Monday, November 17, 2014

Patriots Throttle the Colts, 42-20

What a nice night for a beat-down. The Patriots dominated in the running game and the second half, and ran away from the Colts, 42-20. The win give the Patriots a two-game lead over their nearest AFC East rival (Dolphins), and when you factor in tie-breakers, they hold a two-game lead over the other AFC division leaders (Bengals, Colts, and Broncos). Detroit comes to Foxboro to get their asses handed to them next week.

The Patriots didn't turn their first-half dominance into much of a lead. The Colts converted a late Tom Brady interception into a touchdown that made it 14-10 after 30 minutes. But given that mistake, New England recommitted to the running attack, and went touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, and touchdown to start the second half. Indy couldn't keep up, and it was over about halfway through the fourth quarter.

Running back Jonas Gray held quite the coming-out party: 38 carries, 199 yards (5.2 ypc), and 4 touchdowns. He showed patience and once he got rolling downhill, he handed out punishment to the undersized Indy defense. Shane Vereen had only one rushing attempt, but was good in pass protection and also had 4 catches for 59 yards. But Gray was so dominant on this night, he got his own section of Statistical Oddities below.

Quarterback Tom Brady enjoyed lots of time to throw in the second half, courtesy of the running game and play-action. And he used it to pick apart the Colts zone scheme. But his first half was only okay. He looked good most of the time, but called an audible on third-and-one near the end of the half and did the one thing he could not do in that situation: threw an interception.

In fact, Brady had two INTs in the first half, so his final stat line didn't look all that fantastic: 19 of 30, 257 yards, 2 touchdowns, 2 interceptions, and an 85.0 QB rating. But overall, Brady moved well in the pocket, and mostly made the right reads. And he has to get some credit for leading his team on four consecutive touchdown drives in the second half.

Six different receivers contributed, led by tight end Rob Gronkowski's 4 catches for 71 yards and a touchdown where he ran through five or six Colts defenders. Julian Edelman had 5 catches for 50 yards, but he appeared to suffer a hip injury and wasn't very effective in the second half. And just when the Colts thought they had everyone bottled up, Brandon LaFell caught a big third-down pass and got two others, too.

The offensive line deserves credit and praise for their great run blocking. The team put in a sixth O-lineman once they were dominating on the ground, and that made it even more difficult to stop them. They were great on pulls and slashed through the smaller Colts defenders all night long. And Gronkowski deserves credit as an honorary O-lineman for the game; his blocking was as good as it's been all year.

However, last night was not an unalloyed success for the O-line. Both of Brady's interceptions came on plays with almost instant pressure from the Colts defense. The first was a whiff by tackle Sebastian Vollmer, who let his man get inside and force a bad pass. And on the second interception, a Colts defender split an inside double-team and was on Brady in less than a second (trust me, I timed it). You have to take off points for giving up pressure in less than a second when you are double-teaming the man who got the pressure.

As for the defense, well, you can't pile up a 244-to-19 yard running advantage unless your team stops the opponent running game. And the Patriots defensive line and linebackers did a great job attacking the run not just clogging things up. Add the brilliant play of cornerback Darrelle Revis and the great game plan of making the Colts beat you with something less than their best players, and it was a masterful day for the Patriots defense.

It all started with the secondary. Coming into the game, the Colts led the league in big plays (20+ yards), but they had fewer such plays than the Patriots last night. Receiver Reggie Wayne beat them early, and then Revis shut him down the rest of the game. The Pats then double-teamed the Colts best receiver, T.Y. Hilton, which forced them to use tight end Coby Fleener -- who had a good game but didn't dominate like Hilton and Wayne can.

Cornerbacks Logan Ryan and Kyle Arrington got beaten during the game, but both battled back. Ryan ended up with 2 defended passes and 3 tackles. And Arrington got 1 pass defended and also had 3 tackles. Safeties Devin McCourty and Patrick Chung went mostly unnoticed, which was a result of the gameplan to keep things short. And just so you don't think I'm going soft, cornerback Brandon Browner got beaten early and often, and pretty much never got back to do much about it. Not his best game at all.

The defensive line did a great job holding firm in the running game and getting after the passer from the outside. Rob Ninkovich got 5 tackles, and had a tackle for a loss and 2 QB hits. Interior linemen Vince Wilfork, Alan Branch, and Dominique Easley did a great job holding things up so the linebackers could shoot gaps and stop plays before they got started. 19 yards on the ground, you can't ask for much better than that.

Linebacker Jamie Collins was the front-seven star of the game. He ended up with 8 tackles (2 for a loss) and a forced fumble. And his coverage out of the backfield was very good. Dont'a Hightower had more mixed results, with 6 tackles of his own, 2 QB hits, and a pass defended. But his pass coverage wasn't nearly as consistent; he was behind several plays, and appeared to stop running once a receiver got past him. Newcomer Akeem Ayers was a non-factor.

Special teams was unremarkable, which means they did a good job. Ryan Allen only punted once, and Stephen Gostkowski never attempted a field goal. However, a day when you give up no big returns and have no blown plays is a good day. The only quibble was that return-man Danny Amendola got tackled at his own four-yard line -- not good.

The coaching plan was terrific. On offense: slow down the pass rush by running the ball up the middle; and when the running game worked well, stick with it and set up play-action. On defense: stop the run and don't give up big plays.

So where does that leave us? Technically the Chiefs are just one-game behind the Patriots, but they have to win their division to be in the conversation about first-round playoff byes. So unless they can overtake the Broncos, the Patriots are in the driver's seat when it comes to playoff seeding. Next up is Detroit; a dome team coming to play outdoors in Foxboro as the weather turns colder. Smells like a win to me.

Statistical Oddity of the Week: There were three penalties in the game for facemask/hands-to-the-face -- and all three were committed by players wearing #50. (Two on the Patriots Rob Ninkovich, and one on the Colts Jerrell Freeman).

Bonus Statistical Oddity: After a slow start the Patriots are second in the NFL in points per game (32.3). Trivia question: can you name the team that leads the NFL in this category? (Hint: this team is on the Patriots 2014 schedule... answer below.)

Jonas Gray Statistical Oddities of the Week: Gray was the first Patriots running back with 100+ yards and 2 touchdowns at the half since 1983. He's also one of only four players in NFL history to score his first four touchdowns in one game (and first since 1979). Gray is one of only five running backs in NFL history with 150 yards and four touchdowns in one road game. And lastly, he now holds the single-game Patriots record with four rushing touchdowns in one game.

Weekly Water-cooler Wisdom: "I'm trying to imagine how good this team can be -- remember: Chandler Jones should be coming back later this year."

Keep the faith,

- Scott

PS. 8-2!

PPS. Trivia answer:
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The Green Bay Packers put up 53 yesterday, and lead the NFL with 33 points per game. Should be a barn-burner in two weeks!

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