It wasn’t surprising to wake up to a lot of people pissing and moaning about the style points from last night’s Thursday Night Football win by the Patriots. On an uber-short week, against an unfamiliar opponent on the road you’ll take a victory any way you can take it, especially after how apocalyptic the Patriots defense looked on Sunday.
Really, it was only the fourth quarter that anyone should have any problem with. At that point the Patriots went to sleep on both sides of the ball after actually being quite good for most of the previous three quarters. The defense gave up 214 yards while the offense only picked up 42 in the 4th. So yes, that’s something for the entire team to focus on, but let’s not throw out the rest of the night based on the final frame.
When the narrative for three miserable days was how the defense couldn’t stop a nose bleed and the offense would have to be over-relied on, things were certainly turned on their head last night.
The defense forced six punts, including five three-and-outs and two four-and-outs. It’s hard to ask much more from any defense, even more so one that was busting coverages left and right only a few days earlier. Plus, they had to overcome two Tom Brady turnovers, something none of us would’ve thought them capable of.
The offense continues to move the ball well in between the 20s, but sputtered when the game was on the line. They remain a work in progress despite exciting flashes from Cooks, Gillislee and Hogan, and a 2015 Dion Lewis sighting.
It wasn’t pretty at the end but there was plenty on both sides to build off of and I think it’s safe to say that rumors of this Patriots teams’ demise were once again premature. Here are a bunch of Posits on the third win of the season…
— Despite the bad-throw interception on the first drive Brady had some absolute lights out throws in this one. He leaned on a trusted core of Amendola, Cooks, Hogan and White. The problem that we should’ve seen coming is that as the passing attacked both evolved and was forced to focus more down the field, Brady would take more hits. He’s already been sacked 16 times, more that all of last year and you have to wonder if he can hold up to this pounding. Perhaps we should’ve recognized how Brady’s dependence on the dink-and-dunk and getting the ball out quick helped him avoid too many hits for much of his career. I like the deep passes, but not if they come at the expense of getting our Brady killed every week.
— The end-of-half meltdown by the defense with two stupid roughing the passer penalties that gave the Bucs an unnecessary shot at a field goal that of course they were incapable of making. This was something you might expect out of the Ravens, not the Patriots and the lack of discipline was the most troubling thing about the defense until the fourth quarter. We haven’t seen much of that over the years, something to monitor.
— I’d attribute the Bucs’ success in the fourth quarter to the pass rush not getting home. Yes, they rushed three a lot, but many times they collapsed the pocket only to see Winston squirt out. They get a bit of a pass given the short week. It shouldn’t have been surprising that there wasn’t much left in the tank that late in the game. Still they made the last play and won the game so they must get some credit for that.
— Cassius Marsh seems to be taking strong steps forward each week and early on is the candidate for this year’s edition of the special teams guy they took a flyer on who’s proving he can play on defense. He’s had his ups and downs but the signs are all there that the Patriots like him and will continue to expand his role.
— I don’t think Hightower was really used all that differently, he just had his full-time role expanded back to normal. They move him all over to take advantage of his smarts and strength. The trickle-down effect on the heart of the defense was obvious.
— Kyle Van Noy‘s deficiencies in the run game were apparent on the Bucs only long scoring drive of the game before the fourth quarter. The Pats swapped in Elandon Roberts who is unfortunately the run-game mirror image of Van Noy. If we could combine the two players we might have a pretty good three-down linebacker. Instead they must role a player with a weakness out there, a weakness that offenses can and will target.
— It’s not often that I nail one of my gameplan articles, but this week I think I was pretty dead on.
–The offensive struggles are right where you’d expect them to be without Edelman (3rd down) and Gronk (red zone). They’ve got to continue to find other ways to overcome those critical losses because those are two of the most important areas of offensive football. Amendola came through with three conversions as he did his best Edelman impression. I’m so rooting for Danny to have a career-year. It would really add to his New England legend, which is already very strong of course.
— Nice bounceback game for Gilmore who really did a good job on Mike Evans most of the game. Overall the secondary finally looked coordinated and that made a huge difference. Against pocket passers the strength of this defense is on display with their coverage, but what was exposed was their pass rush. Dietrich Wise took one of the dumb penalties and still had some pressure plays, but overall the pass rush just has to be more effective, especially when it comes to closing games out. That’s a tough thing to do, especially when there are new faces doing it. Rob Ninkovich is no longer around to deliver game-sealing strip sacks. Someone else has to start making those plays.
— Tony Romo kept mentioning how Nate Solder doesn’t look like himself, and I think the offensive line as a whole has struggled a bit more than we’re used to and that includes Marcus Cannon. If anyone needs a 10-day break to get right, it’s them. But what is going on with Solder? He got a non-injury day off this week as it seems the Pats are doing everything possible to protect him, even now, just five weeks into the season. I really wonder how the left tackle spot is going to shake out next offseason.
— Dion Lewis finally started to show glimpses of 2015 untackleable Dion Lewis which was a great compliment to the hard running of Gillislee. The Pats just totally lost their rhythm with the two backs in the fourth quarter, a big reason the offense stalled their last three possessions.
— Credit to Stephen Gostkowski who was perfect on the night. Yes, the contrast between the Pats and Buc’s kicking situations illustrates how thin the line of victory is in the NFL. Nice to have some faith restored in Gost.
— Nice to have Matthew Slater back out there. His presence is really huge on special teams, though Brandon Bolden‘s offsides penalty that gave the Bucs a new set of downs was a surprisingly boneheaded play from one of their other core ST vets.
— Patrick Chung‘s resurgence in coverage was a needed spark for the defense. He had two third down passes defensed, including a big one in the third quarter on the edge of the Patriots’ red zone.
I know the Pats will still be ripped for this win by the coaches and media alike, but this was a far better performance than many were expecting and it shows that when they’re all on the same page they can still be very good.
There’s much to work on but all the elements for this team to make a Super Bowl run are there. Now we wait and see what Belichick does over the extended break. I think it’s a good bet there will be some moves to shore up the real weaknesses he sees.
Maybe they got some help from Winston and Folk but at this point in the season you’ve got to take a win any way you can. We’ll worry about style points down the road.
With the emphasis on communication, do you think the underrated change was Hightower getting the green dot as well as Gilmore being simplified to just following Mike Evans (playing man)
Yes Hightower definitely seemed to have a calming effect now that he was back in a full time role and as I had written in my gameplan, the simplification for Gilmore seemed to really help him as well. Expect more of this playing to strengths.