New England Patriots Thread Mod Warning Post #253

I kind of held off commenting after the Bears game because I wanted to see how Mac would go in the next few weeks. However, one interesting post-script from that Bears game is Scott Pioli was saying that the tape had caught up with Zappe, with d-linemen easing off and putting their hands up when Bailey was going to throw (because he's shorter than most). To be honest, I didn't see it but I only saw highlights so may well have been the case. Of course, as we well know from the Texans "leatherman" game, we can solve that problem so I'm surprised the O-line didn't adjust. Indeed, perhaps that's more a reflection on the state of the O-line than anything.

The D were just physically beat up in Chicago more than anything else, which I'm fine with as you can fix that, and have shown again that they are capable of dominating games. I do think we have an issue with running qbs, even going back to when tyrod taylor was qb in buffalo. Looking at it, there doesn't seem to have been as much emphasis on keeping the contain, several of Fields runs were through gaps where Judon was trying to get around the outside. I wonder if this is because we can't play a 3-4 as the base defence because we don't really have a 2-gapper. I thought it was interesting in Uche's comments after this week's game, he talked about making sure he never got past level with the QB, so this might be something that is being addressed.

We are what we are at this stage, which is a great defence and decent special teams saddled with an offence that will not win a track meet type game, and that will struggle against good defences. The real test will be when we meet the Bills or Miami again, as that will demonstrate whether we can keep those offences to the kind of scores we can count on from offence (low 20s).

On a side note, I know BB probably doesn't like in-season trades in, but when I was looking at the Bears game in particular, the one area I thought we could improve the defence significantly was at the MLB. I thought Roquan Smith would have been perfect, so would have looked like a freakin oracle if I'd posted it when I first thought of it!

Be interesting to see what Mac looks like after the bye, I think a reset is needed during this bye to get him back on track. He's really been nursed through these last few games since Chicago, same number of attempts but much shorter distances and less aggressive throws, presumably to build him back up. Even then, he's still made some horrific throws that would make you wonder if his head is just gone. All the feedback from training camp was that he'd stepped up a level, so hopefully they can get him back towards that.

Hopefully we take care of the Vikings tonight, would make our game with Buffalo next week really interesting. Anyway, on a slightly tenuous Patriots note, saw Scott Pioli was on Her Huddle this week. I always liked Pioli, and he's a great analyst/talking head, always interesting and insightful. Anyway, as if that wasn't enough, he gained extra respect today from me for rocking a pair of Doc Martens 😀Just not what you see from your average NFL exec.

Getting Scar back would be the dream, but long term it would just be sticky-plaster. Having taken a few days to get my head together, a few things jump out at me:

(a) Why did we run a play at all? With 3 seconds on the clock, we should have taken the knee. With all the Raiders back deep to defend a Hail Mary, there was no way a draw play was going anyplace once Stevenson got to the second level. That falls on Matt P. and really smacks of trying to do too much.

(b) It's a pity our 2 most consistent players this season were the source of the issue. We know situational football is preached all the time, so to me this indicates that there's a level of anxiety or panic in the dressing room, that solid players who should know better are feeling the pressure to make things happen.

(c) The punt botchjob. It's hard to know if Peppers didn't know the play or if punter Palardy called the snap too early while they were setting assignments, but either way, as someone said earlier, that was Cleveland Browns football.

(d) I was really disappointed to hear of Trent Brown liking a Twitter post that suggested the Pats should try and get Jimmy G or TB12 back in town. Talk about a way to stab your QB in the back. Very un-Patriots like, especially considering Brown is one of the more senior players on the offensive roster. I particularly dislike it as there's a high chance Brown would be on civvy street right now if the Pats hadn't resurrected his career twice, so he should be bought in even more than the rest of the roster. Be interesting to see if he gets benched for a series this week, I think that would be very telling in terms of where this team is culturally.

(e) I think it was in the Pats mailbag that someone made the point that the coaching structure in New England has been decimated in the last few years with Flores, McDaniel, Judge and Patricia all taking staff to their head coaching gigs, along with the retirement of Scar and Ernie Adams. In addition, there just isn't the same depth of leadership core as previously. Realistically, there are only 3-4 real leaders on the team right now who are schooled in the Patriots way, Dev, Slates, Wise and Andrews. All this adds up to the point that I feel things have shifted culturally for us, and I just don't think the current culture has the same edge it once had. The Brown incident above, along with Mac's constant chirping this season on-field, is the kind of stuff that would not have been tolerated in the past no matter who you were unless you were the GOAT, BB benching Welker for the first series of an AFC championship game being an example.

(f) The most concerning thing I saw on Sunday though was Mac Jones. He was given a pretty clean pocket for most of the night, and while he didn't make any egregiously stupid decisions, his accuracy was way off. Passes in the wrong position for receivers, passes a bit too far past, etc. I can accept bad reads in the second year, but when his accuracy starts to waver, that really concerns me. I'm not sure if that's a Mac thing or an in-season coaching thing, but it's hard not to think that this season and set-up has been really damaging to Mac. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to say that this off-season is a make-or-break one for Mac. Be interesting to see how Bill will address this in the offseason. I know the rumour is Bill O'Brien, but I'm not sure he's the guy to mould Mac e.g. my feeling is he'd be better if we'd an established offensive scheme. If he did come in, I'd really like to see them get someone from outside the organisation to come in as the QB coach. The other thing is if Bill O'Brien does come back, my assumption is that he'll only be doing that if he gets some guarantees in terms of the New England head coaching gig. I'm not sure how I feel about that. He did OK in Houston until the wheels came off, and as we know from BB's coaching arc you don't always get it right in your first gig. Nonetheless, I'm not sure that he's bringing something to the table that wiill change things in the long run. I think the league has finally caught up with us in terms of roster and salary cap management which was always a big tactical advantage we had, plus the Brady hometown discount is a phenomenon that is unlikely to occur again (I know Mac is on a rookie contract but going forward he'll either renew to proper pay, or we'll have to pay someone free agent dollar). What do you guys think about a BOB-lead Patriots organisation.

(g) The Raiders touchdown. Leaving aside what appears to be the egregious miscall in New York in not overturning the call on the field, I don't understand why the NFL don't have rules around cleats and their colour at the bottom. It looked to me like there's a bit of white on the receiver's shoe at the bottom which makes it more difficult to assess. PFT have also been banging the drum about why the owners won't shell out for pylon cams, making the point that they would have been there if the game had been carried on CBS as originally scheduled. Final thing is that I've noticed in a few stadiums that they don't paint the end zone right up to the goal line, So-Fi in particular is one I've noticed it over and over where they have about a half foot of green past the goal line. I'm fairly certain this is a deliberate thing, maybe to discourage players reaching out over the goal line by tricking them with the extra green to make them think they've further to go. This is something the league should really clamp down on.

I know I said last week I felt we'd go to the play-offs only if the Fins and Jets shat the bed, which is exactly what they've been doing. However, now I feel even in that case, we can't get out of our own way to take advantage. Difficult to make a case for us even going 1-2 over the final games, although you'd imagine BB will have the whip out this week. I'd like to say that on the plus side, we might finally get to pick in a decent position in the draft, but even then can we trust BB to use it on a game-changing talent that could elevate those around him. Last year's draft delivered solid players, several of who might have a bright future, but I wouldn't define any of them as game changers yet. Again, I feel there's too much flux in the offense for it to be on that side, fix the scheme and execution first so that we can find out what we've got. Defensively, I feel if we could get an elite player ala a Donald, early JJ Watt, Micah Parsons, Revis type, that could push the defence from good enough to keep us in games to good enough to win us games in spite of the offence. You can get those kind of talents in the top 15 range on defence, so hopefully that's what we do.