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A Look Back: The Fan Journey of Super Bowl 51

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On Saturdays I try to take a historical look back at the matchup the Patriots will be facing tomorrow. Obviously there’s one big game on everyone’s mind in Pats-Falcons history, so it’s a good chance to remember how crazy it was to live through that game.

For the Patriots, it was maybe their ultimate moment. An impossible comeback that sealed their greatness for even their most ardent doubters and haters. If you can’t at least look at that game and put aside all the conspiracy theories you’re not truly a football fan.

Usually football games don’t really impact us any more than we let them. It all depends on how invested you allow yourself to be. But for me personally, Super Bowl 51 impacted my life in a very real way that ultimately was in large part responsible for 2017 being a life-changing year for me.

For that, no sporting event will ever compare to Super Bowl 51. I’m still wrapping my head around it even eight months later to be honest.

 

Let’s start with how we all felt when the score was actually 28-3, when it seemed almost assured that the Pats were about to lose their third Super Bowl in ten years.

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Patriots Gameplan: Week 7 vs. Atlanta Falcons

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The Super Bowl 51 rematch is here as the defending champs take on the lead-blowing Atlanta Falcons on Sunday Night Football. This is a tough game for the Patriots on a number of levels. Atlanta will certainly play with something to prove. They had the Super Bowl in hand before falling apart, and yes, it’s a new year and new teams, but the majority of the Falcons are going to play just a bit harder after seeing banner number five hanging over Gillette Stadium.

Then there’s the on-field part of the equation, where the Patriots are off to a horrendous defensive start and now have to face last year’s MVP and one of the best receivers in the game. No, the Falcons haven’t been quite as dominant this year and have in fact lost their last two-straight, both to AFC East opponents, but something tells me they’re going to bring their A game this weekend.

Seven weeks in, as we start to get a better and better sense of who this edition of the Patriots are, it seems like there might be something different about this year’s squad. Whether it was Mike Giardi’s piece here or Mark Daniels on NBC Sports last night, there are murmurs that this team is a lot more guarded and defensive about criticism.

Will that turn 2017 into a rehash of 2009’s “I just can’t get this team to play the way they need to” version? Only time will tell. That team proved over and over again that they weren’t mentally tough and, say what you will about the 2017 Pats, but they’ve certainly shown good resolve in the face of adversity thus far. Just because they aren’t as verbose or media-friendly as years past doesn’t mean they have character problems.

Still, this team has shown plenty of problems on the field. Unprecedented problems. Can they get those corrected and win their third-straight game of the season against a team that will be out for revenge and looking to drop the hammer early and often?

Here’s the gameplan to make it happen.

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Scouting Report: Atlanta Falcons

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Yeah, yeah Bill Belichick has sworn the Patriots players to not mention last year’s Super Bowl in preparation for this weekend’s rematch with the Atlanta Falcons, and while I usually try to ask myself “What would BB blog” that’s out the window as far as the next fews days. At least somewhat, because really it’s unlikely that there is all that much we can take away from that game back in February because, as you might remember, the Pats laid a giant turd on the field for three quarters.

Avoiding that kind of start will be imperative because as much as I’d love to whip up another comeback tee shirt, the odds of the Pats climbing out of a similar hole are less than likely.

Here’s some of what we know about the Falcons this year. They’re coming off two-straight AFC East losses, one to Buffalo 23-17 and last week’s to Miami 20-17. Both came at home which is mind boggling when you consider Matt Ryan coming off an MVP season and most of us thinking the Bills and Phins were going to be mostly rebuilding this year.

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First Down Problems for Pats Defense Continue

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After the first game of the 2017 season, a blowout loss to the Chiefs, I pointed out that it was first down where the Chiefs did most of their damage and prescribed simple improvement on first down as a key for a defensive turnaround.

Checking back in on first down now, after six weeks, there hasn’t been much improvement. In fact, for a defense mired near the bottom of the league in almost every category, their poor work on first down is some of the most glaring.

Here are the numbers from the past four years:

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Film Review: Pats vs. Jets Defense Edition

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One of my favorite parts of the week is when I get to sit down and watch the All-22 of the Patriots defense. It’s a soundless, emotionless journey into football land. I know the result, I know the post-mortem talking points and I can just sit back and take it all in for what it actually was.

After watching the Pats’ defensive performance against the Jets I feel actually better than I’ve felt all season long about the unit. Of course it was not perfect, but it was starting to look and feel like the usual Patriots defense. You know what that means… Bend Don’t Break.

Still cliches aside, the progress was really keyed by an excellent performance against the run, led by Malcom Brown and aided by a resurgent Alan Branch. When those two players are on, the Pats are dominating the line of scrimmage and that has a positive trickle down effect on the rest of the defense.

Yes, there were still plenty of mistakes, often by the rookies and new guys, but what we saw was that the defense could forget the last plays, the last drives and refocus on the current drive.

All in all I do think things are headed in the right direction. You need to look no further than the run defense jumping from 27th to 23rd in DVOA. There’s still a ways to go, but I do believe the defense should be primed to play well against the Falcons, who will surely have all their attention this week.

Here’s what else stood out from the film review.

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Film Review: Three Terrible Third Downs From the First Drive

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The Patriots defense was supposed to have turned a corner after winning in Tampa Bay. Instead they came out ten days later and had one hell of an ugly drive to start the game against the Jets. Yes, they partially righted the ship and came through on the final drive so it wasn’t as bad as we’ve seen this season, but it’s hard to play much worse on third down than they did on that opening drive.

With any more drives like this one the Patriots betting odds for the next game will drop like a rock facing last year’s MVP Matt Ryan. Third down is where games are won or lost and in this contest, especially out of the gate, the Patriots were out of sync and overthinking.

Let’s take a look at three of the third down conversions on that opening drive and try to figure out what was going on out there.

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