Normally you'd think that you would have to have Drake Maye play an almost perfect game to win down at TB coming off a bye and getting back 2 key OLmen. Well, the Pats won this game on a day where Drake had his WORST statistical game of the season, with a completion % of 51% AND an endzone pick. The reality was Maye, despite the things he did wrong, did a LOT of things right. It just that for that game he reminded us that he is really IS a 2nd year 23-year-old paying his dues playing a very unforgiving game.
So much to unpack in this game. I started writing this last night, got about 2/3rds of the way through it, then hit some keys and suddenly it was all gone. With mind blown and very frustrated I went to sleep figuring there wouldn't be an "idle thoughts" this week. Woke up this AM and decided to try again, but with a shorter version. Hope you all understand.
1. Drake Maye continues to impress me, despite the stats. Let's take the play he runs to the sideline and gets "earholed" by a Bucs defender (no flag). Instead of jumping up begging for a call, he just calmly got up, and walked back to the huddle completely focused on "the next play".
Maye presents that calm, confident demeanor throughout the game, game after game, and it is such an important quality that I get chills. That's the kind of presence that wins ball games under the highest of pressures and effects the whole unit in a positive manner.
2. I wrote in the GDT "2 picks, 2 explosive plays, Mission accomplished. Now Henderson and Williams are FAR from finished products. Williams doesn't even get regular snaps yet. I read somewhere that he played only 10 snaps, despite the TD. But we drafted both because we lacked guys who have the speed to create EXACTLY the kind of plays we saw yesterday. We had FOUR such plays, when we used to have none. Now I hope they both work out and eventually become consistently productive starters, but in that last draft we went in with a vision of what we wanted this team to look like in the future and STUCK to the plan. Today we saw an image of the future.
3. This might have been the best draft in Patriots history, at least in the one with the most immediate impact. Think about it. At #1 your starting LT. At #2 an explosive RB At 3A your explosive WR. At 3B your starting LG. At #4 your starting FS (more on him later) Then you draft a very effective FG operation with both the snapper and Kicker (after a shaky start) Farmer has contributed to the DL rotation. Bryant is the backup RT. In fact, only Minor and Swinson haven't contributed in a meaningful manner....so far. Pretty good haul by ANY measurement.
4. Now back to Woodson - Here is a 4th round kid who has started from day ONE and has played over 80% of the defensive snaps and has done nothing but get better every single game he plays. Yet when we talk so glowingly about our rookies, his name is often left out. He had 8 tackles 3 pass defended including a key one in the endzone. Why isn't he getting more love. Why isn't he given the acknowledgement that as a rookie his IS going to make mistakes. Why isn't HE be given the any benefit of the doubt. To my point of view, he has done a GREAT job, as a rookie, a one of the most difficult positions on the defensive side of the field.
5. Interesting that when we put Gonzales on Eckuba in man, he did a great job shutting him down. But when we used zone concepts on him, he managed to get over 100 yds. Are we ever going to "revis island" some #1 or 2 WR for most of a game? Personally, I'd like to see that.
6. I wonder if Terrell Williams is doing any football work or helping in the game planning while he is at home getting treatment. It is hard to believe that a relative novice on defense is in charge of developing the game plan and making all the in-game adjustments. I would LOVE to get a look inside the logistics of how they are developing their defensive game plans, which btw have been pretty damned good so far.
7. HUGE kudos to Doug Marrone and his staff for getting his ragtag group of vets and rookies ready to play against TB's complex 5 and 6 man blitz/fake blitz packages. It was a group that had 15 sacks over the last 3 games and were held to 1 phony sack of one yard this game. I certainly wasn't perfect, but for the most part they gave Drake enough time to get the ball downfield on a regular basis. A lot of work still needs to be done. Maye had a lot of pressures, but given the advantage of the homefield and extra week to prepare the OL did an adequate job. Also, kudos to the RB's and TE's who I imaging also helped in the protection schemes. A big ask from such young RB's. It was my biggest fear going into this game and happily didn't materialize.
8. Going forward, I doubt that either Boutte or Stevenson are going to play Thursday, despite the Jets win yesterday, I don't see us losing to them. I'm going to trust this staff to get them ready and squared away mentally. Teams have so many staffers these days, that I'm sure they delegated a few to have preliminary game plans for the Jets ready for today, with all their games broken down and personnel analyzed when Mike got to the stadium this morning.
9. That being said, there were PLENTY of lessons this week of proof of the "on any given Sunday" adage. So, while it is a game we SHOULD win easily, that's what the Bills thought Sunday. That's what we ALL thought. But even the worst teams have a LOT of good football players on them. Can't forget that, like the Bills evidently did. ST's TD's, turnovers, defensive TD's, etc, can all turn games around. Now the Pats are going to be tested on their maturity and mental toughness.
10. Despite the spectacular 4 plays we saw Henderson and Williams make, they are still far from becoming regular contributors. Henderson is a lot closer. He COULD become a spectacular impact RB IF he develops a lot better vision and cutback ability. Right now, he has become a legit threat to pop through a hole and go the distance, but if the hole doesn't exist right where the play was designed to go, he doesn't have the vision to make that cutback to where a hole has formed and make something out of nothing which impact RB's do on a regular basis. Right now, he just runs where they tell him to go as fast and as hard as he can. If there is a hole he becomes extremely dangerous. If there isn't, he'll hit it hard and do the best he can. Right now he's an asset, if he learns to have a plan B he'll become someone defenses will have to plan around. Excited to see how he develops over the next couple of years.
11. I hope Drake Maye DOESN'T win the MVP. It's too early for one, and I don't care that much about it to begin with. Brady was the GOAT, and how many times did he win it? 3 times in 20 years and surprisingly never in a year he won a superbowl. IMHO Taylor should get if he continues on his current pace, and if it is truly a QB award, Stafford deserves it more. Right now, no NFC team looks more complete than the Rams.
12. I finally have decided to stop getting pissed off at the refs. We watch these players make DOZENS of mistakes throughout the game and not go nuts, and then when a ref makes a judgement call at full speed and it's found to be wrong after 5 minutes of going over it in super slow motion and 4 different angles, or worse it is a foul, but a ticky tack one that is often let go, we rage. Officials are part of the game, and mistakes WILL happen. Sometimes they benefit you sometimes they don't, and with the exception of KC, they usually even out over time. We have enough to rage about these days. I can do without this one.
Well, I spent 2 hours working on this into the AM and suddenly lost it. Tried again and worked 2 more hours in the morning and lost it again and gave up in frustration. Decided to open another thread on FA and the morning edition popped up, so I finished it and here it is, for what it's worth. I hope it was worth the read, please comment or disagree.
