Patriots Game Thoughts

[AZ54]

AT this point I've only seen the 1st half and a bit of the 3rd quarter. Overall this was a different team than what we saw last week. Offense was solid moving the ball although there are still some mistakes to clean up. Defense was likewise solid despite having several young backups among the 1st string (ILB, CB).

 

Offense

 

RB Langford: I've never seen him display so much patience in his reads. Something changed this week for the better. I don't know if it's just result of the 3 days of practice against the same team or has it finally clicked for him. Definitely want to see more of this in Week 3 but at this point it seems clear he's the starter so I don't think he'll get a lot of reps in the next game as they try to sort out who should be #2 and #3. Behind Langford I've seen Rodgers and he hasn't done much of note.

 

QB: Cutler was solid in his reads and working the pocket (outside it too). There's more to come from this offense but we need to stay run first. Hoyer threw the INT on his first toss and I think he should have held the ball just a tick longer to see the route develop. However, the CB knew what was coming and made a break back into the ball well before Bellamy did. Plus Bellamy ran a poor route and didn't push back the defender, and/or was very slow in/out of the break. Overall Hoyer looked more comfortable this week than last.

 

 

Oline: Good performance overall but there are still gaps. Some are expected. Massie will always struggle with speed on the edge but for the most part he kept Chris Long in check. He made up for in the run game which is also to be expected. Whitehair got off balance a bit and gave up a sack on Cutler. He'll learn from that but for the most part this guy appears to be a very good draft pick for us. I watched Leno on quite a few plays and he's solid. He's a little better against speed than Massie, less good on run blocks but i thought he did well enough. I've only seen a handful of plays with the 2nd string Oline but whoever is out is playing better than what we saw last week. Still some gaps in assignment responsibilities but not seeing the guys on roller-skates like we saw last week.

 

WRs: I'm good with Jeffrey and White. Haven't seen much at this point from anyone else.

 

 

Dline: Our starters are good and we're still missing our best player in McPhee. McPhee does appear to be making progress toward returning soon but we won't see him until at best Week 1 and if then it will be limited snaps. Hicks, Goldman aren't going anywhere, literally. I don't care who is blocking them. That wall made it tough on the Patriots on a few plays. Bullard keeps showing some flashes with his ability to quickly push the pocket. He's lacking some strength to get a counter move but it's common to see him 2 yards into the backfield, and then get stuck. Considering the 53 man roster my top 5 DTs from what I've seen in the first two games: Goldman, Hicks, Unrein (solid but unspectacular), Bullard, Washington

 

Behind them it is a battle among: Sutton, Ferguson, Browner, and Williams. Fox had all of these guys out there in the 2nd quarter (when the Patriots offense started looking better). Nobody stands out from what I saw but on various plays Sutton and Browner had some good stops or at least affected the play with good penetration. If there is a 6th DT spot I'd say those two are in the lead for it. Ferguson was man-handled all night and just didn't do anything noticeable. Williams is ok, but he can go to the practice squad. Right now I like the upside of Browner, on a few plays he displayed some good quickness off the snap and he's a bit longer than Sutton which helps him get off blocks better. He and Williams both had a key play on the goal line stand late in the 2nd quarter. Really any of these four could win a spot in the last two games.

 

ILB: Freeman is a stud and his tackling, where he missed a couple last week, was much improved. Can't wait to see him beside Trev. The backups didn't do much of note but last years backups (Timu, Anderson) are playing better. Timu's limited athleticism shows up on too many occasions for me even if I like how he plays the game.

 

OLB: I like Willie Young. He's getting home early and often in his pass rush even if he's not flashy in how he does it. Houston is ok too but pass rush isn't as effective.

 

Floyd continues to flash in spots and they keep using him as the 3rd LB often, and sometimes he gets locked up by a blocker. Despite that he is Fangio's chess piece because when we go to a 4-3 alignment he's off the LOS as a LB. Teams won't be able to key on personnel/scheme with him out there so we can just as easily use him in a 3-4 alignment. Anyone expecting Von Miller-esque performance from Floyd is his first year will be complaining, but IMO he's shown enough that I feel confident he'll make some good plays for us this year. He definitely needs a year to get the strength to do all he wants to do on the field but despite that, even now his feet and leverage are good enough to set the edge on run downs. Martellus Bennett found that out. Be patient with him as we were with Goldman last year and i think we'll find ourselves with a very good OLB/pass rusher down the road.

 

CBs: nothing much to see here. Porter causing the fumble was about the only highlight. The backups who filled in for Callahan and Fuller aren't challenging for playing time right now. Hall came crashing down to earth after all the media hype last week.

 

S: I didn't key on them much but I felt like both Amos and HJQ were solid, especially given some of the sporadic CB play. They are getting more comfortable in their assignments. Prosinski is playing much better than he did last year and I still see him making plays in special teams coverage. I expect he'll make the final roster.

 

Special teams coverage is already markedly better than anything we saw early on last season.

 

 

Watching Garapolo tell M. Bennett where to lineup and what to do after a huddle break was a good reminder why he is no longer in Chicago. I doubt NE will pay him what he wants next year and he'll end up elsewhere.

 

 

 

[eback]

Pretty much the same thoughts. Shaw impressed me with his arm and mobility. Online played much better and that made all the difference to me.

 

 

AT this point I've only seen the 1st half and a bit of the 3rd quarter. Overall this was a different team than what we saw last week. Offense was solid moving the ball although there are still some mistakes to clean up. Defense was likewise solid despite having several young backups among the 1st string (ILB, CB).

 

Offense

 

RB Langford: I've never seen him display so much patience in his reads. Something changed this week for the better. I don't know if it's just result of the 3 days of practice against the same team or has it finally clicked for him. Definitely want to see more of this in Week 3 but at this point it seems clear he's the starter so I don't think he'll get a lot of reps in the next game as they try to sort out who should be #2 and #3. Behind Langford I've seen Rodgers and he hasn't done much of note.

 

QB: Cutler was solid in his reads and working the pocket (outside it too). There's more to come from this offense but we need to stay run first. Hoyer threw the INT on his first toss and I think he should have held the ball just a tick longer to see the route develop. However, the CB knew what was coming and made a break back into the ball well before Bellamy did. Plus Bellamy ran a poor route and didn't push back the defender, and/or was very slow in/out of the break. Overall Hoyer looked more comfortable this week than last.

 

 

Oline: Good performance overall but there are still gaps. Some are expected. Massie will always struggle with speed on the edge but for the most part he kept Chris Long in check. He made up for in the run game which is also to be expected. Whitehair got off balance a bit and gave up a sack on Cutler. He'll learn from that but for the most part this guy appears to be a very good draft pick for us. I watched Leno on quite a few plays and he's solid. He's a little better against speed than Massie, less good on run blocks but i thought he did well enough. I've only seen a handful of plays with the 2nd string Oline but whoever is out is playing better than what we saw last week. Still some gaps in assignment responsibilities but not seeing the guys on roller-skates like we saw last week.

 

WRs: I'm good with Jeffrey and White. Haven't seen much at this point from anyone else.

 

 

Dline: Our starters are good and we're still missing our best player in McPhee. McPhee does appear to be making progress toward returning soon but we won't see him until at best Week 1 and if then it will be limited snaps. Hicks, Goldman aren't going anywhere, literally. I don't care who is blocking them. That wall made it tough on the Patriots on a few plays. Bullard keeps showing some flashes with his ability to quickly push the pocket. He's lacking some strength to get a counter move but it's common to see him 2 yards into the backfield, and then get stuck. Considering the 53 man roster my top 5 DTs from what I've seen in the first two games: Goldman, Hicks, Unrein (solid but unspectacular), Bullard, Washington

 

Behind them it is a battle among: Sutton, Ferguson, Browner, and Williams. Fox had all of these guys out there in the 2nd quarter (when the Patriots offense started looking better). Nobody stands out from what I saw but on various plays Sutton and Browner had some good stops or at least affected the play with good penetration. If there is a 6th DT spot I'd say those two are in the lead for it. Ferguson was man-handled all night and just didn't do anything noticeable. Williams is ok, but he can go to the practice squad. Right now I like the upside of Browner, on a few plays he displayed some good quickness off the snap and he's a bit longer than Sutton which helps him get off blocks better. He and Williams both had a key play on the goal line stand late in the 2nd quarter. Really any of these four could win a spot in the last two games.

 

ILB: Freeman is a stud and his tackling, where he missed a couple last week, was much improved. Can't wait to see him beside Trev. The backups didn't do much of note but last years backups (Timu, Anderson) are playing better. Timu's limited athleticism shows up on too many occasions for me even if I like how he plays the game.

 

OLB: I like Willie Young. He's getting home early and often in his pass rush even if he's not flashy in how he does it. Houston is ok too but pass rush isn't as effective.

 

Floyd continues to flash in spots and they keep using him as the 3rd LB often, and sometimes he gets locked up by a blocker. Despite that he is Fangio's chess piece because when we go to a 4-3 alignment he's off the LOS as a LB. Teams won't be able to key on personnel/scheme with him out there so we can just as easily use him in a 3-4 alignment. Anyone expecting Von Miller-esque performance from Floyd is his first year will be complaining, but IMO he's shown enough that I feel confident he'll make some good plays for us this year. He definitely needs a year to get the strength to do all he wants to do on the field but despite that, even now his feet and leverage are good enough to set the edge on run downs. Martellus Bennett found that out. Be patient with him as we were with Goldman last year and i think we'll find ourselves with a very good OLB/pass rusher down the road.

 

CBs: nothing much to see here. Porter causing the fumble was about the only highlight. The backups who filled in for Callahan and Fuller aren't challenging for playing time right now. Hall came crashing down to earth after all the media hype last week.

 

S: I didn't key on them much but I felt like both Amos and HJQ were solid, especially given some of the sporadic CB play. They are getting more comfortable in their assignments. Prosinski is playing much better than he did last year and I still see him making plays in special teams coverage. I expect he'll make the final roster.

 

Special teams coverage is already markedly better than anything we saw early on last season.

 

 

Watching Garapolo tell M. Bennett where to lineup and what to do after a huddle break was a good reminder why he is no longer in Chicago. I doubt NE will pay him what he wants next year and he'll end up elsewhere.

 

[AZ54]

He didn't even play a snap this week and yet Washington still got some favorable reviews. From what I've seen into the first couple games, on 3rd and long I envision one very good NASCAR package (or whatever you want to call it) with Young, McPhee, Floyd, Washington, and Bullard. And with Floyd's ability to drop into coverage we can keep the offense guessing what we're doing before the snap.

 

-------------------------------

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...0819-story.html

 

I do know this: Washington created a buzz among scouts who went through tape of the loss to the Broncos. He played well and my instincts tell me the Bears know it as much as the other teams. Barring something unforeseen, I see Washington not only making the roster but he could potentially challenge for time in the rotation at defensive end.

[AZ54]

Upon further review (as in 2nd half)

 

Greg Scruggs is a very good inline blocker. I haven't seen much of what he can do catching the ball but Cutler says he can be effective there. We have two more games to evaluate but he should not be written off from the TE competition.

 

Bullard so quick he is usually 2yds upfield ahead of every other Dline, including Floyd. As he learns the NFL and where plays are headed, he's going to make some big plays for us.

 

Competition is not over but based on what I saw against NE, if we keep 6 OLB, I'll take Robertson-Harris to win a roster spot instead of Christian Jones. Jones disappears on run downs getting moved around by TEs, OTs. In pass rush Jones sometimes gets there. On the other hand, RRH held up well against the run and flashed equally well as Jones in the pass rush. Consider the time he missed in camp he's got a lot of catching up to do but if he can contribute as well as Jones on special teams (not a high bar there) I think RRH's upside wins the day.

 

Dline competition. I still see Ferguson on the outside looking in. The more I watched the less he did. As the 3rd/4th quarter wore on Browner still looked like the more consistent player over Sutton/Ferguson. This is only if we keep a 6th DT.

 

Cornelius Edison continues to show that he can play in the NFL. Not sure if he'll make the final cut and that may depend on if we pickup someone else with experience. If not I think he's headed to the practice squad. He's got good feet and carries blocks at the 2nd level well. Fox also mentioned that he played well so that can't hurt.

 

Braverman ran better routes and was open quite a few times but Hoyer refused to look his way. Hoyer was too locked in on the first read almost every play. Hoyer should have a lot more practice reps with both Bellamy, and even Thompson who were ahead of Braverman early in camp. If Braverman practiced well this past week you can bet the Patriots took notice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dawhizz]

One new guy I wasn't very impressed with was Deon Bush. Didn't seem very aggressive and was late getting over on one of the 2nd half TDs.

[AZ54]

If you want to see how fast Bullard is off the snap...

 

http://247sports.com/Bolt/LOOK-Bears-rooki...167605366595213

[Connorbear]

Wow!

 

Peace