Socci, Zolak on top of game
Voices as sharp as team
Sipping coffee after sleeping on the Patriots’ dominant 31-3 annihilation of the Lions in Thursday night ‘s exhibition opener for both teams, a few thoughts occurred to me and I wanted to jot them down before they died of loneliness:
• Bob Socci and Scott Zolak, talk about an easy listen. Normally on the radio, they made a terrific TV tandem for this one. Socci’s so conversational that you forget he’s broadcasting and just think he’s in your living room talking about the game. And Zolak knows how to talk football without getting so technical you would need a Patriots playbook to understand him.
Zolak mentioned that he thinks Jarrett Stidham’s presence might have made Brian Hoyer sharper in much the same way Jimmy Garoppolo made Tom Brady sharper. Interesting take. Hoyer (12-of-14, 147 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions) and Stidham (14of-24, 179 yards, one TD, zero INTs) both were impressive Thursday night.
Per Zolak, rookie linebackers coach Jerod Mayo had a good game because his players stuck to their assignments and didn’t get caught out of position, a nice tidbit I would not have noticed.
Zolak also called attention to Brady and the rest of the Patriots who knew they weren’t playing in the game still getting dressed to play and being totally engaged, which isn’t the case everywhere. Here’s what I don’t get about that: If the Patriots in general and Brady in particular take that approach, why wouldn’t every other team and quarterback do the same? It’s not as if it hasn’t worked for them.
• Thirteen Patriots caught a pass, led by rookie receiver Jakobi Meyers (six catches, 69 yards, two touchdowns), signed as an undrafted free agent out of North Carolina State. Meyers showed why he’s been the talk of camp. He’s making it really hard on the Patriots to cut him.
• Fire plug Braxton Berrios, a 5-foot-9, 190-pound slot receiver/return man out of the University of Miami, has that jitterbug quality that makes him tough to bring down. He’s a blast to watch. No. 14 has the look of a guy who will stick around for quite a while. Drafted in the sixth round in 2018, he spent last season on injured reserve. Berrios had three receptions in three targets and gained 45 yards against the Lions, adding 35 yards on four punt returns. He sees the field well, changes directions quickly and knows how to make something out of nothing. It takes guts to return punts because you’re always one bad decision away from getting completely blown up. He has them.
• Thursday’s game challenged the widely held belief that you can’t read much into any exhibition game but the third because that’s the one in which the regulars get significant playing time. Here’s why: Winning football games is about more than having good football players. It’s even more important to play good football. The Patriots’ reserves played good football, looked prepared, and the Lions’ reserves did not.
• In the most important game of any season, the Super Bowl, and the least important, the exhibition opener, the Patriots allowed three points. Why? Because they are in the habit of playing good football, a habit developed in practice. The Pats have had some sloppy camp practices, but on Thursday night all the slop originated from the other sideline. Good sign.
• If I had been in Detroit, I would have waited for the Patriots to head to the airport and then I would have tried to go into the visiting locker room to rummage through the trash can in the head coach’s office to see if I could find the piece of paper on which Bill Belichick was writing notes with a pen. Highly doubt he tossed it. He might burn it when he’s done with it, but he’s not careless enough to toss anything interesting in the trash. I’m particularly curious about what the coach scribbled right after rookie cornerback Joejuan Williams threw a Lion to the ground a few steps out of bounds for a 15-yard penalty. Williams could be in for a necessarily rough practice or two. Not a smart play.