Bedard: Small steps by Stephon Gilmore, Dwayne Allen could portend big things

DENVER — One looked like he was on the path to being the biggest free-agent bust in Bill Belichick's career.

The other was so buried in Tom Brady's doghouse he was bumping into the remains of Chad Jackson, Taylor Price, Donald Hayes and Joey Galloway, and it was fair to wonder if his time with the Patriots was drawing to a close.

And then, suddenly on Sunday night, Stephon Gilmore and Dwayne Allen had new life, thanks to their performances at Mile High in the Patriots' 41-16 dismantling of The Artists Formerly Known As The Broncos.

Look, we're not going to go crazy here. Gilmore had another penalty and gave up a touchdown. Allen caught one pass. But take a little walk with me: if these two can continue to build on this game, the Patriots will be in a much stronger position.

Heading into the bye week, we weren't sure what the futures were for either player.

The last time we saw Gilmore on the field was in the Thursday night victory over the Buccaneers, way back in October. He certainly fared much better given the chance to play man-to-man against Mike Evans, but you wondered if his concussion had less to do with health than Gilmore's decision to pull up on this tackle.

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And it wasn't the first time (New Orleans after falling down) Gilmore might have given questionable effort on a play. So when he all of a sudden developed a concussion the Friday before the Jets game, sat out the week of practice before Atlanta, and then didn't suit up against the Chargers, it was fair to wonder if something else was going on.

But after the bye week, Gilmore was back at his starting right corner position and replacement Johnson Bademosi returned to playing special teams full-time. Gilmore also matched up with Demaryius Thomas nearly the entire game, providing tight coverage and breaking up an early third-down pass.

To go from blowing multiple coverages against the Panthers, to playing solid football in his last two outings, you see Gilmore starting to stack success. If this continues — and the more comfortable he gets, the faster he'll be able to play — the Patriots might very well have that big and physical matchup cornerback that can be used against the best receivers in the league. That's the guy the Patriots thought they were getting when they shelled out all that money. If he arrives, better late than never, then that's another big domino to fall on the way to the Patriots being that Top 10 defense most envisioned before the season.

"I feel good," Gilmore said. "The more you play and the more I sit in meetings, the more comfortable I get. I felt good today.

"The injury I had was a little frustrating. I was able to come back and take off where I left it and play confident."

Heading into the bye week we were all scratching our heads about the offense. Outside of Rob Gronkowski — who looked very fatigued after being asked to do more than ever — there wasn't a whole for the offense to hang their hat on.

 

No one was ever expecting Allen to be Robin to Gronkowski's Batman, but there was reason to hope that he'd help alleviate some of Gronkowski's duties as a two-way tight end, and be the occasional receiving threat.

Obviously, it didn't work out that way. Not only did Allen fail to catch any of the six passes Brady floated Allen's way in the first four games of the season — Brady didn't even attempt to throw at Allen in the previous four. It looked like Allen was in the Patriots' version of Siberia, never to be heard from again.

But against the Broncos, despite Allen failing to haul in a seventh-straight pass from Brady, Allen broke through with a catch and a touchdown on lucky No. 8.

"Getting that first catch out of the way ... I felt like that ball was beating me up, or the ball was beating me up because I wasn't catching it," Allen said with a big smile. "It felt amazing to get that monkey off my back and get headed in the right direction."

You could almost feel the weight fall off Allen, who is a true professional and wasn't afraid to admit that he was struggling early on with the Patriots. Now, there's at least hope for him.

"I hope it's a lesson for a lot of young guys in this league," he said. "I came into this league wide-eyed and bushy-tailed and I thought everything was going to be given to me. You come here to a winning club and you realize it takes a lot of self-sacrifice. You have to give yourself for the betterment of the team. That's what it's all about. Sometimes, you're rewarded with a touchdown."

Before the bye week, it looked like the extent of the Patriots' tight end production would anything Gronkowski would give them. Now, with Martellus Bennett back in the fold and contributing and Allen now a somewhat viable target (Jacob Hollister is also around), suddenly the Patriots have options in the red zone where they had dropped from 10th last season to 20th entering Sunday night.

"Unfortunately we’ve missed him a few times when he’s been wide open for some big plays," said Bill Belichick of Allen. "That was a tough catch and a big catch."

 

Allen catching a touchdown pass. Gilmore drawing the opponent's top receiver and keeping him in check. Finally, the Patriots are getting the type of production that was expected from those two at the beginning of the season.

The Patriots are 7-2 to this point without much of anything from Gilmore or Allen. Just imagine where they could be with them.