An Independent Patriots Blog
Plenty to digest from the weekend’s slate of games. Most importantly, the Patriots now have a two game lead in the AFC East. Without Tom Brady. Yup.
One more against the Bills at home, and then our sweet prince shall return and all will be right with the football world once again.
Across the AFC the usual suspects are rising to the top of heap early in the season.
Every season we put something fun into the works for a Patriots home game and the time has come to do it again!
This year, with the help of the new ride sharing site, Skedaddle, we’re putting together a Welcome Back Bus for Tom Brady’s first home game back with the Pats against the Bengals on Sunday, October 16th. And it’s not just me, your faithful blogger Mike D, who will be riding on the bus. I’ll also be joined by none other than Fitzy himself, Nick Stevens, and his Shit Pats Fans Say partner-in-crime George Kippenhan.
We’ll have giveaways and all kinds of fun on the rides down and back from Gillette. What’s better than riding to a Patriots game with a collection of super Patriots fans?!
Here’s how it works. Head over to the Skedaddle event page to buy your seat on the bus. Prices start at $41.45, cheaper than you’re going to pay to park at Gillette anyway.
The bus will depart at 8:30am sharp on Sunday October 16th from Quincy Center (100 Granite St.), but try to get there by 8:15am as we have some fun planned prior to departure. Public parking is available nearby. And a Dunkin Donuts too!
Just a note that this DOES NOT include tickets to the game, you’ll have to get those on your own.
We’ll embark together for Gillette with plenty more on-bus fun planned, and then after the game, the bus will depart back for Quincy at 5pm. We’ll either be celebrating or commiserating together (but probably celebrating).
Space is limited. If enough people sign up we will add a second vehicle but there’s no guarantee.
It should be a blast and we hope you’ll join us!
Here we thought we escaped Thursday night’s win over the Texans without any injuries but alas, this tweet is now setting Patriots twitter aflame…
Source confirms torn right thumb ligament for Jacoby Brissett. Suffered injury in 2nd half Thursday. Faces likely surgery for stabilization.
— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) September 23, 2016
So yes, for the second time in two games, the Patriots quarterback has sustained a significant injury and the team is going to have to scramble before they face the Bills in nine days. You thought a rookie quarterback with just three days to prepare (but also all of training camp) was a challenge, how about a street free agent who could now get the start?
Of course perhaps Jimmy Garoppolo‘s shoulder will be in good enough shape by next Sunday. But as someone who had a separated shoulder, I don’t think we can count on it. So could it be TJ Yates as the third starting quarterback in four games for the Patriots? They’ll certainly have to make a move soon.
But again, the Pats are 3-0 and likely facing a Bills team that will be 0-3 and on the verge of cleaning house. And it’s a home game. So there’s no pressure and really, the Bills offense is so bad, the Patriots defense should pretty much beat them by themselves.
Tom Brady‘s return looms even larger now, and these back-to-back weeks of quarterback injuries are certainly giving me a pit in my stomach about whether or not Brady will escape the same fate as he usually does. But if there was any doubt about how much the Patriots need Brady, it should be long gone now.
Just when you think the Pats have conquered all challenges another new and unique one pops up. Never a dull moment.
Friday PM update – Don’t panic just yet, Shefter just dropped this:
Patriots’ source texts @diannaESPN about Jacoby Brissett’s thumb injury, “No tear, it’s fine.” https://t.co/KoM31pw1Br
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 23, 2016
It’s not often that a Bill Belichick legacy win comes along, but that’s what happened Thursday night. Belichick, with a rookie quarterback, guided a near-perfect performance out of the entire team around the youngster. This will be one we mention when Belichick goes into Canton and it tied him with Curly Lambeau for fourth all-time in the regular-season win list with 226.
The Patriots moved to 3-0 with a dominating effort in all phases of the game, beating the Texans 27-0.
Rookie quarterback Jacoby Brissett, making the start for injured second-stringer Jimmy Garoppolo, was efficient and safe with the ball. He finished the game 11-of-19 for 103 yards and one rushing touchdown, a 27-yarder that gave the Pats a 10-0 lead which they held into halftime.
Now Belichick with some George Halas T-formation boot/trap stuff. Watch the right guard cut the end https://t.co/orLYJexSqj
— Chris B. Brown (@smartfootball) September 23, 2016
It was the second half that the Patriots truly put the pedal down, putting up a 13-play, 71-yard first drive that ended with a disappointing field goal. Then, Nate Ebner forced a fumble on the ensuing kickoff, and six plays (and two pass interference calls in the end zone) later the Pats pushed their lead to 20-0.
And it didn’t stop there. For the first time, in what seems like a long time, the Patriots played a near-perfect 60 minutes is all three phases. It wasn’t totally perfect, but it was about as close as you can expect. Especially when you’re talking about a ROOKIE QUARTERBACK IN HIS FIRST START.
A feel good edition of Pats Posits is coming at you after the jump…
[Read more…] about Pats Posits: Damn It Feels Good to Be a Hoodie
Today’s the first day of fall and that means the holidays are fast approaching! So we wanted to share with you all a great new service for sending gifts to that special NFL fan in your life called Fanchest. They already offer two levels of Patriots Fanchests, filled with Patriots goodies, and are adding new teams all the time.
Instead of having to pick and choose a bunch of little gifts, let Fanchest do the work for you. Your recipient won’t be disappointed!
Check out what mine looked like!
The best part? Get $10 off your order with the discount code “patspropaganda”!
Are you enjoying this Patriots season so far? We’re two games in and it seems like our Patriots Nation is on fire, raging against itself in an endless cycle of small-picture angst . The hot taeks are rolling in faster than we can even keep up with them. Why haven’t the Patriots signed a quarterback!? The hubris of Bill Belichick! And now he’s going to force Jimmy Garoppolo to play with one arm!!
Yes, the Patriots are driving many people mad this week and it’s quickly feeling like us against the world once again.
And if all that wasn’t enough there’s a glowing puff piece on the front page of the New York Times website this morning about Exponent. You know, the company that told us second hand smoke wasn’t dangerous and that the Patriots balls were deflated .02 PSI below where the Ideal Gas Law said they should be. I’m going to resist going down that rabbit hole since we’re so close to end of Deflategate, but let’s just say there’s no specific mention of the two biggest criticisms of Exponents work — the lack of any timing element and the assumption that referee Walt Anderson was wrong in remembering which gauge he used. Read Florio’s takedown of it if you want more on this. I don’t.
Let’s try to talk about real football. Although if it wasn’t clear before, it sure is now — we’re going to be hearing about Bradoppolo non-stop for the next year-and-a-half, at least. Of course this is an unheard of “problem” in the NFL, having two very good quarterbacks and having to choose between them. It’s a fascinating story but one that I prefer to put on the backburner until the offseason. Meanwhile most of the media will waste the football season wondering “WHAT WILL THEY DO????”.
In a little over a week Tom Brady will be back and the New England Patriots 2016 season will truly begin. It’s nice to know Garoppolo has a lot of promise, but there’s plenty to play out over the next four months before we have to really worry about what will happen in the future.
Here’s the gameplan for a Texans team looking to come into Foxboro to make a statement win. Well, a statement win that would have a big Jacoby Brissett-sized asterisk.
[Read more…] about New England Patriots Gameplan: Week 3 vs. Houston Texans
Quick turnaround this week so I’m jumping right in on the film review (before the A22 is released) to take a closer look at the last four Dolphins’ drives of the game. Miami scored three-straight touchdowns on 70-plus yard drives that ranged from five plays to nine plays, turning what should’ve been a blowout into a game that went down to the final play.
The Dolphins moved the ball with frightening ease, but it’s important to remember this is how the Patriots defense started off the game:
The Patriots defense is far better than what they showed on the final four drives before the game-sealing interception.
Let’s take a closer look at what was going on:
[Read more…] about Breaking Down the Patriots Four-Drive Defensive Breakdown