All informed, the Patriots’ season opener got here as near a draw as a 5-point recreation can.
Offensively, the Patriots had been a smidge extra explosive and a contact extra environment friendly than the Eagles. Their protection created one fewer turnover, however allowed three fewer journeys into the pink zone. The Pats’ particular groups gained the sector place battle, by way of Eagles kicker Jake Elliott (4-for-4 on subject objectives) proved to be far and away one of the best participant on the sector in that part.
Ultimately, the distinction between the Pats and the reigning NFC champions was not the gulf in roster expertise many anticipated. It was that the Patriots dedicated the one cardinal signal of the sport: Mac Jones’ pick-six.
That interception yielded an early two-score lead for Philadelphia, which cashed in an Ezekiel Elliott fumble on the Pats’ subsequent snap to leap forward 16-0. At the Patriots’ invitation and welcome, the Eagles set the phrases of engagement Sunday by way of an early lead that pressured Jones and his rookie-laden offensive line to play catchup all afternoon.
It’s laborious to win on a tilted subject, not to mention throughout an on-again, off-again rainstorm.
Despite that, Jones later stood 19 yards and 62 seconds from the primary signature win of his profession. There was an outdated, acquainted power about Gillette Stadium (dare we are saying a confidence?), a sense the Patriots would pull the upset. Was it Brady magic returned residence? Or the daybreak of one thing new?
Neither. Jones faltered once more, crusing a sideline incompletion and operating right into a sack. Next, he had the ball taken out of his arms on a third-down display screen that lined two yards. Finally, he got here a Kayshon Boutte toe drag wanting a fourth-down conversion and turned the ball over on downs.
But regardless of all of that, Jones produced among the best statistical strains of his profession: 35-of-54 for 316 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. How may that be?
How may two bookends of disappointment sandwich such hope and statistical promise? What did all of it imply?
The fact is, Sunday was presupposed to be complicated. Week 1 is yearly essentially the most anticipated and least telling time of the 12 months. Just ask Tom Brady.
At the beginning of his seven Super Bowl campaigns, Brady went 2-3 in season openers (Drew Bledsoe began the Patriots’ opener in 2001 and Jimmy Garoppolo startedin 2016). For all that’s to be realized in Week 1, the ultimate rating is commonly essentially the most ineffective piece of data accessible.
The fact lies with the satan, deep within the particulars; hints and indicators and crumbs of what’s to return. For the Patriots, Bill O’Brien’s problem-solving and Jones’ play underneath strain had been most illuminating. Not to say, a throwback Bill Belichick recreation plan on protection that restricted the NFC’s greatest offense to 19 factors.
Here’s what else the movie revealed about Sunday’s loss:
Mac Jones
35-of-54 for 316 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT, 2 sacks
Accurate throw share: 73.1% at 5.9 yards per try
Under strain: 9-of-16 for 115 yards, 2 sacks
Against the blitz: 5-of-6 for 62 yards, sack
Behind the road: 13-of-13 for 55 yards
0-9 yards downfield: 15-of-23 for 157 yards, INT
10-19 yards downfield: 4-of-8 for 51 yards, TD
20+ yards downfield: 3-of-8 for 53 yards, 2 TDs
Notes: Jones confirmed indicators of Week 1 jitters, firing excessive on his preliminary throws and a beat too late on others. The most notable instance was the pick-six that caromed off Bourne’s arms after Bourne skied for the ball in moist situations. Eventually, Jones settled down and profited from higher safety.
In the center quarters, he accomplished six straight passes within the face of strain; an enormous growth contemplating he was the NFL’s worst starter underneath strain final 12 months in line with Pro Football Focus.
Offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien settled in with him, opening up the offense after the Pats’ opening barrage of screens and tempo yielded little outcomes. Jones discovered a rhythm within the second half when the Patriots had been pressured to go no-huddle, and he attacked the center of the sector extra persistently.
When O’Brien wasn’t steering him towards particular receivers on screens, Henry and Bourne surfaced as his favourite targets. But with the sport on the road, Jones took two sacks, a delay of recreation penalty and fired at rookie Kayshon Boutte on his final two non-screen passes. A foul, weird end.
Patriots’ Mac Jones blames himself for extra miscues in loss to Eagles
Studs
TE Hunter Henry
Until additional discover, Henry is Jones’ go-to man.
He caught the Patriots’ first landing, a jump-ball over Eagles security Reed Blankenship. Henry later transformed on fourth-and-8 with a slick one-handed seize. He completed with 5 catches for 56 yards, each second-most on the group.
WR Kendrick Bourne
The solely participant to high Henry in each classes, Bourne is off to a scorching begin. He performed 91% of the group’s offensive snaps, most amongst receivers. Bourne caught one landing splitting zone protection and one other versus man.
OLB Matt Judon
Judon’s 4 pressures led all Patriots, and his run protection proved a lot sturdy towards one of many NFL’s greatest dashing assaults. Judon sacked Jalen Hurts as soon as and hit him two different occasions. His play earned him volunteered reward from Eagles coach Nick Sirianni post-game.
S Jabrill Peppers
His pressured fumble modified the sport. His cross breakup might have stopped a landing drive. Throw in six tackles, and Peppers had himself a day.
Duds
LG Atonio Mafi
There’s no query Mafi, a fifth-round rookie, was pressured right into a troublesome spot towards the league’s greatest cross rush in his NFL debut. And there’s equally little doubt the Patriots will want higher from his place to develop offensively.
Mafi allowed two quarterback hits and two matching hurries. He additionally dedicated an pointless holding penalty within the third quarter that pulled the Pats out of subject purpose vary and certain took factors off the board.
RG Sidy Sow
Holding name apart, a lot of the identical criticism for Mafi holds true for Sow, who, it needs to be famous, spent a lot of the summer season trying to transition to proper sort out. Still, he generated little push within the run recreation and received tossed apart by Eagles defensive tackles. Rough debut.
WR JuJu Smith-Schuster
The Patriots’ highest-profile free-agent addition noticed much less enjoying time than sixth-round rookie Kayshon Boutte. Smith-Schuster additionally did not end the sport, yielding snaps on the ultimate drive to Boutte and fellow rookie Demario Douglas. With his snaps, he dedicated one drop and caught simply 4 passes for 33 yards.
Source explains JuJu Smith-Schuster’s lack of snaps for Patriots in Week 1
Critical areas
- Explosive play fee: Patriots 5.1%, Eagles 4.9%*
- Success fee: Patriots 40%, Eagles 36%**
- Red-zone effectivity: Patriots 3-5, Eagles 1-2
- Third downs: Patriots 5-15, Eagles 4-13
- Defensive strain fee: Patriots 42.1%, Eagles 30.9%
Offense
Game plan
- Personnel breakdown: 61% of snaps in 11 personnel, 15% snaps in 12 personnel, 5% snaps in 13 personnel, 18% in 21 personnel, 1% in 22 personnel.***
- Personnel manufacturing: 4.7 yards/play in 11 personnel, 3.5 yards/play in 12 personnel, 9.5 yards/play in 13 personnel, 4.5 yards/play in 21 personnel, 3 yards/play in 22 personnel.
- First-down down play-calls: 65% cross (7.3 yards per play), 35% run (3.2 yards per play)
- Play-action fee: 13.8%
Player stats
- Broken tackles: RB Rhamondre Stevenson 3, WR Demario Douglas 1
- Pressure allowed: Team (3 hurries), QB Mac Jones (2 sacks), LG Atonio Mafi (2 QB hits, 2 hurries), RT Calvin Anderson (2 hurries, 1 QB hit), RG Sidy Sow (3 hurries), C David Andrews (2 hurries)
- Run stuffs allowed: TE Mike Gesicki, Sow, Team
- Penalties: TE Hunter Henry (holding), Jones (delay of recreation), Anderson (holding), Mafi (holding)
- Drops: WR JuJu Smith-Schuster, Henry, Douglas
Notes
- Bill O’Brien wasted no time throwing the kitchen sink on the Eagles, using 4 completely different personnel groupings on his first 5 performs and going no-huddle. O’Brien additionally deployed 5 mixtures of skill-position gamers over the Pats’ opening eight snaps, because the employees rotated operating backs, receivers and tight ends all through the sport.
- After Jones’ pick-six and Elliott’s fumble nuked the primary two drives, the Pats had a cross damaged up or dropped on every of their subsequent three possessions, all three-and-outs. Jones, once more maybe attributable to an excessive amount of power, confirmed an absence of timing right here together with his receivers, typically triggering a hair too late on quick-game ideas that depend on passing with precision and anticipation.
- O’Brien relied closely on run-pass-options (RPOs) and screens all through the sport and by no means extra so than the primary quarter and a half. Those screens, although, averaged 3.3 yards per play and 1.4 yards when excluding Rhamondre Stevenson’s 32-yard achieve within the fourth quarter.
- Finally, trailing by 16-0 halfway by way of the second quarter, O’Brien opened up his play sheet after Gesicki transformed a third-and-medium on a pointy out route. This eventual landing drive gained momentum on three straight first-down conversions, the primary two coming from bunch units.
- As the Pats’ safety improved, O’Brien discovered repeated success with these 3-receiver “bunch” units that created pure friction with crisscrossing routes and compelled an Eagles protection enjoying downhill to all of the sudden again off.
- Smith-Schuster received free on a 15-yard crossing path to convert the Pats’ subsequent third down, then Jones hit Demario Douglas on a 23-yard completion from one other bunch set.
- Working from an empty formation on the following snap, Jones discovered Ty Montgomery working 1-on-1 towards Eagles linebacker Zach Cunningham, one other recreation plan level of emphasis.
- The Patriots efficiently attacked the Eagles linebackers and safeties all through Sunday’s recreation, most notably when Henry scored a landing on the pinnacle of security Reed Blankenship.
- On their second landing drive, the Patriots’ discovered Henry twice on hi-lo ideas over the center versus zone protection, once more exploiting Philly’s linebackers. Then, Bourne beat man protection for a 19-yard landing from one more bunch set.
- Trailing 16-14 within the second half, points arose when cross safety broke down, largely by way of the rookie guards. Mafi and proper guard Sidy Sow shouldered a lot of the blame with proper sort out Calvin Anderson, who missed all of coaching camp with an sickness.
- Henry received victimized by a horrible holding name, although Mafi earned his. Those flags virtually definitely took factors off the board within the third quarter, as did Jones when he did not set off a cross play in time on fourth-and-3 on the Eagles’ 17 and turned the ball over on downs. On that play, O’Brien referred to as one other bunch set.
- Jones later bumped into each of his fourth-quarter sacks, the latter coming from a blitz he did not diagnose pre-snap. He took accountability for each sacks Monday throughout an interview on WEEI.
- The second half additionally illuminated the very fact the Patriots are nowhere shut but to an id. They transformed their first fourth down in 12 personnel (two tight ends) with Smith-Schuster and Stevenson on the sector, then tried their subsequent fourth-down conversion with each gamers on the sideline.
- The Pats clearly schemed round a significant weak spot Sunday, however who’s enjoying when everybody’s wholesome? Will the Pats persist with an RPO, screen-heavy cross recreation or empower Jones in empty units and permit him to assault downfield? Will he have a number of backs or tight ends round him? Neither? It could also be weeks earlier than we all know how the offense takes form in these gotta-have-it conditions.
- One space in want of dramatic enchancment: run-blocking. It was dreadful from begin to end, save for a couple of Trent Brown efforts and third-string tight finish Pharaoh Brown blocking two Eagles defenders on one play, a uncommon snap of 13 personnel (one again, three tight ends) within the first quarter.
Defense
Game plan
- Personnel breakdown: 48% three-corner nickel bundle, 22% three-safety nickel, 27% dime, 3% base.****
- Coverage snaps breakdown: 51.2% zone, 48.8% man
- Blitz fee: 26.3%
- Blitz efficacy: 2.8 yards allowed per dropback
Player stats
- Interceptions: None
- Pass deflections: CB Christian Gonzalez, S Jabrill Peppers, DL Keion White
- Pressure: OLB Matt Judon (sack, 2 QB hits, 1 hurry), OLB Josh Uche (sack, 2 hurries), Gonzalez (1 sack), DL Keion White (3 hurries), DL Christian Barmore (2 hurries), DL Deatrich Wise (2 hurries), Team (2 hurries), LB Jahlani Tavai (1 QB hit)
- Run stuffs: Team, LB Ja’Whaun Bentley
- Missed tackles: Judon 2, S Kyle Dugger, Gonzalez, Bentley
- Penalties: Wise (offside, holding), Dugger (holding)
Notes
- The Patriots’ opened with an incredibly blitz-heavy method, sending further rushers at Jalen Hurts 5 occasions over the Eagles’ first two drives. After Hurts beat the final of these blitzes with a rollout, 5-yard landing cross to DeVonte Smith, the Pats blitzed 5 occasions the remainder of the sport.
- Their different essential changes included pivoting from three-safety nickel personnel (eight snaps on the opening drive to 6 the remainder of the sport) to extra three-corner nickel, curbing their use of slot blitz strain and specializing in Philly’s game-planned run: counter.
- The Eagles referred to as three counter runs for 19 yards on their opening drive, then opened their second possession with it for a achieve of 5. But within the second quarter, the Pats held two Eagles counter runs to at least one yard complete.
- Simultaneously, whether or not by authentic design or in-game changes, the Patriots revealed the core tenet of their plan for Hurts and Co.: deep, comfortable, disguised protection.
- The Pats prioritized stopping deep passes to Smith and A.J. Brown a lot that their free security — a place that at occasions featured Kyle Dugger, Jabrill Peppers, Adrian Phillips and rookie security/linebacker Marte Mapu — typically dropped again 16-20 yards off the road of scrimmage.
- This GTFB plan (“get the f— back,” because it’s recognized in group conferences), which is meant to disclaim the massive play and power a quarterback to play patiently, serves as a by way of line for a few of Bill Belichick’s plans towards elite quarterbacks through the years: Peyton Manning. Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen.
- Defensive play-caller Steve Belichick alternated between single-high and two-deep coverages and man and zone, typically staying a step forward of the Eagles. One clear instance was a third-and-long display screen Philly referred to as within the second quarter, anticipating blitz strain that by no means got here.
- Aside from third-and-longs, Belichick changed his early-down blitzes with “simulated pressures” within the second half. These are 4-man rushes that rush a linebacker, cornerback or security from the second or third degree and drop a defensive lineman or edge rusher off the road of scrimmage to trigger confusion.
- The Patriots did not have an effect on Hurts on many of those sim pressures, however did generate 1-on-1s for a few of their greatest cross rushers with secure zone protection behind them.
- All collectively, the Patriots’ deep protection plan helped restrict the Eagles to a single play of 20-plus yards, simply months after they ranked among the many league leaders with 80 such performs.
- In 2022, Hurts additionally completed third within the NFL at 7.8 yards per cross try. He completed at 5.2 yards Sunday, a mirrored image of how he was pressured to hit singles as a substitute of swing for residence runs. The Eagles by no means crossed the Patriots’ 30-yard line after their first two drives.
- The Pats’ cross rush spun by way of Philadelphia’s vaunted O-line with shocking success, particularly off the best facet. Matt Judon, rookie Keion White and Josh Uche all victimized All-Pro proper sort out Lane Johnson for at the least one strain.
- Judon earned his sack on an all-out Cover 0 blitz that lower him free as a free rusher on Philly’s opening drive. The Pats usually ran these pressures when the Eagles put Hurts in an empty formation or confronted third-and-long, which allowed their defensive backs to take a seat again on the line to achieve and drive any routes beneath.
- Veteran security Jabrill Peppers performed certainly one of his greatest video games as a Patriot, forcing a fumble and ranging over for a deep cross breakup that denied what would have been the longest play of the sport. Peppers performed like a person possessed.
- Up entrance, White impressed with three pressures in 23 defensive snaps. He beat Johnson with the identical inside transfer he flashed in coaching camp, a robust complement to his immense pure energy.
- Rookie cornerback Christian Gonzalez surrendered a number of catches to Smith and Brown, totally on in-breakers and comeback routes within the second half. The Eagles re-established a rhythm largely by choosing on Gonzalez and going up-tempo to restrict the Patriots’ skill to disguise pre-snap.
- Gonzalez did not permit a crippling deep ball, although, and actually teamed with fellow rookie Marte Mapu for picture-perfect double protection on an incomplete bomb to Brown early within the fourth quarter.
- Gonzalez later earned a sack on a uncommon exterior nook blitz and knocked a cross away from Brown to power a turnover on downs after the 2-minute warning. The Patriots will want extra of the identical from their first-round rookie nook if they need related outcomes towards Miami’s Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle this weekend.
Statistics for passing depth, damaged tackles, missed tackles and protection breakdown courtesy of Pro Football Focus.
*Explosive performs are outlined as runs of 10-plus yards and passes of 20-plus yards. Explosive play fee is among the most strongly correlated metrics with wins and losses.
**Success fee is an effectivity metric measuring how typically an offense stayed on schedule. A play is profitable when it beneficial properties at the least 40% of yards-to-go on first down, 60% of yards-to-go on second down and 100% of yards-to-go on third or fourth down.
***11 personnel = one operating again, one tight finish; 12 personnel = one operating again, two tight ends; 13 personnel = one operating again, three tight ends; 21 = two halfbacks, one tight finish; 22 = two halfbacks, two tight ends.
****Base protection = 4 defensive backs; nickel protection = 5 defensive backs; dime protection = six defensive backs; goal-line protection = three defensive backs; greenback protection = seven defensive backs.
Source: www.bostonherald.com