Updated 2008-12-01 22:22
10 Things We Learned Yesterday
In no particular order, here are 10 things we learned about the Patriots in yesterday’s game, a 33-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers:
1. So much for that Tom Brady trade talk. Matt Cassel endured one of the roughest outings of his career yesterday, going 19-for-39 for 169 passing yards, two interceptions, a pair of lost fumbles and five sacks. Yeesh. It was a brutal afternoon all around for No. 16, who accounted for four of New England’s five turnovers. To be fair, many of his incompletes were simply dropped or tipped balls (including an interception), but there were some bad decisions. He tossed a pair of bad balls in the first half, including a wildly off-target pass for tight end David Thomas with just under 10 minutes remaining in the second quarter. After two straight 400-yard passing performances, he was bound to regress — especially against the top-ranked Pittsburgh defense. Even so, yesterday was ugly. “I missed some throws out there, and maybe we missed some catches — that is just part of the game and that is going to happen,” said Cassel, who didn’t throw a touchdown pass for the first time in three weeks. “As an offense, we have to move forward.”
2. No matter how good your receivers are, the weather can still play havoc with the passing game. Cassel was forced to endure some bad drops from many of his wide receivers, including Jabar Gaffney and Randy Moss, the latter of whom dropped one the end zone late in the second quarter that could have changed the complexion of the contest, as well as one in the open field in the first quarter that could have gone for six. “We dropped balls,” said Moss, who finished with four catches for 45 yards. “I don’t want to blame it on the weather. The balls were there — they just weren’t caught. This is something that will probably bother me until next Sunday.”
3. Matthew Slater isn’t blaming the weather. In his lone opportunity yesterday, the rookie kick returner botched it badly. The Steelers had just taken a 13-10 lead with just over five minutes left in the third quarter. But he failed to hold on to the kickoff, and knocked it away. His turnover led to a touchdown, and while it wasn’t the lone error of the afternoon (the first-half drops from Moss were probably the worst, at least in terms of severity), it will be the enduring memory that most will take away from the game. However, the comedy of errors wasn’t funny to anyone in the New England locker room, which saw a 10-10 game go to 23-10 in the blink of an eye late in the third quarter, thanks in large part to the gift that Slater gave to Pittsburgh. “Yeah, it’s wet. Yeah, there’s rain. But I have to do my job,” Slater said after the game, staring into his locker. “I saw the ball. There’s no excuse. I just feel like I let the team down. You can’t give up the ball inside the 10 or the five-yard line, whatever it was. I have to do my job. It’s as simple as that. There are no excuses.” We later learned the reason Slater was in the game — normal return man Ellis Hobbs III had started to cramp up on the sidelines, and the medicine they gave him to relieve it made him sick.
4. Go 1-for-13 on third down, and you’ll have a problem beating the Lions, let alone the Steelers. The Patriots converted just once on third down — their final play from scrimmage. That, combined with the fact that they were unable to get off the field on third down themselves (the Steelers were 8-for-16 on third-down chances), will likely mean a long week in Foxborough. “That’s the big thing about third downs — it either keeps drives going or cuts them short,” said running back Sammy Morris, who had 10 carries for 45 yards and scored New England’s only touchdown. “Especially when you go three-and-out, it cuts them short pretty abruptly. You add the turnovers, and the scoreboard reflected [the outcome].”
5. If Wes Welker is out for a sustained period, it will have a serious impact on the New England offense, and Cassel’s development as a whole. Welker was blown up by Pittsburgh’s Ryan Clark on a crossing pattern in the third quarter and did not return. (There was no updated provided about his health during the game, and he wasn’t in the locker room afterword.) If Welker goes missing down the stretch, it not only deprives the offense of a dependable pair of hands, it eliminates Cassel’s security blanket — no receiver has developed the sort of chemistry with Cassel that Welker has. Yesterday, Welker caught four of the seven passes thrown in his direction. Over the last month, Welker caught 29 of the last 35 balls Cassel has thrown in his direction, an unheard of ratio for any receiver. For what it’s worth, Clark said he wasn’t trying to deliver a cheap shot. “Anybody that comes across, it is my job to tackle them,” he said. “I talked to Kevin Faulk and apologized. I could not find Welker after the game to tell him I was not trying to be dirty.”
6. If Welker is out for a sustained period, expect Kevin Faulk to have an even greater role in the offense. Faulk will likely receive a game ball for his efforts yesterday, as he led the team in rushing (73 yards, including a surprising 41-yard run at the end of the first half) and receiving (48 yards, the highlight of which was a nifty 17-yard reception in the fourth quarter). But after Welker was sidelined from the game, Cassel locked on to Faulk. No receiver was targeted more in the second half — five of Cassel’s 18 second-half pass attempts went to the running back. (In all, Faulk caught six of the eight passes thrown in his direction yesterday, the best ratio of any New England receiver that was targeted at least five times by Cassel.) When you are looking short — no pun intended — Faulk remains a dependable option. “Kevin is a good football player,” Belichick said. “He always seems to make some plays for us.”
7. When it comes to Pittsburgh, the numbers never lie. Entering yesterday’s game, the Steelers were 8-0 when they held an opposing quarterback under 175 yards passing. They were 0-3 when an opposing quarterback threw for more than 175 yards. Keeping Cassel on the negative side of 175 was a recipe for success. “We wanted to get some pressure on [Cassel] and give him some different looks,” said Pittsburgh defensive end Aaron Smith of the Steelers, who won in Foxborough for the first time since 1997. “I think we just made more plays than them [yesterday], and in the past, it has been them making those plays.”
8. The New England secondary looks good in spurts. Over the course of 60 minutes? Not so much. The Patriots’ cornerbacks had a good start to yesterday’s game, playing well for about a quarter and a half. After an uneventful first quarter, they were building on that with some nice second-quarter work: With just over 12 minutes left in the first half, there was a nice pass breakup by Deltha O’Neal on a deep pass attempt from Ben Roethlisberger to Nate Washington. Two plays later, Hobbs also had a nice breakup of a pass intended for Santonio Holmes. And with 4:14 left in the first half, a corner blitz paid off for Hobbs as he split a sack with Richard Seymour. (Although the sight of the 5-foot-9, 195-pound Hobbs trying to take down the 6-foot-5, 240-pound Roethlisberger was funny.) But after that, it was all downhill — O’Neal was beaten badly by Holmes on a 19-yard touchdown pass right before the end of the first half, and later, he missed badly on an 11-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter to Hines Ward. In addition, five of Pittsburgh’s eight successful third-down conversions came via the pass.
9. The Patriots didn’t dramatically alter their defense for run-heavy Pittsburgh. New England stayed in a base 3-4 defense most of the afternoon, switching to a two-man front on third down situations per usual. Without Ty Warren (sidelined because of a groin injury), they rotated Mike Wright, Vince Wilfork, Richard Seymour and Jarvis Green along all four down lineman positions, with Le Kevin Smith coming in to join them in short-yardage and goal-line situations. It appears that when Warren is out, Wright is the biggest beneficiary when it comes to playing time — according to our very unscientific count (we have yet to look at a replay), here’s how their snaps broke down: Wright (58 of the 68 snaps), Wilfork (56 snaps), Seymour (52 snaps), Green (28 snaps) and Smith (5 snaps). As for pressure in the passing game, the front seven was more active yesterday than it was the last two weeks — they only had one sacks, but hit Roethlisberger six times (Seymour got to him three times).
10. For the Patriots, it’ll be an uphill climb to the postseason. With the Jets’ loss to Denver, if New England ends up on the outside looking in at the playoffs, yesterday will mark a colossal missed opportunity. The Patriots, who fell to 7-5 yesterday, could have thrust themselves right back into the mix for a division title. Instead, they are left with their second loss in the last three games, and a likely must-win situation down the stretch for their last forur games, starting Sunday in Seattle. “I mean, starting in the beginning of the season, you have to think like that anyway,” said Hobbs. “To play the way we did and lose, you just can’t expect the playoffs to be handed to us.” His point was echoed by his teammates. “I would say at this point in the season, they are all must-win,” Morris said. “Obviously, with a loss this late in the season, it’s going to put a little more emphasis on the next game, on that being a bigger game for us.”
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.
