Perry's Report Card: Pats offense close to total failure in loss to Broncos
The Patriots had a rough go of it in a Week 6 loss to the Broncos in Foxboro. Which units were most responsible for the poor showing? Our Phil Perry hands out some tough grades in his latest Report Card.
FOXBORO -- Cam Newton made clear the reality of the situation following Sunday's loss to the Broncos.
"The time off showed," he said. "But ... I have to be better, and I will."
The Patriots only practiced twice between their losses against the Chiefs and Broncos. They dealt with a run of positive COVID tests. They tried to maintain their edge on Webex conference calls.
But they should've been well rested. They should've been prepared from a schematic perspective given they had two weeks to prepare for their opponent. Less than a week ago, there was proof that a team could succeed coming off little practice time when the Titans smacked the Bills in Tennessee.
The Patriots did not make excuses for themselves Sunday, and so we won't either as we dive into this week's edition of the Report Card.
Newton was very clearly out of sync after practicing just once since hitting the COVID reserve list back in Week 4. He came into the game third in the league in passes batted at the line of scrimmage with five. He had two more Sunday, one of which resulted in a pick early in the first quarter. Another pass was deflected at the second level and picked. On three of the four sacks he took -- save for the one that resulted in a fumble -- it seemed he had time to do something else with the football other than eat it. It took over 3.0 seconds for him to be contacted on all three. One of the sacks took over 4.0 seconds for him to be contacted. That's not a world of time in the pocket. But those aren't necessarily jailbreaks either and might indicate that Newton was dealing with some rust.
Newton missed Damiere Byrd deep down the field late, and he missed N'Keal Harry on the final offensive play of the game. Newton did make good throws to Byrd (on a deep comeback), Isaiah Zuber (under pressure) and Ryan Izzo (which resulted in an Izzo fumble). He snuck in a touchdown, scrambled for 38 yards, and he made a nice 16-yard reception. But the way this offense is constructed, with little explosive offensive talent around him, the Patriots need more from him. As he said, he has to be better.
It wasn't a horrible day from this group. Even if the numbers are ugly. James White averaged 2.0 yards per carry on four attempts. Rex Burkhead averaged 2.8 yards per carry on five attempts. Damien Harris checked in with 3.2 yards per attempt on six carries. But there wasn't much in the way of room as the Broncos sold out to stop the run, and the gains they made early on -- before the Patriots needed to take to the air more often as they tried to come from behind -- seemed to include moments where they helped make up for mistakes elsewhere. Harris showed good patience midway through the first quarter on a six-yard gain that did not go the way it was designed. He ran hard early, picking up four yards after contact on his first carry of the game, and he broke a tackle to gain 14 on his lone reception. White, meanwhile, helped bail out Newton twice on one drive, catching a pass thrown low and behind him on a third-down slant early in the game. He then later snagged an awkward shovel pass to help with field position on a third-and-long rep. White ended up as the team's most productive receiver, catching eight passes for a team-high 65 yards.
The Patriots wide receiver group let the club down on Sunday. And that's putting it mildly. Yup, the offensive line is banged up. Yup, Newton looked out of sync. But the offensive line gave Newton enough time often enough. And Newton showed he could be accurate enough when openings presented themselves. The receiver group simply didn't hold up its end of the bargain. They accounted for 13 of 27 targets in the game, yielding six catches for 45 yards for an average of 3.5 yards per target sent their way. That against the 18th-ranked pass defense in football, per Football Outsiders' DVOA metric. Not great.
Julian Edelman still looks like he's hurting, catching just two passes on six targets, one of them for a loss of yardage. Byrd looked fast at times -- as he did when he beat a defender deep in the fourth quarter and was underthrown -- but he appears to be running a limited route tree. And N'Keal Harry's production continues to baffle. He didn't have a catch Sunday on two targets. He has five catches in his last three games for 55 total yards. There was one confusing rep late in the fourth quarter when he was given oodles of cushion at the line of scrimmage and didn't look back to his quarterback to take advantage of it. This grade might've dropped to the "F" range had it not been for Julian Edelman's two fourth-quarter completions as a passer, including one 16-yarder to Newton. Never a good sign when the most dynamic-looking pass-catcher on the team is the quarterback.
Ever so briefly, Ryan Izzo showed flashes. He caught a pass for 12 yards, got hurt, and got right back onto the field. The very next play he saw he caught one for 10. He caught another in the third quarter for 16 yards, and for a split-second you might've said to yourself, "Y'know what? Ryan Izzo is kinda growing on me!" Then he fumbled, which the Broncos eventually turned into a field goal. Devin Asiasi played quite a bit, but he still has not yet seen a target in the passing game.
Is it time to add at the position? It might be. The question is, though, how much will the Patriots be willing to spend in order to add a piece of consequence? Is it worth giving up on a first or second-round pick, for instance, to get a very good player in return? Would that player make enough of a difference that it would make this team a contender? Depending on how the Patriots view this game -- an outlier born out of little practice time, or an indicator of how far away this group really is -- could help impact just how aggressive they are before the Nov. 3 trade deadline.
Hard to get all over this group. Not only did they come into the game with a starting unit that had never before played snaps of significance together -- Justin Herron at left tackle, Isaiah Wynn at left guard, Joe Thuney at center, Michael Onwenu at right guard and Jermaine Eluemunor at right tackle -- but then they lost Eluemunor to injury early, which led to another reshuffling. Hjalte Froholdt was forced to play his first regular-season snaps at guard and Wynn moved back to left tackle in order to let Herron play on the right side. It wasn't pretty. Excluding two non-designed scrambles from Newton that went for a total of 50 yards, this unit could only help push around the Broncos enough for them to scrabble together 67 yards on 23 attempts. That's an average of 2.9 yards per attempt.
When the Patriots took to the air, Wynn had what was perhaps his worst game of the season. He allowed a pressure that led to a batted pass and a pick in the first quarter. He also allowed Bradley Chubb to use a vicious long-arm move to record a strip-sack. Thuney, arguably the team's best offensive player through four weeks, snapped one right by Newton in the second quarter that nearly took the team out of field-goal range. This group has been the strength of the Patriots offense through the first month of action, but they need to get healthy -- David Andrews could return from IR next weekend -- and hope improved communication will lead to better results.
Outside of a couple of ill-advised kick returns by Gunner Olszewski -- two first-half returns got the Patriots to their own 17 and 19-yard lines -- it was a solid day from this group. Nick Folk made both of his field-goal attempts of 38 and 41 yards, and Jake Bailey performed his weekly field-position-flipping act. Two of his three punts landed inside the Denver 20-yard line, including a 60-yarder that landed at the opposing 15-yard line.
An already-thin unit was thinned even further when Adam Butler went down with an upper-body injury. Though Butler returned eventually, his injury left Lawrence Guy, Deatrich Wise and Nick Thurman -- a practice-squadder the last two seasons -- to pick up the majority of the slack. Guy remains one of the team's top defenders, and Wise is having a strong season, but early on there was very little they could do against the run as the team allowed over 5.0 yards per carry through the first half. They couldn't shake blocks late in the first quarter on good runs by Royce Freeman and Phillip Lindsay. They helped give Lindsay 20 more on a counter play where he went untouched for the first 10. This group did not record a quarterback hit nor a sack, though Wise had a pressure and a pair of run-stuffs.
Though this unit carried its share of responsibility for the early run-game success Denver experienced, they made plays that helped drop the per-carry average of the Broncos down to 3.6 by game's end. Ja'Whaun Bentley made several plays buzzing around the line of scrimmage, including a tackle for loss near the Patriots goal line to help force a Denver field goal. He finished the game with two tackles for loss and a sack.
John Simon came up with a big sack at the end of the first half that nearly knocked the Broncos out of field-goal range, and he had a pair of run-stuffs of his own. Adrian Phillips -- who we'll include with the linebackers since that's what he's playing these days -- played with his hair on fire. He finished one tackle behind Bentley for the team lead (11) and had a couple that went for Broncos losses. Chase Winovich was mostly quiet in this one, and the Patriots could've used more consistent pressure -- especially early in the game when Broncos quarterback Drew Lock had enough time for explosive strikes. But for the most part, this group did its part in keeping the Broncos in the teens.
Tough grade here. On the one hand, the Broncos aren't in field-goal range as often as they are if not for some breakdowns in the secondary. Tim Patrick got by Jason McCourty for one long gain early that led to a field goal. Kyle Dugger lost a rep to tight end Albert Okwuegbunam that set up another. Stephon Gilmore's holding penalty gave the Broncos a fresh set of downs deep in Patriots territory that only resulted in a field goal but could've easily led to more. But the Broncos did nothing but kick field goals in part because of the work of this group.
For example, Lock went after Jonathan Jones time and again with very little success. He targeted him twice in the end zone on the first drive of the game, but Jones was up to the challenge in defending both Okwuegbunam and Jerry Jeudy. Despite giving up serious size to Okwuegbunam, he got the better of him again in the end zone in the third quarter. Kyle Dugger and Devin McCourty were solid in pursuit and made tackles that thwarted Broncos drives. JC Jackson and Jones both made late picks that kept the Patriots in it at the end. Those turnovers very nearly pushed this grade into the "A-" range, but those explosive plays that helped lead to long drives and field goals weighed it down a bit.
