Perry's Report Card: Overmatched Pats have no answers for Bills
Monday night's nasty loss to Buffalo ensured New England will finish with a losing record for the first time since 2000, Bill Belichick's first year in Foxboro. Phil Perry has another round of rough grades for the 6-9 Patriots.
The Bills had an answer for everything the Patriots threw at them on Monday night.
Two-back running game? The Bills played downhill -- and aggressively so -- to slow them down. Zero-blitz looks from the secondary? Josh Allen was unbothered. An early punt-block call that burned the Bills a year ago? They had a fake ready to go.
The one play Buffalo might not have been ready for was a first-quarter double-pass that should've gone for a touchdown. Instead, it bounced off Damiere Byrd's facemask and fell incomplete.
Just that kind of night for Bill Belichick's club. Let's get to the grades.
Cam Newton threw accurately deep down the field to hit Byrd on the would-be gadget touchdown. The play's failure did not fall on him. And Newton's nine-yard touchdown run was impressive. It was the first Patriots touchdown with Newton behind center since the third quarter of a Week 13 win over the Chargers. But Newton skipped passes. He appeared to stare down receivers. He needs some help -- Devin Asiasi had a pass go through his hands for the second straight week -- but finishing 5-for-10 for 34 yards is abysmal and he acknowledged after that he needs to provide more.
Jarrett Stidham, meanwhile, looked uncomfortable. He scrambled out of a clean pocket. He appeared to fire a short backwards pass into the turf, which was ruled incomplete, when a bubble screen to N'Keal Harry was blown up by the Bills. He absorbed a couple of shots in the pocket and missed his targets. Perhaps given an opportunity to prepare as a starter -- something that Belichick has acknowledged in the past matters -- he'll perform differently. But going 4-for-11 for 44 yards didn't do much to help his cause to earn a start in the season finale.
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Sony Michel continues to run hard. His opportunities also continue to be limited. He rumbled for 69 yards on 10 carries, plowing through contact at times. Rookie J.J. Taylor ran six times for 38 yards, and James White picked up 14 more on four attempts. As a group, they averaged 6.1 yards per carry. White also chipped in three catches for 23 yards and helped Stidham get a few more reps by catching a third-down check-down and scampering for a first down. Michel's 29-yard run (his longest of the night) was immediately followed by Taylor's 28-yard run (his longest of the night), which led to Newton's touchdown.
There was a spark with the running game, but down 17-9 in the second quarter the Patriots tried to throw three times and punted. The Bills scored touchdowns on their next three drives.
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Byrd's drop was a killer. It sapped whatever early momentum the Patriots had built up and served as a reminder for why the 2020 season has gone the way it's gone for the Patriots offense.
The quarterback play has not been good, but Newton has one of the lowest-paid top-two receiver duos in the NFL in Byrd and Jakobi Meyers. They've produced more than many would have anticipated prior to the season, but that play was one that Byrd needed to make for a team that needs to do all it can to create any kind of explosive offensive moments. This group had six catches on the night for 55 yards. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, that's not going to get it done.
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Hard to know where this group is in its development. Devin Asiasi and Dalton Keene have given the team nothing as receiving options. Asiasi was targeted twice on Monday night, neither of which were perfect throws but both of which were catchable. Keene did not see a pass sent his way.
As blockers, though, it's hard to immediately after the game point to any positive moments. Asiasi looked like he was supposed to chip a blitzing safety right before the half, but instead of getting enough of the blitzer to give Newton time to make a throw . . . Newton ended up being sacked.
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The running game was productive. Even with a backup left tackle in the game, this group handled its business in the trenches early on. Justin Herron, that backup left tackle, looked athletic at times in getting out in front of crack-toss runs and hustling up to the second level on inside handoffs. He was at the point of attack for both Michel and Taylor's long runs that set up Newton's scramble-drill score.
David Andrews, playing through a calf issue, appeared to give up a sack midway through the first quarter. And both Newton and Stidham were pressured as the game wore on, particularly after Andrews was replaced by James Ferentz, but by and large this group was not the problem.
Not this group's best game. Nick Folk, who'd been automatic lately, missed an extra point. The Bills executed a fake punt with success in the first quarter to extend a touchdown drive. Donte Moncrief returned an early kickoff and only made it to his own 10-yard line. Gunner Olszewski's lone punt return went for five yards. Moncrief did have a 27-yard return, and Jake Bailey did drop four of his seven punts inside the 20.
But this group has seen better days. Even recently-named Pro Bowler Matthew Slater was flagged for a penalty -- a rarity on a rare down night for this unit.
The Bills offense did what it wanted throughout the course of the night, and this unit earned its share of the blame. Adam Butler jumped offsides twice on the same drive -- once negating an interception in the end zone by J.C. Jackson -- to knock this grade down. Deatrich Wise had trouble getting under the pads of running back Devin Singletary when Singletary ran into the chest of the Patriots defensive lineman.
Without Lawrence Guy (scratched with a shoulder injury), this group ended up giving up 4.7 yards per carry and it had trouble containing Josh Allen. Allen scooted for first-down conversions on fourth-and-one and third-and-seven on the night. He was not sacked, and the defensive line did not register a hit on the Bills signal-caller.
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Terez Hall got plenty of play on the broadcast for his willingness to make hard contact, but he crashed down hard into a gap near the goal line, lost running back Zack Moss and got carried into the end zone for a touchdown in the second quarter.
John Simon got caught flat-footed in the flat playing in zone coverage and allowed a checkdown to go for 10 yards. Chase Winovich was pulled from the game briefly when he was flagged for a neutral-zone infraction. No one at inside or outside linebacker had more than four tackles. Josh Uche left the game with a foot injury.
There were three touchdown throws to Stefon Diggs, the NFL's leading receiver, including one where two players whiffed on tackling him near the goal line. There was a 50-yard catch-and-run touchdown from Diggs that featured the potential No. 1 corner in New England next season, J.C. Jackson, getting left behind on a long-developing crossing route. There was a touchdown throw to a tight end who looks more like a tackle, and there was a 27-yard floater lofted to that same mammoth blocker, Lee Smith, who entered the league as a Patriots draft pick in 2011.
Allen put on a show, averaging 8.9 yards per attempt, completing 27 of his 36 attempts for 320 yards and four touchdowns. His 138.7 quarterback rating in the game ranked the performance as one of the best ever against a Belichick-coached defense, and this unit was at the scene of the crime for many of Allen's biggest plays.
