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Film Review

Film Review: Patriots vs Colts

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The Patriots rolled to a second impressive win in a row, beating the Colts with their second 38 burger in a row. With Julian Edelman back, Josh Gordon immediately working his way in and Sony Michel‘s continued improvement, the chatter about a lack of weapons has quieted down. Which could only mean one thing, it’s time to complain again about the defense.

After watching the All-22 I continue to really like what I’m seeing from the Patriots defense and despite some holes in the win over the Colts, they are playing as simple and fast as I can remember them. The tackling is locked down. The edge is being set. The extra yardage and busted coverages are slowly disappearing. It all looks impressive and was on good display for most of Thursday night.

The Patriots should have earned a ton of confidence after the last two wins have wiped out the bad taste of back-to-back road losses. Still, there will always be questions about the defense because this league is designed for offenses to succeed. The question is whether or not the defense makes the key plays down the stretch and that will most likely be the case against the Chiefs this weekend.

Here’s a bunch on what else stood out from the film review.

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Film Review: It All Goes Right for Pats D vs. Phins

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I am pretty sure this was my favorite defensive football film watch of all-time. Simply put it was the second time in four weeks that the Patriots defense executed across the board. The pressure was consistent even with four, they were tough on first down, they got takeaways. I’m not sure what more you can ask from a defense and that’s almost a little scary.

It really puts a spotlight on how inexcusable the two performances on the road were, but those are done and the Pats need to figure out how to live up to the performances against Houston and Miami every week. Here’s a bunch of rapid-fire thoughts as I digest the brief and spectacular film review.

— The defense was just totally in sync as it was vs the Texans. It’s beautiful to watch as the coverage perfectly matches the receivers and the pocket breaks apart forcing an uncomfortable throw. Again and again, we’re reminded that when defenses simply get off blocks and make tackles they can look monumentally better. That was the case in this one.

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Film Review: Finding Some Silver Linings

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I was surprised that watching the All-22 of the Patriots loss to the Lions made me feel a lot better about the Patriots chances of turning the season around from the 1-2 start. This is almost always the case, because you get a sense of how close the Pats were on many plays that went against them.

It’s small consolation, but it’s a clear illustration that all is not lost and that a 23-10 loss isn’t the worst thing to ever happen to a football team even if it was the second week in a row the Pats didn’t really show up.

I had to take this one in as a total experience, not a specific play by play, drive by drive breakdown but I came away with some general thoughts that were much different than what I came away with as I depressingly crawled into bed close to midnight on Sunday.

The first good takeaway is the Ja’whaun Bentley is a keeper. Yes, he had mistakes that took away from his overall impressive play, but this is the kind of player the Patriots defense needs badly and he should only continue to improve. His reaction speed is so impressive, better I dare say than any other linebacker on the roster. Watching his interception and he sticks with his receiver like glue and effortlessly makes the pick.

I don’t know where the Patriots defense is headed, but I’m pretty positive that Bentley is going to be a building block.

The other good guy I’ll mention is Dietrich Wise, who appears to still be viewed mostly as a pass rusher at this point, but he brings great energy and is one of the only consistently disruptive players up front. Bentley and Wise are the future on defense.

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Film Review: Patriots Offense and Defense Sucksonville Edition

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Nothing like an emotionless deep dive into the All-22 to give you a nice football reminder how scary it can look when even good teams play bad. I left my film review with a near-exact feeling like I had after breaking down the Patriots loss to the Chiefs in 2014. This is what happens when everyone takes turns making bad mistakes until things are just totally unraveled. Add in a talented young team playing a near-perfect game, making miraculous plays in heavy heat and it’s recipe for disaster.

And that’s what this loss was. But it was still just one loss in week two under extreme conditions. What we see in Detroit will be far more toward the center of who this team is. There might still be issues but no defense can play this perfectly bad two weeks in a row, especially a Patriots defense.

Flip just a couple plays and this is a ball game in the fourth quarter. But that doesn’t mean the Patriots don’t have issues to fix. Getting Josh Gordon this week proved that. But is it time to dip into the rookies at cornerback? At least there are options, whereas we’re all just holding our breath hoping Dont’a Hightower gets through the season on his knee.

More on that and everything else in the film review.

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Film Review: Patriots vs. Texans Defense Edition 2018

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After years of focusing heavily on the Patriots’ defense it’s easy to see after the first game how new defensive coordinator Brian Flores has simplified things. They still did plenty of rotation of players, but this was as polished a defensive game as we’ve seen from a Pats team that often gets off to slow starts.

The defense was flying to the ball and looked well in-sync between coverage and pass rush. Most impressive, an array of front seven players who all won one-on-one battles. It is that Flores is sending all kinds of new pressure that Matt Patricia wasn’t, it’s that players like Trey Flowers, Keionta Davis, Dietrich Wise, Adam Butler and Adrian Clayborn are executing a coordinated and suffocating attack on the pocket.

Up front the base moved more toward a six-man front that echoes a 4-3 under. Kyle Van Noy was consistently on the defensive left side, standing. Hightower would line up to the tight end side (taking the TE in coverage on pass plays) and Bentley would line up across the running back, who he’d have in coverage. This meant that Trey Flowers was able to move back to right side after playing the Ninkovich role on the left. That role appears to be going away.

That was the run stopping front, I’m not sure they played a single meaningful snap of a seven-man front, fka “base”.

The other nickel package against the pass was a 4-2 front and they rotated all four linebackers through, with Hightower and Bentley being the top pairing, but Van Noy and Roberts also got rotational time. The nickel back ends rotated between Jonathan Jones in the slot and Duron Harmon, who saw some time near the line of scrimmage, somewhat of a rarity for him.

The coordination between Chung, McCourty, Gilmore and Rowe was outstanding. They gave up a few plays, but overall they were really sharp, especially in contrast to last year’s opening debacle.

Here’s a bunch more notes on a really impressive first defensive outing…

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Film Review: It’s All There for Pats

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I know most of us came out of Friday’s preseason game with a bland taste in our mouths but after reviewing the film of the game, I’m feeling pretty good actually. That’s usually the case, especially in games that get overreacted to. My favorite example being the 2014 Chiefs blowout, which showed up in film review as just a game of bad fundamentals, something that is often quickly fixed.

It’s clear who the 2018 Patriots are now. And while there are still some questions toward the bottom of the roster, the top lines of the offense, defense and special teams have taken shape. Yes, even without adding another huge name wide receiver.

It’s impossible to know how the health of the team will hold up. So far so good. If they stay healthy no one can tell me this isn’t a Super Bowl roster. As always things will remain a work in progress but all the elements are there. Now it’s just a matter of bringing them all together under an actual gameplan and executing. There will be steps forward and steps back, but the aim of this team is the same as it’s ever been under Bill Belichick.

Here’s what jumped out in the film review against the Panthers.

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Film Review: Patriots vs Eagles Preseason Week 2

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As always, I never feel like I’ve actually watched the game until I can sit and study it with easy pause and rewind abilities. Once again that was the case with this preseason game, where the 2018 Patriots continue to come into clearer view. Rookies and young guys continue to get auditions with the top defense, but who is actually making the most of those opportunities?

Here are my film review notes from the first half of the Pats-Eagles.

— Opened in 3-CB nickel with Gilmore, Rowe, Crossen. Van Noy, Bentley. Davis, Shelton, Brown, Clayborn. Third down – Harmon, Rivers, Butler in, Shelton, Brown, Bentley out. Clayborn stood out with disruptive pressure on third down.

— The offense opened in a spread with James White who was clearly the centerpiece of the attack. This was the offense they opened with many times last year and if often sputtered out of the gate. Jacob Hollister got a full audition as the primary “Y” tight end. He struggled blocking defensive ends which isn’t all that surprising.

— The Hogan, Edelman, Dorsett trio looks like the go-to guys at this point. Dorsett continues to not impress me. Brady’s pocket movement on Hogan’s touchdown was impressive and as good as it’s always been.

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