The title of this article is comes from Walt Kelly an astute and cutting political satirist back on Earth Day in 1971. It was a twist on a famous quote from Commandant Matthew Perry after his victory over the British in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. "We have met the enemy and they are ours" he messaged future President (for a very short time) General William Henry Harrision. (sorry but I WAS a History teacher). Kelly twisted that famous message to reflect the state of the Ecology long before Global Warming was a thought in the public mind.
Well I can be short and sweet with this one, We shot ourselves in the foot OVER and OVER and OVER again all night long. In the end they Pats aided and abetted a tough and well prepared Colts team and handed this game on a silver platter to the fans we hate the most (after the Jets of course, Joker).
Disclaimer =. I decided to mask ir up and try and make some money playing poker down at Foxwoods today and then head over to the sports book, have dinner and watch the game there. I was so pissed off at the first half that I left and decided to take my winnings and head home so I wouldn't still be writing this at 3 in the morning. BTW- the cheddar bacon burger stack was worth the overpricing. But because of this missed the first 10 minutes of the 3rd Quarter while I was out of radio range. So I had to piece together a bunch of stuff (Like Mac's 2nd pick from the stats). Sorry about that
So getting back to my old friend Pogo's quote, it fit the entire first half to a tee. Two drives were stalled by penalties, One by a dropped ball by Meyers, who will likely still be muttering to himself on Wednesday about this pass. We had a first down on the Colt 30 only to be called back on the Mason penalty Then we had a 2nd and one inside the 15. Then the Smith penalty, followed by a pick. All I know is that we constantly stopped ourselves from scoring on all but one drive (IIRC) in that first half. And then there was the catastrophic blocked punt.
When you think about it football is kind of easy. Over our 2-4 rocky start, we were -3 in our TO ratio. I don't know exactly what our TO ratio was during the 7 game wining streak, but I'm pretty sure it was PLUS double digits. I think the Bills game when our TO ratio was 0 was the only game in that streak where we didn't have a plus TO ratio. Well we were minus 2 tonight and gave up a TD to boot. Once you give up a TD to the defense or ST's your chances of winning the game drops to around 10%. We also, according to the radio, had a few chances at more picks of Wentz that could have and should have gone our way asl well. I can almost hear Bill's presser even though I missed it. "they simply made more big plays and fewer mistakes than we did." Right?
1. The defense; I expected the Colts to run the ball relatively successfully early in the game, and I felt that by the middle of the 2nd quarter to the that last long run when we were running desperation defenses the Pats did a really good job. I was actually surprised that prior to his TD run Taylor had "only" run for 103 yds and the Colts offense to 180 total yds AT home, IN a dome. And even with that run they gave up only 270 TOTAL yds. You'd take that number all day every day. So the defense did what it has for the last 8 games and gotten better as the game goes on and they get to see what the opposing offenses have planned for them. I really expected a tougher challenge from the Colts. I won't mind in the least seeing them again if they. make it to the playoffs.
2. Jonathan Taylor needs his own comment. He really is that good. Holding him to 100 yds would have been great outcome. So with that very good OL, you are never going to stop this kid clean. What I felt he did so well was to find the creases from tackle to tackle, and I do mean CREASE because these weren't gaping holes he was running through for the most part. So while he is quick and strong at the point of attack to go along with a very good OL, I think it is his vision and decision making that set him apart. I didn't see him miss a hole all game (the part I actually watched.) And he was good after first contact as well.
3. On our running game's part, I think Josh needs to rethink some of his OL blocking schemes as the year ends. We run what we being told is a "power running attack", but the OL blocking looks just like what I ran in the 70's and 80's which was the Delaware Wing-T OL blocking system which featured a lot of double teams with pulling G's. Block downs with G's or FB kick outs, etc. Well I think with all successful systems in the NFL, teams are starting to catch up with it by plugging the pulling G gaps and committing a S to the run. I recall one run where we were thrown for a loss when the pulling G was forced so deep he ran into the RB and the play was blown up. On the other hand on Stevenson's longest gain right at the end of the first half for 13 yds looked like they blocked it just man on man almost like a zone blocking scheme. It wasn't like there was a huge hole, but neither was there any leakage behind the LOS, so with a soft edge, Stevenson could do what he does best and maneuver in tight spaces and pick up positive yds. Just something to think about.
4. On the blocked punt - Even in HS, your up backs in whatever punt protection you run, are ALWAYS told to step UP to meet a man coming into your area. What happened in this case, the up back (Davis?) never did step up, he just met the rusher where he aligned and the rusher pushed him back a step and got to his inside and he cleanly took the ball right off of Bailey's foot. This wasn't helped by the glacially slow punt action by Bailey and the rest is history
Now I don't know if this is just me, but I was kind of pissed that the guy who happen to pick up the ball and go into the end zone did nothing but pick up the ball without a Patriot within 30 yards of him, got lauded like he discovered penicillin, meanwhile the guy who actually DID the heavy lifting and blocked the punt was treated like an afterthought by both the announcers AND to some respects by his teammates. This kid made the play of the night. I hope he at LEAST got a game ball.
b. Now if THAT was the only special teams error of the night, this game STILL might have ended on a positive note. The offside on the missed FG was ANOTHER 3 points that could have changed the course of this game. Think about it, that was 10 points that ST's teams gave to the Colts. That's a horrendous result for ANY team, but it's double for a team that devotes so many resources and time to special teams.
5. On Mac Jones - Well what did we learn about Mac Jones today, because that is the eternal question when it comes to our rookie QB. I thought several things.
a. On the first pick, he made a rookie mistake. If you look at the endzone replay, when he realized what he did, he slapped the sides of his helmet so hard I was surprised he didn't give himself a concussion. Here's what he needed to do. He DID pick the right guy to go to. If he had held on to the ball another half second, Henry would have cleared the MLB's zone and they would have completed the pass. It was as simple as that.
Now I don't know if Brady was great at moving defenders with his eyes early in his career, but I DO know that he was GREAT at it for at least his last 15 years in NE. Mac HAS occasionally done this successfully, but sometimes he hasn't. This was one of those time he didn't do it and it cost him.
I didn't see what happened on the 2nd pick. Maybe someone can fill me in.
b. Can he bring his team back from a 2 or 3 score deficit to win a game, well no because that didn't happen. But he DID move the ball well enough during this game to keep his team in the game right until Taylor's long run. and the answer to that question is trending to the positive if not there yet.
c. But the most important question that WAS answered that we didn't know was how would Jones react to adversity. Now being down 20-0 with 2 picks is about as adverse as you can get and yet he managed to get his team back to 20-17 and was 2 plays away from getting the. ball back with about 1:20 left and needing just a FG to tie the game up. I think we can now say that Mac Jones handles adversity quite well, thank you very much.
d. I've been saying over and over about how Mac IS a good athlete and has the speed and short area quickness to be more elusive than the stick in the mud he is supposed to be. His 12 yd scamper maybe showed just a hint of what might be, and I don't think he was running full speed. Again though his sack showed that his instincts are not where his athletic potential is, though I will keep on harping on this. I've already thought of a few drills he can do in the off season to help him on this.
6. Jaime Collins made his biggest contribution to the defense in the this game since he came back to the team. He's slowly getting back to the strong cover LB he's shown to be over the years with a tip that led to a pick and unfortunately a drop. I think he brings more depth and flexibility to a defense that has a LOT that already.
7. Matthew Judon - Bedard has opined that maybe Judon is hitting his own wall as his hurries and QB hits have gone down the last few games. He also thought that the Fisher/Judon match up favored Judon and would be a key to this game. I fully agreed. Well it didn't turn out that way. Judon only had 2 solo tackles, and just 5 altogether, to go along with no hurries or QB hits. Now granted Wentz only attempted 12 passes (AT home, IN a dome) but Judon didn't have much of an impact. So maybe he IS hitting a wall. He's played a LOT of snaps for a DE/OLB early in the season. Something to consider.
8. File this under "back to the bad old days". The Pats were flagged for 8 penalties for 50 yds, most of which REALLY hurt. ON the other hand, the Colts got flagged for just 2 for just 13 yds. BTW- I saw about 3 OBVIOUS calls in the first half alone on the Colts. 2 holding calls and an OPI on a long ball that was. overthrown on a 3rd down, and would have been declined, but still no flag came out. On the other hand all the penalties that the Pats got were deserved IMHO, so there really isn't any complaints with the officials overall This WAS a tough road venue (as most domes are) and they simply didn't handle it as well as they should have.
9. Are they REALLY paying Carson Wentz $35MM/yr? Seems like that's a bit of an overpay. (sarcasm if you didn't get it) Given his OL and Running game, you'd think they could do better. I can tell you that Zo HATES him. Outdoors, in January, like I said earlier, I'd LOVE our chances in a rematch.
10. So if you can help me and fill in some of the blanks with YOUR comments and criticisms I'd appreciate it. And below you will find the actual comic that was referenced in the title. For those of you old enough to remember Pogo, a bit of nostalgia, For those too young, learn what subtle political satire looks like.
Hey a 2AM finish.
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