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It isn't often when you have 21 point leads TWICE in a game, and put up 38 points that will give Bill SO many teachable moments to harp upon over this 10 day period. I'm starting this at 1am so it is likely that this will be one of my shorter versions of my post game observations. Of course as in most games of football on EVERY level, there are both good and bad things that happen. But before I get into that, I think there are 2 major observation that stuck out to me after this game was over.
First, I was of the distinct impression that while the addition of Julian Edelman would be a plus for the NE offense, it WOULDN'T be a "key" factor overall. I was WRONG! Edelman himself didn't have a big game statistically, but he was productive despite that big drop early in the game. BUT his presence really seemed to open up the field for virtually every other receiver the Pats put on the field. Gronk seemed to have much more room than he's had the first 4 games, as well as the rest of the WR's and RB's. Brady had very few completions that needed to be thrown into tight coverage. It seemed for the first time this season this was a Pats offense that I could recognize. I can only surmise that the difference was Edelman's presence underneath that opened up space for the rest of our receivers. Welcome back, JE. I don't think we realized how much you were missed.
The second biggest impression I got was I was reminded JUST how good Andrew Luck really is. Now I know he's had relatively very little luck with the Pats over his career AND all his injury woes, but while Brady was throwing to mostly open receivers all game, Luck had over a DOZEN key completions that literally had to be perfect throws to get them into the tight coverage his receivers were getting from the Pats, and remember he wasn't throwing to any probowl WR's tonight either.
Well those were the 2 biggest impressions I got, lets get going to the breakdown quickly so I can this done before 3am.
1. Offensive General comments - Two 38 point game in a row bode well for an offense that STILL has a lot of upside left in it. They easily left as many as 21 more points on the field through their own physical errors by Julian, Hogan, and Gronk. Plus Brady missing a wide open White deep. I can't imagine this offense NOT being superbowl worthy as Edelman, Patterson, and Gordon get more integrated into the pass offense, and Michell gets more acclimated to the pro game and shows off his receiving talent.
2. QB - IMO Brady elevated his game tonight. If I were an NFL QB I would never miss the opportunity to watch Brady play. It's almost like a QB clinic each and every time. I think the thing that impresses me the most is his PATIENCE. There is no other QB in the league that is willing to take what the defense is giving him over and over again. There is no other QB in the league who is more willing to simply throw it away and line up for the next play or series. It was a shame that he will be credited with 2 picks in this game, but it should be a lesson in how often individual "stats" don't tell the story.
Now that being said, I DO blame Brady for missing a wide open James White for a first down late in the game that would have led to kneel downs and kept the Colts to 17 points and cut about 70 yds off of Luck's totals. But that's one bad throw out of 44, so I guess I'm really nitpicking at this point. But If Brady had made the pass the defense wouldn't have been subject to several extra plays that could have led to a meaningless injury. It's also the reason I was pissed at the Colts for running the ball at the end of the half instead of just kneeling. I would have hated an injury on a play like that for either side.
BTW- 500 TD passes and having thrown them to 72 different people are AWESOME milestones, ESPECIALLY when you consider that 2 of the top 4 on that list played a great majority of their games in a Dome. Both Brady and Farve played most of their careers playing in bad weather stadiums. Also when you think about Brady's throwing TD's to 72 guys remember he did it playing for just ONE team. The guy Brady just passed played for 7 different teams over his long career, so it makes sense that he'd have a lot more "different receivers" to throw to.
3. OL - Brady had all the time in the world plus more in this game. Normally I'd say. "so what? It's the Colts" but I read where through 4 games the Colts had the 2nd most sacks in the league, so while they haven't got any big names, they have been thus far pretty successful at rushing the passer....UNTIL this game. Not only were the Pats pass blocking effectively, they seemed to be opening more holes in the run game as well. Of Soney's 18 rush attempts only 3 or 4 didn't yield 3 or 4 yards. So most of the time the OL was creating SOME room. A big improvement from the first 3 games. Overall the OL looks to be rounding into something we can hang our hats on. Brown is always going to have SOME issues with speed rushers just like Light and Solder before him, but his game looks to be improving over the course of the season. No reason to think it won't continue. One of the beauties of the game of football is when you KNOW what your weaknesses are, there are ways to deal with them.
4. RB's - James White CONTINUES to elevate his receiving game and it was great to see him make someone miss on his 18 catch and run. His abilities make it hard to fully cover a field that also includes Gronk, Edelman, and Gordon That's too man quality guys for a QB who is willing to throw it to the most open guy, even if it's short.
Michel showed he could be a consistent run threat. It is clear he is a violent runner to seems to give out more punishment than he gets. He was VERY elusive in college, but seems less so, so far. But like I've said, that skill could come if he continues to grow into the offense. We also haven't tapped much into his receiving skills either.
Negatives are 2 - First it seems when Michel is in the game we are running the ball, and when White is in, we are passing it. While I DON'T want them to give the ball to White on anything more than a draw play, I would like to see Michel get more looks in the passing game. The 2nd negative with our RB's is that we simply have too few of them. I don't think it is smart to go too much longer with just 2 pure RB's on the roster.
5. Receivers - Again the addition of Edelman really seemed to open up the field for all the receivers, hence Brady hit 8 different receivers and fully 5 had at least 3 catches. All the more amazing when you consider that White had 10 receptions.
On the negative side you had the 3 key drops by Edelman, Hogan and Gronk. One led to no points on a drive and the other 2 not only kept points off the board, they directly resulted in UNFORCED turnovers. Hopefully that will get taken care off.
On the positive side, while it took until the 4th quarter, Josh Gordon gave us a glimpse of what kind of impact he COULD become. He has become the biggest tease to hit the area in a while and I have the raging hard on to prove it.
Watching him closely tonight, I didn't see any of the blazing speed that we saw when he just ran away from Talib, but he catches the ball with his Gronk-like mitts, and he has great size so I would utilize him much like the Pats use Gronk. in the seam, back shoulder fades,along the sidelines and slants
His TD catch emphasized just how much talent he has. It wasn't about speed or quickness, it was all about his ability to track the ball better than the 2 defenders who seemingly had him blanketed. It is a rare skill to track a deep ball and get your body into the correct position to get to a ball in tight quarters. I though it was one of Brandon Cooks more underrated skills, but he was a smaller receiver and didn't have the hands that Gordon has.
We have long heard about Gordon only playing 12 games since 2014 and that is part of the tease. The other part is the realization that he has such a huge upside as he regains full health, full conditioning and full understanding of this complex and difficult to learn offense. It is a very exciting prospect....that could be extinguished in an instant and wouldn't surprise anyone.
I found it interesting when asked by a reporter how did it feel NOT to be the main focus of the passing offense, he responded by saying, "it was a relief" He went on to say he was just happy to do his part, whatever that part was and to be there when his number was called.
Dorsett had his 3 catches and Hogan had 3 as well, though his drop led to Brady's first pick. So it wasn't perfect, but I think we all can stop wringing our hands over the "WR situation". The Pats had a lot of tough luck losing Edelman, Mitchell, Britt, and Matthews after the start of TC. There have been a sh!tload of guys come and go while they tried to get through that bad luck. But since the start of the season, Dorsett has elevated HIS game, Gordon was signed and Edelman has returned. Add Hogan and Patterson, and the Pats now have as deep and talented WR group as they've ever had
6. Defensive general thoughts - I really have only two and both are negative. First the absence of any consistent pass rush against a patchwork OL was disturbing. It seemed a LITTLE better as the game wore on, but outside of that first defensive play, there wasn't much going on in the first half. It wasn't needed much in this game, but given who is coming to NE next week, it doesn't look good. Granted they were committed to keeping Luck in the pocket and they WERE successful at that, but KC has a much more well rounded offense and better threats all over the field, as well as a very mobile QB, so it is difficult to be hopeful that things will get better next week.
The second thing is about Devon McCourty. Ebron had a career game mostly against Devon. Now I'm not that pissed about the catches he allowed. There were several that were simply perfect passes that got through good coverage, that happens sometimes. What is concerning was the couple of plays it seemed Ebron was running AWAY from DMac, actually looking faster than him
I could be worried over nothing, but when the all 22 comes out, I'd be interested to see if anyone else got that "impression". I could be wrong, and hopefully I am.
7. Front Seven - Had a decent game against the run except for 2 or 3 plays, but the Colts didn't have a challenging run game. KC does. I mentioned the pass rush issue, but that has been an on going issue. It seems to me that we really don't have a consistent rusher who can beat his man one on one. That doesn't bother me as much as most. Even with our best defenses back in 2003 and 4, we never had a guy who had 10 or more sacks. During that same time, IIRC, the Pats were in the top 10 in sacks, so clearly scheming was the biggest factor in getting pressure. In fact, , when the Pats rush was at its best, the DL was doing various stems and twists.
One possible adjustment would be to go back to a 3-4 base look which would make it easier to disguise who the 4 rushers are coming as well as disguising an occasional blitz better than you'd get from a 4-3 base. Just a thought. feel free to discuss.
8. OK it just turned 3am so I'm going to try and be more concise. DB's - Statistically it was horrible. IIRC Luck had close to 300 yds passing in the 2nd half alone.
Everyone was guilty at one time or another of losing coverage or blowing an assignment. I have already mentioned DMac. Even Gilmore got beat badly once on a dropped pass. On the other hand I saw JMac had consistently tight coverage most of the night, and the kids rarely let anyone running free.
It SHOULD be noted that at least some of Luck's success has to be credited to being behind 3 TDs for most of the game. Hard to discern how much was bad play and how much was garbage time yds like the their last drive.
Just how the Pats plan to defend KC will be interesting, and it should be a full discussion on the topic this week.
.
9. ST- Pretty good overall, and much better than in recent weeks, but on the Colt's long PR, it could have been mitigated, if not avoided if the gunner had simply broken down 5 yds infront of the receiver and forced him to slow down to avoid him. Instead he kept going full speed trying to make the super play. Even if the returner had gotten by him, the rest of coverage would have had time to make the return into a 10-15 yd gain instead of a 33 yd one
General Comments before I nod off.
a. I saw a stat this week I found interesting - during the BB era the Pats have started 2-2 six times and went to the superbowl 3 times....and won twice
b. Interesting that coming off a game where they ran for 200 yds the Pats come out with the clear intention of attacking the Colt D through the air.
c. Edelman's quickness doesn't look like it was in 2016 . Is it rust, confidence, or simply it is what it is. Now there were some that didn't see a difference, but to me he didn't show the "burst", the acceleration out of a cut, that separated him and made him an elite slot receiver. JMHO
d. BTW- I hated the PF call. The guy was trying to block the pass and hit the helmet instead. No intent, No chance of injury. It should have been an non-call.
e. Sony got screwed out of a TD I wonder why BB didn't challenge.
f. Some people like Buck and Aikman, I don't. While I know the Colts had more than their share of injuries going into this game and during it, I got tired of hearing it EVERY freakin' minute. They didn't seem to notice that the Pats have NINE guys on IR already (2nd in the league), and they too lost some guys during the game.
MAYBE they could have mentioned that a reason so many Colt players were getting dinged in this game was the fact the Pats were being more physical than them. But doing THAT would require them to so say something positive about the Pats in general.
g. Kyle Van Noy is very quietly turning into a very nice player on this team. Also ERoberts is never going to be a great pass coverage LB, but there is no question in my mind that he HAS improved this year.
More stuff to say, but I am starting to nod off (3:40) If you make a lot of comments then you'll probably cover the stuff I wanted to say, and if not, I'll just say it in the morning....or afternoon....whenever I wake up.
First, I was of the distinct impression that while the addition of Julian Edelman would be a plus for the NE offense, it WOULDN'T be a "key" factor overall. I was WRONG! Edelman himself didn't have a big game statistically, but he was productive despite that big drop early in the game. BUT his presence really seemed to open up the field for virtually every other receiver the Pats put on the field. Gronk seemed to have much more room than he's had the first 4 games, as well as the rest of the WR's and RB's. Brady had very few completions that needed to be thrown into tight coverage. It seemed for the first time this season this was a Pats offense that I could recognize. I can only surmise that the difference was Edelman's presence underneath that opened up space for the rest of our receivers. Welcome back, JE. I don't think we realized how much you were missed.
The second biggest impression I got was I was reminded JUST how good Andrew Luck really is. Now I know he's had relatively very little luck with the Pats over his career AND all his injury woes, but while Brady was throwing to mostly open receivers all game, Luck had over a DOZEN key completions that literally had to be perfect throws to get them into the tight coverage his receivers were getting from the Pats, and remember he wasn't throwing to any probowl WR's tonight either.
Well those were the 2 biggest impressions I got, lets get going to the breakdown quickly so I can this done before 3am.
1. Offensive General comments - Two 38 point game in a row bode well for an offense that STILL has a lot of upside left in it. They easily left as many as 21 more points on the field through their own physical errors by Julian, Hogan, and Gronk. Plus Brady missing a wide open White deep. I can't imagine this offense NOT being superbowl worthy as Edelman, Patterson, and Gordon get more integrated into the pass offense, and Michell gets more acclimated to the pro game and shows off his receiving talent.
2. QB - IMO Brady elevated his game tonight. If I were an NFL QB I would never miss the opportunity to watch Brady play. It's almost like a QB clinic each and every time. I think the thing that impresses me the most is his PATIENCE. There is no other QB in the league that is willing to take what the defense is giving him over and over again. There is no other QB in the league who is more willing to simply throw it away and line up for the next play or series. It was a shame that he will be credited with 2 picks in this game, but it should be a lesson in how often individual "stats" don't tell the story.
Now that being said, I DO blame Brady for missing a wide open James White for a first down late in the game that would have led to kneel downs and kept the Colts to 17 points and cut about 70 yds off of Luck's totals. But that's one bad throw out of 44, so I guess I'm really nitpicking at this point. But If Brady had made the pass the defense wouldn't have been subject to several extra plays that could have led to a meaningless injury. It's also the reason I was pissed at the Colts for running the ball at the end of the half instead of just kneeling. I would have hated an injury on a play like that for either side.
BTW- 500 TD passes and having thrown them to 72 different people are AWESOME milestones, ESPECIALLY when you consider that 2 of the top 4 on that list played a great majority of their games in a Dome. Both Brady and Farve played most of their careers playing in bad weather stadiums. Also when you think about Brady's throwing TD's to 72 guys remember he did it playing for just ONE team. The guy Brady just passed played for 7 different teams over his long career, so it makes sense that he'd have a lot more "different receivers" to throw to.
3. OL - Brady had all the time in the world plus more in this game. Normally I'd say. "so what? It's the Colts" but I read where through 4 games the Colts had the 2nd most sacks in the league, so while they haven't got any big names, they have been thus far pretty successful at rushing the passer....UNTIL this game. Not only were the Pats pass blocking effectively, they seemed to be opening more holes in the run game as well. Of Soney's 18 rush attempts only 3 or 4 didn't yield 3 or 4 yards. So most of the time the OL was creating SOME room. A big improvement from the first 3 games. Overall the OL looks to be rounding into something we can hang our hats on. Brown is always going to have SOME issues with speed rushers just like Light and Solder before him, but his game looks to be improving over the course of the season. No reason to think it won't continue. One of the beauties of the game of football is when you KNOW what your weaknesses are, there are ways to deal with them.
4. RB's - James White CONTINUES to elevate his receiving game and it was great to see him make someone miss on his 18 catch and run. His abilities make it hard to fully cover a field that also includes Gronk, Edelman, and Gordon That's too man quality guys for a QB who is willing to throw it to the most open guy, even if it's short.
Michel showed he could be a consistent run threat. It is clear he is a violent runner to seems to give out more punishment than he gets. He was VERY elusive in college, but seems less so, so far. But like I've said, that skill could come if he continues to grow into the offense. We also haven't tapped much into his receiving skills either.
Negatives are 2 - First it seems when Michel is in the game we are running the ball, and when White is in, we are passing it. While I DON'T want them to give the ball to White on anything more than a draw play, I would like to see Michel get more looks in the passing game. The 2nd negative with our RB's is that we simply have too few of them. I don't think it is smart to go too much longer with just 2 pure RB's on the roster.
5. Receivers - Again the addition of Edelman really seemed to open up the field for all the receivers, hence Brady hit 8 different receivers and fully 5 had at least 3 catches. All the more amazing when you consider that White had 10 receptions.
On the negative side you had the 3 key drops by Edelman, Hogan and Gronk. One led to no points on a drive and the other 2 not only kept points off the board, they directly resulted in UNFORCED turnovers. Hopefully that will get taken care off.
On the positive side, while it took until the 4th quarter, Josh Gordon gave us a glimpse of what kind of impact he COULD become. He has become the biggest tease to hit the area in a while and I have the raging hard on to prove it.
Watching him closely tonight, I didn't see any of the blazing speed that we saw when he just ran away from Talib, but he catches the ball with his Gronk-like mitts, and he has great size so I would utilize him much like the Pats use Gronk. in the seam, back shoulder fades,along the sidelines and slants
His TD catch emphasized just how much talent he has. It wasn't about speed or quickness, it was all about his ability to track the ball better than the 2 defenders who seemingly had him blanketed. It is a rare skill to track a deep ball and get your body into the correct position to get to a ball in tight quarters. I though it was one of Brandon Cooks more underrated skills, but he was a smaller receiver and didn't have the hands that Gordon has.
We have long heard about Gordon only playing 12 games since 2014 and that is part of the tease. The other part is the realization that he has such a huge upside as he regains full health, full conditioning and full understanding of this complex and difficult to learn offense. It is a very exciting prospect....that could be extinguished in an instant and wouldn't surprise anyone.
I found it interesting when asked by a reporter how did it feel NOT to be the main focus of the passing offense, he responded by saying, "it was a relief" He went on to say he was just happy to do his part, whatever that part was and to be there when his number was called.
Dorsett had his 3 catches and Hogan had 3 as well, though his drop led to Brady's first pick. So it wasn't perfect, but I think we all can stop wringing our hands over the "WR situation". The Pats had a lot of tough luck losing Edelman, Mitchell, Britt, and Matthews after the start of TC. There have been a sh!tload of guys come and go while they tried to get through that bad luck. But since the start of the season, Dorsett has elevated HIS game, Gordon was signed and Edelman has returned. Add Hogan and Patterson, and the Pats now have as deep and talented WR group as they've ever had
6. Defensive general thoughts - I really have only two and both are negative. First the absence of any consistent pass rush against a patchwork OL was disturbing. It seemed a LITTLE better as the game wore on, but outside of that first defensive play, there wasn't much going on in the first half. It wasn't needed much in this game, but given who is coming to NE next week, it doesn't look good. Granted they were committed to keeping Luck in the pocket and they WERE successful at that, but KC has a much more well rounded offense and better threats all over the field, as well as a very mobile QB, so it is difficult to be hopeful that things will get better next week.
The second thing is about Devon McCourty. Ebron had a career game mostly against Devon. Now I'm not that pissed about the catches he allowed. There were several that were simply perfect passes that got through good coverage, that happens sometimes. What is concerning was the couple of plays it seemed Ebron was running AWAY from DMac, actually looking faster than him
I could be worried over nothing, but when the all 22 comes out, I'd be interested to see if anyone else got that "impression". I could be wrong, and hopefully I am.
7. Front Seven - Had a decent game against the run except for 2 or 3 plays, but the Colts didn't have a challenging run game. KC does. I mentioned the pass rush issue, but that has been an on going issue. It seems to me that we really don't have a consistent rusher who can beat his man one on one. That doesn't bother me as much as most. Even with our best defenses back in 2003 and 4, we never had a guy who had 10 or more sacks. During that same time, IIRC, the Pats were in the top 10 in sacks, so clearly scheming was the biggest factor in getting pressure. In fact, , when the Pats rush was at its best, the DL was doing various stems and twists.
One possible adjustment would be to go back to a 3-4 base look which would make it easier to disguise who the 4 rushers are coming as well as disguising an occasional blitz better than you'd get from a 4-3 base. Just a thought. feel free to discuss.
8. OK it just turned 3am so I'm going to try and be more concise. DB's - Statistically it was horrible. IIRC Luck had close to 300 yds passing in the 2nd half alone.
Everyone was guilty at one time or another of losing coverage or blowing an assignment. I have already mentioned DMac. Even Gilmore got beat badly once on a dropped pass. On the other hand I saw JMac had consistently tight coverage most of the night, and the kids rarely let anyone running free.It SHOULD be noted that at least some of Luck's success has to be credited to being behind 3 TDs for most of the game. Hard to discern how much was bad play and how much was garbage time yds like the their last drive.
Just how the Pats plan to defend KC will be interesting, and it should be a full discussion on the topic this week.
.
9. ST- Pretty good overall, and much better than in recent weeks, but on the Colt's long PR, it could have been mitigated, if not avoided if the gunner had simply broken down 5 yds infront of the receiver and forced him to slow down to avoid him. Instead he kept going full speed trying to make the super play. Even if the returner had gotten by him, the rest of coverage would have had time to make the return into a 10-15 yd gain instead of a 33 yd one
General Comments before I nod off.
a. I saw a stat this week I found interesting - during the BB era the Pats have started 2-2 six times and went to the superbowl 3 times....and won twice
b. Interesting that coming off a game where they ran for 200 yds the Pats come out with the clear intention of attacking the Colt D through the air.
c. Edelman's quickness doesn't look like it was in 2016 . Is it rust, confidence, or simply it is what it is. Now there were some that didn't see a difference, but to me he didn't show the "burst", the acceleration out of a cut, that separated him and made him an elite slot receiver. JMHO
d. BTW- I hated the PF call. The guy was trying to block the pass and hit the helmet instead. No intent, No chance of injury. It should have been an non-call.
e. Sony got screwed out of a TD I wonder why BB didn't challenge.
f. Some people like Buck and Aikman, I don't. While I know the Colts had more than their share of injuries going into this game and during it, I got tired of hearing it EVERY freakin' minute. They didn't seem to notice that the Pats have NINE guys on IR already (2nd in the league), and they too lost some guys during the game.
MAYBE they could have mentioned that a reason so many Colt players were getting dinged in this game was the fact the Pats were being more physical than them. But doing THAT would require them to so say something positive about the Pats in general.
g. Kyle Van Noy is very quietly turning into a very nice player on this team. Also ERoberts is never going to be a great pass coverage LB, but there is no question in my mind that he HAS improved this year.
More stuff to say, but I am starting to nod off (3:40) If you make a lot of comments then you'll probably cover the stuff I wanted to say, and if not, I'll just say it in the morning....or afternoon....whenever I wake up.
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