FOXBOROUGH — Practice No. 14 is in the books. Here's a look at what you need to know, including stats, one-on-one charts and 3 up/3 down.
THREE THINGS THING YOU NEED TO KNOW
Patriots offense has a rougher day: If Tuesday was a good, solid day for the offense, Wednesday was a step back. They started off well in the red zone period after the fight with Mac Jones 3 for 3, including a one-handed tremendous catch for a TD by Jakobi Meyers and a nice scramble by Jones. Then it went downhill. Jones finished 11 of 22 with five sacks. On his two-minute drill, Jones was sacked twice, had to take some checkdowns and finally threw a ball that had no chance into the ground in front of Jonnu Smith to end their drive. Belichick kept the drive going by advancing the ball 20 yards to the 10 where Jones had a touchdown with DeVante Parker, and then Ty Montgomery dropped another TD after a hard hit from a Panthers defender.
"Yeah we’re getting there," Jones said. "I think the coaches have done a good job just kind of listening to us and you know if we don’t like something it’s something that they’re going to listen to and tell us why we should do one thing or another. At the end of the day, they have a lot of experience and they know exactly how to attack a defense and that’s something that we’ve kind of bought into. There’s a lot of knowledge. A lot of it is just making sure we’re all on the same page like you said. We’ve grown in that area and we have to continue to do that. Every day is a new battle and the coaches have done a great job preparing us for one day. You come out here there’s a new look and we come out here today and we adjust to it and we nail it. So that’s something you need to do from drive to drive in the NFL. In a game, one drive they might give you one look and then the next drive you got to be ready for the new look they just gave you. So I’m really pleased with that."
Breakdown of Jones' 2-minute drill:
1st-10: Sack
2-8: Complete to Agholor
1-10: Complete to Meyers
2-1: Sack by Brian Burns
3-1: Hurried, but Jones short completion to Parker
1-10: Clocked
2-10: Incomplete to Parker, not close
3-10: Jones flushed under pressure, throws hurriedly to Smith short
(Ball moved up 20 yards to 10-yard line)
1-Goal: Jones to Parker TD
2-Goal: Montgomery motion to the flat at goal line, looked like completion but officials ruled ball popped out as he went to ground.
Another fight after Wilkerson injury: The two teams got into it again. It started on a live kickoff drill when WR Kristian Wilkerson appeared to be laid out by S Kenny Robinson, who was involved on Tuesday. Wilkerson immediately went limp and was motionless. The Patriots took exception to the Panthers celebrating the hit while Wilkerson was in obvious distress, not the hit.
“Celebrating someone that is down and clearly in a dire situation, I personally took issue with that,” Matthew Slater said. “And I don’t want us doing it. But on the flip side of that, when somebody else is down with clear signs of symptoms of a significant injury, that’s what I took issue with and that’s why I responded the way that I did.”
Panthers coach Matt Rhule didn't like the way his player handled the situation.
“I didn’t see the hit, but I did see him standing over the player,” Rhule told reporters. “That’s not how we want to practice. We don’t stand over someone and taunt them. That can affect their livelihood.”
On the first play of the next team period, Deatrich Wise laid a late cheap hot on RB Christian McCaffery, who took offense and threw the ball at Wise. That's when another melee started that had Robinson and Wise ejected.
@ZoandBertrand @scottzolak the play leading to the fight pic.twitter.com/Dv2KnoIWyo
— Mikey Mcdermott (@MikeyInTheTruck) August 17, 2022
Belichick called some plays: Talking to some Panthers after practice the last two days, they maintain that Bill Belichick called the plays for the Patriots' two-minute drill on Tuesday, which is an interesting wrinkle. Needless to say, it was much more successful than today.
TAKING ATTENDANCE
Out: OT Isaiah Wynn (unknown), OT Justin Herron (unknown), OG Bill Murray, TE Hunter Henry (unknown), OL Yasir Durant (unknown).
Limited: TE Dalton Keene (unknown),
New injury: WR Kristian Wilkerson (head) left practice on a cart after a kickoff collision.
Returned to practice: None.
Physically unable to perform list: None.
Non-football injury list: OL Andrew Stueber.
Red non-contact jerseys: QBs, specialists
DRESS CODE
Full pads (Day 7)
LENGTH OF PRACTICE
Over 2 hours in mostly cloudy conditions.
QB STATS
Mac Jones: 11 of 22, 5 sacks, scramble.
Brian Hoyer: n/a.
Bailey Zappe: 8 of 17, INT, 2 sacks.
ONE-ON-ONE REPORT
Notes:
- Obviously looking at the overall record, it wasn't a good session for the Patriots. I'm not overly alarmed. The Patriots didn't seem to go quite as hard as they usually do, especially Barmore.
- I am worried about Uche. He continues to have a non-descript camp.
- Jennings had the best rep, where he started outside and spun inside. It was really nice.
THREE UP
WR Nelson Agholor: Caught a couple of TD passes from Jones in red zone drills to finish up a really strong week of practice. Has shown a knack for getting open and has made some contested catches.
"I love Nelson," said Jones. "He’s obviously very quick, very fast. He loves football. I don’t know that I’ve seen a receiver who understands football as well as he does in terms of just general knowledge. He’s almost like a quarterback out there. ... He’s definitely done a good job, and we just need to keep consistency up with all those guys."
WR Jakobi Meyers: Was money in the red zone once again.
TE Jonnu Smith: Didn't watch the TE 1-on-1s much with pass rush drills going on, but Smith seemed to do well there and had a nice TD catch in red zone after he ran a good route.
THREE DOWN
QB Bailey Zappe: Got a lot of opportunities today in practice and didn't do much with it. Held the ball at times, showed off his typical inaccuracy with about six passes that had no chance.
DE Josh Uche: Went 0-2 in his 1-on-1 drills and, despite getting run in the sub defense, hasn't shown up in the team drills very often.
Blocking: The Patriots are having a very hard time blocking in the running game, and today there were serious pass-blocking issues. The Panthers went more man to man today and dialed up the pressure. When that happened, the Patriots had a very difficult time. Most of the issues so far have to do with the blocking. Patriots really need to get that cleaned up.
QUICK HITS
- David Andrews looks like he has been battling through a left foot injury the past two days.
- Marcus Jones showed up a few times getting his hands on balls.
- Ty Montgomery was once again the back in two-minute drill.
- Jabrill Peppers had a big hit to break up a pass.
- Jalen Mills (PBU) and Matthew Judon (hurry) had the big plays vs. Panthers in 2-minute drills. Darnold had six straight completions to end with TD on his series. Mayfield was 5 of 10 and Spencer Brown was tackled short of the end zone.
- Sam Darnold and Derek Wright hooked up on a TD to end their two-minute drills that appeared to have no chance with Shaun Wade there, but the catch was ridiculous.
- Dignitaries at practice: Moose Johnston, Mike Mayock, Tedy Bruschi, Steve Nelson, Mark Trestman.
SCHEDULE
Thursday: OFF
Friday: vs. Panthers, 7 p.m. at Gillette
Saturday: OFF
Sunday: Travel to Las Vegas
Monday: TBA
Tuesday: Practice with Raiders
Wednesday: Practice with Raiders
Thursday: OFF
Friday: 8:15 p.m., Patriots at Raiders
