A year ago, Mike’s Musings was a happy, safe space for those who think everything is awesome because, let’s face it, it pretty much was. The Patriots won 16 out of 17, retaking the AFC East crown, then the conference title, earning a spot in the Super Bowl. That night in San Fran went sideways, but after a productive offseason, optimism abounded.
After week one’s loss in Seattle, there are still plenty of reasons to be hopeful - a 10-0 lead in that environment is definitely noteworthy - but the negatives outweighed the positives, as reflected below.
During and certainly after, there's been a ton of bitching and moaning about the offensive playcalling and stubbornness in the running game. I have no problem quibbling with some of the actual plays Josh McDaniels called in-game, but as I wrote yesterday, the philosophy starts and ends with Mike Vrabel. He wanted to protect his line and his quarterback by, as he said Monday, not turning this into a straight drop-back game. Vrabel is on the headset and can, and will, say ‘run,’ ‘pass,’ ‘what the hell are you thinking?’
He also sent mixed messages about how he played the end of the half, okaying the draw call to Rhamondre Stevenson on 3rd down, punting in plus territory, then calling two timeouts to try to get the ball back, or so it seemed. For some reason, he decided to heck with it, kept the final timeout in his back pocket, and went into halftime. We asked him about it Monday, but the answer was non-illuminating.
“Yeah, just wanted to get into the locker room and go from there and regroup.”
Thank you?
I’ve already devoted a bunch of words to Drake Maye’s performance, but what I found concerning in my rewatch was a) how bad his mechanics were and b) his inability or unwillingness to go through his progressions. The former showed up countless times and hurt his velocity; he ripped a handful of throws, but mostly he morphed into third-year Mac Jones (not a compliment). As for the latter, look no further than the second interception. Maye never even considered the possibility that Julian Love could and would enter the picture. In fact, based on the all-22, I don’t think he ever identified where he was and what someone that smart could do. McDaniels and QB Ashton Grant have work to do over the next 10 days. While I'm on that 2nd INT, pretty sure Pop Douglas was supposed to bend that route more to the middle of the field and didn't, a continuation of a career-long theme with him of not always being where he's supposed to be.
Let’s hope that Wednesday night was Alijah Vera-Tucker