5 takeaways from the Patriots’ 33-7 win over Washington
Tom Brady threw 31 times in the first half, and Sony Michel came alive in the second.
COMMENTARY
Five takeaways from the Patriots’ 33-7 rout of the Redskins, as Bill Belichick’s team moves to 5-0 …
BRADY AND MICHEL BOTH RESPOND
Through two quarters on Sunday, Tom Brady had attempted 31 passes, and the offense had executed 41 plays — yet all that opportunity had yielded just 12 points, and three of those came after a Jason McCourty interception set up the Patriots offense with the ball at the Redskins’ 11.
Collectively the attack was averaging fewer than five yards per play, and efficiency appeared to be an issue, but after intermission the Pats came out and turned to their running game in an effort to reap the benefits of playing the first half at such a break-neck pace.
New England opened up after halftime with five rushing attempts on the first six plays, and added a couple of well-executed passes to running backs to put together a crisp 75-yard drive. On the next possession, Sony Michel broke off a 25-yard run over left tackle, then capped an 88-yard, six-play march with 14-yard scoring surge.
Just like that a tight, tense game had turned into a laugher, and the Patriots inconsistent offense had suddenly begun to look like the machine it was envisioned to be — with the ground game and the greatest quarterback in the history of the sport feeding off each other to leap their opponents feeling helpless and looking hapless.
After the half, Michel carried the ball 12 times for 81 yards (finishing with 91 yards on the day). Brady threw it only 11 times, but he hit on nine passes for 142 yards and two scores. Even with Jarrett Stidham leading the backups for the final two series, New England gained 244 yards on 31 snaps in the second half, increasing their per-play average from 4.9 to 7.9 from the first half to the second.
After one of the worst games of his career, and another red-zone interception that wasted primo field position earlier Sunday, Brady looked like Brady again en route to a 106.1 passer rating. And it’s no surprise that return to form coincided with the rise of the running game. Just ask Josh Gordon.
“The games easier when you can run the ball,” the receiver said afterward. “The routes seem easier. Everybody’s less tired. Morale’s high. We’re just happy and excited. O-line is pushing down field, running backs are running hard. It’s good, old-fashioned football.”
A FEW OFFENSIVE WRINKLES
Between taking a 30-0 lead on the Jets in Week 3 and kicking off Week 5 on Sunday, the Patriots had 16 possessions (not including kneeldowns). Of those, 12 finished with a punt, and two others with an interception. Thirteen of those series sustained success long enough to last longer than five plays.
Trending in the wrong direction quickly, something needed to change. And Josh McDaniels acknowledged as much with a few strategic shifts early. The Pats threw the ball to Sony Michel twice in the first quarter, tripling his season total in the first seven minutes of action, and infinitely diversifying what had become his predictable usage.
They threw to Matt LaCosse on the first play of the game, then LaCosse and Ryan Izzo both had big catches on the team’s first touchdown drive after New England’s tight ends had been targeted just once, combined, in the two previous games.
Eschewing any semblance of balance, the Pats had Tom Brady throw 31 times in the first half — which doesn’t even count the three times he dropped back and was sacked — and they spent the early series operating out of a no-huddle offensive set.
It was nothing outrageously innovative, but when paired with a return to form from Julian Edelman (12th career 100-yard receiving game) the Patriots did manage to move the ball more effectively. Their first four possessions all lasted at least six plays, and in total they produced nine points.
By halftime they had softened up the Redskins enough that the running game was reintroduced, the receivers were able to find room in Washington’s zones, and consecutive touchdown romps put things out of reach. By the early fourth quarter, the Pats had eclipsed more yards from scrimmage than in contest since opening night.
It wasn’t all pretty, and the Pats still look like an offense lacking a go-to option on turning-point types of plays. For proof there, look no further than the fact the Pats converted only three of their first 14 third-down opportunities against what entered as the NFL’s weakest third-down defense, and turned only two of their first five red-zone trips into TDs. One of those deep trips ended with Brady getting picked because desperately lobbed an ill-advised pass into traffic near the goal line. On top of that, the quarterback was also dropped four times, put under duress on a number of other occasions, and lost receiver Phillip Dorsett to a hamstring injury early on.
But compared to the previous five quarters they’d played, Sunday moved things in a positive direction. And for all the grief their offense has been given, the Patriots have now surpassed 30 points in four of their five games — which should be plenty good enough to complement a defense that continues to look like the best in football.
A CONCERNING START
Coming off a tough divisional win at Buffalo, and heading to face a winless Redskins team that was without a clear choice at quarterback into the later half of the week, there wasn’t a lot of excitement and anticipation leading into Sunday afternoon among Patriots fans. Or, it seemed, among the Patriots themselves.
Among the more impressive aspects of the way it has started this season — dating back to the preseason, even — has been the way New England has prepared itself and been ready to play from the start. Sunday in Maryland, though, the clock hadn’t even started to run and already there was a signal that the Pats weren’t ready to go.
To save themselves from having 12 men on the field for the opening play of the game, the Patriots called a timeout before the ball had even been snapped. The first defensive series went OK, but on the first offensive series Brady aired one beyond a wide open Josh Gordon, and ultimately eight plays netted 12 yards. Jake Bailey gave the ball back to the Redskins with a poor punt, and on the second play Steve Sims squirted through the defense for a 65-yard touchdown run.
Runs like that happen from time to time. And considering Sims was the first skill position player to find the end zone against the Patriots’ defense this season, that unit has certainly earned some slack. But it was the nature of Sims’s scamper that was inexcusable, and an indicator that maybe the Pats weren’t quite as into things as they should’ve been.
The initial crease was created by motion mixed with misdirection, but nevertheless the Patriots were in position to cut him down quickly. Both McCourty twins had their arms around him, and at one point the five players closest to Sims and the ball were wearing white — though both Duron Harmon and Jamie Collins basically stopped, as though a tackle was imminent and the play was over. When Sims escaped there was nobody within reach for the final half of the field, and the Patriots trailed for the first time all season.
That slap in the face appeared to wake New England up a bit, as Brady led them right down the field for an answering score, but it wouldn’t last as the Pats slogged its way through a first half more competitive than most — including them, perhaps — had expected.
KICKING GAME REMAINS UNSETTLED
In his first game since taking over the Patriots’ placekicking duties, Mike Nugent picked up where Stephen Gostkowski left off. But that’s not necessarily a good thing.
Nugent’s tenure with the Pats got off to a tenuous start as he pushed his first point-after try wide to the right, repeating the error his predecessor made four time in the first four games of this season. Gostkowski’s failures could be traced to the hip injury that prompted him to be placed on injured reserve last week, and will require surgery, while Nugent’s misfire could easily have been the result of being thrown back into the throes for the first time in a year, and doing it with only a couple days of practice to prepare.
That patience-leaning perspective was lent credence by his next four kicks, which were made field goal tries of 37 and 23 yards, plus two clean extra points. The fifth, however, was more of an adventure, doinking the left upright before careening through, and highlights that at this stage of the season the Pats’ only priority in the kicking game is reliability. More than a guy with a booming leg, they need someone who will regularly make the kicks he’s supposed to. And so if the Pats’ PAT problem continues with Nugent, don’t be surprised if the revolving door brings someone else through at that position.
A REMINDER FROM HIGHTOWER
Plenty of praise has been heaped upon the Patriots’ defense over the early portion of this season, and deservedly so. The secondary hasn’t allowed a touchdown pass yet. With a pick and six sacks at Washington, the unit now has 11 interceptions and 24 sacks through five games this season.
With Kyle Van Noy and Jamie Collins having been such enormous factors in helping to accumulate those impressive totals, those two have dominated talk of the Pats’ linebacking corps — but Sunday afternoon Dont’a Hightower offered a reminder that when he’s healthy and right he takes a backseat to nobody among that group.
Hightower was all over the place Sunday, from start to finish, flying to the ball and disrupting everything the Redskins were trying to establish offensively. He made a team-high eight tackles, five of them solo, and four of them in the backfield. He was credited with 1.5 sacks, hitting the quarterback twice, and he would’ve likely returned an interception for a touchdown if he’d managed to hang on after reading Colt McCoy well enough to step in front of a throw.
The signal caller missed last week’s game at Buffalo with an injury, and had been credited with just a dozen tackles and an assisted sack through the first three weeks. As Van Noy and Collins and others made plays around him, it might’ve been easy to underestimate what he could bring, or the difference his ability as a disruptor could make amid such an elite group. Sunday suggested he’s still an anchor at the middle of it all.
