Jimmy Garoppolo vs Buffalo - 10/17, 90 yards

Play 14
Situation: 1st and 10 at NE 17
Description: Q4 - (11:12) J.Garoppolo pass short middle to B.LaFell to NE 31 for 14 yards (C.Graham). NE-B.LaFell was injured during the play.

Here Garoppolo shows excellent athletic ability to break free of DE55 Hughes who completely burns LT61 Cannon on an inside move through the B-gap. After Garoppolo escapes the pocket he needs to make up his mind and do something with the ball instead of being hesitant and running around the field. It’s 1st and 10 on a broken play from the start, I’d rather see him make a decisive move running the ball up the middle as opposed to scrambling around pump-faking.

Here in Play 17, Garoppolo shows his excellent escapability again to break free from the obvious pressure and work his way outside to gain the first down.

Play 6
Situation: 3rd and 1 at BUF 26
Description: Q3 - (7:59) (Shotgun) J.Garoppolo right guard to BUF 22 for 4 yards (A.Williams).

Read-option to the right using Garoppolo’s athletic ability. Something you realistically will never see Brady run as an adaptation to the playbook by Belichick.
Play 21
Situation: 2nd and 11 at BUF 31
Description: Q4 - (6:51) (Shotgun) J.Garoppolo sacked at BUF 46 for -15 yards (sack split by M.Lawson and J.Hughes).

This is my least favorite play made by Garoppolo all game and the reason why he was realistically rated so poorly by ProFootballFocus with a -2.4 overall and -2.9 in passing against Buffalo. Patriots have 21-personnel and are in shotgun. Garoppolo takes the snap and goes through his reads. He still has time in the pocket and sees one of his runningbacks from the backfield escape to the right flat, but he hesitates and doesn’t throw the ball. Instead he scrambles around the backfield going further and further backwards finally losing 15 yards on the play instead of gaining an easy 4-5 yards with a quick flat pass.

Play 23
Situation: 3rd and 36 at NE 44
Description: Q4 - (5:35) (Shotgun) J.Garoppolo pass short middle to T.Wright to BUF 41 for 15 yards (N.Robey).

It’s 3rd and 36 due to the 15 yard sack and an offensive holding penalty (10 yards) and Garoppolo makes the smart decision to find TE81 Wright over the middle for a 15 yard gain. Yes, it’s not a first down, but at this point you are protecting field position for your punter and special teams instead of forcing a pass deep down the field. Good placement with the ball over the middle.

Play 24
Situation: 1st and 10 at NE 25
Description: Q4 - (1:50) (Shotgun) J.Garoppolo pass short left to J.White to NE 28 for 3 yards (P.Brown).

Here starts the Patriots’ final drive versus the Bills to try to tie the game with less than 2 minutes remaining.

Garoppolo takes the snap from shotgun and stares down the left WR running a hitch route by the sideline. I would like to have seen Garoppolo look across the middle to see the dig route open between the two inside linebacker zones before finding the checkdown runningback as his second read.

Play 25
Situation: 2nd and 7 at NE 28
Description: Q4 - (1:27) (No Huddle, Shotgun) J.Garoppolo pass short left to J.White to NE 33 for 5 yards (R.Brooks).

Garoppolo on second down goes through his progressions and finds his checkdown runningback from the backfield for a quick 5 yard gain. Good play.

Click here for the next page of the article.