The Patriots ended up beating the Bengals on Sunday, 26-20, and it wasn't easy in the end. But let's be honest, the Patriots would have blown out Cincy, as they should have, if two things happened:
a) Drake Maye didn't get off to a slow start where he couldn't hit water if he fell out of boat (a no-look pass to TreVeyon Henderson, really?), and throw a pick-6 when he sailed a wide-open Hunter Henry;
b) the Patriots' offense scored more than three points in two goal-to-go situations where they ran 12 plays (one penalty) inside the Bengals' 6-yard line, and burned two timeouts.
I'm not really worried about Maye. His rhythm obviously got thrown off with the long weekend off after Thursday Night Football, and he wasn't quite ready to go. He's very young. He'll learn and adjust. He always does. Better to learn lessons in wins than the alternative. Maye ended up playing fine for the balance of the game after the very slow start.
But the goal-to-go failures were alarming, and nearly cost New England this layup game, considering Joe Flacco's horrible pick-6 to Marcus Jones even things out.
So I had to go back to the TV copy of the game to figure out what the heck happened.
We'll provide video analysis of the two sequences below, but we'll start with the Patriots entering the game as a slightly below-average unit (21st, 70.7%):
After today, they now stand 26th:
So what happened?
"What happened? We didn’t score any," Mike Vrabel said. "You have to score, whoever you call. It’ll be a good learning opportunity for us in a lot of phases. It shows just how important and how critical the week of practice is and being ready to go because you never know when your opportunity is going to come. You need to make sure that everybody’s on the same page. And there were a lot of moving parts today."
Well, we'll break it down play by play, but basically it was the Bengals throwing some wrenches into things, poor execution by the Patriots, and the Patriots just not being physical enough up front.
Let's go through it:
1-5-CIN 5 (11:16) (Shotgun) D.Maye pass incomplete short left.
I'm willing to venture this was a designed run for Drake Maye around left end (no one outside Mack Hollins runs a route, and I think he was going to block the safety). A couple things turned this into a throwaway from Maye. One thing the Bengals did well in this game that gave the Patriots issues was late movement near the line of scrimmage, after the Patriots had set their protection/blocking. On this play, LB Demetrius Knight went from stacked backer to on the edge very late. Kayshon Boutte was supposed to block him, but the late movement confused Boutte, and he ended up not blocking anyone. If he had found a way to chip Knight (I think he could have), then Hunter Henry would have been free to be Maye's lead blocker. Maye may have scored. None of that happened.
2-5-CIN 5 (11:11) D.Maye pass short left to T.Henderson to CIN 1 for 4 yards (B.Carter).
Josh McDaniels called a couple of bells and whistles (fake end around to Demario Douglas, fake toss to TreVeyon Henderson) to move the Bengals' secondary (mostly practice squad cornerback Jalen Davis) to create an opening to Boutte on a slant. No one bit, so Maye wisely chose the checkdown to Henderson for 4 yards.
Timeout #1 by NE at 10:23.
There was a lot of late Bengals movement, which caused the Patriots to burn their first timeout. More late Bengals movement. I think the Patriots were going to run here, but then Cincy stacked the interior line.
3-1-CIN 1 (10:23) (Shotgun) V.Lowe reported in as eligible. D.Maye pass incomplete short middle to H.Henry (J.Giles-Harris).
Maye got stepped on by Mike Onwenu, which threw off his timing. But it sure looked like Maye was late twice to Henry, initially to the flag, and then after LB Joe Giles-Harris slipped. I thought this should have been a TD and will be interested in the all-22.
4-1-CIN 1 (10:18) D.Maye pass incomplete short left to K.Boutte. PENALTY on CIN-D.Hill, Defensive Pass Interference, 0 yards, enforced at CIN 1 - No Play.
Patriots get another fresh set of downs.
1-1-CIN 1 (10:15) V.Lowe reported in as eligible. T.Jennings left guard to CIN 1 for no gain (B.Carter; D.Knight).
Basically, everyone but Ben Brown and Vederian Lowe missed their blocks. Garrett Bradbury and Mike Onwenu were absolutely blown off the ball. Will Campbell slipped through the line, didn't block anyone, and watched the end of the run from the endzone.
You have to be able to run the ball in from the 1-yard line if you want to be a physical football team. The Patriots' line is more finesse than power. Have to be better.
2-1-CIN 1 (9:29) D.Maye pass short left to H.Henry for 1 yard, TOUCHDOWN NULLIFIED by Penalty. PENALTY on NE-M.Hollins, Offensive Pass Interference, 10 yards, enforced at CIN 1 - No Play.
Hollins has to find a way to make this pick play look less obvious. Didn't even need to pick him. Now they're back to the 11-yard line.
2-11-CIN 11 (9:25) (Shotgun) D.Maye pass short middle to H.Henry to CIN 1 for 10 yards (B.Carter; D.Knight).
Nifty little shovel pass to Henry that nearly goes for a score. Onwenu didn't block anyone again.
Timeout #2 by NE at 08:40.
There's all sorts of confusion on who's in the game and not in the game. Mike Vrabel has to call his second timeout. Can't have these issues in crucial situations.
3-1-CIN 1 (8:40) R.Stevenson right guard to CIN 1 for no gain (G.Stone; J.Battle).
I think this play is here, the blocking is solid, but FB Jack Westover does not block the first man in the hole (Geno Stone), who takes down Stevenson immediately. Poor execution. Should have been a touchdown.
4-1-CIN 1 (7:54) (Shotgun) R.Stevenson left guard to CIN 1 for no gain (M.Murphy; J.Ossai)
This was a straight-up RPO for Maye and, thanks to more late Cincy movement, both ends come in free. In my opinion, this was a bad "give" read by Maye to Stevenson. He should be reading end Josph Ossai, who crashes hard. If the end crashes, Maye should keep and go around right end where Hollins and Henry are blocking/receiving options. Poor read by Maye.
Here we go again:
1-4-CIN 4 (7:32) D.Maye pass incomplete short right to A.Hooper.
Maye checks this play at the line, so it was likely a run call that Maye checked to a play-action pass. Again, late movement by the Bengals causes Dax Hill to come free off the edge as the unaccounted-for rusher. That means Hill is Maye's responsibility (Hill sacked Maye earlier on a similar play). This time, Maye is well aware of Hill to the point that he almost turns around to see if he's coming (I've never seen that before). I can't, for the life of me, understand why Stevenson doesn't even look in Hill's direction to possibly peel off and block him. In any event, I don't think Maye was going to have much as Boutte, the primary receiver, stumbles off the line.
2-4-CIN 4 (7:29) (Shotgun) T.Henderson left guard to CIN 1 for 3 yards (D.Hill; G.Stone).
This is actually a well-blocked run with Westover, Henry and Hooper all lined up together on the left side of the line and blocking down, and Henderson shows good patience in nearly scoring.
3-1-CIN 1 (6:49) D.Maye up the middle to CIN 1 for no gain (B.Carter).
If you've watched any Eagles games, you know low men win when it comes to the Tush Push because they take the legs out from under the linemen. Here, both Brown and Onwenu are too high and lose, giving Maye little room to power ahead. Need to be better.
4-1-CIN 1 (5:58) A.Borregales 19-yard field goal is GOOD, Center-J.Ashby, Holder-B.Baringer.
At this point, Vrabel had no choice but to take the field goal and go up by 10 points.
But, man, it shouldn't have been that close. Patriots will need to look at what the Bengals did late in the town with late movement, and make some adjustments. But, really, their execution needs to be a lot better, and they need to find a way to be physically tougher in these spots. A real fullback might help as well.
