Terrific first half by New England Patriots offense against Arizona Cardinals
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Game summary: New England Patriots defeated Arizona Cardinals 30-3 in a the third round of pre-season games (New England’s and Arizona’s second). Corey Dillon scored one touchdown in the first half, Matt Cassel threw one touchdown pass to Rich Musinski and one to Heath Evans in the second half. Stephen Gostkowski scored 3 field goals on three attempts, as well as all three extra points.
Good play across the board on offense in the first half for New England Patriots against Arizona Cardinals, though, again, the receiver corps was the weakest part, as expected.
Fullback Garrett Mills struggled a bit in the blocking game, but on the second-half play where he was flagged for holding, he did at least pick the right guy to block. Or hold, as it turned out. He also threw a good block at the edge on Corey Dillon’s touchdown run. Rookie tight end David Thomas had a good kick-out block on the same play (which looked like it had been drawn up by a football nerd: “We’ll have three tigh-ends and motion one from right to left to get numerical superiority. Genius!” And since the Cardinals didn’t counter the motion it worked out just like that. You’d think the Cards would have picked up on the motion to tigh-end Daniel Graham’s side, but no…).
Solid play overall by the offensive line, both blocking and protecting. Ryan O’Callaghan did a good job at right tackle and I he think he’s an improvement over Brandon Gorin. Stephen Neal and Logan Mankins turned in good, ground-clearing blocks on Kevin Faulk’s opportunistic draw-play run for first on 3rd and long in the second quarter.
Laurence Maroney, Dillon and Faulk all had a great first half.
Now on to the second half.
Update:
Backup offensive lineman Billy Yates had another strong game, this time at center, where coach Bill Belichick seems determined to build some depth. Yates is solid blocker and tonight he showed that he can handle playing center, too (including the shotgun snap, something even otherwise accomplished centers don’t always master, as Patriots fans know first hand). I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Yates ends up a starting interior lineman before the end of the season. The one play where Yates probably could have been a little stronger was on the cut-back run that took fullback Heath Evans to inside the one-yard line. That opening probably wouldn’t have been there against a starting defense. On the other hand, it’s hard to block everybody all the time on plays where the blocking flows from the backside towards the point of attack.
Gorin seems to be Plan B at left-tackle and I’m not convinced that that’s the way to go. He’s obviously not a bum, but he is just a cut below where the rest of New England’s starters are, and also where Yates is.
Matt Cassel was in control of the offense and generally looked pretty good, but I think he has to get rid of the ball faster than he did on his touchdown pass to Evans, where he held on to the ball until Evans’ defender fell to the ground (Gorin gave up a pressure on that play, but it can’t be held against him that time).
Good special teams play but Eric Alexander when he knocked the ball lose on a kick-off return to set up Cassel’s touchdown pass.
Rookie kicker and fourth-round draft pick Stephen Gostkowski had fine night with three field goals and quality kick-offs.
The Patriots have a boat load of good runningbacks now. I wonder how many of them can make the final roster?
Update 2:
Let’s not get too excited about the wide receiver situations, folks. We’re still missing Deion Branch and we do indeed miss him. Bam Childress is good, but Branch brings an unusal combination of speed, quickness, hands and eyes to the game. The passing game looks different when he’s playing.
The Patriots two quarterbacks, Tom Brady and Cassel, tossed for 351 yards on 29 completions (40 attempts) to 16 different players. 17 of those catches were made by nine different runningbacks and tight ends for 170 yards (if I added it all up correctly).
Update 3:
Let’s not get carried away here, folks. Boston Herald’s Michael Felger:
You can use the weak competition as a qualifier for everything the Pats did well in their 30-3 victory, or you can ignore it and take a genuine sense of optimism from their dozens of good plays. It’s your choice. Just realize there were a lot of positives to point to.
There were, but if the Patriots had played against a defense that played like an NFL defense, then a lot of those 3rd and short situations would have been 3rd and long, and the home team had a difficult time converting on those last night. The running game covered for the passing game last night.
On the other hand, New England wasn’t using a regular-season game plan against Arizona, but one that was designed to
1) Give Brady a chance to shake off some rust
2) Give Cassel a chance to show that he can manage and execute the offense
3) Try two new offensive line combinations
4) Let the runningbacks show their stuff
and
5) Let as many players as possible show what they’ve got
Update 4:
Bethreports from Gillette Stadium:
Overall, it was what you’d expect from a preseason game–a listless crowd and a largely empty stadium by the third quarter. I was also surprised to find myself missing the cold as much as I did; I guess I never realized how much a part of the football atmosphere that bite in the air really is.
About the only thing the stadium came alive for aside from touchdown-scoring plays was the appearance of Junior Seau on the Jumbo-Tron, standing on the sidelines dressed to play though he never did (despite an entire section’s determined chanting of “We want Joon-yah”).
