up once the starters were gone either. DL will be another position were some tough cuts will be made. Detrick Wise is a guy I think has elevated his game this year. He game into the league as an undersized DT/DE and is now up to 285lbs and a load on the DL. A DL of Wise, Barmore, Godcheaux and Judon will be formidable.
Another of the big questions before this season was how will the new look LB corps perform. Well so far the answer would be pretty damned well. The top 4 tacklers in this game were all LB's i Wilson was a standout, but Bently and McMillan popped as well. Jennings rushed well and consistently pressured the QB. They also covered fairly well when it was called for with Wilson dropping a gimmee pick.. My only disappointment was not seeing McGrone today. Did he even play?
And then there was the HUGE CB question. Well the Pats allowed UNDER 200 yds passing And it looked like except for 2 or 3 throws into a zone defense, even the completions were closely contested. Jonathan Jones was very effective, but I STILL have worries about how we will contend with bigger wideouts. Mills at 6' is big enough, but there will be teams that can trot out 2 big wideouts and just put Jones in impossible situations where he can be in great position and still not be able to make the play on a well thrown ball. Jack Jones may have to be ready to play in those situations. he has the size we need and has played well so far. Wade had a good night with a pick. and Marcus Jones and Myles Bryant are all in a close battle to see who will be the slot guy. All 3 of those guys had a good night tonight.
My hope is that Jones will be effective enough early in the season, but by the end of it, Jack Jones will be ready to take over in December. Seems like we have some depth
10. My only worry about the S's is wanting to see Jabril Peppers on the field. With Duggar Phillips and McCourty that is already a fast group, but Peppers, I think is even faster. I'd like to see how that would play out on the field. Bledsoe popped again tonight making an already deep group deeper. This is a REALLY good safety group with a good combination of power and speed. I believe because we have such a good group we can create defensive confusion in a lot of ways. I believe Jerrod and Steve are creative enough to use that group in ways that make it hard for offenses to get a good read on what the Pats are doing.
11. No Kendrick Bourne tonight. I'm really reading between the lines here, but I THINK what happened was he got caught up in all the emotions of that week with Carolina. IIRC he through a punch AFTER things were calming down. I'm guessing when he was admonished about it, he snapped back at the coach and carried on too long. I believe BB told him to take some time and get his head right and he'll see him in Vegas. That's just conjecture and NOT a hot take. Not a big deal in the long run, though I wouldn't be surprised to see the mediots make it a big deal and imply and infer ALL kinds of scenarios that will cause doom to the team.
12. Bottom line: This was a little better than the Giants game. Actually it was a lot better than the Giants game. Next week will be a bigger test against a better team. Regardless of the score, what we want to see would be an improvement on the offense. Hopefully Brown and Wynn will be on the field and Owenu back at LG. I want to see Mac a bit sharper and Smith and Henry catching their fair share of balls.
As for the defense, I want to see if they can be as effective against a far better team. I also want to see guys like McGrone and Peppers on the field and see what they have to bring if anything. Really looking forward to what this next week brings.
1. We were missing our two starting T's plus Herron and had Ferentz in a RG moving Owenu to RT. Any OL having Ferrentz in at any posit]n other than C is at a distinct disadvantage. I wish the Pats had at least put Hambright in at RG instead of Ferrentz and we likely wouldn't have had that sack on Mac in his second series.
2. I have upped the Panthers to my hated teams list. From all the reports I heard the Panthers clearly instigated most of the fights that occurred this week and Matt Rhule never seemed to ultimately control his team. I also didn't like that he didn't use either Mayfield or Darnald in this game. But as the game unfolded I understood why. The Pats dominated the Panthers OL all week based on reports and Rhule didn't want his top QB's to look bad. I really believe had Mayfield and Darnold played the results would have been any different.
3. Baily Zappe threw just a HORRENDOUS pick six, but he bounced right back. He's clearly not ready for prime time, BUT he is a legitimate NFL QB prospect. He has some zip on the ball, AND some zip to his legs. He completed 64% of his passes and only took 1 sack on his 25 attempts behind very mixed OL.
4. The run game improved incrementally averaging 4.2ypc. Harris looked like he was ready to start the season averaging over 5 ypc, while Stevenson not so much, but he only had 2 carries. The best runner of the day was JJ Taylor at 5.5 ypc. Strong got 7 carries but didn't show off his vaunted speed and looked pretty pedestrian. Ty Montgomery further cemented his role as the 3rd down back IMHO and a guy who seemed to be an after thought signing looks like he will a regular contributor to his offense. I LIKE our running back room. What a great blitz pick up by JJ.
5. Mac Jones didn't have a great night. He missed 2 open receivers high in the first 2 drives, but had 2 balls I thought should have been caught which would have extended those first 2 drives. The 3rd drive was a thing of beauty, and we all loved the long ball. I'm not worried about Jones. This was his first real live action. I wouldn't expect to see perfection. We shall see what happens next week in Vegas. It will be a better indicator against a better team. And I'm sure between Josh and Bill they will create a series of practices that will maximize the teaching and learning for both teams. Just like I'm sure this will be the LAST time we have dual
practices withy Carolina
5b. As for the OL, I think that did a pretty good job aside from the Ferrentz whiff. The question on Strange was going to be if could anchor against a strong DT. I watched him fairly closely and he DID on every occasion I watched. He also got to the second level on a number of outside rushes took on a block and road his man out of the play. He was definitely better than last week and that's all we can ask. Another guy that stood out was Cajuste. He was forced to play LT and I didn't see him miss any blocks and he held up well in protection. A good night for him.
6. The receivers did OK. I know LJ Humphrey is on the outside looking in. But the fact remains that every time he has a chance to get on the field, he MAKES plays. And the play he made on ST's was just a thing of beauty. He's going to be a very hard cut. Nixon made his share of catches with no drops, in fact the only 2 drops were by Parker and Aghular, and I may be stretching it to call Aghular's a drop, Thornton didn't make much of an impact with only one catch on one target. I DID like the fact he stuck his nose into a pile to try and gain another yd and was HARD to put down. The kid doesn't play like he's a 180lbs. He plays strong,
7. Hard to assess the TE's when Henry didn't dress and Smith didn't play much if at all. Assiasi once again caught everything that was thrown in his direction including one great grab. Maybe the 3rd year is the charm. Sokol is a camp body
My two biggest disappointments about the offense was the Parker drop and Stevenson's lack of any impact.
8. Clearly holding any NFL team these days to 3 points is a great accomplishment. But it looks like this group is both deep AND effective on all 3 levels.
9. The DL, which was a big question mark after last year's sh!t show the last quarter of the season when it looked like we couldn't stop anyones run game. There was no Christian McCaffrey, but that might have been a good thing for him because the Panthers run game averaged 2.5ypc on 23 carries last night. The starters stuffed the run and so did the subs all night long. And with very little blitzing the Pats DL accounted for 5 sacks and 5 QB hits and several pressures. Davis, Roberts, Ray, and Anderson didn't let up once the starters were gone either. DL will be another position were some tough cuts will be made. Detrick Wise is a guy I think has elevated his game this year. He game into the league as an undersized DT/DE and is now up to 285lbs and a load on the DL. A DL of Wise, Barmore, Godcheaux and Judon will be formidable.
Another of the big questions before this season was how will the new look LB corps perform. Well so far the answer would be pretty damned well. The top 4 tacklers in this game were all LB's i Wilson was a standout, but Bently and McMillan popped as well. Jennings rushed well and consistently pressured the QB. They also covered fairly well when it was called for with Wilson dropping a gimmee pick.. My only disappointment was not seeing McGrone today. Did he even play?
And then there was the HUGE CB question. Well the Pats allowed UNDER 200 yds passing And it looked like except for 2 or 3 throws into a zone defense, even the completions were closely contested. Jonathan Jones was very effective, but I STILL have worries about how we will contend with bigger wideouts. Mills at 6' is big enough, but there will be teams that can trot out 2 big wideouts and just put Jones in impossible situations where he can be in great position and still not be able to make the play on a well thrown ball. Jack Jones may have to be ready to play in those situations. he has the size we need and has played well so far. Wade had a good night with a pick. and Marcus Jones and Myles Bryant are all in a close battle to see who will be the slot guy. All 3 of those guys had a good night tonight.
My hope is that Jones will be effective enough early in the season, but by the end of it, Jack Jones will be ready to take over in December. Seems like we have some depth
10. My only worry about the S's is wanting to see Jabril Peppers on the field. With Duggar Phillips and McCourty that is already a fast group, but Peppers, I think is even faster. I'd like to see how that would play out on the field. Bledsoe popped again tonight making an already deep group deeper. This is a REALLY good safety group with a good combination of power and speed. I believe because we have such a good group we can create defensive confusion in a lot of ways. I believe Jerrod and Steve are creative enough to use that group in ways that make it hard for offenses to get a good read on what the Pats are doing.
11. No Kendrick Bourne tonight. I'm really reading between the lines here, but I THINK what happened was he got caught up in all the emotions of that week with Carolina. IIRC he through a punch AFTER things were calming down. I'm guessing when he was admonished about it, he snapped back at the coach and carried on too long. I believe BB told him to take some time and get his head right and he'll see him in Vegas. That's just conjecture and NOT a hot take. Not a big deal in the long run, though I wouldn't be surprised to see the mediots make it a big deal and imply and infer ALL kinds of scenarios that will cause doom to the team.
12. Bottom line: This was a little better than the Giants game. Actually it was a lot better than the Giants game. Next week will be a bigger test against a better team. Regardless of the score, what we want to see would be an improvement on the offense. Hopefully Brown and Wynn will be on the field and Owenu back at LG. I want to see Mac a bit sharper and Smith and Henry catching their fair share of balls.
As for the defense, I want to see if they can be as effective against a far better team. I also want to see guys like McGrone and Peppers on the field and see what they have to bring if anything. Really looking forward to what this next week brings.
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