Three Things We Learned From the Patriots: Week Two
The New England Patriots took another tough loss Sept. 17, falling limp 24–17 at the hands of the Miami Dolphins. This was not just any loss either, this was a key game that had playoff implications. Saying that this early in the season is usually a desperate ploy to make something look interesting, but the Patriots are floundering and to make the playoffs in arguably the best division in football, the Patriots need to 1.) beat division opponents, and 2.) simply win games. Being 0–2 and facing the toughest schedule in football is not a good situation to be in and with the way the Patriots offensive line is playing, there is simply not enough positives to be confident that the team can play up to their best players potentials. So what have we learned from the first two weeks of the season? Well the Patriots clearly have a lot of problems, a few positives, and a whole lot of dysfunction. A large portion of boos from the Foxboro faithful as well, just to add salt to the wound.
The Patriots Need an Offensive Tackle Now
What pisses me off the most about the 2023 New England Patriots is the horrendous, painful, and tormentous play of the offesnsive line. Thankfully, this week brought the return of Cole Strange and Mike Onwenu to the middle of the line. This however did not effect the game in the manner that it should have. One reason for it not having the impact it should have is because Trent Brown was once again injured and unable to perform his duties, leaving newly acquired Vederian Lowe to get slaughtered like a defenseless cow facing a starving Michael Myers.
It also did not help that on the other side, tackle Calvin Anderson turned into a turn style against backup Dolphins pass rusher Andrew Van Ginkel.
The Patriots desperately need to invest in the offensive line. The days of Dante Scarnecchia scouting amazing lineman for Bill to take credit for finding are gone. A 38.3% pressure rate is unacceptable. Belichick simply can’t understand that if he can’t draft players, he has to pay up.
La’el Collins is right there for the taking after being released by the Bengals. Why not solidify at least one side of the line so Mac Jones can have more than two seconds to throw every snap against a defense that got picked apart just a week earlier. Jones averaged only 2.5 seconds before he had to let the ball go. For reference, the median time spent in the pocket for all NFL QB’s in 2022 was 4.29 seconds. Absolutely dreadful stuff.
Brown is still a good player, and when he’s in, he gets the job done, but his inconsistency in staying healthy is glaring and in this tight of a margin, you need players that can play the whole season.
Belichick needs to get on the phone and pay Collins right now. Whatever he wants. If the line isn’t fixed, and fixed fast, the quality play of Jones thus far this season will be wasted.
Congrats Belichick, you figured out how to not screw up Jones’ development, now don’t get him killed.
YAC Receiver Wanted
Just for fun, let’s compare the Patriots receiving averages to the Dolphins receiving averages.
The Dolphins leading receiver, Jaylen Waddle, averaged 21.5 yards per catch on 4 receptions for 86 yards. Just following Waddle was River Cracraft at 17 yards per catch on 2 receptions and former Patriots draft choice Braxton Berrios at 14 yards per catch on 2 receptions.
The Patriots leading receiver in terms of average yards per catch was a tie. The returning DeVante Parker averaged 9.5 yards per catch on 6 receptions and Demario Douglas also averaged 9.5 yards per catch on 2 receptions.
What’s even more startling is that the Patriots longest reception came when Parker hauled in a pass for 14 yards. The Dolphins on the other hand…32 yards from the hands and legs of Waddle.
What’s clear to take from these numbers and simply the eye test of the game is that the Patriots don’t have what is utterly necessary to win football games in the NFL. Little plays and methodically marching down the field is something all teams need to do to be successful, but teams also need the ability to make yardage after the catch. Miami does this perfectly.
Berrios, Waddle, Tyreek Hill, and even Cracraft are receivers who can run by, go through, and drive their legs through defenders for extra yardage. The Patriots don’t seem to have that.
As much as I appreciate and like the Bill O’Brien offense, he is not pushing the ball down the field enough. This may be O’Brien’s and Jones’ only flaw up to this point. They need to push the ball to the sticks and either the current receivers are gonna have to learn to break out for extra yardage or Belichick is going to have to go and get some more receivers.
Demario Douglas has been electric to this point and in his minimal run time, he took a reception from behind the line of scrimmage 12 yards downfield. Those are the type of receivers this team needs, putting them on the bench for “rookie disciplinary reasons” is shooting the teams chances of winning with a twelve gauge and dumping them in the Charles River.
JuJu Smith-Schuster was not very good in YAC either. Smith-Schuster, who was brought in for his yards after the catch ability, has seemed to lost most if not all of his explosiveness. 5 receptions for 28 yards is not going to cut it.
I’m not going to say Jakobi Meyers was a better YAC option than Smith-Schuster, because he clearly is not. Meyers would be the king of falling down after the catch if Tyler Lockett did not exist, but don’t we think a guy like Deandre Hopkins would be nice to have in this offense right now. That’s certainly a guy that can make yards after the catch happen and on top of that…he’s an actual number one receiver. Food for thought Belichick.
Christian Gonzalez is Proving Himself, but Corner Depth is a Problem
I was wrong about Christian Gonzalez. I admit it. If you are not fully informed on my previous opinion on Gonzalez, I’ll tell you.
When the Patriots drafted Gonzalez over the likes of Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Deonte Banks, I screamed at least 10 minutes worth of expletives and nearly caused my TV to take a nose dive out of the third floor window. I was not happy.
My main criticism with Gonzalez was not purely “he’s not going to be good at the next level” or that he was an overall bad player, it was his lack of proven ability to play quality man coverage.
Gonzalez jumped off the screen in college with his athletic ability, solid frame, and constant ball hawking ability. While every Patriots fan and major draft analyst looked at those qualities, I focused on passer rating against and the defensive system he was running.
Since I evaluated Gonzalez on this standpoint, I saw many flaws in the Patriots drafting him 17th overall. First off, the most glaring concern I had was Gonzalez lack of experience and true success in man coverage. At the University of Oregon, Gonzalez was asked to play man coverage very rarely, instead making his best plays sitting in zone.
This set me in the mindset that Gonzalez could not adapt to the Patriots defense that heavily depends upon corners ability to play press man coverage. Logical, but I was wrong regardless. His 74.7 passer rating against also was not amazing, but even that did not matter. Gonzalez has arrived.
What leads me to this revelation is what Gonzalez did to Hill. Hill has been one of the best receivers in the league in his NFL tenure and not many corners have been able to hold him under fifty yards in any given game. Gonzalez did that in his second career game, with Jonathan Jones’ unexpected absence meaning he was thrust into the spot.
Hill had five receptions for 40 yards, while only managing 15 yards on his best reception.
Obviously the play that stands out from Gonzalez was his leaping interception of Tua Tagovailoa where Gonzalez ran step for step with Hill. That right there certified that Gonzalez not only can run man coverage, but he can run it effectively against any receiver in the NFL. Props to Belichick and Jerod Mayo on one of the fastest defensive developments I have seen in a long time.
On the other hand, the injuries of Jonathan Jones and Marcus Jones showed just how thin the Patriots secondary is right now.
Gonzalez, Myles Bryant, and Shaun Wade ran the corner slots once Marcus went down. That is scary bad. The team can not win games if Bryant is playing outside corner and Wade is playing alongside him.
Now this is not entirely the Patriots fault. No one should anticipate your three top corners (Jonathan Jones, Marcus Jones, and Jack Jones) all being out within the first two weeks, but that’s reality.
I urge Belichick to move Jalen Mills back down to corner if all three players are still inactive for week three. I’m still puzzled why Belichick did not move him down from safety when Marcus went down, but I suppose he wanted to run with chalk.
Bryant should not even be playing corner in my opinion, as he would be far more effective sitting back as a center fielding safety, and Mills, while better as a safety, is a far better option than Bryant on the numbers.
The injury problem in the Patriots secondary is not very ideal, but at least they now have Gonzalez to fall back on.
We will see how long they can manage that way.
