As we said last night it’s hard to analyze anything too closely without the caveat of how horrid the officiating was but let’s give it a go.
Yes the Ravens offense got a big boost from some timely flags that jump started their momentum, but after three straight forced punts to start the game the defense suddenly reverted to 2010/2011 form.
The pass rush was non-existant from any point and the Pats were chewed up short and long. Everyone knows Flacco will do that to you if he can stand in the pocket and he did just that. Nothing we didn’t see coming, we just couldn’t get him off the spot with Jones, Ninkovich, or even Trevor Scott who got a shot as well.
Kyle Arrington had a rough game all around, and Devin McCourty dropped two more interceptions bringing him to a season total of three. It’s still early but I think replacing Arrington might be an off-season priority.
We were just starting to see why Edelman has potential as an outside receiver when he was lost with a hand injury. Hopefully it’s nothing serious.
Brandon Lloyd is really showing that he is everything he was advertised as being. His presence on the outside of this offense made it unstoppable for much of the night.
Are we still going to trade Wes Welker after that 142-yard performance?
Gronk: 2 catches, 21 yards. What’s going on there?
24 penalties total for both teams. Unfathomable. And more defensive holding penalties that I’ve ever seen. One was on McCourty for just brushing the receivers shoulder. An all-around travesty and I’m never a “blame the refs” guy. Even if we had won I wouldn’t have felt good about it.
A lot of 3 TE power sets with Hoomanawanui, Fells and Gronk. Curious to see the numbers on that.
Still didn’t seen enough push from the offensive line in the running game, but that’s a tough front. The pass protection was solid again, only sacks I can remember were just because everyone was covered.
Still some runs got absolutely destroyed behind the line of scrimmage.
This was the first time this season I thought we could’ve used Andre Carter.
Would it be too much to ask for someone to make a play on Kickoff return?
Sterling Moore still playing over Ras-I.
Nice to see Patrick Chung making that impact play on the 4th down stop. Been a while since we’ve seen something like that out of him.
Hard to get too depressed about this one, and in the long run I think it will serve the Patriots well. That’s as tough an environment as you’ll find and our young defense showed their age.