An Independent Patriots Blog
Mike Reiss and Tedy Bruschi discuss the Patriots offseason from Aaron Hernandez to Alfonzo Dennard and what’s next for the Patriots as training camp is about to start.I love that, with these podcasts, Patriots fans can get a sense of the calmness that Tedy can bring to ANY situation.
Must-listen as always…
The Houston Texans announced Tuesday that there will be “themes” for every home game this year, ranging from “White Out” to “Hispanic Heritage Day.” The December 1 matchup against the New England Patriots is simply called “Homecoming.”
Houston Texans peg Patriots for ‘Homecoming’ game – NFL.com
I actually kind of like the idea of doing themes for games, and I really hope the Texans bust out the letterman jackets again for it.
This should be one of those defining games of the season just like it was last year when the two teams met in early December. That was when the Texans got steamrolled and fell from the top seed in the AFC, ultimately resulting in the divisional game being played in New England, and getting slightly-less steamrolled again.
Should be a good challenge for the Pats now having to go to Houston, but by that point we’ll know far more about both teams than we do now.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/the-houston-texans-announced-tuesday-that-there/
One of my favorite days of the offseason is when Football Outsiders drop their almanac. There is not a better advanced statistical preview out there, and it always sheds a final bit of light on the previous season.
Here are some nuggets I took away that I hadn’t known beforehand…
– First, I love it when stats back up what I’ve been writing about all offseason. I touched on first down being a priority to fix for the defense, and I think they addressed it with the additions of Tommy Kelly and Adrian Wilson. FBO’s metrics back up my argument. Here are the DVOAs on each down for the defense last season (the lower the better, especially into the negative numbers):
– Is Belichick losing his aggressive streak? He was in the top 6 for aggressiveness index from 2004-2010, but was 11th in 2011 and 23rd last year. This is a measure for going for it on 4th down.
– Pats went from 74% in 2-TE sets in 2011 to just 49% last year.
– Pats led NFL with 59 defensive penalties. Yikes! Didn’t realize that one.
– Patriots rushed 4 or 5 guys 87.9% of the time. Just 4% of their blitzes were by a DB (31st in NFL). Only rushed 6+ 5.3% (23rd in NFL).
Highly recommend you pick up the almanac at FootballOutsiders.com if you’re into this kind of stuff.
Check out the helmet-cam of Danny Amendola during a Rams practice last season!
https://www.patspropaganda.com/thegoodthebadandthepatriots-check-out-the/
We’re just 10 days from the first training camp practice, and then off we go! We’ve been spinning our wheels since the draft but man, is it bad now. Always darkest before the sun rises, right?
https://www.patspropaganda.com/were-just-10-days-from-the-first-training-camp/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIFQ8CZZw7Q
Tom Brady – Greatest of All Time (HD) (by RB3TV1)
https://www.patspropaganda.com/tom-brady-greatest-of-all-time-hd-by-rb3tv1/
