MORSE: Observations from Week 2 Loss at Home to Seattle Seahawks

The Patriots should have been 2-0 but blew the game in the 4^th quarter. After Antonio Gibson’s 45-yard run with 7:01 left on the clock, the Patriots gained just 11 yards on 9 plays. They couldn’t close out the game. The stupidest play was a dropback by Brissett in which he got sacked for -9-yard loss. That was at 4:36. Next play is an FG block. If they ran the ball like they should have, would have resulted in at least 30 seconds coming off the clock or Seattle would have had to burn a timeout. They would have been kicking from the 27 instead of the 38 and the chance of the block would have been much less.

One big mistake, a blown coverage on DK Metcalf on a play that Seattle was running no huddle offense. There was confusion between Kyle Dugger and Christian Gonzalez. Charbonnet was line split far left. Tavai was originally on him. Dugger moved Tavai inside leaving no help over the top. Gonzalez was matched up on the outside with Metcalf. Gonzalez inexplicably covered the short in cut by Charbonnet leaving Dugger to cover Metcalf. Dugger also went for the inside receiver allowing Metcalf to run free down the field for a 56- yard TD. Dugger took responsibility for the play after the game.

In my Preview, I mentioned No Huddle plays that Seattle likes to run and they had tremendous success on it in the 1^st half. The Patriots were not prepared for that.

Other observations:

Hunter Henry had a great 1^st half with 7 catches for 98 yards. It appears that Seattle was very concerned about Brissett scrambling and came off Henry, leaving him wide open. However, Seattle coaches made a big adjustment in the 2^nd Quarter and 2^nd Half putting Pro Bowl Safety Julian Love on him. Henry had just one catch for 11 yards in the 2nd half, he also had a drop.
Brissett only completed 3 passes to WRs for 19 yards. One of those was a 5- yard TD to Polk (2 catches). The other was a good catch by Osborn for 7 yards.
The Patriots secondary gave up 327 yards passing with 280 of those going to the WRs. Outside of the big Mistake on the Metcalf TD the Patriots held Njigba to a 9.8 YPC. If you deduct the 56-yard TD, Metcalf had just a 6.6 YPC.
The Patriots pass rush outside of Keon White was non-existent. White had 1.5 sacks, 5 QB hurries, and 7 tackles.
There were no turnovers on either side. If the Patriots Defense is not creating turnovers they will probably lose.
The Offensive Line was brutal. Brissett was under constant pressure and was sacked 3 times. If it wasn’t for Brissett’s elusiveness that total would have been higher.
Jerod Mayo missed three opportunities to challenge calls. The first was on the Christian Gonzalez facemask penalty. It looked like a facemask penalty, but it actually wasn’t. He stuck his arm and hand out but caught the runner under the facemask and hit him in the neck. On that play there was a holding penalty against Seattle and the ruling was offsetting penalties. The second was on the PI in the endzone by Hawkins. That was an uncatchable ball thrown out of the endzone. The official didn’t call it holding or contact after 5 yards. The last was on a 1^st down given to Seattle after a Charbonnet run. On the play, Charbonnet was hit short of the line to gain and flipped over. However, his knee was down on the line, but the ball was behind him the ball never made it past the line to gain.
The Patriots were 2 for 4 in the Red Zone and nearly made it there before the big sack by Seattle in the 4^th
Pop Douglas has been targeted only 4 times in 2 games. Both times he was thrown to resulted in penalties against Seattle.
Three crucial calls went against the Patriots. The 1^st was a catch by KJ Osburn in the 1^st. His hands were under the ball. The ball can hit the ground as long as the ball doesn’t move in his hands. The second was Pass Inteference mentioned earlier and then the Pass Interference called against Jon Jones against Tyler Lockett late in the game. Jones reported that Lockett came up to him and said it wasn’t Pass Interference.
The Pats were hit hard by injuries. JuWhaun Bentley went out early in the game with a shoulder injury, never to return. At the end of the game Vederian Lowe was out flexing his back. Also, Oshanae Ximenes was banged up. We shouldn’t expect any of these players to play on Thursday against the NY Jets.
The crowd at Gillette was dead. It was reported that there were many empty seats even though the game was sold out. The Patriots are now 1-8 in their last home games.
Brissett played like he didn’t want to lose rather than playing to win. Brissett has the 2^nd best INT % of any QB except for Aaron Rodgers.
The Offense scored 20 points against what I consider one of the better Defenses in the league. If they score 20 points they should win.
The Patriots WRs were ranked last in separation rate last week and they didn’t do any better this week.
Did the Offense or Defense lose this game? I’d say it was the Defense.

Like this article?
Support Mark and buy him a coffee.

About Mark Morse

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.

View all posts by Mark Morse