And just trust that I’m going somewhere with this.
Physicist Werner Heisenberg once said that when he meets God, he’ll have two questions: Why relativity?
Adding, “I believe He will have no problem answering the first.”
And that’s the offensive line.
Jones had time to throw for the most part.
When there was pressure, there were lanes for him to step up and away from it.
And Trent Brown immediately came back in and gutted it out the rest of the game.
–To be clear, they were by no means perfect.
There were communication issues.
–Take for instance, Ezekiel Elliot’s touchdown.
Is that the way you say it?
But still, this was progress.
Outstanding execution from all involved.
And for the first time you felt like this team had a comeback in them.
Or a trip to overtime at the very least.
And they came through.
–Now let’s get to Jones.
Because this is really where I’d like to spend the morning.
He was in command.
Distributed the ball around to nine different receivers.
He rolled the pocket when necessary.
He made positive plays and kept his offense away from negative plays.
But which over time came to be known as “winning feckin' Patriots games.”
In the second half, he had two touchdown passes and two - TWO - incompletions.
One of them being in the end zone over Demario Douglas.
But he put it where either Douglas would get it or one of the Minutemen would.
With 0:15 left, no timeouts and three more downs to play with, I have no objection.
And for the first time all year, I’m taking the blue pill.
–If those last minute heroics didn’t otherwise seem familiar though, you’re not mistaken.
But he also incorporated more pre-snap motion than he has all year.
And they came in all flavors and varieties.
Across the formation to turn 2X2s into 3X1s.
Short motions to stack alignments.
Ghost motion, designed to look like a Jet sweep to freeze an edge defender.
Directing the motion like a maestro.
Getting his guys aligned the way he wants them, and so on.
–Take for instance, this one.
Bourne went in motion away from the play side, where the tight ends were stacked.
Elliot did a great job picking up the blitz.
From the outside, Gesicki drew the Hook defender with an out and up.
O’Brien is big on working guys TO the seam, not lining them up ON the seam.
And here it is in practice.
The guys Jones is getting involved in the offense.
Gesicki, Brown, Douglas.
Not just Bourne, Henry and the running backs.
It would be nice DeVante Parker was an asset instead of just a background extra with no lines.
It doesn’t matter who he is or where he came from.
–Speaking of Douglas, he’s still a work in progress.
It gets Bourne off the hook.
He was going to be for this loss what Parker was for last week’s.
The Pats took over with a lead and 5:30 to go.
Yet another demoralizing fatal blunder by an offense that has managed to spread the irresponsibility around.
And found more ways to meet a gruesome end thanthe Usher family.
Bourne balled out yet again.
And has arguably been the most consistent offensive player we’ve had all year.
So the fact we never need speak of his fumble again is yet another reason to celebrate.
But while I hate to admit, that’s what playing the Bills will do to you.
Josh Allen is going to do Josh Allen things.
And in this game, all those things happened, except for the deep completion.
There was a 25-yarder to Stefon Diggs and a 28-yard catch and run by James Cook.
I mean, don’t expect to sack the quarterback.
And though they haven’t been managing that lately, they did yesterday early on.
Jabrill Peppers has really emerged as an indispensible, all-purpose, 5-tool replacement for Devin McCourty.
–The Pats also managed to kill a couple of drives with an elaborate variety of pass rush looks.
They made particular use of Ju’Whaun Bentley spying Allen and then coming on a delayed blitz.
So, to go straight for the cliche, they did enough to win.
And earned the win they got.
–Though perhaps the best sign of all was the way they managed to keep Diggs contained.
Mainly by throwing a lot of JC Jackson at him.
But also with some zone coverages.
Of course Diggs drew the obligatory Illegal Contact penalty when Jackson brushed some lint off his lapel.
But that’s the Elite Wideout Privilege at work.
–What’s harder to deal with is the way Allen gets overprotected.
Even by the standards of an NFL quarterback.
He didn’t deserve the Roughing the Passer call for this.
Bentley later couldn’t bring Cooks down on his big gain.
And then where was Jackon’s failure to get Diggs down on his score.
It doesn’t get any more basic than executing good form tackling fundamentals.
Unless they’re trying to win gold at the LA Olympics ‘28, they have to clean that up.
–This was a huge week in general for the special teams.
Chad Ryland made all his kicks.
Bryce Baringer had one massive, field flipping put.
And Douglas had the best return of his young career.
Maybe GM Bill can draft after all.
–This Week’s Applicable Movie Quote: “I’m not dead!…
I don’t want to go in the cart.
I feel happy!”
We’re onto No.
301:
Dammit, Victory Monday feels good again.
A fella could get used to this.
