The New England Patriots have a fine set of shiny new pass catchers, which will soon be joined by the likes of Danny Amendola and Rob Gronkowski - yet even without those two top shelf targets to take most of a defense's attention, rookies Aaron Dobson and, to a greater degree, Kenbrell Thompkins have established themselves as viable targets for future Hall of Famer Tom Brady.
Thompkins is an emerging star in his own right, drawing comparisons to former all pro performers in just his fourth professional game, and while Dobson has not shown to be as explosive as his fellow rookie receiver, his potential to do so is through the dome, so to speak...
...and with Josh Boyce ready to bust out into something proper, this pass catching corps is perhaps the best the Patriots have ever had, and there's one thing that binds the whole thing together and provides Brady with a trustworthy security blanket - just in case...
Julian Edelman is a spaz.
Brady said as much in a Wednesday press conference, but also praised the fifth year veteran for being ready to swallow up his opportunity to shine after playing behind Wes Welker for the last four years.
"Very hard worker, he’s dedicated, nobody works harder than Julian." Brady said on Wednesday, "It’s hard when you’re playing behind Wes for all these years. You’re just not going to get a lot of opportunity because Wes was such a great player, was durable and Jules never got a chance. Now he’s got it and it doesn’t look like he’s slowing down at all."
Long referred to by the moniker "mini-Welker", it's time to call Edelman what he really is - a wide receiver for the New England Patriots, and a damned good one.
In fact, at the quarter pole of the 2013 National Football League season, Edelman leads all of professional football with 34 catches, which projects out to 136 for the season, if you track such things - but numbers can't measure what the former college quarterback brings as a skill set, and the production is not unprecedented.
Drafted in the 7th round in 2009 by a team that seems to have freakishly good luck with bottom of the barrel selections - names like Deaderick, Dennard, Beauharnais and Buchanan are recent examples - The three year starter as the signal caller at Kent State University has grasped his big opportunity by the throat, and with those hands, he's sure to have it in a death grip all season.
The amazing thing is that he was almost an afterthought in the offseason.
An unrestricted free agent trying to recover from a broken bone in his right foot, he found very little interest on the open market, but the Patriots were more than happy to sign him to a one year deal to be Danny Amendola's back up - and, yes. Here we are.
Julian Edelman isn't anyone's backup any more.
Passing offense: A-
In setting up the Falcons for a second half assault, quarterback Tom Brady attempted just nine passes in the first half while handing the ball to his trio of running backs to establish balance - a balance that would serve them well in the 4th quarter.
The also two to one ration of run vs. pass in the first half flip-flopped in the second half, and the play action that the running disparity caused absolutely devastated the Falcons' pass defense. It's compelling that Belichick felt that he could afford the time in the first half to properly set up the second half - and whether that was by design or something that was something that they discovered during the course of the half, it worked to perfection.
Part of that had to do with the offensive line getting a huge push in the running game. After the game, guard Logan Mankins quipped that "I Didn't even know if I could pass block, because we hadn't had to" to that point. The line also had their best game to date and kept Brady upright and clean.
There were times, particularly on the stretch plays, that Brady appeared to have enough time to grab a coffee and a croissant - from France.
Brady's pass to Matthew Mulligan might be his best throw of the season thus far, and Kenbrell Thompkins going up over safety William Moore to take the ball from him is bar far his best catch of the season. Mulligan is something of an intriguing prospect as far as Patriots' fans go - he's a load as a blocking tight end, but also obviously has great hands and wicked focus.
Brady was high in praise of Mulligan as well, citing his intelligence and work ethic, but also for staying with his route and the ball, despite being the second checkdown after Michale Hoomanawanui and Zach Sudfeld on the play.
"For him to go out there and make that play, that was pretty cool for a guy that wasn’t even on the roster five weeks ago, to make a play like that in the game" Brady said, and at the same time, we all notice how much nicer it is that Brady is praising his pass catchers instead of yelling at them.
Josh Boyce is also ready to contribute, and showed fantastic hands on his one catch, a fluttering ball that Brady threw under duress, Boyce snagging the ball right off of his shoelaces and using his unnatural speed to turn a five yard floater into a 24 yard chunk in the blink of an eye.
Rushing Offense: B+
Again, it was LeGarrette Blount that brought down the hammer at winning time, taking a handoff from Brady, sliding through a tool booth sized hole in the heart of the Falcons' run defense and taking it outside, rumbling 47 yards for a score.
But the running game was working far earlier than that, the offensive line generating a huge push to the left and running right at Osi Umenyiora on a will killing drive for the Patriots' only touchdown of the first half.
All three of the New England trifecta of running backs found holes as the Patriots took 75 yards in 12 plays, 50 yards in 10 runs, a 24 yard catch and run by Stevan Ridley (who knew?) and the one yard rocket from Brady to Mulligan for paydirt.
If there is any criticism toward the running game, it lies solely with the play calling on the 3rd and 4th down plays that could have salted the game away for the Patriots late in the 4th quarter. As it is, on the 3rd and two, replays showed that Blount had the first down, but the officials called him short, then couldn't find compelling evidence (again, who knew?) to overturn the spot on the field.
On fourth down, Brady appeared to pull away from center early as if he needed to get to a spot quickly to give Blount the best chance to pick up a few inches, perhaps another of those stretch plays as Blount was headed off tackle - and the ball never made it to Brady. That almost turned out to be a disaster.
Pass Defense: B
Too much Tony Gonzalez, not enough defenders. The Patriots were obviously more worried about Julio Jones, which they should have been, but their scheme seemed to lack any urgency in regard to an eroding but still dangerous tight end Gonzalez.
When they started doubling Gonzalez, Falcons' quarterback Matt Ryan went deep, putting money balls right on his receivers, and they caught enough to make things interesting. In the end, the Falcons had too many weapons for the Patriots to adequately account for all of them, so they shut down the run and blanketed the deep pass catchers, opting to let Gonzlaez burn them...
...and burn them he did, and it really didn't have to be as bad as it was, but some coverage mix ups and just some perfectly thrown balls contributed to his big night - and Jones had a decent statistical night as well, but didn't have nearly the impact on the game that he would have without some solid coverage work by Aqib Talib and Alfonzo Dennard.
Talib and Dennard both had him for an equal number of snaps, and while Talib showed the entire football world why he is a former first round draft pick, it deserves mentioning that Dennard wasn't too shabby on him either, only some perfectly thrown balls from Ryan made it through. Obviously Talib is on another planet in his experienced skill, and Dennard can be there some day.
The pass rush was effective enough to move Ryan off of his sweet spot in the pocket a half a dozen times, Chandler Jones and Tommy Kelly seeming to always be right in Ryan's face - Joe Vellano catching Ryan from behind for his pivotal sack in the third quarter, then Buchanan recorded his second sack of the year two drives later.
Rush Defense: B+
Exceptional job of taking the Falcons' running game away from them - and that includes staying disciplined on screens, which in the Falcons' offense is like an extended handoff as they use the backs a lot for the majority of their screen game snaps.
Without Vince Wilfork on the field for most of the game - and now probably for the entire season with a torn Achilles - Tommy Kelly and Joe Vellano put in their best performances of the young season, though it was curious that the Falcons' didn't try harder to expose the fact that a premier run stuffer was not where he was supposed to be.
Nothing curious as to Brandon Spikes rapidly declining playing time, however, but it should be noted that it's not a performance issue, rather, a game planning decision. But with Wilfork out for the foreseeable future, Spikes is going to have a lot of say in limiting the opposition's running game going forward, perhaps as a psycho-style downhill gap plugger....
...but the onus will be on Vellano, Kelly, newly signed Chris Jones and either A. J. Francis or Marcus Forston from the practice squad to set the tone in run defense, to take on the blocks and create gaps for Spikes and the rest of New England's athletic 'backers.
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