Things certainly seem back to normal this week. Brady had a vintage Brady performance, all the Jimmy/Jacoby stuff can be put on the backburner (at least by me) until next offseason and the Pats are once again in the driver’s seat in both the conference and the division.
This feels like Belichick/Brady Patriots football!
Here are some leftover tidbits as I cleaned out my Pats notebook and looked back at a few key moments in the game before diving into the All-22 once it becomes available.
— Plenty of digging on how the Pats used Bennett and Gronk going on. Kevin Duffy of Masslive.com had a good breakdown:
Here was Gronkowski’s breakdown by alignment on snaps with Bennett:
In-line: 31
Slot: 8
Wide: 4And here was Bennett’s:
In-line: 35
Slot: 4
Wide: 4
The Pats rans on 19 of the 30 snaps both tight ends were in-line, but some of their biggest pass plays came out of those kind of sets as well, including Bennett’s 37-yard touchdown. This illustrates the power of having two all-around Y tight ends — they can dictate however they want to. And the play action is going to absolutely devastating this season. And it really boils down to keep them mostly in-line and working from there.
Gronk was double-teamed on 15 of 32 routes. Bennett was double-covered on 8 of 24 routes but not until after his 2nd TD.
— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) October 10, 2016
— Always love reading the snap counts once they come out. Couple things to note — both Ninkovich (24 of 63 snaps) and Hightower (29 of 63 snaps) were managed in this one. But it opened the door for Elandon Roberts who showed up really well.
#Patriots rookie LB Elandon Roberts earned game-best 90.1 run defense grade vs #Browns. 5 of 7 solo tackles were defensive stops, per @PFF
— Rich Hill (@PP_Rich_Hill) October 10, 2016
Diagnose and get downhill w/force. Really good stuff from Elandon Roberts #Patriots rookie ILB #NFL1000 pic.twitter.com/IA05fCD0i4
— Jerod Brown (@jerodbrown62) October 10, 2016
Everyone knows I’m not a big Jonathan Freeny fan, so I’m rooting for Roberts to continue to get more action. The best part of his game was not looking out of place in the passing game. Crashing into oncoming blockers is one thing, but looking collected in space is another. Bottom line — Roberts is scratching the itch I’ve had for a thumper since Spikes left (and then came back and left again before we saw him).
— Took a closer look at the two scoring drives, especially the third downs. The Pats were certainly trying to cause some confusion for the Cleveland offense, which included lining Jabaal Sheard up at middle linebacker on the first drive. Problem was that no one got to the quarterback and Chris Long had too much ground to make up because Crowell was his guy in coverage (usually Collins takes the RB, but he was blitzing). This isn’t the first time where it seemed like the Pats out-thinking themselves caused breakdowns.
— The Pats defense are still be near the very bottom of the league in third down and red zone and those are two stats that aren’t easily ignored (unlike passing yards allowed). In all my review I think the interior pass rush is where they’re most lacking. None of the defensive ends have had much success on the interior, and once again I’m longing for a one-technique defensive tackle like Easley was supposed to be or like Anthony Johnson (currently on the practice squad) was in the preseason. I’d like to see more of Trey Flowers inside. This feels like the we’re back to the same problem I was complaining about until they drafted Easley.
Pressure stats through Week 5: pic.twitter.com/NM2ML7p9Cl
— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) October 10, 2016
— The total shutdown of the Browns run game was impressive and showed the Pats D can still take away a team’s strength when they focus on it. They went with a heavier 4-3 front with Alan Branch at defensive end and Ninkovich at outside linebacker. Woodrow Hamilton didn’t look out of place. And Malcom Brown continues to wow me with his lateral ability.
— I want the Bengals game to be the defense’s coming out party. They were in a no-win situation against the Browns, despite facing a very good ground game. The Bengals aren’t exactly flying high, but they have talent and are one of the better AFC teams. The Bengals have just enough pieces to make this a great test and one where the defense especially can take a big step forward.
— Four of the next six games are all on the road for the Pats, after Cinci they have just one home game (Seahawks) before December. Then they’re home for three of their last five. Strange how that works out. All I’m hoping for is that the injuries aren’t devastating this year. They’ve killed two of our last three seasons.
— Oh so Denver got tore up by the Falcons using the Patriots’ “throw to running backs” gameplan against their defense? And this time around we’ll (hopefully) have Dion Lewis? Excellent.
From @jabaalsheard‘s @instagram: The #Patriots visited Jim Brown’s statue after yesterday’s 33-13 win over #Browns. #Respect @wbznewsradio pic.twitter.com/epv1W2dSmI
— Adam Kaufman (@AdamMKaufman) October 10, 2016
Love your last comment regarding Denver. I think Dion Lewis and Marty are the two pieces that will make the difference this year against Denver (Obviously assuming they will be healthy). Denver has probably the best cornerback trio in the league with enough talent to dominate our receivers (Perhaps even Jules). However, not even Denver has the talent to cover three guys that are massive mismatches against linebackers. They don’t have the personnel to cover one of those guys, much less three of them. And if they go small, Gronk and Marty should definitely be able to open some holes against guys that are 50 pounds lighter and 5-6 inches smaller.
You may want to fix the sentence about injuries and put the word “not” in there. It makes me cringe otherwise.
Holy hoodie, what a typo! Fixed!