New England Patriots
The Patriots have a terrific alternative to realize some momentum towards the Panthers.
Welcome to Season 14, Episode 4 of the Unconventional Preview, a critical but lighthearted, nostalgia-tinted have a look at the Patriots’ weekly matchup . . .
Patriots followers have a really particular image of what a Mike Vrabel workforce ought to seem like.
It ought to be good, savvy, and disciplined. It ought to be protecting of the soccer, adept at clock administration, and infrequently penalized.
It ought to look, in brief, precisely like Vrabel’s Titans workforce that bounced the Patriots from the postseason and ended the Tom Brady period with a 20-13 victory within the wild-card spherical in January 2020.
This isn’t what the Patriots have seemed like by way of three video games (and one victory) of the Vrabel tenure in Foxborough. That’s to some extent comprehensible — it’s no shock that the Patriots are a piece in progress, nonetheless melding a roster that encompasses a couple dozen new gamers this season. That is going to be an extended construct.
Nonetheless, there’s loads of frustration to be discovered within the sloppiness. The Patriots lost to the Steelers last Sunday, 21-14, largely due to 5 turnovers, together with 4 fumbles, two by running back Rhamondre Stevenson. The Patriots have dedicated 28 penalties this season, tied for fourth-most within the NFL. They’re getting in their very own approach, and they aren’t but gifted sufficient to beat that.
The sloppiness has negated some optimistic developments. On Vrabel’s watch, the Patriots have turn into bolder, changing 4 of 5 fourth-down probabilities towards the Steelers, together with one from the Pittsburgh 15-yard line. And even with occasional judgment and ball-protection points, quarterback Drake Maye seems on his approach to fulfilling his huge potential — he’s third within the NFL in completion share (72.6) and fifth in passing yards (785).
The Patriots have an opportunity to indicate that they discovered from final week’s misplaced alternative towards the Panthers, who’re coming off a 30-0 win over the Falcons, the primary shutout of the NFL season.
The Panthers had been hardly explosive within the sport — quarterback Bryce Younger threw for simply 121 yards, whereas their prime rusher, Chuba Hubbard, had only a respectable output, with 73 yards on 17 carries. However their protection tormented Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr., selecting him off twice and limiting him to 172 passing yards.
The Panthers are one of many few groups the Patriots will play this season that has arguably a thinner roster by way of pure expertise. However for the Patriots to forestall one other Sunday lament, they should be extra cautious and disciplined than they had been per week in the past. They have to begin taking part in like a Vrabel workforce already does in Patriots followers’ recollections.
Kick it off, Borregales, and let’s get this factor began . . .
Three gamers value watching aside from the quarterbacks
Rhamondre Stevenson: Probably the most compelling story line coming into Sunday’s sport may be how Vrabel navigates the state of affairs at operating again. The place is likely one of the deepest on the roster, with three gifted gamers in Stevenson, Antonio Gibson, and rookie TreVeyon Henderson. However none are reliable at this level. After an excellent efficiency within the Week 2 win at Miami, Stevenson fumbled twice towards the Steelers. Gibson additionally fumbled versus Pittsburgh, and whereas Henderson has held on to the soccer, it seems that studies that he was an excellent move blocker might need been barely exaggerated.
The Patriots can’t afford to bury Stevenson, who’s one in every of their higher gamers. However his carelessness with the football — he didn’t even have two fingers on the ball on his second fumble towards the Steelers — borders on the ridiculous. He has 16 fumbles in 59 profession video games. Phrase is out that the Patriots don’t defend the soccer like they need to. Steelers coach Mike Tomlin stated the Patriots’ ball safety, or lack thereof, was an “agenda merchandise” going into final Sunday’s sport.
Stevenson performed simply two snaps after his second fumble final Sunday. The Patriots want the model of him that helped them overcome the Dolphins two weeks in the past, not the model that helped give away a winnable sport final week. We must always discover out Sunday towards the Panthers’ Twenty fifth-ranked run protection (137.7 yards per sport) how a lot belief his coaches have in him, and the way a lot has been misplaced.
Christian Gonzalez: Welcome again finally to the participant who can single-handedly make the Patriots’ protection a lot better.
Gonzalez, the third-year cornerback and Invoice Belichick’s last first-round choose, will make his season debut Sunday after lacking the primary three video games due to a hamstring harm suffered in the course of the first day of observe in pads in late July.
There’s been some thriller and a complete lot of unfair hypothesis relating to why it took Gonzalez so lengthy to get again on the sector. However early-season warning with a hamstring harm for a participant so important might be prudent, and the hope is that he’s absolutely prepared after returning to observe final week earlier than being downgraded to out the day earlier than the Steelers sport.
It’s an understatement to say that the Patriots — who’ve the NFL’s Twenty ninth-ranked move protection at 256.3 yards per sport — have missed him. Gonzalez, who together with deal with Milton Williams is within the dialog because the workforce’s most gifted defensive participant, is a bona fide No. 1 cornerback. His return permits his fellow cornerbacks to slip into extra becoming roles, with Carlton Davis now a wonderful No. 2 and Alex Austin a greater match as a backup.
The Panthers don’t precisely have a sturdy passing assault — Younger has thrown for 142 yards or fewer in two of his three begins, and the Panthers are twenty third in passing general (186.3 yards per sport). Plus, their receiving corps is already banged up, most notably with spectacular first-round choose Tetairoa McMillan coping with a calf harm.
Mike Jackson: Patriots followers shall be excused for not remembering the Panthers cornerback’s temporary time in Foxborough. He joined the Patriots in August 2020 in a commerce with the Lions for a conditional seventh-round choose that didn’t convey, and was minimize in January 2021. In between, he performed precisely one sport for the Patriots, making one deal with in a Week 17 win over the Jets.
Jackson has discovered a soccer dwelling in Carolina. He began all 17 video games final season, selecting off two passes, and he’s began all three video games this yr, with one choose — he took again a Penix interception 54 yards final Sunday.
Jackson and fellow cornerback Chau Smith-Wade (who returned a Penix choose 11 yards for a landing) led an opportunistic Panthers protection final week.
Grievance of the week
How annoying is it going to be if Tyquan Thornton really seems to be good for the Chiefs?
Thornton, who per week in the past on this house was designated the fourth-worst of the Patriots’ many regrettable extensive receiver draft picks during the last 20-plus years, appears to be seizing a possibility with the Chiefs.
Patrick Mahomes’s receiving corps is made up of growing older, mediocre, and underwhelming gamers, not not like what Brady needed to take care of in the course of the 2006 season in New England as the primary part of the dynasty winded down.
Thornton has been a pleasing shock on offense, stepping in to interchange injured Xavier Worthy and looking out like a way more competent receiver than he did throughout his three seasons in New England, when he caught 39 passes for 385 yards and a pair of TDs, whereas operating a few of the worst move routes you’ll ever see.
He was waived by the Patriots in November 2024, and claimed two days later by the Chiefs. He didn’t see the sector final yr in Kansas Metropolis, however has 9 catches on 18 targets in three video games this season, and is tied for the workforce lead with 171 receiving yards.
Final Sunday evening towards the Giants, he made one of many extra spectacular catches of the NFL season, hauling in a 33-yard Mahomes move on third and 10 with a defensive again draped throughout him. He completed that sport with 5 catches for 71 yards and a landing, his second straight week with a rating.
It’s not that Patriots followers ought to root towards Thornton. However it’s all the time irritating to see a comparatively excessive draft choose — he was taken No. 50 general within the 2022 draft — discover success elsewhere.
The flashback
On Jan. 6, 2002, the Patriots clobbered the Panthers, 38-6, of their regular-season finale. Ty Legislation and Otis Smith every returned a Chris Weinke interception for a landing, Troy Brown took again a punt for an additional TD, and the Patriots clinched their first AFC East title since 1997, in addition to the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye.
It was a heady and hopeful time for the Patriots, who had accomplished a turnaround from 5-11 the season earlier than, Belichick’s first as coach, to 11-5. The protection was powerful, relentless, and habitually compelled errors. Brady performed with uncanny poise, although after all nobody anticipated then that he’d turn into the most effective ever to do it. Their opportunistic particular groups taught us in regards to the significance of All Three Phases of the Sport, and success all the time appeared to seek out them simply after they wanted it most.
The win over the Panthers was yet one more trace that this workforce had discovered a particular formulation. Wrote Dan Shaughnessy within the lede to his column within the subsequent day’s paper. “Would possibly as nicely face it. The Patriots are going to the Tremendous Bowl.”
The subsequent time we’d see them could be on a snowy Saturday evening, in a playoff matchup with the Raiders that will immediately turn into a part of NFL lore. Who might have imagined then how far more magic was to come back?
Prediction, or there’ll by no means be one other quarterback smaller than Bryce Younger chosen No. 1 general…
Want additional proof that the season remains to be younger and nothing has been settled but? Do that: The Patriots, at 1-2, have the identical file because the Ravens, Chiefs, and Broncos, presumed to be among the many premier groups within the AFC.
The Patriots have a terrific alternative to realize some momentum towards the Panthers. Contemplate this a vote of confidence that classes about composure and self-discipline and defending the soccer are being discovered — and shall be utilized Sunday. Patriots 31, Panthers 23.
