Despite 30 straight points against the Minnesota Vikings, the Patriots still were not happy about their ability to capitalize more often on the chances created by a defense that forced four turnovers (via ESPN’s Lee Schechter):
On Monday morning, in his weekly appearance on WEEI’s “Dennis and Callahan” show, Brady explained some of the issues he saw with the offense. And it all starts with penalties — as the Patriots had 15 total penalties for 163 yards, including left tackle Nate Solder getting called for three penalties in two plays.
“The penalties, they just kill drives,” Brady said. “We don’t want to be one of the most penalized teams in the league. That would be a real great recipe for how to lose a game.”
“Turnovers, penalties, missed opportunities, and we have to do a better job with the penalties,” he said. “Obviously not turning the ball over on the road was good. The defense made all those big plays, which allows us a lot of short fields and more opportunities than we really took advantage of. We just need to score more points, and when we have opportunities to get the ball in the end zone, we have to do it. When we have to convert short yardage, we have to do it.”
Schechter goes on to write that Brady believes spreading the ball around to different playmakers, as Danny Amendola didn’t have a catch and only one grab for 13 yards for Aaron Dobson. Tight end Tim Wright was also held without a catch, proving that Brady, who only has completed just over 56% of his passes thus far this season, along with a league-worst 5.1 yards per pass attempt, will need more than Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski to play at an elite level that he is accustomed to.
New York Jets
A depleted Jets secondary was able to hold Pro Bowl quarterback Aaron Rodgers without a touchdown for much of the first half, but Rodgers threw three scores within a quarter’s time to eventually led Green Bay to a comeback victory over New York.
Unfortunately for the Jets, there is no quick fix, especially with their upcoming schedule.
After surrendering 346 passing yards to Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers, the Jets face the Chicago Bears at home — and that spells potential trouble. The Bears have the type of personnel that causes problems for the Jets, which is to say they have a capable quarterback, Jay Cutler, and two explosive receivers, Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery.
The Jets are struggling on the back end of their defense — specifically cornerback. Against the Packers, their goal was to limit the vertical attack, forcing Rodgers to dink and dunk. As it turned out, Rodgers completed 6 of 10 passes for 173 yards and a touchdown on throws longer than 10 yards, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Much of the damage was done by Jordy Nelson, who finished with a career-high 209 yards — the most by a receiver against the Jets in the Rex Ryan era.
With Dee Milliner (ankle) still not 100 percent, the Jets used a three-man cornerback rotation, with Milliner, Antonio Allen and Darrin Walls. There were technique errors throughout the game, not to mention blown assignments, infuriating Ryan. The coach took responsibility, saying he has to do a better job of communicating. Truth is, this is a personnel issue.
The Jets dropped the ball in the offseason, failing to shore up the position after releasing Antonio Cromartie. It got worse with injuries and the release of Dimitri Patterson, a bad free-agent signing. Ryan can scheme up clever blitz packages, but that’s not a panacea. This will be a season-long problem.
Milliner admitted on Monday that the ankle “tightened up” on him in the fourth quarter on Sunday, according to the New York Daily News’ Manish Mehta. While Marshall and Jeffery are battling ankle and hamstring injuries, respectively, they still made enough big plays against a stingy San Francisco 49er defense to get into the endzone four times and really to win.
The front seven for the Jets may need to play at a higher level in order to force Jay Culter into throwing some uncatchable passes, especially if Milliner can’t suit up.
Miami Dolphins
Knowshon Moreno ran all over the Patriots in week 1, but a dislocated elbow suffered against Buffalo could sideline Moreno a month.
How do the Dolphins fix this issue? It will be up to Lamar Miller and backups Damian Williams and Orleans Darkwa to step up and carry the load. So far that hasn’t been the case when Moreno isn’t in the lineup. On Monday, Miami also signed Daniel Thomas, who was cut by the team before the regular season.
The Dolphins average 5.5 yards per carry with Moreno running the ball this season. The other three running backs are averaging 3.9 yards per carry. Moreno also has more rushing yards (138) this season than Miller, Williams and Darkwa combined (133).
Miami will need more production from this trio to keep the offense balanced.
Tannehill was forced to drop back to pass 53 times on Sunday, with only 210 net passing yards to show for it, not a recipe for success. On the season, the third-year quarterback has thrown for only 419 yards on 81 passes, an average of only 5.17 yards per pass, which ranks 34th among quarterbacks in the NFL (just above Tom Brady’s league-worst 5.10).
Buffalo Bills
The Bills had arguably the most positive week of any team in the league, as they found new ownership that will keep the team in Buffalo, and dominated their division rival.
But their red zone offense is currently fifth-worst in the NFL, a product of inefficiencies in both the running game and passing game, writes ESPN Buffalo Bills reporter Mike Rodak:
Their one touchdown in six trips inside the 20-yard-line in Sunday’s 29-10 win against the Miami Dolphins dragged the Bills’ red zone efficiency rate to 30 percent, which ranks 28th in the NFL.
In six red-zone runs Sunday, Fred Jackson gained zero yards. Re-watching each play, the culprits were breakdowns across the offensive line. The first four runs were out of the shotgun with a zone-read element.
However, left guard Chris Williams couldn’t hold his block on two of those Jackson runs, and center Eric Wood and right tackle Seantrel Henderson each had problems on separate plays. The result was Dolphins defenders in the backfield and little space for Jackson to run.
Two of EJ Manuel‘s passes in the red zone — incompletions to Robert Woods and Mike Williams– were off-target passes, a reminder that the Bills likely will need to run better in the red zone if they want to improve their efficiency rate.
If the Bills had capitalized in the redzone, a 9-0 game at halftime may have been 21-0, a deficit that would have been very hard for Miami to overcome. Buffalo can ill-afford to allow Philip Rivers and the explosive San Diego offense within striking distance if the Bills have the opportunity to put the game away before that happens.
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