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OK we opened up the post-Thanksgiving part of the season. This is the one where we would like to think the season long operation is finally coming together and a 5-1, 6-o kind of finish would be likely. Today was was a decent first step on the stretch run to the playoffs. But was it an indicator of great things to come? I don't think so. I think it was a solid road win against a bad team. It really didn't answer many of the questions we've been looking at this entire season.
Some questions WERE answered, good AND bad. Having a balanced running attack has a bigger impact than having Gronk back. THOUGH it was certainly good to have Gronk back.
When Brady spreads the ball around the offense runs smoother and more efficiently, than when he is trying to force feed certain receivers the ball.
On the negative side, it is clear (at least to me) that unless we are using some form of blitz, we are never going to get pressure on any QB we face, at least not this year.
Josh McDaniels has had a great deal to do with all the success the Pats offense has had over the last decade. And yet sometimes he makes play calls that leave me speechless in frustration. With the Pats needing 4 yds in 2 plays in the red zone, he force fed 2 incomplete passes to Gronk when there MUST have been some other options. Now Brady might have had some blame in this himself, but it seemed to me like it was predetermined that the ball was going to Gronk despite whatever coverage they had on him.
Then later in the half when they were trying to milk the ball, on 3rd and 4 the Pats refused to throw even a conservative pass and wound up giving up 3 points to the Jets. I can remember when there was NO area of the field where the Pats were afraid to pass the ball, and against the good teams. These were the freakin' Jets.
Its not like these seeming brain farts happen all the time, but enough to make me want to comment on them. But so much for my need to vent a bit, let's break down win #8 and see what it brings.
1. Offense - General thoughts - I was a bit disappointed in the offense mostly because you'd think that if you can gain 500 yds of offense, and have 7 or 8 plays that go over 20 yds that you'd have more than 27 points. Now the penalties had a LOT to do with this lack of efficiency, but clearly the offense has a lot of room to grow....hopefully.
That being said, I just read where the Steelers had over 550 yds of offense and yet only put up 17 points. in their loss to Denver. But like I said in a thread earlier this week, unfortunately, the Steelers on the road are a different team than at home. With Rothlessberger that is especially true.
Like I said when Brady spreads the ball around the offense moves better. Great to see Hogan get some looks. Great to see Gordon go 5 catches on 5 targets, none of which were forced. Great to see Edelman suddenly reappear in the middle of the defense. As a whole this is as good a receiving group as we've had for a while, lets use ALL of them.
2. QB - Brady looked a bit shaky to start the game, but settled in later to have what could be called a decent game for him.Clearly missing so much practice time this week affected him early. He completed 2 thirds of his passes and had no picks. I though he held on the the ball longer this game than usual. I wonder what the Jets were showing him that forced him to throw so many balls to his 2nd and 3rd options. Perhaps we'll learn more in the "rewatch thread".
3. OL - Good job in pass protection, though Brady seemed to get hit more than usual, he wasn't sacked. The fact Brady held on to the ball longer than usual accounted for the extra hits he took. For all his accolades, Brady most underrated quality is his toughness. He is as tough as Bledsoe or Grogan. High praise indeed
Great job in the run game. There were some GAPING holes Jets D. Much credit has to go to Josh because some of the play designs were excellent. I don't know where the Jets ranked against the run, but it seemed that their best players were their LB's and DL as well as JAdams, who is a real stud vs the run. So it wasn't like they were running against bad players. They just executed the schemes beautifully.
4. RB's - Like I said earlier, Michel's return turned out to be much more impactful than Gronks. He doesn't stun me with cuts or moves, but he has a great knack for seeing any gaps in the D and slithering through. I will have to see him create more on his own before he will justify that first round pick for me. BUT in the meantime I'm fine with him picking up all of what's there.
What concerns me the most is that he's really the ONLY RB we have on the roster. White had a great day, but if he's the guy you are counting to be your primary RUNNING back for a game, then you are going to be in trouble to generate any consistent running attack. We REALLY need to add so help to that room.
It only goes to show you how fragile teams are on paper. At the beginning of the season it seemed we had TOO many quality RB's, and then just like that, we have been down to 2 for most of the season, and CLEARLY there is a need for a bigger back for the red zone/GL areas.
5. Receivers - Great to see Gronk get back into the end zone. That was a monster catch and a very timely one at that. He also make a good play to keep Brady from throwing a pick.
Now just a media aside. I find it curious how the media has transitioned from how Gronk was looking so fast and athletic during TC and early in the season, to how now Gronk is just a shadow of his formerly great self and unlikely to be back in 2019. Just sayin'
Edelman had his first game in while where he was controlling the middle of the field and picking up key first downs and chunk yards. I'd like to see him targeted more. Maybe that will happen now that Gronk is back.
Hogan reappeared for 2 of those 20+ yd plays, wide open on both patterns....and then he was gone, never to be targeted again. Maybe they are saving him for the Pittsburgh game.
Gordon had in my mind, his best game as a Patriot. His production seemed more within the game plan, and his efficiency was perfect, as well as contributing a key 3rd down catch that was remarkable. His hands are really good, I mean Jerry Rice good.
6, Defense- General thoughts - Hard to categorize this game. On one hand they held the Jets to 13 points. On the other they made the 39 year old Josh McCown look like a great NFL QB.....AGAIN. Christ, McCown was the Jets second leading rusher.
Well it wasn't THAT good, it just seemed that way. The Pats did hold him to a 56% completion rate and did well on 3rd down, AND stopped the run VERY well, while playing mostly nickel and dime defenses. Still the fact they couldn't pressure the Jets weak OL without blitzing was concerning dor down the road.
7. Front-Seven- I don't think I need to mention the non-blitz pass rush again. On the other hand, how this group played the Jets running attack in mostly nickel and dime packages WAS a positive. They only allowed 72 rushing yards and 25 of them came from McCown. It was a good day.
I also thought the LB's had a good day tackling. However Hightower was credited with only one tackle and one QB hit for the game. NOT what I'm looking for from one of the highest paid guys on defense.
8. Secondary - More great work from Gilmore, and Chung. Chung had 13 tackles, 7 of them solo. So while the announcers hyped the excellent Jamal Adams all game, Patrick Chung very quietly outproduced him. According to PFF, Gilmore shut out the dangerous Robbie Anderson on 4 targets as well as making plays on other Jet receivers. JMcCourty gave up some catches that I saw. One big one came on a well designed route that was a simply well executed.
Most of the early yards came against mostly zone coverages underneath, while some of the later yards came after the Pats had a 14 point lead. Overall I thought the coverage was pretty good. Bottom line, when the Jets protected McCown he completed 7o% of his passes, when under pressure that dropped to about half that.
I think the secondary is the strength of this defense, and its starting base (JMcCourty, DMcCourty, Chung, Gilmore and Harmon are as solid as you can get. I think the key to this secondary to improve will be the development of JC Jackson and JJones. If we are going to need to blitz to create pressure, then we are going to need a LOT of DB's to cover, and cover well.
8. Special teams - One good KO coverage, one bad one. Not good enough. Great punting job by Ryan Allen, not only did he average 46 yds, his directional punting kept any run backs a mute point.
The Ghost made his gimmees so he did his job as well. Nice job by this group.
Obi Malifanu made his debut and had a ST's tackle. Welcome home, Obi. We'll need you to make an impact in the secondary...next year.
9. General Comments
a. The officials made this game almost unwatchable for most of the first half. If I had been a casual fan of the game, I'd have turned it off or switched to another. I truly believe that at half time they got a call and were told only to call the obvious penalties, because they were truly killing the game.
b. This crew has called the most penalties of any officiating crew in the league, so this shouldn't have been a surprise. So the responsibility should fall on the league to get this group more training or split them up. Forget that they were singlehandledly keeping the Jets in this game, they were just so inconsistent on what they would call and not call.
c. After today's loss to the Browns, think about being a Bengals fan knowing that the likely successor to Marvin Lewis is Hue Jackson. Now THAT has to rival even a Jet fan's pain.
d. We've now seen 11 games of the season and many of the questions were were asking at the start of year are still unanswered. Our record says we are 8-3 with the 2nd best results in the conference so far. We hold a bye well within our grasp. Yet somehow this team doesn't inspire the same confidence in us that other recent teams have done. Some very average teams have beaten us. Think about our 3 losses have come against 2 losing teams (Lions and Jags) and the 3rd is barely at .500. Definitely not what you'd expect.
But Bill Parcell's tells us that "you are what your record says your are", so that's a good thing...I guess.
OK, done by midnight. I win. Please add your observations and comments and we'll see where the conversation takes us in the morning.
Some questions WERE answered, good AND bad. Having a balanced running attack has a bigger impact than having Gronk back. THOUGH it was certainly good to have Gronk back.
When Brady spreads the ball around the offense runs smoother and more efficiently, than when he is trying to force feed certain receivers the ball.
On the negative side, it is clear (at least to me) that unless we are using some form of blitz, we are never going to get pressure on any QB we face, at least not this year.
Josh McDaniels has had a great deal to do with all the success the Pats offense has had over the last decade. And yet sometimes he makes play calls that leave me speechless in frustration. With the Pats needing 4 yds in 2 plays in the red zone, he force fed 2 incomplete passes to Gronk when there MUST have been some other options. Now Brady might have had some blame in this himself, but it seemed to me like it was predetermined that the ball was going to Gronk despite whatever coverage they had on him.
Then later in the half when they were trying to milk the ball, on 3rd and 4 the Pats refused to throw even a conservative pass and wound up giving up 3 points to the Jets. I can remember when there was NO area of the field where the Pats were afraid to pass the ball, and against the good teams. These were the freakin' Jets.
Its not like these seeming brain farts happen all the time, but enough to make me want to comment on them. But so much for my need to vent a bit, let's break down win #8 and see what it brings.
1. Offense - General thoughts - I was a bit disappointed in the offense mostly because you'd think that if you can gain 500 yds of offense, and have 7 or 8 plays that go over 20 yds that you'd have more than 27 points. Now the penalties had a LOT to do with this lack of efficiency, but clearly the offense has a lot of room to grow....hopefully.
That being said, I just read where the Steelers had over 550 yds of offense and yet only put up 17 points. in their loss to Denver.
But like I said in a thread earlier this week, unfortunately, the Steelers on the road are a different team than at home. With Rothlessberger that is especially true.Like I said when Brady spreads the ball around the offense moves better. Great to see Hogan get some looks. Great to see Gordon go 5 catches on 5 targets, none of which were forced. Great to see Edelman suddenly reappear in the middle of the defense. As a whole this is as good a receiving group as we've had for a while, lets use ALL of them.
2. QB - Brady looked a bit shaky to start the game, but settled in later to have what could be called a decent game for him.Clearly missing so much practice time this week affected him early. He completed 2 thirds of his passes and had no picks. I though he held on the the ball longer this game than usual. I wonder what the Jets were showing him that forced him to throw so many balls to his 2nd and 3rd options. Perhaps we'll learn more in the "rewatch thread".
3. OL - Good job in pass protection, though Brady seemed to get hit more than usual, he wasn't sacked. The fact Brady held on to the ball longer than usual accounted for the extra hits he took. For all his accolades, Brady most underrated quality is his toughness. He is as tough as Bledsoe or Grogan. High praise indeed
Great job in the run game. There were some GAPING holes Jets D. Much credit has to go to Josh because some of the play designs were excellent. I don't know where the Jets ranked against the run, but it seemed that their best players were their LB's and DL as well as JAdams, who is a real stud vs the run. So it wasn't like they were running against bad players. They just executed the schemes beautifully.
4. RB's - Like I said earlier, Michel's return turned out to be much more impactful than Gronks. He doesn't stun me with cuts or moves, but he has a great knack for seeing any gaps in the D and slithering through. I will have to see him create more on his own before he will justify that first round pick for me. BUT in the meantime I'm fine with him picking up all of what's there.
What concerns me the most is that he's really the ONLY RB we have on the roster. White had a great day, but if he's the guy you are counting to be your primary RUNNING back for a game, then you are going to be in trouble to generate any consistent running attack. We REALLY need to add so help to that room.
It only goes to show you how fragile teams are on paper. At the beginning of the season it seemed we had TOO many quality RB's, and then just like that, we have been down to 2 for most of the season, and CLEARLY there is a need for a bigger back for the red zone/GL areas.
5. Receivers - Great to see Gronk get back into the end zone. That was a monster catch and a very timely one at that. He also make a good play to keep Brady from throwing a pick.
Now just a media aside. I find it curious how the media has transitioned from how Gronk was looking so fast and athletic during TC and early in the season, to how now Gronk is just a shadow of his formerly great self and unlikely to be back in 2019. Just sayin'
Edelman had his first game in while where he was controlling the middle of the field and picking up key first downs and chunk yards. I'd like to see him targeted more. Maybe that will happen now that Gronk is back.
Hogan reappeared for 2 of those 20+ yd plays, wide open on both patterns....and then he was gone, never to be targeted again. Maybe they are saving him for the Pittsburgh game.
Gordon had in my mind, his best game as a Patriot. His production seemed more within the game plan, and his efficiency was perfect, as well as contributing a key 3rd down catch that was remarkable. His hands are really good, I mean Jerry Rice good.
6, Defense- General thoughts - Hard to categorize this game. On one hand they held the Jets to 13 points. On the other they made the 39 year old Josh McCown look like a great NFL QB.....AGAIN. Christ, McCown was the Jets second leading rusher.
Well it wasn't THAT good, it just seemed that way. The Pats did hold him to a 56% completion rate and did well on 3rd down, AND stopped the run VERY well, while playing mostly nickel and dime defenses. Still the fact they couldn't pressure the Jets weak OL without blitzing was concerning dor down the road.
7. Front-Seven- I don't think I need to mention the non-blitz pass rush again. On the other hand, how this group played the Jets running attack in mostly nickel and dime packages WAS a positive. They only allowed 72 rushing yards and 25 of them came from McCown. It was a good day.
I also thought the LB's had a good day tackling. However Hightower was credited with only one tackle and one QB hit for the game. NOT what I'm looking for from one of the highest paid guys on defense.
8. Secondary - More great work from Gilmore, and Chung. Chung had 13 tackles, 7 of them solo. So while the announcers hyped the excellent Jamal Adams all game, Patrick Chung very quietly outproduced him. According to PFF, Gilmore shut out the dangerous Robbie Anderson on 4 targets as well as making plays on other Jet receivers. JMcCourty gave up some catches that I saw. One big one came on a well designed route that was a simply well executed.
Most of the early yards came against mostly zone coverages underneath, while some of the later yards came after the Pats had a 14 point lead. Overall I thought the coverage was pretty good. Bottom line, when the Jets protected McCown he completed 7o% of his passes, when under pressure that dropped to about half that.
I think the secondary is the strength of this defense, and its starting base (JMcCourty, DMcCourty, Chung, Gilmore and Harmon are as solid as you can get. I think the key to this secondary to improve will be the development of JC Jackson and JJones. If we are going to need to blitz to create pressure, then we are going to need a LOT of DB's to cover, and cover well.
8. Special teams - One good KO coverage, one bad one. Not good enough. Great punting job by Ryan Allen, not only did he average 46 yds, his directional punting kept any run backs a mute point.
The Ghost made his gimmees so he did his job as well. Nice job by this group.
Obi Malifanu made his debut and had a ST's tackle. Welcome home, Obi. We'll need you to make an impact in the secondary...next year.
9. General Comments
a. The officials made this game almost unwatchable for most of the first half. If I had been a casual fan of the game, I'd have turned it off or switched to another. I truly believe that at half time they got a call and were told only to call the obvious penalties, because they were truly killing the game.
b. This crew has called the most penalties of any officiating crew in the league, so this shouldn't have been a surprise. So the responsibility should fall on the league to get this group more training or split them up. Forget that they were singlehandledly keeping the Jets in this game, they were just so inconsistent on what they would call and not call.
c. After today's loss to the Browns, think about being a Bengals fan knowing that the likely successor to Marvin Lewis is Hue Jackson.
Now THAT has to rival even a Jet fan's pain. d. We've now seen 11 games of the season and many of the questions were were asking at the start of year are still unanswered. Our record says we are 8-3 with the 2nd best results in the conference so far. We hold a bye well within our grasp. Yet somehow this team doesn't inspire the same confidence in us that other recent teams have done. Some very average teams have beaten us. Think about our 3 losses have come against 2 losing teams (Lions and Jags) and the 3rd is barely at .500. Definitely not what you'd expect.
But Bill Parcell's tells us that "you are what your record says your are", so that's a good thing...I guess.
OK, done by midnight. I win. Please add your observations and comments and we'll see where the conversation takes us in the morning.
