Post-Game: Patriots vs. New Orleans

[DaBruinz]

I know it's pre-season, but there are a lot of people who weren't able to watch the game because we were out of market.

Looks like our defense showed up in a big way. 2 Defensive TDs.. One on an interception by Collins. The other by Trey Flowers on a fumble recovery.

Looking at the play-by-play, things started slow.. The Running game seemed to get going in the 2nd half.. How much of it was Gaffney and how much of it was just bad play by the New Orleans D?

Sucks to hear about Mitchell.

NFL.com had a great video of the White run.. busted open by Mason and Stork on the screen. Sure looked to me like White was in based on the video..

So, what was the good and what was the bad?

 

[The Brandon Five]

I know it's pre-season, but there are a lot of people who weren't able to watch the game because we were out of market.

Looks like our defense showed up in a big way. 2 Defensive TDs.. One on an interception by Collins. The other by Trey Flowers on a fumble recovery.

Looking at the play-by-play, things started slow.. The Running game seemed to get going in the 2nd half.. How much of it was Gaffney and how much of it was just bad play by the New Orleans D?

Sucks to hear about Mitchell.

NFL.com had a great video of the White run.. busted open by Mason and Stork on the screen. Sure looked to me like White was in based on the video..

So, what was the good and what was the bad?

One White's screen: it would have been a TD if Bennett had bothered to block, like, at all.

 

[Se7eN]

Gaffney was getting hyped up by the commentators but I was unimpressed with him and Blount and they didn't seem to be netting consistent yards by any means (Gaffney's stats were massively padded by his long run which had a gaping hole).

 

[Joker]

White WAS in ...and that so called "catch" on the sideline earlier in the first half? How in hell was THAT ruled a catch after replay?

 

[supafly]

White WAS in ...and that so called "catch" on the sideline earlier in the first half? How in hell was THAT ruled a catch after replay?

I fully agree with you on both counts. Seemed like some ******** to me.

 

[AzorianPats]

Gaffney was getting hyped up by the commentators but I was unimpressed with him and Blount and they didn't seem to be netting consistent yards by any means (Gaffney's stats were massively padded by his long run which had a gaping hole).

That was his first game in over 2 years. Give him some credit.

I'm hoping to see him get more of an opportunity with the first team. I like the way he runs. He takes what the OL gives him and hits the hole. He won't dance behind the backfield. And last night shown he's got the speed to take one to the house.

 

[mikey m]

Need to watch it again but..
Positives:
- Let's just say that with a healthy Jabaal Sheard, CJ will not be missed.
- All the fellas we hope to build this defense around long term (JC, DH, MB, JS) making plays, fun as hell to watch
- What a class of rookies: Thuney, Cyrus, Mitchell, J. Jones all looking like significant contributers this year. To a lesser extent I believe Karras, Roberts, kgh, Brissett had decent days as well will have to rewatch.
- My two areas of concern on defense, DE depth and LB depth looked solid. Humber was a tackling machine, Flowers and Long had good days which is big with Nink missing time
- Good day for AJ Derby, looked really good catching the ball and made some blocks as well

Negatives:
- Justin Coleman got picked on early. Seems to lack ball skills as of right now. But I still think he's got good ability to stay with his man and he's a physical tackler. Will be nice when Ryan is ready to go as I Coleman isn't ready to be a real #2 yet
- Run game, run game, run game. O-line not opening much space. I thought Legarratte had been looking quick and rdy to go in the practice clips I've seen but definitely not the case last night. Gaffney doesn't get me much more excited. I actually thought White was decent. The presence of Gronk and actual game planning may improve these areas alone, but otherwise Dion Lewis may be the only back alive who can consistently find yardage in our run game.
- Mitchell injury

Somewhere in between:
- Qb play. Some good and some bad from both guys. Jimmy held the ball a bit too long at times and of course does not have the pocket awareness of TB. Was hesitant with his throws early but settled in and played more comfortably later. Brissett has a huge arm. 2 of his throws would have picked but with how much velocity he had on them, defenders couldn't hang on. He is definitely a project with a lot to learn, but naturally a pretty exciting playmaker ala big Ben.
- Shea McClellin. Seems like he's always in the area but doesn't quite have the athletic ability to make an impact play.

 

[Joker]

I was at the game Mikey and I agree with a lot of what you saw...I also disagree with some things. What I saw of JG in the first 2 quarters I did NOT like at all. He misfired and shortarmed throw after throw in the 5 t0 10 yard range. He also seems to lock on a cone of view down the middle and is turtle slow reading his 2nd and 3rd options. At this point I'm hoping he manages the first four games keeping the team in the game without making tragic INT mistakes...especially early on, like the Arizona game.If he tries that throw that Mitchell got hurt on the Cards secondary will eat his lunch. I just hope he sticks to Gronk and Marty and uses Eds as his first read

I disagree on McClellin. I had the same bias you have but I keyed on him in the first half and he settled in quite well.

Bolden ran with the most authority last night and should get a bigger share of the carries the next few exhibition games IMO.

Justin Coleman sucks as an NFL football player. There's a thousand Justin Colemans out there in FA land. He looked horrid every time the ball went to his side. Got juked out of his jock twice at least. Not one of my faves by any stretch.

Of course, a "game" like this is pretty ridiculous to base any real projections on but for me, JG's lack of precision hitting his targets in stride worries me the most.

 

[Froob]

I was at the game Mikey and I agree with a lot of what you saw...I also disagree with some things. What I saw of JG in the first 2 quarters I did NOT like at all. He misfired and shortarmed throw after throw in the 5 t0 10 yard range. He also seems to lock on a cone of view down the middle and is turtle slow reading his 2nd and 3rd options. At this point I'm hoping he manages the first four games keeping the team in the game without making tragic INT mistakes...especially early on, like the Arizona game.If he tries that throw that Mitchell got hurt on the Cards secondary will eat his lunch. I just hope he sticks to Gronk and Marty and uses Eds as his first read

I disagree on McClellin. I had the same bias you have but I keyed on him in the first half and he settled in quite well.

Bolden ran with the most authority last night and should get a bigger share of the carries the next few exhibition games IMO.

Justin Coleman sucks as an NFL football player. There's a thousand Justin Colemans out there in FA land. He looked horrid every time the ball went to his side. Got juked out of his jock twice at least. Not one of my faves by any stretch.

Of course, a "game" like this is pretty ridiculous to base any real projections on but for me, JG's lack of precision hitting his targets in stride worries me the most.

He didn't look great but, a poor line can sabotage any offense. Scar has some work to do.

 

[Joker]

BTW Froob...at the 38 second mark of this clip there's a guy named Tommy Ginobli giving a traffic report...in case you ever wanted to know what I'm really like in person, this guy Tommy could be my twin...

 

[Crazy Patriot Guy]

White WAS in ...and that so called "catch" on the sideline earlier in the first half? How in hell was THAT ruled a catch after replay?

Yeah I was amazed that was confirmed a catch. His right foot clearly came off the ground before he caught it. Since it's preseason, I wasn't exactly upset with the call, just shaking my head realizing we'll probably be seeing plenty more of that this season.

 

[Nunchucks]

Blunt looked quicker last night than he was all of last year.

 

[jah]

Looking at the play-by-play, things started slow.. The Running game seemed to get going in the 2nd half.. How much of it was Gaffney and how much of it was just bad play by the New Orleans D?

None was Gaffney, half was NO's 3rd team D, half was our OL. The Gaffney hype is just Jonas Gray 2.0.

 

[DSting]

Thought the OL looked generally bad when zone blocking. Lots of quick decision making to run this scheme well and I'm sure Scar will make adjustments, but when they had two hats on a DL, nobody was releasing onto the LB. Not sure anyone could have run behind that mess. I don't know if some fronts gave them more trouble than others, but they seemed to have more success when they looked to be blocking man.
Haven't seen anybody mention Brissett, but I was thoroughly impressed with him for his first NFL snaps. Confident, plays fast and wow can he spin it.

 

[jah]

Some thoughts before I have to go to work:

• Garoppolo didn't look great but didn't look terrible. Brissett, too. The former obviously faced better defenses than the latter, but I think we took our 1s out way after the Saints did, so I don't even know if JG has that going for him. I can't believe some of you spent so much time ****ting on Brissett before we even got to see him play (looking at you, Kontra).
• I also can't believe how many of you were all "WHOA GAFFNEY" when he had nothing to do with the gargantuan hole created by the OL and the terrible NO backup defenders.
• I don't think White is cuttable, even if his skillset is redundant. You need your best 53 because depth matters too. He's a good receiving back, no question about it.
• Iosefa is not a good fullback.
• Sucks about Mitchell. He was looking decent. Thought Harper and Carter would flash more in his absence, but Brissett seemed keyed in on Derby...
• Derby looked great. That first Brissett-Derby connection almost reminded me of Brady-Gronk.
• Couldn't really assess line play on either O or D.
• It looks like Darryl Roberts and Rufus Johnson have lost their magic from last preseason.
• On the edge players:
  • We already know about Sheard.
  • McClellin looks like the best after him, not counting Ninkovich. Seems to have a great motor and move well.
  • Long was either invisible or applying okay pressure. Still not that excited about him.
  • Flowers is still the man after a year on IR.
  • Grissom and Johnson were supposed to be right there with Flowers, but there's some clear separation now. Grissom, like McClellin, looked rangy for an end and did nothing to hurt himself besides not being Flowers. Johnson just didn't pop off the screen like last year, but he also didn't do anything bad.
• KGH and Humber look like they could both be decent LB depth, but there's likely only one spot after the starting 2 and Freeny (I don't like him but BB clearly does). I say tie goes to the rookie.
• Didn't get a good look at the starting secondary. Hope Coleman was better than people say.
  • I kind of think Jonathan looked better than Cyrus. Not sure where the #24 praise is from, he looked competent but not "good."
  • Sick pick by LeBlanc. Hope he stays with the organization.
  • Anyone know where #25 Vereen lined up? Different sources call him either a CB or S; I know he was drafted as a safety.
• Punt protection and coverage looked bad.

 

[Froob]

Yeah I was amazed that was confirmed a catch. His right foot clearly came off the ground before he caught it. Since it's preseason, I wasn't exactly upset with the call, just shaking my head realizing we'll probably be seeing plenty more of that this season.

I did not see him fill out a W2 before his foot touched out of bounds.

 

[varjao]

I pretty much watched only the first half, the 2nd half I was watching and doing other stuff at the same time so I was paying more attention to the offense.

I kind of liked what I saw from a 1st pre season game perspective, and considering many starters are taking it slowly on training camp or recovering from injuries, there is a long way to go.

What is clear is that Garopollo is not going to set the world on fire or raise questions about who is going to be the starter QB for the Patriots in mid season when he faces 1st string defensive players. Still needs to develop the smarts and intangibles that a cerebral QB needs to run this offense (and for that it needs to be cerebral), but the talent is there, needs a lot more work on his touch of course but that comes with time and playing time in real games.

Well the Mitchell injury was a total bummer, if he gets back in 4 weeks then we dodged a shotgun bullet because he was looking very promising. Not trying to knock this on Jimmy G, I was watching the game on a bad quality video stream so forgive me if I'm talking s.hit but for me that was a bad pass in a spot the receiver wasn't supposed to catch and he tried to fight for the ball and then that happened. Needs to learn how to fall of course but when you jump for a catch all weird like that the likelihood of an injury increases, I'm afraid of Edelman and Gronk becoming victims of Jimmy G inexperience.

 

[ashley]

Really was impressed with Thuney from what i saw, also impressed with Flowers and really, really liked Mitchell...i think we found a keeper in him. Glad his injury wasn't as serious as it looked.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Blunt looked quicker last night than he was all of last year.

I thought he did too.

My main issue with him was that on a few of his runs he ran laterally and not towards the line, made a cut and took the yards. On a couple of runs the line got blown off the ball. On two of his runs he didn't trust the opening off the guard and center and took it outside. If he took it to the middle, he would have made the 3rd and 1 and on the other he would have made about 3 yards but instead was a no gainer.

I don't know if because he thinks that hes lighter he can be quicker to the outside off the tackle but he is not. Fears needs to beat that into him.

If he can pretend he is Antowain Smith for a year I will be satisfied.

 

[Kontradiction]

Thought the OL looked generally bad when zone blocking. Lots of quick decision making to run this scheme well and I'm sure Scar will make adjustments, but when they had two hats on a DL, nobody was releasing onto the LB. Not sure anyone could have run behind that mess. I don't know if some fronts gave them more trouble than others, but they seemed to have more success when they looked to be blocking man.
Haven't seen anybody mention Brissett, but I was thoroughly impressed with him for his first NFL snaps. Confident, plays fast and wow can he spin it.

I thought Brissett looked pretty decisive last night which surprised me given how generally bad he's been in practice. The pump fake to get the blitzing LB to leave his feet before tucking it and taking off was a veteran move. The OL looked like one, big, heaping pile of crap in pass protection last night. Shades of 2015. Mason, in particular, I didn't think looked very stout against the pass (though he was extremely solid as a run blocker, particularly on James White's long catch and run). They really need to improve or the GOAT is going to take a lot of punishment again this year when he comes back.