Pats Posits: We’re On to Tom Brady

And that’s a wrap on Deflategate.

Tom Brady is back Patriots fans, just as the dreaded thoughts of “the end” were starting to seep into our consciousness, here comes TB12 to (we hope) the rescue.

The Patriots laid a goose egg on the scoreboard and on the field against the Bills, losing 16-0. For every bit they looked flawless against the Texans, they looked equally flawed against the Rex and Rob Ryan Wonder Twins.

But it was just another example of how even when the Pats get dominated, they never really get blown out.

Jacoby Brissett looked very much like an overwhelmed rookie and the offense was shut out at home for the first time since Drew Bledsoe‘s 1993 rookie season.

Fine. Whatever. Now Brady’s back, Gronk is getting healthier and this Garopposset Offense will soon be long forgotten as a footnote to the 2016 season.

But the defense was lit up for almost 400 yards and didn’t calm any nerves I had this week about how inconsistent they’ve been. They were terrible on third down. Allowed the Bills 36 minutes of possession. Why have they been so up-and-down in the first quarter of the season?

More on that and everything else in a “First Loss of the Season” edition of the Posits…

— Every season, the team gets a freebee from me in the first four games of the season. Almost inevitably, they have a terrible game at some point in those first four. Everything looks broken, but nothing truly is. The Patriots were coming off a big win with a rookie quarterback on national television last week. The long weekend off, the first break since camp opened, all they heard was how great they were. They probably felt unstoppable. And well, they weren’t.

— The penalties (9-74) and missed tackles (a shit ton) will be cleaned up. Those are most uncharacteristic for a BB Patriots team. Things seemed off from the moment Cyrus Jones took the opening kickoff out of the end zone as Matthew Slater turned to tell him to kneel. It just snowballed from there. Every good play was counteracted by a negative play, often a penalty. It was just one of those days. This kind of stuff get snuffed out quick under Belichick, so I expect we’ll see a whole new Pats team against Cleveland. It really feels like a second opening game. So no reason to hit the panic button just yet. Far from it. Obvs.

— How can anyone really feel anything but grateful to Brissett for gutting it out through injury and not embarrassing himself nor getting anyone injured? He might need surgery on his thumb, hopefully it won’t cost him the season. Eager to see how he develops into next season. Thanks for holding the fort. Now watch the magic man.

— The protection and overall offensive line play, outside the penalties, is there for Brady to do his usual damage. Helping with that blocking, while also leading the team in receptions was Martellus Bennett (5/109). Marty was the best Patriot player and is the would-be MVP for the first quarter of the season. He’s done whatever’s asked of him and been nothing but a positive voice in the locker room.  What happens now as Brady and Gronk are added to the mix? Oh boy.

— I knew Belichick wasn’t going to leave the Edelman Wildcat (or Squirrelcat as Jeff Howe dubbed it) plays in the playbook and they were ineffective. Hopefully that’s the last we see of the Squirrelcat.

— Blount (13 carries, 54 yards) never really got going and James White (5 catches, 50 yards) just couldn’t make an explosive scoring play that they desperately needed. Edelman, Gronk, Amendola and Hogan had two catches  for 27 yards combined. That won’t be how the statsheet looks next weekend.

— Injury situations to monitor: Vincent Valentine (back, left for locker room, didn’t return), Brandon Bolden (knee), Malcolm Butler (knee), Martellus Bennett (shoulder), LeGarrette Blount (leg). Of all those Valentine and Bolden seem to be the most significant. Bennett, Butler and Blount all played on after getting dinged.

— Gronk grabbed his first catch of the season. Thought it might’ve been a spark the team needed, but nope.

Breakdown of @RobGronkowski 41 snaps vs. Bills: Run blocking (15); Pass routes (13); Pass blocking (11), penalties (2).

— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) October 3, 2016

— Okay, so the defense. I’ve been stewing on them since the game ended and if you read this blog you probably know why. I expected more. I know this was just the Septembah Stinkah, but, outside of the Texans win, the defense has been filleted in every game. There were plenty of “calm down they only gave up 16 points” reactions to my SMDH game tweets, and I get it. They’re too talented to be this inconsistent. That’s what’s maddening. They’re just not playing together of doing their job, as they say.

— I am not ready to back to the days of 2010 and 2011 where teams threw up and down the field on us, and we prayed for turnovers to win games. There will always be an element of Bend-Don’t-Break to the Belichick defense, but then red zone defense and takeaways are critical. The Pats are 31st in Red Zone Defense and didn’t have a takeaway against the Bills.

— I certainly think Rob Ninkovich‘s return is just what the defense needs. An anchor up front like good ole Nink. That should help settle them down and get them back on track. Dont’a Hightower made a couple plays that helped change the tone in the second half, but the leadership void without #50 was noticeable through these four games.

— I’m not gonna lie though, for all the new contract talk with Collins, Hightower, Ryan, Sheard, etc. it doesn’t exactly look like the price tags on any of them is rising at the moment. I think my All-22 side project this week will be to count missed tackles. Those were brutal and everyone had their problems.

— Pretty sure Ryan got benched for a bit in the second quarter, with Cyrus Jones getting some snaps in his place. He was back out there though and went on to lead the team with 17 total tackles. That is insane for a cornerback and doesn’t just speak to Ryan’s troubles, but the entire defense’s.

— Let’s just bury this one for the defense. I’ll dive into it this week in the film review, but this isn’t the Patriots defense. They sure won’t go into Cleveland thinking it will be a cake walk. They’ll play with something to prove and should only feed off the energy of Brady’s return. They might be a lot more “Bend-Don’t-Break-y” than we had hoped, but as we’ve seen you can win with that kind of defense, even if it drives you nuts.

— Ryan Allen was again a bright spot. Unfortunately for him the extra yardage didn’t seem to matter for the Bills. They started the game with three scoring drives, all lasted 10 or more plays as Taylor got off to a 13-of-15, 136 yard start.

— Stephen Gostkowski missed another field goal, his second of the year. Gostkowski’s been a little shaky since Denver. Something to monitor but I’ve definitely got some anxiety with Gost that I didn’t used to have.

Now we hit the reset button on the 2016 Patriots. Tom Brady will arrive in Foxboro early this morning before the sun is up, getting up to speed on the Browns as quickly as possible.  Meanwhile, the team is ready for the heart and soul of the team to be back in the locker room.

I’m treating these last four games as an extended preseason. To be 3-1 after the bullshit Deflategate suspension is as much as anyone could expect. We’ll see if the problems the team has displayed before Brady’s return continue to haunt the team down the road.

Maybe the distraction of all the quarterback issues of the last two months grew on the Pats a bit. First the Brady thing, then Jimmy’s injury and then Brissett’s injury and the uncertainty going into the game.

The Pats looked ready to turn the page to Week 5 from the opening kickoff.

It’s in the past now. Now the real season begins.

We’re on to Tom Brady.

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If you haven’t heard, we’ve partnered with Skedaddle to put together a Welcome Back Brady Bus going to the Pats-Bengals game on October 16. You can get all the details and purchase tickets here. Fitzy and Kippah from the Shit Pats Fans videos will be there along with me Mike D. We’ll have giveaways and all kinds of Patriotic fun. Hope you’ll hop aboard with us to and from the game!