10 Things We Learned Last Night
In no particular order, here are 10 things we learned about the Patriots in last night’s game, a 41-7 win over the Denver Broncos:
1. Sometimes, the smallest things can change the tone of a game. Jay Cutler’s relatively innocuous injury at the start of the game — on Denver’s first play from scrimmage, he hit his throwing hand on the helmet of one of the Patriots, injuring a finger — changed the whole texture of the game. The Broncos, a pass first, pass second and run third team, were forced to turn to their ground game. They ran the ball seven of their first 10 plays from scrimmage, and did enjoy some success. But that really wasn’t their game. Forced out of their comfort zone, Denver struggled to find a rhythm, especially without starting running back Selvin Young in the lineup. (Backup Michael Pittman was dinged up early, forcing the Broncos to go to Andre Hall ... who fumbled twice in the first quarter.) Meanwhile, the Patriots took advantage, controlling the pace, dictating the tempo and never letting the Broncos get a sniff of this one on the way to a 41-7 win that wasn’t as close as the score would indicate. “That was a real great job by our football team tonight. I couldn’t be prouder of them,” said coach Bill Belichick. “We had our best week of practice and we played our best football of the night, and we needed to.”
2. When it comes to lessons in how to beat the Patriots, Mike Shanahan knows what he’s talking about. Shanahan has a 5-1 mark against New England since 2001, the best of any coach in that time, so when he talks about ways to defeat the Patriots, people listen. Asked earlier in the week about the keys to beating a Bill Belichick-coached team, the Denver coach said, “You can’t give the game away. If you do lose the turnover battle or if you make a mistake here or there, you are going to get beat.” As Troy Brown might say, Bingo! The Broncos turned the ball over five times — two interceptions and three fumbles — and the Patriots turned those turnovers into 20 points. “We went into the game knowing we can’t turn the football over,” Shanahan said after the game. “Any time you turn the ball over five times and get no turnovers in return, obviously, good things aren’t going to happen.”
3. If he stays healthy, Sammy Morris likely stands to benefit the most from the decision to move Laurence Maroney to injured reserve. A year ago this week, Morris suffered a career-threatening injury against the Cowboys. Last night, the Texas Tech product was the most dominant player on the field, piling up 138 rushing yards in the first half alone before leaving the game with a knee injury. He kept the chains moving, but his biggest yardage may have come on a pair of fourth-down conversions where he kept drives alive. The first one came early in the second quarter when the Patriots were on Denver’s four-yard line. Morris rumbled in off the left side for New England’s first touchdown of the night. On the Patriots’ next possession, they were faced with another fourth down, this time a fourth and one at the Denver 42. Morris went left again, picking up 13 big yards and setting up a New England touchdown on the next play when Cassel hit Moss on a 13-yard scoring strike. Morris wasn’t around after the game, but he had plenty of teammates willing to talk on his behalf. “His actions speak for themselves,” said running back Kevin Faulk. “We all knew Sammy could play, and he was given an opportunity and he took it.”
4. In the continued evolution of Matt Cassel, last night represented a step forward. The quarterback finished the game with a career-best three touchdown passes, doubling his total for the season. There were still plenty of flaws in his game — most of the six sacks he suffered were his fault, and he looks like he still hasn’t learned how to properly absorb a hit — but you could see flashes of improvement. We’re not talking colossal steps forward, especially when you consider it was against the Denver defense, but there was still plenty of reason for encouragement. He took what was offered to him, he didn’t try to do too much and ended up with another win. “I think that I continue to grow each and every week. The more you run this offense, the more comfortable you become,” said Cassel, who ended up going 18-for-24 for 185 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions. His quarterback rating was 136.3, the best of the season. “There’s a lot of details that you have to be on top of if you want to be successful, and each and every week, I’m learning something, and I’m just going to try to continue to grow and mature.”
5. For the second time all season, the Patriots showed what happens when you can achieve a real offensive balance. The two elements, which have struggled to get on the same page for much of the season, were able to strike a harmonious chord last night for the first time since a Week 2 win over the Jets. Behind Morris and his 138 yards on the ground, New England finished with 257 rushing yards total, the most the Patriots have finished with in a game since 1985. And Cassel was able to play off of that, engineering a steady and consistent passing attack that kept Denver on their heels most of the evening, even running a screen pass for Moss that surprised everyone, and ended up going for a touchdown. “It’s funny, because when I first got here it was usually [Donte] Stallworth and [Wes] Welker running it. I told coach, ‘Give me a shot, give me a shot,’” Moss said after the game. “They were like, ‘No, old man. We don’t want you running that.’ It was something we worked on for the last couple of weeks, and it finally paid off, so I told coach Belichick whenever I get that slip screen I’m going to try to take one to the house. Luckily, it happened. It was great execution from the whole unit.”
6. No one is quite sure what the future holds for Rodney Harrison. The veteran safety was carted off in the second half, the victim of what looked like a knee injury. Harrison was able to bounce back from serious injuries in 2005 (he suffered a torn ACL, PCL and MCL in Week 3) and 2006 (on Nov. 5 of that season against the Colts, he injured his right shoulder and missed six weeks. He returned for the Patriots’ penultimate game of the season against the Tennessee, only to suffer a knee injury). But no one is quite sure what to make of this one. Amateur lip readers — as well as folks in the press box — saw him say something after the injury, but no one was able to tell exactly what it was. “We will have to see how that is,” Belichick said, but added, “It doesn’t look too good.” While he was lying on the field waiting to be taken away, he was comforted by teammate Tedy Bruschi. Bruschi was reticent to discuss what he said to Harrison. “I’m going to keep that to myself, if you don’t mind,” the linebacker said after the game. “Rodney is one of my favorite teammates of all time, and I just went out there to check on him. What I told him and he told me was something between us.”
7. Few corners cover Randy Moss like Champ Bailey. We were looking forward to the showdown between the two, and for most of the first two quarters, it didn’t disappoint. For those of us who got a chance to isolate the one-on-one matchup — and they faced each other for most of the first half — it was an exciting display of individual football as both tried their best to one up each other. In all, the Patriots threw in Bailey’s direction just three times in the first half before Bailey left the game after being shaken up. The first came with just over two minutes left in the first quarter that resulted in an incomplete pass meant for Jabar Gaffney. The second time came early in the second quarter on a nine-yard connection from Cassel to Moss, where Bailey dropped into coverage. (Moss took advantage of the soft coverage, cruising across the middle and hauling in his first grab of the night.) The third time came with just over eight minutes left in the half when Cassel tried to find Moss in the end zone, only to have the pass was broke up by Bailey. When Bailey departed, the Patriots appeared to take advantage, scoring on two of their first three drives on pass plays in the second half with touchdown passes to Moss and Welker to make it 34-0 by the start of the fourth quarter.
8. Given Denver’s offensive success over the first half of the season, the New England defense has every reason to be proud of last night’s effort. After being embarrassed by the Chargers in San Diego the week before, the Patriots’ defense took advantage of some gifts (it would be a crime to say two of the three Denver fumbles were “forced” — Denver running back Andre Hall practically handed the ball to the New England defender, and at least one of the two Jay Cutler picks was thrown directly at a New England defender) on the way to their finest effort of the season. Entering last night, they had six takeaways through their first five games. They had five last night. In addition, they were able to reverse a nasty trend of allowing big plays. Against the Chargers, San Diego averaged 7.3 yards per play, and gave up pass plays of 48 and 49 yards. Last night, the Patriots held Denver to 4.7 yards per play, and the longest play they allowed was a 20-yard pass play from Cutler to Brandon Marshall. Quite a difference.
9. Sometimes, running backs are like starting pitchers. There were quizzical looks from several folks who wondered why the Patriots opened the season with a stable full of running backs, a group that included Maroney, Morris, Faulk, LaMont Jordan and Heath Evans. But like starting pitchers, you can’t have too many running backs. Now, Maroney is on IR, Jordan is hobbling with a calf injury and Morris missed the entire second half with a knee injury. It left Faulk, Evans and BenJarvus Green-Ellis to hold down the backfield in the second half last night, a trio that ended up with 119 second-half rushing yards. “I was just happy to go out there and contribute,” said Green-Ellis, who had 65 yards and a touchdown in just his second game in the NFL. “I’m happy for the team to get a win like this. I was happy to be able to do my part.”
10. For New England, practice makes perfect. After the game, Belichick — as well as several players — said that the Patriots had their best week of practice this season, and it paid off with the biggest win of the season. “We had our best week of practice,” said the coach, who picked up his 146th career win as a head coach. “It was a great week of practice. It was an emotional week of practice,” said Evans. “It’s a long year, and after losing like that this week and the West Coast trip we had, we had every excuse to come in here and be held under this week. It was the exact opposite.”
Christopher Price has covered the Patriots for Boston Metro since 2001. His book, “The Blueprint: How the New England Patriots Beat the System to Create the Last Great NFL Superpower” is current available from St. Martin’s Press in paperback. He can be reached at christopher.price@metro.us.
