Here’s what PFF had to say about how some Pats did versus the Lions…
Patriots: Three performances of note
We’ll start with Brady (+8.1), who had the perfect game (statistically, at least). The Lions got pressure on Brady on 12 of his 28 dropbacks but he responded by completing 63.6 percent of his passes, and it was much worse for Detroit when Brady was given time. He completed 87.5 percent of his passes in this instance at an incredible 17.1 yards per attempt. It was still mainly short stuff (only 8 of 27 passes were longer than 10 yards) but a great effort nonetheless by Brady.
Rookie cornerback Devin McCourty (+2.3) had a big day with two interceptions. Perhaps more impressively, McCourty only allowed two completions the entire game for a combined 13 yards despite being thrown at seven times. Three of those attempts came againstCalvin Johnson, and only one of those were complete as McCourty enhanced his reputation.
Not for the first time this season, we’re a little disappointed with the play of Sebastian Vollmer (-3.4). He had his struggles with Cliff Avril and Ndamukong Suh in giving up four quarterback pressures but was also comfortably the worst Patriots lineman when it came to run blocking. Last year we couldn’t help but heap praise on Vollmer, but he’s played like a different guy in 2010.
Rookie report
Brandon Spikes (+1.7) saw limited action but did break up a pass. … We got to see more of Dane Fletcher (+1.1), who had two QB pressures and one batted pass. … Kyle Love (+3.3) turned 23 defensive snaps into two quarterback pressures and two stops whileJermaine Cunningham (+0.7) also had two pressures. … Rob Gronkowski (+1.2) made some nice plays as a receiver, catching all five balls thrown his way, while fellow tight end Aaron Hernandez (+0.7) didn’t do much outside of his touchdown. … Punter Zoltan Mesko (+0.0) had an average day and will be glad Stefan Logan didn’t break any big returns on his kicks.
For Detroit, Amari Spievey (-1.5) had a tough day despite making nine tackles. Shouldn’t the 2-9 team have a bunch of rookies playing big snaps, not the 9-2 team?
