Little late on my film review this week, usually I like to get these things over with after a loss. Still it was good to get a closer look at things and shockingly I started with the offensive side of the ball.
Here’s what stood out in the All-22.
– The Eagles rushed only three guys a lot in this one, often with four deep defenders and their other four in the middle zones. It was effective because the offense is just not as sharp as it was with Edelman and Gronk.
– Keshawn Martin is playing the Edelman role in the offense now, but he struggles to get open quickly and definitely doesn’t have the surest hands either. Another thing that stuck out with him was how he couldn’t quite run the rub routes like Edelman does. This is a fine line between doing it well and getting a penalty, he just doesn’t have the experience and savvy quite yet.
– Replacing Gronk was done by committee as expected, you can’t just plug Chandler into the Y-TE role and ask him to block like Gronk does so Watson and Williams had magnified roles. Chandler (at the 46 yard line) should’ve gotten the ball on the first third down of the game below, instead Brady tried to hit LaFell deep, a recurring theme in this one. Just seems like Brady doesn’t quite trust Chandler yet and when he does go to him Chandler’s been inconsistent. Still a work in progress there.
– I’d like to see more of James White, or at least see him made more of a focal point in the offense rather than just a rotational guy, which he still seemed to be despite his best statistical game of his career. Each week he’s taking small steps, but if the Pats are going to make a Super Bowl run I believe they have to embrace White more.
– Always hate to be critical of Brady but this wasn’t a great game for him. I think part of it is just trying to do too much, looking too hard for kill shots. There are guys open but he’s not finding them and often when he is, they’re dropping the ball. They had 17 third downs against the Eagles and 11 of them were eight yards or longer. That’s not winning on first and second down, and when they really got away from the run in the second half, Brady missing the easy 4-6 yarders really started to hurt.
– Glad that Josh Kline was at practice on Wednesday, but Fletcher Cox pretty much had his way with him all game long.
– Nothing against the guy personally, but Brandon Bolden might be my least favorite Patriots running back of all time. Pretty much the opposite of dynamic. As I’ve said before, he gets what’s there and no more.
– Again, why they abandoned the run in the second half I have no idea. They ran it 8 times in the second half, four of which were Brady sneaks. In the first half they ran it 17 times and averaged over four yards-per-carry.
– The play before Brady’s goal line pick six the Eagles got instant pressure while Cannon/Jackson/Stork and White were trying to block just two guys. Just gross. See below…
– Incredible how smooth Brady was on the trick play where he caught the ball for 36 yards. But right after that came his second interception which I’d say should not have been thrown even if LaFell broke off the route. Too many chuck-it-ups in this one and I feel like Brady was again going for a kill shot when they just needed a score on this drive more than a big play.
– The furious comeback fell just short, but credit to the Pats for hanging in there. Always a good sign and the biggest silver lining that can be taken from this loss. But the other silver lining has to be James White. He earned more trust in this one and is the only new guy showing consistent separation and ability to make defenders miss. We could look back as this being the game that the offense started to return to form with White being a big piece going forward.