Settling into week two of the "Mike's Musings" column. It will appear here every week during the season, and I will have my final say on the previous week's game and any other burning thoughts I have that will surely change everything for everybody.
1. The offensive line wasn't as good as you think. A lot of chest pounding after the win in Cincinnati, including from the head coach. "I think the whole offensive line conversation has been overblown," said Jerod Mayo Monday morning. "Every game - every preseason game - those guys have done a good job moving bodies and establishing toughness on the line of scrimmage. They did that yesterday. I'm not really too concerned with the offensive line. Those guys are going to get better every week."
I won't quibble with the last part. The Pats are four months into a new offensive system, with a whole new cast of characters on the coaching staff and at least two new pieces starting up front. There was a level of physicality that was impressive to watch in the run game, but you've all seen the numbers by now. Rhamondre Stevenson had 118 of his 120 yards after first contact. Some of that contact is inevitable. Not every running play has every defender accounted for, and Stevenson made it a habit Sunday of running through defensive backs and their arm tackles, as he should. But my second watch of the game (via the all 22) revealed 10 runs of the 32 runs (Antonio Gibson included) with the ball carrier encountering that contact behind the line of scrimmage, as opposed to just six that I deemed clean (meaning he got past the LOS without contact). That feels unsustainable, and I'm someone who agrees that Stevenson is a top-10ish back.
For those who worship at the altar of PFF (you know how I feel about this), the Pats were the 25th-rated run-blocking group of week one, miles behind Divisional foes Miami (2nd) and Buffalo (15th).
2. You're not winning many football games with 121 yards passing. In recent history, teams were 6-21 when passing for that number or less. So it might be a one-off or two, but don't get married to the idea. Bedard had this as one of the highest-rated QB games he's charted since 2021, and I concur that nine-year pro Jacoby Brissett was an effective game manager. As I wrote post-game, he only put two throws in harm's way (buy Hunter Henry a coffee if you see him at your local Dunkin. That was a massive play in the end zone to separate the defender from the ball).
But Brissett frequently threw before the sticks on third down. He was ineffective on play action (26 yards on five attempts) partly because he refused to look down the field and partly because the offensive line didn't protect well either (Bedard had 'em at a 51.7% pressure rate, I was at 48%. That's brutal). And while he looked downright spry on a few of those third-down scramble conversions, Brissett looked clunky on bootlegs. This offense is predicated on making the runs look like passes, and the passes look like runs. He will have to do a better job of making teams pay when they inevitably stack the box to take away/limit the run game.
3. Apologies to Alex Van Pelt. I had him as one of my downs in the game's immediate aftermath. I still didn't like how often he went into a shell, playing ultra-conservative, but I also thought the offensive line was better at first blush than it was upon the rewatch. In addition, his usage of Caedan Wallace as the jumbo tight end (reminiscent of how the Pats deployed Nate Solder in his rookie season) was effective, and he listened to Stevenson's desire to run downhill and ditch the wide-zone stuff. That is something that Matt Patricia/Bill Belichick would have cursed him out over. It's the little things, people.
For AVP's next trick, he needs to find more opportunities for Pop Douglas. Two targets aren't enough for the speedy slot.
4. Play the kid. No, not that one (Drake Maye). The other one (Ja'Lynn Polk). He was open. A bunch. And had Brissett not been focused on the rush, Polk could have had a touchdown just before the half. He shook the hell out of the corner, and that would have been a layup, but Brissett ended up eating the ball and taking a sack. As I've written (and said) many times, I favor Polk getting more snaps. K.J. Osborn (39) had four more than the rookie (and a team-high six targets). I'd like to see that number flip in week two and grow from there, assuming the savvy youngster continues to improve.
As an aside, there was some poor route spacing. I counted a handful of plays where two (and one time, three) receivers were within a few yards of each other. No way was that how the play was drawn up, and if it was, burn that page of the playbook.
5. Intriguing use of Jaylinn Hawkins. Defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington utilized three-safety nickel 31% of the time. I expected Hawkins to be deployed in the deeper zones, but instead, Covington had the former Falcon come into the box and cover tight ends. Bravo.
Jabril Peppers was better in coverage last year than I expected, and we know Kyle Dugger's strengths and weaknesses at this point, so to be able to have Hawkins essentially man-up pass catchers and allow the two big hitters to keep play in front of them and then drive on throws gets a chef's kiss from me. Curious to know if the hip injury Peppers suffered late in the week led to this deployment or if this was the plan all along.
6. Star shadower? In this weekend's edition of my notebook, I wrote about Christian Gonzalez already being the guy who asks the coaches to cover the best player. Well, Covington wasn't afraid to take the second-year corner up on the offer. He stalked Ja'Marr Chase on 20 of his 28 snaps, but here's a plot twist. It wasn't always to play man, even on times when Gonzalez followed Chase when he went in motion. Sometimes, Gonzalez retreated to cover the middle of the field, and on other occasions, became the safety in cover two. Diabolical but also a hat tip to the inexperienced pro, who had no problem handling the mental gymnastics. Again, Gonzalez has all the tools. He's just got to add durability to his list of assets.
