Archives for January 14, 2014
Special teams captain Matthew Slater made the point that this will be the first road playoff game for the Patriots since 2006, which means everyone but kicker Gostkowski (joined Patriots in ’06), offensive lineman Logan Mankins (’05) and Tom Brady (’00) will be experiencing a road playoff game as a member of the Patriots for the first time.
Quick hits from the New England Patriots locker room – ESPN Boston
The Ravens game at the end of the season certainly showed this is a team that is capable of bringing their A game on the road, but their struggles through most of the year to play a full 60 minutes on the road are undeniable. They especially can’t afford a slow start like the one they had last time against the Broncos.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/special-teams-captain-matthew-slater-made-the/
FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Week 19 DVOA Ratings
FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Week 19 DVOA Ratings
The other item that will stand out is that the Patriots now rank No. 1 in weighted offensive DVOA, despite losing Rob Gronkowski in Week 14. The Patriots have had a consistently good but not dominating offense now for two months, though. The Pats had a season-high 74.8% offensive DVOA against Pittsburgh in Week 9, took Week 10 off, and then put up a fabulous 57.5% offensive DVOA against Carolina in Week 11. The haven’t matched those two games, but they have been between 10% and 40% on offense in all seven games since. Denver, after adjusting for opponent, has actually been below that three times since midseason: Week 12 against the Patriots (-3.2%), Week 15 against the Chargers (5.2%), and then this week against the Chargers (6.2%), although obviously part of that are huge opponent adjustments based on how bad San Diego was on defense in the first three months of the season.
