It’s hard to watch the Patriots play this poorly. They had a week off to prepare for this game and this is what they put on the field! I’m talking about the players and the coaches, not showing up to play. That’s not all the players, as many played well including Drake Maye. Others like Vederian Lowe should have stayed in bed. I also blame Jerod Mayo for not giving Lowe the hook after he looked like a turnstile in the 1st Quarter.
The game changing roughing the passer call by the official should not have been made. That took away an Interception at the 18-yard line. Even the CBS Referee Expert, Gene Steratore agreed that it was incidental contact and should not have been called. He never goes against his fellow officials when doing his analysis. The Patriots can’t catch a break.
The Patriots move the ball down the field on the opening drive and are at the 33-yard line when Layden Robinson is called for holding and wipes out a 15-yard run by Antonio Gibson. That makes it 3rd and 15 at the 43 and Maye completes a short pass to Pop Douglas. Slye attempts a 53-yard Field Goal and misses.
I wonder where Joey Slye will be next week? Not on the Patriots I hope. That was the 7th missed FG by Slye and the team actually brought Practice Squad kicker John Parker-Romo with them on the trip to Arizona. Not only did he miss the Field Goal, but it was against Arizona, the team that turned Chad Ryland into a kicker. Arizona moved within Field Goal range after taking over at the 43, and Ryland proceeded to kick a 49-yard Field Goal to go up and never look back.
Drake Maye was perfect in the 1st half, going 10-10. It was mostly underneath passes. He completed 19 of 23 passes for 202 yards, an interception and TD. He threw only two passes greater than 20 yards. One was an overthrow of Boutte (who is not fast) and the other was a dime to Kendrick Bourne (who laid out for the pass) for a beautiful 37-yard reception. They finally took the training wheels off Maye and let him roll out in short yardage in the Red Zone and he walked into the End Zone. The other 4th Quarter TD was a scramble and improvisational shuttle pass to Pop Douglas.
Two short yardage running plays were blown up on consecutive 3rd and 4th Show some imagination AVP. Finally in the 4th Quarter you let Maye roll out on a play in the Red Zone.
Offensive line was the 10th different unit they played this year. Robinson was awful at Left Guard and Ben Brown rolled two snaps back to Maye, which are considered to be fumbles and recoveries by Maye.
Got to give credit to Rhamondre Stevenson and Antonio Gibson. They averaged 5.3 and 4.7 yards a rush. Gibson also had 2 catches for 21 yards. He also had a 15-yard run called back on Robinson’s holding call. I have been saying this for weeks now. Gibson needs to touch the ball more. Good things happen when he gets the ball. He is just 26 years old, and he should be given a multi-year contract now.
Scott Zolak was so frustrated at watching the Patriots stink out the joint, he asked his play-by-play partner Bob Socci if he could swear on-air. He did at one point taking the Lord’s name in vain.
Bourne was 3/3 and Douglas was 3/3, Hunter Henry 4 for 4, Austin Hooper 3 for 3, but Kayshon Boutte was just 2 of 5 targets. Boutte also mouthed off after the game about the play calling by Alex Van Pelt. “We knew they was gonna play man the whole game,” Boutte told Doug Kyed after the game. “But I feel like it’s disrespectful when they go man first quarter, you know? So I feel like we need to be better at attacking that instead of being shy about it.”
Boutte was responsible for the interception, having it go off his hands right into the hands of Cardinals defender Sean Murphy-Bunting. He shouldn’t be shooting off his mouth after that kind of performance.
It appears that Ja’Lynn Polk ran the wrong route again. The Pass went to the back corner, and it appeared that he flattened out his route to the side of the End Zone. He looked back to the QB and coaches with palms up after the play making me think he ran the wrong route again. He was on the field for 20 plays and had that lone target in the endzone.
On Defense Christian Gonzalez was outstanding with 3 Pass Breakups in the endzone on Marvin Harrison Jr. Harrison only had 2 catches on 6 targets for 32 yards. The color commentators Jay Feely and Ross Tucker loved Gonzalez play and went so far as to say he should be a Pro Bowler this year.
Dugger may have had 10 tackles, but he had a very poor game. Bad angles missed tackles, and he can’t cover. The team is better without him. Jabrill Peppers played one of his worst games as a Patriot. He also took bad angles and missed tackles. Neither one is a Free Safety.
Kyler Murray completed 75.7% of his passes against the Patriots. No Interceptions ??? of TDs.
After the game, Jerod Mayo was asked about running the ball on two consecutive attempts being too conservative. His response “You said it I didn’t”. That implies that he was throwing his Offensive Coordinator under the bus. This needs to be watched over the course of the last three games.
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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.
Dugger. He’s a solid player, but to me, he’s a strong safety/box guy. Last year he got put into the free safety position a lot and did well per Mayo. As for this season he missed 2 straight games(2-3 games?) with an ankle problem and if I recall he’s almost weekly been on the questionable status with limited practice ability. He was questionable this week vs AZ. So that’s almost surely why his play is off. I’d not give up on the guy, He’s playing hurt. He’s a captain and calls the D on the backend. Jon Jones had the… Read more »
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Dugger. He’s a solid player, but to me, he’s a strong safety/box guy. Last year he got put into the free safety position a lot and did well per Mayo. As for this season he missed 2 straight games(2-3 games?) with an ankle problem and if I recall he’s almost weekly been on the questionable status with limited practice ability. He was questionable this week vs AZ. So that’s almost surely why his play is off. I’d not give up on the guy, He’s playing hurt. He’s a captain and calls the D on the backend. Jon Jones had the… Read more »