He might be an innocent bystander in all this.
A victim of his own team’s failings, with the luxury of pointing fingers.
Simply put, the Patriots were not ready for this game, on any level.
Despite having two weeks to prepare for a sub-.500 team coming off three straight losses.
So no one escapes blame.
This is something else entirely."
I guess “mortified” is not too strong a word?
And now we know.
Sure, the first drive was going swell.
Maye hits Hunter Henry in the flat for a 1st down.
The rare well-executed screen to Rhamondre Stevenson goes for 16 behind some great blocking by Austin Hooper.
But even there, Maye had to field a grounder like Ben Brown was tossing infield practice.
Which was the first sign the offensive line did not come to play.
But it peaked with Vederian Lowe flat out failing to account for his assignment on consecutive snaps.
And yet, there Lowe was, back out for the third possession, and all 51 offensive snaps.
Making it fair to wonder what it would take to get benched on this unit.
“He refused to get into it with that lunatic who had road rage.
That was very Vederian of him.
“We’ve already been using his last name to describe our feelings toward this team all year.
Right tackle Jonah Williams also pulled and put Jahlani Tavai on his ass at the point of attack.
From there, James Conner just needed to make Christian Elliss and Jabrill Peppers miss.
Which wasn’t hard since Elliss ran slower than the 5:15 Red Line train to Braintree.
And Peppers wasn’t exactly Euclid with the angle he took.
A 3X1 with Dortch in the middle and Trey McBride in the slot and the Pats in man.
Which might be the exact conversation being held at One Patriots Place this morning.
–Eventually I lost count of how many missed tackles the Patriots had.
Dugger had a few.
Tavai and Peppers were guilty as well.
Christian Gonzalez in the open field on Conner just after the 2:00 warning.
And with pretty much the same roster that was coached up into the No.
Sacks are an overrated stat, particularly with a running, pocket-rolling passer like Kyler Murray.
But how many times did the pass rush even put him in distress?
It’s become extremely Vederian.
(I think this is going to work out.
We’re going to make this “fetch” happen.)
–Let’s try a thought experiment.
So he holds an old fashioned expansion draft, where every team is allowed to protect just five players.
On this one it’s Maye, Gonzalez, and … who, exactly?
I guess I’d go with Keion White.
But really that’s based on what he did early in the season than anything he’s done lately.
In the last month he’s turned invisible.
Yesterday he was 4th on the defense with 56 snaps and didn’t show up on the stats sheet.
I might keep Marcus Jones, but more as a punt returner and gadget play weapon.
And the fifth one?
I might not even use it, and see if it’s transferable into Jet Blue points or something.
I hope that’s part of the discussion in Foxboro as well.
–OK, well there’s 1,500 words of pure negativity, well earned.
Allen walked so Maye can run.
(Just not a designed run; AVP doesn’t draw those up.)
But is that so bad, given what happens when he puts the ball right in Boutte’s hands?
We’ve got the making of the next Kevin Faulk/James White on our hands.
