Week 8 New England Patriots report card

After coming off of their best win of the season, the New England Patriots hosted the Los Angeles Chargers in Gillette Stadium before going on the bye next weekend. With a rainy and gloomy forecast, the Patriots were able to get a 21-13 win over the Chargers with only scoring one touchdown the whole game. The Patriots always find ways to win, and they continued to show that with a saftey and four field goals. Let’s take a closer look at how the Patriots finished their first half of the regular season.

Offense

This was not a very efficient game for the Patriots offense, but it was just good enough for them to head into the bye week with a win. With over 80 plays run on offense, the unit was only held to six total points, on a two-yard touchdown pass to Rob Gronkowski on the first play of the second quarter. After that, the Patriots got inside the San Diego 25-yard line in six of the eight drives after the touchdown, and were only able to walk away with four field goals. Not an ideal marker to hit for the defending champions.

This is not a normal thing for a Tom Brady-led offense, but there just seemed to be something off the whole game. The rushing attack could never get anything truly going, totalling 97 yards on 32 carries, which is just over three yards per carry. Combine that with Brady throwing the ball 47 times for 333 yards, it’s weird to see them be held to six field goal attempts. With the off week, look for the offense to watch the film closely, especially when they were in the red zone, to figure out what kept them out of the red zone. Chris Hogan went out with a shoulder injury, but he should be fine with the long time before the next game.

Offense Grade: B-

Defense

As the season has progressed, the defense has seemed to become stronger and more efficient each week. Although they were only able to sack Philip Rivers once the entire game, the defense worked hard to keep the Chargers from out of the end zone. The only touch down that the Chargers scored was on a 87-yard run by Melvin Gordon that opened up the scoring in the first quarter. That one play accounted for almost a fourth of their total yards for the game. So besides that one broken play, the defense stayed strong.

What worked really well for them on Sunday? They kept the Chargers from converting on seven of their 10 third down plays, which was a huge struggle for this team earlier on in the season. After that one broken play by Melvin Gordon, the Patriots held the Chargers to less than 70 rushing yards for the rest of the game, which normally provides Rivers some room to work in the passing game. The Patriots didn’t go easy on Philip as he only completed 57 percent of his passes for 212 yards. During the bye week, this unit needs to relax and read over the playbook. We already have had enough injuries on both sides and we can’t have anyone on defense getting hurt after losing Dont’a Hightower for the season.

Defense Grade: B+

Special Teams

The special teams continue to make huge plays for this team as Belichick always stresses how important special teams are and how they can change the momentum of a game. After tying the game at 7, the next Patriots drive ended with a punt. However, on the punt, Travis Benjamin fumbled the punt, then tried to recover the fumble and gain yards, but was tackled in his own endzone for a safety. After that, the Patriots never lost the lead. It was a very huge momentum shifter and gave the Patriots the energy to win this game.

But the special teams wasn’t all great. Stephen Gostkowski had his worst week of the season, missing two field goals from inside 40 yards. Last year, Gostkowski seemed to have hit some sort of funk where he would miss kicks that are normally easy for him. Hopefully the bye week allows him to avoid getting the yips again this season.

Special Teams Grade: B+

With the whole team being off next week, hopefully they will stay off the field for the first week and give their bodies some time to recover before entering the second half of the season and the playoffs. With all the injuries that this team has gotten, we need to keep everyone else on the field to keep this winning streak alive.

If you would like to receive an email each time a new New England Patriots article is published, fill out our email notification form.

The post Week 8 New England Patriots report card appeared first on isportsweb.