An Independent Patriots Blog
Good read to get educated on the Rams a bit.
“Ultimately, there are three things for the Patriots to keep in mind: The Rams’ offensive line is a winnable matchup. Neutralize the rushing abilities of Chris Long and Robert Quinn – the tackles have to protect the edge. And watch for the inside-outside ability of the two backs: with Jackson and Richardson, they have a nice complementary element.”
Patrick Chung can’t seem to make play – BostonHerald.com
Here’s some of what Rodney Harrison had to say about Chung in this one:
They’ll give you three or four years. If you’re lucky, they’ll give you four years. That’s if you’re lucky,” said Harrison. “After 2-3 years, if you’re not getting better, and it’s getting to a point where they feel like you can’t really be the great player they want you to be, they’ll go in a different direction. “If they’re willing to spend $6-7-8 million dollars a year on a safety, if you haven’t been out there, and you’re not what they think you should be, I mean, you’ve got to be dominant for that type of money from the Patriots,” Harrison went on. “And if you’re not there, you’re not going to get it. They’ll go out and get somebody else. That’s the harsh reality.”
I was a big fan of Chung at the start of his career and I’ve always loved his aggression, but I think the problem we’ve found is that he just doesn’t excel in one area.
He’s pretty good at a number of things, but he doesn’t have the size to be a dominant in-the-box safety, and he doesn’t have the range or instincts to be dominant on the back end. He’s been tried in the slot a bit too and that’s definitely not his best fit.
Barring a major turn around in both play and healthy I can’t see the Patriots going overboard to re-sign Chung this off-season. I like his leadership, but ultimately it looks like he’s a third safety at best.
Fourth-and-wrong – BostonHerald.com
The Patriots have had their issues across the board, but the team’s offense, which is supposed to be its leading unit, has most consistently struggled in a quartet of fourth-quarter mishaps against the Ravens, Broncos, Seahawks and Jets. Here’s a look: Scoring Fourth quarter In those four games, the Patriots have been outscored, 44-9, in the final quarter. Rest of the game The Patriots have outscored their opponents, 208-119, in the other 24 quarters this season.
Patriots pass rush will have to get better – Patriots – Boston.com
As always Wednesday means the final grades of the last game from Greg Bedard, whose game film analysis of the Patriots I trust more than PFF. This week the focus is on the pass rush and deservedly so. My boy Myron Pryor even gets a shout out.
A couple little nuggets to share:
What coach Bill Belichick isn’t going to do is blitz, at least not against quarterbacks he thinks will self-destruct.
The lack of blitzes is probably partly due to the problems in the secondary — Belichick is not going to take a guy out of coverage when they’re having trouble doing it fully staffed – and partly to Belichick’s patented “play the percentages” defense.
Why would he give Sanchez more room to throw if Belichick believes Sanchez will make a mistake without being induced (which ended up happening)?
Sure, the stats look terrible – 68.3 percent completion rate, 328 yards — but Belichick only cares about the victory, which easily could have slipped away.
The problem is, Belichick lives by his mantra — very well, considering his regular-season record — and dies by it as well. He was probably thrilled that Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson had to settle for so many deep throws. But Wilson ended up hitting on most of them, because of coverage and pressure.
The Patriots are either going to have to get settled in the back end, which would allow for more blitzes, or get better four-man pressure.
NFL Films Tecmo Bowl documentary.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/2minutedrill-nfl-films-tecmo-bowl-documentary/
I always enjoy Football Outsider’s efficiency-based DVOA rankings and think they paint a far more telling story about how teams have performed thus far. Here are my Patriots-related notes.
Patriots Rankings:
Overall: 5th
Total Offense: 1st (Pass 2nd, Run 3rd)
Total Defense: 20th (Pass 29th, Run 4th)
Let’s just take a moment to ponder the fact that they Patriots are top five in three of the four categories, and just fourth from the bottom on pass defense.
Pass Defense Rankings (vs. specific targets):
Last year, when Devin McCourty was awful, the Pats were the worst in the NFL against #1 WRs. Now? It’s 3rd and 4th receivers that are killing them. Who does this point to? Well in sub-packages it would have to be Kyle Arrington. The coverage on TEs and RBs isn’t much better and I’d say that’s a function of not having any good coverage linebackers, though the safeties have to take some heat for that too.
This also points to the Pats getting eaten alive in the middle of the field. Is this ironic to anyone else? The Pats offense lives off of passes to the short middle and the defense has the most trouble there? Maybe even more interesting is that the Pats have very little deep ball threats on offense, and on defense they can’t stop the deep ball.
Based on the current rankings the Patriots will face every top ten defense in DVOA except #1 (Bears), #8 (Eagles), and #10 (Packers). That’s a tough slate, though the offenses “Schedule” ranking is just 15th.
Pats D is ranked 27th in “Schedule”, meaning the DVOA of the offenses they’ve faced is near the bottom of the league. Not encouraging.
