When Adalius Thomas went on the radio airwaves a couple weeks ago he shed just a little light on what exactly went wrong with him and the Patriots in 2009. Apparently it all started after the first game of the season, the home opener against the Buffalo Bills, which saw the Tom Brady pull of the greatest fourth quarter comeback of his career. Thomas said that Coach Belichick met with him after the game to express that his play was substandard and from there things went down hill fast.
Thomas seemed to disagree with Belichick's assessment, and said that the tape was out there for anyone who wanted to see how he performed. I had saved the game on my DVR (because I was there and I'm a nerd like that) so I went back and watched every defensive play, watching only Thomas to see what it was about AD's play that drew Bill Belichick's ire.
Now, disclaimer, I am not Bill Belichick. I wasn't watching film in the womb. But I would consider myself a fairly knowledgeable Xs and Os fan, who's favorite show is NFL Playbook and who's personal hero outside the Hoodie is Mike Mayock.
I was pretty surprised to find that Thomas actually played pretty well in the first half (again, all of this is in my opinion). First of all, he never came off the field... a stark contrast to later in the season when he was solely used as a run stopping OLB. He was solid in setting the edge, and got some pressure.
It was in the 3rd quarter where Thomas seemed to start losing steam. The Bills had the ball, facing a 3rd and 1, with the Patriots in a nickel defense. Terrell Owens ran an underneath route and Thomas failed to stay with him resulting in a 27-yard gain (LOWLIGHT HERE), which then led to. Okay Thomas covering TO is not exactly a favorable match-up for the Pats, and it seemed like Thomas was anticipating a draw up the middle, but still, the result was a 1st down for Buffalo.
With 3:19 left in the 3rd, and Buffalo facing a long third down on the very edge of field goal range Thomas missed a tackle that would've forced a punt, or at the very least a really long Field Goal. Instead the Bills gained sixteen yards, kicked the field goal and took a 7-point lead.
After a Patriots field goal pulled them within 4 points early in the 4th quarter, the Bills got the ball back. They were faced with a 3rd and 15 on their own 33 yard line. With only 10minutes left in the game it was a huge opportunity to get a stop and put together a drive. However Thomas lost coverage on Fred Jackson resulting in an 18 yard gain and a first down. This one is a little harder to accept that his blown coverage on TO as it was a check down to a running back. Thomas should've been able to handle that one.
The Bills continued to drive and deep in Patriots territory AD picked up an Unnecessary Roughness penalty after throwing Trent Edwards to the turf, resulting in a 15-yard penalty. He claimed in his radio interview that he hadn't heard the whistle, but you can look here and judge for yourself if the penalty was warranted. The Bills scored a touchdown five plays later and took a seemingly insurmoutable 11-point lead with 5:32 left in the game.
Of course Tom Brady went on to throw two TDs and the Patriots won by a single point, but after focusing on Thomas the whole game I didn't see a top-to-bottom horrible game for him. What I did see were mistakes in critical points of the game that directly resulted in points. This would seem to a be a big no-no when playing for Belichick. He always stresses knowing the critical moments of a game and rising to the occasion like Lawrence Taylor always had a knack for.
Clearly coverage was not one of AD's strength and I don't think anyone other than the Patriots coaching staff knows exactly why he was not used more strictly as a pass rusher on 3rd downs. Perhaps they just felt Tully Banta-Cain and Derrick Burgess were more explosive. In the times he was rushing the passer Thomas did not exactly look like he was screaming off the edge.
It seems like most everyone assumes it a foregone conclusion that Thomas is released (or better yet traded) in the next few weeks. Personally I still think there's a chance (albeit a small one) that he is kept on the roster if for no other reason than the Pats have exactly ZERO starting quality 3-down outside linebackers.
Ultimately, after listening to Thomas' interview, I think his failure to be everything the Patriots wanted comes down to the fact that he could just not see the game of football like Bill Belichick wanted him to. He complained that he wasn't able to recall everything that happened on every play afterwards when they were on the sidelines with the coaches. AD played off his instincts, but the Patriots require coaches on the field who see the big picture.
Perhaps he will excel in another system in 2010, I just hope it's not the Jets. That would hurt.
@PatsPropaganda
Comments
Wow, you still had that game saved? Lucky you!
Nice work reviewing and taking notes. Situational football is huge to Belichick so maybe those late game errors got magnified in Belichick's eyes to the point they were unacceptable for a veteran like Thomas.
I do expect the Patriots to finally address the OLB problem in the draft. It looks rather sad at the position when you look at the depth chart right now (and because Banta-Cain will be a free agent, we can't include him).
And yeah, if he goes to the Jets, I'm hoping for the worst for AD.