By Abdul Rauf
What happened Sunday? A common question amongst Patriots
fans. The Patriots 33-20 loss to the Dolphins was a game of two halves. The
first was about a stout defense and an efficient offense. The second half was about
an offense that could not even muster up 100 yards and a defense that allowed
23 unanswered points. The following is my breakdown of what went right and
wrong for the Pats on Sunday.
Quarterback-
Despite Tom Brady leading the Patriots to 20 first-half points and a 10 point
lead, he never looked comfortable. Brady had too many underthrows, overthrows
and even a few lobs that, lucky enough, were not intercepted. For me, there
were two big problems.
One: Brady kept
trying to jam passes to Tight End Rob Gronkowski and Wide Receiver Julian Edelman.
This was highlighted by Brady clearly overthrowing Edelman, and then proceeding
to show his frustration. On an earlier play, Brady proceeded to throw at
Gronkowski’s feet in double coverage, but to no avail. The frustration showed
in the second half when Brady had several key chances, but ultimately could not
put together a meaningful drive. Although the receivers did a valiant job, “Tom
Terrific” could not find an open receiver. When he locked onto a receiver, Miami’s
defense knew and took advantage.
Two: Body language.
We have all seen Brady frustrated. I think he does this out of his frustration
knowing he can do better. On Sunday, Brady did not look frustrated, he looked
defeated. This would of course be fine in the playoffs, but not week one
against Miami (not exactly the Broncos there). These are all areas that Brady
needs to fix and although I will always believe in him, I cannot say he
believes in himself. Can someone say declining? Whoops.
Offensive
Line-
Lets cut to the chase, they were bad. The amount of times Brady got rushed by
Miami’s defense would kill any quarterback. I do not understand why they traded
Logan Mankins and then kept Marcus Cannon not starting, but that is a
discussion for another day. Whoever makes these decisions has to do a better
job than this. The second half was brutal to watch Brady try to get a drive together,
all while the o-line did not do him any favors. The o-line has to step up, or
at least try to do their jobs. While coach Belichick will blame it on
executions, he should be given some of the blame for the offensive line.
Defensive
Line-
I worry the most about the defensive line. The d-line was getting beat
regularly, and not because they were blowing assignments. The Dolphins faced
almost no pressure in the second while Miami quarterback Ryan Tannehill had
more than enough time to execute his passes. As sports radio host Mike Felger
said on his show, it is not like they did anything wrong, they just did not
play well enough. We shall truly see what the defense is made of against the
Vikings’ receiver Cordarrelle Patterson and running game. Once again, I do not
understand the coaching assignments. Why is Chandler Jones two-gapping? Vince
Wilfork by himself? My hope this was only an assignment problem and not a
problem of personal ability. If not, the Pats could be in trouble.
Coaching-
Where do I even begin? I do not understand any of the coaching decisions on
Sunday. What is going on with the offensive line rotation? Why is there so much
passing and abandonment of the run? What happened to the aggressive defense?
Why all the zone play? It does not even stop there. It seemed as in the first
half the defense had the ability do what it wanted, but then had to play so
conservative in the second half? I was hoping for a smash-mouth Patriots
defense, but what I received was a confused ball of mess. The coaching needs to
get back to the basics and let everybody play aggressive and smart. No more unnecessary
complex plays. Josh McDaniels said he did not his offense throwing as much, so
why did he not do anything about during the game? The Patriots certainly had
enough drives to attack with a balanced approach. The coaching looked as though
they were adapting with the times, but in the second half they looked like more
the Patriots defense of the past.
Looking
Towards Next Week-
I expect the Patriots to get much better. Despite the poor play on defense and
turnovers, the receivers made good plays, especially receiver Kenbrell
Thompkins. Brady needs to take more chances in order to succeed. There were too
many short passes and predictable offensive situations. The receivers need to
continue to do what they do best. The o-line needs to get back to the basics
and the defense needs to put on pressure. Both performances on Sunday were
unacceptable. The Vikings will test the Patriots in both offensive versatility
and with a stout defense. Hopefully the Patriots are able to get firing on all
cylinders and win decisively on this Sunday.
No comments:
Post a Comment