PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Archives for December 9, 2013

Snapshot of AFC playoff picture: Broncos on top, while Patriots hold on to No. 2 seed

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Snapshot of AFC playoff picture: Broncos on top, while Patriots hold on to No. 2 seed

These next two games are huge and really, defining for the 2013 Pats.

First, comes a chance to clinch the division in Miami, a team that went on and offseason spending spree hoping to take the Pats down. If the Pats can end their season in person while sealing up another division crown it would be sweet.

Then comes the Ravens, who got the Pats twice last year, including a thorough second-half domination in the AFC Championship. There isn’t another team out there that the Pats owe a loss to than the Ravens.

If the Pats can win these two games on the road, given everything they’ve gone through this season, I’ll consider 2013 a success no matter what happens in the playoffs.

There Will Be No Tailgating At The Super Bowl

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There Will Be No Tailgating At The Super Bowl

And yet another reason why the Super Bowl game itself is just the worst. The real games are the conference championships. They feature real fans and a real football atmosphere and most of the time the time feature good rivalries.

Super Bowls are exhibition games where everything is too long and overhyped. There’s really no way to fix it, it’s the biggest game on the planet and they’ll continue to make it a production not made for the teams playing and their specific fans, but as one big sterile corporate advertisement for the NFL.

Like most, I’m hoping for a heavy conditions game that really affects things. I know the Pats could muster a win there in February, but a lot of NFL teams would really be taken off their game by any weather issues.

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Siliga has us intrigued, because we haven’t seen that type of effective two-gapping from a Patriots defensive tackle since Vince Wilfork’s season-ending injury.

Picked-up pieces from 1st-quarter review – New England Patriots Blog – ESPN Boston

Well, if there was one small silver lining defensively, it was Siliga yesterday. Granted the Browns rushing offense isn’t exactly a fearsome one, but any port in a storm, you know?

Otherwise, I think it’s official that the Pats are just an average defense now. Talib seems up and down is kind of his thing and it seems like he saves his good games for the good opponents. He’ll need to be lights-out in the playoffs.

The pass rush is just too inconsistent. I like Ninkovich and Chandler as the three-down defensive ends, but they’ll need to address their sub-packages this offseason. I’d even like to see Michael Buchanan get another shot. Andre Carter doesn’t have much left in the tank.

https://www.patspropaganda.com/siliga-has-us-intrigued-because-we-havent-seen/

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Hate having to do these, but it’s the only way we send our beloved Pats off into the dark night until next season…

https://www.patspropaganda.com/hate-having-to-do-these-but-its-the-only-way-we/

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https://www.patspropaganda.com/8510/

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It’s also the injury, I think, that permanently changes the way the Patriots view Gronkowski. From this point forward, the Patriots can no longer depend on Gronkowski to be a player they expect to have around for any length of time. They can’t build an offensive scheme or a long-term game plan around a healthy Gronkowski, because the odds of him staying that way are just too low to make planning around him a logical choice. I would be shocked if the Patriots didn’t acquire a tight end in the offseason who they expect to use as their starter going forward, with Gronkowski mixed in as a weapon only if and when he’s ready.

Bill Barnwell on Week 14 in the NFL – Grantland

Sadly, I agree…

https://www.patspropaganda.com/its-also-the-injury-i-think-that-permanently/

The time to appreciate the 2013 Patriots is now

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It’s hard to think too much about the latest incredible win without my thoughts drifting to poor Gronk, likely laid up in bed yet again and looking at surgery and a long road to recovery.

Here we go again with the Patriots coverage, as everyone is breaking out their “have the Pats injuries hit the breaking point” articles, that they likely ran when Wilfork, Kelly, Mayo and every other guy went down for any length of time.

Just find and replace with “Gronk” and they’re good to go. But at this point, after they’ve overcome so many major injuries, haven’t we learned that it just doesn’t matter?

Of course the main thought on everyone’s mind: Can the Pats still win the Super Bowl? Sure, but it’s not likely. And it’s certainly a lot less likely than it would’ve been with Gronk. That’s obvious.

Every team gets hit by injuries, some worse than others, and it will be a handy excuse the second the Patriots season ends without confetti in New Jersey.

But the 2013 Patriots drive home a point that I try to remind myself of every season. Just as the saying goes that life is not a destination but a journey, so too is the football season.

Most of us put far too much stock in how the season ends. For 31 teams it’s in disappointment. And often the Pats’ disappointment comes on the biggest playoff stages in front of national audiences. Those losses sting for the entire offseason.

But what I’ve tried to learn, is to appreciate the regular season, and regardless of how this season ends, this ride with the 2013 Pats has been unequalled since the 2007 undefeated run.

It seems like ever since the AFC championship loss, the football gods have been out to get the Patriots. There was the pitiful loss to the Ravens, Gronk’s multiple surgeries, Welker’s departure, Hernandez’s arrest and subsequent release and then the never-ending list of in-season injuries that seem to keep happening weekly.

Many teams would’ve packed it in long before now, but this battered Patriots team just keeps fighting. Even when the game looks completely lost, even when the season looks completely lost, they never quit. And they have stolen more victories this season than in the last five years combined, at least.

Being a Patriots fan in 2013 has been rollercoaster of amazing highs and devastating lows and what a ride it has been.

I don’t know how this season will end for the Pats. Who knows, maybe they’ll get the bounces, put together three full games and win the Super Bowl. It’s not impossible, but more likely is that their injuries to so many key players will catch up to them and they’ll go down swinging on the last play of the game.

It’s clear that whoever finishes off the 2013 Patriots will have to drive the final nail in their coffin and not give them any chance. Because, as this team has shown us, nothing is impossible when they don’t even blink, much less give up, when they’re down in the second half.

The 2013 Pats might not give us a championship, but they’re a lesson to us all in perseverance and the power of the team, even without some of their most vital pieces.

No matter how it ends, it’s been quite the ride and only made me love the fabric of this team even more.