18 November, 2019
The typical method of operation for the New
England Patriots this season is to survive their opponent's best shot early,
make the necessary in-game adjustments on the fly, then simply outclass them at
winning time.
Never has this m.o. been more stark and obvious as
it was against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday evening.
The Patriots spotted the Eagles a ten point lead
in the first quarter, then the New England defense made their in-game
adjustments and shut down Philadelphia's offense the rest of the game. The only
thing missing from the equation is the part where the Patriots' offense was
supposed to outclass their opponent...
...relying on three Nick Folk field goals and a
trick play for a touchdown to take an early third-quarter lead over the Eagles,
the Patriots' defense and special teams making that lead hold up to take home a
17-10 victory in a brutal slugfest at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
Perhaps "slugfest" isn't the proper term
for what occurred between the Patriots and Eagles. Instead, given the number of
punts between the two, perhaps "snoozefest" would actually be a more appropriate
moniker to lay on the CBS Game of the Week, a three-hour sleeping pill
prescribed for the national television audience.
It was like watching a bad prizefight, featuring a
series of horrible beatings to start the matchup, followed by a few jabs and a
lot of clinching in the corners in the late rounds with the good guys hanging
on to win on points.
The jabs came courtesy of the Patriots' defense,
which sacked Eagles' quarterback Carson Wentz five times and forced two
turnovers; The clinching on the ropes courtesy of punters Jake Bailey for New
England and Cameron Johnston for Philadelphia, pinning down their opponents in
their own territory in a field position battle.
Neither offense came close to even sniffing the
end zone after Julian Edelman connected with Phillip Dorsett early in the third
quarter on a double pass play for a touchdown - in fact, crossing midfield
after that point became cause for celebration before Wentz nearly connected
with Nelson Agholor in the back of the end zone on a final-play desperation
throw from the New England 35-yard line that would have potentially sent the
game into overtime...
...which likely would have been more of the same
three-and-out. flipping of field position struggle that plagued both offenses
almost the entire second half – so, perhaps mercifully for the bleary-eyed
television audience, the desperation heave went incomplete.
How bad was it? Bad enough to make Patriots'
quarterback Tom Brady look and sound like someone had just killed his dog
before the post-game press conference, his countenance clearly despondent after
completing just fifty-five percent of his passes, the longest pass play of the
night a dump-off to running back Rex Burkhead that went for 30 yards – not to
mention that the lone touchdown pass of the evening came off of the arm of
Edelman.
Brady had plenty to be dissatisfied with, from the
play calling to the execution – but the player he should be most disappointed
in is himself.
While it is true that Brady took more hits than
Rocky Balboa while running for his life against the Eagles' monstrous pass
rush, it is also true that his game regressed as the contest wore on, choosing
to try and fit fastballs into tight windows, including a couple that should
have been picked off as he ignored open receivers on intermediate routes and
continually dumped off throws to his backs...
...which netted him close to nothing as the
Eagles' defensive game plan obviously was to take away the screen game that is
a staple of the Patriots' offense and forcing Brady to target receivers that he
wasn't fully comfortable with.
He again saw little help from his running game as
Sony Michel averaged a dismal 2.3 yards per carry and dropped two passes in the
flat. James White had the hot feet for the runners, averaging four yards a pop
and also converting a two-point conversion on the ground, yet White only saw
five carries for the entire game.
Burkhead didn't fare any better on the ground than
Michel did, but also fell victim to the play calling, as McDaniels called
numerous pitch plays to the left corner, which fell right into the laps of the
Eagles' game planners and gained no yards at all.
Yet the Patriots still found a way to win the game
and improve their league-best record to 9-1, good for a one-game lead over the
surging Baltimore Ravens for the top seed in the AFC, who hold the tie-breaker
over New England in light of their win over the Patriots two weeks ago.
The win over the Eagles followed a similar pattern
to their loss against the Ravens in that they spotted each team double-digit
early leads, then fought back to gain all of the momentum – the difference
being that New England didn't give up the ball on turnovers against the Eagles,
nor did they make the mental errors that crushed them in Baltimore.
The bottom line is that with a date against the
Dallas Cowboys looming next Sunday night that opens a three-game stretch
against some of the best the rest of the NFL has to offer, Brady needs to find
a comfort zone with his entire pass catching corps or they could lose their top
spot in the conference to the Ravens, who look unbeatable in Baltimore.
The good news is that neither the Cowboys, the
Houston Texans nor the Kansas City Chiefs have defenses good enough to cause
the amount of uncertainty that caused Brady to become skittish in the pocket
against Philadelphia – not to mention that on the other side of the ball, New
England sports the best defense in the league.
Can the Patriots ride that defense to another
title? Probably so, but the offense needs to contribute as well, and with the
offensive line being close to being incrementally better with left tackle
Isaiah Wynn set to return against the Cowboys, perhaps Brady will find time in
the pocket and the runner will find creases to run through.
Perhaps. But with head coach Bill Belichick living
by the axiom that his teams build up across the first few months of the season
to become what they are around Thanksgiving, the Patriots are a spooky good
defense protecting an offense that is still trying to find an identity – and if
they can't find that continuity and chemistry on offense, one can only expect
more ugly games like the last two...
...and that probably won't make the nut.
Good Stuff:
1.
Jake Bailey's right foot: Bailey punted eight times for an average of 47.6
yards on each – not bad, but what that average doesn't tell you is that he
pinned the Eagles inside their 20-yard line six times, once just outside the
twenty and once more inside the twenty after a personal foul penalty on the
Eagles that took the ball half the distance to the goal line. If there is a
game ball to be had, Bailey was clearly the best weapon on the field for New
England.
2.
Boogeyman Defense: After giving up 103 yards and ten points on the
first three series of the game, the New England defense yielded only 148 total
yards the rest of the way, forcing eight punts – including 4 three-and-outs
- forced a fumble and held Wentz to an
abysmal 11 of 28 for 149 yards, all but 40 yards of that coming on the final
two drives against the Patriots' two-deep zone designed to prevent any big
plays. Take away sack yardage, and Wentz threw for only 174 net passing yards
for the game.
3.
Danny Shelton goes beast mode: The big boy is quietly having the best
season of his career, and against the Eagles, he had his finest game as a
professional, and did so loudly. Shelton had seven tackles, one sack, a
quarterback hit and a forced fumble. He was instrumental in the Patriots' performance
against the run, limiting the normally potent Philadelphia running game to 3.8
yards per carry.
Curious:
1.
What was up
with offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels rolling Brady out into the right flat
multiple times during the game? Brady is never better on the rollout than he is
standing tall in the pocket, as rolling out into the flat eliminates half of
the field and causes his receivers to try and gain separation in a phone booth.
To be fair to McDaniels, he most likely had that in his game plan to keep the
Eagles' blind-side edge rushers from getting to Brady before he had time to set
in the pocket, as left tackle Marshall Newhouse played as a matador for most of
the night. That said, there is hope on the horizon as starting tackle Isaiah
Wynn is eligible for return off the IR against Dallas.
Bad Juju:
1.
Brady's trust issue with his receivers: Brady has always been distrustful with
pass catchers that are new to him, particularly rookies, so it's not an anomaly
that his targets went primarily to Edelman and his backs – but once the Eagles
proved they could take away New England's screen game, he left himself no options other than trying to fit rockets
into tight coverages to Edelman. Only six of his 47 passes went to rookies
N'Keal Harry and Jakobi Meyers, both of whom Brady seemed to ignore though they
appeared open in the pattern.
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