Patriots Daily

By Bruce Allen, Patriots Daily Staff

Spikes Lost His Man For This TD

Alrighty then. What in the name of Dean Pees was that all about?

That was ugly. You almost hope this was a product of not taking the Rams seriously, and getting a little cocky after the press clippings of their first two performances. That can be corrected. If not, we might be seeing 36-35 scores in the regular season as well. Some of the youngsters, after looking so good in the first two games, came down to earth a bit last night, especially first round pick Devin McCourty, who seemingly hadn’t made a mistake the entire preseason, suddenly looked like an exposed rookie on the field at times. Brandon Spikes was okay in run coverage, but got beat when he had to drop into coverage, one of the few concerns that people had about him.

Things were so bad that Bill Belichick left the first team defense in the game for a whole lot longer than he wanted to, I’m sure, just to see if they could get themselves straightened out. It didn’t happen. The Rams’ second, and then third string offensive players had much the same success as the first string did. Have we mentioned yet that the first string was led by a rookie quarterback getting his first extended action of the preseason?

To make matters worse, two of the players who could be labeled bright spots last night, much-maligned defensive lineman Ron Brace and fighting-for-his-roster-spot Terrence Wheatley both had to leave the game with injuries. Both had made some decent plays last night, especially Brace, who showed good power at the line, and ended up with a sack  as well.

The unit as a whole has a lot of work to do before the season opener with the pass-happy Bengals.

By Bruce Allen, Patriots Daily Staff

Two rushing touchdowns of 20 yards or more, and two touchdown passes to tight ends?

Fred Taylor Takes It In Against Atlanta

These aren’t the 2009 Patriots.

The 2009 Patriots were entirely too reliant on passing to Wes Welker and Randy Moss, and while they had a decent running game, too many times they couldn’t get into the end zone. Outside of the opening night win over the Bills, when Benjamin Watson caught two late TD passes from Tom Brady, the tight ends were really not a factor at all last season.

Last night was encouraging from a play calling perspective, despite the tepid defense of the Falcons. While Brady did look to Welker early, it was to get him into the game and established. When Fred Taylor broke a 28-yard TD run, bouncing to the outside after a hit, he looked more like the Fred Taylor of the early 2000′s than he did the 2009 version. When Brady threw a TD pass to Aaron Hernandez in the exact right spot, and Hernandez caught it and got his feet down, he was more wide receiver than the brand of tight end we’ve become accustomed to here in New England in the Belichick era.

Later in the game, Sammy Morris broke free for a 20 yard TD run, and Brian Hoyer tossed an absolutely beautiful, perfect spiral to Rob Gronkowski, who caught it in stride and had a couple of defenders bounce off him as he entered the end zone.

Just four plays in all, (and in a preseason game against a pretty soft opponent) but they should encourage us that things might be a little different on the offensive side of the ball this season.

By Bruce Allen, Patriots Daily Staff

If you can take one thing away from last night’s game, it was the performance of the first and second year guys. In a preseason opening game, it’s difficult to single out one players, since playing time fluctuates so much. So for the first Patriots Daily gameball of 2010, we’re going to hand it to the draft classes of 2009 and 2010, most of whom gave us some things to be encouraged about last night.

Brandon Spikes and Julian Edelman Were Two of The Stars Last Night.

Pat Chung – Big open field third down stop against the Saints first team offense.

Darius Butler – He did have a poor illegal contact penalty late in the game, but played well for most of the night. He had a big play in run coverage on the Saints second drive.

Sebastian Vollmer – Was big in a tight formation with Crumpler and Gronkowski early in the game that led to a BJGE TD.

Brandon Tate – Showed his ability with a great 20 yard catch on the sideline.

Tyrone McKenzie – Didn’t get to play until late in the game, which some might take as a negative, but he was wearing the green dot on his helmet, indicating he was the play caller. Combined with UDFA Sergio Brown on a thumping sandwich hit on a Saint receiver late in the game.

George Bussey – The second year offensive lineman saw quite a bit of time last night.

Myron Pryor – Once again stout on the line, looked a bit bigger than last season.

Julian Edelman – If you were to single out someone for player of the game, it would be Edelman, who had 6 catches for 90 yards, and an electric punt return.

Devin McCourty – A 52-yard kickoff return, solid defense, a beast on special teams. Not much complaining about the first round pick last night.

Rob Gronkowski - The massive tight end was moving people all over the place in the blocking game.

Brandon Spikes - A very strong performance by the rookie middle linebacker, who started, and saw extensive playing time, and always seemed to be in on the action. He led the team with eight combined tackles.

Aaron Hernandez – Wasn’t quite the dynamo he’s been in camp, but did make three catches on the night, and moved well.

Taylor Price – A couple catches, a couple punt returns, nothing spectacular, but didn’t look out of place, either.

Zoltan Mesko – He had some worried with a few shaky performances in camp, but looked good last night, getting a few punts down inside the 20.

Ted Larson – The rookie center got quite a bit of time last night as well.

Zac Robinson – The 7th round QB was up and down, but did make a few nice plays.

Dane Fletcher – The UDFA was in the game ahead of McKenzie at ILB and looked pretty good out there, making a couple tackles.

Sergio Brown – The UDFA safety made a couple of thumping hits that stood out.

All in all, not bad at all.

By Jeremy Gottlieb, Patriots Daily Staff

That’s all, folks. The halls of Patriots Daily University are now closed for the season on the heels of Sunday’s humiliating disaster at Gillette Stadium, in which the once proud Patriots lost a 33-14 wild card game to the Baltimore Ravens. The score may as well have 100-0, that’s how much of a chance the Pats of actually winning. Every aspect of the game was a complete catastrophe, from the passing game to the run defense to the special teams to the coaching. The Ravens showed up hungry to win and advance, the Pats didn’t show up at all. The score was 24-0 five minutes into the game and even though the Ravens only scored nine points for the rest of the afternoon and the Patriots had multiple chances to close the gap, they were so listless, so unprepared, so utterly and completely outclassed that they couldn’t capitalize on any of them. It wasn’t so terribly surprising that they lost; what was shocking was the way it happened. No Patriots team of the past 10 years has been beaten so thoroughly in a playoff game and offered such minuscule resistance to it. You’d have to go back to new Seahawks coach Pete Carroll’s team of 1998, which had Scott Zolak at quarterback and was lambasted by the Jaguars in the wild card round to find as bad a postseason defeat, one that someone called “a pre-season like effort,” and Vince Wilfork deemed, “JV.” The professors here have all agreed that we will try to avoid making this a post-mortem on the entire season, as there will be plenty of those to go around for weeks. We’ll just focus on Sunday’s game and we warn you, it will not be pretty. But before we do, thanks to all who’ve taken the time to read these report cards all year long. It was a rich experience to be able to watch and analyze the game this way and the readership is truly appreciated. So with that in mind, let’s get to the final report card of this crazy, up-and-down season.

OFFENSE: Overall Grade: F

Where should we start? The passing game was hideous. The running game never got going, thanks to the four-score deficit within the game’s first five minutes. The play-calling was atrocious. The offensive line played as poorly as it has all year. Tom Brady played the worst playoff game of his career. There were less than 200 yards of total offense. One pass play went for 20+ yards. There were five 3-and-outs on their first 13 possessions. Other than that, everything was great.

Quarterbacks: F

Brady passed for just 142 yards on a whopping 42 attempts, good for a brutal 3.7 yards per attempt. He turned the ball over four times, three of which were devastating. He was never comfortable in the pocket or out of it, forced one throw after another into double or triple coverage, as well as even more to receivers who were blanketed by their men. He looked ginger and unwilling to run, even with large swaths of turf open in front of him. Some of it had to be injury-related, some of it had to be his inability all year to connect with anyone other than Wes Welker with any consistency, some of it had to do with the fact that he had mediocrity all around him at the skill positions, some of it had to do with his line’s continued inability to handle three and four man rushes. The Ravens said afterward that they wanted to move him out of the pocket and keep seven or eight men in coverage to make him uncomfortable and it worked perfectly. There was nothing good about his performance, even his two TD passes to Julian Edelman, which only prolonged the inevitable. It was a humbling, sad, embarrassing day for the best player in franchise history.

Running Backs: D

Other than Kevin Faulk, who for a couple of stretches was the entire offense and totaled 89 of the teams 196 yards, there was nothing good to report. Laurence Maroney got back into the lineup and he didn’t fumble for a change. But he did follow up one vintage two-yard run with a total whiff on a blitz pickup right up the middle that cost the team a sack and Maroney , again, his job. He was never heard from another time after that sack by Ray Lewis and it’s hard to imagine him ever playing for this team again. Neither Fred Taylor or Sammy Morris had the chance to do anything given the circumstances and the two of them subsequently combined for 25 total yards on six touches. We’ll never know if the Pats could have run on the Ravens given the mammoth early deficit but when they did go to any one in their stable of backs, with the exception of Faulk, they did exactly nothing.

Wide Receivers: D

A lot of credit is due to Edelman, who was only asked to become Welker this past week. He did a reasonable job, making a couple of nice grabs on the two TDs and clearly playing through some sort of leg injury suffered in the second quarter. After that, nada. Randy Moss was supposedly dealing with some malady during the week which could have at least partially explained his (sadly predictable) no-show. he did catch five passes for 48 yards, but none came in the first quarter and none were of any consequence. Sam Aiken suffered a scary looking injury after halftime but before that, he was completely invisible (one catch, five yards) except for yet another play on which a catchable ball clanged off of his stone hands and into the arms of Ravens safety Ed Reed for one of the three picks. Here’s hoping that more due diligence is given to the receiver position before next season than there was before and during this one so that we never have to see him impersonate one again.

Tight Ends: F

It was nice to see Ben Watson reach the likely end of his tenure here by having a dump-off from Brady that traveled three yards bounce off his hands and shoulder pads and onto the turf in the first quarter on one of the rare occasions in which there was actually room for a play to be made. Watson caught one pass for three yards and Chris Baker caught none. All season long, the Pats inability/refusal to involve their tight ends more in the passing game hurt them badly and Sunday was no exception. Maybe it was because Watson, for all of his considerable athletic talent, is not any good, a topic discussed in this very space going all the way back to the preseason. Whatever the reason, Sunday’s no-show by these two underscored a season-long problem, yet another that will need fixing in the off-season.

Offensive Line: F

From Matt Light’s ole on Ravens beast Terrell Suggs that led to a strip-sack and subsequently another Baltimore TD on the Pats third play from scrimmage, to Brady being sacked or hit six times and heavily pressured several others, it’s safe to say that the O-line belongs as firmly in the camp of those who didn’t show up as anyone. Baltimore never really brought more than four pass rushers but, as seems to happen every time the have a numbers advantage in protection, the line couldn’t handle it. Light was blown away a few more times after that first fleecing by Suggs and with free agency looming, is likely a goner unless he’ll take less money and maybe even convert to guard. The majority of the Ravens pressure came up the middle and Stephen Neal, Dan Koppen and Logan Mankins (another free agent who will likely be gone), were inconsistent at best in picking it up. Even Sebastian Vollmer , who has a stellar rookie season and should be a cornerstone for years to come, gave up a sack. Over the years, this bunch, which has been together in some capacity for six years, has been one of the most obvious strengths of the team. It’s fair to say that at this point, to put it simply, they are not anymore. With the likely impending departures of Light and Mankins and the revelation after the game on Sunday that Neal may retire, it will be interesting to see how the line – only the most crucial aspect of an offense having consistent success – is rebuilt.

DEFENSE: Overall Grade: F

The Ravens ran for 234 yards on an astonishing 52 attempts. In other words, they basically announced over the house PA that would be running on virtually every play and then went out and did with the Pats powerless to stop them. All of this season’s biggest duds – Brandon Meriweather, Darius Butler, every linebacker not named Tully Banta -Cain – did at least one thing that could be classified as a horrible mistake. The Pats were dominated at the line of scrimmage and couldn’t counter-punch. If you need more evidence as to what a total mismatch this was, here you go: Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco had the fewest passing yards of any playoff winning quarterback since 1970 (34), only dropped back to pass 10 times all day and had a passer rating of 10.0 (!!??!!) and his team still won by three scores. Give credit to the Ravens, who knew what they wanted to do and did it, and give none to the Pats, who showed no pride in their attempts to stop it.

Defensive Line: D

It will be sad to see Wilfork go. Even though he was double-teamed out of Ray Rice’s game-opening, 83-yard TD run, he still was the only player on defense, with the possible exception of Leigh Bodden, who had an OK game. Wilfork was in on 13 tackles, nine of them by himself. He made stops from the nose and from the right end position, where he played in the second half after Jarvis Green was put out of his misery and benched following as dismal a first half as anyone on the entire team. When the Ravens needed to, they paid extra attention to Wilfork and dared someone else on the Pats defense to make a play and no one did, including Ty Warren, who gets a semi-pass due to the ankle injury he’s been battling since the trip to London all those weeks ago. It was said during the week leading up to the game that the Pats would have the advantage when Baltimore tried to run. Not too many more wildly incorrect assessments about football have ever been made.

Linebackers: F

The weakest element of the Pats defense all year was also the weakest element of the Pats defense on Sunday. Starting with that long run by Rice on which Jerod Mayo overplayed the running lane and allowed himself to be easily sealed off, giving Rice a galaxy-sized hole, it was one awful effort after the next. Mayo only made two solo tackles all day, an astonishing statistic given the Ravens 52 rushing attempts. The Pats had better hope that Sunday, and the whole season for that matter, were just byproducts of a sophomore slump or lingering effects of his Week 1 knee injury because he was utterly horrendous all game long and had an overall dreadful season. He can’t shed blocks, he over commits himself too often and whiffed more times over the course of the year than Mark Bellhorn did at the height of his Red Sox days. There is very legitimate cause for alarm with Mayo. Gary Guyton is a nice player, fast and with reasonable coverage skills, but he is not an inside backer in a 3-4 defense. Let’s hope he doesn’t get another year to prove that to us. Adalius Thomas had another mediocre to lousy game and will probably be driven to the airport by someone in the front office at warp speed, he’s so gone. And Derrick Burgess, who had come on of last and was praised for his run defense by Bill Belichick last week, had one tackle and barely played after halftime. Only Banta -Cain didn’t humiliate himself, finishing his breakout year with eight tackles and a right-place-right-time interception after he was beaten in coverage by four steps but adjusted to a different route and came down with a ball tipped by Bodden . If the Pats decide to spend any money in free agency, which they don’t do (other than – you guessed it – with Thomas three years ago), they had best fins themselves at least two linebackers who can make plays because right now they have one and who knows if he’ll ever be able to repeat his performance of this season again.

Secondary: D

Even though Flacco only completed four passes all day, when he needed to complete two of them in the second half, one to Mark Clayton, one to Derrick Mason, both to convert third downs, he just found Butler and victimized the rookie for the umpteenth time this season. I think Butler will get better – of all the Pats lousy young DBs, he seems to be the one who has the best instincts and most polished skill set. But with a few exceptions, this was a nightmarish year for him and he’s got a lot of work to do. Bodden had a decent game, making an incredibly athletic play to tip that interception in Banta-Cain’s direction. But he was also in the vicinity of one of those two second half completions, making him at least partially guilty. He was easily the Pats best corner this year; naturally he’s also a free agent. On a great team, he’s the No. 2 guy, maybe even a nickelback, just to give you an idea of how awful this secondary is. Meriweather proved once again that all he’s good at is playing 50 yards from the line of scrimmage and fielding overthrown deep balls like punts – he was burned to a crisp by Rice and Co. over and over again, routinely taking terrible angles to the runner and thus putting himself out of position. I’m really on the fence with Meriweather . He had his moments this season, especially in the first few games and against bad teams. But when he sucks, he sucks so badly that one has to wonder if he’ll ever turn out to be even a very good player let alone a great one. It will be nice to have a few months off from seeing him look so utterly lost.

Special Teams: F

Another day of bupkus on kick returns. The Pats averaged a pathetic 19.7 yards per return, about in keeping with their numbers there all year. Chris Hanson hit one of his five punts well, sending it 53 yards, but that was of course nullified when the punt team allowed it to be returned 34 yards and into Pats territory. Stephen Gostkowski even got into the act, chunking a 44-yarder that could have cut the deficit to two scores early in the fourth quarter. The non-recovery of the muffed punt in the second quarter that set up the Pats first score wasn’t even a real positive since it shouldn’t have counted and wouldn’t have if Ravens coach John Harbaugh had bothered to challenge the ruling on the field. Only Edelman did anything noteworthy, with his weaving, spinning, tackle-breaking punt return in the third quarter. Given all of the other complete and total failures, it didn’t really matter.

Coaching: F

Belichick ends his worst season since his first one in 2000 with an effort that should and probably does embarrass the crap out of him. Any adjustments that were attempted to curb the Ravens running game either didn’t work or weren’t even made. When it became clear that the Ravens would pressure Brady up the middle and were all over the screen pass game, the play-calling did not change one bit. And, most glaringly of all, the lack of preparedness, mental toughness and pride, while certainly having a lot to do with the players, ultimately falls at the feet of the coach. The Pats didn’t have enough good players on Sunday or all year for that matter.Belichick the personnel guy totally failed Belichick the coach this year, in numerous ways. He never pulls any punches when they lose and always holds himself as responsible as anyone, never failing to point out when he and his staff is outcoached. He was outcoached a lot this year, never worse than on Sunday. He has as much work to do as anyone, starting yesterday.

by Chris Warner, Patriots Daily Staff

In less time than it took for Wes Welker to crutch-walk off the field after the coin flip, the home team trailed 7-0 and looked about as alert as a sloth on a hot day. Just a terrible game all around.

Yeah, we felt sick too, Bill.

New England tried to make a game of it (although “tried” may be too strong a word). In the end, though, their mid-game improvement failed to make up for their awful start in the 33-14 loss.

Some notes, if you’re up for them…

An Inferior Brandon: Just how many tackles is safety Brandon Meriweather supposed to miss? Whether on Ray Rice scooting for 83 yards or Willis McGahee barreling for a first down, Meriweather failed to support the run defense.

Oh Brother, O’Brien: Horrible offensive play-calling by Bill O’Brien, and continued missteps on special teams courtesy of coach Scott O’Brien. While the former showed Wile-E.-Coyote-like persistence in calling unsuccessful screen and draw plays, the latter put out a kick-return team that struggled to get the ball past the 20 in the first half and gave up a 30-yard return in the second.

Fare Thee Welker: Oh, hell. It looks like Wes Welker really was the team MVP.

Upbraiding Brady: Sure, he was under pressure. Yes, his coaches made play calls as if they were consulting a Magic 8-Ball. In the end, though, Tom Brady never got his timing and never rose to the occasion, finishing 23 of 42 for 154 yards, two TDs and three INTs, as well as a lost fumble. That’s four turnovers if you’re keeping track at home.

Of course, some of his lack of production can be put on the less-than-Atlas-like shoulders of…

No Moss, No Moss: What a quitter Randy Moss turned out to be. Zero receptions in the first half. An apparent lack of effort throughout. Maybe he’s hurt, but with his half-assing it, we could never tell.

If a football game resembles a street fight, the Ravens were the Warriors while the Pats were the cast of “West Side Story.” One was prepared for anything while the other looked like it expected the same rehearsed song and dance. Randy Moss just joined the chorus and failed to stick out in any discernible way.

A Shiny Julian: With his six catches for 44 yards and two TDs, at least Julian Edelman came to play. He and Kevin Faulk (14 carries, 52 yards; six catches, 37 yards) provided the only semblance of competency on offense.

Die, Dynasty: It’s over, and that’s just fine. Now, New England can focus on improving their defense while adding tough-minded offensive guys who can actually play the grind-it-out game that Brady alluded to earlier this season.

Yes, PD friends, it’s over. But when one thing ends, something better gets the chance to begin.

To our readers, thanks for checking out Gut Check this year, and thanks to Scott, Bruce and the entire PD gang for all the support.

Email Chris Warner at chris.warner@patriotsdaily.com

By Jeremy Gottlieb, Patriots Daily Staff

I don’t know about any of the other professors here at Patriots Daily University, or any of the readers of our illustrious staff’s work, but I do know that I want Sunday’s 34-27, regular season finale loss to the Houston Texans to just go away. I wish it never happened. I’m going to pretend it didn’t, even when I don’t see Wes Welker out there churning out one first down after another during this weekend’s wild card game against the Ravens. There’s just no reason to think about it. It was a meaningless game that became surreally meaningful in about 15 minutes when Welker crumpled to the Reliant Stadium turf, then settled into a humdrum monotony before officially becoming meaningful again thanks to yet another fourth quarter el foldo by the defense. I will rehash the game only because as part of my job responsibilities here at PDU , I have to. But I will do it quickly so as to minimize nausea the game and any thoughts regarding it provoke(d). I think anyone who gives a rat’s ass about the Patriots is with me on this. And if you’re not, stay tuned for this time next week, when we will have a real, honest-to-goodness report card revolving around what should (and will – you heard it here first) be a solid win over the Ravens. So with that, let’s get this over with.

OFFENSE: Overall Grade: C

Who knows how things would have gone had Welker stayed healthy? Maybe Tom Brady would have stayed out of the game in the second half instead of coming back in so as to get a feel for the running the offense going forward without his favorite target. Maybe with Brian Hoyer and BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Matthew Slater playing big reps instead of Brady, Fred Taylor and Randy Moss, the defense’s pathetic, fourth quarter meltdown wouldn’t have been so hard to take, as there may not have been a lead to blow. Who knows? What is known is that for most of the afternoon, the offense was decidedly mediocre. Brady had a blah game, never looking comfortable after Welker left and throwing an inexcusable, wounded duck for a pick in the fourth quarter instead of taking a sack, a play which completely swung the game for Houston. The running game produced a few nice plays but was mostly ignored and was held under four yards per attempt. Julian Edelman shined in place of Welker but was mostly invisible in the fourth quarter. The offensive line was OK, but had major problems controlling Texans pass rusher extraordinaire/former No. 1 overall pick Mario Williams, especially on pressure up the middle, in the second half. And when they needed to make a play the most, in that fourth quarter while the defense was cowering on the sideline, it went three-and-out, interception, turnover on downs on its final three possessions. Not much more to say than that other than the obvious, which is that a performance like that this week, especially if the game is close late, will spell the end of the season.

Quarterbacks: C

Again, Brady was nothing special. Seeing as how Welker, only the guy around whom the entire passing game is based, was gone after four plays, it’s not surprising. And he did manage to throw for 130 yards on 9-of-13 passing in the first half. But everything came to a crashing halt after that. There was one scoring drive in the second half, a nine-play, 72-yard march that featured five completions (four to Edelman ) before Taylor ran in his second score of the day, but that was it. The interception, which was a given the minute the ball left his hands, was preceded by a screen to Sammy Morris that netted -4 yards. He finished the day playing all but three series, with a 17-for-26, 186-yard, zero TD, one INT line, numbers that will only get it done against the Ravens if the Pats run the ball for at least 150 yards, which is no guarantee at all. Hoyer looked sharp in his limited time, like someone who would have a chance to win if forced to play, which is a lot more than can be said for most backup QBs in the NFL.

Running Backs: C

With Kevin Faulk inactive to rest and Laurence Maroney still benched most likely due to his fumble against the Jaguars last week, the running duties were charged exclusively to Morris and Taylor, with a little Green-Ellis sprinkled in. Morris was nowhere, gaining just nine yards on seven carries (six on one play) and limping off the field in the fourth quarter. Taylor had the two TDs and averaged nearly five yards per his seven attempts, but had a brutal fumble at the Pats 1 which was recovered by the Texans for a score and rendered the excellent goal line stand by the defense just seconds earlier completely moot. Green-Ellis looked solid both as a blocking back (his play to spring Taylor for his second TD was awesome) and on his four carries for 22 yards.Faulk will certainly be back this week and man will the Pats need him. They will need everyone, even Maroney, as the emphasis on the run became that much greater following Welker’s injury.

Wide Receivers: B-

This will be the quickest section yet, don’t you worry. Moss made a couple nice plays, especially his 41-yard catch and run in the second quarter, but was completely bottled up in the second half. Edelman looks the part of Welker , but he managed just one catch on six targets in the fourth quarter and anyone who thinks he can make up for the loss is clinically insane. Sam Aiken got hurt again. Look for the back and tight ends to be as heavily involved in the passing game as at any point all year this coming week – that’s how much help this position group will need, even if Moss has a big game. The end.

Tight Ends: B

Again, they were targeted a few times and again, Ben Watson and Chris Baker each made a couple of plays. Watson had three catches for 32 yards and looked good making them, but he also didn’t come up with a couple catchable balls. It’s highly likely that he will be counted on to come up with everything in his general vicinity this week as well as do his customary good blocking job in the running game. Let’s hope he’s up to it. Baker has shown flashes of being a very capable receiver this season and his one catch on Sunday was a nice one. Given the certain, all hands on deck, mentality of this Sunday, he may be looked at more often.

Offensive Line: C

A lot has been made of how clean Brady has been courtesy of his line the previous four weeks, and rightly so. Along with the emergence of the running game over that same stretch, the O-Line deserves ample credit. But on Sunday, with the speedy, incredibly strong pass rushing demon Williams shifted all over the line of scrimmage and some other solid, young Houston linemen and linebackers running around, they didn’t do too much. There was a lot of shifting of personnel throughout and maybe that had something to do with the protection difficulties, most of which surfaced in the second half (this is a recording). Brady was sacked once, was hit multiple times after the half (including by Williams on the INT) and felt more pressure than he has in some time. Stephen Neal’s enormous holding penalty on the final drive of the game hurt pretty badly. Again, not having Welker meant a number of in-game adjustments, even for the line in regard to its protection schemes. A week of practice should shore most of that up, especially given the success this group has had of late. But Sunday in Houston was not one of its better days.

DEFENSE: Overall Grade: C-

First three quarters: A-. Fourth quarter: F. Everything the Pats did well on defense until the final frame – pressure Houston QB Matt Schaub, pin down the running game, hold all-world receiver Andre Johnson in check – went up in smoke the minute the Texans started their first drive of the fourth. Houston rolled up 21 points and 130 yards in that quarter and while they did have the advantage of a short field on two of their three scoring marches thanks to the Brady pick prior to one and a 31-yard punt return by Jacoby Jones on the other, the Pats still offered little resistance. Schaub hit nearly every throw and running back Arian Foster, on the practice squad a little over a month ago, suddenly looked like a cross between Edgerrin James and Earl Campbell. It didn’t help that Leigh Bodden missed the game and that Shawn Springs sat out most of the fourth to rest and was replaced by Jonathan Wilhite , who had probably the worst of his litany of awful games. Or that whatever run stopping elixir the linemen had taken in the absence of Vince Wilfork and Ty Warren over the past three weeks totally wore off about a minute into the fourth quarter. Or that once again, Jerod Mayo was mediocre at the absolute best and Gary Guyton (one solo tackle) continued to look like he’s regressing. Bodden, Wilfork and Warren will likely be back this week and hopefully, Wilhite will again be restricted in his duties (if not barred from any of them). Maybe coordinator Dean Pees falling ill and having to go to the hospital during the second half had something to do with the collapse, maybe not (I don’t recall Pees having to leave any other game in which his players rolled over in the fourth quarter due to shortness of breath, though that doesn’t mean he didn’t want to). But again, like pretty much everything else about the game, it’s a total performance best forgotten, and fast.

Defensive Line: C-

Credit this group for playing about as well as one might imagine given that its two most talented, important members – Warren and Wilfork – have combined for six snaps in the last three games. But it all came apart, like everything else, in the later stages on Sunday, when Foster and the Texans offensive line started to beat their chests and the response barely registered a whimper. When Schaub grew tired of torturing the helpless Wilhite , he simply turned and gave the ball to the heretofore unknown Foster then sat back and watched. Foster gouged the Pats for 119 yards on just 20 carries good for an overwhelming six yards per attempt. The game-winning TD drive following the Brady pick was all Foster – four carries for 6, 12, 7 and 3 yards, respectively, the final two featuring anyone in a Pats uniform showing the least bit of resistance being pushed back and run over in a most embarrassing fashion. There were no bigger culprits than any others, as Jarvis Green, Mike Wright, Myron Pryor and Ron Brace all chipped in with efforts that were middling at best. With Wilfork and Warren back in the fold, not as much will be asked of guys like Pryor and Brace, but the Ravens run the ball as well as anyone in the league, especially recently, which means much, much more will be required than the lousy display put forth in Houston.

Linebackers: C

If not for Derrick Burgess, it would have been far worse, and who in their right mind would have ever imagined a scenario like that? Burgess continued to be one of the brightest lights of the entire defense, racking up eight tackles, another sack and three more shots on Schaub. Clearly, something clicked with Burgess right around when he got sent home on that snowy morning a few weeks ago along with Guyton, Moss and Adalius Thomas and the numbers (17 tackles, three sacks over that three game stretch) bear it out. Now if only everyone else in this much-maligned group will follow suit. Tully Banta-Cain finished up his career season with a dud, not making a single solo tackle or getting anywhere near Schaub, while the travails of Guyton and Mayo, who for the umpteenth time now is nowhere near the player he was last season. When Schaub hit tight end Joel Dreessen , running unabated right don the middle of the field with no Patriot within 15 yards of him on any side, with a 25-yard TD pass in the first quarter, the image of Mayo standing still and looking around about five yards off the line of scrimmage both during and after the play sticks out as clearly as any other on the day. Junior Seau and Rob Ninkovich – young and old – made a couple of nice contributions and Adalius Thomas made exactly none.

Secondary: C

Playing without Bodden, the DBs held up well against the fantastic Johnson (at least until Wilhite got anywhere near him), who managed just six catches for 65 yards. It was nice to see Darius Butler come up with that deflected pass in the red zone and gallop 91 yards for a score but the fact that he was also flagged for an interference penalty that gave the Texans the ball at the Pats 3 was anything but. It was a microcosm of the rookie’s whole season and while he looks like the likeliest of the Pats stable of young corners to come around, he is still as much a work in progress as anyone else. Brandon Meriweather didn’t follow up his huge game last week against Jacksonville with anything special, but he did manage to not do anything stupid for the second straight week and for him, that’s a small victory. Springs and James Sanders remained solid since being called upon to do more a few weeks ago. And then there’s Wilhite . Without trying too hard to pile on, I will say this: he is completely helpless. This was becoming more and more evident as the season wore on, to the point where he was replaced by Springs as the No. 2 corner after the debacle in Miami a few weeks ago. But he seemed more comfortable in the ensuing weeks playing a more complementary role, until Sunday. Almost every second half throw seemed to go at him and he had no chance on any of them, surrendering one completion after another while offering little resistance. As was apparent earlier in the year, he has no ball skills, very little instinct and whatever technique he has gets him twisted in knots routinely. He will be active and he will play this week. Pats fans can only hope it’s not that much.

Special Teams: C+

Big ups again to Stephen Gostkowski, who drilled two long field goals, one from 51 yards, and was booting the ball deep into the end zone on kickoffs again. Not so much for the punt team, which was scorched by Jones for that 31-yarder on his only return of the day and set up the second of the three fourth quarter TDs. Kick returns again were not so hot as well, though Slater did manage a 35-yarder on one which is probably 15 yards longer than any other one he’s had this year.

Coaching: C

The grade is poor not because Welker and the rest of the starters played. Bill Belichick did the right thing in letting guys who had nagging injuries (Wilfork, Warren, Bodden, Faulk) rest while having the starters start and play in a game that was meaningless yes, but important nonetheless given that keeping some sort of a rhythm going headed into the playoffs is necessary. The grade is poor because the latest in the long line of fourth quarter folds isn’t all just on the players. Maybe on Sunday it was the substitution patterns (it’s highly unlikely that Springs is out in favor of Wilhite late in a meaningful game) on both sides of the ball. But regardless, the Pats were a completely different team come the fourth quarter, as they’ve been in similar situations throughout the year, and again, the coaches seemed powerless to do anything about it. The offense’s second half stagnation had mostly to do with Welker being out, a situation the coaching staff hardly had the time for which to prepare. A week’s worth of planning should help with that situation at least a bit. Hopefully, it will also help finding the elusive answer as to why when the final quarter rolls around, the Pats continue to roll over.