philadelphia eagles

It’s hard to read too much into preseason games, and it’s even tougher when half the real starters aren’t even playing, but we all love watching Patriots football even when there’s a bunch of scrubs playing so let’s take a look at what we did and didn’t like against the Eagles.

• Color me slightly concerned about the offensive line. Yes, it should be 3/5ths new guys once the games really count but we’re all counting on Nate Solder to take over for Matt Light and he hasn’t exactly inspired confidence either in games or practices. We can assume that having Logan Mankins back next to him should help but it seems clear there will be a least a couple time this year that Solder gets beat and Brady’s gets decked.
• As for Marcus Cannon the concerns are legitimate. He shouldn’t be much of a problem as the third tackle behind Vollmer, but should he be required to lock down the starting right tackle spot there could be problems. The commonly-held belief amongst those outside the Patriots that he’d make a better guard are starting to seem even more apparent.
• Reports from Ian Rapoport that Patrick Chung is not seriously hurt are positive. Still he could miss a chunk of time and that could have a negative impact on the positive chemistry he had been building with Steve Gregory. I hope I’m wrong but I think Will Allen is going to play a significant role at safety this year, especially if Chung can’t stay healthy.
• Jermaine Cunningham’s hit on Vick was a huge impact, and though I wasn’t blown away by Cunningham overall I really like the way he plays. I won’t be surprised to see him become a force this year, perhaps even taking time away from Ninkovich.
• I really can’t judge too much about the running game due to the horrid offensive line play, but none of the backs looked particularly good.
• Deion Branch had a solid game. He might not have the speed that Donte Stallworth has, but his savvy is what makes his valuable. I hope we don’t have to rely on Branch as a starter this year, but he’s a great insurance plan who can be counted on to always be in the right spot.  The question now becomes how does he stack up against Gaffney.
• Jury is still completely out for me on Ryan Mallet. He made some good throws, ones that he had to get off quick, that his arm strength allowed him to get out with the flick of his wrist. The next two games should go a long way toward determining if he will be ready for the back up job next season. No doubt he needs time to develop and he’ll have that over the next five months. But he has to show some consistency in the games and he might not see another one after the Giants game until next summer.
• I thought Sterling Moore struggled on the outside. He was a lock for me heading into the game, and none of his competition really stood out, but I was hoping to see more out of him.
• Brandon Spikes might be a bit of an enigma when he’s tweeting but the impact of presence alone on defense is hard not to notice. Once this defense has all it’s starters in place it could be really something special. A young, fast and aggressive defense.
• Niko Koutivides keeps showing up for me. I’m starting to see him as a lock for a special teams linebacker role.
• There’s no question the Pats are going to rely more heavily on the screen game this year as evidenced by the multiple ones they ran against the Eagles. With potentially four backs who can catch and are dangerous in space, along with opponents penchants for getting tunnel vision when rushing Brady, it seems like a definite formula for success.

My Patty-sense is telling me that we’re getting a skeleton crew tonight, with the important pieces playing just a quarter, maybe more if they’re stinking, but definitely not into the second half.

It would make sense to hold some guys back. Make sure they get the full game day preparation experience, let them have a few snaps and call it a night. As BB always says there’s nothing more important than the health of your team and this next stretch of three games in ten days will be a rough one to navigate.

With that said here are some of the players I’ll be keeping an eye on tonight.

1. Chandler Jones & Dont’a Hightower – I’m putting these two together because I’ll be looking for the same thing out of both of them, another step in their progression. It might be hard to duplicate the success that Jones had against the Saints, but this should be another opportunity for him to get his feet wet with many things he hasn’t see yet. I’m most curious though to see where and how much Hightower plays in sub-packages.
2. Ryan Wendell – over the past week no one has made a harder push for a starting job than Wendell. He’s drawn almost universal praise from those who have been at practice. This Eagle front should be a good test for him. Wendell could give this offense some badly needed versatility on the interior of the line regardless.
3. Defensive Backs – Assuming Tavon Wilson is out this is a chance for some new guys to show what they can do in the Money position. Will Allen had some aggressive plays against the Saints, look for him to be the guy to step in for Wilson. Also curious to see if Ihedigbo and Barrett get some looks there, or Hoodie forbid, Sergio.
4. Brandon Bolden – with the signing of Jeff Demps a spotlight has been ignited on Brandon Bolden and I would not be surprised at all to see him start over Shane Vereen. Not because he’s necessarily better than Vereen, but because the Patriots need to see him with the 1’s to know exactly what he can do. It also doesn’t hurt to spare Vereen a bit for the third preseason game. Bolden needs to prove that he can get the tough two yards, and if he can bust a long one or two it certainly won’t hurt his cause.
5. Ryan Mallet – We kind of know what we have in Brian Hoyer, and he’s probably going to attract some free agency interest next season, so the question that emerges is whether or not Ryan Mallet could be the future at QB after TFB. There’s no question he’s flashed a big arm, but he’s also been woefully inconsistent. There’s still time to iron that all out. But the stage is definitely set for Mallet to really flash what kind of potential he has at some point this preseason. His long term future with the Pats could be significantly affected by his performance over the next ten days.

There aren’t going to be any big chances for the Patriots to have a WOW win in the remaining 5 games, most of them will be against a cast of back ups and never will-be’s just like Sunday’s win over the Eagles.

We’re just going to have to accept the fact that we’ll probably head into the divisional weekend without having played a significant game in nearly two months. Regardless of the competition there is still improvement that needs to come, and the specific areas I’d like to see that done is:

1. Short-to-intermediate passing defense
2. Inability to beat tight man press coverage

Teams will undoubtedly target both areas of weakness for the Pats over the final five games, especially when we see Buffalo/Miami (short passing game extraordinares) and Denver/Miami/Washington (pass rushers/cover corners to play tight man).

Otherwise it seems like the ‘11 Pats are really starting to come together right now. If you put aside the defensive debacle in Pittsburgh (again, a game we were dominated in and only lost by 12) the defense has been very much solid. 

They’ve proved that they can stop the run in the 4-3 base front for the first time since the early BB years. In recent years it was the 3-4 that was the go-to against run-heavy teams. While the 3-4 is still being worked in occasionally it’s been a whole lot of 4-3 this year.

In the middle portion of the season the Patriots defense has been near elite on third down, and extremely tough in the red zone. Unlike 2010 they no longer have had to rely on an insanely positive turnover ratio. They’ve gotten stops when they’ve needed to, and when they’ve had their backs against the wall.

They’ve won on the road, and they’ve lost at home. They have a nice mix of veterans and youth and should benefit from some key players returning from injury. Overall, if they can get healthy, this seems like the best mix the Pats have had since 2007 to make a serious Super Bowl run.

Offensively the Pats seem to have broken out of their mid-season funk, as they consistently moved the ball on the Eagles. This is a professional football offense run with extraordinary precision. What they may lack in vertical speed they make up for with the most savvy wide receivers Brady’s ever had in Welker and Branch, and two versatile tight ends. When the Pats go to their favored personnel of Branch, Welker, Hernandez and Gronkowski they are equally lethal on the ground or through the air.

Could they suffer another clunky performance like they’ve had in their last two playoff losses? We’ve seen it happen, but even in their three losses the Patriots were competitive.

Slowly the defense has improved and are playing good fundamental football. Even when they give up completions they consistently make the tackles without much, if any, YAC. They’re getting pressure from Mark Anderson and Andre Carter that they haven’t had since 2007.

We might be in a holding pattern for the next month as the rest of the field falls out, but the Patriots look primed to again have home field advantage and perhaps the defense necessary to get them their first playoff win since January 2008.