Patriots

Blogs about the five-time super bowl champion Patriots.

The Pats Struggle on Both Sides of the Ball in an Embarrassing Loss to the Detroit Lions

Posted on by Patrick Whalen

By Patrick Whalen

After taking a tough loss on the road to the Jacksonville Jaguars most people penciled in this Sunday night game against Detroit as a bounce-back game for the Pats. It ended up being the furthest thing from a bounce back but rather an embarrassing loss. The Pats defense could not stop the Lions offense all night and the offense struggled all night long still lacking any threats other than Gronk in the passing game.

The offense showed why they need Josh Gordon active and Julian Edelman’s suspension to end asap. Hogan, Patterson, and Dorsett again lacked the ability to get open downfield as they combined for only 4 receptions and 43 yards. The Pats also couldn’t establish a run game as the rookie back Sony Michel led the team with 14 carries for just 50 yards. With the receivers unable to get free and a weak run game, Brady’s only real weapon on offense was Gronk who had only 4 receptions for 51 yards and was constantly double-teamed downfield and on third downs. Brady was only able to go 14 for 26 for 133 yards 1 TD and 1 Int. The offense barely got over the 200 total yard mark which made the defense’s job even harder.

The defense did look a little better than it did against the Jags but they still struggled to stop Matt Stafford and the Lions offense. The Lions ran the ball down the Pats throat all night with Kerryon Johnson leading the way with 16 carries and 101 yards. The Lions offensive line dominated all night helping the Lions run for a combined 158 yards and only giving up 1 sack all night. They gave Stafford a clean pocket to work with all night which lead to him throwing for 262 yards and 2 TDs. The killer for the Pats defense was that they could not get off the field on third down as the Lions went 7 for 14 on third down conversion.

The Patriots also had numerous injuries on the defensive side of the ball that did not help them.

Starters Patrick Chung, Trey Flowers, and Eric Rowe were all inactive last night which hurt the Patriots pass rush and thinned out the Patriots secondary depth. The offense was also lacking with Jacob Hollister and Josh Gordon inactive. With all these injuries and both sides of the ball already struggling it made for a nightmare scenario for the Pats as the would end up losing by a score of 26-10. I still have faith in this team. It’s almost a classic cycle that the Pats will look average in September losing one or two games and then righting the ship and looking like the team we all know and love. With Chung, Gordon, Flowers, and Rowe all looking like they’ll be back next week the Pats can gain 3 key defensive starters back and finally gain a big play receiver that can at least draw attention away from Gronk if not make some plays himself. If the Pats can get a big win against the Dolphins in week 4 they then will head into October 2-2 and also be gaining Julian Edelman back from suspension. The Pats then start a stretch of hosting the Colts and the Chiefs then heading to the Bears and the Bills. Realistically the Pats could 5-3 at the worst heading into November. Now if these struggles still show up in October that is where I would start to worry but I trust Brady and Belichick to fix the issues this team has and get this team rolling the way they always do.

Pats Resign Cyrus Jones to Return Punts Even Thought He Can’t Return Punts

Posted on by Patrick Whalen

By Patrick Whalen

We’ve got another roster move by the Patriots this morning and its an old friend of the organization. Well, not really an old friend more of a failed second-round pick that could hardly find snaps on the field. Yes ladies and gentleman Cyrus Jones is back. The Pats resigned the defensive back/ punt returner to a two-year deal signing him off of the Ravens practice squad (via Mike Reiss). Reiss also is reporting that Jones will likely top the punt returner depth chart this week.

Jones had his struggles in 2016 as he was primarily used as a returner having 5 fumbles and only 180 return yards. Jones, a highly talented college player out of Alabama, was pinned to be one of the next starting corners for the Pats but he only had 7 total tackles in 2016 and was inactive for the Super Bowl. He was going to gain a larger role and more playing time on special teams in 2017 with the season-ending injury to Julian Edelman in week 3 of the preseason. But Jones would suffer a similar season-ending injury in week 4 of the preseason. Jones was cut on September 1 this year by the Patriots.

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If the Patriots can at least gain a solid return man out of Jones at this point its a win for the team. Whether or not he develops into a starting quality corner is still left to be seen but right now all the Patriots need out of him is to be a solid and reliable returner. If in the coming years he can develop into a starting corner or even become one this year would be great because teams are ripping the Pats secondary apart. Stephon Gilmore is still a solid number 1 corner who can play effective man to man defense but Eric Rowe has been absolutely terrible. Rowe’s poor play was highlighted by a second-half benching against the Jags in week 2. So, if Jones can magically remake himself into the kind of corner he was at Alabama who on tape looked like a late first round pick he could find himself finally playing meaningful defensive snaps. As long as Jones can stay healthy and cure his fumbling issues he should be able to make a meaningful contribution on the field this year at least on special teams for the Pats.

Josh Gordon gets Traded to the Patriots

Posted on by Patrick Whalen

By Patrick Whalen

Everyone and their mother last week could tell the lack of depth and elite talent at the wide receiver position for the Patriots was one of the main reasons for their struggles against the Jaguars. Right now Brady’s top 3 receivers are Chris Hogan, Phillip Dorsett, and Cordarrelle Patterson, a major step down in talent compared to last years trio of Brandin Cooks, Danny Amendola, and of course Chris Hogan. Out of those 3, only Dorsett has over 100 yards receiving and over 10 catches for the season. These guys couldn’t find consistent separation from the Jags secondary which led to the Patriots offense stuttering for most of the game.

With Edelman still having 2 games remaining in his 4 game suspension the Pats needed to make a move to improve the wide receiver play and overall offensive performance. Insert Josh Gordon. Going and trading for Josh Gordon was an absolutely genius move by Bill Belichick, especially for the price. The Pats only had to give Cleveland a 5th round pick for Gordon and if Gordon is not active for at least 10 games Cleveland has to give the Pats a 7th round pick back. It’s a low-risk high reward deal that Belichick loves to make. To make room for Gordon on the roster the Pats cut last weeks signing Corey Coleman.

At this point, everyone knows about Josh Gordon’s struggle with addiction but, also his elite level talent. In 2013 at just 22 years old and only playing 14 games, Gordon led the league with 1,646 receiving yards with Jason Campbell and Brandon Weeden as his quarterbacks (via Pro Football Reference). But between 2014 and 2017 was when we saw his issues with drug abuse caused him to miss games as he only played in a total of 10 games over that 4-year span.

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What Gordon can bring to this team is a guy who can stretch the field with his speed and can be that 50-50 ball type receiver for Tom Brady. The Patriots only downfield threat so far this year has been Gronk and teams have mostly been doubling him down the field to force Brady to look elsewhere. The 6′ 3″ Gordon can provide another deep ball threat on the outside that can be a big play threat while also giving Gronk more single cover looks that he can win one on one. Once Edelman returns in week 5 if Gordon is learning the offense and performing well on the field this offense could become scary for other teams to defend between Gordon, Edelman, Dorsett, Hogan, Gronk, James White, Rex Burkhead, and rookie Sony Michel.

Some Patriots, including safety Duron Harmon, still remember the performance Gordon had against the Pats defense back in 2013. In that game, Gordon went for 7 receptions on 10 targets for 151 yards and 1 TD (via Pro Football Reference). In that game, the Browns were able to bring the Pats down to the wire at the Pats won 27-26. Also, in the two weeks before the Browns faced the Pats Gordon went for 24 receptions 498 yards and 3 TD’s against the Steelers and the Jags (via Pro Football Reference).

The Patriots are hoping that if they can get something even remotely close to that performance from 2013 that they will be finding a gem that most of the NFL was ready to give up on. Most people are saying that in New England he could be a Randy Moss-like player if he can stay healthy and away from his off the field issues. I don’t want to proclaim that he’s gonna be the next receiver to break records with Brady but, I do think he can develop into the Patriots best outside receiver since Randy Moss. My season predictions for Gordon are 14 games played 11 games started 60+ reception 1100+ yards and 8 TDs.

Also for those that forgot what an absolute monster this man is on the football field peep this highlight video to witness what a physical beast the Patriots just acquired.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QAiLZKL5hI