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I guess if adversity builds character, well the Pats had plenty of adversity this week (like myself, but more on that later) and in the end, wound up going into the bye week with 4 straight wins and a 6-2 record that NO one is happy with. The mediots won't be happy with it. The fans certainly aren't. And when you listen to the players and coaches, neither are they.
Anyone looking at the stats would have thought the Pats would have had an easy time in this game and won it going away. And they would have IF, Gotskowski had made just one of his 2 misses. IF Brady and the offense were better than 1-4 in the Red Zone, and IF the defense hadn't allowed an 87 yd TD run that looked more like a 2 yd loss starting out.
So I get it, no one is happy at 6-2. No one is happy that the offense looks inconsistent. That the defense is beat up and not "looking the part" of a championship defense, even though their point totals certainly are. So while we "celebrate" Joey Bosa having the most Sacks though his first 2 games.
Lets start to break down what happen, or rather ask the questions that made us so irritable after an 8 point win against a good team coming off a 3 game win streak.
AGAIN - I feel the need to point out that there are NO style points given in the NFL. You are what your record says you are, and currently there is only one other team who has a better record than the Pats. But that isn't going to satisfy anyone so let the B!tching begin,
1. The OFFENSE;
a. General thoughts - I think the game plan going into this game was to create an offense that would allow Brady to get rid of the ball quickly and to slowly bleed the Chargers to the death of a thousand cuts and that's pretty much what they did. Even though the point total didn't show it, the Pats ran 78 plays to the Chargers 51 and had a 37-23 time of possession differential
b. Bill has long said that the amount of yards you run that ball is LESS important that the number of times you run it. So the Pats runners accumulated a respectable yet very unspectacular 100 yds in rushing. The key element was that they rushed in 31 times.
c. QB- Brady came out hot, cooled off in the middle of the game and finally made the key throws that put the Chargers chance of winning in the miracle category at the end of the game. Hard to watch this game and look at the 333 yd total passing yards and 68% completion rate, and compute those numbers. Brady never look ed fluid, the offense rarely looked in sync, yet somehow those numbers came into being in a game Brady seemed pretty pissed off at himself at his presser.
Where Brady excelled was in maneuvering inside the pocket. He garnered tons of time doing this, yet it seemed so rare that it ended up resulting in any big plays. THAT is I'd like one of the questions I need the film review team answer this week. Brady usually kills teams that allow him second and third looks down the field. That didn't happen today.
d. OL- Brady dropped back 47 times was sacked 3 times but one came on a well designed blitz that Brady missed. One was after he bought himself 5 or 6 seconds and still couldn't find anyone, and the Sack by Bosa who made a nice rush. It happens. Their guys are good too.
It needs to be brought out that Nate Solder had is best game of the year. Between him, Cannon and Waddle, they pretty much neutralized the top 2 run threats in the league. Brady consistenly had room to step up in the pocket, so we have to assume the interior 3 were also doing a good job. The very fact that the Chargers felt the need to blitz as much as they did, even with 2 of the best rushers in the game, shows just how good a job the OL was doing in this game.
BTW- has anyone in the league done LESS to pick up a 10 yd penalty than Nate Solder. The block in the back penalty he got today was even worse than the phantom holding call he got last week. Even the Charger announcers were embarrassed. That being said, I thought Morrelli's group did a pretty good job today. I just have to wonder why in a game, where the officials seemed to be calling only the worst calls, they had to make one up vs Solder.
e. RB's. It's really an embarrassment of riches back there. White was the leading receiver. Burkhead flashed again as both a runner and receiver. Gillislee got all the yards he was presented with, and Lewis led all runners and had the longest gain of the day.
That's the good news. I have to make 2 comments. No one hates negative runs more than BB. Today, as well as he played, Lewis had 3 or 4 of these negative runs. Gillislee has been spectacularly unspectacular this year, but when HE runs the ball, we aren't starting the next play 2nd and 12 or 14. Don't be surprised if Lewis loses some snaps next time because of it, because it didn't happen just once or twice.
One more comment comes to mind. I would really like when the Pats go into a heavy run formation that OCCASIONALLY they threw a dump off to Devlin, who has good hands. He'd be open every time. Not much imagination by Josh there.
.
f. Receivers - 5 for 25 is NOT what we brought Brandon Cooks here for. Zero comeback routes, zero back shoulder routes, and the only deep rout he ran was the flea flicker where HE had to be the DB. No criticism to Cooks himself, just how he was used in this game.
Gronk simply had a bad day. He dropped 2 big pass plays during this game and he was another one of those guys I was wondering about when Brady was buying all that time. This is when Gronk gets open despite getting manhandled down field.
Hog an was good again. I wouldn't be surprised if had to miss sometime after that hit on his shoulder. I just hope it isn't something that is long term.
Finally I find it odd that in a game where getting it out quick was a priority, our 2 "quick" receivers (DA, and Cooks) did very little.
Last comment on the offense - the old defensive adage that all you have to do is make the offense run a lot of plays on a drive and they will eventually screw up does NOT seem to apply to the Pats. They might not have ended in TDs, but almost EVERY drive the Pats ran, they were piling up 10+ plays. No other team in the league is both as patient and successful at putting together long . Its been a staple of BB's offenses throughout his time here.
2. Defense -drives
a. General comments
The Charger's first series seemed to set the tone in this game. No incompletions. No pass rush. No points. No defense could have looked less impressive, yet had the good results the Pats have had this week in all the important stats. Check them out. Points (13) - 3rd down conversions - 30% While at the same time allowing over 150 yds rushing on only 21 attempts. Like most of this game the actual number didn't seem to compute with what we saw with our eyes.
b. Was it just me or did the Charger's NOT convert on most of their 3rd and short downs.
c. I really need to know how the f*ck that 87 yd run happened. I thought the front 7 strung it out pretty well, and even when the RB sprung around the corner, I was expecting another 7 yd gain. Where were the safeties, and how did they wind up 10 yds behind the play chasing Gordon Down
That is a big error to have that kind of scoring play and we need to know how it happened, so get on it film revue team.
Blue smoke and mirrors could be the best description of today's defensive game. It was never pretty, but it was always effective. When you are missing 4 of 11 starters it usually doesn't bode well.
c. Front 7- Not much of a pass rush for most of this game, however it DID seem to get a lot better in the 4th quarter. There was a LOT of pressure in that quarter. Another solid game by Van Noy. The rest of the LB's were more hit and miss. But David Harris showed up and flashed on a few plays, particularly on a pass rush where be blew up Gordon and helped force the 20 yd fumble/sack. I thought overall the DL was "solid". No much pass rush for the first 3 quarters, but I felt they were doing THEIR job vs the run.
d. Secondary - There seemed to be a lot of last minute talking among the Defense all during the game, but evidently it was positive since there weren't any big plays from SD, like we saw so often in the KC and Carolina games. Unsung here in my opinion was Patrick Chung. Hunter Henry came into the game as the next Gronk, and was held to 2 catches for 11 yds and was no factor in the game. Chung also made a few big tackles to create those 3rd and shorts.
Butler was up and down. His attempt to knock the ball out from Gordon was a GREAT hustle play, and so indicative of what we've come to expect from Malcolm. On the other hand he looked dazed, confused and badly beaten on the TD pass to Allen that closed the gap in the 4th. The Chargers had a few open men against zone coverage, but in those times where they were in man to man, the secondary was VERY competitive.
Don't be one of those who want to blame every secondary fault on Gilmore. Believe me, they will be much better when he and Rowe get back. Badamosi has been OK, but there is a reason he's never had a regular role in any secondary to this point. Good Patriots' coaching has gotten the most out of him, but Gilmore will make this much better.
3. Special teams - I know a lot will be made of the 2 Gotskowski misses, but overall all the special teams units were SPECTACULAR. KO coverage constantly put the Charger offense inside the 20. Punt coverage was even better, and Allen bounced back with a huge day. It was his kick, deep and toward the sidelines that set up the safety. Also we shouldn't overlook that excellent punt returns by DA. He was always making positive yards on those returns. (except for the one penalty that took a great return away)
4. Watching some of the highlights from today's game reinforces one of the key things that this team is missing and those are Turn Overs. Other teams seem to be getting tons of them, and they sure make the game a lot easier on both sides of the ball. The Pats never seem to have short fields on offense, and the D rarely turns the ball over to save scores or create those short fields. What small effect we do get all seem to come from special teams in the way of FG blocks, and run backs. There was a nice one by Lewis today that was wasted between Brady and Gotskowski
Usually the Pats have over a +10 by this time. I don't know what it is, but it's not close to that. It is very fortunate that the Pats offense doesn't allow many turnovers (IIRC, 3 so far), so they aren't being killed by them in a negative sense. It's just that they are CREATING many and those are the plays that make a grind out win into an easy game.
4. A few comments for around the league:
a. If I were a Jets fan, I'd be really proud of my team. In true Patriots fashion, they are good example of a team that is better than the sum of their individual parts. It's been a great coaching job, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised when they fire him at the end of the season.
b. I'm even happy to see the Bills doing well. It has been a really long time for those fans to be under our thumbs. I'm also happy to see the entire AFCE doing fairly well, I'm frankly tired of hearing the mediots tearing it down. It was NEVER as bad as it was being reported.
c. My personal rant. - On Wednesday I underwent vascular bypass surgery. Basically they are supposed to take about an 18" vein from by left leg and put it in my right leg thus creating blood flow so I could now walk more than 100 yds without limping. To explain it I would tell someone, I can walk 100 yds like a 19 year old. the next 100 yds like a 90 year old, and after that I'd need to sit down to go forward again.
Well all this was supposed to solve that problem. Sort of like a good plumbing job. Well the good news is that it worked. I now have 1 healthy pulse in my leg. The bad news is that they did some nerve damage to the foot, so I now have no feeling in the foot. So I am currently limping around like I have a slab of cement at the end of my leg. I can no longer drive, so I've lost my independence, and to make matters worse, I evidently developed some nerve damage to my neck while at the hospital, so now the worse of the pain isn't coming from the 80 odd staples from the incisions, but from the neck pain.
You'd like to think that when you enter a hospital, you come out better for the experience. And while I can say that has been my experience on several occasions. This isn't one of them. So if I seemed a little irritable in today's post, now you understand why.
OK rant over. Now what would make me really happy is a good football discussion coming out of this post.
Anyone looking at the stats would have thought the Pats would have had an easy time in this game and won it going away. And they would have IF, Gotskowski had made just one of his 2 misses. IF Brady and the offense were better than 1-4 in the Red Zone, and IF the defense hadn't allowed an 87 yd TD run that looked more like a 2 yd loss starting out.
So I get it, no one is happy at 6-2. No one is happy that the offense looks inconsistent. That the defense is beat up and not "looking the part" of a championship defense, even though their point totals certainly are. So while we "celebrate" Joey Bosa having the most Sacks though his first 2 games.
Lets start to break down what happen, or rather ask the questions that made us so irritable after an 8 point win against a good team coming off a 3 game win streak.AGAIN - I feel the need to point out that there are NO style points given in the NFL. You are what your record says you are, and currently there is only one other team who has a better record than the Pats. But that isn't going to satisfy anyone so let the B!tching begin,
1. The OFFENSE;
a. General thoughts - I think the game plan going into this game was to create an offense that would allow Brady to get rid of the ball quickly and to slowly bleed the Chargers to the death of a thousand cuts and that's pretty much what they did. Even though the point total didn't show it, the Pats ran 78 plays to the Chargers 51 and had a 37-23 time of possession differential
b. Bill has long said that the amount of yards you run that ball is LESS important that the number of times you run it. So the Pats runners accumulated a respectable yet very unspectacular 100 yds in rushing. The key element was that they rushed in 31 times.
c. QB- Brady came out hot, cooled off in the middle of the game and finally made the key throws that put the Chargers chance of winning in the miracle category at the end of the game. Hard to watch this game and look at the 333 yd total passing yards and 68% completion rate, and compute those numbers. Brady never look ed fluid, the offense rarely looked in sync, yet somehow those numbers came into being in a game Brady seemed pretty pissed off at himself at his presser.
Where Brady excelled was in maneuvering inside the pocket. He garnered tons of time doing this, yet it seemed so rare that it ended up resulting in any big plays. THAT is I'd like one of the questions I need the film review team answer this week. Brady usually kills teams that allow him second and third looks down the field. That didn't happen today.
d. OL- Brady dropped back 47 times was sacked 3 times but one came on a well designed blitz that Brady missed. One was after he bought himself 5 or 6 seconds and still couldn't find anyone, and the Sack by Bosa who made a nice rush. It happens. Their guys are good too.
It needs to be brought out that Nate Solder had is best game of the year. Between him, Cannon and Waddle, they pretty much neutralized the top 2 run threats in the league. Brady consistenly had room to step up in the pocket, so we have to assume the interior 3 were also doing a good job. The very fact that the Chargers felt the need to blitz as much as they did, even with 2 of the best rushers in the game, shows just how good a job the OL was doing in this game.
BTW- has anyone in the league done LESS to pick up a 10 yd penalty than Nate Solder. The block in the back penalty he got today was even worse than the phantom holding call he got last week. Even the Charger announcers were embarrassed. That being said, I thought Morrelli's group did a pretty good job today. I just have to wonder why in a game, where the officials seemed to be calling only the worst calls, they had to make one up vs Solder.
e. RB's. It's really an embarrassment of riches back there. White was the leading receiver. Burkhead flashed again as both a runner and receiver. Gillislee got all the yards he was presented with, and Lewis led all runners and had the longest gain of the day.
That's the good news. I have to make 2 comments. No one hates negative runs more than BB. Today, as well as he played, Lewis had 3 or 4 of these negative runs. Gillislee has been spectacularly unspectacular this year, but when HE runs the ball, we aren't starting the next play 2nd and 12 or 14. Don't be surprised if Lewis loses some snaps next time because of it, because it didn't happen just once or twice.
One more comment comes to mind. I would really like when the Pats go into a heavy run formation that OCCASIONALLY they threw a dump off to Devlin, who has good hands. He'd be open every time. Not much imagination by Josh there.
.
f. Receivers - 5 for 25 is NOT what we brought Brandon Cooks here for. Zero comeback routes, zero back shoulder routes, and the only deep rout he ran was the flea flicker where HE had to be the DB. No criticism to Cooks himself, just how he was used in this game.
Gronk simply had a bad day. He dropped 2 big pass plays during this game and he was another one of those guys I was wondering about when Brady was buying all that time. This is when Gronk gets open despite getting manhandled down field.
Hog an was good again. I wouldn't be surprised if had to miss sometime after that hit on his shoulder. I just hope it isn't something that is long term.
Finally I find it odd that in a game where getting it out quick was a priority, our 2 "quick" receivers (DA, and Cooks) did very little.
Last comment on the offense - the old defensive adage that all you have to do is make the offense run a lot of plays on a drive and they will eventually screw up does NOT seem to apply to the Pats. They might not have ended in TDs, but almost EVERY drive the Pats ran, they were piling up 10+ plays. No other team in the league is both as patient and successful at putting together long . Its been a staple of BB's offenses throughout his time here.
2. Defense -drives
a. General comments
The Charger's first series seemed to set the tone in this game. No incompletions. No pass rush. No points.
No defense could have looked less impressive, yet had the good results the Pats have had this week in all the important stats. Check them out. Points (13) - 3rd down conversions - 30% While at the same time allowing over 150 yds rushing on only 21 attempts. Like most of this game the actual number didn't seem to compute with what we saw with our eyes.b. Was it just me or did the Charger's NOT convert on most of their 3rd and short downs.
c. I really need to know how the f*ck that 87 yd run happened. I thought the front 7 strung it out pretty well, and even when the RB sprung around the corner, I was expecting another 7 yd gain. Where were the safeties, and how did they wind up 10 yds behind the play chasing Gordon Down
That is a big error to have that kind of scoring play and we need to know how it happened, so get on it film revue team.
Blue smoke and mirrors could be the best description of today's defensive game. It was never pretty, but it was always effective. When you are missing 4 of 11 starters it usually doesn't bode well.
c. Front 7- Not much of a pass rush for most of this game, however it DID seem to get a lot better in the 4th quarter. There was a LOT of pressure in that quarter. Another solid game by Van Noy. The rest of the LB's were more hit and miss. But David Harris showed up and flashed on a few plays, particularly on a pass rush where be blew up Gordon and helped force the 20 yd fumble/sack. I thought overall the DL was "solid". No much pass rush for the first 3 quarters, but I felt they were doing THEIR job vs the run.
d. Secondary - There seemed to be a lot of last minute talking among the Defense all during the game, but evidently it was positive since there weren't any big plays from SD, like we saw so often in the KC and Carolina games. Unsung here in my opinion was Patrick Chung. Hunter Henry came into the game as the next Gronk, and was held to 2 catches for 11 yds and was no factor in the game. Chung also made a few big tackles to create those 3rd and shorts.
Butler was up and down. His attempt to knock the ball out from Gordon was a GREAT hustle play, and so indicative of what we've come to expect from Malcolm. On the other hand he looked dazed, confused and badly beaten on the TD pass to Allen that closed the gap in the 4th. The Chargers had a few open men against zone coverage, but in those times where they were in man to man, the secondary was VERY competitive.
Don't be one of those who want to blame every secondary fault on Gilmore. Believe me, they will be much better when he and Rowe get back. Badamosi has been OK, but there is a reason he's never had a regular role in any secondary to this point. Good Patriots' coaching has gotten the most out of him, but Gilmore will make this much better.
3. Special teams - I know a lot will be made of the 2 Gotskowski misses, but overall all the special teams units were SPECTACULAR. KO coverage constantly put the Charger offense inside the 20. Punt coverage was even better, and Allen bounced back with a huge day. It was his kick, deep and toward the sidelines that set up the safety. Also we shouldn't overlook that excellent punt returns by DA. He was always making positive yards on those returns. (except for the one penalty that took a great return away)
4. Watching some of the highlights from today's game reinforces one of the key things that this team is missing and those are Turn Overs. Other teams seem to be getting tons of them, and they sure make the game a lot easier on both sides of the ball. The Pats never seem to have short fields on offense, and the D rarely turns the ball over to save scores or create those short fields. What small effect we do get all seem to come from special teams in the way of FG blocks, and run backs. There was a nice one by Lewis today that was wasted between Brady and Gotskowski
Usually the Pats have over a +10 by this time. I don't know what it is, but it's not close to that. It is very fortunate that the Pats offense doesn't allow many turnovers (IIRC, 3 so far), so they aren't being killed by them in a negative sense. It's just that they are CREATING many and those are the plays that make a grind out win into an easy game.
4. A few comments for around the league:
a. If I were a Jets fan, I'd be really proud of my team. In true Patriots fashion, they are good example of a team that is better than the sum of their individual parts. It's been a great coaching job, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised when they fire him at the end of the season.
b. I'm even happy to see the Bills doing well. It has been a really long time for those fans to be under our thumbs. I'm also happy to see the entire AFCE doing fairly well, I'm frankly tired of hearing the mediots tearing it down. It was NEVER as bad as it was being reported.
c. My personal rant. - On Wednesday I underwent vascular bypass surgery. Basically they are supposed to take about an 18" vein from by left leg and put it in my right leg thus creating blood flow so I could now walk more than 100 yds without limping. To explain it I would tell someone, I can walk 100 yds like a 19 year old. the next 100 yds like a 90 year old, and after that I'd need to sit down to go forward again.
Well all this was supposed to solve that problem. Sort of like a good plumbing job. Well the good news is that it worked. I now have 1 healthy pulse in my leg. The bad news is that they did some nerve damage to the foot, so I now have no feeling in the foot. So I am currently limping around like I have a slab of cement at the end of my leg. I can no longer drive, so I've lost my independence, and to make matters worse, I evidently developed some nerve damage to my neck while at the hospital, so now the worse of the pain isn't coming from the 80 odd staples from the incisions, but from the neck pain.
You'd like to think that when you enter a hospital, you come out better for the experience. And while I can say that has been my experience on several occasions. This isn't one of them. So if I seemed a little irritable in today's post, now you understand why.
OK rant over. Now what would make me really happy is a good football discussion coming out of this post.
