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Pats Posits

Pats Posits: Fear the Pats D

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Back in the saddle after a great time in San Diego yesterday, handing out goodies before the game, meeting a ton of awesome Patriots fans, then enjoying as stout a defensive performance as I can recall.

Being at the game live is always a little bit of a unique viewing experience, but in many ways I think you get a better feel for the rhythm of the game without all the commercial breaks while also being able to focus on whatever you want.

Must give a tip of the cap to all the Patriots fans who were out in force for the game. They were everywhere and they were loud. The section behind the Pats bench (where I sat for the 2006 AFCDG) was electric and starting chants the whole game. It was cool to be in enemy territory but feel the collective presence of so many Pats fans.

As for the game, here’s what stands out most to me.

First, as I wrote in the game plan, this was a huge game for the Pats. A win would put them very much in command of the top seed in the AFC. A loss would made a trip to Denver for the AFCCG likely. So there’s no question, with last night’s win, the Pats will have a manageable track to the Super Bowl as long as they can hold serve in the division.

Of course, what’s everyone talking about today? The Browner hit. Of course that’s not a penalty before this year, in fact Browner laid out Welker the exact same way in 2012 and there was no flag there.

But I think the outrage over the non-call is perfect for the Pats defense. We’ve all known the Pats defense lacked that vicious reputation since Rodney Harrison retired, well now it’s back and everyone in the NFL will be reminded of it every time that hit is replayed.

It was worth the penalty just to put that hit on center stage and now opponents will be even more wary every time they go up for a pass against our secondary from here on out. I love it.

Offensively the team struggled most of the day, and the biggest problem I saw was on first down. They had 24 first downs and 18 (!) of them were either incomplete or went for less than 4 yards. Nine went for no gain or lost yardage.

Those problems added up and made the third downs more difficult. Seven of 16 third downs were of six yards or more. 

They also left points on the board, going 1-of-4 in the red zone.

Still, they kept fighting and found a way to break through with the big play to Edelman that was the play of the game.

But it’s the defense and special teams that get most of the credit. That’s actually a very good sign, especially on the road, of how balanced this year’s Patriots team is. 

Other than one 11-play touchdown drive, the Chargers really did nothing on offense. Just look at the domination in the second half:

Seemed like the Chargers were only having success on crossing patterns early in the game, and the Pats shifted up to more Cover-3 looks, with short-zone linebackers/safeties teeing off on those in the second half. That shut down everything the Chargers were doing.

Jamie Collins impressed me so much last night, and he’s really been picking up steam the last few weeks. Early in the season (when he was on the injury report with a thigh injury), I thought Collins looked a little too tentative, more reliant on his athleticism to get around blockers than using force.

Now Collins is using force and when he blitzes he shows incredible violence with his hands. The fact that he had a huge game with Hightower out will only build his confidence and the coach’s confidence in him.

For the Pats to come out of this last stretch of seven games, the iron of their schedule, and only have lost one game in Green Bay by six points is incredibly encouraging. 

The 2014 Patriots are the most talented and balanced team since 2007. They finally have matchup pieces on defense to dictate the game, instead of just holding on and needing to rely on turnovers to get wins.

I still have some questions about their run game and ability to pick up short critical yards in big moments, but there’s plenty else that can compensate for those problem areas. 

But there’s no doubt about it, 2014 Patriots are the best team in the AFC and if they’re not representing the conference in the Super Bowl it will be a disappointment, moreso than any season in the last seven.

Pats Posits: A Resolve-Hardening Loss

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Back in the blogging saddle today after my Thanksgiving weekend was ruined by a stomach bug that killed my appetite for the past four days. Perfect timing for that.

Anyway, I can’t remember feeling better about a loss than I do about the Pats’ third one of the season in Green Bay.

Those trying to rush to judgement about anything we “learned” in this one are fooling themselves.  The Packers are one of the best teams in the NFL and just as unbeatable at home as the Patriots are. 

Still, the Pats took them down to the wire and showed they’re not the pretenders they might’ve been in years past. It would’ve taken a perfect game yesterday and the Pats did not have a perfect game. 

Really, if you take back Devin McCourty’s poor angle on Jordy Nelson’s long touchdown near halftime, a play he’s made every time this year, and this one would’ve been even closer. 

But most important is the lesson the Patriots should’ve learned yesterday – what it takes to beat the best teams and the kind of effort they’ll need in the playoffs. Even better is that the Pats will stick together as they head directly to San Diego.

That kind of trip, especially after a loss, can really forge a team’s resolve. Now they’ll get a chance to regroup together and they should be a better team for it.

Once again, as we learned in 2007, it’s not about going undefeated in November/December, it’s about putting together three near-perfect games in January/February. 

Of course, the one rub is that they are now clinging to a tie-breaker lead over the Broncos for the top seed in the AFC. With the final quarter of the season to go, their margin for error is zero.

My Pats Posits after the jump…

Posits

The defense was so inconsistent in the two most important areas, in the red zone they stopped the Packers all four times in the red zone, but on third down they gave up first down 10 of 17 times. They had been on a third down tear the last three games, not surprising they fell back to earth against that offense.

So it was just those quick-scoring drives in the first half that were the difference that included big-plays of 45, 32, 28 and 45 yards. Those four plays really won the game for the Packers.

Let’s not forget scoring in the second half was Patriots 7, Packers 3.

The Pats offense was not clicking like they usually do. Some of the problems stem from the interior of the offensive line, who once again played less than their best on a big stage. There’s no quicker way to give Tom Brady and the running game problems that when the guards and center are struggling.

Dan Connolly received a team-worst -5.0 pass blocking grade from PFF. Wendell had a -1.5.

Unfortunately with the way the game unfolded, with the Pats getting behind early, they were never in position to really get their ground game going.

I just don’t know how or why Brandon Bolden was suddenly getting carries again, though he did look good on his touchdown run.

Same thing with Logan Ryan, I don’t know how he continues to see time over Kyle Arrington. Not that either of them, nor Dennard were particularly good.

Once again this game came down to their #3 and #4 receiving options against our #3 and #4 coverage options and they beat us. Specifically Ryan/Arrington on Davante Adams and Patrick Chung on Quarless.

Hard to write a much worse season story for Aaron Dobson who finally got in a game, promptly hurt his hamstring and left the game. Maybe it’s the curse of #17. 

Edelman is really taking a pounding the last couple weeks. I hope the cumulative effect doesn’t add up to something more significant. He could use a break, but he won’t get one until the playoff bye week.

Jamie Collins continues to impress me with how physical he’s playing. He’s taking on blockers with force, especially when blitzing, while he used to try to duck around everyone with his athleticism.

Another solid showing from Hightower, who picked up a sack on a strong blitz.

More credit for the Pats run defense who bottled Eddie Lacy up after the first drive for the most part. Seemed like Hightower/Collins/Chung were in on every run tackle, swarming the ball.

As I kind of expected, this was the game that made everyone realize we need a player like Chandler Jones who can get pressure by himself. Ayers has been solid but he’s not the force Chandler can be. If they can get to a three-man rotation with Ninkovich for the playoffs, it should really benefit the pass rush.

Don’t really understand those complaining about the Pats not blitzing enough. I thought they did a good job picking their spots, but against a great quarterback you can’t just send 5 and 6 rushers every down. The problem was the three they sent couldn’t win the individual matchup to finish Rodgers after the secondary took away his initial reads.

Felt like the offense was a little too top-heavy, and as the Packers did with Adams, they needed someone like Wright, Amendola or Vereen to have a big game. None of those matchups were exploitable it seems.

If the Pats had gotten a lead I shudder at the thought of what Blount would’ve done to the Packers run defense.

Overall it was just nice to enjoy a game of two really good teams going hard at each other. You have to adjust your expectations against a good team and not read too much into the stats. They’re going to make plays and put up points, but it’s about holding them to field goals and getting off the field on third down. The Pats did one of those things consistently.

It’s also nice to not have a “What does it all mean” day today. The Patriots are still a very good team capable of beating anyone in the NFL in any location. 

But I’m glad we won’t have to go through Lambeau again to get to Arizona, that’s for sure.

Pats Posits: The Most Balanced Patriots Team Ever?

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It’s not often that I make predictions, but this weekend I had a feeling the Pats would beat the Lions pretty easily. I didn’t think it would quite be the domination that it was, but it seemed clear he Lions didn’t really want to win the game that bad – they packed it in early.

After the Jets game in Week 7, the Pats had lost Chandler Jones and were facing a gauntlet of legit quarterbacks. But the Patriots haven’t blinked. They’ve gone 4-0 since then and been dominant in all three phases of the game.

Only their playoff finish will determine how the 2014 Patriots stack up compared to previous teams, but right now this looks like the most balanced Patriots team we’ve seen since Bill Belichick took over, capable of breaking a game on any side of the ball.

Early in the 2000s the Pats were loaded on defense and had an offense that wasn’t exactly explosive, but made all the clutch plays. The script slowly flipped as the defensive core got old and departed, while Brady and offense hit a historic level of explosiveness, then efficiency and pace.

They met in the middle in 2007, where the offense’s prolific scoring hid the quickly declining defense. In 2010, the defense hit a low point with a dearth of talent giving up tons of yards. Since then the defense has been on a slow track of marginal improvement, but now in 2014, the defense is back to the levels we saw in the early-2000’s.

And I must mention special teams, as they’ve been solid throughout Belichick’s coaching reign, but they’ve seemed to hit a new level this year. It was on display yesterday after a big punt by Ryan Allen and big return from Danny Amendola jump started an offense that started the game with two three-and-outs.

Right now it seems like the only thing standing between the Patriots and Glendale in February will be injuries. If they stay healthy and keep homefield advantage for the playoffs, they’ll be extremely tough to knock off. The Broncos might be the only team who could have a chance in the AFC, and that would depend on non-January-like conditions in Foxboro on gameday.

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Pats Posits

We can talk all about the superlative play of the secondary yesterday, but the tangible effect has been on third down. This is an area I’ve talked about ad nauseum the last five years. The Pats third-down defense has been amongst the worst in the NFL over the time, but over the last three games they’re the third-best third down defense in the NFL.

For the season they’re now 13th overall, they’re highest ranking since 2009.

In recent years, the Pats would have occasional good games on third down, but never did they have the kind of consistency we’ve seen the last month or so.

Yesterday’s game was a head-nodder for me because a lot of things I’ve been waiting for finally happened. Tim Wright became more involved. Danny Amendola showed up again. The team is rounding out and getting contributions all over the place.

It’s nothing short of amazing how much better the Patriots run defense has been compared to earlier in the season. They’re not just good against the run right now, they’re dominant.

In the last three games, they’re giving up an NFL-best 51.0 yards-per-game. Jamie Collins and Akeem Ayers are two guys who are expectedly doing a great job. I expect Ninkovich/Wilfork/Hightower to be good and they’ve been great.

I’m getting 2007 flashbacks a bit for the first time since then, where I just hope the team can still play this well in January and February. We’re used to the Patriots looking good this time of year, but in most years since 2007 there’s always been a weakness that they’ve been able to cover up – an Achilles Heel that we knew could come back to bite them against the good teams.

Not this year. I don’t t know what the weakness of this Patriots team is right now. Before the bye I might’ve questioned their run defense, if their offensive line could get it done against good interior rushers and their ability to win when Gronk and/or Edelman were taken away.

I don’t question either of those things anymore. We’ll see if the Packers can expose something.

I’ve said it before and I’ll continue to say it – Where have you been the last five years, Brandon LaFell?

Games like yesterday’s were what I was looking forward to when the Patriots signed Revis. It’s been so long since we’ve had a playmaker like him in the secondary. And he makes it look so easy. I really hope this isn’t the only year we get to cheer him on. This offseason will be intense.

It’s somewhat cathartic to see Kyle Arrington and Patrick Chung being key players on this defense after they were such whipping boys for the 2010/2011 defensive problems.

It once again goes to experience, one of the most underrated aspects of team-building that gets no credit in the offseason.

Now we turn the page to what will be hyped as a Super Bowl preview. Win or lose the next two weeks will be good Super Bowl prep for the Pats. They’ll have two tough road games, but they’ll also be on the road the entire time for both (they’re heading straight out west after Green Bay).

That kind of experience is a good chance for the team to bond a bit before the stretch run and should get them ready to play in hostile environments against good teams.

Pats Posits: The Merciless Patriots are Back

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There was plenty of talk last week about how the Patriots hadn’t beaten a playoff opponent on the road since 2011, and even then it was the Tebow-led Broncos. So there’s no question, this was the biggest road win since 2010’s 39-26 demolition of the Steelers.

Hard to remember a bigger set of back-to-back wins than the two we’ve just seen, against the other two best teams in the AFC. Yes, we’re all feeling pretty good about the Patriots today, but the hard road continues, with Detroit coming to town and then a trip to Green Bay for a potential Super Bowl preview matchup.

Here are the things that stuck out to me about last night’s win…

This game wouldn’t have even been close if Brady hadn’t been so bad in the first half. Those two interceptions were both really poor decisions, the kind of thing we don’t see out of TFB.

But the good news is that this Patriots team is unflinching. Even when they’ve had bad plays the last two games – like the poor end of the first half last night, or the interception to start the second half against the Broncos – they’ve come right back out with dominant drives. They don’t blink, in a way that isn’t as common for a Patriots team as you might think.

There’s just something about this team that plays angry, with something to prove. They are merciless in a way reminiscent of 2007, and that’s a very good sign.

The biggest questions about this team coming in were whether they could really pound the football when the power run game was required and if they were the kind of fearless team that could beat a good quarterback in his home stadium.

Both were answered with a resounding yes against the Colts.

One of the keys to the bye week was doing some self-analysis and getting the guys who have been thrust into the fire more time to get up to speed. I thought we might see a little more Jonas Grey in this one but obviously I didn’t expect him to suddenly look like LeGarrette Blount circa last year.

This of course tells you how Belichick feels about the Colts’ run defense. Spoiler – he thinks they suck.

Gray’s emergence really rounds this offense out into probably the most balanced attack since 2007. And it’s not just Gray who proved something last night, so did the offensive line, especially in the the short yardage situations where they’ve struggled all year.

The Pats ran the ball 15 times with 1-5 yards to go and picked up a first down 13 times. They hadn’t done that more than four times in a game yet this season.

Seeing what a difference healthy Gronk makes just makes me wonder what could’ve been the last three playoff runs if he had been in the lineup at full strength. He changes the entire offense, not only with his play, but with the energy he brings.

If Gronk is healthy to the final snap this season, it will be in the Super Bowl.

As for the defense, it starts with how they stopped the run. The Colts had 19 yards rushing on 17 attempts. That’s 1.1 yards-per-carry. Seriously. Not a typo. 1.1.

Run defense was the biggest concern with this defense earlier in the season. Miami gashed them for 191 yards on the ground. The Chiefs had 207.

I never thought it was time to panic. What I saw were just physical mistakes like missing tackles or losing contain. Now they’re not missing those tackles and keeping contain and the run defense is light years better.

Now we see that those who wanted to judge how good Revis is after the Bills and Jets games were a little premature. Revis’ impact the last three weeks, against very good quarterbacks has been on display and it’s time to start banging the “long-term extension” drum.

Like many Pats pundits, I thought Browner would stay as an outside corner this season, but after the last two games it’s clear the Patriots want to use him against receiving tight ends, even in the middle of the field.

Thought Alan Branch played hard in his 15 snaps and was a good compliment to Vince Wilfork inside. When Siliga gets back they can ease Wilfork’s load a bit and try to keep him fresh for the playoffs. 

Really started to see some burst and power from Dominique Easley. He’ll be one to focus on for the All-22 review. If he can get some interior pass rush going in concert with how the defensive backs are playing, look out.

Nothing against Jerod Mayo, but I just like the Dont’a Hightower Patriots defense better than the Mayo defense. Hightower moves incredibly well for his size, is a physical tackler, and really, I think he has better instincts than Mayo in the passing game.

And Jamie Collins seems to keep getting better each week. Granted these last two games play right into Collins’ style, but he’s been much better against the run than he was early in the year.

At this point it’s hard not to want to just shut it down for the season in an effort to keep everyone healthy. Because at this moment it feels like that’s the only thing that could really keep the Pats from being the favorites to represent the AFC in Glendale in February.

We know what can happen all too well – Andre Carter going down in December of 2011, losing Gronk each of the last three years… There’s a ton of football left and hopefully the Football Gods will be nice to the Patriots this year.

But for right now, in late November, the Patriots sit atop the football world and all is right.

Pats Posits: Notes on a game experience that will be hard to top

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I always thought it would be hard to top the fan experience I had in 2006 when I saw the Pats upset the Chargers in the playoffs from about 15 rows in back of the New England bench, but it might’ve just happened on Sunday.

First, a huge thank to NRG who gave us a ton of swag bags and two pairs of tickets to give away. Walking through the lots with my sister Mary, Nick “Fitzy” Stevens, George “the other guy in those funny videos” Kippenhan, and the one and only Jerry Thornton, handing out free stuff, making people’s day and meeting many passionate Patriots fans, it was just awesome.

The Pats could’ve gotten blown out and it still would’ve been a legendary day, but obviously the game ended up topping the pregame.

What more could you ask for out of a game? A blow out of a long-time rival and arguably the best team in the NFL (coming in), interceptions, a punt return TD, multiple fourth-down stops and a ridiculous catch by Gronk. The entire day could not have been scripted better.

I’m still in the afterglow two days later. Glad it’s the bye week so I can draw out breaking down the game without having to turn the page to the next opponent immediately.

Now as for the game, it’s always amazing to me the difference between watching the game on TV and in person. In person you can really see the matchups and strategy unfold a little clearer because you can focus on what you want, like when I saw Chung manned up on Julius Thomas and called the coming touchdown to my sister.

So now everyone comes running back to the Patriots band wagon. Tom Brady for MVP! Pats #1 in the Power Rankings! Yay!

Around here we’ll do our best to Ignore the Noise. The Patriots are good enough to win the Super Bowl, we are assured of that now. But can they put together three perfect games where they get the bounces needed to win the Super Bowl? That’s still a big question mark.

For now let’s just enjoy seeing the team once again overcome significant injuries and turnover and start to round in to shape.

How good are these Patriots really? Offensively, if they stay healthy, they’re just going to keep getting harder to stop. Could the offensive line regress for another game or two and some point? Certainly. And as long as they get that out of their system before the playoffs, the Pats should make another Lombardi run.

What we saw Sunday was a team that is completely tuned in and, for lack of a better phrase “in the zone”. Are the Patriots really that good? Probably not. The game unfolded almost perfectly for them. But they’re certainly not as bad as they looked against the Chiefs either.

So now what do we hope for during the bye week? First and foremost is a chance for all the little nagging dings to heal up. It will also be a chance for Akeem Ayers, Alan Branch and Tim Wright to get even more caught up on the playbook.

It will be a chance to step back schematically and see what’s working and what’s not as well.

I will say this though, this Patriots team is more well-rounded than the’ve been since 2007. They have size and speed and a secondary that can be difference-makers. If they can continue to compensate for the losses of Chandler and Mayo, they could be in position for a bye.

But make no mistake, there’s little margin for error and the schedule is unrelenting. The win over the Broncos was a nice feather in the cap, but the biggest challenges are still coming.

Pats Posits: The Bears are Buried, Bring on the Broncos

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Just like the yearly September loss to an inferior opponent, the October blowout is another annual tradition for the Patriots. Yesterday’s victim were the Bears, a team that we all knew would close up shop if the Pats got off to a good start.

The Pats got off to a great start and never looked back, proving how an offense can take time to come together – just because they were out of sync last month didn’t mean they weren’t going to put it together.

Now, the ceiling has been set, and that couldn’t have happened at a better time. Had the Pats squeaked one out over the Bears like the did the Jets, nobody would be giving them a chance this weekend.

Suddenly Julian Edelman can disappear for a game and they don’t even miss him. I’ll be interested to see what the Bears did to keep him a non-factor. But I’m really not concerned outside of the drops that continued in this game. Edelman’s is too good to fall off a cliff production-wise. But it’s great to know he’s not the entire offense anymore.

Of course the biggest damage was done by Rob Gronkowski and Brandon LaFell who each had off-the-chart games.

For all the talk of Emmanuel Sanders, give me LaFell for the Patriots every time. His size and run-after-catch ability make him such a perfect fit for the offense. Brady’s been a lot better throwing deep in recent weeks, but I’m not sure he would truly be able to maximize Sanders’ skillset. With LaFell it’s a dream combination.

Gronk’s blocking is catching up with his route running and the rest of the NFL should be on notice –  the best tight end in the game is back to reclaim his crown. It’s not surprising that the Pats offensive rise to excellence has coincided with Gronkowksi getting back to his old self.

Jonas Grey ran hard and looked capable yesterday. While injuries always stink, it is fun to see new guys get their shots and especially fun when they take advantage of them. The run blocking still isn’t great, but given what he had to work with, Grey looks like he earned another chance vs. Denver.

Three penalties on Stork… just going to put my fingers in my ears and “alalalalala I can’t hear you he had a concussion alalalalala…”

I thought Dominique Easley finally looked like a first round pick starting at defensive end in place of Chandler Jones. Easley was strong on the edge and picked up his first sack (thanks to Vince) as well. He gave me a lot of reasons for optimism that he could be an effective edge player which is really remarkable considering I was a huge fan of his in the draft but only really projected him as a sub-package interior rusher. Easley seems like he’s so much more than that and he’s only scratching the surface.

Part of me can’t help but feel like the Jerod Mayo era on defense is over and now it will be the Dont’a Hightower era, and I’m actually okay with it. There’s a lot to love about Mayo, and I really don’t want to minimize his value to the team or how good of a player he was, but I’m kind of enjoying the Hightower feel to the defense. He’s just so strong, and even if he’s not as fast as Mayo, he’s a playmaker.

Not sure if there are auditions at slot corner going on right now or if Arrington and Dennard have not been practicing well. Nothing I’ve seen in games has warranted a benching of Arrington. Though with Dennard I love a lot of what he brings but the penalties and untimely catches allowed were consistent problems. Perhaps this was a message to step back and play more consistently and cleaner.

The pass rush wasn’t great yesterday but the coverage came through, including Browner’s two plays on the first two third downs to force punts. Those were game-defining plays and you’ll see one of them pop up in our Three Plays piece later today.  As I’ve said, third down is what it’s all about for this defense and yesterday they were really good on third down (4-of-11).

I don’t use the word elite unless absolutely necessary but Brady and Revis are elite. If those guys keep playing at their respective levels, the Pats are going to be a very hard out in the playoffs. If the pass rush comes alive that’s what will put them over the top as a Super Bowl favorite.

Looks like the offensive line is finally settling in, but they’ll have a huge test this weekend. The tackles get Demarcus Ware and Von Miller. The interior gets a chance to prove they won’t get owned by Terrence Knighton like they did in the playoffs.

Finally, I’ll headed to Foxboro for the game this weekend, ready to cross Brady-Manning off my bucket list, but also to throw a tailgate party with tons of giveaways from NRG. Hope to see anyone who’s there stop by. Keep an eye on twitter as we give clues to our location. Those who find us get stuff.

Pats Posits: A divisional win is a divisional win

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Going into last night’s game I didn’t really care much about style points, and there were certainly none to give out, at least on the defensive side of the ball.

Given the events of the past week –  two divisional games in five days, losing defensive and offensive leaders for the season, and missing two of the interior offensive lineman who had stabilized the protection –  add it all up and it was one of those games where all you really care about it getting a win and that’s what the Pats got.

Here are my Posits…

So much of the defensive problems were reminiscent of the Chiefs game, except instead of Chandler Jones losing contain every play it was Rob Ninkovich. So many of the runs seemed stopped in the backfield by the “wall” that Wilfork and Chris Jones had created, and as Ninkovich tried to crash down to finish the ball carrier it opened up the edge and allowed him to bounce outside for a big gain. 

These kind of things are fixable and really, it’s way out of character for Ninkovich to be playing like that. He will be better.

Overall the defense looks like they really need the 10 days to get healthy and regroup. But there are some things that will remain concerns, primarily Jamie Collins playing middle linebacker. It’s been clear this year, Collins is awesome on passing downs and in space. When asked to take on offensive linemen he doesn’t have the physicality to defeat them, instead needing to use his athleticism to slip around blocks. This is somewhat of flashback to Gary Guyton playing mike, a bad situation that culminated with the 2009 playoff loss. I don’t know what the answer is, there might not be one, but Collins is going to get run at a lot the rest of this year.

Chandler Jones came through with some big plays this game, including his sacks, as did Dont’a Hightower despite playing with a bulky knee brace. The long break is needed for Hightower to get back to form. He’ll really have to be the all-everything of the linebacking corps going forward this year. This is his defense now.

Interesting that Kyle Arrington only played one snap as Dennard move the slot. I’m not sure if Dennard is best there, but I really like his play of late despite some penalties and catches allowed. How the Pats use those two going forward will be something to watch.

As I tweeted last night, I wonder if the Pats still would’ve pursued Browner if they knew holding and illegal contact would be called like this now.

Patrick Chung continues to show up as the Robber safety and will be needed even more to help stop the run without Mayo. He was PFF’s top graded Patriot defender.

Third down defense was atrocious until the red zone. I don’t get it. The players change but the results since 2010 remain the same – the Pats are simply one of the worst teams in the NFL in getting off the field on third down. For going on five years in a row now.

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As for the offense, I thought it was a decent step forward for the offense. The protection was decent and Brady seemed to have a good sense of when Rex was bringing the house and when he was dropping the house.

Can’t get enough of these deep shots that Brady is taking now.

What a difference Brandon LaFell is making to this offense. This is the guy we’ve been missing in recent years. Not a deep threat, a big receiver who presents a different matchup problem that the Welker/Branch/Edelman/Amendola guy.

Not sure if Vereen will have the same workload as he did last night for the rest of the season, but he stepped up to the challenge of being the go-to guy last night. The Pats seemed to take extra steps to put him in good position. Vereen has a great chance to earn another contract from the Pats. If he plays like he did last night consistently, he’ll be a lock.

Jonas Grey showed enough hard-running to sell me on getting him more involved. The fact that he had more carries that Brandon Bolden shows you the Pats probably feel about Bolden the way that I do. He’s a fill-in back, not a feature guy.

Edelman has earned enough good will that he gets a pass for his drops last night. Let’s just hope it doesn’t become a habit. Without those drops, the Pats end it a lot earlier than they did.

Like just about everyone else, I’m not sure why the Pats keep rotating Marcus Cannon in. My best guess is that they’re trying to preserve everyone, but he’s a liability even when he gets in there for one snap. Solder has had a rough year, but I’d still much rather leave him in there all game.

Really, really worried they’re running Wifork into the ground again. Luckily Siliga and Walker look like capable interior replacements if anything happens to Big Vince. As a threesome they are formidable.

Really happy for Danny Amendola. He really provided a spark with his kickoff returns and then that carried over into two huge game-cliching/saving plays. Let’s hope he can keep it up. A fourth tough receiving target would take this offense to unstoppable territory.