Knee Jerk Reactions to Week 7: Patriots vs. Bills

Things to consider while acknowledging that just having Dante Scarnecchia in the building makes everybody block better:

--Before we start, allow me to digress for a minute. And just trust that I'm going somewhere with this. (Or don't; I'm not here to tell you how to read a stupid football blog.) Physicist Werner Heisenberg once said that when he meets God, he'll have two questions: Why relativity? And why turbulence? Adding, "I believe He will have no problem answering the first." The point he was making was that explaining turbulent flow - the ways in which fluid matter will create self-similar cascades, whirlpools, eddys and smaller eddys - has eluded science for centuries. Then in 2012, astronomers looking through the Hubble Space Telescope noticed something in a cloud of interstellar gas where stars are being formed. That the turbulent flow patterns looked virtually identical to Van Gogh's masterpiece Starry Night. That by using sharp brushstrokes of contrasting light to appeal to the primitive visual cortex in our brains, combined with color contrasts that our primate subdivision responds to, the artist had perfectly expressed the distinct pattern of turbulent fluid structures that physics and mathematics could not. Hundreds of years before the Hubble went into orbit:

Art Images. Getty Images.

--I'm tempted to go right to Mac Jones, who deserves top billing. But instead I'm going to start where virtually every post about this team has started this year, going back to preseason. And that's the offensive line. It's taken this much shuffling the deck, re-shuffling, cutting the cards and then shuffling again, but with (from L to R) Trent Brown, Cole Strange back from injury, David Andrews, Sidy Sow and Michael Onwenu sliding outside to tackle, they finally found a combination that works. Jones had time to throw for the most part. When there was pressure, there were lanes for him to step up and away from it. And we got a look at what happens when we don't get a cohesive starting five out there when Brown left the game with a knee injury and was questionable to return, Vederian Lowe wasted no time committing an Ineligible Man Downfield penalty to wipe out a 22-yard reception by Pharoah Brown. And Trent Brown immediately came back in and gutted it out the rest of the game. 

--To be clear, they were by no means perfect. There were communication issues. Jordan Poyer's sack was the result of a corner blitz where he lined up tight to the formation but was left accounted for as the protection was never slid his way. But operating almost exclusively out of 12-personnel, splitting the running back snaps and rotating the three tight ends, pick up enough blitzes and get enough hats on hats up front to, if not exactly make anyone confuse them with the 2013 Broncos, at least look like the description of an NFL offense you'd give to a police sketch artist. 

--Take for instance, Ezekiel Elliot's touchdown. The Patriots were in Heavy, with Pharaoah Brown and Hunter Henry strong right and Buffalo in their goal line Over front, slid to the strong side. This was another play where Poyer came off the edge unblocked, but Elliot got enough of a head of steam to evade capture and Trent Brown and Strange got just enough of a push for him to power through Terrel Bernard for the - and this is a word I haven't used too often so pardon me if I'm misusing the term - touch... touchdown? Is that the way you say it?

Granted, it would've been great to get any sort of a push when Jones tried to sneak it in from about the length of a golf pencil on the 2-point try. But still, this was progress.

--Though possibly the finest hour of blocking, for not just for the line but the whole unit, came on the Flare route to Rhamondre Stevenson. The line bought everyone what time they needed for the screen to develop, Douglas came in motion to join Kendrick Bourne doubling Taron Johnson outside the numbers. Hunter Henry not only engaged with Micah Hyde coming up in run support, he used Hyde to block Dane Jackson as well. And since the play was run to the wide side of the field (from the left hash mark), Stevenson had a four-lane expressway to operate in and only had to slip Jordan Phillips getting back into the play. 

Good play design. Outstanding execution from all involved. And for the first time you felt like this team had a comeback in them. Or a trip to overtime at the very least. just so long as as they could overcome their own genius for finding ways to kick a game away at the end. And they came through.

--I get that some people around here are saying that football has gotten too hard to play and the product the NFL is putting out is largely boring. But it's games like yesterday's that remind you it can still be a great way to kill time while you're waiting for the next Travis Kelce commercial.

--Now let's get to Jones. Because this is really where I'd like to spend the morning. If not take a week's vacation here, just relaxing in the sights and sounds of a promising young quarterback enjoying the biggest win of his career, all things considered. He was poised. He was in command. Distributed the ball around to nine different receivers. He rolled the pocket when necessary. One or two times you could accuse him of taking off running before the pass rush was much of a threat, but I think his priority was protecting the football, and that should be the Prime Directive for everyone. He made positive plays and kept his offense away from negative plays. That's the kind of quarterbacking that around 2001-2004 people used to derisively call being "a game manager." But which over time came to be known as "winning feckin' Patriots games." 

--More to the point, Jones got better as the game went on, and was at his level best when the stakes were highest. In the second half, he had two touchdown passes and two - TWO - incompletions. One of them being in the end zone over Demario Douglas. He took some grief from the broadcasters for opting for the high lob pass instead of zipping it in, and that might be fair. But he put it where either Douglas would get it or one of the Minutemen would. With 0:15 left, no timeouts and three more downs to play with, I have no objection. And I was 99% certain that on the next down, Mike Gesicki ran the exact same post route, he just made a bigger target for the catch. Though after seeing this, I might be confusing Gesicki's game-winner with Gesicki's game-winner:

There's a glitch in the Matrix. And for the first time all year, I'm taking the blue pill.

--If those last minute heroics didn't otherwise seem familiar though, you're not mistaken. This is how rare that's been around here:

--Like I said, Bill O'Brien went almost exclusively with 1-RB, 2-TE sets. But he also incorporated more pre-snap motion than he has all year. And they came in all flavors and varieties. Across the formation to turn 2X2s into 3X1s. Short motions to stack alignments. Ghost motion, designed to look like a Jet sweep to freeze an edge defender. There's been some legit criticism recently that it was all getting to be a bit much, and putting too much on Jones' plate. But on a day like yesterday, when he can know with some degree of confidence he'll have enough time in the pocket to at least send a message from his brain to his throwing arm, then it's a thing of beauty to watch him operate. Directing the motion like a maestro. Getting his guys aligned the way he wants them, and so on.

--Take for instance, this one. Bourne went in motion away from the play side, where the tight ends were stacked. Elliot did a great job picking up the blitz. From the outside, Gesicki drew the Hook defender with an out and up. And Jones recognized pre-snap that he was going to have Pharaoh Brown from the inside iso'd on Bernard outside the numbers if he got the ball out to him before the safety came over. O'Brien is big on working guys TO the seam, not lining them up ON the seam. And here it is in practice. Good enough for a coaching tape:

--One of the few times they deviated from the plan and went to empty sets, Jones got results. No throw he made was better than this one. Running what to me looked like Hoss X-Follow, with Hitch-Seam combinations on both sides against the Bills' Cover-2, the Strong 3 sitting since he wasn't matched, with Strong No.2 Tyquan Thornton running at the safety on his side to occupy him, Douglas stemmed off his route to the open middle (MOFO) and split the safeties on the business end of a perfect arrow strike from Jones:

--What shouldn't be lost on any of us are the names that keep coming up here. The guys Jones is getting involved in the offense. Gesicki, Brown, Douglas. Not just Bourne, Henry and the running backs. It would be nice DeVante Parker was an asset instead of just a background extra with no lines. But this offensive empire was built on the ball going to the guy who's open and can be trusted to make the catch. It doesn't matter who he is or where he came from. 

--Speaking of Douglas, he's still a work in progress. What looked like the worst play of Jones' day, when he spiked it into the turf, upon further review looks like Douglas messed up and he was just trying to kill the botched play:

--Which brings us to another reason to grapple this win to your soul with hoops of steel. It gets Bourne off the hook. He was going to be for this loss what Parker was for last week's. The Pats took over with a lead and 5:30 to go. It was one of those Prove It moments where you show to the world you're capable of putting together a sustained, chain-moving, clock-killing, finishing drive that closes out a win. And they proceeded to lose five yards and watch Bourne let the ball get punched out of his hands on his way to the ground. Yet another demoralizing fatal blunder by an offense that has managed to spread the irresponsibility around. And found more ways to meet a gruesome end than the Usher family. Bourne balled out yet again. And has arguably been the most consistent offensive player we've had all year. So the fact we never need speak of his fumble again is yet another reason to celebrate.

--Defensively, as strange as this might sound given we once again saw Buffalo without ever really getting to know their punter, I'm not sure we can ask any more of this unit. Yes, they gave up 15 points in the span of about three Travis Kelce commercials sandwiched around Bourne's fumble. But while I hate to admit, that's what playing the Bills will do to you. Josh Allen is going to do Josh Allen things. At least a half dozen times a game, you're going to see one of your rushers have him all lined up, only to watch in slow motion while he figures out the code to the lock that will give him the key to leave the Escape Room, and he'll burn you with a deep completion. And in this game, all those things happened, except for the deep completion. There was a 25-yarder to Stefon Diggs and a 28-yard catch and run by James Cook. But for the most part the Patriots secondary was able to stay with the Bills receivers as Allen was trying to make plays out of structure, and I think that's about the best you can hope for. I mean, don't expect to sack the quarterback. That's ridiculous.

--But one thing you can hope to do against Allen is to goad him into doing dumb things with the ball.  And though they haven't been managing that lately, they did yesterday early on. Jabrill Peppers has really emerged as an indispensible, all-purpose, 5-tool replacement for Devin McCourty. On his interception, he had Seam-Curl-Flat responsibility, and caught Allen staring down Dawson Knox, so he chose Seam, falling off the underneath man and jumping the deep route:

And to see the offense turn his play into seven made it feel like anything is possible.

--The Pats also managed to kill a couple of drives with an elaborate variety of pass rush looks. Often with Belichick & Son dialing up replacement blitzers, with one rusher dropping into coverage and another coming down out of the secondary at the snap. They made particular use of Ju'Whaun Bentley spying Allen and then coming on a delayed blitz. Just before the half that was a contributing factor as Christian Barmore, Deatrich Wise, Jr and Sam Roberts held a staff meeting in Conference Room Allen:

Then Jalen Mills blitzed from his Robber safety spot to force a throwaway. On the subsequent field goal try, Tyler Bass missed the goalposts with a hook the likes of which hasn't been seen since I perfected my unhittable Wiffleball scroogie in my buddy's yard back in the day. Then of course there was Bentley breaking up a pass for Knox in the end zone for a turnover on downs that squandered a 15-play drive. So, to go straight for the cliche, they did enough to win. And earned the win they got.

--Though perhaps the best sign of all was the way they managed to keep Diggs contained. Mainly by throwing a lot of JC Jackson at him. (And I shudder to think where we'd be had the Chargers not been so anxious to get rid of him.) But also with some zone coverages. One in particular they showed a replay of, where it appeared Allen was looking for him, but Myles Bryant passed him off to Mills at safety, forcing a throwaway. Of course Diggs drew the obligatory Illegal Contact penalty when Jackson brushed some lint off his lapel. And got away with literally holding Jackson's hand in the end zone like a Boy Scout helping an old lady cross a street. But that's the Elite Wideout Privilege at work. 

--What's harder to deal with is the way Allen gets overprotected. Even by the standards of an NFL quarterback. He didn't deserve the Roughing the Passer call for this. But given that he outweighs Jack Jones by 60 pounds, he definitely deserves a Best Actor nom:

Several, in fact:

--Without a doubt though, the biggest issue facing the Patriots defense was shoddy, inexcusable, pisspoor tackling. I started to lose count on how many times they failed to wrap up a ball carrier or flat-out whiffed. The Bills first TD was a result of Jack Jones catching air against Gabriel Davis, followed by Peppers missing Cook on his touchdown. Bentley later couldn't bring Cooks down on his big gain. And then where was Jackon's failure to get Diggs down on his score. It doesn't get any more basic than executing good form tackling fundamentals. Unless they're trying to win gold at the LA Olympics '28, they have to clean that up.

--This was a huge week in general for the special teams. Chad Ryland made all his kicks. Bryce Baringer had one massive, field flipping put. And Douglas had the best return of his young career. 

Maybe GM Bill can draft after all.

--This Week's Applicable Movie Quote: "I'm not dead!…  I don't want to go in the cart. … I feel better. … I feel happy! I feel happy!" - The Dead Body That Claims It Isn't, Monty Python and the Holy Grail

--Let's end this in style. We're onto No. 301:

Dammit, Victory Monday feels good again. A fella could get used to this.