Random Observations from Patriots Preseason Game 2 vs. the Packers

First, some good news this morning:

Isaiah Bolden was released from the hospital. He's flying back with the team. And two days of joint practices with the Titans have been cancelled. So it's win-win-win. 

Just a quick history lesson: When I was but a wee bit of a lad, I was sitting around with my brothers on an August evening watching preseason Patriots football with my brothers, when all the well-adjusted kids were out playing in the neighborhood. (Not much has changed for me, obviously.) When Pats wideout Darryl Stingley laid out for a pass, only to get wrecked by Raiders safety Jack Tatum with the cheapest and shottiest cheapshot ever delivered. And once Stingley's motionless, horribly contorted body was laid on the stretcher and carted off in the back of the meat wagon, play resumed. We've all seen games delayed longer by a middle aged man in stripes with his head under a hood trying to define the word "catch." They basically hauled the wounded off the battlefield and continued the fighting, even though the game meant nothing. Stingley never walked again. Instead, he moved on to a new life of dignity and charity work. Tatum not only never spoke to him, he cashed in on, writing several books celebrating his own brutal viciousness. Eventually he ended up in a wheelchair of his own, due to diabetes and irony, and is currently being prison raped by demons for all eternity. All this certainly came to mind last night as both teams and the NFL agreed that there was no sense in continuing with the game. And as 70,000 paying customers cheered in approval. Sometimes everybody arrives at the same conclusion and makes the right decision. When that happens, it deserves to be celebrated. 

That said, there was 50 minutes of preseason fauxball played before that, and it's worth talking about. As always, these are observations, not conclusions:

--There was a lot of good to take away from this one. It was a vast improvement over the dog's breakfast that was the Texans game. And without a doubt it continued the upward trajectory this team has been on throughout training camp. But the whole operation is an exercise in futility if they don't get the offensive line sorted out. In the first half, the Rubik's Cube landed on:

L to R: Trent Brown, Antonio Mafi, David Andrews, Reilly Reiff, Sidy Sow

The second half it changed to:

L to R: Andrew Stueber, Chasen Hines, Jake Andrews, James Ferentz, Bill Murray

That's a lot of mid-round rookies, free agents, a converted defensive lineman and a couple of guys who'll be updating their LinkedIn profiles in a couple of weeks trying to open holes and protect your quarterbacks. And the results were better than last week, but only because if you put some police crime scene tape up between two wooden stakes, it would be better than last week. When they can put together five legitimate starters in decent health and give Adrian Klemm some time to develop continuity, everything else will fall into place. But as it's currently constituted, virtually every chunk play the offense managed to pull off came with a flash mob of defenders in the backfield. 

--For instance, the strip sack on Mac Jones was just a case of Steuber getting straight up quick-twitched out of the building in a one-on-one rush. It killed an otherwise solid drive. And caused the Pats coaching staff to form a human shield around Jones like the Secret Service and whisk him away to a secret and secure location for the rest of the night. Wisely. 

--It should be mentioned that on Rhamondre Stevenson's touchdown, Mafi and Sow got a great push out of Heavy and Stevenson went in behind them. That whole sequence demonstrated why they spent the first day of full pads working on goal line offense.

--On one of Jones' best throws, he found Kendrick Bourne on a deep dig against man coverage. But paid a price for it as Green Bay ran a game that left an unblocked interior rusher:

When you've got a free rusher despite the fact you've got five blocking four, that's a communication issue 100 times out of 100. Still, Jones used what time he was given, stepped into the throw, put it right on target and nailed the runner at the plate.

--It's great to see Bourne thrive again after managing to tunnel his way out of Matt Patricia's Shawshank. If injuries don't decide the issue for us, the Patriots are going to have to find a way to keep six wide receivers. And I'm not convinced Bourne's roster spot is guaranteed. But catches like that one and the way he stutter-stepped his way open, jabbing to the outside but taking an inside release on a slant once he saw Jones' play action suck in the linebacker and open the middle of the secondary was beautiful:

It's the kind of chemistry Bourne has had with Jones going all the way back to their first camp together. It's worth noting that again on that one, Jones was under pressure. He got earholed by a rusher off the right edge who blew past Reiff like he's a traffic cone. So there remains much work to be done. 

--One receiver who has locked up a spot though? Demario Douglas. Camp started with Pop practicing with the 1s and nothing he's done has convinced anyone he doesn't belong. First, he short-motioned into a stack behind Hunter Henry, then found the seam behind Henry's clear out to exploit the busted coverage and show everyone how they do things at Liberty U:

The other rookie wideout did nothing less than make the play of the game. On Keyshon Boutte's touchdown catch and run, he made an adjustment just before the snap, moving his alignment from inside to outside leverage. And running a Seam-Flat combo with Raleigh Webb, stemmed his route off behind the defenders biting on Webb's route, crossed the corner's face:

Unlike Douglas, Boutte got off to a slowish start. But he's roaring up the charts right now, looking every bit the guy he was at LSU pre-broken ankle. And not the guy who came back from two surgeries to find that fraud Brian Kelly ruining everything and turning him into a marginalized slot receiver. This Tiger doesn't want to be fed; he wants to hunt. 

--As far as the other units, defensively Christian Gonzalez had a great learning experience. First because he played 34 snaps. But also because he got the hard lesson that in the 2020s, the NFL calls things differently for rookies than they do everybody else. This bogus DPI call on a play where Gonzalez was originally beaten but got back into the play for what should've been a deflecting interception:

And it would've been, if he was say, Patrick Peterson and not some noob. As the NBA-ification of football continues, this treatment by the officials has become the NFL's hazing ritual. The equivalent of making pledges drink things and sexually humiliate themselves. Sam Roberts got the same treatment with a phantom Hands to the Face penalty. But it's worse for rookie 1st round corners.

--Beyond him, once again Jalen Mills demonstrated he's totally ready to fill Devin McCourty's mighty cleats. Both in terms of patrolling the deep safety position and when it comes to dropping into the box. Late in the second quarter he make a solo tackle in space to keep a receiver short of the line to gain. He had another run stuff alongside Jabrill Peppers and Josh Uche after the Packers had started to pick up big yards on three straight runs. And just overall he seems to be reading and anticipating plays to get himself around the ball on virtually every down. When all the starters are back, Ju'Whaun Bentley will be sporting the green dot. But I would totally trust Mills to have it as well.

--A D-lineman who has begun to stand out is Jeremiah Pharms. He helped stop a drive before the 2:00 warning with a run stuff after shifting right into the hole before the snap and generally clogged up the middle while he was in there. We'll see how it goes for him. But just in case he pans out, I've got dibs on calling him Big Pharma. 

--Bryce Baringer reportedly had a tough few practices against the Packers rush. But the man can punt footballs. That 60-plus yarder he flipped the field with hung in the air like a zeppelin. If we don't have a Top 5 special teams unit this season, everything I know is wrong. 

--In the big picture, we're seeing a Patriots offense that, while it has problems to solve up front, looks like a Patriots offense. The quarterbacks and receivers are on the same page. Making the same sight reads. Looking at coverages the same way. They're not flooding the same area with two and three bodies or running into each other like they were under the previous administration. The ball is coming out quickly, decisively and on target. That alone is a triumph.

--So overall, a success. Any game where you have a player leave on a stretcher and then walk onto the team flight the next day is. RIP to Darryl Stingley. Still the favorite of all jerseys I've ever owned.