MORSE: Clearing the Notebook Week 2
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The grades are in and the Offensive Line performed very well. Neither Will Campbell nor Jared Wilson gave up any pressures, sacks or hurries in the game. Here are the PFF Grades for the Miami game.
| Week 2 vs Miami | |||
| Overall | Pass Blocking | Run Blocking | |
| Campbell | 59.3 | 81.3 | 50.7 |
| Wilson | 52.6 | 88.1 | 42.1 |
| Bradbury | 54.8 | 84.4 | 45.5 |
| Onwenu | 55.2 | 82.8 | 45.3 |
| Moses | 46 | 55.4 | 64.9 |
I thought the Run Blocking grades were a little low considering the Patriots averaged 4.2 YPC. That 4.2 average included 10 runs by Drake Maye for 31 yards (3.1 YPC). However, 3 of those runs were kneel-downs, one to end the 1st half, and 2 others to close out the game. All 3 plays were negative yards. The run game averaged 4.7 YPC if you take away Maye’s runs.
Next Gen Stats had both Campbell and Wilson for a pressure apiece, as they did Onwenu and Moses. The sacks were given up by Morgan Moses, TreVeyon Henderson, and Hunter Henry. Garret Bradbury had the highest pass-blocking grade by PFF of any Center in the league.
In his Press Conference after the game, Maye stated, “Just stayed cool and calm. I mean, I was feeling good. Feeling good in warmups. Down here in this humidity, this is what I grew up throwing in, in North Carolina. The ball feels good, so [I’m] spinning it well.”
According to NBC Sports Boston, Maye had the third-fastest average time to throw (2.57 seconds) in Week 2 but had the NFL’s third-best completion percentage over expected. On the ground, he ran for 31 yards on 10 attempts. The biggest thing when rewatching the game was the ability for Maye to pick up the easy yards, playing conservative at times, but he managed to avoid third-and-longs all game.
In the movie Any Given Sunday, Al Pacino, playing Head Coach Tony D’Amato, stated, “Life is a game of inches”. Achane stepping out of bounds by just inches was the play of the game. If Achane had scored, the Patriots would have got the ball back with around a minute left in the game and two timeouts. I wonder how confident Mike Vrabel would have been sending Andy Borregales out to kick a game-winning kick?
I don’t know if you noticed that Pop Douglas played only 15 snaps in the game and was targeted only once. That was in part due to the tremendous downfield blocking that Hollins brings to the Offense. It was his blocking that set up his TD catch. He faked blocking and jumped out late into the corner of the end zone, and Maye, rolling out to his right, hit Hollins in stride. Hollins was also praised for his outstanding play on Special Teams.
Did anyone remember the Dolphins DT Zach Sieler’s name being said once during the game? He was credited with 2 tackles. Last seaso,n Sieler had 11 sacks. His PFF rating against the Patriots was 49.3 with an anemic 42.3 Pass Rush Grade. Sieler turned 30 this year, and he may be on the downside of his career. Perhaps it was the outstanding play by Jared Wilson and Mike Onwenu that led to those poor numbers.
The Patriots played a tremendous amount of Zone Defense. They played 83% Zone and only rushed 4 D-Lineman. In the 1st half Tua was getting the ball out of his hand in 2.15 seconds. It tale a D-lineman 2.5 seconds to get to a QB in the NFL. On the game ending play, Milt Williams and Harold Landry ran a stunt or “Game” as they call it. The Inside player (Williams) splits the Guard and Tackle and is supposed to bump into the Tackles, knocking him off the play. The Edge player, Landry loops inside and rushes up the middle. The Dolphins Guard recognized the paly and passed Willima off to the Tackle Borom and picked up Landry. However, Williams had knocked Borom away and sacked Tua to the close out the game.
Vrabel should be given credit for rotating his lineman often, giving players a play or two off so they would be fresh at the end and that strategy paid off. Through 3 Quarters the Patriots only Blitzed 14 % of the time. The Patriots boosted the pressure rate on Tagovailoa to 66% in 4th Quarter. Milton Williams with 4 pressures and an 85.8 Grade form PFF. He also contributed 2 big sacks. Pressure rates for the season, Williams is ranked 10th and Christian Barmore is ranked 12th for all Defensive Tackles. Khyiris Tonga also has a 15% Win Rate which is very good. K’Lavon Chaisson chipped in with 5 pressures. Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald had the Patriots only blitzing Tua 4 times.
On the downside, Robert Spillane has missed 8 tackles and Christian Elliss missed 6 tackles in the first two games.
I think the criticism of Marte missing the open field tackle of DeVon Achane was unfair. Marte moved to prevent Achane from getting out of bounds. He received no help from the remainder of the defense after he forced Achane back inside.
On the play, Craig Woodson was also blocked from behind with no call.
Per Nick Cattles on his Locked On Patriots podcast. “Men lie, Women lie, but the stats don’t lie”. Cattles brought up some of the incredible stats of Drake Maye on Sunday.
Maye was spectacular on Sunday and his play was amongst top 3 of all QBs in the NFL this week. These stats are for all the analytical geeks out there.
Maye was:
3rd Completion % Over Expected +13.5
2nd Expected Points Added
2nd Expected Yards Per Dropback
2nd Passer Rating of 137.3
3rd Yards per Attempt
Against the Blitz:
2nd Best Passer Rating versus the Blitz (152.6)
2nd Completions over Expected +24.3
4th Expected Points Added
9th Highest Pressure Rate 55.6% (Blitzes)
6 of 7 completions for 83 yards and a TD when blitzed
62.5 % Success Rate versus the blitz
Add to this his ability to run.
This was primarily against zone defenses. If teams decide to switch to man-to-man defense, they will be more susceptible to Maye runs. I also think you will see Kyle Williams get more playing time as he is trouble for a press man defense.
Rather than waiting around to see what the 2024 second-round pick would be capable of bringing to the table next season, this trade is a clear signal that Polk was not going to be part of the team’s long-term plans after being on the roster bubble coming out of training camp last month. The Patriots must have felt that Polk couldn’t make it in the NFL not because of talent but his propensity to get injured. He is having a second surgery on his shoulder and rather than wait and see if he could come back, they shipped him off to New Orleans because they could get something very minimal for him (trade of 6th Rd pick in 2027 for a 7th Rd pick in 2028).
If Eliot Wolf gets fired at the end of the season, that horrific trade of the #34 pick in last year’s draft (Ladd McConkey) for #38 and #110 will be the reason why. Polk was #38 and Javon Baker #110, and neither remained on the roster.
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Eliot Wolf’s 2024 draft speaks for itself, but his personnel team was not strong. 2025 was a different story. As long as Wolf, Vrabel, and Cowden stay together and continue to work well together, Patriot drafts will tend to be above average.
Pop Douglas was tagged as the top WR this summer by Phil Perry based on mostly non-contact passing camps in summer. Perry should know the regular season is different, and moreso McDaniels will use some combo of 2 TEs and or a FB as much as he possibly can…. thus often having only 2 WR. Sometimes one. Especially given the o-line is going to take awhile to gell as a unit. And as Mark said, the choice at WR will trend toward whom can block (Hollins, Boute). WR blocking is of big importance in the play outcomes, and that is… Read more »