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My take on Brady-Manning

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It’s Brady-Manning this week which means it will be non-stop “who’s the better quarterback” takes. At least we’re off the “Is Brady declining” discussion now.

I had to give my “hot take” on Brady-Manning last year when I was writing for Bleacher Report. How I really feel is far too simple to warrant an entire article trying antagonize people into clicking and commenting.

Here are my two takes on the current Brady items now.

1. Tom Brady is still good enough to lead his team to a Super Bowl.

2. If given the retroactive choice on whose career I’d want to watch and root for, I would pick Tom Brady’s over Peyton Manning’s.

Is Brady declining? Can Manning play in weather? Who’s the best QB of all-time? What matters more, stats or playoff wins? Who had more weapons? Who had a better defense? Who had better coaching?

You can throw all those arbitrary questions out the window as far as I’m concerned. Football is a team sport and extracting a single player out of the equation and judging how good they really are will never be an exact science, nor will there ever be a definitive answer, so I don’t really care to engage in pointless conversation trying to convince those who will never be convinced.

Being a Manning fan is now divided by two teams and really the story of his career isn’t all that new or interesting to me – bred to be a QB, drafted first, lived up to the hype, lit it up with the same small group of weapons during the regular seasons, but almost always got shut down in the playoffs.

Brady’s career, from a story standpoint, is just far more fascinating to me. We all know the specifics by now – drafted 199th overall, got one chance to be a starting quarterback and never let go of that chance and has developed into one of the best quarterbacks of all-time.

He’s had complete turnover around him multiple times, lost his “favorite” receiver multiple times. Somehow he’s always kept it going no matter what the pieces around him were. And his playoff flameouts were rarely as disappointing as Manning’s.

Both Brady and Manning’s careers are filled with ups and downs and I have a ton of respect for both players. Regardless of the specifics, the majority of their seasons have ended in disappointment, but I’d choose Brady’s disappointments over Manning’s. Along with his three Super Bowl wins of course.

It’s as simple as the underachiever vs. the overacheiver, and the overachiever is just a more interesting and fun story to follow.

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https://www.patspropaganda.com/4516/

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Tight end Rob Gronkowski had his most dominant performance since his return this season from a torn right ACL, with three touchdowns on nine catches for 149 yards. The Bears had no answer for him, with Gronkowski’s final touchdown showing what makes him a complete tight end – the catch, the power to brush off a defender and then the speed to race for the remaining yards of a 46-yard scoring play.

New England Patriots Blog – ESPN Boston

https://www.patspropaganda.com/tight-end-rob-gronkowski-had-his-most-dominant/

Three GIFs That Defined Patriots Win over Bears

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Sometimes, like last week’s game against the Jets, the key plays come right at the very end of the game. Often is the case in divisional games.

But this week the game was defined in the first couple possessions, with the Pats coming out on fire on both sides of the ball, dictating to the Bears what kind of game this was going to be.

This is exactly what New England needed to do. It was one of my points of emphasis before the game, and even Brandon Browner said it was something the team talked about this week.

Here are the three plays that immediately defined the game.

First, we have the Pats facing a third-and-18 on the Bears first possession. Granted, there were some solid plays prior to this one, but third down has been the big problem for the Pats this year so getting off the field in this spot was a huge win.

The key to it is Dominique Easley, starting in place of Chandler Jones. Instead of just blindly rushing up field, Easley has the awareness to see Matt Forte trying to slip out to catch a screen pass. Easley is having none of that and blows the whole play up. Great start for the rookie and the defense.

photo bears 1_zpsboeo76cr.gif

Next up we have the first two plays from scrimmage that the Pats ran. First comes a play that essentially told the Bears what they were in for – a whole lot of Brandon LaFell racking up YAC. Then comes a 19-yard run by Jonas Grey that put the Pats inside the red zone. Starting a game off with a big gain in the passing game, then one in the running game is hard to top. Two plays into the game and Bears are already on their heels, exactly as we hoped.

photo bears 2b_zps87157sli.gif photo bears 2_zps7jhrpmit.gif

Finally comes a third down stop on the Bears second possession. These are the stops the Pats have not been getting early in the year. They’d be in position to make this play, but would miss the tackle and allow the drive to keep going. Brandon Browner made a handful of plays that made a difference yesterday. If he can continue to make them on third down, we’ll finally see the kind of elite defense we expect.

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Previous Three GIFs:

New York Jets

@ Buffalo Bills

Cincinnati Bengals

Kansas City Chiefs

Oakland Raiders

@ Minnesota Vikings

@ Miami Dolphins

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https://www.patspropaganda.com/4533/

Pats Posits: The Bears are Buried, Bring on the Broncos

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Just like the yearly September loss to an inferior opponent, the October blowout is another annual tradition for the Patriots. Yesterday’s victim were the Bears, a team that we all knew would close up shop if the Pats got off to a good start.

The Pats got off to a great start and never looked back, proving how an offense can take time to come together – just because they were out of sync last month didn’t mean they weren’t going to put it together.

Now, the ceiling has been set, and that couldn’t have happened at a better time. Had the Pats squeaked one out over the Bears like the did the Jets, nobody would be giving them a chance this weekend.

Suddenly Julian Edelman can disappear for a game and they don’t even miss him. I’ll be interested to see what the Bears did to keep him a non-factor. But I’m really not concerned outside of the drops that continued in this game. Edelman’s is too good to fall off a cliff production-wise. But it’s great to know he’s not the entire offense anymore.

Of course the biggest damage was done by Rob Gronkowski and Brandon LaFell who each had off-the-chart games.

For all the talk of Emmanuel Sanders, give me LaFell for the Patriots every time. His size and run-after-catch ability make him such a perfect fit for the offense. Brady’s been a lot better throwing deep in recent weeks, but I’m not sure he would truly be able to maximize Sanders’ skillset. With LaFell it’s a dream combination.

Gronk’s blocking is catching up with his route running and the rest of the NFL should be on notice –  the best tight end in the game is back to reclaim his crown. It’s not surprising that the Pats offensive rise to excellence has coincided with Gronkowksi getting back to his old self.

Jonas Grey ran hard and looked capable yesterday. While injuries always stink, it is fun to see new guys get their shots and especially fun when they take advantage of them. The run blocking still isn’t great, but given what he had to work with, Grey looks like he earned another chance vs. Denver.

Three penalties on Stork… just going to put my fingers in my ears and “alalalalala I can’t hear you he had a concussion alalalalala…”

I thought Dominique Easley finally looked like a first round pick starting at defensive end in place of Chandler Jones. Easley was strong on the edge and picked up his first sack (thanks to Vince) as well. He gave me a lot of reasons for optimism that he could be an effective edge player which is really remarkable considering I was a huge fan of his in the draft but only really projected him as a sub-package interior rusher. Easley seems like he’s so much more than that and he’s only scratching the surface.

Part of me can’t help but feel like the Jerod Mayo era on defense is over and now it will be the Dont’a Hightower era, and I’m actually okay with it. There’s a lot to love about Mayo, and I really don’t want to minimize his value to the team or how good of a player he was, but I’m kind of enjoying the Hightower feel to the defense. He’s just so strong, and even if he’s not as fast as Mayo, he’s a playmaker.

Not sure if there are auditions at slot corner going on right now or if Arrington and Dennard have not been practicing well. Nothing I’ve seen in games has warranted a benching of Arrington. Though with Dennard I love a lot of what he brings but the penalties and untimely catches allowed were consistent problems. Perhaps this was a message to step back and play more consistently and cleaner.

The pass rush wasn’t great yesterday but the coverage came through, including Browner’s two plays on the first two third downs to force punts. Those were game-defining plays and you’ll see one of them pop up in our Three Plays piece later today.  As I’ve said, third down is what it’s all about for this defense and yesterday they were really good on third down (4-of-11).

I don’t use the word elite unless absolutely necessary but Brady and Revis are elite. If those guys keep playing at their respective levels, the Pats are going to be a very hard out in the playoffs. If the pass rush comes alive that’s what will put them over the top as a Super Bowl favorite.

Looks like the offensive line is finally settling in, but they’ll have a huge test this weekend. The tackles get Demarcus Ware and Von Miller. The interior gets a chance to prove they won’t get owned by Terrence Knighton like they did in the playoffs.

Finally, I’ll headed to Foxboro for the game this weekend, ready to cross Brady-Manning off my bucket list, but also to throw a tailgate party with tons of giveaways from NRG. Hope to see anyone who’s there stop by. Keep an eye on twitter as we give clues to our location. Those who find us get stuff.