5 takeaways from the Patriots’ blowout win over the Jaguars
COMMENTARY
FOXBOROUGH — Was there ever any doubt?
The New England Patriots got off to a running start and the Jacksonville Jaguars never came close to slowing them down on the way to an emphatic 51-17 victory for the Patriots.
The Patriots are in full-on scorched-earth mode, dominating everyone in their path in a 2015 season that will now be endlessly compared to 2007. With 40-plus points in two straight games, the Patriots could tie a team record with a third game. That will have to wait until Week 5, as the Patriots are on a bye next week.
Here are some more takeaways from the win.
1. The Patriots offense is unstoppable: You can’t stop the Patriots offense, you can only hope to contain it.
First drive: 5 plays, 64 yards, 1:56 (8-yard touchdown run)
Second drive: 10 plays, 62 yards, 4:23 (46-yard field goal)
Third drive: 14 plays, 78 yards, 5:50 (20-yard field goal)
Fourth drive: 8 plays, 57 yards, 1:29 (1-yard touchdown pass)
Fifth drive: 1 play, 67 yards, 0:47 (1-yard touchdown run)
Sixth drive: 7 plays, 80 yards, 2:57 (13-yard touchdown pass)
Seventh drive: 5 plays, 24 yards, 1:59 (1-yard touchdown run)
Eighth drive: 17 plays, 58 yards, 9:47 (1-yard touchdown run)
They scored on short drives, long drives, quick drives, and time-consuming drives. They scored following turnovers, punts, and kickoffs. It didn’t matter when, where, or how the Patriots had the ball. When they had it, they scored.
The Patriots also had 35 first downs on offense, tying a team record in the process.
Basically, the Patriots could do whatever they wanted on offense. The Jaguars just couldn’t do anything about it.
2. Teams still haven’t learned to cover Rob Gronkowski: It’s not that teams haven’t learned how to cover Rob Gronkowski, they haven’t learned to do it at all. He broke free through the secondary for a 43-yard reception, and once again, the defense decided to forgo the option to cover him.
Of course, as the season wears on, we’ll probably see defenses pay more attention to him than they have over the first three weeks of the season. For now, though, Gronkowski is on a dominant run.
Gronkowski extended his team record of 100-plus yard receiving games to 17 on Sunday, further cementing the fact that the Patriots tight end is the best in the game. We unfortunately did not have the pleasure of a Gronk spike this week, as we have for the first two weeks of the season (the lone pass thrown his way in the end zone fell incomplete), but Gronkowski made his impact felt.
3. The Patriots can rely on their opportunistic defense: Call it opportunistic, call it “bend-don’t-break,’’ but don’t call it lucky. The Patriots relied on their opponent’s mistakes before their shutdown 2014 defense, and it appears they’ll go back to relying on an opportunistic defense after their departure.
The Jaguars’ five first-half drives resulted in punt-punt-field goal-interception-end of half. The Patriots did a great job of taking away the Jaguars’ big plays. In fact, the Jaguars had just three pass plays that gained 20 yards or more, and one of those plays was due to busted coverage.
4. Tom Brady’s 400th touchdown pass: Breaking news: Tom Brady is a legend.
We already knew this, at this point, but he entered some rare air on Sunday by throwing his 400th touchdown pass on a goal-line pass to Danny Amendola in the back of the end zone.
There are only three quarterbacks in NFL history who have thrown more touchdowns than Brady: Peyton Manning (533), Brett Favre (508), and Dan Marino (420). Brady could best Marino’s total by the end of the season, but unless he plays at least three more years, he’s not likely to catch up to the others on the list.
5. Offensive line shuffling continues: Sound familiar?
Once again, the Patriots are still searching for the right combination up front. Shaq Mason, Tre Jackson, Marcus Cannon, Josh Kline, and Sebastian Vollmer all got a turn to play meaningful snaps on the offensive line.
This looks similar to the start of the 2014 season, when the Patriots spent the first four games of the season shuffling their lineup on the offensive line before settling on the lineup that they rode through the rest of the regular season, playoffs, and Super Bowl.
Fortunately for the Patriots, the shuffling doesn’t seem to have the dire consequences that it had last year.
Photos: Patriots throttle Jaguars, 51-17
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