<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">LeGarrette Blount ran the ball 10 times for 21yards (2.1 ypc) with Garoppolo. He ran the ball 19 times for 102 yards with Brissett (5.37ypc)</p>— Mark Daniels (@MarkDanielsPJ) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkDanielsPJ/status/777905528043368448">September 19, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
don't underestimate NE's 3rd string, his number wasn't too shabby yesterday. Their offense is a well oiled machine, no matter who's the QB. And playing at home definitely make this game much much closer.
I don't expect this to be an easy game, no matter who's at QB for the Patriots. Hope I'm wrong and the Texans blow them out by the 3rd quarter.
The Texans will need to move the ball more efficiently on the ground than they were able to yesterday. When Lamar Miller is picking up 5 yards on any given run, everything else works a lot better. What hoodie likes to do is to gameplan to take away a major weapon from a team and have them make adjustments to it. I would think he'd pick either Nuk or Fuller, that means it'll be that much more important to get the ground game going and perhaps to use Stephen Anderson more.
Patriots couldn't sustain drives after Garopollo went out. I expect a big win. As good as the NE coaching staff is, without Brady/Gronk one could argue that the Texans possess a more talented roster. Briskett was dropped 3 times in limited snaps.
This is *exactly* what he'll do, and he'll almost certainly drape Hopkins. Fuller is a weapon - but you cannot sustain an offense built around downfield throws, and he knows this - it's low(er) percentage with high risk. He'd welcome the Texans throwing deep all night. Big thing: Osweiler can't make any mistakes. If you punch it into the red zone, you post 7 not 3. Not turnovers. The Patriots thrive on mistakes - because they rarely make any themselves. I also suspect he's going to exploit on LBs on offense. I would expect Bennett to be his focal point.
The good news? BOB knows that's likely what he'll try to do AND it's not that easy to gameplan to take Nuk out of the equation when you have a deep threat on the other side that will eat up any single coverage on go routes. Fuller makes 11 yard cushions disappear in an instant. If you are gameplanning to take out Nuk, you'd bracket him in coverage....do that and you are going to get burned by Fuller if the throw is on target and he happens to catch it. That said, even if that's not what happens, corners will have to play way the hell off of Fuller worried about the deep stuff so that he should be able to get a ton of yards on WR screens and short timing routes. On top of that, you can't throw everything against the passing game because despite what we saw last week, Lamar Miller really is a dangerous weapon. When we look at when the Texans are on defense, the New England football team will be at a serious disadvantage having to start someone who has likely gotten next to no reps with the starters at any point ever.....and it's on a short week so it's not like he'll get the opportunity for THAT much coaching up. I agree about them trying to utilize Bennett, but oddly enough the Texans did one hell of a job keeping Travis Kelce in check to the tune of 5 receptions for only 34 yards. That's the kind of effort we'll need to see again on Thursday.
Is there a new narrative developing that all will fuller can only catch deep throws? Come on, that's silly. Four of his nine catches were for less than 20 yards and one was that screen play he turned into more. I'm afraid of osweiler INTs though, especially as teams get more tape. Love his tools and competitiveness
Uh oh Hey Now! you just triggered Mr. Clutch by suggesting that Fuller's game is predominantly long passes!
Brissett isn't a very good QB but he's big in the pocket and has a cannon. If I was hoodie, I'd run 70's Raiders offense - run, run, run up the middle then throw deep down the sidelines every once in a while without making the QB read too much - suck the safeties in and try to make them pay deep. Of course, that means Belichick will probably break out the Bill Walsh west coast dink and dunk little 5 yarders all game, just to be Belichick.
Yeah I think they go very conservative. If belichik took him in the third round, he can't be that bad. They're gonna make the Texans offense beat them. We can't turn it over
Even if Brissett is a hidden gem of talent, he'll have had no time to develop any chemistry with the starting receivers so that should lead to some miscues and those miscues could provide the Texans defenders with a chance to create turnovers.
He's a dangerous weapon, but the o-line doesn't seem to be that dangerous at the moment in the run blocking game. If my math is correct, Miller had 52 yards on 8 carries in the first quarter against the Bears (6.5 average). Since its 137 yards on 45 carries (3.0 average). The longest run on the team so far is Brock's 15 yarder. Probably even more of an issue is the red zone, where the line doesn't seem to be able to get much push. Some of it does seem to be game-planning though. They don't seem to have opened up a large running game playbook. When a run is coming, you kind of know, and generally know where its going. Alternatively, Brock hasn't been hurried/sacked all that much. And when Duane gets in there and gets his conditioning back, the line will get better. Anderson and CJ have 7 combined catches for 47 yards, which isn't horrible... but it also doesn't seem like they've utilized the TE a lot yet. Or creatively or for big plays. And despite being a rookie, I expected more from Braxton Miller thus far. The offense has been pretty vanilla, aside from Fuller's exceptional yards per stats. It will be interesting to see what Bob does this week, given its a short week, its the Patriots and his former boss, and the offense has generally been under wraps.
I think last week we have to give some credit to the KC front 7, those guys are pretty damn good. Last year they were one of the best teams against the run in the league and they were coming off of a disappointing week 1 against the run so they were extra motivated and they responded well. The O line does have to get better when it comes to blocking, and I agree that the play calling has been suspect at times but the talent is there (not so much the O line talent, but the RB talent) I would hope they'd use TE's more often. We have 3 pretty damn good options at that position, CJ Fiedorowicz is merely serviceable as a receiver with reliable hands but he's a monster in the run game as a blocker. Stephen Anderson on the other hand, I haven't seen him covered very well, the ball just doesn't seem to go to him like it should.
