INSTANT REACTION: ‘Bad football’ by the offense once again costs Patriots in season-opening loss 😓

INSTANT REACTION: ‘Bad football’ by the offense once again costs Patriots in season-opening loss 😓

Indeed, this is Postgame Live brought to you by your New England Ford dealers. The Patriots open the Mike Vrabel era with a 20-13 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders today at Gillette Stadium. Had control of the game in the first half. They were almost shut out in the second half. They had 10 points at halftime. Got three points late in the final within the final minute just to give themselves a chance at an onside kick. that was unsuccessful. They start off zero and one. Former Patriots coach Pete Carroll now 1 and0 uh with the Raiders. Here with the crew, we got Phil Perry, Tommy Curran, three-time Super Bowl champion Ted Johnson. I’m Michael Holly. Let’s just go around the horn, fellas. Uh if if something stands out to you in this game, I know there are many things, but when what stands out to you, Phil? Start us off. Uh Patriots still not good enough to take advantage of bad football. In fact, they are going to produce a fair amount of bad football this season based on what we saw today. Especially in the second half, you had a strip sack. You had a penalty from your number four overall pick. You got beat deep somehow. Beat deep on third and 20 to really kind of ice the game. You had a miskick in the first half. Missed throws all over the place from your quarterback, Tom. What Mike Drabel wanted to do for this team in terms of establishing an identity of an intelligent football team that’s going to give you a foundational level of play, a standard that they’re going to adhere to. They didn’t do that today. And that’s what jumped out to me. Bad football. The Patriots took advantage of it somewhat in the first half. The Gino Smith pick led to their only touchdown. But then after that, the bad play by Drake May in throwing in the face of pressure down the middle on a second and seven from the 48. Good play maybe to tuck it and say, “I’ll take the sack here and we’ll still be near midfield.” He chose not to do that. And that really touched off a litany of mistakes. So many chunk plays. Gino Smith averages Teddy more than 10 yards per attempt. He’s a good quarterback, but you shouldn’t give him that many down the field throws. It’s not a great Raiders team. To me, the jumpiness of Drake May really stands out. He’s going to be a good player, but they’re going to have to beat this out of him somehow. Getting too over amp. And I think I think Tom, I think that’s the story of of the game. If you had to boil down to one thing, I mean, I’m putting my finger on on the Drake May uh you know, stat line. It it’s just it’s just not good enough. Uh you know, they 43 pass attempts and he averages just over six yards per pass attempt. uh if if that was to uh for the next 16 games he had that same average, he’d be dead last in the NFL. And conversely, Gino Smith averaging 10 and a half, that would be leading the NFL by far. So, it was clearly they just had answers down the field where the Patriots were just slugging sludging through uh their offense. I mean, just kind of dinking and dunking and it really took the the wind out of the sails. And that interception, they were on a nice little kind of sixplay drive right up until that interception there in that first drive opening in the second half. And I think that was just one of those plays where you’re like, man, just a little bit of pressure up the middle. You could just see Drake May not follow through on his pass and and uh and throw the interception. And you can see the Raiders found a formula for blitzing and they just blitz the heck out of Drake May in that second half. They had no answer for it. You saw the left tackle, Will Campbell, kind of implode in the second half with two false starts and gives up two sacks. So clearly uh to me, the offense is a story. Drake May not playing better is the story. Tom mentioned it. I mean, he he was a cat on a hot tin roof thrown the football back there. You got to settle down. Way too many guys were wide open, Michael. And and he just airma mailed a lot of passes. Uh easy completions. That’s an easy completion right there in in the flat. He had he had a couple guys wide open. Easy completions. Uh let’s see right here again. Uh really no pressure. You had there in the first half. I thought there was a lot of opportunities for Drake to make plays and he couldn’t. Well, that’s what I want to ask you about, Ted. I mean, you played with Mike Vrabel, uh, won championships with Mike Vrabel. So, you’ve been in these situations. You’re up 10-7 at halftime. It’s not like you’re up by 20 points, but you feel like you’ve got control of the game after a shaky first drive where you give up a touch an easy touchdown. How did you, if you’re from a players perspective, kid, how’d you what happened? What happened? You you got control of the game at halftime. Let’s carry it over into the second half. Let’s nail down this first victory. What how how would you down losing control of the game? Yeah, I mean 43 pass attempts. Why why you know why didn’t you run the football more? Only 18 rush attempts. Um you know really you want to put the hands in in and Drake May and these these wide receivers and and hope the offensive line holds up or why don’t you just attack them and go I mean I didn’t think they ran the football enough or when they did with any effectiveness for Monre Steven averaging less than three yards a carry. I didn’t think there was really any kind of u imagination in the running game. I was kind of hoping for more perimeter runs, get Will Campbell pulling. It was a lot of direct reads, RPO stuff. Um, and they just weren’t successful at it. And I don’t think they used it well enough to start that second half. And so they were they were doing a lot more play action on first down and not doing nearly as well on first down in the second half as they were in the first half. I think you answered your own question. They they were incredibly one-dimensional because they couldn’t run it. They 3.3 yards per carry. You know, a couple of those you had a four-yard run from Pop Douglas. That’s one of your most effective runs on the game. They I think their most effective run was a fake push push or a fake quarterback sneak and Henderson on an endound. That’s a trick play essentially. They could not run the ball. I think that’s going to drive Josh McDaniels up a wall because as good a quarterback coach as he is and as diverse as he can be with his passing game, Tom, you know, he wants to be in his heart of hearts an old school offensive coordinator who establishes that run first. marries the passing game, the play action passing game to those run game looks. Make it easy on your quarterback. Instead, they couldn’t do that. And Drake May wasn’t prepared to shoulder the load the way they asked him to today. No. And you know, earlier this week, Stefon Diggs talked about his role in the offense and said, “They’re going to put something on your plate. Once you finish what’s on your plate, you can deal with it. There’s too much on Drake May’s plate.” Not that he shouldn’t be able to finish it, but to put 46 attempts out there and to have to rely on him when he clearly clearly now and I didn’t think this was the case during the training camp and offseason, but I do have some concerns about his footwork, his jumpiness, his lack of poise, the pitterpatter a little Drake feet on some really easy throws was disconcerting. And if Josh McDaniels is looking at that, he’s going to say he’s either going to throw 40 times a game and because of reps soldier through it or he’s not going to get better and his fundamentals and uneasiness is going to grow and it’s going to make us worse. So they have to pick a lane with him. We’re either going to force feed you to get out of this uneasiness. Yeah. Indecisiveness. It’s sometimes it’s overcautious. Sometimes it’s throwing caution to the wind. He’s kind of all over the board and I I don’t want to lay everything on him because there were some nice throws. You got enthusiastic about some plays from Drake May, but that level of is too high. I I wonder where that stems from though, Michael. Is it Is it Josh McDaniel’s influence and saying, “Hey, we can’t turn the ball over the way we did last year.” Or is it last year just played with his head to the point where he took too much pressure. He was under duress the entirety of his rookie season and now year two. We’ve seen it before. It wouldn’t be unique to him if this was the result. I got pressured a ton as a rookie. Now it’s going to mess me up for a couple years. And some and some players, Ted, you know this. Some players, you tell them we can’t have this. That echoes in that rings in their head so much that they wind up doing the thing that the coaches say we can’t have that. Now, Tommy Curran said, “Hey, pick a lane. We want you to pick a lane. We want you to join the conversation. Who’s most to blame for the Pat season opening loss to the Raiders? Vote in our poll by going to NBCportsboston.com/patriots vote. scan the QR code. You see it on the screen and scroll down to the poll. There are lots of options there. Drake May’s one of the options. The defense uh coaching there and I do want to ask you guys about this because in real time I think we all looked at it and said, “Hey, Mike Brael, what the hell are you doing?” And it was a great remember that great shot that broadcast uh Patriots fans like what what are you doing? Five minutes to play roughly five minutes to play. Patriots are trailing by two scores. It’s 20 to 10. You got the ball. It’s fourth down. Fourth and five. Yep. And you punt. I know you got a ball start to make it fourth and 10. Okay. Still got the ball. He’s going to go for it on fourth and five. You got the ball and you’re punting away. You need two scores. You only got 10 points. Tell me, uh, Ted, did you look at that and say, I understand what Mike Rabel’s thinking. Yeah, a little bit. A little bit. I get it. Fourth and five, it’s it’s it’s a lot more achievable than fourth and 10. And you had all three of your timeouts with just under five minutes left down 10 though and and they only got a 20 yard punt. Okay. I I hear you. I hear you. But three timeouts. I I guess my point is I I can understand it. I’m not saying that’s what I would have done, but I can understand his decision going uh going for the punt with still three timeouts left. I mean, maybe hoping your defense can do something it hadn’t done at all in the second half. I get it. I know how people are going to question that, but I didn’t have as much of a problem after fourth and five. Heck yeah, go for it. Fourth and 10. I would have been a little bit nervous myself. I I think it’s enough of a gray area, you know, 53, 47, whatever, that I I don’t quibble with that. And again, bad football. Bryce Behringer on Corks all of a 21 yards 20 yards. What’s that? 64 feet. So to me, that is the the marriage of false start, bad punt, you’re still a bad football team until further notice. I don’t expect them us to be saying that in December. Hopefully, you’re able to say sniffing around mediocre, but bad football team. My bigger question about coaching would have to do with game plan and saying with your secondary, we’re going to play man against you guys all day. We’re going to get there. You did get there a fair amount with the pass rush, Phil. But two new safeties, no Christian Gonzalez, and you’re going to play man against a team that does have not just Bowers and Meyers, but a cadre of other receivers who are potent. I I do go back to that fourth down decision. I question it. I know it’s fourth and 10. I know it’s much harder than even fourth and five, but Gino Smith put up damn near 400 yards. I mean, you couldn’t stop him. And you had him right where you wanted him. Third and 20 with the opportunity to get the ball back. And somehow your almost $20 million a year corner loses a day three rookie out of Tennessee, Dante Thornton, who’s all kinds of fast. Yeah. But all they did was run him straight down the field and on third and 20 you somehow got beat down the field. That’s inexcusable to me. And I just I do go back to that fourth and 10. I say I I think you had to at least try because you hadn’t been able to stop the Raiders as you wanted once they had. And I was just going to say like, you know, your point about Dante Thornton versus Davis. Davis is is buying a route that Dante Thornton really wasn’t sell. I mean, you can’t Oh, it’s third and 20 and I’m going to sell you something eight yards in. That’s not going to do anything. Why are you Why are you biting on that? Well, let me ask you this. I feel like they said that they I think there was a blitz on that play is is if if if I’m uh Yeah. All out third and 20. All out blitz. Okay. You talk about coaching that’s a terrible coaching decision. Like you you know third and 20 and you do an allout blitz in that in that instant uh to me is is not the the risk is not worth the reward. So the coaching that’s where it it kind of shows there. You want to say the coaching it’s like Brock Bowers got his I mean hecking he left the game injured. He still got 100 yards on on five catches. I mean Jacobe Myers killed you. He had almost 100 yards. Um, and Max Crosby, even though his stat line wasn’t filled up, you saw him impact the game. He was the one that forced the t that interception. So, their best players had better games than the Patriots best players. If you’re talking coaching though, if you’re a coach and to call the allout blitz is not a horrible idea, but in defense of punting, you got a 21 yard punt. If you’re a coach, you’re going to say, “Gee, we put you in position, you got a 21 yard punt, and then we put you in position, it’s third and 20, and you let it up.” That’s kind of a player issue. So to me, you you have enough coverage as a coach to say there’s only so much you can do in in between the lines. You have to perform and we got you in third and 20. It’s not like they went 888 and scored a touchdown in terms of yards on each play. We got you where we needed you. So again, it’s this is going to be a team that, as I said kind of during the week, this defense might take some time to gel before everybody knows how they operate together, hand and glove. individually good collectively work to do. I think you’re right. I think it is a player issue that end of game situation. I think the way they coach this game lets us know that they know they have a player issue. I think I don’t know what the numbers are right now as soon as the game ended. I think the blitz rate is going to be incredibly high for Jerrell Williams in his first game as Patriots defensive coordinator. And I think Michael, they know if if we don’t send numbers and send the house and get after quarterbacks, we aren’t good enough. We’re just not talented enough to sit back and try to stop offense. You guys don’t think that you don’t consider that a Mike Vrabel Terrell Williams style. Hey, we’re going to Hey, we’re not afraid. We’ll come at you. We’ll blitz you. I mean, some coaches are into that. They just like, you know, back in the day, remember Greg Williams? Hey, I’m coming at you. I’m going to come at you. Do you think it’s they’re doing that because of personnel or are they doing that because that’s who they want their that’s their both? You might be you might be right on it, Michael. We might see it every week. Even when Christian Gonzalez, for example, is back and they are a much more talented unit. I just felt like they really sold out and they lived by it and they died by it. They died by it on that third and 20. They died by it on that first touchdown of the game down the field to Trey Tucker where they sent a corner blitz and they had Jaylen Hawkins chasing the fastest guy on the field. Like those are question they look like questionable calls. It also yielded multiple sacks, multiple tackles for a loss. So that might just be their style. Might be right. I think they feel like they have to do that. I think what it does it it frees you up to get more one-on-one opportunities for Milton Williams and and uh Christian Barmore. So, they got to take advantage of that. Mike Vrabel, when he was the head coach with the the Titans for 2018 to 2023 was the uh I think he ranked ninth in blitz rate. So, they like the blitz. It’s they might not be he might not be known for it, but my feeling is is that Mike and in his heart of hearts wants to be an aggressive defensive blitzing type team and with the issues maybe against the run, they’re going to the blitz to stop the run and get pressure that they got to manufacture with uh with blitches as well. Presented by Gem Plumbing and Heating. For an instant reaction to your heating, cooling, electrical, and plumbing needs, visit ask gem.com.

Tom Curran, Phil Perry and Ted Johnson join Michael Holley to offer instant reaction and analysis to the New England Patriots’ 20-13 season-opening loss to the Raiders. The guys discuss a rough second half for Drake Maye and the offense and debate Mike Vrabel’s decision to punt the ball down 10 with five minutes to play in the fourth quarter.

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