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The Best of PatsPropaganda This Week

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There was lots of good stuff this week if you’re a big fan of bad secondaries and teams that can’t close games out.

For anything you missed here’s the linkage…

PatsPropaganda

Should the Patriots dial up pressure and blitz Sanchez?

5 Keys for Patriots vs. Jets

Turn On The Jets Talks With Pats Propaganda – Jets/Patriots Preview

Pats playmakers need to step up in crunch time

How the Patriots defense can turn it around

Notes on PFF’s Patriots grades: Week 6 Seahawks

Quick hit thoughts on a head-shaking Patriots loss

Pats Beat

Belichick: In-game adjustments big vs. Jets – New England Patriots Blog – ESPN Boston

Playbook: Brady and the Patriots’ play action | National Football Post

Patriots coaches dropped the ball as well against Seahawks – Sports – The Boston Globe

Inside look at the Patriots’ top route concept | National Football Post

Morning after: Seahawks 24, Patriots 23 – Extra Points – Boston.com

Secondary: What goes on back there? – Patriots – Boston.com

Pick up one our new PatsPropaganda DO YOUR JOB tees, now in red! Order in the right hand pulldown.

Do you agree that Wilfork is not his usual dominant self, and is leaning towards average with his play this year? Also, what do you think about the incredible amount of holding going on by offensive lines, during both the replacement ref and professional ref eras so far?

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Oh boy, I’m glad someone wants to talk about Big Vince because I don’t think it’s gotten much mention anywhere else.

Yes, it’s true that ProFootballFocus has graded Wilfork negatively the last five consecutive games, and he really hasn’t stood out much recently with a big play. But it’s also worth pointing out the Greg Bedard of the Boston Globe, someone who studies the film closely, has liked Wilfork’s performances recently.

It’s really hard to evaluate Wilfork fully because he does so much and isn’t in a position to rack up a lot of numbers. But what I will say is that I wish the Pats could use less of Wilfork, especially on obvious passing downs. Wilfork can be dominant, but I think he’d be more consistently dominant if he wasn’t asked to play 90% of the downs. Ideally if we could get him back to even 75% he’d be more effective, especially in crunch time.

The problem is just that after him there isn’t a lot of talent on the interior defensive line. I like Kyle Love, but I don’t love him. And Ron Brace? Not showing a whole lot this year.

So again it comes back to my favorite talking point, that the Pats need an interior penetrator-type who can spell Wilfork in clear passing situations, and give them a much needed pocket-pushing presence.

It may be futile but I’m still holding out hope Myron Pryor could be that guy.

Does it feel like BB is prizing versatility on defense at the expense of talent?We have players who can play multple positions, but few outside of Big Vince and Spikes (jury’s still out on jones) seem to dominate

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This is certainly a criticism that is coming to the forefront in the last week, and I don’t think it’s totally off-base. Spikes is the perfect example, he’s one of the few players that is truly a master of something, but limited in another. At the opposite end of the spectrum you Patrick Chung, who is okay at a lot of things, but not great at anything.

It comes back to value drafting, and you can understand why having guys who can do a number of things could be valuable, especially in the secondary.

Asante Samuel is a good example too. He’s an elite zone read corner, but tackling, man-to-man, and special teams are certainly not his thing.

So I certainly think the case can be made that the balance has shifted too much to guys who can do it all okay, but nothing great. The reason they’re losing games is because they’re not making plays (on either side of the ball) when the game is on the line, and part of that can be a function of just not having enough elite talent in certain spots.

Still, this is a defense that forces turnovers at an elite level so that has to count for something as well. Really I think it just comes down to finding a back end safety with range and leadership. Those are hard to come by these days, but one player like that could elevate the play of the entire secondary, especially someone like McCourty.

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It’s Friday and the Patriots are in red this weekend! Shouldn’t you be too? DO YOUR JOB!

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