An unconventional review of the first half of the Patriots season
Welcome to the Unconventional Review, which comes in lieu of the Unconventional Preview during the Patriots’ bye week when, as you might have noticed, there is no game to preview.
With the Patriots taking a 6-2 record into what amounts to a brief but welcome midseason hiatus for the players, it’s an ideal opportunity for us to step back, take a breath from this crazy-eventful season, and look back at the good, the bad, the predictable and the unexpected so far.
No need to kick it off, Gostkowski. We’ve got this. Even kickers get a break this week. On to the Unconventional Review:
Three players we’re talking about other than Tom Brady
Brian Hoyer: All right, no one is actually talking about Brian Hoyer. They’re talking about the guy he essentially did a job-swap with this week.
You know him as San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, which sounds weird in my head even as I type it out. For 3½ seasons — and especially since his stellar game-and-a-half performance in 2016 when Tom Brady was suspended and Jerry Jones was sure Roger Goodell would be his puppet for life — he was best known as Tom Brady’s Eventual Successor Jimmy Garoppolo.
The Patriots looked like they had found a player who was capable of at least competently following the most irreplaceable player in . . . well, probably in all of sports. Brady is the greatest quarterback of all time, probably the greatest football player of all time, and at age 40 he’s still playing at a level that even the best NFL quarterbacks rarely achieve for more than a fleeting moment or two.
You don’t have to be a Browns fan (though it helps) to recognize that a capable quarterback is challenging to find. The sample size was small, but the Patriots appeared to have found another one.
And now he’s a Niner, for a second-round pick. It still seems so strange. Belichick’s trade at the deadline last year of linebacker Jamie Collins was surprising. This was beyond that. It was jarring. It’s not just that he was traded, but that he was traded for so much less than what the presumed return would be, and that the deal left the Patriots with a risky backup situation to Brady in the short term.
I understand Belichick’s reasoning as he explained why the Patriots made the trade now. They weren’t going to pay both Brady and Garoppolo, a restricted free agent at season’s end, and it sure sounded like Belichick was aware Garoppolo wanted to play sooner rather than later. There would be no discounts to remain a Patriot. So he traded him for something while he could get something.
It’s also apparent Belichick liked Garoppolo a lot, believes in him, and was pained to trade him. But the day he lets sentiment get in the way of what he believes to be smart business is the day he deviates from what has made him the most successful coach in modern NFL history. It’s a drag to see Garoppolo go, though. During his brief action with the Patriots, he looked like he was going to be a good one. But the great one stood in the way, and now we’ll have to find out for sure from afar.
Johnson Bademosi: If Stephon Gilmore — who went from Chris Canty-like disaster to Mike Evans-stopper to injured in his first official month as a Patriot — is the most enigmatic and disappointing player from the first half, then Bademosi, his de facto replacement for the time being, has to be the most pleasant surprise.
The 27-year-old, acquired from the Seahawks at the end of training camp for a seventh-round pick, has spent six years in the NFL, the first four with the hapless Browns. He never started a game until last season, when he got three in 16 games with the Lions.
When the Patriots acquired him, he looked to be the definition of a journeyman. Instead, he’s been a godsend.
In the absence of Gilmore (out since the Bucs game with a concussion) and third corner Eric Rowe (limited to one game so far with a hamstring injury), Bademosi has been . . . well, not necessarily a revelation, but certainly more than competent as Malcolm Butler’s opposite in the defensive backfield. He is by all accounts an extremely studious player, but getting the homework done doesn’t always mean tests will be passed on the field. It is to Bademosi’s immense credit that he has aced his tests so far, and just when the Patriots needed him to most.
Kyle Van Noy: When Belichick acquired the former second-round pick from the Lions at last year’s trade deadline for nothing more than a late-round pick swap, I think we all figured Van Noy would be a core member of the defense a year later, right? But that’s how it has played out. Per pro-football-reference, the versatile 26-year-old has played the third-highest percentage of snaps on the defense (95.83 percent), trailing only defensive backs Devin McCourty and Malcolm Butler.
Van Noy was such a savvy acquisition that it was almost a disappointment that Belichick couldn’t pull off another move for an undervalued linebacker at this year’s deadline, especially in the aftermath of losing Dont’a Hightower for the season.
Grievance of the week
A grievance? On a bye week? Yup. Grievances do not take a bye, my friend. Grievances work every weekend, so they can complain about working every weekend. It’s a vicious cycle, really.
My grievance this week is about the kicker. Not about the performance of Stephen Gostkowski, even though he missed two of his five field goal attempts (both misses came from 43 yards) in the tight win over the Chargers Sunday. My complaint is about the complaints about Gostkowski.
I realize there’s this subsection of Patriots fans who have forgotten what an incompetent coach or a mediocre quarterback looks like, even though Foxborough was a temporary home to plenty of both before Drew Bledsoe and Bill Parcells showed up 24 years ago. But I’m starting to think fans have forgotten what a lousy kicker looks like, too.
Stephen Gostkowski missed two field goal attempts Sunday against the Chargers.
Save for a Shayne Graham eight-game cameo in 2010 when Gostkowski was injured, the Patriots have had two kickers since 1996. Gostkowski and Adam Vinatieri. The former is the leading scorer in Patriots history. The latter is the second-leading scorer in Patriots history and the greatest kicker in NFL history. The Patriots have been nearly as fortunate at this position as they have been at quarterback over the last generation. And yet any time Gostkowski misses a kick, there is chirping that maybe it’s time to move on.
It’s silly. It’s not just that he is an absolute master at placing kickoffs in a spot where the opposing returnman has to make a tough decision. He’s still one of the better field-goal kickers in the league. Gostkowski’s two misses Sunday gave him a total of three missed field goals this year, all from between 40-49 yards. He has the most attempts (23) and the second-most makes (20) in the league. There are 15 teams whose kickers have missed three or more field goals this year, all with fewer attempts than he has.
Yeah, he had a tough Sunday, by his standards. But he’s had a good year by any standards — except, too often, the standards of some perfection-demanding Patriots fans.
Prediction for second half, or is this team capable of winning a third Super Bowl in four years?
I recognize it’s probably not good form at this point to yowl about the injuries the Patriots have endured.
It’s been a brutal season all around the league in terms of keeping star power on the field. The Packers lost Aaron Rodgers. The Giants lost Odell Beckham Jr. The Texans lost JJ Watt and apparently — and awfully —DeShaun Watson, who suffered a torn ligament in his knee in practice Thursday, thus going from the best story in the league this year to the biggest collective bummer for NFL fans who appreciate dazzling performers no matter their rooting interest.
There are teams — contenders, even — that are worse off than the Patriots. I’ve always wanted to see Rodgers and Brady go dart-for-dart in a Super Bowl. What a show that would be. Unless Rodgers found some miracle repair elixir for a busted collarbone, it’s not happening this year.
Given all of the brutal high-profile attrition around the league this year, I suppose Patriots fans should feel grateful that Brady hasn’t been taken down for more than the time it takes to gather his bearings after enduring a sack. He’s taken some shots this season, and he’s still ticking. Perhaps karma is actually a believer in the TB12 Method.
But it is also fair to say that they have endured some painful injuries and attrition to their roster, and it’s had an effect. We know the offense has been fine. It leads the NFL in total yards per game (411.1) and rank seventh in points (27 per game). We also know it would be even better had Julian Edelman not been lost for the season with a knee injury before a meaningful snap had occurred.
And while the defense is playing well after a dismal and disorganized start, allowing just 51 total points over the last four games, the absence of brains-and-brawn linebacker Dont’a Hightower has to have some effect one of these weekends.
They have taken some hits, which is the cruel and unavoidable reality of the NFL. No franchise in the NFL — perhaps in the history of sports — has done a better job of filling the void left by core players and still succeeding at a high level than the Belichick-era Patriots.
But there is always a tipping point. Always. And I think we’ve seen enough of this team to have a sense for what it is. It goes without saying that if Brady goes down, the championship hopes go with him. (If you were wondering, and I doubt you were, Brian Hoyer’s career record as a starter is 16-21, but 1-10 over the past two seasons.)
There are others who, if they’re not outright essential to the team’s continued success this season, they’re awfully close. Rob Gronkowski, the ultimate security blanket, must stay healthy. So too must Devin McCourty. Malcolm Butler and Trey Flowers have skill-sets that are not in abundance among their teammates.
Despite the bewildering start to this season, the Patriots have settled matters down to the point that they have as good of a chance as any AFC East team to be playing in Minnesota come February. Given their experience and pedigree — heck, given the singular brilliance of their coach/quarterback combo – they probably have a better chance of getting to the Super Bowl than any would-be conference foe.
But will they get there? And will they win if they do? The answers come after the bye week. But you know how it works. Give me the names of the Patriots who will be in uniform during those January games. And give me the names of the Patriots whose seasons have been abbreviated along the way by the sport’s arbitrary brutality. If somehow that second list can be kept to a minimum, I like their chances. In the meantime, we’ll spend our Sundays the way we usually do. Watching an excellent football team, and waiting to exhale every time a Patriot is slow to get up.
