Monday Read Option: The Patriots Go Big with Rob Gronkowski and Send the Bears Home
By Jason Lisk
Rob Gronkowski went full Gronk on Sunday. It was a reminder of just how dominant the big, vivacious quote machine can be when he is healthy, which he finally appears to be over the last month. The Patriots removed him from the injury report the week after the Cincinnati win (when he had 6 catches for 100 yards). That marked the first time he had not been either on the IR or listed on the injury report for a variety of injuries since week 3 of the 2012 season, when he suffered a hip injury.
And with a return of a healthy Gronkowski, the Patriots offense is clicking, so let’s hope that the Gronkowski leaving the field early was just a precaution because he had already done the work of ten men in in a game that got to 45-7 on the scoreboard. How much of a difference is there? Here are the splits for the first 4 and last 4 games, for the passing numbers.
To put those in some perspective, that’s the difference between a cross between rookie Derek Carr and Mike Glennon on the one hand, and MVP numbers on par with Peyton Manning on the other.
It hasn’t been just the return to form of Gronkowski (though that’s been a big part), it’s been better offensive line play (which was atrocious early in the year) and a decision to go big with not just Gronkowski, but also Brandon LaFell and Timothy Wright.
The difference was apparent right away. The offense of the first four weeks rarely threw the ball downfield past the sticks, and when they did so did not have success. Brady came out and immediately fired a 1o yard throw to Brandon LaFell on the opening play on a deep slant. Then, after several successful runs with Jonas Gray, he hit Rob Gronkowski in the back of the end zone on an out/corner combination.
That was just the beginning for Gronkowski, who from that point on dominated the Bears’ defenders. Throwing downfield doesn’t mean just unleashing 40 yard bombs; it means the 10-20 yard routes that pull apart the linebackers and open up the running game. Now, those routes are working with LaFell and Gronkowski.
Gronk ended the game with three touchdowns. Rather than showing the second, though, here’s one where he came within inches of what could have ultimately been a four touchdown day. This is a play they simply weren’t willing to run, because of protection issues, early in the year. Empty backfield, five vertical routes on 3rd and 18, and tremendous pressure on the defense. Brady avoids the lone edge rusher and steps up, and Gronkowski is there down the seam (with the four other receivers occupying attention across the field). Honestly, in the first four weeks, that was probably a draw call, or a short, safe pass (or an illegal pick play called back for OPI, which happened on occasion early).
The most Gronk play, though, came on the final touchdown, another downfield throw in that 10-15 yard range that turned into a beastly touchdown.
It’s safe to say that Gronkowski is officially back and in the discussion for best tight end in the game again, after Jimmy Graham grabbed that title while he was injured last year. A few weeks ago, Gronkowski said that all the offensive linemen should get laid after their sexy performance against the Bills. I don’t think anyone needs to tell Gronkowski to go have some fun after this performance.
NEW ORLEANS FINALLY ENDS THE NFC SOUTH’S MONTH FROM HELL
On October 5th, the New Orleans Saints rallied to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a divisional contest, and the Carolina Panthers beat the Bears at home. Those were the last wins by any NFC South team until the Saints beat the Packers last night on Sunday Night Football in the Super Dome, prompting a release of emotion.
It was a dreadful month for the NFC South, and going into the Thursday night game for the division lead between Carolina and New Orleans, no team has even a .500 record. Overall, the division is 5-16-1 against teams outside the NFC South. No day, though, was worse from a gut punch standpoint than yesterday, until the Saints’ win. You had the Panthers losing late at home against Seattle, you had the Bucs losing on a fumble in overtime to Minnesota at home, and you had the Atlanta Falcons puking all over themselves in London.
Speaking of which . . .
MIKE SMITH AND JIM CALDWELL COMBINED FOR THE BIGGEST END OF GAME DERP-FEST
The day started with the Falcons blowing a 21-0 lead in London to fall to 2-6. The end game was so brutal on all sides that we probably need to send the Men In Black in with their neuralyzer, to erase any memories of that game. We don’t want the Brits to think that’s how exciting NFL endings are supposed to go.
Just before the two minute warning, Matt Ryan completed a short pass to Julio Jones that he took down the field for a first down. With the ball in Detroit territory, a two point lead, Detroit having only one timeout and a new set of downs coming out of the two-minute timeout, it would be pretty hard to lose. Just playing conservatively and cleanly and punting the ball away, Detroit would be pinned deep with under 40 seconds left and no timeouts. Instead, Atlanta got called for an offensive holding (and the clock stops on a called penalty, even if declined) on second down after Detroit had already used a timeout, and then Julio Jones dropped the ball on another short screen on third down.
Atlanta managed to take 14 seconds off the clock before the punt. That was just the beginning.
Detroit got the ball to the Atlanta 31 with 34 seconds remaining after spiking the ball to stop the clock. Now, if anyone should know that the results of these long distance kicks are coin flips, it should be Jim Caldwell and the Detroit Lions. Hell, they would have taken the coin flip results over what has actually happened this year. But I’ll be darned if they didn’t then hand it up the middle for a 1 yard gain to basically get to a kick.
But then, Mike Smith called timeout! Bloody hell!
And then, on third down with 24 seconds left–now remember it’s third down so Detroit would have to rush the field goal unit on without the benefit of another spike, get set up, and get the snap off and make a long kick under pressure and being hurried–Detroit runs it up the middle again. See, I’m so flustered thinking about that I just wrote an incomprehensibly long sentence that recaptures the essence of the idiocy.
Wait, but there was the rare defensive holding on a running play, which completely bailed out Caldwell, and resulted in an automatic first down. That allowed Detroit to center and then spike the ball. Then, they won on a coin flip kick. The tails/miss got negated on a delay of game penalty against the Lions (so do we have faith that they really could have made a successful kick earlier if that defensive holding wasn’t called?). Then the longer kick came up heads.
NFL coaches, man. Sometimes they can be real wankers.
Previous 2o14 Read Options:
Week 1: Brady and the Patriots Get Battered
Week 2: San Diego “Exposes” Seattle
Week 3: Arizona Cardinals Blitz Their Way to 3-0 Start
Week 4: Teddy Bridgewater Takes Over and the Andrew Luck Breakout is Afoot
Week 5: The Cleveland Browns and Four Other Teams Laugh All the Way to Big Comebacks
Week 6: Dallas Cowboys Bring Doomsday to Seattle
Week 7: Drew Brees Avoids the Romo Criticism