If we didn’t learn anything, we at least learned nothing. It wasn’t quite the game that everyone expected from these teams, but it was close. The defenses where great and made plenty of big plays on both sides. The quarterbacks where throwing balls in the air all over the place, but the receivers couldn’t seem to bring a lot of them in. Sure, maybe it was the rain. The short week to prepare and time to practice routes might have been some of it. It doesn’t matter. The fact was that the quarterbacks were putting a lot of the balls on the numbers and into the hands of the receivers and they were just dropping them.
Outside of Julian Edleman, who many thought would have a big game and was picked up in almost every league this week, the rest of the entire teams were a combined 21 for 52. That’s a rate of 40% for professional NFL players. Edleman on the other hand was 13 for 18 for a rate of nearly 75%. It seemed at times that the veteran Brady had only one weapon out there that he trusted and the defense knew it. They seem to shadow Edleman so close that every time he got the ball there were several defenders a few feet away. He managed to rack up 78 yards, but most of it was short yardage with his longest being only 10 yards. It’s clear that for now Brady is not very happy with the play from the receivers and it will take some more work before things are clicking.
They are giving Kenbrell Thompkins and Aaron Dobson plenty of chances, but as they continue to drop balls, and when Amendola is there, their targets will go down. Those two were a combined 5 for 17 for 103 yards. If they would just keep their hands on the ball they could be seeing some really big games. Sure Dobson scored a touchdown, but he wasn’t that comfortable in the routes and made plenty of mistakes. It’s clear that the Pats need these guys to step up and play big. They don’t have anyone else to throw to and it was between just 3 receivers that saw nearly all of the targets for the team. If the rookies don’t start catching more balls, there will not be many points on the board for the Patriots. Good thing for them that their defense looks a lot more solid this year, which is why they are 2-0 right now instead of 0-2.
The run game didn’t help much. Steven Ridley couldn’t really get it going against the Jets front line and only average 2.5 yards per carry on 16 carries. Blount ran the ball a couple of times but didn’t do any better. That may also be a problem for the Pats front line and could develop into a problem if they can’t seem to find ways to open some lanes.
On the other side of the ball the combination of Powell and Ivory yielded a 100 yard performance, but it was Bilal Powell who saw the goal line work and got into the end zone on a short yardage situation. Chris Ivory and Powell saw almost equal amount of work with Ivory getting a little better on Powell in yards per carry. Powell on the other hand got a couple of catches, although Ivory had a nice one that was brought back. It looks like this combination will continue to be utilized in tandem with both seeing about equal work. Both guys will be solid backups this year and yes Powell would be the one to own and start at this point in deeper leagues for a RB2 or flex. Ivory would be good on bye weeks to get consistent points.
The quarterbacks were what we thought. Brady is Brady. Geno is a rookie. Geno made some mistakes and at times didn’t look like he was confident in where he was going wit the ball. He held the ball too long and was taking too many sacks because he wasn’t seeing the right reads. Smith is a work in progress and he does look like he will have a future in the league, but for now he is learning how to play in the NFL while Brady has been one of the elite QBs for many years. Brady was frustrated at times, but showed his veteran leadership and continued to work the young guys in. That will help build confidence and show that they can excel.
