PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Patriots Film Review: Defense vs. Broncos Edition

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The Patriots’ defense has finally settled in and is back to playing their good old bend-don’t-break style of defense. This isn’t the ’85 Bears, but they’re doing what well-coached defenses do — playing within the system, limiting big plays and getting stops in the red zone. As maddening as it can be to watch, we should all know by now that it’s a winning formula.

Despite their improvements I still have my concerns about the defense. The last two games have pretty much unfolded perfectly for them so I can’t get too high on them at this point, but improvement is improvement and there’s no question the product on the field has looked far superior to what we were seeing early in the season.

The truth is against the Broncos the defense turned in one red zone stop and they were already up 14-3. That’s the context of this game, which is important.

So yes, it’s okay to feel better about the defense, but there’s still a ways to go and some good offenses to stop.

Here’s what stood out in reviewing the All-22 game film.

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Patshow 113: Broncos Wrap

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Here’s the latest episode of Patshow, featuring the best of Broncos social media, what a feel-good win it was and a breakdown of Rex Burkhead’s first touchdown of the game. It’s Patshow!!

The Offensive Line’s Stellar Play Against Von and the Broncos

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The Patriots completely dominated the Broncos on Sunday night to the tune of a 41-16 drubbing that essentially eliminated Denver from playoff contention after just nine weeks (!). Throughout the week, heavy emphasis was placed on Brady’s return to Mile High Stadium, his personal “House of Horrors”, a stadium in which he is just 3-7 lifetime. However, Brady shredded the Broncos vaunted defense, throwing for 266 yards and three touchdowns in the blowout, thanks in large part to the play of his offensive line, who had another stellar game overall on Sunday night.

Brady was sacked just once against the Broncos, a play in which James White could not pick up the blitzing Justin Simmons, and Brady was only three times all night, a remarkable achievement when playing against one of the best pass-rushers in recent memory without your starting right tackle. Brady was hit on just 11.4% of his drop backs, which is a great rate when considering the percentage Brady has been hit in previous games in Denver.

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Pats Posits: Beating the Dead Horses

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Given the Patriots long history of weird games in Denver I fully expected Sunday night to be a close, weird game despite the Broncos stinking. Thankfully I was dead wrong as the Pats blasted Denver 41-16 in the kind of feel good explosion they seemed to be missing this season. To this point last night’s game has to be the signature win of the 2017 season, with the Pats breaking 40 points for the first time.

The Pats are 7-2 and once again, everything appears on track for another Belichick-Brady Super Bowl run.

Make no mistake, special teams led the way in this one. A blocked punt, a recovered muff, a kick off return for touchdown and a perfect Stephen Gostkowski (2/2 FG, 5/5 XP) gave the Pats the early advantage and they never looked back. After two weeks of talking red zone problems, the offense scored four touchdowns on six trips inside the 20.

Overall the balance of the offense was on full display, with the versatility of Dion Lewis and Rex Burkhead giving Denver’s defense problems all night long. This has been what we’ve been waiting for. The Pats were successful on early downs and never had to rely on the deep passing game until they had Denver on their heels. Then, in the second half, Brady took to the air to knock Denver out for good.

Defensively, it was Bend-Don’t-Break at it’s finest, led by what I thought was the biggest key to the game — stopping the run. The Pats didn’t have a sack, but got off the field when they needed to, only allowing one touchdown in three Bronco red zone trips. They executed the gameplan in a quiet, unspectacular fashion and that’s just what you need to do to beat a team like the Broncos in Denver.

This is the kind of team win that should leave us feeling pretty good about this Patriots team despite the litany of injuries that have befell them this season. They aren’t without weakness, but when games unfold like Sunday night’s did they look near unbeatable.

More on all of it in this Posits…

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A Look Back: Tom Brady’s House of Horrors

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The Patriots loss in the 2005 AFC Divisional game was one of the seminal moments of my Patriots fandom/obsession. It was at that moment we finally saw Bill Belichick and Tom Brady lose a playoff football game together, and it suddenly dawned on me that there would be a finite end to their dominance. There would be limited opportunities for Super Bowl trophies and the clock was ticking.

Did I think that 12 years later they’d still be going strong? No way. Did I think that their successful run would spawn an entire side career of blogging fun for me? Never. All I knew was that the Patriots should’ve beaten the stupid Broncos that night and I was going to hinge on every Patriots game from there on out like it was life or death.

Little did I know but some of the most disappointing moments of the Belichick and Brady reign would continue to come in Denver. For whatever reason, things have just never been easy there but the history is rich with interesting storylines that have spanned a decade-and-a-half.

Let’s take a look at some of the more interesting moments from Tom Brady’s house of horrors in Denver.

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Coffin Corner: Five Patriots Quick Hitters And Other Thoughts

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1.Marty Rex Makes The Locker Room and Patriots Twitter Better:

The addition of Martellus Bennett is starting to feel a lot like the Blount/Steelers thing. An unhappy player who wants to win deciding that rather than play out his season being unused, he orchestrates his departure to go back “home”. Marty’s health is a big honking question mark (that I am sure the league is already looking into), but having a guy like that in the fold is exciting. The locker room chemistry misses Edelman, they need some more levity and Marty Rex is a good sport. I’m excited to have him in there even if he’s not playing.  With Cannon out and Waddle on Von Miller, I am thinking this is a Dwayne Allen week, where he will be utilized as a blocker in max protect, but the addition of Marty may alleviate the need for that going forward.

Also, it offers a welcome reminder of how special the guys who joined the Patriots last year were.  Here’s a video of Chris Long trying to cheer up his opponent.

Love that dude too.  Speaking of dudes:

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Patriots Gameplan: Week 10 at Denver Broncos

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After nearly two weeks off the Patriots are finally back in action this Sunday night on national television against the Denver Broncos. The weather has turned cold, the clocks have turned back and all of a sudden it feels like the 2017 NFL season has gotten real.

The Patriots have had one of those years where injuries strike early and often, but Thursday’s addition of Martellus Bennett was just the kind of spark they needed coming off the bye. It was a bit surprising to see the Pats inactive at the trade the deadline, so the Bennett move seems like the perfect one, both on the field and off it. Now the Pats play back-to-back AFC West games, and will remain in Colorado before traveling to Mexico City to face the Raiders.

These will be two really good challenges that tell us a lot about the 2017 Patriots. They’ve had the bye week to focus in on maximizing their strengths and hiding their weaknesses, and it was also a chance to get healthy. Stephon Gilmore should be back, while Eric Rowe is making progress. Unfortunately the bye week was not enough time for Malcom Brown, Chris Hogan and Marcus Cannon, as all missed practice this week and are unlikely to play. Those are three significant absences against the Broncos, and given the travel schedule, very likely the Raiders as well.

Playing in Denver has always seemed to give the Pats trouble. Even when they win, it’s never pretty. Still, winning there last season was the kind of win that got the monkey of 2015 off their back and sparked the team on to a Super Bowl win. Even though the Broncos aren’t atop the AFC, they’re still going to give the Pats hell, and pulling out a win there is always something to build off of.

Here’s the gameplan to get win number seven and start the second half of the season out right.

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