Patriots Bring Preseason Struggles into Reg Season

There are always a lot of questions about what can go wrong in that first game of the season. For the Patriots and Coach Rich, the question was could the offense improve on an absolutely abysmal preseason? The answer very early on in their week 1 match-up vs the Dolphins was a resounding no.

Throughout the week Coach Rich had discussed using the rushing game to not only control the pace of the game but to also keep pressure off of Mac Jones. So the question of the day is why Damien Harris only saw the ball once on the opening drive. After all, he started the drive with an 11-yard rush and was never seen again. The inability to commit to a game plan clearly affected the offense. Mac was forced into a lot of dropbacks with Miami seeming to play perfect defense. They were able to decipher when the pass or run was coming. Their intelligent defense also forced 4 turnovers. Two interceptions from Mac forcing things down the field as well as two fumbles on big hits. Including the hit on Damien Harris to end the game with his costly fumble. If it wasn’t for two splash plays down the field that resulted in TDs the Patriots would have been shut out.

“It’s week 1. Would we have liked everything to be perfect offensively?…. Absolutely. It wasn’t and we are okay with that. Now we need to take the film and make sure we watch all of it. See what we thought worked and what failed. There will be many opportunities to overcome the shortcomings next week so I'm excited to get to week 2.”

Defensively the Patriots struggled but some of that needs to be attributed to the inept offense. The team lost the Time of possession battle by over 10 minutes. The defense got some stops and forced turnovers but the offense never capitalized. Christian Barmore who was named a captain during the preseason was one of the most effective defenders. He was a constant threat in the opposing team’s backfield and it looked like the OL was just puzzled about how to stop him.

Coach Rich was adamant about continuing to build on what they saw this week defensively. He saw his team outmatched by the dolphins weapons but the Legion of Zoom is no joke. With all the focus Hill commands from the secondary, there was an expectation that they would struggle a bit trying to keep everything covered. I just don't think the team expected Mike Gesicki to be the weapon that lit them up all day.

The Patriots play the Steelers in week 2…. Lets hope it wont be a continuation of this performance.

Related posts:

Selamat tanggal 2 untuk ke 22 kali nya sayangkuu 😙 apakah ayang masih sayang aku? Masih cinta aku? Apakah ayang bosan sama aku? Aku harap ayang masih sayang dan cinta aku lalu ayang ga pernah bosan…