Week 12: Patriots v. Broncos

I will begin by saying that I am a Patriots fan, so therefore this will likely be a little biased, but these are my observations from the Patriots' first loss of the season.

1. Tom Brady is the best QB in the NFL

When Tom Brady took the field last night, he did so without three of his top four offensive play-makers.  Sure, Gronk was out there, but it's a lot easier to cover one guy when some other favorites are missing.  He was going up against the league's toughest defense in the snow... he's going to be doomed, right?  With any other quarterback in the league (maybe except Rodgers) this would be overwhelming and likely a sure loss, but Brady took lemons and made lemonade yet again, making some back up guys look really great, against a good defense.  I mean let's be honest here, if you were down three with 1:09 and one timeout left, is there any other quarterback in the league that you would rather have on your side than Tom Brady.  You can hate him all you want, but he is just so surgical in situations like that.  Unfortunately, they were stalled in overtime when Von Miller was just too much for the Patriots offensive line.

2. Denver's Defense is really good
Something that was talked about during the game, but not really highlighted for Denver was that they lost two of their key defensive starters early in the game.  This could have been a massive blow, but drive after drive, they managed to stall the Patriots' attack.  Other than the game tying drive, and the long catch and run to Bolden, the only other scores the Patriots created came from short field situations (Bad punt and Interception).  In a game where field position was critical, Denver won that battle.

3. Brock Osweiler looks like Edward Cullen

Thank you internet for making my life a lot easier.  But seriously, look at this!! Broncos were lucky it was a night game, because Brock's skin would've gotten all glittery...

4. Patriots need to get healthy
Last night provided a major illustration of how much trouble the Patriots are in if some of their key guys are out.  The Jamie Collins injury has hurt them overall in the last couple of weeks, but when that was paired with a Dont'a  Hightower knee strain last night, it was killer.  Jerod Mayo is still a valuable player when he plays limited snaps, but can't be that every down guy like he used to be.  Once Hightower left with the injury, the Patriots had a lot of trouble setting the edge and Anderson and Hillman just ran straight downhill.  Collins is one of the best pass defending/rushing linebackers in the league, and I can't help but think that with his health, Osweiler would have had much more difficulty getting the ball to Owen Daniels (who had a number of important wide open catches).
  
On the offensive side, Brady misses his quick hitter receivers in a big way... all three of them (Amendola, Edelman, and Lewis).  I believe that with just one of those guys, the offense would have clicked better last night, as the often found themselves unable to get out of the third and six jams that they are usually so good at.  The loss of Lewis a couple of weeks ago is a double edged sword, because his quickness and elusiveness in turn allow Blount to bring the boom on tired defenses.  James White just doesn't have it.  There were a couple of plays where White got the ball and had it been Lewis, there would have been a move and likely a missed tackle, but that is not the case with White.

5. Rob Gronkowski: Part 1
When Rob Gronkowski was writhing in pain with an apparent season ender at the end of the fourth quarter my stomach fell to my feet.  As we've seen in years past, when Gronk is out, the Patriots just are not as good.  I love to watch Gronk play, because he plays hard, he has fun, and he's really hard to stop.  On the first drive, two guys tried to body tackle him and he threw them off of him on his way to a nice touchdown.  For the rest of the game, Denver did the only thing that anyone who plays against Gronk knows how to do to take him down: torpedo his knees.  The injury hit aside, there were at least two other plays that I can recall where I cringed  and waited with bated breath hoping that he would pop back up (on those plays, he did).  I don't fault the defenders for going low to bring Gronk down, but I do fault the NFL for essentially promoting these hits with their stingy tackling rules.

Do we really need a repeat of this?

6. Rob Gronkowski: Part 2 
I think that it has become very clear over the course of this season that referees call the game differently when Gronk is involved.  There have been a number of plays this season where Brady throws to Gronk, and before the ball is close, the defender is draped on him like a bathrobe, he drops it, and the flags are nowhere to be seen.  I know football and basketball are different entities, but it is almost like the Shaq rules, where a defender would have to do something really drastic to have a penalty called against him.  In a league that strives for quality officiating (we'll deal with this in a minute), it doesn't seem fair to have these calls missed so frequently. 

This was ruled an offensive pass interference on Gronk

This was a no call a couple of years ago... HOW?!

Here are some interesting statistics from this season: Stat 1: There have been 69 offensive pass interference calls in the NFL this season. Stat 2: 9 of these have come against the Patriots. Fact: Rob Gronkowski has been called for OPI five times.  Stat 3: the next closest team has only been flagged for this offense 5 times.  That means Rob Gronkowski has matched the maximum OPI calls for any other team in the NFL.  I do not have any explanation for these stats, so I'll just leave them there and let you make your own conjectures as to why this may be. 

7. The Refs
I am burying this one deep in this blog, but there was nothing more frustrating on Sunday night than watching all of the 50/50 calls go against the Patriots.  I understand that refs are humans and humans make mistakes, but the officiating in the NFL recently just seems absolutely brutal.  I found a really good article  about the potential missed calls against the Patriots on plays that really swung the game (feel free to read that, I don't want to plagiarize).  Looking around the internet, something that I feel was blatantly missed (and obviously I can't find a gif) came when Brady threw an incomplete pass, and after it left his hands, one of the Denver defenders launched himself very high up on Brady, that I felt should have been a roughing the passer call, but the flags stayed in the pockets.  Finally, take a look at the youtube clip at the two huge interference calls against the Patriots, they look SO similar, but the Patriots ended up on the short side of the stick.

There has been a lot of coverage of the errors that the referees have made this season, so I don't want to harp on that, but the NFL needs to spend a lot of time in the offseason taking a look at hoe to make their rulebook more cut and dry so that every single play does not have to come under this scrutiny.  Is it really that bad if a player makes a little contact when they are going to make an offensive or defensive play.  When I watched games in years past, it was always clear to me what was and what wasn't a catch or pass interference or holding, and now everything is in this gray rules purgatory.  Just simplify it, NFL!

8. The Broncos played well
Coming into this game with a backup quarterback, it wouldn't be unheard of for a team to face an undefeated opponent and fold.  This was not the case for the Broncos, who stepped up to the challenge and kept themselves in the game and ended up hanging around long enough to win it.  I thought they had a good gameplan, and took full advantage of the Patriot injuries.

9. The Broncos won the game, the Patriots won the night
I think that Denver fans have the right to be excited about this win, but Patriots should feel good too.  They just went toe-to-toe with arguably the AFC's second best team playing with third string wide receivers and linebackers.  If the Patriots are able to get up to 95% health (knowing that Lewis is out for the rest of the year), they are still going to be as dangerous as ever.  If they do face the Broncos again, it will likely be with a healthy roster, which is significantly better in many ways than they were Sunday night.  I really hope they face each other again, when both teams have healthier rosters to see the outcome.

I have a lot more to say, but not enough time to put it down on here, so those are the thoughts I'll leave you with for now!

Until next time!