MORSE: Leftovers from the Notebook after the Patriots vs Rams Game
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Here are few notes leftover from the Rams game.
Fiske strip sack was the fastest sack of a QB in the NFL this season. It was a three step drop and Boutte hadn’t made his adjustment yet according to Greg Bedard. This caused Maye to pump the ball and hold on. Ben Brown didn’t switch off but Mike Onwenu didn’t have anyone to block as his lineman dropped into coverage. Onwenu was late coming over to help out and whiffed on the block.
Mayo is being too conservative, he is not making quick decisions, his calls are inconsistent, and he is coaching scared. Fourth and 2 he decides to go for Field Goal, down 9 points. He doesn’t take the penalty on the Rams after they dropped the punt inside the 10. Make them kick again, maybe you get a shank, perhaps you block the punt, maybe the punter kicks it to Marcus Jones or possibly kicks it into the end zone. Mayo is ok with putting it all on his rookie QB to go 90 yards with two years of college experience and 5 games of pro experience. Mayo down 9, went for 2 points in London but doesn’t do it against LA Rams? Mayo also missed an opportunity to ask for a measurement on a close 3rd down run in the Red Zone. This would have at the least given his coaches a chance to draw up a good 4th down play. The team is 3-8, what do you have to lose. Afraid of getting criticized if you don’t make it? The final thing on coaching, they are allowing Ja’Lynn Polk to continue to make mistakes without any consequences. They are enabling him. He is a repeat offender and should be benched for the remainder of the season and try and start all over in the off season. Wish they has stuck to taking Ladd McConkey and not trade down to take Polk. They obviously liked him, but he was taken way too early. I’m not going to call him a bust, but he needs to get his confidence back and get on the same page with the rest of the team. In my analysis of the draft, I called the Polk selection “replacing (Davante) Parker with Parker”. Polk doesn’t have the speed to separate. The analysis of Polk coming out of college said he was a good blocker, but he is grossly missing blocks in the Pros.
I have been critical of Alex Van Pelt’s play calling this season. I have to give credit where credit is due. The Tackle eligible play was run to perfection. Sidy Sow has been coming into the game as an eligible receiver (Fullback and extra TE) several times in the game. Van Pelt sets them up in an unbalanced line with both tackles (ineligible) on the right side with the normal left tackle in his same position but as an eligible receiver (TE). That meant Lowe had to report to the Official that he was an eligible receiver before the play so the Official could pass that along to the Rams. Lowe ran it three times in practice and made the catch every time.
I didn’t think there was any chance that Christian Barmore has any chance of playing this season. It is remarkable that he was able to play yesterday, never mind the number plays he participated in. He was rusty and reported that he was a bit out of shape. A tremendous amount of credit needs to go to the Patriots medical staff diagnosing the injury as blood clots and getting Barmore to the Emergency Room as early as they did. They were also on top of his conditioning and a key to getting him back on the field. This was a life-threatening situation, and I am glad that all parties concerned acted in Barmore’s best interest as a person, just not a football player.
Week in and week out Gonzalez has had to play one-on-one against the best Wide Receivers in the league. His PFF rating was 78.5 for the 9th best rating for the week, despite going up against Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua. The Patriots went to man coverage on 16 of 27 Rams drop backs. When Gonzalez was matched up on either Kupp or Nacua he gave up 4 catches on 7 plays for 37 yards and no TDs. On the other 9 plays in Man Coverage when Gonzo wasn’t on Kupp or Nacua, the Pats gave up 6 catches to either Kupp or Nacua for 146 yards and 3 TDs. That’s a 66% success rate.
On 16 of 27 drop backs by Stafford the Patriots blitzed, a 66% blitz rate. Stafford shredded the blitz, and the Patriots didn’t get any pressure on the QB. His uniform was as clean as if he put it on before the game. Stafford was 12 of 16 for 217 yards and 3 TDs against the blitz. Marcus Wison was released after the game as the team activated Alex Austin from IR.
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