This was an ugly game we were fortunate to win. But great teams win these games, even when they play ugly. I'm concerned about the secondary, even granting that they did better as the game went along. But their three-tiered strategy for defending the pass seems to depend almost exclusively on:
1) overthrows
2) drops
and, a new one today,
3) periodically punching out the ball after a completion
Football Awareness was decidedly lacking today -- Brady's early time-out after an iffy 1st down spot, some odd coaching decisions, the lack of urgency at the end of the 1st half (Set aside the TO they never used, but why the hell did Hogan not even TRY to get out of bounds? HOOOOO-GAAAAN!) and, depending on the injury, I'm really wondering why we even played Gronk today.
GAME BALLS to...
1) Mitchell (I think the pass that "went through his hands" is a bit rough on him, it would've been a ludicrously good catch, IMO, not one of those that's tough "but you just have to make." He was terrific today -- hands, toughness, clutch, just REALLY excited to see him continue to blossom.)
2) James White -- just. makes. plays. And Brady trusts him.
3) Dion Lewis -- continues to come back and look pretty damn dynamic.
4) the RUN D -- pretty stout. Holding Forte to 2.whatever yards/carry is nothing to sneeze at.
Not a very good performance, but they won anyway. Now if we could just convince TB12 to take two games off and let Jimmy G grab the reins so the GOAT can heal. Oh well. A guy can dream...