Knee Jerk Reactions to Week 7: Patriots vs. Jaguars

Things to consider while offering this Employee Training video two Patriots 2nd round wide receivers might find helpful real soon:

--Leadership is one of those traits that's impossible to define, but you know it when you see it. It's a quality that can be measured by people's willingness to act against their own self-interests for a common goal. It's Leonidas at Thermopylae getting his 300 Spartans to fight against millions because "I would die for every one" of them. It's Washington standing upright through hails of musket fire, inspiring his men into fighting back instead of taking cover. Wellington himself said the mere sight of Napoleon on a battlefield was worth 40,000 men. And he'd know; he finally ended Bonaparte's career. Yet at his funeral, Tennyson wouldn't shut up about what a great leader Admiral Nelson was. Leadership is a sort cult of personality that motivates others to sacrifice for some greater good.

--Moreover, you know it when you don't see it. And right now your New England Patriots are not getting it. That's a hard criticism, indeed. But it's not coming from me. It's coming from the man who was hired to lead them:

That's a tough indictment. And you can argue why this is and what factors led to it. But what's not up for debate is the hard fact that they're soft. The 2024 Pats are soft enough to have been grown only in the Nile delta between the Sahara and the Mediterranean Sea. It's demonstrable at this point. As Mayo stated, this team has always defined itself by running the ball, stopping the run, and covering kicks. None of which they are doing. Consider the following:

On their final three drives, the Patriot had nine 1st downs, and ran on seven of them. Those seven rushes netted a total of one yard. Defensively, they gave up 171 yards on the ground, extending their streak of 170+ yards surrendered to three straight games. The last time they gave less than 130 rushing yards was Week 2. These numbers of course include the 19 consecutive runs by Jacksonville, leading to that interminable 17-play, 84-yard, 11:24 drive. Meaning that on either side of the line of scrimmage, every opponent is doing whatever they want, with little to no resistance. I'm not saying this is a collection of - Mayo's word, no mine - soft individuals. I leave it to you to go up to Keion White or Michael Onwenu and say that to their faces. But without a doubt in the trenches teams are grabbing them by the wrists, smacking them in the face with their own hands and going "Why are you hitting yourself? Huh? Why are you hitting yourself?" and they're helpless to make it stop.

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--And quite honestly, the coaching staff could stand to be a lot more mentally tough. You don't get to be the worst team in the league, lose to Jacksonville and make a foreign audience question how they ever got driven out of Boston without it being an all-hands-on-deck, total group effort. We saw more craptastic play calling and clock management at the end of the half, which has been a common theme and gave the Jaguars the ball back even after the punt return TD. I defy anyone to explain the logic of going for 2 instead of kicking the extra point and making it a one-score game. Then we got the usual Fall Beer Assortment 12-pack of unforced mental errors. Demario Douglas with an illegal shift on the opening drive. Hunter Henry going in motion prior to the snap, turning a crucial 3rd & 5 into a 3rd & 10. An Onwenu false start on 3rd & 10. Jahlani Tavai lining up in the neutral zone on an extra point, giving the Jags the ball in 2-point conversion territory. All the hallmarks of the sort of badly coached teams that we use to point and laugh at with malice in our hearts. Now we're on the business end of the point. 

--But the most damning aspect of all comes when you consider who they were getting outcoached by:

--Remember last winter when Eliot Wolf said they were going to get rid of the old regime's "hard ass" vibe? Having a hard ass is better than being the butt of the joke.

--I think going deeper into the topic of their 2-ply softness is a subject for another blog. And some of the wideouts have been making noise on their socials, so there's a lot there I'll get into later. For now let's stick to talking about this game. In fact, let's take a Positivity Break, because I could really use it. Let's get into our Lotus Pose, focus on our breathing, open up our Chakras, and think happy thoughts about this season's most positive development, Drake Maye. Because if nothing else is going right (hint: it's not), he is. In fact, after only two games he's in rare company:

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After getting the first drive going by converting a shallow cross to Douglas, he proceeded to hit Henry on a seam route for 19. Then he perfectly executed a play action rollout throw on the run to hit Ja'Lynn Polk right in the palms - and stop me if you heard this before - the rookie "with the best hands in the league" (according to a recent survey of the NFL's Ja'Lynn Polks) dropped it. Then Maye finished the drive with a hot route off a fire zone blitz to JaMychal Hasty, who did the Hallway Fight Scene from Inception all the way to the end zone:

--On that possession, Maye was 6-of-7, with his only "miss" coming off the meat of Polk's thumbs, for 62 yards and a score. For a team that could count their opening drive 1st downs on the fingers of one hand going into this game, a 7-0 lead is the stuff wet dreams are made of. It's not perfect. He threw two passes that would've been certain interceptions if the Jags defenders didn't have hands like our 2nd round wideouts. (I'm issuing a BOLO for Tyquan Thornton, if anyone can remember what he looks like.) But at no point in his two starts has he looked like he doesn't belong. Like they're throwing at him anything he hasn't seen or any concept he can't grasp. The footwork everyone was understandably so concerned about is no longer a concern. He put balls through tight windows, like this wide side hitch out of a 3X1 formation:

--Plus, for the first time in recent memory (the Cam Newton season doesn't count because I've memory-holed all of 2020), we've got a quarterback that pass rushers have to worry about containing. Once Onwenu got Travon Walker passed Maye's depth in the pocket, this 3rd & 4 was as good as converted:

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--Maye has that dual-threat QB instinct for keeping his eyes upfield, even as he's slipping tackles, like this reach from DaVon Hamilton, and find someone open for a 1st down out of structure:

And even when he semi-screwed up, missing Kendrick Bourne, he acknowledges it and moves on:

Which doesn't sound like much unless you lived through the past two years of Mac Jones doing the Al Pacino "You're out of order!" speech every time he walked off the field on 4th down. This team is not totally without leadership.

--But I'm burying the lede. Because Maye's best sequence was moving the ball 65 yards in two plays. First a 32-yard heater to Henry. Then this smart bomb to Kayshon Boutte running a simple Go:

--Then finishing it off by reading KJ Osborne settling down on the goal line under the post safety. Even though there were safer options like Hasty releasing out of the backfield uncovered, Maye saw the whole field and went all aggressive down by 15 on a 3rd & 15:

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--Not to keep harping on the Mac Jones era, though that's exactly what I am doing, we used to go a full month without seeing a pass attempt into the end zone. It was all just risk-aversion. Hitting someone on the 5 and hoping he can shed tackles. Or launching one into the Militia and hoping Henry or Bourne or whomever could high-point it out of the air like Dwight Clark. It's like this team finally decided on a Halloween costume, and they're going as an actual NFL offense. Even if it's considered cultural appropriation, I'll allow it. 

--If Alex Van Pelt is doing this with any sort of clever smoke and mirrors, I'm not seeing it. It's just a lot of putting Douglas or the running back into motion. Putting Maye under center on rushing downs and in the gun on passes. The reads seem to be from top-down, meaning deep routes to checkdowns. The screen game is still such a disaster it qualifies for FEMA money. And the play action we heard so much about all spring is super limited because opposing coordinators have figured out they don't have to worry about the run. But Maye is making it function, despite it all being on him, his four or five dependable targets, no running game and constant turnover along his offensive line. So I'll take that as a win? I guess?

--That felt good. Namaste. Now let's switch to the defense, because we can't live in a ridiculous yoga trance. Who could've seen this coming after the job they did against Cincinnati in Week 1?

They gave up 32 points to a team that was averaging 18.3 coming in. With 4.4 yard per rushing attempt, 6.2 yards per play, and 23 1st downs.

--I say again, Jacksonville made adjustments and the Patriots simply didn't have a counter. They were outmatched across the board. No one capable of filling the cutback lanes of the Jaguars inside zone running scheme. Tank Bigsby and D'Ernest Johnson both could pick whatever slot they chose - as it's coached: bang, bend or bounce - and they were 5 yards across the line before they got touched. That first Jacksonville touchdown was a complete breakdown that was emblematic of the entire 2nd quarter:

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Johnson had a 26-yard reception on a simple in-cut in front of Josh Uche. But the Pats were busy trying to disguise coverage. Kyle Dugger was the deep safety in Cover-1, but rotated down into the box at the snap, with Marte Mapu replacing him. Uche whiffed on the tackle and Mapu got walled off by an Evan Engram block to spring Johnson and the rest of the middle of the defense was wide open for the catch and run. It's an example of the kind of thing that looks super clever when it works. But when it gets blown up, it just comes across as desperate. Like you're trying to hide your weaknesses.

--Speaking of which, Tavai seemed like one of those real success stories. A guy who came out of nowhere, fit seamlessly into this scheme, and found a way to maximize his skills. But now the limits of that skillset has been exposed. He's a quality ILB in a confined area, taking on lead blocks and stuffing runs. Once you get him into open space, he's a liability. Which teams are doing. On the Jags first possession of that disastrous 2nd quarter, they began targnting him. First on Gabe Davis on a shallow cross. Then on a Cover-1 beater deep slant to Charlie Kirk that went for 24. And Tavai got stood up by Devin Lloyd on the punt return touchdown as the Patriots last line of defense:

It's not his fault. He's a limited athlete. I say this with respect, but in the open field he runs like someone walking from the ski rack into the lodge, still wearing their boots. But he's being asked to replace Ju'Whaun Bentley, when his athletic ceiling is to be the Robin to Bentley's Batman. (His Bentman? Benman? I'll workshop it.) And that's just one example of the guys all over the formation being asked to play above their heads. 

--One who isn't would be Keion White. But for reasons that cannot be explained by mortal man, he started but then was removed before that first Jacksonville scoring drive. In fact, he only saw 42 of the defense's 61 snaps. If he was injured, or limited somehow, fine. But there was no announcement. Just a total lack of pressures and an inability to set the edge from the defensive ends. Just call me curious.

--Simply put, Brian Thomas Jr. gave Christian Gonzalez more than he could handle for the first time in his career. I don't know how many times Gonzo was in solo coverage on him. But the touchdown and that incredible bomb from Lawrence:

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… were enough to call this the worst game of Gonzalez' career so far. It'll be fascinating to see how well he bounces back against Garrett Wilson next week.

--I don't know when I've ever liked an NFL Network game broadcast this much. Maybe it was just Joe Thomas, who is at his likeable, regular guy, Joe Thomasiest doing these games. Breaking down the line play especially. It could be the lack of commercials for garbage network sitcoms, Queen Latifah solving crimes, and 28 shows about first responders with the word "Chicago" in the title. It might just be that I was on coffee instead of IPAs. But it was Certified Fresh [tm] on Thornton Tomatoes.

--This Week's Applicable Movie Quote: "Look at me. Here I sit in a porno theater in Picadilly Circus talking to a corpse." David, An American Werewolf in London

--Thanks for reading. And for all the support I've received regarding my family. Thanks especially to my bosses who told me to take all the time I need. Today, what I really needed was to Knee Jerk React to a Pats game. My brother would've wanted me to. So that he could call later and talk about all the things I said here that he obviously didn't read. God bless.