New England Patriots Brian Hoyer on Eagles game
New England Patriots backup quarterback Brian Hoyer had a rough night against the Philadelphia Eagles, as he completed just five of his 17 attempts for 55 yards. A big reason why his performance was off was due to the ineffectiveness of the offensive line against a deep and talented Eagles defensive line.
Hoyer is one of the most accurate backup quarterbacks in the league and rarely makes mistakes, but he looked really uncomfortable out there. The Eagles were harassing second-year right tackle Marcus Cannon, and Nate Solder also suffered from a second straight disappointing game.
In the end, however, I’m not going to overreact about any of this. Hoyer is still one of the best backups in the game and is easily better than Ryan Mallett at this stage, and the Patriots offensive line is going to be fine. Solder is a good run blocker and will develop as a pass blocker as the season wears on, even though things will still be rough in the early going. Logan Mankins didn’t play last night, and Brian Waters might also return. Even if he doesn’t, this line should still be average. I mean, it isn’t like Cannon will be starting or anything when Sebastian Vollmer gets back.
But anyway. It was just one of those preseason games for Brian Hoyer when things go wrong for a quarterback in just about every way. The 5-17 line gives a false sense of incompetence to Hoyer, as he wasn’t as bad as the stats indicate. I like Hoyer’s response on the game, because it shows that he knows he had a poor game but also knows that there is nothing to overreact about.
“You try to give your guys a shot and hopefully we can make a few more plays,” Hoyer said. “I just have to make some better throws and just keep working. I think there is a lot that we can look at on the tape and learn from. We haven’t seen a lot of man coverage during camp or the other game (against the Saints) so it was good to get some live action with that (against the Eagles).”
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