New England Patriots

Patriots Report Card: Week 12 vs. Detroit

By Jeremy Gottlieb

8 minutes to read

The Patriots played a game on Sunday. They won. Again. And the sun set in the west.

Yep, the NFC North-leading Detroit Lions invaded Foxborough on Sunday with their No. 1 ranked defense in tow and got spanked 34-9, becoming the latest big gun to be brought down a peg or two by the surging Pats. Tom Brady threw for 349 yards and a couple of touchdowns and the defense once again proved to be one of the best units in the league, holding Detroit quarterback Matthew Stafford to a woeful 39.1 percent completion rate while keeping the Lions out of the end zone and rendering star receivers Calvin Johnson and Golden Tate mostly irrelevant.

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The Pats have won seven in a row, five by 20-plus points and the last four by an aggregate score of 170-73. They are a wagon, careening toward a potential season-defining game against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. We’ll see if that road trip slows them down but for now, let’s get into this week’s report card, now 100 percent more Blounted than ever before.

OVERALL GRADE: A-OFFENSE

– Yet another glaring reminder here that the Pats are game plan specific on offense. One week they’ll steamroll you on the ground, the next they’ll bench the guy who ran for 200 yards and spread you out as Brady hucks 53 passes. The only thing that doesn’t change is the end result, even against the top ranked defense in the NFL.

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The Pats played fast, presumably to both avoid Detroit’s fearsome defensive line and take advantage of certain matchups in the secondary. And after a couple of three-and-outs, they got rolling nicely, using short quick passes to Brandon LaFell and Julian Edelman (11 catches, more uncanny ability to get the crap kicked out of him then bounce right back up) interspersed with the occasional draw or delay by Shane Vereen. Brady to LaFell on first down (usually via play action) has become a mainstay in the Pats’ offense which is why LaFell is now one catch and three yards from setting new career highs in both categories with five game left to play. And Edelman is so clearly over the yips he had a few weeks ago, he’s now even catching passes off his head.

As for Gronk, it was a bit of a quieter day despite the five catches and 78 yards. Still, his mere presence allowed Tim Wright to waltz into the end zone without a glance from anyone wearing a Lions’ jersey not once but twice (there was literally no one within five yards of him on the second).

Wright played three times as many snaps as in any other game this season and added three more catches including an athletic, leaping grab for 16 yards. Everyone benefits from Gronk’s dominance and Wright showed that he can do so in other areas of the field besides just the red zone. And again, Gronk was aided by a clueless opposing coaching staff, typified by his running free down the middle of the field for back-to-back catches as the Pats ran hurry-up to grab a field goal at the end of the first half. Hard to say what’s more unbelievable, Gronk himself or how dumb everyone else is when it comes to trying to defend him.

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The most impressive part of the Pats’ offensive machine in this game, though, was probably the line, which extended its streak of keeping Brady upright to two full games and handled Ndamukong Suh and DeAndre Levy better than most any other O-lines have all year. And in addition to holding up for Brady, the dudes up front were instrumental in prodigal son LeGarrette Blount scoring a couple touchdowns and rolling to a 33-yard run in the fourth quarter of his triumphant return to Foxborough. Plenty of players on both sides of the ball have stepped up for the Pats during this run, but you could easily make the argument that none have been as important to the offense and its ability to operate with Brady at his most functional as Ryan Wendell.

Of course, Wendell is not as visible as Gronk or any of the receivers. But he and Bryan Stork got the call late in the Kansas City catastrophe and the Pats have run roughshod ever since. So hoist one up for those two and Dan Connolly and Sebastian Vollmer and Nate Solder (both of whom were excellent yet again as well in this game). This rampage across the NFL landscape wouldn’t be possible without them. GRADE: B+

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DEFENSE – Let’s start by aiming the spotlight on the defensive line and linebacking corps, both of which have proven to be almost as impressive as the defensive backs during the winning streak. The Lions are weak across the offensive line and when they lost starting left tackle Riley Reiff to a knee injury early in the game, it only got weaker. The stat sheet says that Lions’ quarterback Matthew Stafford was only sacked twice (a third by Rob Ninkovich was wiped out by an illegal contact penalty) and hit six times but the Pats did a great job of getting pressure in his face on a consistent basis all day.

Akeem Ayers, in particular, stood out in terms of aggressively bringing pressure from the edge and getting a sack, two hits, and two more hurries on Stafford. Ninkovich was typically excellent without necessarily being too flashy, getting credit for one sack (should have been two save for that penalty on Jamie Collins) while also having both the strength and wits to execute multiple assignments on the same play, from chipping a tight end or back at the line of scrimmage to falling back in coverage and/or making a tackle. And up front, where Vince Wilfork was doing his usual thing, the massive Alan Branch, playing by far his most snaps since arriving, proved just the right kind of counterpart to Big Vince. He consistently got push up the middle and was an anchor in holding the Lions’ feature back, Joique Bell, to 2.5 yards per rushing attempt.

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Then there’s Dont’a Hightower, who has become the most integral part of this entire defense not named Revis over the course of the past month. He’s still not the best cover guy, but with the way the Pats are presently constituted, he doesn’t have to do that. He seems to always know where to be whether he’s rushing the passer or staying in run support or hanging back just reading and reacting. With the exception of the Thursday night tractor pull against the Jets, I’ve barely noticed Jerod Mayo’s absence. Hightower completely coming into his own after a rocky first couple of NFL years is why.

As for the secondary, of course, Revis is the best cornerback in the league and shows it every week (again, one pass completed out of 10 in his neighborhood, four pass breakups, perfect recognition, economy of movement and ball skills). And of course, Brandon Browner is edgy and physical and wants to kick everyone’s ass and that’s rubbed off on the whole group.

But everyone else’s job on defense becomes incredibly easier because those two guys are so good at doing theirs.

The only conclusion, again, is that this is as good and as complete a defense as this team has had since it was winning titles. Can’t wait to see what they come up with for the Packers on Sunday.

GRADE: ASPECIAL TEAMS/COACHING

– Special teams turned this game in favor of the Pats pretty early and they were exceptional in that phase all day. Following the second straight three-and-out and pinned back at his own 14, Ryan Allen unleashed a contestant for Punt of the Year, a soaring boomer that registered 66 yards, but felt like it was in the air for about five minutes. The kick chased Lions’ return man Jeremy Ross back to his own 20 where he was buried by Matthew Slater and Nate Ebner. The Pats were able to flip the field thanks to that punt, then got going on offense the next time they possessed the ball.

It got better when Danny Amendola ran a kickoff back 81 yards after the Lions cut the Pats’ lead to 7-6, with Ebner showing up big again. The punt return team would have achieved the trifecta in the third quarter when Edelman ran one back for a rather spectacular touchdown, but Chung got popped for an illegal block. Oh well. It doesn’t change the fact that the Patriots are capable of using their outstanding special teams to such a great advantage so frequently.

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As far as the coaching is concerned, this was a mismatch on the level of Patriots/Bears in Super Bowl XX. Lions’ coach Jim Caldwell, as animated and in command as a fire hydrant, presides over the most fraudulent first place team in the history of first place teams (tellingly, they Lions were knocked out of first place in the NFC North with this loss combined with the Packers’ win).

Detroit was unprepared, undisciplined, weak and soft situationally, showed no ability to adjust on the fly and openly didn’t try on some occasions, which FOX commentator Troy Aikman pointed out on Edelman’s disallowed punt return. It’s the same team that has embarrassed itself and its fans for years – only with less penalties. Any doubting that and/or real belief that Caldwell has changed anything culture-wise had to have gone out the window the minute center Dominic Raiola started trying to beat up and injure rookie Zach Moore at the end of the game. Bill Belichick put it best when discussing that guy.

Belichick and staff had the Pats ready to eliminate the opponent’s most dangerous weapons. The best that the NFL has to offer has gotten a crack at the Pats over the past month, and are losing by 20 or more points every week. This stretch of the schedule that was supposed to potentially break the Pats has only made them stronger week after week.

Yep. That pretty much sums it up. And the victory tour rolls on. GRADES: SPECIAL TEAMS: A, COACHING: A

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