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An Independent Patriots Blog

Coffin Corner: Can Belichick Learn to Share His Roster? *Coughs up a loogie*

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By far, the most amazing thing about parenthood is watching how children learn stuff. Every time, you see a neurological spark that connects a cause to an effect your heart swells: “My kid’s a forking genius.” The kid sees a stopped bus then he sees the red light. Then says: ‘bus stop at red lights’. “My kid’s a forking genius.” Every time he notifies me “I poop”…. I greet the disgusting revelation with “My kid’s a forking genius.”

It’s the most amazing thing to witness. And yet it happens to every parent, for every kid. Language, understanding spatial relationships and even the tenants of physics are innate naturally developed cognitive skills. My son learned Einstein’s theory of gravity the first time he walked down the stairs carrying three trucks, did a “yard sale” and bloodied his chin. “Fork!  My kid’s not a genius.” But one thing that child professionals, teachers and pediatricians tell you is that the concept of sharing is not innate. There is no inherent understanding for humans to share. If you left four kids in a Biosphere, they would likely never learn to share. Sharing is a learned trait, instilled by the teachings of families, parents, mentors, religions and communities.

And as we know Bill Belichick is happy to share… some things. He always shares credit graciously, he shares his personal feelings about how dumb writers are with aplumb, he shares his workplace with his children, his life with a spouse or girlfriend, but there’s one thing that he has had a pretty hard time sharing over the years.  Final say over roster construction.

Everyone does their job.  Brady is the CEO on offense, the Krafts are the CEOs of the company and Belichick is the CEO of the roster. That is the biggest reason that he is in New England in the first place.  He was promised limited owner intervention into the team building aspect, also the fact that the Jets suck donkey butts. And let’s just say that after 5 Super Bowls, 16 going on 17 winning seasons, 14 AFC East titles, it’s been a good recipe for success. Stay in your lane.

But at appears on first blush that Trading Jimmy G marks a huge forking fork in the road.

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A Look Back: The Journey of Hoy-Dog

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

Brian Hoyer was my second-favorite Tom Brady back up of all time. Yes, Jimmy Garoppolo was just so talented and handsome, he topped the list, but I always thought Hoyer fit the Patriots Tom Brady backup role as well as anybody.

An undrafted rookie in 2009, Hoyer stepped in for Matt Cassel and gave the Pats a solid but thankfully unneeded backup through the 2011 season. In that time, he saw snaps in some famous games despite never getting a start.

Hoyer played in three of the 2009 Patriots most (in)famous games — the snow blowout of the Titans, the “I can’t get this team to play the way they need to play” game in New Orleans, and the Wes Welker torn ACL game in Houston.

In his first Patriot stint, Hoyer appeared in 13 games, threw one TD and one pick for 286 yards and even picked up a rushing touchdown. Even in limited duty, he showed toughness and made some great throws (see videos below). After he left New England he started a fascinating journey around the NFL, with stops in five cities and nearly 40 starts. Despite playing for some terrible teams, Hoyer often did enough to help his team win.

Let’s take a look back at Hoyer’s journey around the NFL and the experience that should make him an even more valuable backup for his second tour of duty in New England.

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Patriots Gameplan: Who Are the 2017 Pats?

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Ahhh, the bye week. A time to relax and reflect without a football game to worry about.

The 2017 campaign so far has been interesting to say the least. Let’s face it, they’re always interesting in unexpected ways. But the headline, as always, are injuries. Injuries define NFL seasons now, and the Patriots are not immune and this year they’ve been hit as hard as ever.

Usually injuries are the only thing that stands between the Patriots and a last-possession game in the Super Bowl that could go either way. In 15 seasons together, Brady and Belichick have played in AFC title game 11 times.

2005 was one of the years they bowed out in Denver. That team had critical injuries (Matt Light, Rodney Harrison) and was one of Belichick’s worst Patriots defenses. But even then the problem in 2005 was not getting a bye. If that Bronco game was in New England it probably would’ve had a different outcome. In 2009, there was the backbreaker injury to Wes Welker in the last meaningless game. In 2010, it was the Jets bouncing back from a 45-3 beatdown to execute the perfect game that exposed a flawed defense that had survived on turnovers.

That was the last time the Pats weren’t playing in the conference championship game, seven long years ago.

My point is this — Does this Pats team have some of the injury issues those teams had? Yup. Will their (currently improving) defense be exposed at home by the right team? We’ll see.

Losing Rob Ninkovich, Julian Edelman and Dont’a Hightower says it all. Those guys were the playmakers of the last four seasons. The guys who made big plays in big moments, and that isn’t easy to replace.

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Three Plays That Defined Patriots Offense vs. Chargers

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The Patriots offense has settled into a pretty good, balanced groove. Their top four receivers all have similar target numbers and their running backs can do a variety of things that keep defenses off balance. It’s a new evolution for Tom Brady‘s offense and while there are still growing pains, it was largely effective, especially in the middle of the field.

The problem, as has been well noted this week, is in the red zone. This season the Pats rank 18th overall in red zone offense, a significant departure from their ranking the past three years, 2014: 5th, 2015: 4th, 2016: 10th. Really, if you’re looking for one stat that could sum what the Pats need to improve, it’s in the red zone. This is a bit of a surprise because you’d think the problem without Julian Edelman would be on third down, however the Pats have seen little dip there.

Let’s take a look at a few plays from the Chargers game that show us what the 2017 edition of the offense is.

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Three Plays That Defined Patriots Defense vs. Chargers

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After yesterday’s Garoppolo spookstravaganza on Patshow I’m moving back to some analysis of the players on the team who have actually played a down this season. I know the trade will continue to dominate the conversation for much of the next week and a half, but it’s time to refocus on the second half of the season.

The Patriots sit at 6-2, and while we can talk about their flaws, the reality is the sports betting odds are still very much in their favor to make a strong playoff run this post season.

I thought the defense did a solid job against the Chargers, although there were just a couple notable breakdowns with Melvin Gordon‘s 87-yard touchdown run leading the way. They continue to make strides and while they certainly have some weak links in certain situations, they’ve continually bounced back and made the key spots necessary to help the Patriots on their four-game win streak.

Here are three plays that defined the defensive effort against the Chargers.

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The Record-Setting Pace of the 2017 Offense

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Despite another relatively ugly effort, the Patriots ground out a victory Sunday against the Chargers to extend their winning streak to four games. Leading the charge to the Pats 6-2 record is the offense, which leads the NFL in total yards, and while they continued to struggle in the red zone on Sunday, they still rank 7th in the NFL in points per game.

While this success is certainly not surprising, there was some concern about the passing game after the loss of Brady’s safety blanket, Julian Edelman. However, thanks to the best variety of distribution we have seen in the Brady era, the passing game has been able to combat the loss of Edelman, and even prosper through it, reaching territory that few Brady-led offenses have ever reached.

Thus far in 2017, the Patriots have five players with have 31 catches or more, compared to the first eight weeks of the 2016 season, in which they had just three. In 2017, James White leads the way with 43 catches, followed by Rob Gronkowski (34), Chris Hogan (33), Brandin Cooks (33), and Danny Amendola (31). These five are all on pace to reach at least 670 yards this season, with Cooks leading the way at 1,126 yards and Gronkowski in second with 1,018 yards.

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