Football!
Okay,
okay. Preseason = Meaningless. The 2015 New Orleans Saints' defense has zero
risk of being confused with the '85 Bears. Overhyping Jimmy Garoppolo while
dismissing Tom Brady's cringe-worthy cameo might be taken as a lack of
consistency, rigor and objectivity in my intellectual/analytical processes.
Whatever. I'm going there.
Jimmy G!
Let's
not forget that Garoppolo posted his 28/33/269/1/1 line without Edelman, Gronk
or JoJo LaFell. Instead, he was throwing to Chris Harper, Brandon Gibson,
Jonathan Krause and Jimmy Mundine. Jimmy G got the ball out quickly, smartly
and with precision. The interception may have been the only bad decision/throw
he made all night. His escape from pressure and a near-sack that resulted in
his TD pass to Harper showed veteran presence in the pocket.
Would
I be happy to hear tomorrow the Patriots had traded Tom Brady to the Texans for
a shit ton of draft picks or JJ Watt? No. Well, probably not. There's no way
they give up JJ Watt, right? They probably don't give up two #1's and a 4th
rounder, either.
Do
I feel better about the possibility Judge Berman upholds Brady's 4-game suspension.
Yes.
In
other good news…
James
White broke a tackle!
Then
he scored a touchdown!
While
he has looked good catching the ball, it seemed like whenever White has rushed
the football, he would go down on first contact, more often losing than gaining
yardage. It was a pleasant – nay, shocking – surprise to see White shrug off a
tackler on his touchdown run. Turning a corner? Uh. Maybe. In fairness to White
and the other running backs on the Patriots' roster, the offensive line is
something of a work in progress. They played with rookies at center and both
guard positions against the Saints.
Chris
Harper and Jonathan Krause could make me forgive and forget Aaron Dobson and Josh Boyce.
Harper
and Krause looked like credible threats for that fifth WR spot on the roster.
Harper flashed big play potential with a 13.8 yards per catch average and a TD.
Krause caught all 6 passes thrown his way.
Harper
may have done more for his chances to make the final 53 in the kicking game,
averaging 27.5 yards on two kickoff returns and 10.7 yards on 3 punt returns,
including a 28-yard effort that set up the game-winning field goal by Stephen
Gostkowski. That was a big moment in the game and Harper rose to the occasion.
Let's
hope Brandon Gibson is bruised but not broken as he had his second good showing
of the preseason, catching 8 of 9 passes thrown his way for 68 yards before he
limped painfully off the field.
There
aren't enough WR spots to go around but that's a good problem to have.
Dion
Lewis has game.
My
first look at Lewis left me intrigued. There was his can't and you won't and you
don't stop run for an 11-yard TD. The Patriots love to run their 3rd down backs
inside on quick draws so that was good to see. Danny Woodhead got paid for his
ability to generate 1st downs on that play. Lewis was effective in the passing
game as well, catching 5 of 5 and averaging 7.2 yards per catch.
It wasn't
all good news, of course…
It's
never all good news.
As
noted above, it would've been nice for Brady to go 5 for 5 and a TD on the
opening drive and spend the rest of the game on the sideline but it's hard to
worry about Tom Terrific. Brandon
Gibson's knee injury on the other hand could be of the season-ending
variety.
The
defense did not leave my confidence trending up. Thankfully, there aren't any
Drew Brees in the AFC East. I thought the 2015 Patriots would need to win with
offense but I thought they'd need to average 34 points a game, not 45 points a
game.
Overall,
the Patriots seemed to come out flat emotionally and that was certainly
disconcerting.
Still,
preseason. Two more weeks and at least one more court date still to come and
Jimmy G looks like the real deal.
We'll
see how it goes.
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