PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Mike Dussault

Win Big Tonight with Free Entry at Boom Fantasy!

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The NFL regular season is finally here! As you watch the Belichick and the boys destroy the Steelers tonight, check out a whole new way to watch the game.

Boom Fantasy is the next generation of fantasy sports: A real-money, in-game platform that pushes real-time questions to users during live games (e.g. Will T. Brady complete his next pass? Will the next play be a designed run or a designed pass? What will be the result of this drive?).

Tonight Boom Fantasy is running live contests during each quarter of the Pats-Steelers game! Each contest is free to enter, and there’s a total of $500 in real cash prizes up for grabs. There’s $200 on the line for the top-five finishers in the 1st quarter contest, and $100 on the line for the top-five finishers in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarter contests.

Pats Propaganda readers are getting an exclusive opportunity to play Boom Fantasy before the rest of the country! Head to boomfantasy.com/?r=pp and register for tonight’s contests. Boom Fantasy was designed exclusively for mobile devices, so be sure to check it out on your phone.

Watch the game. Win big. It’s that simple. If you like football and free money, you’ll have a great time at boomfantasy.com/?r=pp !“

NFL Films’ Do Your Job Review

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I didn’t think NFL Films would ever top the Bill Belichick episode of A Football Life where they followed Belichick for the 2009 season and got all kinds of behind the scenes access. 

But Do Your Job did just that.

Most all, after months of the Patriots being called cheaters, it was nice to see what really makes the Patriots so good. Not giving opposing team’s warm Gatorade or stealing playbooks, but old fashioned hard work and unparalleled preparation and anticipation.

While BB’s A Football Life gave some glimpses behind the curtain, we often felt like a fly on the wall. In Do Your Job we weren’t flies, BB and the coaching staff were actually talking to us and telling us what happened with the kind of candor you’re never in a million years going to get from the everyday media that follows the team.

Maybe it’s wrong to start at the climax, but the entire last act built around Malcolm Butler’s interception was purely amazing. Not only did Ernie Adams hold up his diagram of the last play the Seahawks would run, but they showed the practice footage of the Patriots running it and Malcolm getting beat on it.

As Adams said, it doesn’t always work out quite so perfectly but this is one time it did and the fact that it happened when the Pats were just one yard away from another horrible Super Bowl defeat is astounding.

This is the real Bill Belichick we saw, not his stonewall-the-media persona, but the brilliant coach who has such an innate feel to the game he seems to know what they’ll need for a game well before the game happens. And oh yes, he also has a biting sense of humor.

His uncanny ability to know what the Pats might need to win was on display with the segments on the tricky formations they ran against the Ravens as well as the double pass.

Most of all, it showed what an art form playcalling really can be not only within a game, but over the course of a season. Imagine if the Pats had burned the double pass in a meaningless second half against Kansas City with the game well out of reach! Luckily Amendola had the foresight to tell Edelman not to show it when they knew the play was going to LaFell.

Another talking point that Do Your Jon destroys is that Belichick has too many “yes men”. Now this was also destroyed in David Halbertam’s Education of a Coach, but once again we see how Belichick takes input from everyone and isn’t afraid to be challenged.

So many out there want to diminish what the Patriots have accomplished over the last 15 years, but Do Your Job makes it abundantly clear the reason for their success is they are a finely tuned football machine from the head coach (who has full support of his owner and full control of the team) right down to the 53rd man on the roster.

Belichick not only knows what it will take to win each week, but he has the tools in his coaching staff and players to execute it. One moment I liked was Josh McDaniels mentioning that putting in a play the night before a game in a hotel ballroom is no problem for the Patriot players who never blink. Yes, the Super Bowl-winning touchdown play was one of those last-minute additions.

Some quick hit other thoughts:

– Great credit for the unreal play by Hightower on first-and-goal just before Butler’s interception. 

– Loved BB really opening up on what he thought of Arrington being “streaky”. Guess after the Super Bowl they were done with that streakiness.

– Nice to hear every Patriots coach sum up that they were feeling exactly the same thing I was feeling after the Kearse catch. Especially Mr. Kraft’s “we have no f’ing luck.”

– Yes, I studied the Pats’ depth chart and was proud that it looked very similar to the one I keep. Though I certainly didn’t have Tyler Gaffney as the top pass-catching running back at any point.

– Great credit to Browner for the Butler interception as well. He knew what was coming and never let the receiver off the line. That interception doesn’t happen without Browner.

I could go on for thousands of words about this special. There are so many interesting moments, none of which was more interesting than actually hearing Ernie Adams speak about what he does. And it wasn’t just Adams but all the Patriots’ assistants who are rarely more than just faces we see on the sidelines during games. All of them came off incredibly focused and intense about their jobs, and it’s easy to see why they are where they are.

If this was the offseason I’d break down this whole special shot-for-shot, and maybe I still will someday, but it’s game day and time once again for the New England Patriots to DO THEIR JOB!

You can see the entire Do Your Job special here, password pinkstripes.

PatsPropaganda Partners with NRG for Another Season!

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We’re very excited to announce that PatsPropaganda is partnering with NRG again this season as part of the Social Media Ambassador program! If you were following us last year you know we had a ton of giveaways of tickets and Pats swag and we can’t wait to do it all over again.

Last year we also put together a roaming band of Pats fans along with myself, Nick “Fitzy” Stevens, Gerry Thornton and George Kippenhan (aka the “other guy” from the Fitzy videos), and we’re planning on doing something similar this season.

It’s also important that we’re really proud to be partnering with a forward-thinking energy company like NRG, who are focused on renewable energy sources like solar, wind, geothermal and hydroelectric. Just like their solar panels at Gillette Stadium capture energy, NRG knows how to capture fans’ energy and we’ll be a big part of that once again this season.

So stay tuned to all the PatsPropaganda social media outlets for chances to win all kinds of awesome stuff!

New England Patriots Gameplan: Week 1 vs. Pittsburgh Steelers

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New England Patriots football is finally back and which also means I’m back with my gameplan articles (CHECK OUT LAST SEASON’S HERE).  The first game of the season is always pretty ugly and there are plenty of unknown elements that cannot be predicted. That’s what makes it fun and scary.

Missed tackles, blown assignments, and just a general lack of rhythm tend to always be present in week one, and often into weeks two and three as well.

Complicating matters is how the Patriots love to experiment in the early part of the season. Throwing random guys into random roles to see how they do and if they flash any potential.

So what we’re left with is hoping the Pats can hang on to the ball and stay frosty no matter how up and down their performance is. 

Here’s the gameplan…

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Offensive Gameplan

Let’s start at the areas of uncertainty headed into this first game. The biggest one is along the interior of the offensive line where Bryan Stork will be out with a concussion. So what does that leave the Pats with? Maybe Mason-Wendell-Jackson. Maybe Kline-Wendell-Jackson. Or maybe, as Greg Bedard said on Felger and Mazz Wendell-Andrews-Jackson. Any way you slice it, there’s at least one rookie in there and very possibly two and that’s a major area of concern. Personally I’d go the veteran route with Kline and Wendell.

Second comes the weaponry and what combination they’ll go with. LaFell is out, so that means you’re looking at Dobson or Amendola starting with Edelman. I’d expect a rotation of the two. Mostly I just want to see them unleash the Twin Towers of Gronk and Chandler, because that should give the Steelers a ton of problems. 

This isn’t the Steel Curtain anymore, their pass defense has been getting lit up since last year.

Then we look in the backfield, where they’ll likely give Brandon Bolden some action to start but expect Dion Lewis to be the guy who gets a lot of touches early on. Or could they unleash Travaris Cadet, who is fully healthy but played zero preseason games. He’s unique, more of a receiver than running back and I think the Pats have something special planned with him. Might be a week or two too early for Cadet, but he’ll have a big game in September.

The Pats liked to spread out LeBeau Steeler defense, will anything change now on either end? Because the Pats have pretty much had their way with the Steelers defense almost every time Brady’s faced them.

With the release of Jonas Gray and no LeGarrette Blount, it’s a good bet the Pats are going to throw the ball 50 times in this one. The quick throws should limit the pressure put on the interior offensive line, so expect Edelman and Amendola to play a big part in those throws. Pass protection from the inexperienced running backs will be a big factor.

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Defensive Gameplan

Oh, am I excited to see this defense take the field! It’s just become more and more clear with each week how many different things this defense can merge into. Their front seven is dripping with athleticism and nearly impossible to decode at the line of scrimmage. Who’s two-gapping? Who’s blitzing? Who’s dropping? Who knows. And each player presents a unique problem whether you’ve got to block them or outrun them.

So the big question here in week one is predicting what they WILL do. Antonio Brown has to be the first focus and with Matavis Bryant out, there should be extra man power to deal with him. But you’d think Malcolm Butler with occasional safety help makes the most sense.

This is a good game to get a sense of the man/zone balance the Patriots will play this season. Expect some of the Nick Saban-esque zone on early downs, man on third down unless it’s long.

The biggest thing for this defense is winning one-on-one matchups. That’s what the Patriots defense hasn’t been able to consistently do since 2007, but now they have the pieces where they better start doing it. They have the size guys to eat up two blocks, but that puts the pressure on players like Easley/Hightower/Collins/Chandler/etc. to beat their single blocker. That’s what makes a great team pass rush.

Expect a healthy rotation of all four defensive tackles and don’t be surprised to see Ninkovich come off the field in passing situations for a front like Sheard-Easley-Chandler-Hightower, with Mayo and Collins at the linebacker spots.

Most critical to the defense is tackling. They haven’t been doing a lot of it before now but if they can consistently wrap and tackle they’ll force mistakes.

Five Points of Emphasis

1. Play clean – Making tackles and not turning the ball over is usually 75 percent of winning but in week one it’s closer to 90 percent. There will be ugly plays. Brady’s gonna get sacked. Roethlisberger will hit a long pass. None of it will matter if they just don’t make the last critical mistake. 

2. Get Gronk’d – We can talk for hours about all the different things the Patriots might try to do, but the only one that really matters is getting Rob Gronkowski involved. He’s the best offensive player on the team now and getting the ball in his hands as much as possible will only help open up all other avenues of attack. Most interesting will be to see how Scott Chandler compliments Gronk and stresses the defensive coverages.

3. Disguise > Blitzing – Belichick is never a big blitzer, in fact they’ve been blitzing less and less since 2010 and that’s a good thing. The ideal is to win with four rushers and if you can do that consistently, you’ve got a great defense. One of the holdovers from the old 3-4 scheme they used to use more frequently, is the ability to disguise which linebacker is blitzing. The same principal is true and applies to not only the three linebackers, but the two defensive ends as well and sometimes even a defensive tackle. Send Hightower, Mayo, Ninkovich, Collins, Chandler, Sheard, Flowers, Easley after Roethlisberger at random times. Never let the Steelers get a bead on who the main rushers all. Keep them guessing and take advantage of the overall athleticism on the defense.

4. Contain and Tackle Roethlisberger – We’ve heard it plenty of times from Belichick that you must keep Roethlisberger contained in the pocket and then you must finish him off when you get hands on him. This isn’t easy of course but explosive plays happen when Ben is able to get out of the pocket and create after initial contact.

5. Win – With ten days before the next game in Buffalo and a late bye, getting a win and then a couple extra days off should do a lot of good for this team on a number of levels. The roster can then also be re-jiggered a bit as their current personnel seems directly aimed at Pittsburgh. Conference victories are always valuable in the grand scheme of things and knocking of a respectable Steelers team is just the sort of win that will put Deflategate and (unfortunately) the Super Bowl win truly behind the Patriots and focus them on 2015.