If you are looking for an elegant win, one with long arcing completions and stout defensive stands, then this game wasn’t for you. A win though is a win, last I checked, so let’s see how the 2-1 Patriots managed to defeat the sophomore Falcon quarterback Matt Ryan.
The game was characterized by lots of sustained drives, mostly running out of gas within the red zone (only 1 in 5 inside the 20 resulting in a TD), and chip shot field goals. While Steven Gostkowski was a busy guy on Sunday kicking 4 field goals, his sharpshooting capabilities were never tested as he never had to boot one from more than 33 yards.
Another hallmark of this game was the extremely poor play of the Pats special teams. Especially on kickoff returns, the Pats allowed 25, 33, 26, 34 and 23 yard returns throughout the game. These lapses resulted in decent to very good field position for the more than capable Matt Ryan. Ryan had a decent game connecting on 17 of 28 for 199 yards, though luckily enough also had his problems punching through to paydirt. Atlanta’s only score came with 8:48 remaining in the 2nd quarter with a 2 yard plunge by Running Back Michael Turner.
What we haven’t discussed so far was the play of Tom Brady. The reason why is that while he didn’t any big mistakes, he didn’t make many game breaking plays either. Brady went 25 for 42 and 277 yards and a touchdown. Several times during the game he went deep, though each time the team came up short. Balls just off fingertips or just off the mark seemed to be a play that repeated itself during the course of the game. Tom seemed pretty ticked off most of the game with the cameras focusing on him yelling at his teammates, with his jugular vein throbbing on national TV.
Tom certainly has his work cut out for him, not only is his defensive corps depleted, he is missing his main go to guy in Wes Welker, who was out again this week. Its tough to make up the 10+ catches and 100 yards of offense that Welker would typically pick up week after week.
This brings us to a couple of the bright spots of the game.
1) Randy Moss. #81 was thrown at 16 times, and caught 10 balls for 116 yards. While he didn’t connect for a touchdown he helped stretch the defense by going long on several occasions, and also connecting on a 21 yard strike. He also took his share of lumps by catching several short crossing routes that ended in completions, and also big hits at his expense.
2) Something we haven’t seen in some time, an actual running attack. All told the Patriots ran for 168 yards on 58 attempts and 1 rushing touchdown. Fred Taylor accounted for 105 of those yards (as well as the rushing TD). An effective running game helped keep the pressure off Brady and kept the chains moving, even when the rest of the offense was sputtering. This also helped support the incredible advantage that the Patriots held in time of possession, nearly 2:1 over the Falcons.
The Pats weren’t all that special today, but had enough to win.
Editor’s Note: Mike Scanlon returns to GoPats.com as a guest columnist. He first wrote for us a while back, and we hope there will be more to come! As always, feedback and comments are welcome!
A Tale of 2 Halves
Depending on which half of this week’s Patriots, Jets game you watched, you would have drawn vastly different conclusions. The end result though is that Tom Brady lost his first regular season game in nearly three years today, and almost as incredibly his first loss to the co-residents of Giants Stadium at their home EVER.
What went wrong?
Last week the Patriots first half looked pretty similar. Nearly 200 yards of offense this week, 230 last week. Lead by 4 points at the end of the first half last week, 6 points this week, Brady completed similar amounts of passes. What’s the difference?
These aren’t the hapless, shoot themselves in the foot, take the ball out of the endzone with nothing to gain Buffalo Bills. THAT’S THE DIFFERENCE. The Jets are a young, well coached, hungry team that stayed focused in the face of adversity. Something we’re not all that used to from our neighbors to the south.
But I digress, the tale of 2 halves was quite striking. During the first half the Patriots sustained drives of 43, 5,(-10),23,53 and 79 yards, scoring 3 times for a total of 9 points. Their starting field position was a respectable average of the 30 yard line. As good as the Patriots performance was during this first half, the Jets was, well, uninspiring to say the least. The Jets progressed the ball an eye popping -1 yard during the first quarter. -1 yards! I beat that amount and never left my couch (except to open some chips and open the door for the pizza guy). The Jets finished up the first half with a total of 48 yards of offense.
The second half looked like the first, except the Patriots looked and played like the first half Jets. The visitors could only sustain drives of 0, 18,17, 14 and 18 yards. They were unable to execute those crutial drives that we have come to expect from Brady and the Pats. With 1:48 on the clock, the ball on their own 10 yard line, Tom Brady took the field, needing a touchdown to win the game. 29 times in the past we were treated to similar game ending situations, 29 times Tom Terrific has marched his team down the field to plunge a dagger into the hearts of their opponents. Unlike all those times however, the Pats could only muster 5 plays and 18 yards before they ran out of downs and chances.
While its true that the Patriots should have made more of their three scoring drives during the first half. Combinations of Brady overthrowing receivers and good coverage by the Jets stopped the Pats short. It’s also true that the Patriots had no answer to Mark Sanchez and his two-headed rushing team of Leon Washington and Thomas Jones. The two combined for 28 carries and 112 yards of rushing.
Question: Is Tom still tentative after his year out from the game? Is the defense reeling from the retirements of Rodney Harrison, Teddy Bruschi and the departure of Richard Seymour? The answer is probably a little of each, with a dash of New York hospitality thrown in for good measure. The answer is that they’ll need to account for these changes if they are to have success this year. They can’t rely on opponents self destructing like the Bills did. Expect opponents to play more like the Jets… during the second half that is.
Editor’s note - we feature for the first time at GoPats.com Matt Carrier, our first PhD, as a guest writer. Matt’s brother JC of Artistic Revelation has created many of the great illustrations we have featured here over the years.
Hello all,
I am certain that we are all well aware of the injury Tom Brady suffered in the Patriots’ first game and that now his season is over. The Patriots will try to soldier on with Matt Cassel at quarterback, and most everyone who follows the NFL now feels solidly that New England’s season is done. So… why is it that I now feel MORE interested in this Patriots’ season? Witnessing last season’s march toward perfection began as a fun-filled exciting ride. But, I’ll be honest, it was nothing but a gut-wrenching, panic-attack inducing, vomit roll-a-coaster by the season’s end. And don’t even get me started about the Super Bowl (in my revisionist history, the Patriots won that game and went 19-0...do NOT disturb this fragile reality). My point? Simply that watching the Patriot’s play the past season (or two?) has gone from being fun to being painful in a lot of respects.
The Patriots are ALWAYS supposed to win, the expectations are always high; the notion that anything less than a Super Bowl victory would be a disappointment was claimed by pundits and fans alike. How is that kind of atmosphere conducive to enjoying what is essentially a meaningless past-time?
After last season’s last minute debacle, I found myself actually rather TIRED of Patriots’ football. I had given them all I had last year until the very grueling end--an end that saw me nearly in tears. I think I would’ve rather seen them go 5-11 and miss the playoffs entirely than witness what we all witnessed last year.
So, why am I more interested now that Brady is done for the year? Simple: the expectations are gone; the pressure has been lifted; the Patriots are the UNDERDOGS again! So what if they lose ten games and miss the playoffs this season? Without Brady, they weren’t SUPPOSED to be good anyway. But, if they win 11 or 12 games and go deep into the playoffs? Well, with every win they take, they’d still be playing with HOUSE MONEY! Maybe Matt Cassel is really good, maybe he’s really bad---we’ll find out soon! Maybe the Patriots have been winning all these years because of Belichick, or maybe it was really Brady--we’ll find out soon! The Patriots’ march to the playoffs has become dramatic again---but without the heartburn inducing ulcers that we’ve all come to know and love!!!
Do you remember the 2001 season? You know, when Mo Lewis said to Drew Bledsoe, “Mama said knock you out”, and the unknown Tom Brady took over? All of us, everyone of us, was sure that the season was finished. But, with each game, the Patriots won a little here, got close over there, and turned the season into a fun, exciting ride! When they got close to clinching a playoff spot, we were EXCITED, not ANXIOUS; when they nearly got beaten by the Raiders in the playoffs, we were sad to be sure---but not CATATONIC! And when they beat the Rams in the Super Bowl, we were elated---not just satisfied.
Do you see what I mean? We, all of us, had become accustomed to winning. We began to feel it was our right! But it’s not, it’s just sports, and I for one, forgot to love it for what it was. Now, I’m not saying that we are going to have a repeat of the 2001 season, for all I know the Pats will go 3-13 and miss the playoffs. But, I do know that Brady’s injury and what it means for the Patriots may have inadvertently returned me to a place where I can be excited and happy to see a victory on Sunday without being petrified about the next game.
The spirit of 2001 is back, our team isn’t supposed to win, but they very well might win a lot. The expectations are gone, but I expect to have fun again. The anxiety is gone, and with it the pain of failure after so much hype. I’m going to enjoy football again, because this situation has reminded me of one thing: it’s only football.
Go Pats!!
~Matt
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