Rookie receivers N’Keal Harry and Jakobi Meyers do just enough

FOXBORO — Rob Gronkowski is not walking through that door. Antonio Brown is not walking through that door, and Mohamed Sanu did all of his running Sunday in pregame warmups that gave the Cowboys something to think about until he was announced with the inactives 90 minutes before kickoff. Injured Phillip Dorsett also was unavailable.

And still the Patriots scored enough points to win, 13-9, Sunday at rainy Gillette Stadium, thanks to a blocked punt from Matthew Slater, a Stephon Gilmore interception and just enough production from a pair of rookie wide receivers that finicky quarterback Tom Brady was forced to use as complements to Julian Edelman for lack of healthy options.

N’Keal Harry, a first-round draft choice out of Arizona State, and Jakobi Meyers, an undrafted free agent from North Carolina State, both showed enough promise to project long careers for themselves, but at other times, revealed themselves as rookies.

That’s how it goes for most rookies, and at this point in his career, with so little margin for error on an offense that has enough other deficiencies, Brady lacks patience for rookie mistakes. He relies on precisely timed routes to take advantage of his precisely located passes.

Harry and Meyers were far from perfect. They each had drops, but the game experience stands to benefit them.

On his only catch of the day, Harry became the 75th different recipient of a Brady touchdown pass, an NFL record, naturally. Harry broke off his defender, turned at the right time, went up for the pass and kept his feet in backs in the back, left corner of the end zone for a 10-yard TD catch breaking a scoreless tie with 45 seconds left in the first quarter. It was his lone catch on four targets, but it was a big one.

“He made a great catch,” Brady said. “It was a great catch. It was awesome. That’s what we need.”

Brady threw another perfect pass to Harry on the left sideline and the rookie showed nice coordination in keeping both feet in, but his hands betrayed him and the ball squirted out of bounds.

Jakobi Meyers shed one tackler and faked out another later in the play for a 32-yard gain on his way to a four-catch, 74-yard day. He had three drops, one when he was rocked hard and another when he was wrapped up hard before the perfect pass touched his hands. No flag.

“Still a lot to learn from, but I’m happy we got the Dub,” Meyers said.

He also was happy for his fellow rookie.

“I was excited,” Meyers said of Harry’s TD. “I was real excited for him.”

Both Harry and Meyers are well drilled in the aspect of the Patriot Way that involves not saying anything to inspire opponents and not saying anything that draws attention to one’s self over one’s team, but Harry did let a prediction slip out during his post-game interview at his locker.

“Anybody that knows me knows I’m about to turn it up a notch,” Harry said.

Two weeks into his NFL career, Harry has four catches for 28 yards. If he doesn’t turn it up a notch, he’ll have trouble getting onto the field once the Patriots return to health at receiver, but his size and skills do lend themselves to a role in the red zone, even if the Patriots return to full strength. He doesn’t have the speed to get behind a defense, but that’s not a factor in the red zone.

“Today was definitely a good start, trying to figure things out, still got a lot of work to do,” Harry said.

Brady and Patriots coach Bill Belichick gave similar reviews to the rookie receivers, which if put through a read-between-the-lines translator would amount to: They appreciate that the rookies are trying but they’re painfully aware they have a long, long way to go without much time this season to get there.

“They played a lot of plays, proud of those two, put a lot of effort in this week and they’re making improvements,” Brady said. “It’s great to see. They both came through with some big plays for us, we needed it and they did a great job.”

Said Belichick: “They stepped up. They had a couple of big plays. They’re not perfect. They still have a long way to go. They’re learning every time they step on the field, practice field, game field, even walk-through. They made plays when we needed them.”

They’ll get better with experience and both should consider themselves lucky that the only time they’ll be covered by Stephon Gilmore is in practice. They both caught more passes than star Cowboys receiver Amari Cooper, taken completely out of the game by Gilmore.

Harry and Meyers can take comfort in knowing they’ll never face a player as good in a game as the one they face in practice.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2Ddqkkj