The Patriots didn’t exactly light it up in a battle of the two worst offenses from 2023. The Patriots Defense stood out by limiting Carolina to 2 of 14 in 3rd down plays. For three quarters they were dominant and gave up a late Field Goal with less than two minutes left in the game to break up the shutout. Carolina played only one of their starters on Defense and none on Offense.
Three Up
Joe Milton – Yes, he was playing against players that won’t be playing in the NFL in a few weeks. That doesn’t discount what he did passing, scrambling, and running the ball. He had two runs of 12 and 13 yards. His 38-yard TD pass was a thing of beauty. He showed his experience by looking off the safety by turning his shoulders to the right and then quickly pump faked to the left opening up the double move by Ja’Quae Jackson for the TD. This is not to start a QB controversy. Milton (24) has more experience than Maye (21) having played 3 years at Michigan (Big Ten) and 3 more at Tennessee (SEC) and played against inferior players tonight.
David Wallis – The Randolph – Macon wide receiver set up the 1st TD with a nice 23-yard punt return. He later added a 13-yard punt return. With Marcus Jones nicked up, Jalen Reagor and KJ Osborn fielded the 1st two punts with Reagor actually going sideways and losing yards. Wallis came in and locked down the PR position for the rest of the game.
Patriots Defense Overall – There are individuals that stood out such as Jeremiah Pharms, Oshae Ximines, Dell Petus, Christian Ellis and AJ Thomas. The overall dominance showed that the defense is for real, and the depth is there. The newly installed Patriots Offense has had to go up against this defense for weeks now. Perhaps the Offense is better than we thought, and the Defense is one of the elite teams in the league. This week’s joint practices with the NFC Champion Philadelphia Eagles will give us a better barometer of where the Patriots Offense and Defense stand against elite competition.
Three Down
Jacoby Brissett – Yes, Brissett started the game in the rain, but he was abysmal in his one series. He was 0-3 and missed a wide-open TE Mitch Wilcox with a high pass. Tyquan Thornton didn’t do Brissett any favors by not properly trying to catch a long pass. Brissett had good protection and looked to his third option on a roll out and found Thornton streaking down the line. Thornton had the DB beat but he failed to slow down and bump off the defender. Instead, he allowed the defender to get back and the pass was short. I thought it should have been called interference.
Chuks Okorafor – Started at Right Tackle and had a false start. The Patriots had too many penalties overall.
Javon Baker – He ran the wrong route and Zappe threw it to what appeared to be a deep open area of the field. He also had another drop. He was targeted 4 times and had 2 catches.
Kraft TV Production
That production was flat out awful. Scott Zolak is a clown and should stay as a color man. Having the McCourty twins in the booth was more noise. They try to act like the Manning Brothers and their alternate broadcast of Monday Night Football. Have them in a role of occasional cut in analysis and get rid of Paul Parillo and Brian Hoyer. Get a play-by-play man in the booth and identify the players to the fans who they are seeing for the 1st time. I should have turned the radio on and listened to Bob Socci.
Missed Opportunity to get Drake Maye Playing Time
I think the line played well overall and the 2nd team line was Caeden Wallace at LT, Michael Jordan at LG, Nick Leverett at C, Layden Robinson at RG and Calvin Anderson at LT. That’s 53 career NFL starts and two rookie high Draft picks. They should have dominated the Panthers backups (and they did). Playing Maye just one series was a coaching mistake from Alex Van Pelt and Jerod Mayo.
Offensive Line Played Well Overall
The line gave up just two sacks and had overall good pass protection. Granted the mobility of the 4 QBs is much better than we had last year. The team ran for 113 yards but only for a 3.8 yards per carry. I also saw a good blitz pickup by the RB (not sure if it was Harris or Hasty). The Patriots were the more physical team out there tonight.
Terrell Jennings
Jennings broke off a 20-yard run on his way to 6 rushes for 38 yards. In 2023 he was ranked as the #10 most elusive runner in the draft by PFF and forced 40 missed tackles in 2023. He gained 83.4% of his yards after contact (third), averaging 4.6 yards after-contact per attempt (second). Jennings was signed by the Patriots after an invite to their rookie minicamp. The Florida A&M product rushed for over 2,000 yards during his career for the Rattlers. He stands 6’1” 225Lbs but ran a poor 4.66 40-yard dash which caused him to go Undrafted.
Why did the Brandon Aiyuk trade fail?
The Patriots had worked out the parameters of a deal with the San Francisco 49’ers. In turn SF allowed Aiyuk’s agents to negotiate with the Patriots and Cleveland on a contract extension. Reports had the Patriots contract offer in excess of $30M Average Annual Value (AAV) a year. Another report had it in the Top 5 range. The 5th highest contract for a Wide Receiver would have been $28.5 AAV. That’s a big difference.
The Patriots are notorious for not spending money. In the last 5 years they are 11th in 2024, 31st in 2023, 27th in 2022, 4th in 2021 and 32nd in 2020 in actual cash spending. The only year they spent was the year they overspent of Free Agents in 2022. Robin Glazer structures contracts that are heavily incentive laden with Not Likely to be Earned incentives. We will never know how the contract offer to Aiyuk was structured, but I am sure it was more of the same.
Mike Reiss took exception to Mike Felger floating that Reiss was used by the team to say their offer was in excess of $30M. It was as angry as I have ever seen Reiss. Felger admitted that when he was the beat writer, he would take info from the team and run with it without verifying it.
You have to figure the Massachusetts “Millionaires” tax had an impact too. $30 M here with the Patriots isn’t the same as any other destination. The Patriots must up their offer even more to compensate for the taxes here. They lost Jakobi Meyers last year over a million dollars, but that was actually two million because of the Millionaire tax.
The bottom line here is that the Patriots have hit rock bottom. Foxboro is not a destination that players want to come to and play. They have a rookie head coach with no head coaching experience, a journeyman QB and a backup rookie that potentially will be good but may need two years before he is ready to handle an NFL offense. Add to that a 1st year offensive coordinator in Alex Van Pelt and an Offensive line that needs two tackles. The Alex Van Pelt offense is run heavy and why would a wide receiver want to come to this type of offense?
The facility has the worst weight room in the league and no day care for the players children. The rating by the NFL Players Association has the Patriots ranked 29th out of 32 teams in the players survey. Per Yahoo Sports “The results point to club management that has not been keeping up with changing times; as in most categories, the player responses highlight outdated facilities and stale services”. The team did install a players’ lounge this year so perhaps it will show up better in the next report.
Make no mistake, the Patriots didn’t withdraw from the talks with Aiyuk and the 49’ers, they put that spin out in the media. Aiyuk didn’t want to play here at the contract AAV, Guarantees and length of term.
If the Patriots are going to get an elite player in Free Agency they are going to have to overpay to get them. That means cutting out the incentives and making more of the contract in guaranteed money.
As great a coach Bill Belichick was. You have to thank Bill Belichick the GM for leaving this club in the dire straits they are in.
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Merrimack Valley native and lifelong fan of the New England Patriots. My earliest memories of the Patriots were attending as a child with my dad, the off-season practice at Phillips Academy. I was at the Patriots game at Harvard Stadium in 1970 where Bob “Harpo” Gladieux was called out of the stands by the stadium announcer over the PA to play in the game. Analyzing the draft since ESPN first started to televise it in 1980 and former writer for the Lowell Sun Newspaper.
I agree 100% that broadcast was a JOKE !!! Please get a “Real” play by play guy that can tell us about the play and the players
Absolutely totally agree with all that .all that small talk it was Horrible&annoying ,get a new crew in the booth, it was nothing more than talk radio on tv!! made me not enjoy the game at all, no way I can deal with those guys this season….