The snowflake that started the avalanche that ended with the Patriots on the road last Sunday wasn’t the “mortar kick” or taking knees before halftime or kicking off in overtime. It was Chris Harper’s muffed punt.
As a Hall of Fame procrastinator, I often get little mental tempests of cogent thoughts but decide to just jot them down instead of writing them out and putting them on the damn website. I’m unloading all those jots in this column and some of them are dated as hell, but you’ll realize that when you read those particular thoughts and think, “Wow, who cares about THAT anymore?” Sorry. It’s cathartic for me.
The way I hear it, one of the main reasons Josh McDaniels was more than content to stay in New England is that the front-office/personnel setups with so many of the open jobs was either with a despotic GM on thin ice or new GMs taking over their first rodeos. Too much uncertainty to leave a great gig in Foxboro.
I understand the mortar kick is the rock upon which people would like to build their church of 2015 Patriots Failures, but Philly took over at the damn 41. Allowing them to convert on third-and-10 with a 20-yard pass to Jordan Matthews three plays after the mortar kick was a much bigger play in that game but raging through the offseason about that isn’t as easy as simply moaning “morrrtarrrr kick” for the next five months.
The decision to move on from Dave DeGuglielmo was made weeks ago, I was told. The adjustment from an iconic assistant coach like Dante Scarnecchia, who had a unique personal style, to DeGuglielmo was a tough one and it’s tremendous that he found a job right away in San Diego.
The way the Patriots just kept crawling out of the grave on Sunday in Denver was testimony to the fact that, if this is the team you root for, you’re getting your money’s worth. Every single year. And to see the way Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola (to name just two) were walking/hobbling in the locker room just 20 minutes after trying to sprint and wriggle themselves open was to gain a real appreciation for the punishment these guys take and the lengths they go to ignore the physical pain they are in.
Also, nobody should be left wondering why Tom Brady works with and puts his absolute trust in Alex Guerrero. The strength, flexibility and mental toughness necessary to withstand one of the worst beatings a quarterback’s taken in recent memory and still keep his team afloat was a referendum on how effective Brady’s training approach is.
New England Patriots
That said, I thought the resignation on Brady’s face in terms of, “OK, this is the way it’s going to be today, I’m going to get pummeled,” spoke volumes. He didn’t even bother to chew on anybody’s ass about the lack of protection, it was as if he knew they were completely overmatched and that it wasn’t an effort or focus thing but a health and talent thing.
And that resignation probably can be traced somewhat back to the Dolphins game. Running the ball over and over wasn’t about preserving anyone, as I originally thought. It was about trying to build some confidence in the ability to run. Trying to get on track so that, when the playoffs started and somebody wanted to play with five or six defensive backs, the team would feel confident about its ability to run the football. Once it became clear they were swimming upstream that day and that they just weren’t an effective running team, they set about trying to do what they do and by then, Miami was fully engaged.
This is really dated, but if I were Eagles owner Jeff Lurie and I heard my new head coach Doug Pederson explain the end-of-game scenario Pederson oversaw when the Patriots and Chiefs played in the Divisional Playoffs, I’d have been looking for an escape clause. Down two scores with less than three minutes left and the Chiefs were moving glacially because they were trying to avoid giving the ball back to Tom Brady? Doug. That ship sailed an hour earlier. Score ASAFP. Silliest thing I ever heard.
It will be interesting to see how things go with Brandon LaFell in 2016. The toe surgery he had in the offseason really impacted him in 2015. His explosiveness and ability to separate was simply gone and – as a downfield receiver – he just isn’t smooth. So, he played at about 40 percent of the effectiveness he showed in 2014. Nobody can say the offense didn’t work to involve LaFell though. They tried to appease his need for involvement despite drops. They tried to feature him against Kansas City despite minimal returns on plays designed for him. It didn’t work. After the Divisional Playoff game, LaFell stomped from his locker, refusing to talk by saying, “I have nothing good to say.” When I asked him the following Wednesday about his postgame demeanor, he said, “We won, why would I be frustrated?” The fact he played sparingly and didn’t even see a pass from Brady against Denver, however, was a flashing billboard that the Patriots third-best receiver is at a crossroads.
Expect offensive line, wide receiver and an enhanced effort to be a more balanced offense to be focal points of the offseason. Even though Brady isn’t the most efficient downfield thrower, the fact that the only player who genuinely threatens the defense more than 20 yards downfield is Gronk has to be addressed. And LaFell, KeShawn Martin and Aaron Dobson are band-aid solutions. At best.
This week, Cam Newton addressed the well-documented and persistent backlash he gets from people who don’t like the way he goes about his business. Nobody should pretend the anti-Cam movement – which ranges from eye-rolling to letter-writing to who knows what else – isn’t race-based for some people. Personally, I love watching Newton play. And his prolonged and self-aggrandizing celebrations are so over-the-top that they’re more amusing than offending. Does he seem to have a bit of the narcissist to him? Oh yeah. But when it comes to narcissism, Newton finishes a close second to J.J. Watt, who might be the most calculating, camera-seeking, least self-aware superstar since … I don’t know who.
I’ll be in San Fran starting Sunday afternoon. Dying to take the pulse out there to see just how elated people are that the Patriots are not front-and-center. I’ll keep you posted.