I think as of today, the biggest question we have is whether the defense can summon enough pressure on the QB to take advantage of our excellent secondary. To answer that I'd like to point out that for the better part of the great 2 decade run the Pats had, we RARELY had what one would call a great INDIVIDUAL pass rusher. Chandler Jones was about the only one I could remember off hand. However we generally had defenses that ranked in the top 10 of sack ratings.
Schemed pressure is one of those things BB did so well back in the day, especially in that 2001-2007 run. For BB pressure was what he needed to make his defenses work. Sacks and QB hits were the gravy. IF the Pats were able to speed up the clock on the QB and get the ball out fast Bill could make defenses work even if they too lacked great individual players. Good players were enough.
Now, given that we have a GREAT group of individual players in our current secondary will a Jones Jacas, and Ponder rotation be enough to give us that push we need to make sure Darnold gets the ball out of his hands in under 3 seconds. I'm hoping this summer, Kur was studying old BB game plans seeing how the master was doing it back in the day and incorporating them into his own initial plans for the challenges he will face this week.
Will we play more man this week? Will he rush 4 or 5 most of the time? What will be the blitz percentage during the game? Those are the things I will be watching closely. As for the offense, I don't know WHAT to expect. I'm just finding it difficult to conceive just how ANY NFL offense can be counted on to run smoothly given how little the Starters play now in the pre-season. My AI told me that the over/under for TO's this week is 2.5, I would say THAT is the best bet of the night. I think 3 is an easy number. RB's who will face fully live action for the first time, are rife for fumbles, same goes for OL's and WR's that could lead to strip sacks and interceptions. I might just join draft kings just to make that bet.
