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Patriots Film Review: Defense Got No Juice Edition

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In today’s film review I’m going to try to ignore Jamie Collins. It would be easy to make this all about Collins and how his play in this single game may or may not have impacted him getting traded. But here on the blog I’m about the future and without Collins there’s plenty of work to be done. What exactly the remaining players need to do to pick up the slack is what I prefer to focus on.

Let’s take a look at what went down in Buffalo.

— Alan Branch should’ve had two sacks on the first drive but Tyrod Taylor twice evaded his finishing grasp, including one on third down that allowed the drive to keep going. At least he was winning his matchup. That’s the biggest thing that hasn’t been happening. And yes, as it’s been said this week, Branch might be the Pats best defensive player the first half of this season, at least in the front seven. Put me down for Malcolm Butler overall.

— After giving up a BDB (Bend-Don’t-Break) first drive, allowing three points, the Pats forced a three-and-out on the next drive but the third down should’ve been converted if not for a Buffalo drop. The Pats rushed five and again, nobody got home, including, uh, #91, who was stopped stone cold coming off the edge by a nice block from the running back. Lucky stuff.

But let’s cleanse the palate with another of what are becoming weekly Elandon Roberts GIFs. Watch him push the lead blocker #70 back into the hole and use him to help make the tackle.

Elandon Roberts

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Why Did This Patriots Defense Need a Message Sent to Them?

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Bill Belichick GIFSo by now you’ve heard the news, the Patriots traded Jamie Collins yesterday and because of the bye week, we get to spend the next two weeks doing nothing but trying to figure out why. The resulting media maelstrom was entirely predictable since this is the biggest BB shocker move in the age of social media over-saturation, where everyone has an opinion and will express their outrage.

Yesterday, I wrote some initial thoughts, but as things have simmered and the talking points have coalesced, it’s time to wade into the fray again to try and make some sense it.

The one thing I keep coming back to is the famous “we’re building a team, not collecting talent” quote. Whatever the reasons may or may not be, and there are plenty of them, Belichick believed the team, and specifically the defense, would be better without a super talented player like Collins.

We can talk about him being inconsistent at times (who isn’t?) or that he wanted a monster deal the Patriots would never get him, or whatever else has popped up over the last 24 hours, but no one outside the building has the full picture like Bill Belichick does. No one knows the internal team dynamics nor the true X-and-O’s like him.

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Breaking Down the Patriots’ Cornerbacks

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Patriots Cornerbacks

The Patriots came away with yet another relatively easy victory Sunday, this time dispatching the Bills thanks to another stellar performance by Tom Brady and the offense. The defense held its own after a discouraging opening drive, but issues remained throughout the game that have been evident throughout the season. While Malcolm Butler is playing at an Pro-Bowl level, the player across from him, which has rotated between Logan Ryan and Eric Rowe, has been subpar at best. Looking at the Patriots roster, the second corner spot seems to be the teams biggest weakness, and it seems to be the one spot that has the potential to cripple the Patriots when the playoffs come around.

The most surprising thing about the struggles in the secondary is that the unit was ranked third coming into this season by Pro Football Focus, trailing only Denver and Arizona, and ranking ahead of units like the Legion of Boom in Seattle and the star-studded secondary in Minnesota. The Patriots secondary was ranked so high in large part due to the play of Logan Ryan last season, who actually ranked ahead of his teammate Butler in 2015. Ryan finished as PFF’s 11-best corner in the league, with Butler coming in as the 24th ranked corner. Remember, last season Ryan effectively shut down the likes of Deandre Hopkins and Demaryius Thomas, and seemed to be trending towards the elite status that Butler has reached this season (Butler is PFF’s 4th-best corner this season, with a 86.7 grade). Instead, he has gone in the opposite direction, getting beat time and time again, leading to a benching in Week 7 against the Steelers, and getting replaced by Eric Rowe in the starting lineup this past Sunday.

So far this season, Ryan has allowed a 63% completion percentage when targeted, giving up 33 catches for 403 yards on 52 targets, allowing 12 yards per catch. He has also given up two touchdowns. The past three weeks Ryan has been even worse, allowing a completion percentage of 70%, and averaging 16 yards per catch when in coverage. His performance this season is so far removed from his outstanding play in 2015 that has regressed from 11th-ranked corner last season to 59th in 2016.

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Shock Report: Patriots Trade Jamie Collins to Browns

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Bill Belichick and the Patriots have a long list of bombshell trades over the past 16 years and today’s reported trade of Jamie Collins to the Cleveland Browns for a third round pick is right up there with the 2009 Richard Seymour trade to Oakland and the 2010 mid-season Randy Moss trade to Minnesota.

Jamie CollinsUpdate:

Collins was a rotational linebacker on Sunday against the Bills, playing in passing situations. He was just taken off the injury report on Friday so initially I assumed he was still just being managed. But apparently there was something more going on behind the scenes. Collins has certainly been up and down this season, but never did I suspect the Patriots would trade him mid-season like this.

I don’t want to speculate, but the lower value of a third round pick (likely high in the third round, not much lower than Chandler Jones’ price) indicates the Patriots weren’t just thinking they couldn’t re-sign Collins, they didn’t really want him or think they needed him anymore. The speculation in the coming hours and days will be fascinating, because unlike Seymour and Moss, there’s no easy assumption why the Patriots would move on from a player many thought was one of the best linebackers in the league.

It’s safe to say though that Belichick must be unhappy with the defense. The message is clear. Yes, they’ve made incremental process each week recently, but that doesn’t look like it’s good enough for BB. My first instinct is that this goes toward the old Scott Pioli quote — “we’re building a team, not collecting talent.” Jamie Collins is the kind of talent anyone wants to collect, but how this plays out in building a team will be seen over the next three-plus months.

We’ve known that 2017 would be a reset year on defense with so many free agents and with the trades of Chandler Jones and now Collins, they’ve jettisoned more key players than they’ve extended.

Mike Lombardi’s take:

This now means that Elandon Roberts will be thrust into an even more prominent role, while Kyle Van Noy could find himself playing quite a bit after the bye week. And there’s even more pressure on Dont’a Hightower to not only stay healthy, but for the Patriots to re-sign him.

Another jaw-dropper in a long list of jaw droppers, and maybe the most jaw droppiest. Going to take a while to process it, and with the bye week there’ll be even more time to speculate just what the hell is going on. Now you wonder if Collins disappears into the mess that is Cleveland, perhaps never to attain the elite linebacker level most had him pencilled into already.

Or does he hit free agency this offseason and join up with a team where he could come back to haunt the Pats? That’s a frightening Halloween thought.

Some tweets coming out that put things in a bit of context…

 

Pats Posits: Systematic Destruction of the Bills

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Bill Belichick Pirate Halloween GIF

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

The Patriots capped off the first half of their 2016 season with a convincing 41-25 win over the Bills that puts them three games ahead in the division as we sit at Halloween.

Considering Tom Brady‘s suspension, and Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett‘s injuries, it would be hard to ask for better than 7-1, with a commanding lead in the division.

The offense is shaping into the most balanced attack we’ve seen yet. Against Rex Ryan’s defense it was on full display.

The defense had their “bend-don’t-break” moments, but overall it was a fine showing considering the Bills offense was on life support as injuries mounted. But the Pats D has made strides every week on third down and in the red zone, and by the time January comes around they should be peaking.

Now, the bye week, and a chance to take stock of who the 2016 Pats are.

More on that and the systematic destruction of Rex and the Bill in the Posits.

tom brady bomb gif

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Best/Worst in Weekly Patriots Links-10/29

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After blowing a great opportunity to take care of business in Miami and firmly entrench themselves in the AFC Wildcard conversation, Rex and company have been awfully quiet this week. No pranks, no bold proclamations, no guarantees, no nothing. That is, at least up until the point that I’m writing this. Unfortunately, there are no low hanging fruit courtesy of Buffalo’s head coach for me to address this week. That being said, there’s plenty to fire up so let’s get right into it.

Chris Price (WEEI) gets us kicked off with two columns. One, as always, is his “5 Things to Know” which gives us a spark note look at the Bills and an excellent breakdown of their strengths and weaknesses. Price points out how impressive Buffalo’s running game has been, but notes they may be without the catalyst for that success on Sunday:

“The key to everything? McCoy, who is as dynamic a back as you’ll find. His health will certainly bear watching over the course of the week. There was plenty of debate surrounding the wisdom of having him try to play against the Dolphins. If Rex Ryan blew him out against Miami and isn’t available for this week’s showdown with the Patriots, the folks in upstate New York won’t be happy.”

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New England Patriots Gameplan: Week 8 at Buffalo Bills

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It’s been just four short weeks since the Patriots were shut out at home for the first time since the early 90’s by the Buffalo Bills. The game got off to annoying start when the Bills secondary took issue with Jacoby Brissett and Malcolm Mitchell running by their pregame drills and started a pushing contest with Mitchell as Brissett ignored them and continued toward the locker room. Some Patriots coaches got involved and all of it resulted in fines for three Bills’ players.

This wasn’t the Patriots trying to start shit. This was the Bills trying to get in the head of a rookie quarterback then acting like they were just defending their precious warm-up drill, as if two rookies just decided to cut straight through the Bills secondary to send a message.

The Patriots played coy about the pregame incident but Danny Amendola did comment afterwards, “It pissed me off to tell you the truth,” Amendola said. “I’m not going to forget about that. … I just heard they got into it and to be ready to go. I’m always ready to play this team.”

Well, here we go.

The Patriots’ performance in Week 4 was gross. The offense was, well, led by one-thumbed rookie Jacoby Brissett, and alleged provocateur, while Gronk was in his second game working back from a hamstring injury  They also fumbled five times, even though they only lost one.

So we can throw most of that offensive performance out. However, the defense was flat and gave up 378 yards. It was one of those games where almost nothing they did worked and they were on their heels most of the game. They did give up just one touchdown in the first quarter and then three field goals, none in the fourth quarter.

Brady could win with that performance from his defense and they were pretty much terrible. So it has to be better this time, right?

Also uncharacteristic was that the Pats lost both the turnover (-1) and penalty battles (9-74 to 6-60).

Now the stage is set for a meaningful game in an awesome road football environment, with some bad blood already brewing. These are the regular season games you live for.

What the Patriots have to do to redeem themselves and put a stranglehold on the AFC East in the gameplan.

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