PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Patriots vs. Titans 2017 AFCDG

by

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuTxtPYnrOs

After the Tennessee Titans miracle comeback against the Chiefs, and the Jaguars snoozefest win over the Bills, the Patriots will face the Titans in the AFC Divisional Game next Saturday night at 8:15pm EST.

The two teams haven’t met in the playoffs since 2003, when Tom Brady took down league Co-MVP Steve McNair’s team in the divisional round as well. It was a nail-biting 17-14 win in arctic temperatures, reminiscent of the weather in New England the last couple weeks. Luckily the forecast doesn’t appear to be quite so frigid this time around.

Since that playoff game the two teams have met just four times, with the Pats winning all four by a combined 166 to 52.

Initial impressions? Well, I guess I’m glad it’s not the Chiefs, who had me petrified when they were rolling over the Titans early in the game on Saturday afternoon. Of course we all saw how they fell apart so I guess the Chiefs weren’t the threat I believed they were. They just matched up well and had some talented pieces that could give the Patriots key problems in key areas. But oh well, their season is over and now we have to deal with Marcus Mariota, who made all the plays down the stretch that the Chiefs couldn’t.

We’ll dive more into the matchup this week, but in terms of the big picture the Titans are a below average team in just about every metric. Yes, they’ve got some tough trench players on both sides of the ball. Tight end Delanie Walker led the team with 74 catches, while Derrick Henry had 744 yards rushing. The loss of Demarco Murray to an MCL tear hurt both on the ground (659 yards) and through the air (266 yards).

I know. You don’t want to get overconfident, nor feed the Shank Tomato Can narrative but the Pats should roll in this one as the Titans might be the most overmatched opponent in recent Patriots playoff history. Still, they’re a young team who will play with nothing to lose. Their season has already been made, with their coach picking up another year with the team after their previous upset win.

The Patriots won’t care of course. They’ll lock in on the Titans like they’re an AFC favorite. It may lack some excitement but a playoff game is a playoff game and that’s why we write all them blogs. Let’s do our best to get fired up. Yay.

Historical Stat Comparisons for 2017 Patriots

by

Upon further review, I’m having a tough time putting this Patriots team in historical context as far as the stats go. One advantage of blogging solely about the Pats for the past decade and keeping detailed stats on each season, is that I’m able to quickly look back and compare how each season stacks up against those that came before it.

2017 feels like a mix of a lot of the bad seasons, but with just enough sprinkling of the good seasons that this year feels totally unpredictable to me.

Let’s dive in on both sides of the ball and try to find some common threads.

[Read more…] about Historical Stat Comparisons for 2017 Patriots

Coffin Corner: The Benefits of Fan Fic and STATS!!!

by

Friday’s — well it wasn’t exactly a hit job — what should we call it? I think, Fan Fic? Fan Fiction is basically where people take their favorite show, book or movie and develop their own stories for the characters.  It’s responsible for some really bad writing and lots of gratuitous sex, but it’s also responsible for the billion dollar 50 shades franchise, which was Erika Mitchell’s kinky fan fic for the Twilight series. In this version, the love triangle centers around the principle characters of the New England Patriots for the last 20 years.

No cheating accusations, no conspiracies (really), just palace intrigue and open and juicy unanswered questions and also the new tidbit that Bill Belichick personally awards a Patriot Of The Week award now (good scoop, Seth!). My read on the piece is that it’s generally true without being accurate. It gathers a growing sense that there may be a rift, while suggesting there is evidence without presenting any.  I’m actually shocked, Wickersham never brought up Belichick high-fiving the offense after scoring on Miami late. I mean, what’s more scandalous than that?!

The biggest problem with the piece is that Wickersham never entered the building and likely never talked to anyone of import in the story. Maybe he talked to Guerrero or McDaniels or Patricia or one of the younger coaches, but no one who knows anything about what he’s purporting to know. So it’s just idle workplace gossip and rumor-mongering, which as we’ve learned is sort of Wickersham’s thing.

[Read more…] about Coffin Corner: The Benefits of Fan Fic and STATS!!!

5 Takeaways from ESPN’s Brady-Belichick-Kraft Article

by

Last night, Bruce Allen dropped the news that ESPN was about to run a “hit” piece on the Patriots this morning that dove into growing tension between Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft. Of course Patriots fans went ballistic at the mere mention of this and the internet was ablaze with takes before anyone had even read what was actually written.

Well the article came out this morning and honestly I found it pretty tame and mostly just expounding on what had already been reported locally.

It did contain plenty of interesting details but, after 18 years of the central figures working together, there’s nothing that is all that hard to believe. There are certainly details that left me scratching my head a bit, things that were left out or muddier than I think they needed to be, but overall, I found it more interesting that outrageous, and a reminder of all the moving parts involved with managing a football team, much moreso one that has had such unprecedented success.

Here are the five takeaways that I found most interesting, and what this all means as we enter the playoff bye week.

[Read more…] about 5 Takeaways from ESPN’s Brady-Belichick-Kraft Article

The 2017 Bill Belichick Regular Season Hoodie Report

by

Hot Jacket, Opening Night Loss to KC

It was a record-breaking year for Bill Belichick and his Hoodie this season. The Hot Jacket, introduced in 2013 and Belichick recent fave, surpassed the infamous Gray Cutoff Hoodie as his most-worn game attire with the Patriots. Yes, Belichick will always be known for that Hoodie, but the truth is that he probably should be known for that short sleeved blue wind breaker just as much.

As soon as Belichick broke the record of games coached in the Hot Jacket, he didn’t wear it again the rest of the season. His record in the two faves are remarkably similar — in the Hot Jacket 43 games played for a record of 33-10, for the infamous Hoodie 42 games played for a 32-10 record. Expect Belichick to continue to add to that total next season in the early warm months.

[Read more…] about The 2017 Bill Belichick Regular Season Hoodie Report

How Does Pats’ 2017 Bend-Don’t-Break Defense Stack Up Historically?

by

For the last few years I’ve quantified the Patriots maddening-yet-effective Bend-Don’t-Break style of defense as such: Points-per-drive and Turnovers-per-drive measure the “Break” element, while Yards-per-drive and Plays-per-drive measure the “Bend” element. It’s not perfect, but it at least gives me the ability to get a sense of how bendy and breaky each defense of the Bill Belichick era has been.

How does 2017 stack up? Let’s take a look.

[Read more…] about How Does Pats’ 2017 Bend-Don’t-Break Defense Stack Up Historically?

Dion Lewis: Top Five Running Back?

by

The Patriots finished off the regular season in rather lackluster fashion on Sunday, defeating the Jets 26-6 and clinching home field advantage throughout the playoffs in the process. Missing James White, Rex Burkhead, and Mike Gillislee, the Patriots had to lean heavily on Dion Lewis to carry the load, and he delivered for the second straight week, racking up 133 yards from scrimmage and finding the end zone twice. Lewis has proven he can be a catalyst for this Patriots offense during the rare times it has stalled, and he should be a major factor in the coming playoffs.

Once a fifth-round pick out of Pitt, the 5’8” Lewis has put the NFL on notice this season. Lewis finished as Pro Football Focus’s third ranked running back, and coming into Week 17, Lewis was fourth in yards after contact per attempt (3.4) and 5th in forced missed tackles on the ground (38). While he does rank just 14th in rushing yards in the NFL, every running back ahead of him had at least 32 more attempts, and 12 of them had at least 50 more attempts.

Because of his lack of volume, Lewis’s numbers don’t jump off the page, but when you look closer, it is easy to see why he deserves to be mentioned along with the best running backs in the NFL. He led the NFL in rushing yards in the second half of the season, and was second in all-purpose yards during that span. Lewis also had the most carries out of all running backs without recording a fumble. He finished second among all running backs in yards per carry with a 5.0 average, meaning he was one of just two backs that averaged over five yards per carry this season (the other being rookie sensation Alvin Kamara). Using Lewis’s yards per carry average, if he had been given 265 carries this year (which would have only been roughly 16 carries per game), Lewis would have put up more yards than the NFL’s rushing leader, Kareem Hunt, on seven less carries than Hunt had.

[Read more…] about Dion Lewis: Top Five Running Back?