PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Archives for November 2010

Kirwan: Patriots pulling off rare feat of winning while rebuilding

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Kirwan: Patriots pulling off rare feat of winning while rebuilding

Must Read Alert! Pat Kirwan has always had great stuff and of course after reading his must-read book Take Your Eye Off The Ball I find him even more must-readable. If that makes sense. This article breaks down your 2010 New England Patriots like none other have done before.

Kirwan really hits the nail on the head with how the offense must protect the defense this year. The big thing is that the Patriots young defense should be considerably better at the end of the season than they even are now. 

Mike Lombardi mentioned on a recent podcast with Bill Simmons that the good thing about a young team is that you can practice hard. When you have a team of vets they kind of hit their stride midway through the season then they cruise. But young teams will continue to get after it in practice and continue to improve.

So yes, some of the numbers and stats on defense are scary. But right now they’re winning and that provides a little breathing room for a defense that is sure to be inconsistent in the next month or so. By the time January rolls around this defense should be peaking.

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This is a first for PatsPropaganda.com, a completely non-Patriots post but I saw this picture and had to put it on the blog. This is one of my all time favorite photos and I actually have it framed in my house. I love the playfulness on Clyde’s face, like he’s just getting a kick out of Bonnie playing with the guns. They were on the run when these pictures were taken, notice that Bonnie’s hair had been dyed black from it’s natural blonde.

Bonnie got a bad rap for these pictures, but in reality she was just joking around and never shot any of the guns (though she was good at reloading them), nor did she smoke cigars as she appeared to in some of the other photos from this set. That was just media sensationalism in the ‘30s.

Here’s a link to a poem that Bonnie wrote towards the end of their run. They are two of the most fascinating people in American History, and were as much of a product of a horribly corrupt system as they were criminals. 

https://www.patspropaganda.com/this-is-a-first-for-patspropagandacom-a/

NY Post: Patriots still big obstacle for Jets

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NY Post: Patriots still big obstacle for Jets

Sometimes it blows my mind how quickly one game can suddenly change everyone’s opinions about a team. Sure, the Jets looked sloppy against the Packers… well offensively they looked sloppy. But how many Super Bowl champions didn’t have at least one sloppy game where they lost to a team they should’ve beat?

The Jets are still a good football team. As we saw last year everyone had left them for dead, including their own coach, before peaking (and getting help) at the right time of the season. 

Meanwhile the Patriots have squeaked out five straight wins since losing to the Jets in week two and everyone is putting them on top of their power rankings. If you’ve watch the games you know that the Patriots could’ve easily lost four of those games if not for some clutch (and often lucky) plays that went their way. Let me tell you, both the Patriots and the Jets still have a lot of issues to figure out before the stretch run.

How well teams are playing right now matters very little toward how they will finish three months from now. If you wanted to do a real power ranking right now, the only thing you could honestly determine would be 16-20 teams who are contenders and 10-12 who are not. 

Ignore the power rankings. Ignore the hype. Hope to see your team play better this week than they did last week and the rest will take care of itself.

Let’s Stop Saying “Starter”

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One of my biggest pet peeves while playing hockey growing up was when I’d tell people I was on the team and they’d ask “do you start?”. That would elicit a response that went something along the lines of:

“Well, no I wasn’t on the first line that was on the ice to begin the game, but I played a lot. So I see what you’re asking and while technically no I’m not a starter, I’m still a significant contributor, which is what I think you’re asking, right?”

In hockey and football, “starting” doesn’t really mean much of anything.

Let’s say the Patriots open a game in their 3-4 defense and Brandon Spikes is on the field for the first series but after that the Patriots move to a nickel subpackage for the rest of the game. Does it really mean anything that Spikes was on the field to start the game? Not at all. 

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https://www.patspropaganda.com/28406/

Randy Moss to the Jets? Yes, please…

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First off let me say that the chances of Randy Moss ending up on the Jets is slim to none. First we heard reports that Moss spent Tuesday with Jets players, then the Jet said they hadn’t put in a claim on him which of course doesn’t rule out the Jets signing him if he goes unclaimed.

But let me just say as a Patriots fan I’m all for Moss going to the Jets. In some ways I think he’s more effective for the Patriots if he’s on the Jets than if he was still on New England.

Why? Because Moss’ skill set is similar to that of both Santonio Holmes and Braylon Edwards. All are supposed to be “deep threats”, though Moss is the only one of the trio with reliable hands. But Mark Sanchez’s accuracy problems are well documented, and he’s already having problems trying to spread the ball to everyone. What’s the use of having three guys who all basically do the same thing?

Basically with Moss in the fold you’re looking at three volatile wide receivers, all on one-year “prove it” deals, with a quarterback who’s going to struggle enabling any of them to “prove it”. And I’m sure Holmes and Edwards would have no problem seeing their playing time reduced so old nemesis Moss can get in the game, right?

So yes, at the end of the day Moss probably isn’t going to end up on the Jets. He’d have to go unclaimed, then choose to go to them. But if he did it would be like adding plutonium to a concoction that already contains gasoline and plenty of matches. So this Patriots fan says “YES PLEASE!”/