Week 2: Panthers 27, Patriots 17 (1 – 1) (1 – 0) (0 – 0)
Over at The Virtual Tailgate there were good friends and there was good food. Sadly, that was about it for good things that day.
First and foremost, something must be done about the (not so) special teams. This is the third year that they’ve been underperforming. I think it’s time for Brad Seeley to get his walking papers. The kick coverage is atrocious. Practically every kickoff comes back over the 30. And then there are the punts… How can this team forget about lane discipline? There were three gigantic returns (one for a TD called back on a penalty) and in all three the returner initially ran into traffic and began to cut back. And in all three, instead of maintaining their lanes, the coverage team all converged on the returner. So when he made is move and escaped the crowd, there was no one left to cover him. To add insult to injury, on the one that went down to the Pats 14, it looked like Izzo was going to be able to push Gamble out of bounds wayyyy back near the beginning of the return, but just before he reached Gamble, another Patriot Tebucky Jones’d him out of the play. I do need to give a fractional gold star to Ben Watson on that play, though. He came out of nowhere in a burst of speed to run down Gamble and save the TD. It was very impressive, doubly so for a man of Watson’s size.
Second, what was wrong with Brady? Even back in the first quarter, when the OL was giving him some time, he was high. And it got worse from there — like throwing three feet over the head of a completely wide-open Watson. The INT wasn’t great either, but at least that took a very nice play on the part of the Carolina linebacker. The fumble wasn’t really his fault, though — the rusher came in from the blind side and the ball was all the way back. I did not like Brady’s body language on the sideline — head in hands, sulking, etc. Don’t want to see him become another Manning. He also seemed to do a lot of yelling at people. Not sure I like that.
I hope the horrible running game so far this season is the OL and not Dillon suddenly getting old. I don’t see much in the way of holes, but Dillon seems slower and isn’t running over people like he did last year. Hope it’s just a perception.
Bad day from the receiving corps. Lots of drops and lots of failures to get separation. The long gainer to Troy Brown was sweet, though. Bittersweet, actually, since it very vividly demonstrated the speed Brown has lost in the past couple of years. Two years ago he would have taken it all the way. Still, it’s nice to see him involved in the offense.
Terrible day from the OL. For starters, they had at least six false starts, including one of the first offensive play of the game. They failed to open up any running holes. After the first quarter they gave Brady little time. Matt Light was beaten like a drum.
The D actually played reasonably (minus two really stupid penalties). They held Carolina to 250 total yards, with about 145 in the air. And there was Vrabel’s INT return for a TD (though that was a stupid play by Delhomme than it was a great play by Vrabel). I wanted to kill Colvin for a totally stupid hands-to-the-face penalty that nullified a Starks INT. Leaving Proehl wide open down the middle was bad, too. And Harrison’s stupid personal foul gave Carolina a FG. But overall the defense did pretty well.
The coaching was sub-par. Why no screens to blunt the pass rush, especially in the second half? The ongoing special teams debacle has already been discussed. And why wasn’t the Watson fumble challenged? Yes, it probably would have stood, but at that point the fumble was the ballgame. There was nothing to lose by challenging it. I do agree with the other non-challenges. I saw the Davis fumble get recovered in the endzone by Carolina (no thanks to CBS — game telecasting is getting worse and worse). And Brady’s fumble was definitely a fumble — the hand wasn’t moving yet).
Next week will be a big test. I can handle a loss (though it’ll hurt) if they lose having played a clean, sharp game. But if they come out in a game of next week’s magnitude even remotely close to the way they did this week, I will have to seriously question if this year’s edition has what it takes to even make the playoffs in the first place.