Mike Dussault

New England Patriots Gameplan: Week 6 vs. Cincinnati Bengals

October 14, 2016 by Mike Dussault

Once again, we’re on to Cincinnati! And yours truly is especially excited because it’s time for my annual pilgrimage home for a Pats game. I saw plenty of games as a kid when the Patriots stunk in the 80’s and 90’s, but in the summer of 2006 I still hadn’t seen a live Brady/Belichick and decided it was time that changed.

2006 AFCDG vs. SD Pregame

Since then I’ve been to 13 Patriots games, and the Pats are 10-3 overall. The only losses — ’08 at SD, ’11 vs NYG and ’12 at SEA. The best wins — ’06 AFCDG at SD and ’14 vs. DEN. Hopefully this game gets us to 11 wins! But really, the result of the game is always secondary to the good times with family and friends, and the excitement leading up to the game itself.

And if you’d like to join us, we’ve got a bus running out of Quincy Center to the game and will have a bunch of stuff to giveaway as well. So yes, it will be a wonderful day and we’ll have social media updates flying all over the place.

It seemed like the Pats and Bengals were on a collision course last season, but then Andy Dalton got hurt and Cinci later imploded against the Steelers in the playoffs and it never happened. Now, the 2-3 Bengals aren’t off to the same hot start they had last year, and let’s face it, usually the Pats have their way with Marvin Lewis‘ team, save that one rainy performance in 2013 on the road.

So maybe there’s a little less hype surrounding this one than we might’ve thought, but still, the Bengals have plenty of talent on both sides of the ball and this will be a good challenge for a Patriots team that is starting to round into form after the return of Tom Brady.

Here’s the gameplan to get a win and make my annual trip a success.

A Closer Look at Elandon Roberts

October 12, 2016 by Mike Dussault

By now you’ve probably had the treat of seeing Patriots rookie Elandon Roberts run right through Joe Thomas to tackle Isaiah Crowell this past weekend. If not here it is from the end zone cam of the All-22 which really captures what a wrecking ball Roberts was.

elandon roberts

This is the kind of thumping the Patriots have really missed since Brandon Spikes left (and then came back only to leave again). The Patriots struggles against the run last season when Dont’a Hightower was out were well-documented, yet the Patriots still did little this offseason to address their linebacker depth.

Enter the 214th overall pick in the draft. Roberts immediately showed up in preseason because he comes downhill like a runaway dump truck, destroying anything in his path. In the final preseason game, Roberts went down with what looked like a game-ending ankle injury. Yet, perhaps knowing he was on the bubble to make the team. Roberts battled through the injury and returned to lead the team with nine total tackles.

Patriots-Browns Film Review: Third Down Defense Edition

October 11, 2016 by Mike Dussault

In this week’s film review I’m going to take a little more micro look at the third downs that the Patriots failed to get stops on against the Browns. Right now the Patriots are 27th in the NFL in third down defense (44.6 percent, worst since 2010) and 30th in red zone defense (80 percent).

Combine the two and the Patriots are by far the worst third down defense in the red zone in the NFL, giving up a first down 83.3 percent of the time. The second-worst team in the league, Baltimore, is at 70 percent, while the third-worst, Houston, is at 57.1 percent. That shows just how far below the rest of the league the Patriots have been in the critical area of their beloved bend-don’t-break, which depends immensely on third down stops in the red zone.

Now I’m not here to go all doom and gloom on the defense. These stats are certainly concerning, but there’s a long way to go and with Tom Brady back in the mix, we’re just getting our first taste of the real 2016 Patriots. So we can reserve some judgement at this point.

Here’s a look at five third downs against the Browns with what went wrong and how the Pats might fix it.

Pats Posits: Tuesday Leftovers Edition

October 11, 2016 by Mike Dussault

Things certainly seem back to normal this week. Brady had a vintage Brady performance, all the Jimmy/Jacoby stuff can be put on the backburner (at least by me) until next offseason and the Pats are once again in the driver’s seat in both the conference and the division.

This feels like Belichick/Brady Patriots football!

Here are some leftover tidbits as I cleaned out my Pats notebook and looked back at a few key moments in the game before diving into the All-22 once it becomes available.

— Plenty of digging on how the Pats used Bennett and Gronk going on. Kevin Duffy of Masslive.com had a good breakdown:

Here was Gronkowski’s breakdown by alignment on snaps with Bennett:
In-line: 31
Slot: 8
Wide: 4

And here was Bennett’s:
In-line: 35
Slot: 4
Wide: 4

The Pats rans on 19 of the 30 snaps both tight ends were in-line, but some of their biggest pass plays came out of those kind of sets as well, including Bennett’s 37-yard touchdown. This illustrates the power of having two all-around Y tight ends — they can dictate however they want to. And the play action is going to absolutely devastating this season. And it really boils down to keep them mostly in-line and working from there.

Gronk was double-teamed on 15 of 32 routes. Bennett was double-covered on 8 of 24 routes but not until after his 2nd TD.

— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) October 10, 2016

Pats Posits: 4-1 and It’s Real Fun

October 9, 2016 by Mike Dussault

Tom Brady is back like he never left. Brady tore up the Browns for his 8th career 400-yard game, with three touchdowns to Martellus Bennett, en route to the Pats 33-13 win over the Browns in Cleveland.

All in the Patriots Universe is right.

Now, with Deflategate firmly in the rearview mirror (I pray…) the Patriots are ready to move on in pursuit of their fifth Super Bowl. Their offense looks primed to take them there. Their defense shut down Cleveland’s ground game and gave up just two scoring drives.

All three phases have things to clean up, but make no mistake, the 2016 Patriots are on track now and the season is very much underway.

Here da’ Posits…

New England Patriots Gameplan: Week 5 at Cleveland Browns

October 7, 2016 by Mike Dussault

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65Dze6WLS4s

Yup, Tom Brady’s back and the 2016 season can officially start this Sunday in Cleveland. Seriously, for all the time we wasted debating Jimmy Garoppolo’s future and toughness or the gameplan for one-thumbed Jacoby Brissett, it all matters about as much as the preseason did now.

So yes Patriots fans are giddy, the rest of the NFL is worried and the Browns are preparing for worse damage than Florida right now.

But how easily the “Brady’s back” angle has made us all forget that the last two times the Patriots have faced the Browns it hasn’t quite gone as we all thought it would. There was the brutal 34-14 loss in Cleveland in 2010 and then the miraculous comeback by the Patriots in Foxboro in 2013, which also saw Rob Gronkowski’s knee blown out.

The Pats needed an onside kick recovery to escape Cleveland in that one.

The Browns have been anything but an easy out for the Patriots, no matter how the matchup looked on paper going in. But these Browns are far younger and even less talented than what the Patriots dealt with in 2010 and 2013.

Couple that with the Patriots coming off an embarrassing loss and we might just finally get the Browns blowout we’ve been waiting six years for.

Here’s the gameplan to get the season off to a new start under our favorite quarterback.

A Closer Look at Patriots’ Advanced Defensive Stats

October 5, 2016 by Mike Dussault

rob ninkovich Stats are for losers, right? Far be it from me to disagree with BB, but stats can give us a bigger picture. I always wait until four gams into the season before I jump into the stats. Anything before that is just simply too small a sample size.

As most of you know, the Patriots defense has been my long term pet project here on the blog. When you line up the 2016 stats and compare them to recent years it becomes even more clear that while the Patriots defense is good at preventing points, they’ve been pretty terrible at everything else.

I know there are plenty out there banging the “points allowed are all that matter,” but I disagree. Football is a complimentary game. Points allowed is certainly an important stat and the one at the bottom line, but the rest of the stats paint the picture of a defense that isn’t forcing turnovers, isn’t getting off the field and allowing far too long opponent possessions. That isn’t holding up their end of the bargain with the offense and special teams.

That said, it’s four games in. With Tom Brady back we can expect far more out of the offense going forward. That should help the defense. But still, every time in the first four games the Patriots have needed the defense to step up, they have failed to do so.

Let’s hope that changes in the coming weeks.