Youth Malcom Brown Jersey from 黄剑's blog

The Patriots have a Dont’a Hightower-sized problem After returning from a torn pectoral muscle that sidelined him for most of last season Youth Ryan Allen Jersey , linebacker Dont’a Hightower was expected to be a boost for the New England Patriots’ defense heading into the 2018 season. For a team that had a severe lack of a pass rush in the postseason, the return of Hightower was expected to aid in getting the team’s pass rush back on track. However, two games into the season, Hightower clearly has not regained his pre-injury form. Whether due to injury or some other cause, Hightower thus far has lacked his usual explosion, and looks slow on the field. Perhaps the Patriots erred in counting on Hightower to get back to his pre-injury level of play, because while he was never a good defender in pass coverage, Hightower’s calling-card, his pass rush, has also been lacking to start the season. To say Hightower has been invisible to start the season would be misleading, because Hightower has been noticeable, just for the wrong reasons. 1) 1-10-JAX 46 (3:46) (Shotgun) B.Bortles pass short right to C.Grant to NE 41 for 13 yards (K.Van Noy).Let’s start in the first quarter of Sunday’s loss against Jacksonville, with the Jaguars on their own 46 facing a 1st & 10. Blake Bortles dumps the ball off to Corey Grant in the right flat. Grant evades the tackle attempt of Patriots nickel back Jon Jones http://www.patriotsauthorizedshop.com/authentic-patrick-chung-jersey , and Hightower is in position to tackle Grant along the sideline. However, Hightower over-pursues and whiffs on his own tackle attempt. He looks slow in changing speed and breaking down to tackle. Kyle Van Noy, who is in a worse position to make the tackle than Hightower on this play, winds up limiting the damage to only a first down conversion by wrapping up Grant from behind and taking him down:Your browser does not support HTML5 video.Hightower’s mistake is one you are more likely to see from a rookie linebacker who is a little too eager. But in Hightower’s instance, he overcommits in his pursuit of Grant and cannot stop in his tracks fast enough to tackle Grant. Grant makes him look like an old man on this play.2) 1-10-JAX 35 (14:15) (Shotgun) T.Yeldon left end pushed ob at NE 45 for 20 yards (D.McCourty).In the second quarter, with New England trailing 14-0 and Jacksonville on offense again, this time at their own 35. Jacksonville is in ‘20’ personnel with trips to the right initially, until #30 Corey Grant motions into the backfield right before the snap. With the Pats in their nickel package, Van Noy and Hightower are the two linebackers in, with Van Noy in the middle and Hightower playing closer to the line of scrimmage, shading to the weak side of Jacksonville’s formation. Your browser does not support HTML5 video.At the snap, Bortles hands it off to running back T.J. Yeldon, who runs to the left of the formation. Jags left guard Andrew Norwell pulls and runs in the same direction as Yeldon. On this play Eric Rowe Jersey , Hightower has two options, either attempt to push Norwell back and blow up the play, or fill the gap to his right and wrap up Yeldon at the line of scrimmage.Hightower opts for Choice A, as he tries to lower his shoulder and push Norwell back, but he is completely stoned and winds up getting pancaked into the ground by Norwell, who finishes his block with some tenacity. The smart play here would have been to fill in the gap, because Hightower had the angle to do so, but still, the Dont’a Hightower of old would have the explosion and strength to at least push Norwell back, and limit Yeldon’s gain here.3) 3-3-NE 49 (1:11) B.Bortles pass short left to C.Grant to NE 44 for 5 yards (M.Brown).This next play sums up the Patriots linebacking corps’ performance on the day versus the Jags’ running backs quite well:Your browser does not support HTML5 video.Bortles throws to Corey Grant behind the line of scrimmage, and New England has both Van Noy and Hightower in the position to make the tackle, but both take bad angles and overcommit, and Grant cuts inside to get the first down to firmly put the game out of reach of a possible New England comeback attempt.Hightower looked shaky in Week 1 versus Houston Authentic David Andrews Jersey , and his diminished performance was even more evident against the creative and fast Jacksonville offense in Week 2. Hopefully, Hightower is simply dealing with a lingering injury and will get back to his previous form. But the early returns are discouraging to start the season, and a weakened Hightower in the middle of the defense would be a huge blow for a Patriots defense that already has poor depth at the linebacker position.Week 3 Patriots vs Lions: New England’s wide receiver issues on full display during 26-10 loss The New England Patriots looked good on opening day against the Houston Texans, but their season has taken a turn for the worse ever since: the team struggled against the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Detroit Lions and now sits at 1-2 and two games behind the Miami Dolphins in the division. One of the reasons for that is the offense’s inability to consistently move the football down the field.Against the Lions, this was again a major issue as the Patriots finished the game with just 10 points, 209 yards of offense and 12 first downs. Only 120 of those 209 yards came through the air, which makes for one of the least productive outputs of Tom Brady’s career as the team’s starting quarterback. But despite some questionable decision making at times, the blame for this should not solely be placed on the 41-year old’s shoulders.Brady has to play with the weapons he is given, after all. And against the Lions, it was obvious that the weapons as they are currently assembled are not getting the job done – especially at the wide receiver position. Neither Chris Hogan nor Phillip Dorsett are able to carry New England’s offense as number one receivers, while Cordarrelle Patterson’s skill set appears to be limited despite his outstanding athleticism.The Lions attacked the group with tight man coverage – and it was unable to beat it, which took the wide receivers out for most of the game: Hogan had three catches for 31 yards, Patterson one for 12. Dorsett was targeted five times but failed to come down with a catch. The wideouts’ inability to generate consistent separation against defensive backs hurt New England all game long and had a trickle-down effect on the rest of the offense.Without a true threat at the position Youth Malcom Brown Jersey , Detroit was able to focus on other areas: Rob Gronkowski and the running backs. While they had their moments, the Lions did a good job of limiting the other weapons’ impact. Gronkowski finished the game with a team-leading four catches for 51 yards, while the three-headed attack of James White, Rex Burkhead and Sony Michel combined for six receptions for 39 yards and a touchdown.It is not too big a leap of the imagination to say that Gronkowski in particular would have had a bigger impact if not for the wide receiver issues. It was clear that he was Detroit’s defensive priority and nobody else stepped up with the NFL’s best tight end constantly double-covered. The Brady-Gronkowski connection never got off the ground tonight as a result, while the rest of the offense didn’t pick up the slack.Who is to blame for this? Well, the Patriots’ personnel decisions and drafting history at wide receiver certainly did not help and led to the present state of the position. But the problems extend beyond that as Jordan Matthews, Kenny Britt and Malcolm Mitchell all suffered injuries severe enough for the team to cut ties. This combined with Julian Edelman’s four-game suspension made for a bad mix that was presented to a national audience tonight.Maybe it will all look different next week, though, with Josh Gordon potentially active. Or maybe the week after that, when Edelman returns from suspension. The Patriots offense will be drastically different once all the missing pieces are back on the field. Until then, however, the unit will not strike fear into the hearts of defensive coordinators – despite the greatest quarterback of all time leading it.