Week 4 Key Takeaways vs L.A. Chargers
Brady Likes it Deep
For all the chatter and concern about Tom Brady’s age and arm strength being an issue, ol’ boy hasn’t been hindered or deterred from taking deep shots all over the field this season. Once again, this was the case against the Chargers in Week 4.
By my count, he took no fewer than 8 deep shots in the game.
He wasn’t being all conservative and picking his shots with either. It was an aggressive attack.
Like, back-to-back attempts aggressive. Completion or not.
A welcomed surprise, actually.
Overall, Brady completed 4 passes of 25 yards or more.
Not bad for an over-the-hill system QB that likes to dink-and-dunk his way down the field.
via NFL GamePass
This one was his longest touchdown pass of the day(28 yards).
Also, the 3rd of 5 TD passes for Brady.
44 yard pass to Miller was the 2nd longest pass of the game for Brady.
The longest completion of the game goes to Mike Evans.
Good for 48 yards.
3rd and 5 and he’s looking for Miller deep the whole time.
Howard was likely a better/safer target.
1st and 10…..Going for 40+.
Same drive as the above play. Same pressure.
He was going for a big one here.
Howard looks to have been held on the route.
Could’ve been huge.
Even if Evans came down with this one, it would’ve gone as an offensive pass interference.
But, Brady wasn’t playing dink-and-dunk role many swear he lives by.
Immediately after the long attempt to Evans that made it 1st and 20, Brady loads up for a deep ball towards Gronkowski.
Bad pass…but the aggression was notable once again.
Damn what you’ve heard. Brady isn’t playing it safe and tiptoeing his way into the sunset. At least, not this season.
His Week 4 performance was reminiscent of TRUE gunslinger play from a QB where throwing for TDs outweighs throwing for yards and keeping defenses guessing what’s next is favoured over having defenses just biding their time waiting for an inevitable mistake to be made.
Wirfs: WonderWall
Tristan Wirfs can hold his own.
There was never really a doubt that he could. But he showed his potential and met his high expectation level against Joey Bosa.
Wirfs faced Bosa 1-on-1 for the vast majority of the day.
He held the star DE to 1 Tackle on the day. Bosa also came away with no sacks and being limited to 2 QB Hits.
Hellluva performance by the rookie offensive tackle. He thwarted all kinds of moves and strategies employed by Bosa. And nothing got by him.
While I hated how I felt Jason Licht got finessed into trading up for him, I’ve never doubted that Wirfs would be a competent and/or possibly dominant right tackle. Sunday, he proved he definitely has what it takes to be the latter.
It’s kinda funny how his peaceful demeanor in the chaotic world of the trenches seemingly helps him navigate through the tough times that have been the 2020 season with abbreviated practices and no preseason.
He’s the oasis of the offensive linemen.
Maybe he’s gonna be the one that saves us after all.
Wirfs washed ‘em all game long..
Stopped.
Rinse.
Repeat.
Despite the drops, Ronald Jones Is Just Far Too Potent of a weapon to ignore
Ronald Jones and those damn hands, man!!!
Jones had an iffy showing as a pass catcher in Week 4. He dropped what seemed to be 3-4 passes in watching the game live. But, after further review, it appeared to be just 2 bad drops. And that’s still too many.
He made up for those drops with his impressive running ability. He consistently ran the ball with both power and patience turning the what should’ve runs for a losses into positive gains.
He’s gotta clean up those drops which look like a focus issue as much as anything. Maybe all drops are considered a focus issue. I dunno. But whatever it is, it’s gotta be worked on harder.
Regardless, Jones showed that he’s too damn good to come off the field for long. He can break for a long run at any given time. And he doesn’t need a perfect case scenario or great blocking to do so either. This kind of effort and skill is just to good to be removed from the game plan.
20 Carries for 111 yards….Until he starts coughing up the ball, you’ve gotta just find ways to work around that kind of potency.
On first viewing, this looked like another bad drop. With another look, it was equally a bad pass.
Jones still should’ve made the catch even though he had to break stride and reach low for it.
A similar pass and catch got Kenjon Barner concussed just a few plays earlier.
Nothing more than a bad drop here.
Jones is perfectly capable of catching the ball and making something happen with it in his hands.
He’s got to be far more consistent.
Here’s where Jones makes amends for his non-catching sins though.
Routinely making something out of nothing and doing so without scrambling around foolishly and/or dancing around is an asset to offense that shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Check out the effort and the “feetwork”
“First downs and feetwork”.
Look at how this man’s feet keep movin’…..keep churning.
This is on every run.
Again, the feet keep moving and so do the eyes.
The change of direction and the burst to make something out of nothing CANNOT be underestimated.
There’s just too much good in Ronald Jones to bury him due to his inconsistency in pass catching .
And even that is somewhat overblown. He and Mike Evans are close to the same amount of drops.
Granted, Jones has fewer targets and it looms a bit more since his drops aren’t as well contested.
Yet and still, Jones is too much of a threat to take off the field or to take lightly.
More Sneak….less Shade
I’m good with seeing more Key’Shawn Vaughn and less LeSean now.
McCoy went down to injury this week, but his impact in the previous games was less than impressive to me. I understand the veteran presence side of the signing and he may prove useful later in the season. But, I’d much rather see the younger guy with more upside and explosiveness getting reps instead.
As of today, The Defense is the more stable unit
It’s a Team game.
But I still have more faith in the defense being able to stop a top offensive unit than I have faith in the offense not sputtering against a really good defense. The defense has looked good to damn near dominant in just about every game with only a few lapses.
The offense, again, sputtered against the opposition for the vast majority of a half in the game. While nothing will ever be perfect, this is far less than ideal. Against good teams, the BUCS can’t afford to struggle for almost an entire half.
It just can’t be.
This Team can’t go 5 possessions without scoring. Furthermore, it can’t go 5 possessions without scoring and giving the ball away for the opposition to score in return.
The saving grace this season is that there’s a QB under center that’s not expected to give the ball away so routinely. But it still happened. There can’t be caveats and concessions made for the QB and/or the offense to accommodate these kinds of miscues and mistakes. That’s been done in the past.
On the defensive side of the ball, they saw their worst start to a game this season.
Giving up 2 HUGE drives((75 yard & 97 yards) on the first 3 possessions is something that usually led to a collapse on both sides of the ball in recent years. However, the defense rebounded and came up with a huge stop and turnover that was the catalyst for the turnaround on offense.
Complementary football at its finest.
Just make no mistake that the defense has been the most consistent in its performances through the first month of football.
Mike Evans Is A Fighter and a True Franchise Player…..
Point.
Blank.
Period.
I’ll fight anyone that says otherwise.
7 Catches.
1 TD
122 yards
54 of 76 snaps.
On an injured ankle.
