The Patriots inserted rookie Jamie Collins into the game at Mayo’s weakside linebacker spot in the 4-3 base defense, but the Patriots trended toward a 5-2 base for a bigger front seven instead of the 4-3. Most notable was when the Jets often had fullback Tommy Bohanon on the field in a specific grouping, the Patriots played with linebackers Dont’a Hightower and Brandon Spikes, and instead of bringing on Collins elected for extra bulk up front with Marcus Forston as a third defensive tackle in the 5-2. Otherwise, the Patriots were mostly in their 4-2-5 nickel or 4-1-6 dime with Hightower/Spikes the primary linebacker combination in nickel and Hightower staying on in the dime. Hightower and Spikes are bigger linebackers and they looked a step behind in the passing game at times.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/the-patriots-inserted-rookie-jamie-collins-into/
Free safety Devin McCourty has quietly graded as our top safety this season, and he continued his strong play on Sunday. He made plays in all phases of the game, perhaps none better than his touchdown-saving pass breakup in the end zone with 5:57 to go in the third quarter. TE Jeff Cumberland beat linebacker Dont’a Hightower down the seam, but as he looked to secure the well-thrown pass from QB Geno Smith, McCourty swooped in and pulled the ball from his grasp. McCourty made another key play later in the quarter as he blitzed off the edge and batted Smith’s pass to force the punt on 3rd-and -8. He got involved against the run as well, as he cleaned up for the tackle for loss at the 7:59 mark of overtime. The only throw completed into McCourty’s coverage was a swing pass to running back Chris Ivory that also resulted in lost yardage.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/free-safety-devin-mccourty-has-quietly-graded-as/
The Morning After: Thoughts on a Pats loss to the Jets
Took a bit of a break from the internets after the loss yesterday. Not because I found it all that distressing, but because I knew the Chris Jones penalty would be argued and lamented non-stop. It happened. I’m not going to get into what was or wasn’t called or what the rule book did or didn’t say. We’ve had plenty of good calls and bad calls go our way over the years.
The Jets were the better team yesterday. Barely. So hats off to them, in my eyes they won the game by being better on both sides of the ball on third down and totally overmatching the Patriots offense for their first three possessions of the second half. That was frighteningly similar to the 2009 and 2010 losses.
Did the Pats find enough in the tank at the end to make it interesting? Sure. They always seem to, and even when they’re as shorthanded as we’ve ever seen them and not playing their best game in a hostile environment, it still took until overtime to put them away by a (controversial) field goal.
Let’s keep some perspective. The AFC is wide open this year. Look at all the devastating injuries around the league that happened yesterday. Reggie Wayne. Brian Cushing. Doug Martin. Every team is dealing with that and it’s going to level the playing field even more.
So the Pats aren’t going to waltz off with another division title by late October. Does anyone really think the Pats have been good enough that they should be 2-3 games up in the division? I don’t. And they’re still in pretty good position.
So what did we learn yesterday? Gronk is back, but isn’t an instant fix. The Pats need Amendola and Vereen back because they’re still struggling to find any consistency moving the ball.
But there were glimmers of hope yesterday, and let’s remember that’s a Jets defense that is playing very well right now. It’s not often you can point to one area to fix coming out of a loss, but third down is that one area as I see it.
The middle of the offensive line needs to be better. Brady can’t get too locked into Gronk. And the defense need to re-establish a new identity without Mayo and Wilfork. Getting Tommy Kelly back and adding Armond Armstead could be just the boost they need. Vellano and Smith have been better than I thought they might be.
Otherwise, it was a hard-fought game and I look forward to pouring back over it to see exactly what the Pats were doing on defense and just what went wrong on all the third downs.
The 2013 season very well could be a dogfight down to the end, and those can be enjoyable. This great “re-healthening” has begun. Let’s hold on for two more weeks, get to the bye and see where we’re at then.
Yeah, I thought that Chandler played very competitively. Look, with every player there are always plays that could be better. I wouldn’t say that about anybody after almost any game. He definitely had some disruptive plays. I thought we had a lot of guys in the front seven that made some disruptive plays at times. We got them from Joe [Vellano] and Chris [Jones], Chandler, Rob [Ninkovich]. Like Rob’s play on the interception to [Logan] Ryan, he was right in [Geno] Smith’s face there. I don’t know if that affected the throw or not, but might have. Certainly Brandon [Spikes] was disruptive in the running game, Jamie Collins had some disruptive plays; [Dont’a] Hightower. I thought we had a number of those throughout the course of the game. Of course, we played too many plays on defense, was part of the problem. A number of guys were active up there and Chandler had plays in both the running game and the passing game that were disruptive and physical plays. I think that he’s strung a few weeks here together and hopefully we can continue, he can continue to do that.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/yeah-i-thought-that-chandler-played-very/
