Brissett deserves more credit, and other thoughts from Pats-Seahawks

Well, there goes the winning streak.

(Meandering sidetrack. Skip on down if uninterested.)

Honestly, how bizarre is it that the Patriots haven’t won back-to-back games since reeling off three straight against the Jets, Colts and Jets from Oct. 30 to Nov. 20, 2022?

Those three were the end part of a stretch of five wins in six games in the heady days of Zappe Fever. They croaked the Lions 29-0, beat down Jacoby Brissett and the Browns 38-15, got embarrassed on national TV by the Bears 33-14, then beat Zach Wilson, Sam Ehlinger and Zach Wilson again. They were 6-4 at that point!!

Less than two years later, the Lions are one of the best teams in the league, Brissett’s here, Mac Jones is long gone, so is Bailey Zappe, Zach Wilson’s dueling Jarrett Stidham for a backup job in Denver and nobody’s seen Sam Ehlinger.

While we’re in the midst of meandering, that Tom Brady commercial on FOX where they make him say he wants to be the greatest to ever do it in the booth? Sent my shoulders to my earlobes and there they stayed for three full minutes. I don’t know if $37.5 million is worth it. ... Also, Jonathan Vilma and Kenny Albert. “Jerod.” Not “Gerard…” Holy crap.

(Sidetrack concluded…)

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Items. We have items from Sunday’s 23-20 OT loss to Seattle.

1. It’s hard to argue Jacoby Brissett had a good day when he went 15 for 27 for 149 yards with three sacks (including a tough-to-take one that led to the field goal block).

Know what? I’m gonna do it anyway. Brissett’s out there dodging traffic like a plastic bag on 128 because of the leaky offensive line. Yet he has no turnovers through two games and hasn’t lapsed into any mind-melting mistakes that were the calling card of the Patriots offense the past two seasons.

He’s also keeping poise while improvising under heat, as evidenced by his work with Hunter Henry.

The last play of the third quarter perfectly summarized the Patriots' passing game through two weeks. On first-and-10 from the Seattle 22-yard line, Brissett took a shotgun snap and -- under pressure -- retreated all the way to the 37 before heaving one like a shortstop throwing from deep in the hole. A sliding Henry caught it at the 19 and lumbered for a first down.

Degree of difficulty? High.

Also, Brissett passed on flipping the ball out to the left where DeMario Douglas had come in motion and was waiting in space for a flip that never came. So while crediting Brissett, I’ll also say he’s GOT to get the ball to Douglas. It’s first-and-10 at the 22-yard line. Take whatever reasonable risk you see in getting it to him as opposed to the 15-yard retreat and fling.

2. My actuarial instincts are telling me it won’t be long before Drake Maye’s on the field. For the three or four plays Brissett makes dodging chaos, there are twice as many where he takes the punishment.

And it’s not shoves and love taps. He’s getting croaked. If Maye faced the kind of pressure Brissett’s seen for the first two weeks, the Patriots probably wouldn’t be 1-1 with an OT loss.

Brissett’s under the exact kind of heat that undoes young quarterbacks. It’s coming from everywhere both by defensive design and because of the Patriots' weakness up front. It can’t be pinpointed. Which leads to jumpiness and apprehension, then the footwork goes, then the “I’ll try to make a play …” creeps in, then start the circus music.

So pray for Brissett on a short week. If you need him this weekend, he’ll be in the ice bath from Friday to Sunday.

3. A guy signed to play left tackle who had never played left tackle didn’t play well at left tackle, then left the team? And a rookie drafted to perhaps play left tackle who had never played left tackle still isn’t ready to play? So the journeyman tackle who is pretty banged up is out there playing left tackle?

And the wide receiver room, which was close to systematically destroyed over the last six seasons, has just 11 catches for 85 yards as a group through two weeks?

Wow! I’m stunned! Who could have imagined they’d be this overmatched?

Meanwhile, Marvin Harrison Jr. -- taken No. 4 overall in the 2024 draft -- had four catches for 130 yards in the first quarter of Arizona’s win over the Rams.

Hey, the Patriots chose to build first at quarterback and leave the offensive line and wide receiver spots for later. It’s fair game to see how the Harrison's, J.C. Latham’s and Joe Alts are performing while Drake bakes.

4. How did the Patriots' well-respected defense get sliced and diced by Geno Smith? Ted Johnson did an excellent job explaining for us beginning on Halftime Live and running right through Postgame Live.

By spreading out and going empty, Smith was able to quickly decipher whether the Patriots were in man or zone. Then, by upping the tempo, the Seahawks were able to prevent the Patriots from shuttling personnel, so they had to stay fairly basic with their defensive calls.

Smith still had to know what he was looking at and get the ball to the right players. But the talent and complementary skills of the Seattle receivers made it easy for him to do that as long as he stayed accurate, which he did. He was 27-for-35 for 282 yards to wideouts. Brissett was 3-for-4 for 19 yards to his wideouts.

5. When the Patriots were leading late in the game, I started researching how often they’d beaten teams that finished over .500 the year before. Because if they beat Seattle, they’d have been 2-0 against such opponents.

Well, they didn’t win. But I’m not letting the work land on the cutting room floor. These are the occasions they’ve beaten teams that had winning records the previous season.  

• 2020: Ravens
• 2021: Browns, Titans and Bills
• 2022: Steelers, Colts, Cardinals and Dolphins
• 2023: Bills and Steelers

That’s 10 times in 67 games. Coulda been two in two games if they beat Seattle. But it. Was not. To be.

6. There were a couple of things that should give the Patriots coaching staff pause about their prep. First, the fact that even though they aren’t a threat to throw deep, every time they looked to do so, Seattle was in Cover-2, which meant help over the top.

Said Brissett: “Obviously, they had a good tell on us (when) we were trying to push the ball down the field. And they did a good job, had a good game plan as far as not letting us get behind them. We tried to, but we've got to find ways to get on top of that and continue to try to push the ball down the field and find different ways. I thought they did a good job of playing two-deep a lot of the times when we were trying to take our shots.”

The other was the coverage breakdown that led to the true backbreaking play in the game, the 56-yard touchdown to D.K. Metcalf when Kyle Dugger called for a max blitz. 

That was total operator error by Dugger and he acknowledged it. Staring into the backfield at Smith, Metcalf – one of the league’s best receivers -- is quite literally PAST Dugger before the safety realizes Smith isn’t going to get rid of it quickly. That’s the definition of being caught staring at the quarterback.

Smith said the Patriots were “scared” out of calling that defense again until a third-and-6 in overtime. 

“We knew they would get back to it,” Smith said. “That’s what they want to do in those critical situations. (Offensive coordinator Ryan) Grubb was on it, made the right call. We’re just happy that happened and allowed us to get in field goal range and (Jason Myers) kicked it in.”