The Runner Sports
Home / Cities / Boston / Takeaways From Patriots’ Win Over Jaguars

Takeaways From Patriots’ Win Over Jaguars

The 1-1 Jacksonville Jaguars traveled to Gillette Stadium this Sunday to face the 2-0 New England Patriots and it was a bloodbath. The Patriots scored every time they touched the ball and had eventually benched major key players late in the game including Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman. The final score was 51-17 and there were a number of things learned about New England this week.

 

The corner rotation is still being figured out:

Malcolm Butler seems to be the only player who has established himself as an every week starter at corner. This week Tarrell Brown conceded his starting spot to Logan Ryan, while Bradley Fletcher was deactivated. Fletcher had been previously been playing one out the outside corner spots in nickel packages. Justin Coleman, the undrafted free agent was also given a lot of playing time Sunday.

It’s clear Belichick is still trying to figure out what he has in his defensive backs and an inferior opponent like the Jaguars seemed like a good time to see what other members of the depth chart could do. It seems likely Fletcher’s benching may become a long-term thing.

 

LeGarrette Blount is still a key member of this team:

Dion Lewis has been the surprise star of this team through two weeks being very productive as the teams lead back and through the first portion of this game, nothing looked different. Lewis did damage on the ground and through the air while he was being moved all around the formation.

Blount had largely been an after thought, someone who barely registered any playing time against Buffalo. Yet Belichick turned to him in the second quarter and leaned on him throughout the game and the results spoke for themselves as he totaled 78 yards and 3 touchdowns on 18 carries.

The one-two punch of Lewis and Blount is a great tool for this offense and in a blow out game, it was a great opportunity to get Blount’s season started.

 

Aaron Dobson continues to struggle:

Dobson is unlikely to ever develop into what many thought he could be when he was drafted at the end of the second-round of the 2013 draft, yet he’s earned his roster spot on this team.

The unfortunate part is seeing him continually struggle, especially with his hands. In Sunday’s game he had the opportunity to reel in a huge gain on a deep pass for Brady, but he dropped the ball on his way to the ground. In the Buffalo game Brady threw a slant pass to him and while he was able to reel it in, he had to “double catch” it. Those sorts of things won’t show up in the stat sheet, but double catching shows his hands aren’t reliable and can affect the ability to create yards after the catch.

Later in Sunday’s game, Dobson seemed to concede playing time and targets to others like newly acquired Keyshawn Martin. Dobson needs to show growth in being able to successfully track and catch the ball so Brady and Josh McDaniels know they can count on him.

 

Brady and the Patriots intend to bury their opponents:

After spygate, the Patriots 2007 offense not only set records, but wouldn’t come off the field even when the game was in-hand. This offense seems to be of a similar mindset following the never-ending Deflategate saga. While Gronkowski and Edelman were taken off the field, Brady stayed on the field until deep into the 4th quarter and continued to push the ball down the field with the intent to score.

With 119 points through 3 games, this team is going to keep the pedal down and continue to score on teams at will when the opportunity presents itself.

 

The Patriots can beat Man and Zone defenses:

After the Bills largely played man defense last week, mixing in press and off-man coverage, the Jaguars seemed to be content to sit back in zone all game. The way you attack each type of defense is different, but Brady seemed to know where he was going all day. He was hitting Gronkowski up the seam, Lewis split out wide and Edelman underneath across the middle.

Defensively the Jaguars could have benefitted from mixing up their defenses more, but either way they seemed overmatched. For the Patriots, this was a good opportunity to prepare and face a completely different defense from that of the Bills.

Author: Kevin Wilson