After the most irritating offseason in Patriots history it was nice to get back to football. The Patriots took care of business against the Steelers 28-21 in Foxboro. Some quick hits and observations.
There's a non-story about the Patriots radio broadcast being played over the Steelers coaches headset. The headsets and the frequencies are controlled by the NFL, The Patriots also had difficulties with their headsets that went strangely underreported. The NFL has already issued a statement exonerating the Patriots of any wrongdoing, but the media won't let that get in the way of their clickbait.
The Steelers were missing some tools with Martavis Bryant and Le'veon Bell unavailable for this game. That said, it's hard to imagine Bell doing much better than the 127 yards on 21 carries they got from DeAngelo Williams.
Recently acquired Steelers kicker Josh Scobee missed the first two field goal attempts. It's obviously a bad performance from Scobee, but neither kick was a chip shot.
Dion Lewis was an unexpected pleasant surprise. He made good use of his 15 carries and racked up 69 yards. Gronk had to save his ass with that goal line fumble recovery though. I still like his energy and he should be a good complement to LeGarrette Blount.
Edelman had a great game. I was impressed by how often he was able to rack up some crucial yards after the catch to move the chains.
Before the game Steelers safety Mike Mitchell had discovered the secret to stopping Gronk.
Wow, all you have to do is jam up Gronk and he's pretty much cooked huh? Maybe they should've tried covering him. Period.
Anyways, I guess the master plan was easier said than done as Gronk made 5 catches for 94 yards and 3 touchdowns. Better luck next time Mitchell.
Antonio Brown is an absolute beast. The catch he made off of Butler's helmet early in the game was insane. He was also torching Butler on a semi-regular basis. I don't know how to evaluate Butler now. I can't tell if it's him screwing up or if Antonio Brown is just so good he makes whomever is covering him look bad.
The Patriots secondary wasn't atrocious, but they're certainly a big step back from Revis/Browner. They'll have to compensate in other areas of the game. Duron Harmon picked off an air ball to essentially put the game on ice.
I was disappointed in the Patriots line. They got to Big Ben twice, but failed to generate consistent pressure as he seemed to have a lot of time in the pocket. Jamie Collins, Jerod Mayo, Malcom Brown, Chandler Jones and Rob Ninkovich were invisible this game. The hope was that the pressure they could generate would help cover for some of the deficiencies in the secondary and they failed to do that.
Brady was unstoppable. At one point he set the franchise record by completing 19 consecutive passes. 25/32 for 288 yards and 4 TDs and 0 INTs. He started off a bit slow last season, it's nice to see him start the season hot. That's Tom Brady's 161st win, pushing him past Brett Favre/Packers for the NFL record for wins with a single team.
This was a good win. Even with the Steelers playing without some of their marquee names they're still a playoff team with some playmakers. There's plenty to improve upon from this game. Stupid penalties (Looking at you Nate Solder), blown coverages and a porous run defense isn't going to cut it if you want to compete for another Super Bowl. Bill has shown an ability to make improvements in problem areas like these over the course of the season, hopefully he can do so again.
We're on to Buffalo!
The Patriots get a long week to prepare for Rex Ryan and the Buffalo Bills. Who's the Bills starting QB this year? I guess it's Tyrod Taylor. He beat out EJ Manuel and Matt Cassell for the job. I sort of remember Taylor from Virginia Tech. He's been Joe Flacco's backup in Baltimore for the past 4 seasons. I believe this will be his first career start on Sunday. I guess we'll see how that goes. I don't exactly know what to expect of the new look Bills. Probably a strong defense built to get after the quarterback. It fits what Rex usually tries to do as well as what the Bills were doing last season (They lead the NFL with 54 sacks last season). It will be a good test for Brady and his offensive line. Center Bryon Stork is on the non-season ending IR with a concussion and UDFA David Andrews from Georgia did well filling in for him last night.
-Mike
There's a non-story about the Patriots radio broadcast being played over the Steelers coaches headset. The headsets and the frequencies are controlled by the NFL, The Patriots also had difficulties with their headsets that went strangely underreported. The NFL has already issued a statement exonerating the Patriots of any wrongdoing, but the media won't let that get in the way of their clickbait.
The Steelers were missing some tools with Martavis Bryant and Le'veon Bell unavailable for this game. That said, it's hard to imagine Bell doing much better than the 127 yards on 21 carries they got from DeAngelo Williams.
Recently acquired Steelers kicker Josh Scobee missed the first two field goal attempts. It's obviously a bad performance from Scobee, but neither kick was a chip shot.
Dion Lewis was an unexpected pleasant surprise. He made good use of his 15 carries and racked up 69 yards. Gronk had to save his ass with that goal line fumble recovery though. I still like his energy and he should be a good complement to LeGarrette Blount.
Edelman had a great game. I was impressed by how often he was able to rack up some crucial yards after the catch to move the chains.
Before the game Steelers safety Mike Mitchell had discovered the secret to stopping Gronk.
Safety Mike Mitchell says that Gronkowski is successful “when people don’t put their hands on him” and linebacker Ryan Shazier said that the Steelers don’t plan on giving him that kind of welcome to the 2015 season. “You just have to jam him up a little bit, mess with his timing,” Shazier said, via ESPN.com. “If you mess up their timing, they are really time-oriented. You have to mess up their timing and get in his face with pressure, then I feel we can slow him down a little bit.”
Wow, all you have to do is jam up Gronk and he's pretty much cooked huh? Maybe they should've tried covering him. Period.
Anyways, I guess the master plan was easier said than done as Gronk made 5 catches for 94 yards and 3 touchdowns. Better luck next time Mitchell.
Antonio Brown is an absolute beast. The catch he made off of Butler's helmet early in the game was insane. He was also torching Butler on a semi-regular basis. I don't know how to evaluate Butler now. I can't tell if it's him screwing up or if Antonio Brown is just so good he makes whomever is covering him look bad.
The Patriots secondary wasn't atrocious, but they're certainly a big step back from Revis/Browner. They'll have to compensate in other areas of the game. Duron Harmon picked off an air ball to essentially put the game on ice.
I was disappointed in the Patriots line. They got to Big Ben twice, but failed to generate consistent pressure as he seemed to have a lot of time in the pocket. Jamie Collins, Jerod Mayo, Malcom Brown, Chandler Jones and Rob Ninkovich were invisible this game. The hope was that the pressure they could generate would help cover for some of the deficiencies in the secondary and they failed to do that.
Brady was unstoppable. At one point he set the franchise record by completing 19 consecutive passes. 25/32 for 288 yards and 4 TDs and 0 INTs. He started off a bit slow last season, it's nice to see him start the season hot. That's Tom Brady's 161st win, pushing him past Brett Favre/Packers for the NFL record for wins with a single team.
This was a good win. Even with the Steelers playing without some of their marquee names they're still a playoff team with some playmakers. There's plenty to improve upon from this game. Stupid penalties (Looking at you Nate Solder), blown coverages and a porous run defense isn't going to cut it if you want to compete for another Super Bowl. Bill has shown an ability to make improvements in problem areas like these over the course of the season, hopefully he can do so again.
We're on to Buffalo!
The Patriots get a long week to prepare for Rex Ryan and the Buffalo Bills. Who's the Bills starting QB this year? I guess it's Tyrod Taylor. He beat out EJ Manuel and Matt Cassell for the job. I sort of remember Taylor from Virginia Tech. He's been Joe Flacco's backup in Baltimore for the past 4 seasons. I believe this will be his first career start on Sunday. I guess we'll see how that goes. I don't exactly know what to expect of the new look Bills. Probably a strong defense built to get after the quarterback. It fits what Rex usually tries to do as well as what the Bills were doing last season (They lead the NFL with 54 sacks last season). It will be a good test for Brady and his offensive line. Center Bryon Stork is on the non-season ending IR with a concussion and UDFA David Andrews from Georgia did well filling in for him last night.
-Mike
