I suspect this is the first or second game that was a real wake up call to those that have
only seen Brady. Look up this franchises history before Brady, he deserves a statue up there for what he's done. Anyway we're definitely
all here now. Carrying on...
I thought NE would be ready for a
fight. Bill vs Kyle, again. Jimmy coming back. Coming off poor showing. I thought we would see a NE team that was more physical, prepared and hungry going into Buff considering what we're dealing with there. We've seen this before. This isn't before anymore.
SF was more physical at the poa, moved us physically or by design on defense. We didn't have a functional offense as far as I'm concerned. We looked more overmatched everywhere at times.
Pats has trouble defending the runs that stretched the edge, like below
(toss/crack ^^^), other stretch plays, motion and those quick hitters behind the los to Deebo/Aiyuk (more on him below ... way below). This is the game where KVN, HT, Chung were missed the most imo. Esp KVN and HT on the edge.
Several issues here, we have no real base personnel / talent along the front seven ...
The Pats don't have enough
real power players at IDL/DL. Players that can control, re-set, disrupt and finish. So we go 5-6 DB ... And besides Bentley no real, viable choice at LB. So teams like SF, Balt, KC ... can punk you with heavy fronts where they create number advantages. Get bigs on LB early, FB on DB, WR cracking DE, TE who puts on blocking clinics each week ... Those teams will take that every time against what we out out. That's
their fight ...
Just beautiful blocking, from one end to the other. LG turns Guy around with his hips, beautiful flip. Deebo. Juice on cut. Aiyuk downfield. Textbook, perfectly scripted and run.
Again this comes back to personnel and draft choices imo. We've invested
a ton in the DB position and the DL/LB positions have suffered to an extent. Again no that can win 1 on 1. Ultimately we're scheming up everything up front and asking a **** ton from our secondary. Yes they're the star of the show but asking them to tackle in the flat/closer to the los and play the run like we're doing and you might get burned.
On offense Cam looked shot. Like Covid really took it out of him for a few weeks? Lack of of trust, awareness and confidence are key to me. And yea I mentioned confidence.
The lack of trust is obvious imo. He was hesitant and looked slow yesterday. Overall awareness continues to be a problem. He's been late on balls all year. Going back to 11 over the middle early in the year. Trigger-shy which is why I bring up confidence. Maybe you don't have confidence in your targets but at least be on time! Be accurate. Harry has received 3-4 hospital balls this year. It all starts with Cam/the QB and we haven't had consistent play all year.
WR'S are a problem. There's this narrative going around that it's
only on Cam or its the WR. Or TE. It's all of the above. I talked about the secondary being frustrated, I can see the same from the OL. This just isn't built to win multiple ways each week, so things are always changing. That's fine and expected but the rest of the offense just isn't up to task to be a chameleon. Inconsistent and at times killer QB play. Limited WRS and young TE.
The WR position needs an overhaul. There's no way around it. There's no hiding from it. We've literally been trying to do just that for 3 years but haven't had any success or luck. We need to invest and possible double dip. Maybe triple if the value is there mid/late. I'm not sure if it's the scouting dept. Bill or someone else close making the big calls but we need to start hitting ...
I didn't have Harry as a PTP but did have a 2nd on him. Like Sony it wouldn't have been my pick as I had others higher but I definitely understand the thinking. I personally think we had a very high grade on Harry. He was the second WR taking and we obviously spent a 1st on him. Over Deebo and Brown and others.
From Bill himself, Daniel Jeremiah shared this on Twitter in March. I'm positive Bill has changed some things but this is great insight.
Ok first things first ... "Has to be able to get off the LOS - Size, speed, quicks or any combo of three" ... This is important bc its something Harry has always struggled with to a degree. So much so that he went to work on it this off-season. When I first dug into Harry two things immediately jumped out. Different but tied into each other to an extent.
1)Release - its extremely important. Literally the first thing a WR has to do. You only have a finite amount of time to do your thing in the NFL so any disruption there is win for a DB. Harry never showed the consistency or growth you'd hope for. Didn't have a variety of releases. Showed he could do it but it was issue from the beginning and noted by anyone who really looked into him. At times ASU would get too gimmicky with Harry ...
2)That was my second issue. ASU did him no favors imo. He would get too cute on the line and it would only end up taking time he couldn't afford. This showed up in his route selection as well, how ASU used him. He was never going to be a C Pat type player bc of the lack of twitch. They didn't help him imo.
So his strength clearly wasn't getting off the line. Didn't have a bag of tricks to use to get off the los, it was a chore for him.
The next few things think are important ... "Good running ability after the catch" ... "Ability to get escape los" ... "
Good leap and timing are more important than speed"
Well you can see why they'd like him (Harry had a 37 vert or something like that and was a contested catch & yac machine at times at ASU) ... But there's also, seemingly, an added importance on a prospects release and ability to separate at the line. Again from WR portion ... "
Speed only enters into the equation in relation to a players
ability to escape the los".
So I believe it's
fair to question why we had him
so much high in regard to others considering Deebo was much better along the line. Yac monster as we saw. Tough, he'll block and was a better r/r coming out.
Anyway Harry was targeted by both SF & NE. SF actually fell in love with Aiyuk looking at Harry ...
“I will say, man, sometimes I don’t tell you guys everything I hear because I’ve got to keep some stuff back to myself,”
Bleacher Report's Matt Miller said on the Stick To Football podcast. “I’ve heard if N’Keal Harry’s gone, Deebo's [Samuel] their guy at 36.”
Lynch himself
"We started noticing him (Aiyuk) when we were studying N'Keal Harry (leading to the 2019 draft)," Lynch explained to Colin Cowherd on Tuesday. "N'Keal is a player that we had great interest in last year. He's now with the Patriots".
So Harry was a lot of people's mistake, including mine. It's just the Pats are the only one to draft him.
That said we must invest in the position. Can't dwell on it. I had Deebo as a PTP along with DK, Tyler Johnson a few years back along with Harmon and others. A lot of those guys ended up staying though. Jefferson and Reagor were on the list. We traded out right after their selections. Shenault was on there. DPJ, G Davis and others this year. We definitely need to make it happen. A small trade up, literally 2-5 spots could make all the difference this year imo. Hit on some good value in rounds 2 or 3. Just make it happen, these guys are out there.
Dugger has been very good while hes played imo. And Williams has been good but not enough of an impact for a top 40-50 pick. Maybe the small sample size isn't on him but both need to hit considering where we took them and them players drafted around them.
