For a second, it appeared the Patriots’ comeback hopes had remained alive when Mac Jones related with Kayshon Boutte alongside the left sideline on fourth down.
But it was in the end the ultimate play. A video evaluation confirmed that the rookie huge receiver solely obtained one foot in bounds on the catch, sealing the Patriots’ season-opening loss to the Eagles.
It was the second time that Boutte – the Patriots’ sixth-round rookie receiver – had didn’t get his two ft in bounds crucial for a completion in his NFL debut on Sunday. It was a expensive mistake, however a helpful instructing second as he begins his profession.
“It’s definitely something that can be worked on,” Patriots huge receivers coach Ross Douglas stated. “We have a complete ball drill routine that we do, and that’s one thing undoubtedly that will likely be added and extra emphasised. It’s his first recreation as an expert soccer participant, he’s coming from faculty soccer the place he solely wanted one foot all the way down to have it’s a whole go and now you gotta have two. He was in two conditions the place sadly he didn’t get it achieved however I count on him to be higher transferring ahead and that’s undoubtedly one thing that we’ll proceed to work on. …
“We have to continue to drill that, we have to continue to remind them, emphasize it and it just gets better with time with reps and experience,” Douglas added. “Kayshon had the experience of OK, I might have caught the ball on (James) Bradbury, I might have caught the ball on (Josh) Jobe, but I didn’t get my two feet down so it doesn’t count. So that experience now, it will heighten his awareness to when I am on the sideline, there are certain techniques that I have to do to get both of my feet down. Like where’s my body position at, where’s the ball located, so now that he has that experience, now we can kind of move forward and drill it and get it better and he’ll be more cognizant of that moving forward.”
Boutte is doing his greatest to maneuver on from the error and appears to be treating it as a studying lesson.
“You live and you learn, it’s part of the game but it happens,” Boutte posted on Instagram. “Only up from here tho.”
The Patriots put two of their rookie receivers straight into the hearth in Sunday’s opener, with Boutte and Demario Douglas every having roles. Boutte completed with zero catches on 4 targets, whereas Douglas had 4 catches for 40 yards on seven targets. Their receivers coach was trustworthy in his evaluation of their debut performances.
“(Boutte) and Pop, they looked like two guys who it was their first NFL game, so there was some good, there were some mistakes they made,” Douglas stated. “It’s a lot to clean up. But overall, it was a positive start. We didn’t win the game, but for those guys, it was a positive start for them and it’s something to work with moving forward.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com