Monday Morning Dave: Thoughts on the Patriots' Week 3
David R. Smith
We changed the name this past week, because I elected to start writing this article every Monday as opposed to the day immediately following the game. Plus Monday Morning Dave has such a nice ring to it. For those of you unfamiliar with what I'm doing here, I'm taking the time to write about the Patriots' games as the regular season progresses. I figure the only time I'll mix it up is when the Pats are on bye week. Because it's good to be consistent, you know?
Week three has come and gone in the NFL (Well, technically when this blog drops, there will still be the Atlanta-New Orleans game to play, but we won't count that) and the Patriots have once again gotten people talking.
Full disclosure: I'm watching this game Sunday night, because I was at an opening of a play Thursday evening. Between social media, texts, standard media and in-person conversations, It would be impossible to keep my head in the sand for 3 full days and not know the score. So I knew what had happened prior to my writing this.
Not gonna lie; it's kind of awesome knowing the final result. I wasn't nervous watching this game, I wasn't stressed. I was just looking forward to the routing of the Texans. It made me smile at the beginning of the game, hearing the commentators talking about how interesting to see what Brock Osweiler can do against the Pats, knowing what he was able to accomplish.
It's also kind of awesome watching the game on the PVR because it takes about 1/4 of the time to get through it, as I can fast forward through all the asinine commercials and time outs. It's a pretty sweet system. Granted; I'd still rather watch the game live, but there's only so much one can do when offered free tickets to a show.
Anyway. My thoughts on the Patriots' week 3 against the Texans. Let's do it!
•First things first: holy defence! What a dominating performance! Not to take anything away from the Pats' Defence but I definitely had a hand in that. I had them as my Defence in my fantasy league and dropped them mid-week because they got a little shaken up against Miami. I wasn't sure how they would fare against Osweiler. It wasn't that I didn't have faith in the D, I just had too much faith in Osweiler. So I truly believe I was a help in that performance from the D. But holy smokes, what a performance, hey? (Incidentally, in true karmic fashion, I took Pittsburgh as my D in my fantasy football league and they got pumped. They actually lost me points... Granted it didn't matter much, my team just got slaughtered.) And Jamie Collins. God am I happy to have him on our team.
•As I alluded to in last week's article, if Jacoby had a good game, he would redeem the name Jacoby in my eyes. (We don't need to talk about the turncoat who now plays for the Yankees) So; did he redeem himself? Well you tell me:
My goodness. I mean; he's not quite as agile as Tom., but I guess he still has some moves! What a run! I heard that it was the longest touchdown run by a Pats QB in 40 years or something like that. Crazy.
Jacoby did very, very well. I wasn't expecting him to throw for 300 yards. I wasn't expecting him to throw for 5 touchdowns. But at the same time, I wasn't expecting him to run to the house from 32 yards out, either. I just wanted Jacoby to manage the game, make some throws to break up the run, and let Blount do the rest. And that's exactly what he did. He went a fairly solid 11 for 19 and threw for 103 yards. His speed was definitely an asset. It's not a regular thing we see in New England, having a QB who can just elect to run the ball. I was really happy with the way he played. Sure, he got sacked, and wasn't perfect, but he was a rookie playing in his first game and also playing for Bill Belichick. That's a lot of pressure. And he managed to take it on pretty well, if you ask me!
Granted, apparently he's now injured too, so that's a thing. I'm hoping it's not too serious because I really don't much feel like having to get Edelman starting under centre.
•Speaking of Edelman, he's just continuing to be the workhorse for this offence. I'm so happy he's healthy. I shudder to think where we'd be if he wasn't on our team. The fact that people can even suggest that he could step up and play QB should we need him speaks tons about the faith and respect we have for his ability. I'm hoping it doesn't come to that. I would like to see him catching passes rather than throwing them, but we'll see what the diagnosis is on Jacoby. Baby steps, friends. Baby steps.
•I loved the crowd reaction when we heard Gronk take the field for the first time. Truly appreciative. He didn't do much in the game, but that's okay. He's still getting healthy. I'm just happy to see him, on the field. I expect next week, he'll get a bit more field time, maybe a few more touches, and then he should be in fine form for TB12's triumphant return.
•Blount has really stepped up to play in Tom's absence. I think this was his best game of the season thus far. He was holding on to the ball better, and that second touchdown. Holy smokes, he just took off. It was really nice to see!
The run has been integral thus far in the season. Knowing that neither Jimmy, nor Jacoby were going to be as lights-out as Tom, I think BB was preparing by getting the run game up to par. So Blount literally and figuratively took that ball and ran with it. I'm actually pretty excited about this. Last year, there wasn't a whole lot of a run game to talk about. This year, with a 4 game head start, the run game is starting to take some decent shape. Add that to Tom's throwing game and maybe we just might see some magic.
•Bill looked great, didn't he? The khakis, the blue long-sleeve and the cut off hoodie? That's fashion I would like to achieve. I think he calls it the "don't give a damn" look. \
•Now, all of the positives aside; we definitely had some luck on our side. A couple fumbles by the Texans on kickoff returns that were recovered by the Pats led to 14 points on the scoreboard. And the second one might not have been a TD had we not gotten some pretty good reffing. I'm not sure about that PI penalty on Bennett. It might have been, but one could argue it could have gone the other way (and by could argue, I mean did. My cousin Mac, who instantly believes all things should go against the Pats, thought it was a BS call. And while I hate to admit it; in this case he's probably right. Thankfully he's not going to read my admission because I doubt he can read, let alone will voluntarily read anything I have to write about he team he so vehemently hates.) But all that said; luck or not, we had to play well. We had JJ Watt and Vince Wilfork tearing down on our offensive line and those two were barely present. I hardly heard JJ's name the entire game. So sure, we were lucky. But we were good too. And that was promising.
So that's my take on this past week. If I had a game ball to give out, I would try to find a way to give it to the entire defence. They deserved it. But if I can only give it to one person, I'm going Jamie Collins. (Although, I hope Jacoby got to keep the ball he scored the touchdown with.)
One more game. One more time without Tom. We just have to get through the insufferable Rex Ryan and his Bills before we get to see Tom come back. And god I hope he plays angry.
One more game.
-D (@davidronn)
P.S. Rex and Rob Ryan are the NFL equivalent of George and Oscar Bluth. Am I right?
Ha! I was going to try and make my own one of these when I found this online. I'm so glad somebody else sees it too!