What a difference a week makes huh? Last Friday a lot of fans and pundits thought the Jets were primed to take the AFC East from the steely grasp the Pats have had on it for the better part of a decade. Now the Patriots have what amounts to a three game lead over the Jets and a cream puff schedule before them. Seems like the only thing that will prevent the Patriots from another division title and possibly a bye are the Patriots themselves.
But if the Pats are to make a serious playoff run they still have a ways to go and a lot of that has to do with getting healthy. On Thursday there were a total of 17 Pats on the injury report, and that probably had a lot to do with Belichick deciding not to have a full pads Friday as was expected. But overcoming injuries is something all teams that win a Super Bowl must do.
The two other buzz words that I’ll be focusing on for the final seven weeks of the season are consistency and communication. Consistency for the offense who finally started to show signs of life in the second half against the Jets, and communication for the defensive secondary.
We’ve long preached that young defenses take time to grow together, until they have enough experienced pieces in place to keep the inexperienced pieces in check. Vince Wilfork and Jerod Mayo are two of those cogs, but Patrick Chung is desperately needed back to help settle the secondary.What they did without him against the Jets was nothing short of incredible.
We’ve seen a lot of positives out of the defense the last couple games, now it’s just a matter of keeping that up and building on it. We’ve said it over and over again but the Patriots (for better or worse) run a complicated defense where communication is arguably the biggest key, even bigger than talent.
If you’re running a straight forward system it’s much more about talent, but for the Pats it’s about having everyone on the same page, moving in sync as one. If one guy is out of sync the defense can be exploited. So expect the improvement to continue as the collective experience of the defenders does.
I’m not worried about complacency with the Pats facing an assortment of unproven quarterbacks over the last two months of the season. They need the experience and Belichick will not let them overlook anyone.
What I am concerned about is not having another hyped game before the playoffs start. But who knows, maybe that final Bills game will actually mean something.
