US – Friday, July 30

10 Things We Learned Yesterday

In no particular order, here are 10 things we learned about the Patriots in yesterday’s game, a 49-26 win over the Oakland Raiders:

1. They can take care of their own business. This was a game that had the potential to be troublesome — the second contest of a West Coast road swing in nasty weather against a team that has some good individual talent. But New England was relatively crisp and efficient in all three phases of the game: The Patriots scored scoring easily on their first five possessions, taking a 35-14 lead at halftime and dictating tempo the rest of the way. On defense, they completely stifled the Oakland running and passing attack. And while there was one breakdown in kick coverage, the kick return unit made it for it on the very next play with their first return for a touchdown all season, a 95-yard runback that was so well executed that return man Ellis Hobbs didn’t even need to make a cut on his way to the end zone. In the end, it was enough for a big win, moving them to 9-5 on the season and helping them keep pace in the division race with the Jets and Dolphins, both of whom also won. The fast start may have made the biggest difference, according to Patriots coach Bill Belichick. “Those first three possessions, we got some big stops on defense, the offense took advantage of the field position we got on defense and special teams and converted those into points,” Belichick said. “That was really huge for us.”

2. If he didn’t have it before, Matt Cassel earned the respect of each one of his teammates yesterday. To say the quarterback endured a difficult week would be an understatement. In the days leading up to the game, Cassel’s father Greg passed away. He left the team for a day before returning to put the final touches on the game plan. (He’ll stay in California for the funeral this week before returning to Foxborough.) But yesterday against the Raiders, Cassel was excellent, tossing a career-high four touchdowns with his one interception coming on a tipped ball. The final numbers look rather pedestrian (18-for-30, 218 yards), but considering what he went through this week, we’re ready to call it his best game of the season. “He was very professional this week,” Vince Wilfork told reporters after the game. “He could have very easily said, ‘I’ve got to go handle this,’ but it just shows you the commitment he has to the team. To play with something like that on your heart is tough. I thank him for playing through that.” The sentiments were echoed by Belichick. “I just can’t say enough about Matt Cassel. I’ve been through that myself a couple years ago, I know what that’s like,” Belichick said. “I thought he did a great job in his preparation, his focus, and showed a lot of commitment to the team. He carried us a long way today. He deserves all the accolades he gets.”

3. When healthy, all the running backs know their roles, and are able to execute them. Kevin Faulk was the perfect changeup, a dependable option out of the backfield on the screen pass or on a draw play here and there. (Faulk had 45 rushing yards and 66 receiving yards and one touchdown. He also caught six of the eight passes thrown to him.) And LaMont Jordan (12 carries, 97 yards, one touchdown) and Sammy Morris (14 carries, 117 yards, one touchdown) were the tough, between-the-tackles combination the Patriots envisioned they could be at the start of the season. They ran hard and didn’t turn the ball over (no mean feat given the conditions). In addition, they were able to help the Patriots put together some nice offensive series, most notably in the second half where New England was looking to move the ball and milk the clock. “We ran the ball well,” Belichick said of his backs, which gained a collective 277 yards on the ground on 39 carries. “The backs ran hard.” It was the team’s highest single-game rushing total since 1985, when the Patriots posted 281 yards on 46 carries in a game against Cincinnati. (In all, New England’s rushing total against Oakland yesterday was the eighth-highest single-game total in franchise history.)

4. Yesterday meant a little more to Randy Moss and LaMont Jordan. The two ex-Raiders, who the Patriots leaned on in pregame preparations, enjoyed exceptional afternoons at the expense of their old team. Moss, who played for Oakland in 2005 and 2006, had five catches for 67 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Jordan had 12 carries for 97 yards and a touchdown, a 49-yarder where he bowed to the Oakland fans. In particular, Moss seemed to relish both scores — his first catch, he beat Oakland defensive back (and former Patriot) Rashad Baker to the end zone for a 20-yard catch. His second was a 9-yarder where he snagged the ball on a crossing pattern before turning his back to the Black Hole and pointing to his name on the back of his jersey. “That’s just Randy being Randy,” said Jordan, who played in Oakland from 2005 through 2007. “I was definitely happy for him, especially the way the Oakland media had no good things to say about him. ... We came here together to wear the Oakland uniform and to try to turn that program around. It didn’t work out and we both left on bad terms.”

5. When it comes to potential challenges in the AFC, the Patriots have nothing to worry about in the Raiders. Oakland is an astoundingly bad team, a disorganized, discombobulated mess. It didn’t run a single play from scrimmage in New England territory yesterday until there were just under four minutes left in the first half. They remain the most penalized team in the league, taking seven flags yesterday. And yesterday, they became the first team in NFL history to lose 11 games in six consecutive seasons. There’s no sense that anything is going to change any time soon. There is some individual talent there, particularly at running back, but there doesn’t seem to be any sort of overall big picture plan as to how to get better.

6. The Patriots’ special teams unit can get on the scoreboard in more ways than one. While the special teams have been solid for much of the 2008 season, their contributions haven’t shown up on the score sheet — through 13 games, New England was one of 21 teams that hadn’t had a kickoff returned for a touchdown. That all changed yesterday with an electric 95-yard return by Hobbs, the third of his career and first since last year’s 108-yard return in the season-opener against the Jets. The Patriots also got a blocked extra point by Vince Wilfork, the first blocked extra point for the Patriots since Oct. 6, 2002, when Tebucky Jones did it against the Dolphins in Miami.

7. Jonathan Wilhite has now officially passed Deltha O’Neal on the depth chart at cornerback. Last week’s start could be explained away as a possible game-plan decision. Yesterday, Wilhite got the start — the second of his career — and the bulk of the snaps at left corner. He was in and around the action for much of the afternoon, picking off the first pass of his career, a second quarter interception of JaMarcus Russell on a badly underthrown ball. There were some down moments (he missed McFadden badly on a third-quarter play that ended up going for 27 yards), but he finished with three tackles, an interception and two passes defensed, a good stat line for a young cornerback. He will likely face a more severe test next week against the Cardinals and their high-octane passing attack, but so far, he’s done well.

8. Some of the good numbers in run defense yesterday be attributed to simple situational football, but the return of Ty Warren made a big difference. Stopping the Oakland running attack was one of the points of emphasis this week, and New England did a good job blunting Darren McFadden and Justin Fargas. About 30 of the Raiders 116 rushing yards came when the game was in doubt, as Oakland struggled to put together any sort of sustained offensive series through the first two-plus quarters. Some of that can surely be attributed to the return of Ty Warren. The defensive tackle had been sidelined with a groin injury the last few weeks, and the results showed in a running defense that had struggled. Yesterday, Warren’s return coincided with a resurgent run defense that helped shut down Oakland’s best offensive option.

9. If there’s one guy who didn’t have a good road trip, it’s been tight end Ben Watson. First, his shout-out to his pregnant wife in the win over Seattle drew a penalty flag and a $10,000 fine from the league. Yesterday, he had a pass deflect off his chest and into the hands of Oakland defensive back Gibril Wilson, resulting in Cassel’s only turnover of the day. Watson is certainly having fewer passes thrown in his direction — yesterday, he was targeted only twice by Cassel, and failed to come up with the ball either time. Through 14 games, he has 22 catches for 209 yards and two touchdowns, the bulk of which (eight catches for 88 yards and one TD) came in one game. He’s not quite a full-blown disappointment, but he’s certainly performed below expectations in his four-plus years in New England. Going forward, if Matt Light is out for a sustained period of time and the Patriots need another blocker, it will be interesting to see how Watson is used and if his snaps increase.

10. For the Patriots, it’s a two-game season. The Jets and Dolphins both picked up unlikely victories yesterday, both moving to 9-5 and keeping the pressure on New England in the race for the AFC East title. The scenario hasn’t changed for the Patriots, who still lose out on all of the major tiebreakers, so they need to get some help if they want to reach the playoffs. Right now, however, they are more focused on taking care of their own business, and that continues Sunday with the regular-season home finale against Arizona. “We are right where we thought we would be. Every week is important,” linebacker Mike Vrabel told reporters after the game. “We will get back home and try to get some rest and get ready for the Cardinals.”

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.