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Going off script | Matt Chatham/Boston Herald

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Going off script | Matt Chatham/Boston Herald

Great stuff from this week’s podcast guest Matt Chatham. Nothing makes me happier than when my amateur football analysis is backed up by someone who’s actually been there/done that.

San Francisco is rolling now with Colin Kaepernick, a track-fast quarterback brandishing a throwing motion somewhere between Byron Leftwich and crafty hurler Eddie Harris from the movie “Major League.” The Niners’ “pistol” offense looks undoubtedly bizarre from a professional football point of view, making you often do a double-take in film review just to remember which team is on offense— but it’s worked for them so far.

It will take a great week of preparation for the Patriots, because this is something you rarely see in the NFL. That said, the net effect is a grindingly modest offensive output based largely on move-the-pocket boot passing, and effective use of play-action crossers and checkdowns.

There are the occasional explosive elements, but most seem predicated off a mental or physical mistake on the edge of the defense, either in rush lane integrity or run force. With the similar Seattle game lessons of not falling prey to those kinds of plays presumably learned, and the near-miss lessons from the Houston game of not putting the ball on the ground themselves, shuttering those two small windows by the Patriots would seem to close off any reasonable paths for a ‘keep pace’ kind of game.

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I think a lot of times rookies come in and they’re talented, they’re big and fast. They can run and chase the ball. But a lot of times, they’re just kind of running around out there. As they gain more experience and more understanding of the total defense, and where their teammates are and how things fit on different runs, they play with maybe a little more patience, maybe a little bit more recognition in terms of play-action passes and missed direction plays and things like that. Although Jerod is very good and has been very good at those. But I think certainly you get better at them through time.

Belichick talks Welker, Mayo & 49ers – Extra Points – Boston.com

Mayo has elevated his game to a new level this year…

https://www.patspropaganda.com/patriots-mayo/

Brady is the MVP. And arguably, the best ever. My question and my wonder is how is there so much fascination on Peyton Manning as MVP this year? I respect and understand what Manning has done but even this year alone, TB12 is the clear cut MVP. Why the media (specially ESPN) fascination and almost “beatification” of Manning and why the tempered reaction for TB12? Thank you. GO PATS!

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I don’t watch ESPN so I don’t know what they’re saying but I have a couple points to make on this topic.

First and foremost let’s see what happens Sunday night. If Brady puts in another performance like he did on Monday I don’t see how the argument can be made for Manning over Brady. The quality of the competition is just so lopsided, when all the other stats are equally comparable.

Second, I think the MVP argument is the most overblown thing in the NFL. It’s trying to determine the most important cog in a 53 cog machine. Who really cares? There are so many ways to determine value. Just tell me who the best is and don’t give me a “yeah but he’s just a system player” argument.

Adapting a system to a player is what smart teams do. It makes you think the only thing you need to make a convincing MVP argument is to have one awesome player surrounded by bums and bad coaches.

“They’d be 0-16 if it weren’t for this guy”. Well what does that matter? Isn’t this a team sport? Why are we getting so worked up over that one argument?

It’s just because MVP has such a connotation to it that this one player is just the absolute best, but really when you boil it down it’s not about that, and in a team sport like football that really doesn’t matter.

Tell me who the best quarterback is in the NFL and I’m happy with that.

Is Vince Wilfork a Hall of Famer? – WEEI | Christopher Price

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Is Vince Wilfork a Hall of Famer? – WEEI | Christopher Price

Great piece from Chris Price, and he really nails it on the head with the quote below.

This is where Wilfork will likely suffer with Hall of Fame voters. The bottom line? The Hall likes big men, but doesn’t necessarily tend to reward big men in the middle who don’t pile up big sack numbers. Those who didn’t watch Wilfork over the course of his career will instead look at his statistical line and see a handful of sacks – he had just the 15th of his career Monday night against Houston – particularly when compared to some of the other defensive tackles of his era. Of course, Wilfork has played the majority of his career in a defense that didn’t call for a penetrating defensive tackle, but that won’t matter to voters who didn’t see him play on a regular basis and only look at his final numbers.

It’s really too bad because anyone who has watched the games know that Wilfork was the single most valuable piece for a team that won more games than anyone else over his career.

how the heck did the 49ers lose to the Rams? The Rams???

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And tied them! The thing with divisional games is that they’re just about always close. The teams are familiar with each other and have likely spent the majority of their off-season preparing for them. They know they players they’re going against, and know how the opponent will want to play them. This breeds close games.

But with teams who haven’t played in four plus years you can throw most of that out the window. The Patriots can see the 49ers are a physical team but until they see them face to face they won’t know exactly what they’re like.

Just like the 49ers know the Patriots offense can go peddle to the metal, but until they see it in person there’s an element of the unknown, especially when it comes to how the Patriots will specifically attack them which right now is anybody’s guess.