Pats Pulpit
No need to watch any more football until February; we know all we need to know already. The Chiefs are cooked. The Ravens will never beat the Bills when it matters. And the Patriots haven’t got a chance of winning another game this season.
Starting 0-1 is never great, and there’s no denying that New England underwhelmed yesterday. But that’s alright. Plenty of season left, and maybe things aren’t as bleak as they seem.
Right?
1. I would imagine that this loss isn’t what’s bothering folks this morning. Depending on who you talk to, this is a 6-9 win team any way you slice it. But what is probably bothering folks, though, is the way they lost. The Patriots never came out of the locker room at halftime and there were a few questionable coaching decisions that is giving people strong 2024 vibes already.
2. And seeing as how Week 1 of the 2024 season represented the highlight of the whole year, it’s easy to feel a little down today.
3. I’ll start with the good, because it’s a relatively short list.
4. I was actually happy with the pass rush overall. There needs to be more consistency there, but their four sacks on the day would have been enough for the 2nd most in a game all last season. Harold Landry seems to fit it well in the scheme, and the team dialed up a fair number of strong blitzes. Now that pass rush needs to show up all game and not disappear for such long stretches.
5. Morgan Moses had himself an introduction by lining up across from Maxx Crosby, and considering the caliber of player, I was impressed by Moses’s footwork and lateral mobility.
6. Kayshon Boutte was the best LSU receiver in the NFL yesterday. A single game does not a season make, but getting a 100-yard day out of a Patriots receiver is more rare than a news story that starts with “Florida Man” that you’d feel comfortable reading out loud to your kids.
7. A lot of the stats on how many yards the defense gave up are misleading, as there were a number of chunk plays that came on broken coverage and bad reads. Surrendering chunk plays consistently, especially on 3rd and freaking 20 with time running out to more or less ice the game, is a horrible look, but those are the kind of things that are a lot more forgivable this early in the season. If you see me writing something similar in October, come at me all you want.
8. The offensive line was much better in pass protection than run blocking, as can be expected. The unit is still new and needs to continue to gel.
9. We saw RPOs, naked bootlegs, motions to diagnose coverage, and ajustments based on previous mistakes. The Josh McDaniels offense is in there, Peter Banning just waiting to find his inner Bangarang. Hopefully we see those training wheels continue to come off.
10....
