Will The 49ers' Grass Field Have An Effect On The Patriots?
By Matt Dolloff, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Maybe it's just a coincidence. Maybe it was just a confluence of circumstances. But the results have not been good for the Patriots when they've played on grass fields in recent years.
Granted, they're 3-0 on grass in 2016, with wins in Arizona, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh. But although the first game was obviously with Jimmy Garoppolo at quarterback, they only scored 23 points in that game. Tom Brady had one of his least productive games of his otherwise stellar season against the Steelers at Heinz Field, but perhaps that's just nitpicking. The hope, here, is that this season's Patriots have put their very real struggles on grass fields behind them.
In the 2014 and 2015 seasons, the Patriots were 1-5 on grass. Some of those losses were among the ugliest of Brady's career, most notably the 2014 massacre at Arrowhead Stadium against the Kansas City Chiefs. In their six games played on grass in 2014 and 2015, the Patriots averaged about 18.7 points per game.
Again, the hope is that the Patriots have turned things around on grass surfaces in 2016. But on Sunday they head to Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara to face the 1-8 San Francisco 49ers, a game they absolutely should win and must avoid a letdown to maintain their home-field pace in the AFC.
They're going to need an effort that's closer to this year's Patriots performances than previous seasons to leave Santa Clara with a win, and they'll have to do it playing for the first time in that particular stadium. If the 2014-15 Patriots offense creeps back, the game could be unnecessarily suspenseful. And you can't just dismiss this as baseless fear-mongering, either: Bill Belichick has clearly put a lot of thought into the grass surface as well.
ESPN's Mike Reiss asked Belichick three straight questions about the prospects of playing on grass and going to a new stadium, and Belichick gave detailed, thoughtful answers to all of them. He was asked if he looks into the field conditions and got into details about how he evaluates different playing surfaces in ways you've probably never thought about before:
"Yeah, I'd say through the years there's, you know, I mean things have changed a lot through the years, but yeah, there's some fields that definitely have a slickness to them, if you will. And that could be the way it's cut or whatever, rolled, or whatever they do. Some fields have a softness to them. We're not dealing with this anymore but even not that far long ago was the whole infield situation in Miami, whether it's sodded or infield or whatever, but that was definitely a factor. Like in those games we always tried to in the fourth quarter be kicking on the non-infield end, regardless of what the wind was, as an example. So again, that's something we've got to deal with."
The Patriots have certainly handled grass better this year than in previous seasons, but the playing surface has to have played a role in how they have historically struggled on the road in Denver and Miami. Brady has great numbers on grass in his two games this season (126.3 passer rating), but with the way the Patriots defense is playing right now, the team is going to need a continuation of that performance to win comfortably against the 49ers.
It remains to be seen if Brady and the Patriots' past issues on grass will come back to haunt them in Santa Clara, but it's certainly not a factor to be dismissed. Not if Belichick isn't dismissing it.
Matt Dolloff is a writer for CBSBostonSports.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect that of CBS or 98.5 The Sports Hub. Have a news tip or comment for Matt? Follow him on Twitter @mattdolloff and email him at mdolloff@985thesportshub.com.
