Perillo’s analysis from Patriots “disappointing day'” against Raiders

Perillo’s analysis from Patriots “disappointing day'” against Raiders

Paul Brillo joins us for his weekly stint here Wednesday at 4:00. 16 years and running. Does May suck, Paul? Well, I just say by this nice football team you got there, Paul. Yeah, it wasn’t uh wasn’t exactly the opener we were all hoping. Well, why do they still suck? Wow. Wh Why do they still suck? And how for how much longer are they going to suck? No. Well, you work for the team, so it’s you’re the closest we’re going to get to talking to someone in authority. Listen, you you know how I feel about it because I told you guys last um last Wednesday I I felt like they were going to get off to a good start. I felt like they were in a good place coming out of camp and I thought they had a good summer and I thought the offense would look a lot more cohesive than that. Um and most of that stuff didn’t happen. And really I felt aside from that stretch of the second quarter, I thought the Raiders were better for for the vast majority. I mean certainly the whole second half. Um, and I thought that they started off better until that that interception. I thought the Patriots had control of the game and that’s really ultimately where I think they lost it. They had those three or four series in a row where they seemed to take control of the game and they didn’t really outscore the Raiders by all that much. Three zip u you know in that in that stretch and I think that was a lost opportunity to create some separation. But no, offensively it was not good. Okay. Okay. So, you have some items here that you wanted to address that you’ve heard the commentary and maybe you don’t think people have lost their way on some things. The run pass balance, you know, was a big one. Two rushing attempts, three rushing attempts in the second half, not enough. Why was that? I just think the game kind of got away from them, but the the bottom line is they didn’t run the ball well um when they tried to run it in the first half. Um but I do think there’s been a lot I don’t want to say that the balance was okay because it’s not. you don’t want to be throwing, you know, 46 times and running 18 times. Um I don’t you have to be a really good team to get away with that and the Patriots are certainly not at that that stage yet. So I don’t want to dismiss the fact that the balance was out of whack. I just feel like people are looking at it and it’s you come out in that first drive of the second half, they moved it a little bit, they throw the pick. From that point on, you’re going three and out. You’re not really do able to do anything well. Yeah, when you weren’t throwing it, you you know, as an example, let’s take the first possession after the the pick. First and 10. You throw a pass to Hunter Henry. He’s wide open. He air mails him, right? A little sit route. You know, he he throws it over his head. This was a horrible session. Now, so now it’s second and 10. You don’t want to run now. It’s not a running down. Um, you know, you’re not able to get anything, you know, with the second down play. It’s third and long. Do you remember what happened on the second down play? Yeah, I think he dunked one off for to to Trayvon Henderson who almost got killed for like a yard. Uh and then third down, everybody’s covered. He’s got to throw one to the sideline to Booty who was blanketed on the play and you’re punting. But again, it all if you go just go back to that first down play, you make an easy pitch and catch, it’s probably at worst second and three, maybe even a first down again. And now you you’re you know, now let’s run the ball. you know, we got we you know, we’re ahead of the chains. Too many plays like that. Too many easy throws, I think, especially in the second half. May didn’t make and that kind of makes it tough to run the ball maybe as often as you want to when you go in three and out every drive. People also complaining about Tayvon Henderson’s usage or lack thereof. What’s the truth, Paul? I think it’s the same same kind of theory. First of all, Henderson led the team in touches. Um he had 11 touches in the game. I think Stephvenson had 10 or nine um counting targets for Stevenson. I think he had uh two more carries. He he carried it seven times. Henderson carried it five times. They really only ran it 12 times conventionally, you know. So, you know, you take away the the Drake May scrambles. Mhm. I think they had like a little end round to Deario Douglas. That’s how you got to 18. So, really, they had I think 13 conventional runs. Seven for Stevenson, five for Henderson, one for Antonio Gibson. You don’t blame the game plan on that? Well, here’s where I would question the game plan. So, you you He’s like setting me up for sunshine, right? I’m not setting you up at all. I’m just trying to get to the root of the matter. I think they used Henderson plenty. I would have liked to have seen them get him downfield a little bit on some wheel routes and whatnot. And they’ve really never tried that. Uh all summer long, no one’s been able to cover him. Certainly, the Raiders were ready for him. They had they had bodies around. I I’ll tell you that’s the one thing that stood out to me was how disappointed I was in the Patriots offense because of how little I thought of the Raiders defense. I thought this was a defense that they should be able to look good against. Um, but they were prepared. They stopped the run. They had extra bodies around Henderson. Maybe that was because of Chip Kelly. That’s what I thought. I mean, it felt clear to me that they were going to key in on him and who had him as a player. Chip Kelly had him last year in his offense at Ohio State. Maybe he said, “Listen, you need to devote some attention to this kid. Don’t let him get the ball in space.” and maybe they took some of that those things away, but just a very disappointing overall day offensively. Finally, what facet of the Patriots is skating? The defense. The def I know you look at it and just say 20 points, that’s got to be enough. You should be able to win. And I agree, you should be able to win any game that you only allow 20 points. I don’t think that was a good defensive performance at all. I think the Raiders easily could have scored more than that. I think the end of the game, you know, that they’re up they’re up a touchdown. They got the ball and you know you you you’re trying to get the ball back and they go on a six or seven minute drive that ultimately ends in a field goal because Ashton Genty fell down on third down. Oh, right. You know, it wasn’t really even a stop. So that drive easily could have ended in a touchdown. Even the next possession when Vrael inexplicably punted in my view, um you know, with less than five minutes left in a two-score game, you you’re hoping to get the ball back quickly. the Raiders were able to take, you know, get another 30 yards, take another three minutes off the clock while forcing timeouts. Uh the Patriots had two timeouts used, plus the two-minute warning in that drive. I I don’t think the defense was was that much better than the offense. Again, bottom line, 20 points, everybody will live with that. But you can’t be giving up, you know, whatever it was, nine plays of 20 yards or more. I think there were uh I think there were 11 of 19 or more. Was the Patriots Oh, really? Oh, it’s a good one. something like that cuz we nine of 20 or more. But if you go to 19, yeah, you just move wiggle the line a little bit and get a more I mean I learned get a more dramatic number. I learned that from watching YouTube. That is Well, but think about it. What’s the difference? 19 or 20? That’s why I bring it up. Yeah, it’s good. Thank Paul. See, good job, Paul. It was at least 10. At least 10 of of that. So, okay. What was the defensive problems talent or scheme? I think it’s a little of both. I think they missed the you know, the safety play wasn’t great here. So horrible. I mean that isn’t that a um horrible Isn’t that a logical second guess when you decide to deemphasize Kyle Duggar and and release Jabril Peppers? I don’t think Jaylen Hawkins was great in this game. He uh in his defense, he took accountability for it. You know, we talked to him a little bit on Monday and you know, there was some problems back there. You know, I watched Jacobe Meyer as a guy who is a really solid receiver, but not necessarily known as a guy who’s breaking tackles and and doing stuff like that. He was a problem. You know, if Jabril Peppers is out there tackling and being physical, is that the same kind of problem? I don’t know. I think that that’s a worthy second guess. But the secondary was an issue and I thought the approach defensively, I thought they I want to be aggressive and I understand what they want to do, but time and circumstance. Third and 11 from the 26 was I don’t think a time for that kind of a a blitz and and they obviously got burned by it. So Paul, you know Vel better than I do. Was he in your mind unusually frustrated by this game? I I don’t know if unusual because I don’t know him as well as a coach as I did as a player. Um so I’m s I’m sort of starting to learn some of those tendencies. He was clearly clearly irked by some of the stuff and you know I’ve been listening to you guys too. I we we thought the same stuff about some of the comments that they were kind of oddly placed. So you wonder as at the start of him want to fine-tune some of the stuff offensively. Um, but no, I I don’t know enough about Mike’s coaching to know if that was out of character and he was a little bit extra agitated. I’ll keep an eye on some of that stuff going forward. So, where do you think they are this week now? Terrell Williams is back out. You wish him well and it’s a tough circumstance for him. Sure. Uh, I was of the mind that some of those blitz calls were so illtimed that Vrabel was going to have to dig in on that side of the ball either way. And frankly should have I mean I I I blame Vrabel as much as if not more than Terrell Williams. He’s got veto power. They had a game plan. So clearly they went into the games and we’re going to blitz Gino Smith. It freaking sucked. So that’s Vrael as much as Terrell Williams. But either way, Vrael is going to have to go over to that side of the ball more. He had been almost exclusively offense, right? When I say that in the practices and did you feel the timeout usage too when like when Drake May came to the sidelines that was Rabel there? Like he’s heavily invested in the offense to begin with. Yeah. And I think that’s part of his communication with Striker. I I think that, you know, the analytic part of it, clock, timeouts, stuff like that. I think he’s in Mike’s headset. So, that made sense to me. I I hadn’t really noticed that Vrabel was, you know, inordinately involved offensively. The guys who at training camp said he was on the offensive side of the ball way more. I think he’s done. I mean, I I would trust them. I I don’t, you know, I don’t really sit there and track the amount of time. I I see him as a real head coach. I think he oversees everything. I think I’ve seen him involved with all position groups at different times. Um, but, you know, I’m not saying that that he’s not been involved with offense, you know, more than defense. But, you’re right to to wonder if maybe there was going to be something changing because I do think they were a little bit too aggressive in the game. And generally I like that kind of defense. But I thought again time and time and circumstance should dictate some some changes.

Paul Perillo of Patriots.com joined Felger and Mazz to share his thoughts from the Patriots Week 1 loss to the Raiders.

Thumbnail photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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