Am I the only one that finds it amusing that Edelman is a WR( and Slater!) and Watson is a TE on that team as well?
While you'd obviously rather have L. Tomlinson , I don't think this is that big a problem; whether you're running or passing is not as big a surprised based on down, distance, and personnel. Hell the Pats haven't had a true dual purpose lead back in the BB era ever. Chubb's a beast, no disagreement there, but Michel looked pretty good last year, last week and last night when they used him so the term massive whiff seems a little much. I do wonder why they didn't stick with the heavy sets more after the first series.
Watson struggles to get open because he's 38. He was also never super quick in short spaces to begin with, 7.38 second three cone at the combine.
I said this in the game thread at the time. Their first drive was excellent until they bogged down in the red zone. Houston was selling out on 1st down to stop the run when Sony was in there, and even then, Sony was getting yards. It seemed to me they were getting ready to set up the play action pass on the next drive, but instead, they came out on the 2nd drive in a no-back, 5 wide set and it all went to shit. It made no sense. Sony then has 4 carries the entire rest of the game? What? I have no idea what Josh is doing sometimes, but last night had me completely scratching my head. It was almost as if they said "well, Brady couldn't find anyone in the red zone on 2nd and 3rd down, so we have to try to something different and spread them out." But, the 1st drive was fine, better than fine, just couldn't finish it. No reason to throw out the playbook at that point.
Even down 14-3, they could have stayed with it. But it just looked like they fell back into "Welp, we're behind, better let Tommy bring us back" mode, and that was that.
Are you really asking if a rookie WR that got no reps for months and is well known to be a raw prospect is a bust because he was not a difference maker in the second game of his career? Did you seriously expect the 32nd pick of the draft to come in and play well immediately?
I'm willing to give some time for Harry since it is so catastrophic to not be able to get a full camp or anything close to a full season of practice reps as a rookie due to injury. But yeah, short leash moving forward.
He is three games into his playing career--I'm not quite ready to give up on him.
This is what I was thinking last night. In my view they were a very effective power running team late last season and into the post-season. That obviously opens up the play action game as well. Then you lose both blocking tight ends, your center, your LT and your full back. The power running game is not really a great option at that point, but due to lack of weapons they are struggling to adapt.
Yeah, I know, Breer ... but he has a point. Find out what Henry and Meyers (and Dorsett, even) do well and build their confidence (and Brady-trust) through that. It has always just seemed to me that this look of "make one mistake and you're buried" that McDaniels and Brady appear to exhibit needs to adapt ... particularly in an offensively-challenged season[/quote]
He's right. This is the team they will have going forward so instead of force-feeding an offense that may not fit their strengths they need to figure out what they can do and build an around that. In the GT last night, I wondered aloud where the quick screens/bubble/tunnel screens out to the flat went. With Dorsett, I think that is something that fits him with his speed. He's not getting open so get him the ball in open space. Move White around the formation so he can get a favorable matchup He can use his speed in different ways other than a go route. Maybe get Dorsett on some jet sweeps like they used Patterson last year. They also should go back to running more shallow crosses with Edelman and Meyers or Sanu. It is a way of getting Edelman free from a double team and if the coverage keeps shifting to Edelman then Meyers or Sanu can run off his defender a bit easier dragging across the field. Use more stack formations so that players don't get doubled often. They started doing that in the 2nd half with Edelman.
You simply can't look at the final numbers and say that it showed the offense was showing signs of life. Did you see the play at the end where the Texans basically let White have 25-30 YAC?
It always has seemed to me that this has held less true with receivers than at any other position.
Both starting tackles were questionable with the flu heading into the game, including Cannon missing a series to get an IV during the game. Sanu has an ankle injury. Most of the starters on defense had the flu and required flying on another flight because they were still sick.
The frustrations seemed to be around execution: being in the right place at the right time, which is something the players can do.
They really did try to stick with the run. They came out in the second half and ran the ball on first down twice on their first possession (for zero yards and four yards), were able to convert one first with penalty, couldn't get a second. The second possession, they ran three times on five first-or-second-down plays, but they couldn't convert the fourth-and-one to Sanu. Then they were down 21-3. Even then they continued to sprinkle in the run, arguably to their detriment. They are just not consistent running the ball so it is hard to sustain drives handing it off a lot.
The funny thing is ... I think they tried to do that, and it winds up looking like they buried Harry. They had specific packages they put Harry in last night, probably to simplify things into roles and situations he can handle. But then they went down big fairly quickly and they had to get away from those packages. That wound up getting Meyers way more playing time - and he finished third on the team in targets, so I don't know what people want there.
I'll cede the point ... but he was not targeted again after the INT. If you're putting in packages to ease him into action, then never throw to him again, what good does it do?
Agreed. As well as the Pats drafting and evaluation philosophy works overall I just don't know how one can feel good about their success with WR. They have done fine with RBs, TEs but not the outside guys. Some of that may be Brady, but there's no way to skip the fact that most of the guys they have drafted just don't appear to have been NFL-caliber players.
The last drive I’ll grant. The other two scoring drives? No, Houston was trying to stop them from scoring for sure. The Pats just finally made some plays.
I don't think that was the plan. I think the plan was to essentially alternate personnel grouping between the "big" group (which Harry was a part of) and the "small" group (which he wasn't), but game situations (the two-minute drill at the end of the first half, trailing big for basically 40% of the game) dictated the "small" group got way more playing time. I would think they planned on a more even split, which would have resulted in more opportunities coming Harry's way (and Sanu's and Michel's for that matter).
Karras and Newhouse struggled a ton with the screen game. With Ferentz and Wynn I think we see more of it.
You have no context to go with your numbers. A huge chunk of the passing yards and 1st downs were gained when the game was out of hand and the Texans were playing soft zone coverage. White and Edelman were not open at the frequency they were until they played in their prevent style D when they were up 28-9. I don't think they showed any signs of life when the game was truly in the balance.
I'm not even talking about the traditional middle screens. I'm just talking about line up in a bunch formation, snap the ball, and get it out to the numbers to Dorsett or White. The screens they've been running are slow-developing or double pumped screens which the OL hasn't given Brady the time for those to develop.
Not to mention credit Houston for playing absolute mistake-free football (aside from a few scattered penalties).
I have a hard time blaming Jones when he was asked to cover 4.3 speed receivers on an island for 50+ yards. That is a coaching issue not a personnel one. I can't think of too many DBs that would succeed in that scenario. Fuller/Stills are among a handful of the fastest receivers in the NFL yet they were throwing zero blitz looks at them which made no sense. If they deploy a similar game plan vs. KC (they won't) Hill would go for about 250 yards and 3 TDs. Last year they had a S over the top of Hill on virtually every snap. Fuller is probably the only WR in Hills class yet they were asking Jones to cover him 1-1 most of the game.
As I’ve already said, the last drive I’ll grant. But not the two before that. Houston was trying to keep NE from scoring. The Pats just actually made some plays finally.
