Patriots Bounce Back, Beat Minnesota 30-7, Quick Observations
 Chandler Jones had a huge day for the Patriots on Sunday with 2 sacks, 3 QB hits and a blocked FG attempt which he recovered and returned for a touchdown. (USA TODAY Images) |
The New England Patriots bounced back in a big way, blowing out the Adrian Peterson-less Minnesota Vikings 30-7 on Sunday in Minneapolis. With the win, Head Coach Bill Belichick won his 200th career game in the regular season for his career.
While Peterson’s absence will be talked about all week, the Patriots defensive front seven responded after a poor showing in Miami, allowing only 54 yards rushing for Minnesota. But the running lanes, so prevalent a week ago weren’t there for Matt Asiata.
One interesting stat that CBS posted during the game is that Minnesota averages 142 yards per game rushing with Peterson, and 141 per game without him. Still there will be questions about this one but the line responded.
Here are some quick observations from the game:
Jones Moves Back and Produces: Pats DE Chandler Jones, played out of position as a 3-4 Defensive End, this week the team moved him back to a more natural position on the end of the line and Jones produced in a big way with 2 sacks, 3 QB hits and a blocked field goal that he recovered and returned for a touchdown that totally changed the outlook of this one.
We spoke about Jones needing to step up this week in our Razor's Edge column stating Jones was the Patriots player to watch. Indeed he was on Sunday.
Jones, Dont’a Hightower and Rob Ninkovich had the advantage of playing from ahead this week and their performance is worthy of note. They pressured Vikes QB Matt Cassel time and again and sacked him six times while forcing four interceptions.
Cassel Has Rough Day: While getting shellacked at home after a big Week 1 performance is always tough, Cassel had an exceptionally rough outing with fans chanting for Teddy Bridgewater in the second half.
As we mentioned above, Cassel was under duress consistently and was sacked six times along with 8 QB hits. A couple of his interceptions were his fault as he misread the defense but he was also victimized by far too many drops and a total lack of a running game.
Edelman Has Big Day: Once again, Julian Edelman was a huge part of the Patriots success. He snagged 6 passes for 81 but even more importantly, he was huge in the punt return game returning 4 for 65 yards, averaging 16.5 yards per return.
Edelman has really continued his success from 2013 and has easily been the Patriots best player on offense in 2014 thru the first two games. While Brady didn't have a big day statistically, he definitely targeted CB Xavier Rhodes who was less than 100 percent physically. But the team got a lot of flags while targeting the young corner
Ridley Gives the Patriots Exactly What Was Needed: Remember at the end of training camp when Ridley was rumored to be in danger of being cut? We said at the time that Ridley remains the team’s best big back option.
Ridley came thru in spades today, grinding out the tough yards between the tackles all day, carrying 25 times for 101 yards to spearhead a Patriots running game that gained 150 yards on Sunday. It wasn’t flashy and there weren’t a ton of highlight reel runs, but it was just what the doctor ordered.
Most importantly, Ridley secured the ball very well all day with no issues.
The game plan was to neutralize Mike Zimmer’s exotic looks and overloaded blitzes by controlling the tempo and making life a bit easier for the Patriots offensive line. And in that they succeeded. Speaking of the OL….
Offensive Line Finds 5 And Sticks With It: The Patriots OL was much maligned and deservedly so after the debacle in Miami. The starting unit consisted of Nate Solder, Marcus Cannon, Dan Connolly, Jordan Devey and Sebastian Vollmer. They were augmented quite a bit with Cameron Fleming checking in as an eligible tight end.
Rushing for 150 yards speaks for itself but more importantly their protection of Tom Brady was vastly improved over last week in Miami. While Brady only threw for 149 yards for the game, it was mainly by design as the team looked to target running the ball.
Penalties a Killer: During the game, I thought I couldn’t remember a Bill Belichick team penalized as much as what transpired today. It turns out that the 15 penalties were the most ever by the Pats under Belichick. 15 penalties for 163 yards is completely unacceptable in any conditions and this one will be talked about in meetings all week.
The Patriots were victimized by penalties all game and they killed important drives for the offense. These are the types of things that have to be cleaned up and quickly.
After an awful first defensive sequence, the Patriots defense this week adjusted and held Minnesota scoreless the remainder of the game. Most importantly, all of the talk about stopping Cordarrelle Patterson came thru as the big playmaker for the Vikings was a complete non-factor. Patterson did have 4 catches for 56 yards but was never the factor the Vikings needed him to be.
Overall it was a big bounce back win for the Patriots who responded to playing poorly in Week 1 to play much better for the second road game to open the season. The team will have its home opener next Sunday at 1 p.m. against the Oakland Raiders.
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