theplayer11 said:
FOX Sports' Mike Garofolo reports Jonas Gray was late to the Patriots' facility on Friday because he overslept.
Per Garofolo, Gray's "phone died," which he was ostensibly relying upon as an alarm. He drove straight to Gillette Stadium, but was promptly sent home by the Patriots' coaching staff. Garofolo reports Gray has texted teammates to apologize, including Tom Brady. He is "hoping" to get Bill Belichick to hear his side of the story "this afternoon." We wish young Jonas the best of luck.
He overslept and they are treating him like he is Hernandez coming to the facility. Another reason for me not to be a fan of the Patriots organization. I am not a morning person so I can sympathize with Gray.
Per Bruschi, everybody consistently gets the same treatment if they arrive late: They are sent home. Tedi said nothing about being benched, losing your job, etc.. You are sent home, period.
The last two times NE faced a stout rushing defense (Jets, Broncos), Vereen either split the carries with Gray (Broncos...they had a lead), or dominated the touches in the backfield (Jets). I'm guessing this would be a Vereen-type of game regardless of Gray's phone dying. It would be truly stunning, even by Belichick's standards, for Blount, who was just summarily cut because he deserted his team in the middle of a game, to jump Gray in the same week because Gray overslept. I think Bruschi's point about Belichick's handling of this depending on how Gray has behaved PRIOR to the oversleeping is the salient one.
Maybe Vereen dominated the touches against the Jets because Jonas Gray was just elevated from the practice squad the day of the game (Oct 16)?
As far as the Lions, part of their impressive run D stats might be attributed to their schedule. Out of 10 games, 7 opponents rank 17th or worse in overall run O rankings.
Of the three Top 10 run offenses that the Lions have faced:
* NYJ put up 23/128/1 in Week 2 (Ivory and CJK)
* Against MIA, Lamar Miller only played 11 snaps and they had just lost Moreno
Pretty much every FF expert on the planet the Colts game as a "Vereen-type" game because it was supposed to be a shootout. Gray was an afterthought. We saw how that turned out.
Only after this week's game will it become obvious what type of defensive weaknesses BB and McDaniels choose to try and exploit. Only by sheer luck will someone predict it beforehand.