Patriots vs. Cardinals: Full Report Card Grades for New England
No Tom Brady. No Rob Gronkowski.
No Nate Solder. No Rob Ninkovich. No Sebastian Vollmer. No Dion Lewis. No Jonathan Cooper.
No problem.
In a game where many wrote off the New England Patriots, not because of a lack of talent but because of a lack of Tom Brady, backup QB Jimmy Garoppolo led the team to a hard-fought victory over the Arizona Cardinals.
The Cardinals missed a potential game-winning field goal after driving late in the fourth quarter by riding their future Hall of Fame wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald. The Patriots escaped with a victory that they earned, despite a little luck at the end on Chandler Catanzaro's missed field goal.
Josh McDaniels and the Patriots' staff got Garoppolo settled in early in the game and established a rhythm for Brady's backup, who was making his first career NFL start. Garoppolo delivered with a performance that looked oddly Brady-esque.
With quick passing, a decently established run game and a defense that bent but didn't break, the Patriots won an extremely difficult road game by a score of 23-21.
Read on for full grades and analysis of each positional unit from New England's first win of the season.
Quarterback
1 of 9
Garoppolo looked like a young Brady, and that isn't an understatement.
The third-year quarterback out of Eastern Illinois went 24-of-33 for 264 yards and a touchdown in his first career NFL start. Even more impressively, Garoppolo anchored an offense that went 10-of-16 on third downs, including a few long conversions.
Garoppolo looked poised and established a rhythm right from the get-go thanks to a well-planned offensive scheme drawn up by offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.
The short passes and variety of screens and quick release times—especially to Julian Edelman—allowed Garoppolo to settle in early and build his confidence. Garoppolo's finest moment came on his 37-yard touchdown pass to Chris Hogan.
One area of the game where Garoppolo can do what Brady cannot is making plays with his feet. Garoppolo kept plays alive and showed some elusiveness in the process, even though Garoppolo is definitely more of a pro-style, pocket-passing quarterback.
Garoppolo's only moment of poor form came on a fumble in the first quarter that led to an Arizona touchdown.
Overall, Garoppolo picked up the win on the road against a Super Bowl contender in his first career start. The kid earned a great grade.
Grade: A
Running Back
2 of 9
The Patriots are without Dion Lewis for the time being, but that didn't seem to affect them against the Cardinals. Arizona possesses a strong defense with a solid defensive front that jumps into the gaps when stopping the run.
While no one had a stellar game with LeGarrette Blount as the most effective runner (a measly 3.2 yards per carry), he sprung free for some big runs, including a big 3rd-and-11 conversion on what ended up being the game-winning drive. Blount finished with 22 carries for 70 yards and a touchdown.
He did have a total blunder with a bizarre fumble on which he seemingly dropped the football with little contact, though.
As for the receiving-back role, James White did his best Lewis impression with five catches for 40 yards and some shifty moves in the open field. White was a solid safety valve for Garoppolo and looks to have improved greatly after a strong finish to the 2015 season when he was already filling in for an injured Lewis.
Brandon Bolden looked very shaky and likely lost a shot at getting some carries going forward.
Grade: B-
Wide Receiver and Tight End
3 of 9
The Patriots' skill position players didn't have an easy task of playing with a backup quarterback and without Rob Gronkowski. But the wide receivers and tight ends played well despite being down a star player.
Edelman looked like the Edelman we all remember before all of the concerns about his foot. He was shifty, tough as nails and a consistent target for Garoppolo. He helped Garoppolo get into a rhythm in the passing game. Edelman finished with seven catches on seven targets for 66 yards.
Meanwhile, Chris Hogan hauled in a 37-yard touchdown and continued the chemistry he developed with Garoppolo in the preseason. And don't forget about Danny Amendola, who made a pair of key receptions on the game-winning drive.
As for tight ends, the Patriots didn't look to incorporate Martellus Bennett a ton in the passing game with just five targets. But Bennett's contributions came in the blocking game. Excluding a bogus holding call where Bennett pancaked Chandler Jones, he was a key cog in pass protection and the run game.
Grade: B+
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Offensive Line
4 of 9
The Patriots offensive line had the toughest task of the game, as it was down Solder, Vollmer and Cooper. Its goal was to protect Garoppolo in his first start and not get manhandled by the Cardinals' powerful pass rush and defensive front.
Even though the Patriots were without both of their top linemen, the backups performed well.
Typically known as a nuisance on the offensive line, reserve tackle Marcus Cannon surprisingly had a pretty good game other than an untimely holding call that offset a pass-interference call in the end zone. The latter call would have placed the Patriots on Arizona's 1-yard-line.
Cameron Fleming, who also struggled in the past, had a decent game, too. Neither Cannon nor Fleming were tossed around by bull rushes as they had been in previous seasons.
The only real reason to downgrade the offensive line was the performance of David Andrews at center. Andrews picked up an awful tripping penalty and also totally missed a block that led to Garoppolo taking a huge hit at the beginning of the game.
Other than Andrews' woes and a Shaq Mason holding call, the Patriots' makeshift offensive line held up against excellent competition.
Grade: B-
Defensive Line
5 of 9
Going into this game, a lot of people knew the Patriots defensive line had the potential to be pretty special. The deep unit delivered in its first test against one of the NFL's best offenses and smartest quarterbacks.
Leading the way for the Patriots was newcomer Chris Long, who played with a high level of intensity and passion that made him look like the scariest player on the field. Long notched a sack and a tackle for loss, drew a holding call and constantly applied pressure off the edges, which made Carson Palmer's life rather difficult.
Similarly, Jabaal Sheard looked imposing with his contribution of three tackles for loss and consistent job of setting the edge.
Beyond the pass rush, the Patriots looked stout but not stellar at containing Cardinals RB David Johnson, who is one of the toughest players to tackle in the NFL.
Alan Branch and Malcom Brown seemed to have some decent push on various run plays at the line of scrimmage, but the group as a collective didn't do its job. Rookie Vincent Valentine and Anthony Johnson missed gap assignments and didn't hold their ground with any sort of consistency.
There's definitely some areas to improve in stopping the run, but the defensive front performed well as a collective unit.
Grade: B+
Linebacker
6 of 9
With two of the NFL's best linebackers at the Patriots' disposal in Jamie Collins and Dont'a Hightower, it seemed like the duo had a quiet game. But sometimes quiet games mean you are doing a whole lot of things right.
Hightower landed a QB hit and commanded the defense despite possibly tweaking something when he was rolled up on his leg early in the game. Hightower didn't really make any mistakes, and that's a good thing when it comes to grades.
On the other hand, Collins recorded a sack and deflected a pass, which looks pretty good in the stat sheet. His four tackles and pursuit on every play definitely helped the defense as a unit.
The only real bone to pick is that David Johnson had a pretty strong game (89 rushing yards, 43 receiving yards, one touchdown), and some of that responsibility will always fall on the linebackers.
Grade: B
Secondary
7 of 9
As a group, the Patriots secondary proved its depth and talent on so many levels. Leading the way as per usual was safety Devin McCourty, who stepped up in the box and recorded a team-high 10 total tackles (nine solo).
Malcolm Butler continued to be the emerging stud cornerback that team has believed heavily in. With two textbook pass breakups, Butler talked the talk and walked the walk on Sunday night.
Similarly, No. 3 cornerback Justin Coleman recorded two pass breakups and nearly intercepted a pass on the sideline that would have sealed up a victory a little earlier for the Patriots. He almost picked off another pass before that on an erratic throw by Palmer that was knocked down by wide receiver Jaron Brown.
The only struggles in the secondary came from No. 2 cornerback Logan Ryan, who had a tall task of going one-on-one with future Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald went off on the Cardinals' final possession and also caught two touchdowns. Ryan definitely lost that battle all game long.
However, holding Palmer to 271 yards was a pretty strong showing from this group.
Grade: B+
Special Teams
8 of 9
Bill Belichick loves to talk about special teams, so let's get to the nitty-gritty details.
Kickoffs were very important in this game for the Patriots. With the new rule that touchbacks send the ball out to the 25-yard-line for the ensuing drive, the Patriots opted for a new kickoff strategy.
By opting to pooch-kick the ball high and just outside the end zone, the Patriots allowed time for the kickoff coverage to race down the field and ensure that the Cardinals didn't start their drives from beyond where they would if they took a touchback.
This consistent pressure placed on the Cardinals to start deeper in their own territory seemed to provide a boost to the defense, knowing that it had a little more leeway to work with.
Belichick's new strategy absolutely paid off.
In the kicking game, Ryan Allen was solid as a punter. Meanwhile, Stephen Gostkowski continues to be one of the best kickers in the game. Gostkowski went 3-for-3, including a 53-yard field goal and the 32-yard game-winning field goal.
Grade: A
Coaching
9 of 9
Everyone needs to praise Josh McDaniels for this coaching gem. He started off his 2016 campaign with a bang. McDaniels tends to wind up under a microscope for outsmarting himself with offensive play calls, but he drew up an incredible offensive game plan.
With quick passing and rhythm to each play call, McDaniels settled Garoppolo into his first start and set him up for success that he can also build on next week against the Miami Dolphins.
Matt Patricia made the right defensive adjustments and helped his defense do just enough to contain David Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald and the explosive Cardinals offense.
Then, there is the head honcho Bill Belichick, who oversaw the entire coaching masterpiece. Right from the beginning, Belichick was out-coaching Cardinals HC Bruce Arians. The special teams strategy of placing kicks outside the end zone worked wonders.
Belichick and his staff couldn't have coached this game any better, and the Patriots escaped with a 23-21 victory to start the 2016 season.
Grade: A+
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
.png?w=480)
