Knee jerk reactions:
One really bad series by the defense the rest looked like the best performance this year. The tackling was mostly much improved and coverages tighter. There are still holes in the run game but it is on a different magnitude than the debacle that was last year's run defense.
The offense is slowly coming along and getting more consistent. I have said it during the GDT but it looked like they were setting up the deeper plays throughout the first 2.5 quarters only to come back to them later in the game. The Vikings have a very good run defense so on some level this was an excellent opponent to see where you are with your own run game.
The one thing that deserves to be pointed out in a negative way was Gronk.
I don't know if he lacks confidence right now, whether he is hobbled or maybe just not focused enough but today might have been his worst outing as a Patriot. Penalties, blocking mishaps, no separation, not going back into throws but waiting for them to arrive.
I was hoping he'd show flashes of his usual self post BYE and certainly will not call him toast or whatever. But for now he has moved into the "concerned by" pile. I hope he can kinda show some upward trajectory through December and get closer to his usual self as we move towards the postseason.
Brady's pick was a confluence of things going wrong and is mostly on Brown. But you'd think that if Brady is so careful to just immediately kill the screen play on the first drive in the second half he'd also not throw a pass like that being 2 scores up at the end of the game. Doubt that he will make that mistake again any time soon.
)
