Year 1 has concluded here in my New England Patriots series, and it's included a lot of injuries, some terrific running, mountains of interceptions, and a surprising amount of winning.
Finishing the Season
After taking a bye in Week 10, attempting to recuperate after being thumped by the Ravens, we returned with a whimper in a 38-18 loss to the Eagles on the road. Any hope at a playoff run appeared to have ended in Foxborough the following week, as a late James White fumble resulted in a narrow loss to the Cowboys. Now sitting at 4-7, I was preparing for the offseason, but our boys had yet to give up on tasting the postseason. Carried by strong performances from Sony Michel, our suddenly surging offense turned it on in three straight one-score wins, the most impressive coming at home against the Kansas City Chiefs. That was a game that went to overtime, eventually won by Michel's third rushing score of the day, which added on to his impressive 182 yards on the ground. The other two wins came against Houston and Cincinnati on the road, and suddenly, we had hope of going after the division crown. That hope was extinguished in Week 16, an 8 point loss at home to the Bills, which clinched Buffalo the AFC East title. We closed out the year by once again beating the Dolphins, with Jacoby Brissett tossing three scores, helping us to a final record of 8-8. Stay tuned for later on to find out if a neutral final record was enough for a playoff berth.
Year 1 Final Stat Leaders
Passing Yards
Jacoby Brissett (4,012)
Passing Touchdowns
Jacoby Brissett (26)
Interceptions
Jacoby Brissett (19)
Rushing Yards
Sony Michel (1,080, 4.7 per carry)
Rushing Touchdowns
Sony Michel (9)
Receptions
N'Keal Harry and Benjamin Watson (82)
Receiving Yards
N'Keal Harry (967)
Receiving Touchdowns
Julian Edelman (6)
Tackles
Kyle Van Noy (130)
Tackles For Loss
Kyle Van Noy (13)
Sacks
Kyle Van Noy (10.5)
Interceptions
Devin McCourty (6)
Pass Deflections
Devin McCourty, Kyle Van Noy, JC Jackson, Stephon Gilmore (6)
Forced Fumbles
Dont'a Hightower, Elandon Roberts, Michael Bennett (1)
The Medical Table
There were a lot of players struggling for health this year. Jason McCourty, James White, and Rex Burkhead were all completely shut down by the end of Week 17, with the former two potentially still dealing with some aftereffects at the start of next year. Meanwhile, Julian Edelman is also on the injured reserve, though he did recover after our final regular season game was complete.
Pros and Cons
One more section to get to before we find out our playoff fate, as I just wanted to talk about what worked and didn't work with the team this year, so you can find out a bit more about our successes and failures beyond pure stats. By far the strong point of the team was our run game, which ended up placing 7th in the NFL, led by the astounding play of Michel down the stretch. The passing game struggled a lot more, as Brissett was frequently wild throwing the ball, and it took a while to start generating consistent drives when we had to rely on passing. Things really started to get good for Brisett when I began to use our tight ends more, as Benjamin Watson proved he was still valuable even at 38, tying for the team lead in receptions and finishing just a single yard behind Harry for the lead in yardage. On defense, we were really good at generating pressure, finishing 6th in sacks, but the biggest failure was our lack of speed, which resulted in giving up a lot of big plays, and the high amount of turnovers from Brissett and the offense (we turned the ball over 25 times, the most in the NFL), which resulted in a lot of short fields and easy points for the opposing offense. All in all, considering we played without our franchise quarterback for most of the season, I thought this could be viewed as a success.
Our Playoff Fate
I've left it for long enough, was an 8-8 record good enough to make the playoff? The answer is yes, as we visit Buffalo for one more matchup with the Bills in the Wild Card Round. I have my doubts that this team is putting together much of a playoff run, but if it goes beyond that game, the playoffs will get their own post, likely going up later today. If not, it'll just get a mention in the Year 1 offseason post.
- Henry
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