Patriots Week 2 Report Card

I’m trying out a new “Report Card” feature, for each week.  If you remember, a couple of years back, I did a weekly position by position report card.  This time around, I’m going to focus on six major aspects: rush offense, pass offense, rush defense, pass defense, special teams, and coaching.  I will wrap up the article with an overall team grade.  If you like this feature, let me know so that I can continue to do it in the future.

Rush Offense: C

The Patriots rush offense was led by Fred Taylor and Laurence Maroney.  While both backs (mostly Taylor) showed some effectiveness, Sammy Morris and Kevin Faulk were shut down completely, and Bill Belichick clearly didn’t have the confidence to run the ball too much, as Brady threw the ball 47 times.

Pass Offense: D+

Tom Brady had a very poor game for his standards.  He looked inaccurate at times, missed some key throws, and still wasn’t completely stepping into his passes.  Randy Moss was shut down by Darrelle Revis, and Joey Galloway couldn’t catch a few he should have.  As for the line, they didn’t let up a sack, but it seemed like Brady was getting hit or pressured every other time he dropped back.  One bright spot for the Patriots pass offense was the emergence of rookie seventh round pick Julian Edelman, who played a good game filling in for the injured Wes Welker.

Rush Defense: B

The Patriots limited Thomas Jones to just 54 yards on 14 carries and Leon Washington to 58 on 14.  Not the best from the Patriots’ perspective, but they didn’t make any major mistakes.  Gary Guyton, Vince Wilfork, Jarvis Green, and Ty Warren all played a big role for the Patriots in this aspect of the game.

Pass Defense: C+

While the Patriots did record two sacks, their pass rush was very ineffective for most of the game, rarely getting any pressures on Jets’ quarterback Mark Sanchez.  And while the defensive backs did a good job for the most part in their coverage assignments, they were hurt by the lack of pass rush, allowing Mark Sanchez to throw for 148 second half yards.

Special Teams: F

The return game was nearly non-existent, as it seemed the Patriots started nearly every drive deep in their own territory.  That’s not to mention the Pats’ kick coverage, which may have been the Patriots worst unit on the field yesterday.  Definite improvement needed here.

Coaching: C-

The Patriots were dominating at half-time, and the Pats needed to make adjustments offensively, but couldn’t.  Defensively, the Patriots were too slow to adjust in the second half as they simply were out-coached by Rex Ryan and the Jets’ staff.