On The Bright Side, This Defense Is Legit

 

I know the Pats were depleted, I know we benefitted from a couple dropped passes, and I know the rain in the second half made shit sloppy, but Rex and his defense did everything in their power to win that game last night. They held up their end last night. Held Tom Brady and the Pats in their building to just 9 first downs. 4-18 on 3rd, and just 232 yards of total offense. The only mishap defensively, which unfortunately proved to be the difference, was that busted coverage early on for a 40 yard TD. Other than that, the defense was relentless.

I’m not gonna sit here and beat my chest after losing a heinous game against a team that was running third stringers out there, but if we’re looking for a bright spot in last night’s game, it was watching Brady fail time and time again on 3rd down.

I’ll tell you what was NOT bright about that game – lets start with Special Teams, where we’ve just decided returning punts is for suckers. Fuck it. Revolutionizing the game. Just don’t even bother returning them. I can’t say I blame Kotwica or Rex. When the alternative is sending Kyle Wilson out there to either A) muff it or B) call fair catch with about 15 yards of room to run, there’s not much difference. Fuck returning punts. Revolutionary.

Geno in the second half. Woof. I don’t want to fully blame him, because he was hit with the KFC Mush. Last night I tweeted how he was out-playing Brady (which, up until then, he was) and like clockwork, literally 120 seconds of realtime later, he throws a pick. About 8 minutes of game time after that, his second INT, and 6 minutes after that, his third. Geno did some good things out there. Threw some legit balls. Made some big plays. Obviously also made some big time rookie mistakes. Took a handful of sacks, some of which he probably could have avoided. Under-threw some balls which resulted in turnovers. Also was the victim of some dropped passes too though. All in all, he looked like a rookie playing in his second game in a monsoon in New England.

Wasn’t too thrilled about play calling either. Chris Ivory was absolutely trucking his way through that game. Every time I looked up he was running hard and fast for another 5 yards. Then he completely disappeared for what seemed like an entire quarter. Its like as the rain came down and the game got sloppier they went away from the run. Completely backwards. There was some good old Ground and Pound going on and next thing I know they’ve got a rookie in bad weather in New England lofting the ball up there every time. Shoulda stuck with what was working.

Like I said yesterday, that game was house money. Its frustrating to know that we were one busted coverage play away from winning that game. Cut down just one or 2 of the turnovers and we’re probably winning that game. More than anything, it was just a missed opportunity to really build some momentum and start shocking the league. But obviously, theres a lot of work to be done.