A dreary Monday afternoon, made that much more dim by the remnants of the powerful storm that doomed the New England Patriots' final drive, as it were, in Cincinnati yesterday afternoon.
The system has generated severe storm warnings from the Adirondacks to the Canadian Maritime, which haven't impacted this filthy little central Maine town as yet, bringing just a steady dose of this weird misty rain indigenous to New England, which combined with the gloomy skyline of Lewiston gives one the feeling that they're stuck in the middle of a Sherlock Holmes mystery...
But we don't need Holmes to figure out what happened to the Patriots yesterday in Paul Brown Stadium, and it's not pretty - not just because it was a loss, not even that it was a loss in which the offense generated just six points, nothing complex...
...not even because the Patriots offense got slugged in the mouth - which they did, repeatedly - but because they flinched. Rather, Josh McDaniels' flinched.
The very first time that Tom Brady dropped back to pass, he didn't even make it to his sweet spot before he got belted by Bengals' defensive tackle Geno Atkins, lucky even to hold onto the ball. That was just the second play of a game that's pace was dictated by the attacking Cincinnati defense that after the game, Bengals' coach Marvin Lewis did something that he never does.
After the Cincinnati Bengals shut down the New England Patriots' offense by giving quarterback Tom Brady the beating of his life, Lewis got the attention of everyone in the celebratory locker room to give a game ball to defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer - but he could have saved it, because the Patriots' play calling made his job pretty easy.
"I don't normally give out game balls, but I gave that one to Zimmer." a sincere looking Lewis said, "They played well today. They were tight in coverage most of the day. Upfront, they got after it."
Got after it, indeed - and with a timely assist from the Patriots' sideline.
Opposing teams have known for years that the way to get Brady off of his game is to come right up the gut and get in his face. The teams that can successfully do that all have Lombardi Trophies as a direct result of doing just that. The Baltimore Ravens are the reigning World Champions because they got in Brady's face in the AFC Championship. The New York Giants have two Lombardi's.
The teams that can overwhelm the New England Patriots' offensive line with their pass rush is the team that can rattle Brady - and when you can rattle Brady, you get - well, you get what we saw in Cincinnati yesterday.
"We were able to get to Brady on the second play," defensive tackle Domata Peko said of the key play made by Atkins, "After that, you could see he was a little shaky. If you hit somebody enough, they're going to make mistakes."
Brady made a few mistakes, but he hung in the pocket like the warrior he is and took some vicious hits - the more hits he took, the less animated he became until, by the time the final drive was upon him, he stood in the pocket in a soaking monsoonal rain, now needing to throw the ball with less than two minutes to play, but unable to see through the din nor get a grip on the ball...
...so the question that should be in the brains and on the tongue of every expert, analyst and two bit blogger is why did offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and head coach Bill Belichick allow it to get to that point?
When LeGarrette Blount fumbled the football midway through the second quarter on a nice hack job by Cincinnati's Carlos Dunlap, it effectively signalled the end of the Patriots running game for the day - and Brady became a sitting duck.
No running game to soften up the pass rush, no running game from which to make effective use of the play action, no running game to save Brady a few hits on his aging frame.
At the eight minute mark of the second, Blount found a decent hole up the middle, slid through it and turned his shoulders upfield, prepared to punish him some defensive backs. As much as the offensive line was besieged by the big, fast Tigers' pass rush, they generated that much push going the other direction in the running game...
...several times one side of the line would seal off an entire wall of Cincinnati run defenders, leaving the weak side guard clear to pick and choose blocking targets on the second level, Blount and his blockers gouging the Bengals' for nearly five yards a pop, but any semblance of consistent running game evaporated when the ball hit the turf.
Considering that Blount was on pace to reach the century mark, and with just one other healthy back on the active roster, benching Blount really wasn't an option, and abandoning the run at that point wasn't either - but in the final 38 minutes of the game and spanning seven New England possessions, McDaniels called a total of just seven running plays.
Seven. And what's even more curious, is that the run was just as effective in the limited opportunities after the fumble, yet was reduced to being a token offering to appease the football Gods.
Nothing is going to absolve Blount of fumbling the football - he put it on the ground and there's no denying that. But in limiting the run in a tight, defensive affair and exposing your offensive line and quarterback to what you know is an overwhelming force was a decision that took away the offensive balance and placed the entire unit in a position to fail.
Blame anyone you want - Blount for fumbling the ball, Brandon Bolden for dropping a swing pass that would have most likely gone for a score, Thompkins for double clutching, Dobson for running the wrong route, the offensive line for poor communication and Brady for flinching - but those things could have been overcome had McDaniels not turned the offense one-dimensional and Brady a stationary target.
Even having a first and goal from the Bengals' one yard line, McDaniels called a first down run and, not gaining any ground, gave up and attempted a fade to eligible tackle Nate Solder of all people, and a jump ball for a 5' 10" Julian Edelman before settling for a field goal - essentially telling every football player, fan and expert that he doesn't trust his offensive line and backs to get one yard for a game altering touchdown?
No one is innocent, and on the field it starts with the offensive line and works it's way back - but before any of that occurred, there was the play calling. In week 2, the New York Jets lost to the Patriots because they stopped running the ball. Last week in Atlanta the game got away from the Falcons because they stopped running the ball, so it's not like there's no precedence to fall back on.
So if you're looking for a scapegoat, someone to blame for the poorly executed game plan, look no further than the person who was calling the plays.
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