PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Pats Posits: It’s Go Time

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The Houston Texans will come to Foxborough for the second time this season for an AFC Divisional playoff game against the top-seeded Patriots. The Texans are littered with former Patriots, and the teams are now playing for the third time in two seasons. Plenty of familiarity.

I wanted to avoid having to take so many old friends out to the woodshed. But it has to be done and TFB and BB are just the two cold-hearted motherfuckers to do it.

In September it was Jacoby Brissett, who was injured and played through a thumb injury that would eventually land him on IR. The defense had their most complete game of the season, pitching their first shutout since 2009.

The playoffs are here. The opponent is set. It’s go time in the Posits…

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Patriots Scouting Report: Houston Texans AFC Divisional Game

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With Miami losing today to Pittsburgh, we now know that it will be the Houston Texans coming to town to take on the top-seeded New England Patriots on Saturday night. While the Patriots did beat Houston 27-0 back in Week 3, it is hard to look at that game and find much insight into what either team plans to do this time around due to how greatly the Patriots have changed.

As a refresher, Jacoby Brissett was the starting quarterback, Rob Gronkowski had yet to be placed on IR and was making his season debut, Jamie Collins and Jonathan Freeny led the Patriots in tackles, Kyle Van Noy was a Lion, Rob Ninkovich was still suspended, and Dion Lewis and Dont’a Hightower were sidelined with injury. That being said, here is a in-depth overview of the Texans and their roster, position by position, so you can get to know the Patriots first playoff opponent!

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PatsPropaganda Wild Card Weekend Rooting Guide

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This might be my favorite weekend of the football season. The Patriots are sitting at home getting a much-needed bye week (but still keeping their intensity at 10) and we the Pats fans can just sit back and enjoy some great playoff football without the heart palpitations.

Next week our butts will be on the line Saturday night against the lowest remaining AFC seed, but who do we want to win this weekend?

First, a disclaimer — I’m all about history. Wins over teams the Pats don’t have history with mean less to me and when Belichick and Brady are done I’d like it to all wrap up into a nice neat little package. Fortunately for us, there aren’t many teams the Patriots still owe.

Really, I thought 2011 would be an almost too perfect playoff run had they finished things off. They got revenge on the two teams that had ended their seasons in 2005 and 2009 (Denver and Baltimore) and had a chance to avenge the horribleness of Super Bowl 42 only to lose to Eli Manning and the Giants in similar fashion.

Yes, they still owe the Giants, but we’ll get to that. Here’s who I want to win, not necessarily who I think will win.

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Best/Worst in Weekly Patriots Links-1/7

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WOW! I cannot wait to go to sleep! I’ll take one for every night of the week. Between this and the $50 bags of peanuts, take my money Tom! Take it all! I’d knowingly buy water from this guy if he told me it was wine. Just brilliant. When he retires in 20-whatever I’m sure he’ll keep finding ways like this to pay the bills.

Let’s kick off the bye week links with a couple Globe pieces. First, Trollin’ Volin recaps the Pats beatdown of the Dolphins and labels it a microcosm of the season. Ben writes:

The Patriots offense isn’t as dynamic without Rob Gronkowski, but it still does a good job of keeping the chains moving and picking up positive yardage…the defense still came up big when it needed to. The Patriots have shown a knack for making timely plays this season, and that happened again Sunday. 

He’s right. Great overall effort on Sunday and it started from the opening kick. That first drive especially was just such a thing of beauty. Alternating run and pass, a true surgical dissection of a home team and deflation of their home crowd. You just knew from that point moving forward that the Pats were locked in offensively. The D loosened their grip a bit, seemingly given the score, but were able to shut the door when it mattered. The Patriots combined to beat the Jets and Dolphins by a score of 76-17 over the final two weeks of the season. Peaking at the right time, it’s going to be awfully difficult for a visiting AFC club to come in and pull an upset. Especially given the forgiving seeding.

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The Propies: 2016 Patriots Regular Season Awards

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No gameplan article this week, unless you consider sitting on your couch watching some stress-free playoff football a gameplan. Instead today I’ll be handing out a bunch of “Propies” for the regular season awards, honoring the the superlative performances from the 2016 Patriots.

Yes, the next month will truly determine where the 2016 Patriots place in history will be, but if 2007 taught me anything, it’s that appreciating the regular season is what makes being a football fan the most fun. Let’s face it, the playoffs are stressful. Almost too stressful. And more often than not they’re going to end in bitter disappointment.

But can anyone at this point really feel disappointed? We got the Deflategate suspension over with, lost only Gronk to injury (still significant, but not what we saw in 2013 or 2015), and finished the regular season off in dominant fashion that gives every indication this Patriots team will come out with something to prove the next (hopefully) three games.

The Patriots dynasty continues to roll on with another 14-2 season in books!

Without further ado, we’re on to the Propies!

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Putting the Patriots 2016 Defense in Historical Context

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One of the driving forces behind this blog was my realization in 2008 that Bill Belichick was going to have a chance to construct another whole defense from scratch. Few Coach/GMs have the kind of longevity to attempt this kind of thing, and as old stalwarts like Tedy Bruschi, Rodney Harrison and Mike Vrabel faded from New England, it was up to Belichick to build another defense that could help win Tom Brady another Super Bowl or three in the second half of his career.

2007 was the Dynasty Defense’s last hurrah. In 2008, they were old and slow and by the 2009 offseason Belichick went into full “blow it up” mode. Richard Seymour was traded, Bruschi and Harrison retired, Vrabel was shipped to Kansas City. Surprisingly the 2009 defense was actually still pretty good statistically — 12th on third down, 6th in PPG, 14th overall in DVOA. But with Ray Rice‘s first-play 83-yard touchdown run in the 2009 AFCWC which kickstarted a thorough Raven domination, it was clear the Pats still had a ways to go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_-Ti84l4Ek

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Coffin Corner: NEVER FORGET!

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If you’ve been on #Patriots Twitter or listened to the Hucksters of Boston Radio lately, you’d think the Patriots fans and reporters are the folks who had been concussed every playoff Sunday for the last 10 years, not the players. That’s the only way to explain the insane front-running, Super Bowl-assured confidence that’s been on display for the last few weeks.

Folks have already declared victory over whichever haplessly quarterbacked divisional round opponent comes to town. Nevermind that Mark Sanchez once sent Brady and the boys packing. After the divisional round, they’re certain that Andy Reid (HOF coach) and Ben Roethlisberger (HOF QB) will roll over in Foxboro. Never mind that Rex Ryan (not a HOF head coach) and Joe Flacco, twice, (not elite) have sent Belichick and Brady to early vacations. The Patriots have homefield advantage, which most fans and “experts” credit as the most impactful difference in last year’s AFCCG loss to Denver. Nevermind that both the Sanchez-led Jets and Flacco-led Ravens both won in Foxboro.

But this sports community, arguably more than any other, should know that winning football games in the regular season means about as much as Roger Goodall’s “integrity”. The Patriots went 18 and 1! The 2010 team was 2007’s equal in efficiency and was one-and-done in the playoffs! Sorry, but another reminder is needed, Mark Goddamned Sanchez, perhaps the worst starting QB in the history of the sport, beat the Patriots in the playoffs!

The most dominant team in the NFL for the last decade has 1 Super Bowl win and only gotten to the Super Bowl 3 times. You know why? Because it’s really hard to win a Super Bowl!

I don’t want to do this. I really don’t. This hurts me more than it hurts you, but you’ve given me no choice, folks. Someone has erased your data processing unit in order to forget your violent mortality and I need to jog the memories by reminding you of the searing memory that still haunts my sleep.. Ugh, here we go…

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