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Patriots Unbelievable Comeback in Super Bowl LI to Beat the Falcons | NFL Turning Point 

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyLPJ5JWZYk&feature=youtu.be

With Sound FX and Inside the NFL out of the way earlier this week, now we can add NFL Turning Point to the list of must-watch Patriots Super Bowl porn. Of the three, Turning Point is always my favorite because they really break down the Xs and Os like no one else. Not only do you get everyone miked up and the sounds of the game, you also get a healthy dose of the strategy.

Now we just have to wait until summer for America’s Game and whatever special NFL Films pulls together like they did with Do Your Job and the one they did for the Broncos last year that I’ve never seen and will never see.

Five days later, I’m finally starting to wrap my brain around what the Patriots pulled off. It was the perfect “just STFU” win we’ve been waiting for. All the stupid criticisms of this year and all the years before — that the Patriots were the only team stealing signals, that .02% PSI had any real effect on anything, that they could win without Gronk, that Brady was done (remember that one from a couple years ago?), that the defense hadn’t played anyone…. all that… JUST STFU!

Now it’s all gravy from here forth. You’re going to see the exact same kind of focused unflappable Patriots team next season and if they have similar injury luck to this year, they very will could be raising a SIXTH (!) Lombardi. What a ride. What a ride…

‘Sound FX’: Best of Super Bowl LI Is Awesome!

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Listen as the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons are mic’d up for the best sounds from Super Bowl LI.

Source: ‘Sound FX’: Best of Super Bowl LI | New England Patriots

One of the best parts of winning the Super Bowl is that you get to watch all the end-of-year videos like Sound FX and Turning Point without getting sick because that your team is the one featured! I’ve been savoring the week, just letting what occurred in Super Bowl 51 sink in. I’m still in shock and after watching Sound FX, reality is finally setting in.

Miked up during the Super Bowl for the Pats were Julian Edelman, LeGarrette Blount and Dont’a Hightower and it was full of great moments. Edelman’s intensity is pretty legendary, with my favorite part being at the end when the confetti is falling and everyone is storming the field yet Edelman is yelling at everyone that there’s still time on the clock. It finally takes Belichick to convince him, which is one of the rarest of occurrences — Bill Belichick telling someone to “chill bro”.

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Five Early Pats-Falcons Super Bowl 51 Links

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Well, it was nice to wake up the morning after winning the AFC Championship without the entire NFL world standing outside our window with pitchforks. Yes, it’s still sinking in that the Patriots are going back to the Super Bowl for the second time in three years. Despite the Patriots being the best team in AFC by a considerable margin, you never take these things for granted and I’m going to savor every moment of the next two weeks.

Here’s some things to share and some commentary as the Patriots-Falcons hype has already begun…

1. We’re at that point now where it seems like every time the Patriots win a game, especially a playoff game, a bunch of records fall. Here’s a full list from Patriots.com of all the records that were broken or will be broken in the Super Bowl. My favorites:

  • Tom Brady can tie Charles Haley as the only two players with five Super Bowl rings. Brady will also set the record for most Super Bowls played.
  • Bill Belichick would surpass Chuck Noll with five Super Bowl championships. He will already set the record for most appearances by a coach (10).

2. Predictably everyone thinks SB51 will be a shootout, but the Patriots defense is so sound I think they’ll force Atlanta to work harder for yards than they’ve had to. This chart from PFF sums it up.

3. I always enjoy Andy Benoit’s strategy pieces and he immediately dropped this one on Monday laying out the potential matchups. Here was his general feeling about how the Pats’ defense should approach the Falcons offense.

[W]e see a defense that mostly sticks to straight man or zone, rarely employing hybrid coverages. A defense that, like any, occasionally blitzes a fifth rusher, but far more often is content to rush the usual four. A defense that changes its fronts frequently, particularly against the run, but doesn’t go too far out of its way to disguise them. In simplest terms, the Patriots just line up and play. They rely on sound, fundamental execution. This is how they must approach the Falcons, and it must be done very physically. Line up in straight man-to-man and hit your individual opponent in the mouth. If the Patriots aren’t flagged four or five times for various illegal uses of hands—be it holding, illegal contact, hands to the face, maybe even pass interference—they’re playing too soft.

4. Greg A. Bedard weighed in with his early thoughts on the matchup as well, matching a general sentiment that both teams should move the ball, but it looks like the Pats defense might have a small edge over the Falcons’.

To beat Brady, you have to disguise and change up both the pressure and coverage looks on just about every snap. The Falcons, to this point, have not shown the ability to do that. That will be an important factor in the game. Ryan has trouble with tight, disciplined coverage. With Malcolm Butler locking up either Julio Jones or Mohamed Sanu, and Logan Ryan on the other with safety help, Ryan may have to make a living throwing to the running backs and TEs Levine Toilolo and Austin Hooper. The Patriots have had more issues with supporting actors than those in starring roles. The Falcons have the ability to exploit that.

5. PFF has 10 Stats to Know about Super Bowl 51 and this one is the scariest:

Including the playoffs, Matt Ryan’s passer rating when kept clean is 131.1, the best mark in the NFL by over 10 points.

Any QB can play well when he’s not under pressure, right? While that may be true, the level Matt Ryan is playing at right now when he is kept clean is a level above anyone else in the league. He has been virtually unstoppable this season when he hasn’t been pressured, and if the Patriots can’t apply some heat in the Super Bowl, it’s going to be a long day for their secondary, given the efficiency with which Ryan has been carving up the rest of the league from clean pockets.

MUST READ! ESPN: An Oral History of Bill Belichick

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Call Bill Belichick what you want, but these accounts of his uncompromising life — from prodigy to professional ballbuster — reveal why history might one day call him the greatest.

Source: New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick is the greatest enigma in sports

Every once and a while an amazing piece on Bill Belichick comes along and today might be one of the all time bests of those days. This oral history is fascinating and is a direct companion to David Halberstam’s Education of a Coach.

This is the real Belichick. Not the caricature the media creates because he doesn’t give them much to work with unless they ask him hard core football questions. That he’ll scoff at stupid or probing questions.

Us fans get a kick out of that, because most of the time those stories the media feels like they “have to ask”, no one really cares about. And many times the reporters themselves are just trying to gain some recognition for themselves by trying to prod Belichick “in the name of journalism.”

This is the Belichick that fascinates us Hoodie Heads. It boils down to his “Be Here Now”-esque mantra and focus on total preparation.  And let’s face it, the guy was basically incubated as a football coach from the moment he was born.

Such a great read, one to hold on to for a long time. Favorite quote from Heath Evans:

“I never had greater admiration for a man besides my father than I had for Bill after the Super Bowl XLII loss. To the 53 men in that locker room and the coaching staff, he delivered a heartfelt apology. He felt like he had really let us down. Despite 18-1 being the most bitter pill I think you can swallow in sports, when I walked out of that Super Bowl locker room that night I still left with kind of a shining moment in my mind about Bill Belichick, how a man that everybody swears is so arrogant and so self-centered is really the exact opposite.”

Malcolm Butler Named 8th Best CB on Ringer NFL Show

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I think that Malcolm Butler is sort of a laboratory to prove how much confidence has to do with the Cornerback position. I remember speaking to him the Thursday before the Super Bowl…and he lacked confidence, he was not brash or bold or anything. I talked to him before the season last year, 8 months after he made one of the biggest plays ever, and there was just a different air about him. That showed on the field and now I think he’s a top ten player. I just don’t think you can put any sort of quantitative value on confidence.

 

-Kevin Clark: The Ringer NFL Show
July 8, 2016

I found the nugget about Butler’s growth to be interesting. I love the energy and confidence Butler plays with and I think it’s been one of his best allies on the field. Butler said himself after the Super Bowl he knew he was gonna make a play. A little swagger seemed to be his secret weapon.

Boston Herald/Howe – 5 questions for Patriots minicamp

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The Patriots open their mandatory three-day minicamp Tuesday at Gillette Stadium.

Source: 5 questions for Patriots minicamp | Boston Herald

Good read here from Jeff Howe, breaking down some of the specifics to look for over the next three days. But let’s be honest, it’s really just like we’re spinning our wheels because there won’t be anything monumental to take away from mini-camp. Maybe someone like Dion Lewis is out there, and that’d be a great sign that his knee is returning to healthy, but otherwise everyone is there to learn not compete for a job just yet.

I will be curious to see if we can decipher who’s playing receiver along with Chris Hogan, since Edelman and Amendola are probably sitting. Keyshawn Martin probably makes the most sense. But there will be plenty of rotation and with Brady’s possible suspension, things will be even more mixed up that usual. I also wonder at what point do the Pats start managing Brady’s throws moreso anyway. His arm showed no signs of slowing down at the end of last year, but it’s something to think about.

This will be the last time we see the boys on the field before the long break until training camp opens at the end of July. Yes, it’s the final push of the offseason, but make no mistake, football is coming.

Dez Bryant recovery timeline may not bode well for Julian Edelman – CSNNE/Curran

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It took Bryant five months to get clearance to merely run and cut. If it takes five months for Edelman and his left foot to be cleared, that would put his timeline to begin doing the same things in mid-September.Obviously, everyone heals at different rates and one must allow for differences between the procedures the two players had done. And sources have expressed confidence that Edelman will be ready for training camp.

Source: Dez Bryant recovery timeline may not bode well for Julian Edelman

It’s pretty amazing how fast a player goes from a JAG to indispensable. Not to say Edelman was necessarily just a guy, but in his first four years with the Pats he had just four touchdowns and 69 catches. In the Pats 2011 AFC Championship season he had just four catches, and that was his third year in the league, a time when you’d think a receiver of Edelman’s current status would’ve been starting to hit his stride.

Now you read a report like the one above and you wonder what the Patriots would possibly do if Edelman misses extended time once again this season. The numbers for the Patriots’ offense without Edelman were ugly, especially on third down where their conversion rate dropped almost 20 percent.

Now at this point it still sounds like everyone’s expecting Edelman to be ready to go for training camp, but this speaks to a couple larger points.

First, the Pats must continue to develop wide receivers of all kinds. Everyone talks about needing the proverbial deep threat, but it’s just as important at this point to continue stockpiling “quick open” Z-receiver types as well. Malcolm Mitchell and Devin Lucien will be guys to watch this summer, as will Chris Hogan.

Second, the Z-receiver spot in the Pats’ offense isn’t exactly plug-and-play but it’s pretty close. It may take a bit for a receiver to totally earn Brady’s trust, but once they do, they’re going to see plenty of targets.

So I’d preach patience this summer with the likes of Mitchell and Lucien, as well as Chris Harper, DeAndre Carter and Keshawn Martin. They might need to heavily rely on those guys sooner than we think.