Tom Brady is back like he never left. Brady tore up the Browns for his 8th career 400-yard game, with three touchdowns to Martellus Bennett, en route to the Pats 33-13 win over the Browns in Cleveland.
All in the Patriots Universe is right.
Now, with Deflategate firmly in the rearview mirror (I pray…) the Patriots are ready to move on in pursuit of their fifth Super Bowl. Their offense looks primed to take them there. Their defense shut down Cleveland’s ground game and gave up just two scoring drives.
All three phases have things to clean up, but make no mistake, the 2016 Patriots are on track now and the season is very much underway.
Here da’ Posits…
— It feels good to have #12 back out there. I was holding my breath the whole time for some reason, like the season really had started and now we were playing for keeps. After an offseason wondering what the Gronk-Bennett-Edelman-et all could do, we got a nice first glimpse in Cleveland. Gronk suddenly looked like Gronk and the combination of him and Bennett gave the Browns fits. Best of all it took some heat off of Edelman and Amendola. We’ll see how it evolves moving forward. But when clicking it looks pretty much impossible to stop.
— Can’t say I was thrilled with the rushing performance. Cleveland was 28th in run defense DVOA coming into the game and Blount, White and a sprinkling of Foster produced just 2.8 yards-per-carry (38 carries, 98 yards). That was the only missing ingredient in this one and now that Brady’s back I can turn my sites to Dion Lewis, who is eligible to return next week. The ground game must continue to be an important part of the offense, no matter how good the passing offense looks. One dimensional doesn’t get it done in the winter unless everything goes your way, which it rarely does.
— I find myself wondering how Chris Hogan (4 catches, 114 yards, hasn’t been on the Patriots all along. What a perfect fit. Good size, tough. It’s clear Brady likes him and it’s easy to see why. He had catches of 43 and 63 yards. And two “he’s injured? nope, he’s back” episodes, including one that saw him go to the locker room for a concussion. We’ll see if anything lingers but it’s hard to ask much more out of Hogan.
— I’ve tried to not get attached to Martellus Bennett because I’ve always assumed he was a one-year rental. But I’m getting more and more attached and more and more hopeful that he’ll take what the Pats offer to stick around. Seems like his Mom would be happy. He’s certainly the Pats offensive MVP through five games. And who doesn’t love artsy fartsy tight ends who look like Darth Vader on the field? The guys been a positive breath of fresh air and I’d love to see him sign another deal with the Pats.
— Cannon out, Fleming in and it ain’t no thing. I’ve missed this kind of seamless offensive line play. Things were so disjointed early in the last two seasons. With Dante Scarnecchia back the offensive line has blocked for two first-time starters and the GOAT and been solid. Need a better look at the running game breakdowns, but the golden rule is always protect Brady first and foremost and the OL did that.
— Nice to see Jimmy get some time, he deserved it after having his fire season thrown so abruptly off course. The Pats can now feel confident that they’ve got multiple guys who can play the most important position. Personnel decisions can be evaluated and made in the offseason.
— Overall a pretty solid performance by the defense, but let’s not hand out any medals for shutting down Clipboard Jesus and two drives of the rookie third-stringer. Before Dont’a Hightower ruined his shoulder, Cody Kessler engineered a nine-play, 75-yard touchdown drive, converting two 3rd-and-six’s. Clipboard Jesus put together a seven-play, 80-yard drive. So it wasn’t perfect. The Pats didn’t get a red zone stop on either of those possessions, the only two to make it to the red zone. Pats D ended 5-of-13 on third downs.
— This was a no-win game for the defense, but their work against the run, allowing just 27 total yards, deserves a ton of credit. If they can stop the run and force the lesser quarterbacks in the AFC to beat them, the 2016 Pats will be just fine. And I’m looking straight at Denver and Pittsburgh.
— Loved seeing rookie Elandon Roberts get a chance at middle linebacker and he continued to charge downhill with force like he has since his arrival. Roberts was already more of a physical presence than Jonathan Freeny in August, and he looks like he’s earned more playing time. Freeny has been the most ineffective player on the defense. Roberts’ pop was a welcome addition in the middle.
— Unfortunately the pass rush still looked leaky at times, breaking their lanes and just not getting enough disruption. This is surprising given what we expected out of this deep and peaking front seven. Pass rush can take some time to develop and with the Pats sitting at 4-1 they have time to let the rush develop. It has to. Once that and the run game clicks we’ll see how good the 2016 Pats really are.
— Not a great start for Cyrus Jones, as he got ejected for throwing a punch. After some questionable ball security and decision-making in the first four games, Jones took the next bad step losing his cool after a late low block. Still not worried about these early bumps in the road with the second-round pick. He plays on the edge, he just needs to relax (ala Patrick Chung) and he’ll be fine.
— Yup, we collectively all lost some confidence in Stephen Gostkowski, who’s missed three field goals over the first five games and had a costly missed extra point against the Broncos in the ’15 AFCCG. It’s not like the Pats are going to cut him (at least I don’t think), so we really just have no choice but to pucker up every time he lines one up and hope he gets back on track. I still believe. But a pressure kick at the end of a game could be dicey.
4-1, Brady and Nink back and the Bengals at home up next. This is the heart of the season when teams start to click and some of the best games happen, before injury attrition really starts to set in.
The Pats’ next three, with the Bengals, Steelers and streaking Bills, should tell us a lot about just how good this team can be. Offensively it’s easy to see the potential and they had plenty of flashes of hitting it already in their first week together.
Defensively the pieces are in place, but something is not adding up at times, with the pass rush seeming an obvious place to start. They’ll be put to the test in the next three weeks and then we’ll truly have an idea of this defense’s identity.
Then comes the bye week and a chance to re-evaluate where it’s all headed.
Perhaps best of all is that aside from Martellus Bennett’s injury scare, it looks like the Pats have made it to Week 6 with pretty good health. Maintaining that is critical but impossible to predict.
We’re on to Cincinnati once again.
If you haven’t seen it yet, we’ve got a bus going from Quincy to the game, with the guys from Shit Pats Fans Say and yours truly. We’ve got a bunch of giveaways, including Pats bags, hats and a Brady Jersey. If you’re looking to try a new fun way to go to the game, grab a ticket!
