The Patriots' eventual 27-13 victory over the Cardinals on Monday night is not a game from which grand pronouncements about the fate of the 2022 Patriots should be made.
They did, especially after Kyler Murray exited the game following the third play of the game, what was expected of them as 2-point road favorites. We've also seen this movie before. The Patriots may not be the tightest ship in the league, especially on offense, but they look like a Naval aircraft carrier compared to the Steelers, Lions (at the time), Browns, Zach Wilson-led Jets (twice), Colts and now Cardinals. They are competent enough in all three phases of the game to outlast an opponent that seems deadset on shooting themselves in both feet.
The now 5-9 Cardinals definitely fit that bill. They had, among other things: a fumbled handoff, two illegal shift penalties, Hollywood Brown dropping an array of passes, a QB not throwing the ball high enough to a wide-open receiver on 4th down, a coach inexplicably passing up a two-score lead before halftime despite having no timeouts left, a facemask penalty, a receiver just dropping a ball for a fumble that was returned for the game-winning score, an interception, false starts, an illegal touch and six sacks allowed.
All those errors more than offset the Patriots' now-normal stoogery: lining up wrong, negative plays, offensive line penalties, an interception caused by a tight end blocking a defensive end, a plethora of Nelson Agholor drops and enough screens that you thought Matt Patricia was outfitting 10 sleepaway summer camps in Maine.
Must-see TV, this was not — to the point that NBC execs were high-fiving each other saying, "Good call flexing Patriots-Raiders out of Sunday Night Football for Daniel Jones vs. Taylor Heineke — who tied 20-20 a week ago."
But you know what? The Patriots players and coaches, and some of you, don't care about that. The fact is, the Patriots won a game in December to improve to 7-6, and for one more week at least the dream of a postseason berth and possible interesting run lives on. And why the hell not? If the Jets and Chargers can dream of postseason success, why can't the Patriots? Reality can wait until you're smacked in the face with it.
And, to tell you the truth, the Patriots got a little bit more interesting last night. No, I'm not talking about Patricia's offense — his offseason coaches clinic topic will be, "How to run 101 different quick games and piss off your young QB in the process" — or even the defense as a whole, since they've yet to notch a win against an impressive quarterback.
I'm talking about the next generation of Patriots.
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Kevin Harris
Avoid the topic of great drafts — good or bad, nobody knows anything about any draft class for at least three years — and just live in the moment. For one night, at least, the Patriots got some major contributions from their younger players. And considering that as recently as last year, Belichick looked like he'd rather be a guest on my podcast than play any young player over a veteran, especially on defense. How many years have bemoaned the fact that guys like Josh Uche couldn't see the field while the Patriots' defense literally aged before our very eyes and gave out in the final month of the season?
There was Uche notching three sacks to give him 10 over the past five games.
"I love the way he's playing, the confidence and poise and it's the most he's been able to play since he's been in the NFL," Matthew Judon said. "It's taken a toll on him, but he's going out there and having a lot of fun and success. We all knew it; we all knew what type of player he was. He was drafted pretty high here and now he's emerging and offensive lines will have to watch out."
There was Uche causing an interception by hitting Colt McCoy, and helping to seal the win with the kind of pressure after pressure that was missing in years prior from Belichick's Over The Hill Gang.
There was third-round pick Marcus Jones catching a pass one drive, then covering DeAndre Hopkins the next (7 tackles, 2 passes defended and 1 INT on defense), and returning kicks. I'm sure Belichick has some obscure old player to reference with Jones, but all I can come up with is Deion Sanders.
"It's cool to have him helping where he can," said Mac Jones. "The kid's on special teams, hitting people on defense, and covering really good receivers, then coming over and running full speed on motions and running routes. Really great leadership from him and a vocal guy. He's a young guy, but to show that he's going to give it 100 percent no matter what his role is is pretty cool. I felt like he did that tonight and we're definitely going to expand on that."
Rookie running backs Pierre Strong (4th round) and Kevin Harris (6th round) filled the void left by Rhamondre Stevenson (injured) and Damien Harris (ruled out pregame) for 13 carries, 96 yards and two touchdowns. To go from where they were in the summer (lost and borderline cuttable — Harris was), to come in and run hard like that was impressive and showed they've continued to work hard to improve.
"Those guys stepped up," Jones said. "The thing I told (Harris) was, 'It's like SEC football, so go out there, do your thing, you've played against really good teams and that's what it is. Here, it's the same thing. You're a young guy, but really fast.' He uses his speed well. They did a great job and they're going to have to step up again. The rookies did a great job. I'm super proud of them and they just want to help the team win and that's what we're trying to do."
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Marcus Jones
Of course, Jones is in his second season himself and while it's never going to be a clean game in the current circumstances, he did a nice job adjusting at the line to the Cardinals' pressure packages and was reacquainted with Hunter Henry on two — two! — pass plays over 30 yards. And Cole Strange looked to be solid at his left guard spot.
"That's what we want to do, just try to win the game however we had to do it, and those guys made some great plays," Jones said of the offense. "The offensive line gave them the big holes and the receivers got the blocks on the outside. That's how we want to play offensive football in the run game. We have to watch the film and see where we can do better. But that's a good defense, (they) blitz a lot from different places to try to confuse you and you just have to stick to your rules, so props to those guys."
Might as well give props to Matt Groh and his front office staff while you're at it, QB1.
Talk about the tough road the lay ahead, how it might be difficult to make the playoffs and what that means for this franchise moving forward ... all that stuff can wait for at least a day.
Tonight, the kids were all right for the Patriots, and that in of itself is a victory worth celebrating considering the recent past. At least for one night.