Pre-season game #1 is in the books.\u00a0 What did we learn from this game?<\/p>\n
1) Cam Newton is the same QB that we saw last season.\u00a0 He failed to recognize the blitz on his pre-snap read.\u00a0 Washington Football Team (WFT) blitzed more players than the O line and back could handle.\u00a0 Chase Young overpowered Isaiah Wynn and hit Newton on what appeared to be a strip-sack.\u00a0 Wynn recovered, but it was ruled an incomplete forward pass.\u00a0 Newton failed to check off to a hot receiver, the exact thing he did numerous times last year.\u00a0 Now WFT blitzing early in the 1st<\/sup> Pre-season game is very unusual.\u00a0 Defenses are known to be very vanilla in the first game with little or no specific game-planning for the opponent. That was not true in this case.\u00a0 The Patriots played it straight up with no exotic coverages.\u00a0 I can recall only one blitz by Bentley all night.\u00a0\u00a0 He completed one of two screen passes.\u00a0 The first went to White for 22 yards.\u00a0 The second went into the ground on a poorly thrown ball.<\/p>\n 2) Did James Ferentz play the entire game at Center? \u00a0\u00a0He was finally replaced by Marcus Martin with 9:00 left in the 4th<\/sup> quarter.\u00a0 This was yeoman\u2019s work on a brutally hot night in Foxboro.\u00a0 I was a little afraid of having Ferentz going up against the superb starting front 7 of WFT.\u00a0 \u00a0With Andrews and Karras both out, Ferentz took one for the team and allowed a good evaluation of the QBs with solid if unspectacular OC play.\u00a0 This type of play just may have secured a spot on the team for the 31-year-old veteran of 5 NFL seasons.<\/p>\n 3) Running backs coach Ivan Fears was asked in a press conference what Rhamondre Stevenson needed to work on and his response was \u201cEverything\u201d.\u00a0 Well Coach Fears, you are not hiding Stevenson from anyone now, with this blowout game.\u00a0 Two touchdowns and a 91 yard run with time running out highlighted Stevenson\u2019s day.\u00a0 He had a 4-yard average before that big run.\u00a0 To reel it in a bit, Stevenson would not do that against any NFL team playing their regular players.\u00a0 Stevenson runs a 4.65 40 and wouldn\u2019t be pulling away from the defenders.\u00a0 They also wouldn\u2019t have taken such poor angles toward the runner.\u00a0 However, it was exciting for the fans that stuck around or anyone that may have put a wager on the outcome.<\/p>\n 4) N\u2019Keal Harry was under the microscope in this game and he once again disappeared.\u00a0 He played 36 plays and was only targeted once on a drag route underneath.\u00a0 To his credit, he made a nice move and gained the 1st<\/sup> down.\u00a0 Harry made a good block on a slip screen to Wilkerson but also missed a block on a screen downfield.\u00a0 Bottom line, harry did nothing to help his position on the team nor improve his stock so that another team comes calling for him in a trade.<\/p>\n 5) Kristian Wilkerson was the most targeted receiver last night with 9, had 6 receptions.\u00a0 However, he should have caught that long pass from Jones in the end zone.\u00a0 Jones placed it right in the bucket, just as they practice during camp.\u00a0 Wilkerson needs to seal off the DB to get position and make that catch.<\/p>\n 7) Mac Jones managed the game well.\u00a0 He took what the defense gave him and didn\u2019t force the ball into coverage.\u00a0 The offense looked a lot like what he ran at Alabama.\u00a0 He narrowly missed Gunner Olszewski on a long pass, just overthrowing it.\u00a0 Jones also scrambled for what appeared to be a 1st<\/sup> down.\u00a0 A bad spot moved the ball back and not to the line of gain.\u00a0 Belichick fell asleep on this challenge \u2026 more on this later.\u00a0 Jones had great anticipation on a pass to Wilkerson.\u00a0 The ball was away before Wilkerson turned around to look for the ball.\u00a0 Jones was 14 of 19 (I am including the reception that Myers made and Belichick didn\u2019t challenge).\u00a0 None was better than the play-action pass over the middle to Kendrick Bourne.\u00a0 I read that Phil Perry called Jones performance as Professional.\u00a0 Now he was playing against the 2nd<\/sup> team, but he was also playing with the 2nd<\/sup> team offense.<\/p>\n 8) It was Pre-season for the coach also.\u00a0 He failed to challenge two plays, one of which was obviously in the Patriots favor.\u00a0 Belichick could see the big screen (if he looked up).\u00a0 Jakobi Myers clearly had his hands under the ball.\u00a0 That would have been a 15-yard reception and 1st<\/sup> down.\u00a0 Mike Reiss asked Belichick about this in his press conference after the game.\u00a0 Belichick responded, \u201cI didn\u2019t feel like challenging it.\u201d\u00a0 What a condescending remark by the coach and totally unacceptable.\u00a0 The players are out there working their asses off to make the team and the coach doesn\u2019t feel like challenging the play!\u00a0\u00a0 Later he didn\u2019t challenge Mac Jones’s scramble when he clearly made the 1st<\/sup> down. He probably wanted to get more plays by the defense so he could evaluate them.<\/p>\n 9) Malik Gant has to be given credit for a fine game despite only being with the team for 5 days.\u00a0 He played a lot and made 5 tackles and looked good.\u00a0 Myles Bryant injury may have an impact on Gant making the team.<\/p>\n 10) Joejuan Williams played his best game since joining the Patriots.\u00a0 The Interception and return were huge.\u00a0 He also had two pass breakups, including the two-point.\u00a0 He punched the ball out as WFT receiver Gandy-Golden was going to the ground.<\/p>\n 11) Here is a name you didn\u2019t hear all night, but he played very well in the secondary.\u00a0 Michael Jackson had 5 tackles but they weren\u2019t downfield on the WR he was covering.\u00a0 They were on RB\u2019s the LBs couldn\u2019t contain.\u00a0 Jackson had excellent coverage and often blanketed his receiver.<\/p>\n 12) On the other hand, Jalen Mills was flat-out awful.\u00a0 He is giving Stephon Gilmore more leverage every time he plays poorly.\u00a0 I hope he doesn\u2019t make the team.<\/p>\n 13) The Patriots had at least 5 penalties against the special teams last night. \u00a0This is highly unusual.\u00a0 How do you get illegal procedure called on the punt team (three times)?\u00a0 On the TV broadcast you can clearly hear Special Teams coach Cam Achord yell out to the team \u201cHold your effing water\u201d!\u00a0 This means hold your position like you were holding your urge to go to the bathroom.\u00a0 Don\u2019t move.\u00a0 Scott Zolak trying to explain it was just as funny.\u00a0 The overall coverage was pretty bad as well.\u00a0 They sure didn\u2019t look like the number one ST unit.<\/p>\n 14) I was very surprised there were not many heat-related injuries last night.\u00a0 The Patriots have not had very hot weather during training camp.\u00a0 The medical staff must have done a great job of preparing the players to play in the heat last night.<\/p>\n 15) Quinn Nordin was the star of the night with three Field Goals.\u00a0 His second was 50 yards long and would have been good from 60.\u00a0 It hit the top of the net!\u00a0 \u00a0Too bad he missed that extra point which marred a good night.\u00a0 That missed extra point might have cost the team if it was a regular-season game.\u00a0 The two-point conversion (which should have been called good) would have tied the game and put it into OT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pre-season game #1 is in the books. What did we learn from this game?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":37543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22702],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2021-patriots-preseason"],"yoast_head":"\n