Fan Notes from the Patriots’ loss to the Eagles

Notes, musings, and observations from the New England Patriots’ 25-20 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Happy Overreaction Monday, everyone!

One whole Sunday of football is in the books, and we all know with 100 percent certainty who the contenders are and who should already start turning their focus to 2024. If this past week of games is any indicator, this upcoming season will be anything but boring.

As far as New England Patriots losses go, it’s tough not to feel pretty good about this one. Plus, starting the year 0-1 is kind of how the Mac Jones-led team rolls around these parts, so it’s best to keep things in perspective.

1. Before I get into the Patriots game, a few things to get off my chest.

• I’m not going to lie, I’m a little worried: the 2023 season isn’t even a full week old yet and I’ve already had enough Kevin Hart, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Travis Kelce reaction shots, and Cris Collinsworth to last me well through 2025. I don’t know how I’m going to be able to do this for 16 more weeks.
• Also, since I have yet to see a single media personality mentioning it, congrats to Jared Goff for a very solid performance and win on Thursday night. That was probably the biggest Lions victory since Jan. 5, 1992, which was the date of their last postseason win. I’d ask why that isn’t the popular narrative right now as opposed to trashing Kadarius Toney and Jawan Taylor’s False Start Fest… but we all know exactly why that is.
• Poor Bijan Robinson. Just another brutal injury that could very well have ended a career that was never able to get off the ground due to injuries. There’s always a player that seems to go down for the year in the preseason and then another in Week 1, and you always hate to see it.

2. I’m going to keep these Fan Notes Tom Brady free, as I don’t want to sit here blubbering at my desk to start the week. And for those of you who were at the stadium yesterday, it must have been absolutely amazing. That man deserves his own long, long article from me, and I need to make sure that I’m emotionally ready enough to write it.

3. I should probably kick off my actual game analysis by admitting that I, like most people (I’d imagine), saw the way this game started and was already thinking about how to best dub this season 2022.1. Being down 16-0 in the first quarter off of a pick-six and a fumble on the very next snap is… well, I’d say the stuff of nightmares, but it’s more the stuff of most of last season. And we were supposed to be beyond that.

4. But honestly, beyond those two gaffes, the Patriots outplayed the Eagles at almost every level. The only touchdown the defense gave up came on a drive that started at their own 26. Philly only had 170 yards through the air and less than 100 yards on the ground. The Eagles went three-and-out four straight times to close out the first half, and all of their second-half points came on field goals of 56, 48, and 51 yards. Mac Jones found his rhythm and spread the ball around to nine different receivers. And the game more or less ended up coming down to a holding call on a two-point conversion.

5. Granted, it’s Week 1. And all across the NFL, we’re seeing the effects of the new practice rules and shortened preseasons as offenses seem a bit out of sync. So, you have to take that into account. But Philadelphia has one of the most explosive, complex offenses in the league along with arguably the best overall receiving corp, and you wouldn’t have known it by watching yesterday. Maybe once Week 6 rolls around things will look different, but the Patriots 100 percent could have won on several occasions yesterday, and likely would have if it hadn’t been for that damn pick-six.

6. Of all the things I thought I’d be talking about this morning, I figured a shaky offensive line would be first and foremost, followed by an inaccurate Mac Jones as I tried to blame the latter almost entirely on the former. I also thought I’d have to talk about receivers being unable to get separation and New England once again getting victimized by a highly mobile QB. But I can’t really say any of that right now.

7. I have two main issues to bitch about though, both of which I think are fixable.

• First, while I’m very happy to see an uptick in the frequency and effectiveness of the New England screen game, I don’t think it was as effective as it could have been. Jones threw softer, higher passes to receivers especially, which meant they either had to jump to make the catch or wait the extra second for the ball to arrive as defenders converged. If Jones can get a little more zip on the ball and be a little quicker with his releases, that’s going to be a very effective weapon. And one of the reasons for that is that the Patriots receivers seem to be very good in space. Being able to make one guy miss is often the difference between 2nd and 8 and 2nd and 3.
• And Second — granted, this might have very much been game plan specific, so we’ll see in future games — New England
• Third, when you’re up against one of the strongest defensive fronts in the league and the A game
• Fourth, I can’t help but wonder if Mac Jones was as surprised by how solid his protection was as we all were, because he made a number of throws like a QB who was under duress when he actually wasn’t. That second sack was more on him than his line, as he stepped up into a space where a blocked lineman was able to get a hand on him. Hopefully that will ease up as the season continues, because as far as his accuracy went, he completed some absolutely perfect throws yesterday.
• Fifth, I’d like to see the Patriots utilize the sidelines more effectively. This one also might be game plan specific, because the middle of the field is where Philly is weakest defensively, but in general I want to see Mac Jones get better as an edge QB; his strength is definitely in the middle of the field. Having receivers near the out of bounds marker makes those fourth quarter comeback attempts a lot easier.
• And finally, when you’re up against one of the more dominant defensive fronts in the league, but one that struggles a fair amount against stretch runs, to so consistently keep sending Rhamondre Stevenson into the A gaps like Denethor sending Faramir to take back Osgiliath makes no sense at all. Toss plays and off-tackle calls were working well, and Ty Montgomery’s only carry was a stretch run to the weak side for 7 yards. Just seems a bit odd.

As for the good stuff….

8. Two rookie guards, no problem at all. Jones wasn’t sacked until late in the game when Philly got aggressive, and I still say that one of those sacks is on him.

9. Kendrick Bourne had himself a day. The chemistry is already there and is only going to get stronger as the season goes on.

10. I know it’s pronounced “Boo-tay,” but if Nantz and Romo want to keep calling him “Kayshon Booty,” that’s just fine with me — just so long as he remembers that you need both feet down in the NFL.

11. Not sure if you can ask for a much better NFL debut than the one that Keion White and Christian Gonzalez had. Seven tackles and a sack for Gonzalez, plus a huge fourth-down breakup. It wasn’t perfect, as he got burned once by one of the best receivers in the game and took a bad angle that resulted in a first down, but when I found out he was targeted 10 times yesterday, I was surprised.

12. White only saw 23 defensive snaps, but definitively won 1-on-1 battles with both Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata in order to force Jalen Hurts to move before he was ready. He doesn’t show up on the stat sheet, but was absolutely an impact player.

13. Although Hurts was only sacked three times, that he was able to buy himself so much time and still had to throw it away on a number of occasions bodes well for this secondary — and that’s without Jack Jones.

14. I don’t want to go so far as to say New England should have won this game. They didn’t win this game, and when you give up a pick-six and a fumble in your own red zone against the NFC champs on back-to-back snaps, you deserve to lose. But considering how this game started, the way it ended has me feeling pretty optimistic.

15. I still think that if this game is 22-25 instead of 20-25… Well, you never know, because the game could have been completely different after that. It was also a pretty ticky-tack holding call there. But where the Patriots go from here is going to be very telling, as the games aren’t getting any easier. Miami only punted once all game against the Chargers and the Cowboys just dropped 40 on the Giants. But, hopefully they now know that they can hang with anyone.

First primetime game of the year coming up. Maybe both the Bills and the Jets will get abducted by those UFOs that we’re now all learning are 100 percent real tonight and the AFC East will only be a two-horse race.