Tom Brady Lucky To Get Out Alive And Other Leftover Patriots Thoughts
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Patriots know how to do a whole lot of things, but it's pretty clear that they have absolutely no idea how to be boring.
They found themselves waltzing to what looked like another easy AFC East victory on Sunday afternoon, recovering from an early special teams hiccup to seize a 10-point lead by halftime. Surely, their final margin of victory would be double that.
But then, like an '89 Oldsmobile hurtling down the highway at 91 mph, the wheels quickly started to come off. And then the shocks went out. And the windows smashed. And then the engine exploded and burned the remnants of the car to a fiery crisp.
And by the end, the Patriots -- or whatever was left of them -- were left trying to figure out in the world had just happened.
To be sure, an infinite number of statements are going to be made this week about the Patriots, ranging from doomsday prophecies to bold 15-and-1-with-a-trip-booked-to-Glendale predictions. I think it's far too early to to make any sweeping statements on the fate of the 2014 Patriots, but I will say that Sunday's loss to Miami was indeed as bad as it seemed.
There have been some early-season Patriots losses in past years where it was easy to find silver linings, where a play here or a call there could have made a major difference in the final outcome, where you know the team will be just fine. After this one, I'm not quite so sure.
The problems that plagued the Patriots on Sunday were serious, serious issues, as they were completely unable to control the line of scrimmage on either side of the ball for the entirety of the second half. It got to the point where it became borderline reckless for Bill Belichick to keep Tom Brady in the game, because the quarterback was playing behind an offensive line that clearly could not stop an NFL defense. When Brady wasn't getting strip-sacked, he was getting walloped by a large, angry man, as the quarterback didn't have a pocket to work in all day. And on the other side of the ball, Miami might as well have started every set of downs at second-and-4, because the Dolphins could run the ball at will.
Again, there's a chance that the offensive line's issues are correctable, and by all reasonable estimations, the defensive front seven should be better than that, so it'd be wrong to state definitively on Sept. 8 that the 2014 Patriots are toast. It's just ... Sunday's loss shouldn't be swept under the rug or brushed off as just one bad half. The Patriots have a lot of work to do if they want to get where they're supposed to get this season.
Final outcome aside, let's dive headfirst into the first leftover thoughts of the season following Miami's 33-20 win.
--Fact of the day: The Patriots had won 61 straight games when they've forced at least three turnovers. That obviously came to a halt on Sunday, when Logan Ryan's and Jamie Collins' forced fumbles and Alfonzo Dennard's interception helped the Patriots build a first-half lead but weren't enough to help the Patriots to victory.
--I thought Danny Aiken was wrongly painted as a scapegoat on the blocked punt, mostly because Trent Green said that the snap "skipped in." It did not "skip in." As a matter of fact, Ryan Allen just fumbled a wobbly snap. It was a below-average snap, but it should be handled. Remember, Allen was really slow on one punt in the preseason, leading to a block, and he also let another snap go right through his hands. Granted, he may not have had a chance to get this one away, as the real problem was Rob Ninkovich not getting enough of Chris McCain at the line, thereby giving the linebacker a free run at the punter.
I don't know why I felt the need to come out and protect the honor of the long snapper, but well, here we are.
--Tom Brady, too, is taking quite the beating from everybody with a mouth, and I understand it. If quarterbacks are the ones who receive a disproportionate amount of praise when things go well, then it's only fair that they receive more blame than is necessary after a loss.
As for Brady's actual performance, it wasn't as awful as many are making it out to be. He badly missed on the deep ball up the left sideline to Julian Edelman, but it seemed clear that Brady thought Edelman was going to continue his route toward the flag but Edelman instead settled down between the two defenders. Brady also threw to some wide open patches of grass when it was clear that he and Rob Gronkowski were not even close to being on the same page. And there were other bad incompletions that came as a white jersey was torpedoing through the air toward Brady's midsection.
Really, there's not a quarterback on earth who could have succeeded behind that offensive line on Sunday, so any deep evaluation of Brady's performance is a poor use of time.
--And don't let anyone pin the offensive line's woes on the Logan Mankins trade. The offensive line was bad last year when Mankins started 16 games and Brady was sacked 40 times. Yes, the Patriots would have been better yesterday if they could have had three clones of the 2007 version of Logan Mankins. But with or without the 2014 version of Mankins, that offensive line was in for some trouble.
--Plus, once the Patriots wisen up and #ReleaseTheStork next week, the O line will be awesome.
--If you want a real solution, a simple start may be in mixing up the snap count. From the very first drive on Sunday, Cameron Wake and Co. were consistently getting better jumps off the snap than the O line, and even though it was a road game, those empty orange seats weren't exactly creating a deafening environment. Next week, the Patriots luck out a bit with the Vikings hosting the game in the 50,000-seat stadium at the University of Minnesota. Alternating the snap count a bit might be a good start in the effort to keep Tom Brady alive for the entire season.
--Rob Gronkowski, despite not being in game shape and looking a bit rusty, showed promising signs that he's going to be the dominant force he was before the injury. He wreaks havoc simply by lining up and running routes, as evidenced by the two-play sequence when he drew a defensive holding penalty and then lined up like a wide receiver and ran a simple 5-yard stop route to pick up an easy first down. His flexibility to line up inside and outside presents an interesting wrinkle that opens the door for a whole world of creative plays. Now, I'm not entirely confident that Josh McDaniels is the right person to harness that creativity, but the possibility nevertheless exists.
--I was shocked to see that people still complain when the referee throws a flag for roughing the quarterback on plays where the quarterback was not roughed. What are we in -- year five, maybe, of this being an NFL reality? I've just come to accept it that every time a quarterback hits the turf, a flag is going to fly. It is what the sport has become. If you want to keep fighting it, then bless you, but it's fairly apparent by now that the league likes the way it is.
When Dont'a Hightower tackled Ryan Tannehill to the ground "with force," it was 15 yards. When Chandler Jones' arm came across the base of Tannehill's neck, therefore causing a whiplash effect on the QB, it was 15 yards.
At least Jones was very polite about his protest:
"Excuse me, good sir, I know you're speaking to millions of people, but I must speak with you right now!"
--Now, for as much as the silly QB protection penalties don't even get me to raise an eyebrow these days, it was a bit unfair that Jones was getting 15 yards for breathing on Tannehill while Branden Albert is allowed to maul Jones' head.
That seems a bit much.
--The second roughing the passer penalty called on Jones was the correct call, but that was the single latest flag I've ever seen thrown. I used a stopwatch to count, and from the moment Jones contacted Tannehill until the moment the ref threw the flag took 14 seconds. Again, right call, but if it takes that long to make it, the ref needs to understand that he missed it.
--A lot of folks also pointed out that the officials missed a blatantly obvious pass interference penalty from Malcolm Butler on Brian Hartline. Hey, maybe the official didn't have a good view!
You know who never would have missed that call? This guy. (If you never ever click another link on the Internet, please click that one.)
--When Dolphins defensive back Jimmy Wilson hit the turf early in the fourth quarter after getting popped by Brandon LaFell, I was almost afraid to watch the replay. I had a feeling that it was going to be one of those hits that's almost unbearable to watch -- in the Eric Smith-on-Anquan Boldin category. Yet on replay ... what happened? LaFell drove his forearm into Wilson's shoulderpads, and it kind of looked like Wilson was already falling backward before contact. What the heck happened? Did he see a big hit coming and just faint?
Anyway, given how enraged Bill Belichick was that Wes Welker's pick on Aqib Talib went uncalled last season, it's fitting that Bill's vocal complaint about the non-call led to the league changing its ways and making the call against him. I don't think Bill has many friends in the pool of NFL officials.
--If I were running the film session for the Patriots' defense, I'd probably start with Knowshon Moreno's game-sealing touchdown run. I would point out that the defense actually did this ...
and even though they allowed Moreno to get past that logjam, they still had this at the goal line...
... but they allowed the play to result in this ...
Moreno outwilled five Patriots players all on his own, and instead of keeping the Miami lead to just six points, the game was essentially over. Brutal. I'd just rewind that play and let it roll over and over and over and over again before dropping the remote and walking out of the room.
--I present to you the best tweet that came out of Sunday's game:
Yes! I had no idea that Mike Wallace had a little Rickey Henderson in him.
--Darrelle Revis wasn't bad in his Patriots debut, but it was strange to see him targeted so often. I guess if Ryan Tannehill entered the NFL without knowing which teams were in his division, there's a good chance that he simply didn't know who Darrelle Revis is. In this case, as evidenced by the touchdown pass to Wallace, ignorance was bliss.
--The fact that all five offensive linemen allowed Brady to lie at the bottom of this post-fumble pile is atrocious:
--I know that New England's football excitement was tempered a bit by the dismal second half in Miami, and I understand that. But there's no denying that there were certain sights that were just so, so sweet to see after being without this sport for seven months.
Exhibit A: Brady, all alone in the gun, five wide, scanning the field:
Exhibit B:
Exhibits C and D:
Oh, yes. Football is back. And it is beautiful. Huzzah!
Read more from Michael Hurley by clicking here, or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
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