PatsPropaganda

Yes, I think if there’s one thing 2007 cemented in my head it’s that the season is about a progression to playing your best football in January and February. That doesn’t mean I subscribe to the false notion of “peaking at the right time”. It’s not like every team that wins the Super Bowl went undefeated after Thanksgiving.

So how do you get to play your best football in January and February? You need to get exposed and then evolve. You need to get hit with adversity. And lastly, you must develop a clutch touch. No idea how you manufacture that last one, but that’s probably the most important.

So yes, playing good teams certainly helps, but more than anything it’s about playing in good games, and having your back against the wall as much as possible.

Regardless of what tonight’s result is this game will be a long term benefit to the Patriots. Though if they end up having to play an extra playoff game that certainly makes things a little more difficult.

I hope we don’t ever have to find out for sure, but I think Hightower could be a suitable fill-in for Spikes at middle linebacker if needed.

But what we’ve seen primarily out of him this year is at strongside linebacker and a bit of nickel linebacker. I don’t think we’ll really get a full sense of what he’s capable until next year with a season in the system under his belt. I know a lot of people wanted to see him as a hand-down pass rusher when Cunningham and Jones were out but we haven’t seen much of that.

I would love to see them continue to utilize his blitzing skills. He’s a strong player and can do multiple things. As he gets more and more experience he should continue to blossom, he’s just been a bit inconsistent this year, as should be expected.

No question Gostkowski has missed some makeable field goals this year, most notably the one against the Cardinals that cost the Patriots the game.

Still he’s not that far off from where he’s been in the past, here’s his FG% for his career:

• 2006 – 76.9%
• 2007 – 87.5%
• 2008 – 90.0%
• 2009 – 83.9%
• 2010 – 76.9% (8 games, injured)
• 2011 – 84.6%
• 2012 – 80.0%

He’s already hit 13 field goals of 40+ yards which ties a career best from last season. So has he been a little off this year? Yup. Is it enough to really worry about headed into the post-season? Not yet.

The interesting thing is  how much the Patriots needed Adam Vinatieri in the 2001 and 2003 Super Bowls runs, and the clutch kicks he had to make. Gostkowski has never had a kick the magnitude of those yet.

We’ll see what happens this year, but yeah, I might be a little more nervous than usual, especially given his clutch miss at home in September, not that that has any real impact.