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Week 5 Patriots vs Colts: 8 winners and 3 losers from New England’s 38-24 win against Indianapolis Just four days after their blowout win over the Miami Dolphins Josh Gordon Jersey , the New England Patriots blew out the Indianapolis Colts. While yesterday’s the game was at times a sloppier one than Sunday’s it again saw a high-powered Patriots team that displayed its enormous potential. With that in mind let’s take a look at some of the standouts from Sunday.Winner: WR Julian EdelmanComing off a four-game suspension on top of a year missed due to a torn ACL, Julian Edelman looked as fluid and dangerous a players as ever. The veteran was quickly thrown into the fire, and registered two catches on the contest’s opening possession. Overall, he finished with seven catches for 57 yards and two punt returns for 20 yards. It was a vintage Edelman performance.Winner: RB James WhiteIn his Fan Notes from the Patriots’ win over Miami, Alec Shane wrote that James White “may be the most important player on this offense not named Tom Brady”. Yesterday, he again showed why this does not sound like an exaggeration – especially in the passing game. Serving as a safety net receiver, the first-year team captain finished with a team-high 10 catches for 77 yards and one touchdown.Winner: RB Sony MichelFollowing an impressive performance against the Dolphins, Sony Michel had another very good game and became the first Patriots rookie running back to have back-to-back 95-yard rushing performances since Robert Edwards in 1998. Michel played a big role in the Patriots’ offense and finished with 110 yards from scrimmage: he had 98 rushing yards on 18 carries and also caught a 12-yard pass. The standout play of his night was a 34-yard touchdown run that essentially iced the game in New England’s favor.Losers: WR Chris Hogan & TE Rob GronkowskiWhile Chris Hogan and Rob Gronkowski did not have bad games per se, the two pass catchers made two of the Patriots’ worst plays of the night. In the third quarter, Hogan let a short pass go through his hands for an interception. On the very next drive, Gronkowski was hit after catching a 20-yard pass that would have set up goal-to-go and lost the ball.Both times, New England was in scoring range but came away empty due to the receivers not being able to hold onto the football.Winner: QB Tom BradyWith Julian Edelman – a wide receiver with whom he shares a well-documented connection – back in the lineup, Tom Brady looked more calm than he did at times through the first four weeks of the season. All in all, the 41-year old played a great game: Brady was accurate and made great decisions, and the two turnovers on his stat sheet were also not his fault. Overall, he finished the night with 34 pass completions on 44 attempts for 341 yards, three touchdowns and two picks. He also scored on a quarterback sneak at set a new record for different touchdown recipients.Winner: The Pass protectionJulian Edelman and James White and their outstanding abilities to get open quickly played a part in it, but the Patriots’ pass protection in general was again outstanding yesterday. Going against a team that entered the game with 17.0 sacks on its r茅sum茅 Authentic Phillip Dorsett Jersey Salute to Service , New England’s blockers up front were able to keep Tom Brady clean. The unit did not give up a single sack and allowed just three quarterback hits.Winner: SS Patrick ChungDuring the Patriots’s back-to-back losses in Jacksonville and Detroit, the absence of Patrick Chung undoubtably hurt the team’s defense. Yesterday, he again showed why he is such an important player for the unit against both the pass and the run: The veteran finished the day with 11 tackles, a split-sack, and an interception late in the first half. Furthermore, he was his usual physical and emotional self and also had one of the best celebrations in recent memory.Loser: FS Devin McCourtyPatrick Chung and Duron Harmon had solid overall outings against the Colts, but fellow safety Devin McCourty was far more inconsistent. While the veteran forced and recovered a fumble in the third quarter, he also was in coverage on two touchdown passes – and nearly gave up a third that was ruled short of the goal line upon review. Even though his open field tackling and vision appeared to be as good as always, his positioning was at times suspect.Winner: CB Jason McCourtyThe other McCourty brother, Jason, had a better game yesterday. Serving as the starting perimeter cornerback opposite Stephon Gilmore yet again, the first-year Patriot provided good downfield coverage, was physical as a bump-and-run defender, and made one of the game’s biggest plays when he broke up a pass that popped up into the air and the arms of fellow cornerback Jonathan Jones.Winner: WR Josh GordonJosh Gordon had a quiet first half and saw his lone target fall incomplete. In the second half, however, he showed why he has the potential to be a difference maker for the Patriots: while his numbers did not stand out, Gordon made two tough catches – one of which a momentum-swinging 34-yard reception during which he out-jumped two defenders to come down with the football.Putting Sony Michel’s performance into context following the Patriots’ loss in Detroit It may be sagging a bit, but the sky isn’t falling in Foxborough.Collecting back-to-back double digit losses for the first time since a forgettable 2002 season certainly stings a bit — and it should. Tallying just 209 yards and 10 points on 47 plays against a Detroit defense — a unit that Limited Danny Shelton Jersey , in the previous two weeks, allowed a combined 78 points to the Jets and 49ers, and was without its best pass rusher on Sunday — fails to inspire even a modicum of confidence. There is no shortage of deserved criticism that could (and will) be doled out following a debacle like Sunday night’s performance at Ford Field. The Patriots were thoroughly lambasted in the trenches on both sides of the football, the oft-chastised wide receiver group lived up to its lackluster billing, and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels — clearly hampered by a combination of the first two — resorted to a conservative, timid plan of attack.One place where blame should not be placed, however, is with first round pick Sony Michel. When discarding Tom Brady’s quick two-yard first down plunge on New England's first drive of the third quarter, Michel was handed the football on each of the team’s 14 scheduled run plays until their final drive, where James White received four carries while the clock was being extinguished. The former Georgia Bulldog accumulated just 50 yards on the ground, and he corralled just one of his two catchable targets for a loss of a yard while dropping the other to set up a third-and-long situation on a critical third quarter drive.Training wheelsGiven that Sunday night’s contest was essentially Michel’s second “preseason” game after the rookie went under the knife in the first week of August to relieve some swelling in a knee, it should come as no surprise that McDaniels has been intent on keeping things extremely simple for him. But that simplicity is coming at the behest of making any attempt to disguise what the offense is running.Of Michel’s 33 snaps (36 before penalties) over the first two weeks, he was handed the football on the ground 23 times and targeted in the passing game five times. That’s an 85% touch rate. What’s even more peculiar is the fact that, of those 33 plays, just one was run out of 11-personnel (one RB, one TE, three WRs), meaning the rookie is having to learn and adapt to NFL game speed with limited space to operate as the Patriots’ 12 Jason McCourty Jersey , 21, and 22-personnel packages and formations continue drawing stacked-box after stacked-box. Here’s the breakdown of the packages the Patriots have used with Sony Michel on the field, and their corresponding yardage per play:21-personnel (w/ James Develin): 13 plays (39.39% of Michel’s snaps) — 4.0 yards per play12-personnel: 11 plays — 33% of Michel’s snaps — 3.64 yards per play22-personnel (w/ James Develin): 5 plays — 15.15% of Michel’s snaps — 1.6 yards per play13-personnel: 2 plays — 6.06% of Michel’s snaps — 3.5 yards per play11-personnel: 1 play — 3.03% of Michel’s snaps — 3 yards21-personnel (w/ two RBs): 1 play — 3.03% of Michel’s snaps — -1 yardWhy McDaniels would be telegraphing the offense’s intentions with such regularity? It very well could be that, given the lack of dynamic outside personnel, and coupled with a continually nicked-up Rex Burkhead, the Patriots see no reason to take the “training wheels” off their rookie ball carrier until the offense has a chance to develop further — a process that is now seemingly reliant on the performances of new addition Josh Gordon a veteran Julian Edelman.Drive killersWhere Michel garnered the most unwarranted criticism on Sunday evening was in the short yardage department. Down by two scores in the second quarter, the offense had two drives stall on third-and-one carries that yielded a total loss of three yards, forcing a punt and a field goal try from just inside the red zone.The first run stuff, courtesy of former Patriot Ricky Jean Francois:The second run stuff on third and one came after a three-yard run by Michel that could’ve developed further, but Dwayne Allen failed to lay a finger on his assignment, Tavon Wilson, and the offense was forced into a third down. The Patriots immediately hurried to the line and snapped it again, this time running off tackle right: Tough to fault the running back, or the play call, when all that needs to happen for a first down to be gained is for Dwayne Allen to not get completely worked over by a safety he outweighs by roughly 50 pounds. Credit also needs to be given to Matt Patricia’s defense, as they were completely prepared for a hurry up maneuver than the Patriots have been catching teams flat-footed with for years.TraitsAlthough Sony Michel is being tasked with (and should continue to be) filling much of the void left behind by Dion Lewis, there should not be any confusion about how different his style and skill set is. It’s also important to take into account just how much information Michel is having to process and react to at the moment. There are few places where the term “life comes at you fast” is more applicable than in the NFL, and when considering the aforementioned context Troy Niklas Jersey , Michel is appears to be right on track in the progress department.The key aspect to monitor with rookies early on who are assimilating to the chaos of the NFL game is whether or not they are carrying over the positive traits from college that got them drafted. For Sony Michel, according to NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein, a few of those traits include:Flashing acceleration to climb past linebackers and onto safeties quicklyHas good burst after cutsUnderstands the art of setting up lead blockers and pulling guardsDecisive runner who rarely takes unnecessary losses by trying to be the heroExcellent in blitz pickupFrom the small sample size we’ve seen from Michel so far, he has flashed signs of most of these traits.Of course, there are certainly areas where a learning curve has presented itself — particularly in the passing game. According to Zierlein, the rookie was “serviceable as pass catcher, but (had) issues catching it cleanly” at Georgia. With so much happening early on in Michel’s transition to the NFL, and him having missed out on so much critical time in camp that could’ve led to an increased chemistry with Tom Brady and other offensive personnel, it’s understandable that his performance out of the backfield in the passing attack has been the slowest component to develop. But given the fact that he caught 64 passes for 621 yards and six touchdowns during his four years in Athens,GA, there’s no doubt that skill set is there. The Patriots will (if they haven’t already) swiftly move past Sunday night’s objectionable display. As their process of continual roster development and schematic refinement rolls onward through the final days of September and into the season’s defining stretch, it’s clear that when it comes to rookie Sony Michel and his future role as a dynamic play maker in their attack, they’ve really just scratched the surface.Follow Brian Phillips on Twitter @BPhillips_SB