GREEN BAY, Wis. — Practice No. 15 is in the books from Lambeau Field, let's run down all you need to know from a long and padded joint practice:
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
Uneven day for the Patriots offense: There was a lot going on in this very long practice, so much to consider. When the two offenses were split for the first half of practice, Bill Belichick was only with the Patriots' offense. During that session, I thought the first-team Patriots' offense was good overall. Things were mostly crisp outside the occasional Atonio Mafi issues (sack, false start). The offense struggled for a bit in the middle with a lot of sacks/pressure and some penalties — including 0 for 5 first-team offense in the red zone — and then closed relatively strong in situational periods. One thing I will say, the Patriots' offense has a tough time pushing the ball down the field. Big plays are tough to come by. Jones had Henry down the left sideline at one point but he underthrew it and was nearly picked off. Jones made a great throw to Henry on the sideline later but Henry was at fault for not getting his feet down. Throw was there.
"Yeah, I think you can’t judge it until you watch the film, right? But, I definitely think we need to just be more consistent," Mac Jones said. "I know we had a couple situations, just penalties and things like that, we’ve got to get fixed. We’re trying to use the tools that we have: cadence, motions and things like that. We’re just trying to use it to our advantage. When you don’t, it turns into a disadvantage. So, we definitely want to clean that up. We’ve got a lot of guys out there having good effort and things like that. It’s just the little things. It’s not really the big things; it’s just the little things."
Defense mostly loses to Love and Co.: I watched the Patriots' offense a lot early, then tried to watch both fields. The pass rush from the Patriots was decent, but I thought the secondary had a tough day overall. They certainly made some plays, but the Packers had a handful of explosive plays and TDs ... the Patriots did not (one questionable TD to Parker).
Some of the highlights/lowlights for the Pats defense:
- Christian Gonzalez was dusted by Romero Doubs off the line and allowed an easy 20-yard completion to start 2-minute.
- Back up QB Sean Clifford TD to Malik Heath over Jack Jones.
- Doubs had Jack Jones beat for a big play and Jordan Love threw a nice ball, but Doubs ran a crappy route to the ball and did not connect.
- Love and Watson connected on a bomb of a TD over Gonzalez and Jalen Mills. The Patriots looked to be in Cover 3 and Mills got sucked in by an inside route and there was no one in the deep left third. After that play, DB coach Mike Pellegrino ripped into the DBs. It was a 3rd and 15
Got you boys with the video, this connection is going to be electric all year pic.twitter.com/T7DII7o2sw— arguable opinions (@ArguableO) August 16, 2023
- Third string QB Alex McGough threw a TD to TE Tucker Kraft
- Jack Jones broke up a pass to Watson in the end zone.
- TE Luke Musgrave, Doubs and Reed each caught TD passes in red zone from Love.
- Marcus Jones allowed 3 catches in two-minute situation.
Ezekiel Elliott was in uniform, Mike Gesicki not seen: The newest Patriots was in uniform and only took part in some jog-throughs very early in practice. He didn't take part in team.
"Yeah, it’s good to have Zeke. We had a good visit with him, and I look forward to working with him," Belichick said. "Yeah, we’ll see. I’ve never coached Zeke, but I’m glad we have him. I spent time with him last night and on the trip, on terminology and plays and protections, things like that. We’ll work him in there when he’s ready and we’ll see how that goes."
Patriots have an issue at punter: Not sure what's going on with him, but rookie Bryce Baringer is in a slump. All three of his punts today had a hangtime of under 4 seconds (3.56 average) and he looks to be double-catching the ball. Corliss Waitman only had one under 4 and averaged 4.34.
TAKING ATTENDANCE
Physically unable to perform list: OG Mike Onwenu, ST Cody Davis, DE Trey Flowers
Non-football injury list: OT Calvin Anderson.
Red non-contact jerseys: OG Bill Murray.
Returned to practice: None.
Full participant: None.
Out: TE Mike Gesicki (right arm/shoulder), RB Ty Montgomery. CB Jon Jones, DE Ronnie Perkins, RB Pierre Strong, G/C Kody Russey (left leg), LG Cole Strange (left knee).
Limited: None.
New injuries: OT Conor McDermott left practice.
Packers not taking part:
LT David Bakhtiari
CB Eric Stokes
LB De’Vondre Campbell
WR Bo Melton
LB Tariq Carpenter
RB Lew Nichols
CB Corey Ballentine
S Innis Gaines
RB Tyler Goodson
OT Caleb Jones
OT Luke Tenuta
TE Tyler Davis
DL Kenny Clark
DRESS CODE
Full pads.
LENGTH OF PRACTICE
2:30 under sunny skies.
QB STATS
Mac Jones: 14 of 19, TD, 3 sacks, drop, hold
Bailey Zappe: 15 of 19, 8 sacks
HANDS
Fumble: None
Drop: Hunter Henry (didn't get feet down), Juju Smith-Schuster.
INT: Josh Uche maybe (it was tough to see)
TDs: DeVante Parker
Sacks: Judon, Bentley.
SHANK IT OFF
Nick Folk was 4 of 5 (miss 43)
Chad Ryland was 4 of 6 (miss 43 and 37)
TOP PLAYS
- None that was really all that notable for the Patriots, especially the offense.
TWO UP
WR Kayshon Boutte: Caught four passes very early and then basically disappeared. Not sure what happened but he was a real factor early.
RB Rhamondre Stevenson: He appeared to have a nice day running the ball. I thought the running game functioned well today.
THREE DOWN
Secondary: They certainly made a few plays, but Christian Gonzalez, Jack Jones and Marcus Jones gave up more plays than they did. The play at free safety didn't help. They have some things to sort out.
OG Atonio Mafi: Allowed a few sacks and committed a false start penalty that had Belichick asking for another guard.
Backup offensive line: In this practice, the 1s played the 1s and the 2s played the 2s. The starting offensive line for the Patriots was OK, but the backup line was a trainwreck with sacks and mental errors.
QUICK HITS
- Malik Cunningham took 4 snaps at QB. Don't think he threw a pass. Trace McSorley took zero snaps.
- No one-on-one drills today.
- Belichick had the Patriots redo a running clock/field situation. Don't think he loved Mac Jones attempting to throw to Kendrick Bourne (slipped) because if he didn't get out of bounds, the clock would have run out.
- Starting line: Trent Brown, Atonio Mafi, David Andrews, Riley Reiff, Sidy Sow. Second: Andrew Stueber, Chasen Hines, James Ferentz, Jake Andrews, Conor McDermott.
SCHEDULE
Thursday: 10:30 a.m. CT, joint practice with Packers
Friday: OFF
Saturday: Patriots at Packers, 8 p.m.