Friday Patriots Notebook 8/22: Surprising Names Out There, Vrabel Not Pleased with ‘Rats’
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Some Patriots news and notes on this Friday:
1) Not a good night for Wooldridge: Coming off of last night’s 42-10 loss by the New England Patriots against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium, it was essentially the final audition for a decent amount of players, and there was one move that was certainly interesting.
Despite what had been a pretty up-and-down performance by backup quarterback Joshua Dobbs this preseason, Mike Vrabel opted to sit him down for the entire game Thursday and instead start quarterback Ben Wooldridge. Wooldridge ended up going wire-to-wire, and how he finished is probably the one of the more surprising things coming off of this loss.
Wooldridge, who had a strong outing in his first appearance where he went 9-of-12 (75%) for 132 yards and a touchdown against Washington, including hitting his final eight passes in that game, didn’t exactly play to the level he needed to.
He finished the game just 10-of-20 (50%) for 82 yards along with one touchdown and an interception, which was yet another step back coming off the 7-of-13 (53.8%) for 55 yards performance last week in Minnesota.
He showed a few things that the Giants clearly studied, which included multiple batted passes due to a low release point by the young QB. Kirk Herbstreit noted it in the broadcast, saying that it’s something Wooldridge has worked on, but the fact we saw so many instances of it was certainly concerning.
Unfortunately, his release was only part of the problem.
What’s maddening is that Wooldridge actually put together a pretty good stretch that included a few nice throws, with one of his best being a terrific ball to Jeremiah Webb for a touchdown at the end of the half, which finished off a 14 play, 80 yard drive.
However, Wooldridge came out in the second half and made a crushing mistake, which saw him throw a pick-six on what was an overall frustrating sequence.
On the play before, Wooldridge targeted Jaheim Bell as he was running a seam, but threw it behind him, where it bounced off the back of the Giants defender that was covering him. Watching it back, Bell also had a safety coming at him, which likely would have seen him get lit up even if Wooldridge had managed to fit the ball in there.
One play later, Wooldridge targeted him again on a short pass across the middle of the field, and it looked like he expected Bell to sit and turn around. Instead, Bell broke out towards the sideline, and Giants defensive back T.J. Moore picked it off and took it back 44 yards the other way for a touchdown.
Ben Wooldridge Passing Totals:
By Quarter:
By Down:
Oddly enough, that would be Wooldridge’s final pass of the night. He finished the third quarter just 1-of-4 (25%) for 8 yards and the interception, and didn’t have another pass attempt from that point on. That extended throughout the final quarter of play as New England then opted to have him hand the ball off for the remainder of the evening, as the team would go on to rush the ball on the next 15 plays.
Overall, the fact that they kept the ball out of his hands for the entire final quarter of play would make you think there was some frustration with the decision from the interception. After all, that came just four passes after what was arguably his best drive of the night, albeit there were two frustrating short drives prior to that turnover.
Either way, there had to have been a reason why they shut him down from there on out.
That’s a pretty unusual move, especially this late in the preseason when the score really doesn’t matter, with the focus being on still trying to evaluate their other offensive skill players.
As a result, it’s hard not to wonder if the Patriots would even consider bringing Wooldridge back to the practice squad after what’s transpired the last two weeks, or if they’ll instead go in a different direction depending on who ends up as part of the league-wide cutdown on Tuesday.
2) Surprising Names Out There: One other thing that stood out was the fact that the club sat a good amount of starters, but safety Jabrill Peppers was out there through a good portion of the game.
Peppers hasn’t gotten much playing time this preseason, and the thought process was that perhaps Vrabel was trying to get him some meaningful snaps ahead of the regular season. The next question was whether or not Peppers is among a handful of guys they’re maybe pondering moving next week, but Vrabel cleared that up during his press conference.
“Well, no,” when asked if there was something else that caused him to be out there. “Just, again, we got to have 11 out there, but wanted to see him play with Craig [Woodson] alongside,” said Vrabel. “He’s played a couple… Pep’s played a couple of different spots and wanted to just see him play safety alongside Craig.”
“I know he’s played some in nickel. He’s played some in the box on third down. He’s played some different places. Really where we, tonight, wanted to see him was alongside Craig, playing safety exclusively.”
Another player who was out there was Keion White, who is among names where they’re possibly unsure of what they have there. White has been an unusual character since being drafted, and aside from a few flashes has yet to really put together any consistent performances.
Vrabel went on to say that White was another guy that was asked to play, with Vrabel telling him he wanted him to work on some things.
“Because I decided and talked to Keion, and wanted to see him work on some things and continue to develop and try to continue to improve,” said Vrabel on why White was out there. “He was excited about playing. He wanted to play more. That’s kind of our whole job is to be ready to play and prepared until told otherwise. Just try to work on some things that we had been talking about and do it in game action.”
White was actually part of a play where his pressure helped open the door for Jack Gibbens to get a sack on Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart early in the game. That play came on a first down and it derailed their drive and forced a punt.
White finished with two tackles, and while he didn’t register a sack or a quarterback hit, as Vrabel has said previously, players do make impacts where it might not show up on the stat sheet, and that was certainly the case on that play.
3) Dugger goes out swinging, Jennings sits: While linebacker Anfernee Jennings and safety Kyle Dugger have been the two names people have been talking about as of late, Jennings ended up with the night off, while Dugger again, saw a lot of action Thursday night.
Dugger played in 57% of the snaps in this one, and he had what was certainly one of his better games of the preseason.
He made several bone-crushing hits Thursday night, and also logged an interception on a 4th-and-4 by the Giants at the New England 18 where Jameis Winston overshot receiver Beaux Cox and Dugger came up with the turnover behind him in the end zone.
After the game, Vrabel had praise for the veteran, who he feels has gotten better of the course of this preseason.
“I think that he’s continued to take advantage of the opportunities and the reps, and I think he’s feeling more comfortable,” said Vrabel. “We talked about a long rehab process in the offseason that he committed to, but it wasn’t a quick rehab process. I mean, he had surgery. I think that he’s gotten better. I think he’s improved.”
“I think he’s feeling better. It looks like he’s feeling better on tape. That’s good to see. Those are all positive things. Making a play, two interceptions. I thought he flashed. I thought he triggered. I thought he tackled. I thought his length showed up, all these things. And we didn’t blitz anybody tonight. We didn’t do any of that, but just playing in our base scheme. Those things, I thought, showed up tonight.”
The fact Jennings wasn’t out there was definitely curious. The question now is whether or not the club has either had a change of heart there, or if they’re potentially in talks about moving him.
Obviously, that will have to play out, but the fact that he didn’t suit up Thursday night certainly makes his situation that much more interesting.
4) Kicking situation remains in question: The kicking situation took a surprising turn, with Andres Borregales getting all the work last night over John Parker-Romo.
Parker-Romo was active but did not play, while Borregales handled all the kicking duties and finished the night 1-of-2 on his field goal attempts, hitting one from 30 yards but missing one from 49 yards out.
That one stung because he pushed it wide right, taking away the chance for the Patriots to cut the lead to 7-3. Instead, the Giants ended up with good field position and ended up taking advantage, going 61 yards on 5 plays the other way, as Winston finished things off after coming in for Dart, who took a shot the play earlier and was evaluated for a possible head injury. Winston made it count, throwing a perfect 27-yard touchdown as Jalin Hyatt beat Kobee Minor on the play.
Instead of 7-3 it was 14-0, and Vrabel didn’t sound 100% behind the rookie after the game while also noting that there was a sequence last week that also frustrated him.
“Well, I mean, I think he’s hitting the ball okay,” said Vrabel. “I think that we needed to try to… We expect to make those kicks. We’ll just have to kind of see where this thing plays out. Again, we got two kickers that we have a lot of faith in. I think he, again, swung it pretty well. I just don’t think that it went in. It wasn’t obviously straight enough.”
“Last week’s was just disappointed in the operation in the manner in which he got out there in a timely fashion and kind of rushed it. That, I thought, improved, but we didn’t make the one we needed to make – the long one tonight.”
Whether or not he’ll stick is the next question. The two kickers have both had good moments, and neither has been overly consistent as of late. However, this remains a big area of concern because as we saw last season, there were plenty of scoring opportunities missed because of kicks that weren’t made.
Having to go through another year of that would be frustrating, and it’s hard to feel too confident in either player as Vrabel makes what is sure to be a difficult decision in the coming days.
One other thing that came out of last night’s press conference was the fact that Vrabel apparently wasn’t thrilled with the news of Ja’Lynn Polk’s season being over, with the wideout reportedly set to undergo surgery. “No,” said Vrabel when asked if he could add anything to that report. “Other than I’d like to find out where some of these come from, some of these rats around here, so we’ll figure that out.” … Vrabel was also asked about Caedan Wallace, who has been more in the mix at guard than at tackle this preseason. “Well, we’d always hoped that he would be in that competition,” said Vrabel. “Got injured, missed a few days, and came back. So gave him a large opportunity there at left guard today. That’s kind of where he was starting to make strides, I think, in the offseason. And we’ll just continue to coach him. And he’s gotten reps at other places in practice, and maybe that hasn’t shown up as much in the games.” … Vrabel also went on to say that some difficult decisions will be made in the coming days, with some guys possibly factoring in moving forward, while others will see their futures in doubt. “We put a lot into this, and into the players and getting to know them, and the roster is going to change,” said Vrabel. “That’s part of the business that we’re in. We always want to make those transactions as respectful as possible, but that’s part of the game, and that’s kind of the life we’ve chosen. There’ll be some conversations that we’ll have with players over the next few days, and we will keep those, obviously, very respectful. Hopefully, some of those guys can either end up back on our team or on somebody else’s.”
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Seems there’s some misreads of what’s goin on when players go onto the 2nd unit, or sit, or play. For all we know Dugger was rehabbing and so he’s not earned to “run with the one’s”. People jump to “he’s getting cut or traded”. If you follow what Vrabel does, it’s all about earning your spot continuously. Mostly.
Anfrenee Jennings is being traded is another headline and it’s based on him not playing? That’s pure guess. Ask the coach post game.
Evan Lazar commented that Vrabel said Anfrenee Jennings was hurt and held out vs the NYG. Media jumped to the best story line for their sake of Jennings possibly being “traded”. Jennings coulda also locked down a roster spot and was sit down accordingly….and or they wanted to see other guys given Jennings is a known commodity. Many possible reasons. We all guess at things as the team is sometimes tight lipped. And the media has a tough job no doubt. But the media does source articles from other media people, and they often go to far. One week Diggs… Read more »