Hope everyone enjoyed that one game preseason — and what the Jaguars put out on the Gillette Stadium turf might have been worse than that — because it's now or never for the 2021 Patriots.
No more cupcakes. No more layups. It's off to their personal house of horrors in Miami Gardens (forecast: 80 degrees, 67% humidity), against a team that has beaten them 3 of the last 4 meeting, with a head coach in Brian Flores who knows exactly how to play the Patriots and their offense. And then it's into the postseason to face, at the moment, the Buffalo Bills and Josh Allen who were last seen playing a flag football game at Gillette.
It's all well and good that the Patriots enjoyed themselves on Sunday in their 50-10 victory over the Junior Jaguars. The NFL is hard, so when you get the equivalent of Mac Jones and Alabama against Kentucky (63-3 in 2020), you take full advantage. Everyone got involved, Jones got back to completing passes like a robot QB, and the defense got multiple turnovers.
"I don’t think this week will have much to do with the Miami game, just like I don’t think the Buffalo game had much to do with today’s game," said Bill Belichick. "We’ll get ready for a new team, a new challenge, and we’ll see where we’re at on Sunday against a good Dolphins team. It’s nice to win. It’s nice to go out there and have a good week and have that be realized with the score and the way we played the game. But next week is a new week and we’re starting all over again. We emptied the tank out today. We’re going to have to spend all week filling it up and be ready to put it out there again on Sunday against Miami."
(Adam Richins for BSJ)
There's a difference between feeling good and being good.
The Patriots had a similar burgerfest against the Jets in Week 7 (54-13) and while they won the next week against the Chargers, the offense didn't have much to do with it. Jones went from over 300 yards and 67 percent completions to 217 yards, 51 percent completions and the offense managed just one TD drive, and one drive over 59 yards. It took an Adrian Phillips pick-six for the Patriots to win that game, in a great defensive effort against Justin Herbert.
Are the Patriots a good team? Sunday was certainly no referendum on that. Are you a good team when, in two games against playoff teams, you fall behind 44-7 when if you just split with the Colts and Bills, the Patriots would have the No. 1 seed in the AFC and a bye firmly in their grasp?
"We haven’t done much," said Matthew Judon. "We still have got to fight, we still got to play, still got to scratch and claw and come in here and make sure we are ready for the next opponent. It was good to get a win today.”
I think it's fair to say we think the Patriots are a good team but they have yet to show that on a big stage, and a guy who has been around big games like Judon would seem to agree with that.
And there's still time for them to do and prove just that.
(Adam Richins for BSJ)
Sunday was a good baby step. Here's what we liked, and are still waiting on:
• Don't care who the opponent was, it was good for Jones to have a lot of success throwing the ball and his rhythm and accuracy were improved. It had been since Nov. 28 that he completed over 70 percent of his passes. He was 43 and 57 in the previous two losses. That type of success can only help his confidence, and a lack of much pass rush will allow him to settle a bit. I really liked him scrambling very quickly on an early third down that looked dicey if he stayed in the pocket.
• Hopefully Kristian Wilkerson's performance — and it was a typical one for him with some great plays, and puzzling drops — will now end the N'Keal Harry experiment. He does very little to help the offense and even his blocking has been overrated. Hopefully Nelson Agholor gets back to X, and Wilkerson can fill in at the No. 4 without the Patriots feeling obligated to get Harry snaps. No, Wilkerson is not some sort of weapon to be counted on by Jones in big games. He's a fill-in, depth player.
• Nine different weapons touched the ball for the Patriots, including some that have gone some time (Kendrick Bourne, Jonnu Smith) without a meaningful touch. That's also importance for confidence.
• Patriots only had three penalties for 30 yards. Don't remember many really stupid ones.
• The execution on the offensive line seemed better but we think the film review will be less kind. Isaiah Wynn, Shaq Mason and David Andrews had some plays to forget, but also some really nice ones.
• The pass rush, after taking the Bills game off, returned and gave Lawrence some issues. Didn't like Judon playing but hopefully those limited snaps will give his legs some extra juice going forward because this defense needs them in a HUGE way.
• Probably helped the old confidence that three guys who had subpar games against the Bills — Myles Bryant, JC Jackson and Kyle Dugger — all had interceptions.
• That running game is legit and will travel. As long as the Patriots have Damien Harris or Rhamondre Stevenson, they'll be tough to stop.
(Adam Richins for BSJ)
Still waiting...
• Can Jones and the passing offense keep pace if they need to? Won't find that out against Tua and the Dolphins (woof vs. Titans), but any opponent other than the Titans (Bengals, Bills, Chiefs) are capable of scoring in bunches and the Patriots may not survive on 13-play, 7-minute drives.
• Can the defense get the big stop when needed to come back or close out a game? Been a while since they've really done that, and way too many examples of them failing at it.
• If someone shuts down Hunter Henry, can Jones still convert third downs?
• Will Josh McDaniels allow Jones to show his stuff early in games, or are they just going to wait until their down by double digits?
• Can the linebackers keep checkdowns from going for 9 yards a clip?
Not saying the Patriots can't do any of those things, just that we haven't seen them consistently in a big spot.
With the Junior Jaguars in the rear view, there's nothing but big spots now.
At Miami.
Playoff destination TBD.
Maybe more.
So much to learn about this Patriots team and they just might surprise. We don't know.