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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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Dion Lewis Back at Practice for Patriots

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Oh happy day, Dion Lewis is off the PUP list and back at practice for the Patriots. The team now has 21 days to activate him onto the roster.

The former journeyman running back burst onto the scene last season, looking like Barry Sanders 2.0 in seven games with the Patriots before tearing his ACL. The Pats placed him on the PUP list after a setback this summer delayed his return to action.

In those seven games, Lewis put up 49 rushes for 234 yards with two touchdowns and 36 catches for 388 yards and two touchdowns. As those number show, he was a true dynamic threat, and was breaking tackles at a record pace. The thought of what he could bring to the Patriots offense if he can return to that form is frightening (for opponents) and tantalizing (for Pats fans).

Dion Lewis

Dion Lewis

The Pats have been fine with James White and LeGarrette Blount. In fact, has the top running back receiving grade from PFF, while Blount has already exceeded his career-high in touchdowns and needs just nine more catches for his career high. But both are somewhat one-dimensional, especially White, who’s rushing numbers are far below his receiving ones.

So Lewis could bring the best of both worlds, and his ability in space and to make people miss is unique and will bring another dynamic playmaker to an offense that is already loaded with them. But again, Lewis was a nobody before those seven games last season, so there is just a bit of uncertainty that he’s going to automatically get back to the same level of awesomeness, especially coming off an injury that usually takes two years before the player is fully comfortable.

With White and Blount the Pats can bring Lewis along slowly, as they’ve already been doing. But as they slowly bring him into the mix with the goal of seeing some of that 2015 form in January, the offense could see a level of unstoppability not seen since the early months of 2007.

Malcolm Butler is Playing at a Pro-Bowl Level… Again

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Patriots Cornerbacks

Darrelle Revis’ departure from the Patriots after their 2014 Super Bowl victory, at least for a moment, appeared to leave a gaping hole in the New England secondary. Thankfully,  Malcolm Butler quickly asserted himself as the team’s top corner during the 2015 training camp. Butler never looked back and was selected to the Pro Bowl in 2015, an accomplishment he’s on pace to duplicate with his stellar start to 2016.

While he’s not the biggest guy, Butler is more than capable in run support, but it’s his elite ball skills and speed that put him in the upper echelon of NFL corners. This season Malcolm Butler has eleven passes defensed and one interception, putting him on pace to exceed his 2015 total of 15 and two, respectively.

Below is a week-by-week look back at Butler’s performance thus far in 2016. H/T to Doug Kyed from NESN for the passing stats from his weekly takeaways column.

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Belichick on Patrick Chung’s Second Stint With Patriots

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When I first started this blog back in 2010, Patrick Chung was one of my favorite players. He came to New England right at the start of the defensive rebuild and for a fan base longing for another Rodney Harrison-esque enforced in the secondary, Patchung! (as I called him then) fit the mold.

Today Bill Belichick touched a bit on what has made Chung’s second stint with the Patriots so much better for the team and the player and I thought his answers were telling.

“He’s great at that; finding the ball, getting through traffic, fitting in the running game, covering in traffic. He knows all of those kinds of things. He’s really good at that,” Belichick said of Chung’s abilities near the line of scrimmage. “When we had him before he left and then he came back and you know we just weren’t able to put him into some of the positions that he should’ve been put in. We had other things to deal with. We were trying to deal with other things on the defense and we’ve been able to I would say play him in a much better way in the last three years than we did when he was here the first time. I think our utilization of him has been better. He’s been pretty much the same player but I think we’ve been able to utilize him better the last three years and he’s done a great job embracing the different responsibilities that we’ve given him, which he has a lot of different things to do on the defense within the game or from game to game.”

One of the biggest problems with Chung was that he couldn’t stay healthy. He missed 14 games from 2010-2012, when he was hitting his prime and the Patriots desperately needed help in their secondary.

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Week 8 Scouting Report: Buffalo Bills

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What a busy Tuesday in Pats Nation (or Bill’s Mafia as Doug Kyed penned) yesterday was. The Patriots dealt away TE AJ Derby, my training camp binky, to the Broncos for a 5th round pick in 2017, and traded for Lions LB Kyle Van Noy and a 7th rounder in exchange for a 6th rounder. We won’t get into draft/trade talk here, but just keep in mind BB might not be done wheeling and dealing just yet.

The Bills have slowly turned into a worthy adversary, being the only real contender in the AFC East. Sexy Rexy is notorious for throwing his best at Tom Brady and the Buffalo offense has come to life under an inspired running game. This will be a great challenge for Brady and Co.

Here is everything you need to know about The Buffalo Bills aka, “The Only Team to stop Jacoby Brissett”

Week 8 at Buffalo Bills

Sunday October 30

1 pm EST, CBS

Low 50’s 80% chance of rain, 16 mph winds

Opponent/Patriots Stats
Bills: 4-3

Notable Games: In Week 2 Rex Ryan fired then OC Greg Roman and since their Week 4 shut out win against NE, the Bills have turned it around and proved their worth.

Common Opponents: Arizona Cardinals (Both teams won), Miami Dolphins (Pats won, Bills lost).

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Patriots vs. Steelers Film Review: Defense Edition

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Diving in on the All-22 film of the Patriots’ defensive performance left me dazed and confused. I told myself after the game that a win is a win and really at this point there’s still time to work the kinks out, but the truth is that the defense is simply not winning one-on-one matchups up front enough.

Yes, it was a conservative gameplan, with the Pats rushing just three players on 22 of Landry Jones‘ 46 dropbacks. On those downs the Patriots were highly effective flooding the field with eight zone defenders. Jones had the most trouble on those snaps.

But when the Pats sent five or six rushers it barely ever affected Jones’ timing with his receivers and three of his eight completions of 10 yards or more came against the Pats five and six man rush.

So in today’s film review I’m going to look at one third down play in depth that best sum up the Patriots’ defensive problems.

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Patriots Special Teams Report – Week 7 @ Pittsburgh Steelers

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It was an ugly win, but a win nonetheless, and the Patriots now have a two game lead in the AFC East heading into their revenge game in Buffalo this Sunday. While the team is 6-1 and leading AFC overall, there is still room for improvement from a few noticeable areas, with the play of kicker Stephen Gostkowski near the top of that list.

So far in 2016, Gostkowski is tied for 24th in field goal accuracy, having made just 9 out of his 12 attempts. For comparison, three kickers are perfect so far in 2016: Justin Tucker, Greg Zuerlein, and our old friend Adam Vinatieri, who set the NFL record for consecutive field goals made at 43 yesterday (equaling his age), an astounding accomplishment for the 21-year pro. Six kickers have missed just one field goal, 10 have have missed two, nine (including Gostkowski) have missed three, and four have missed four or more.

Gostkowski’s career average is 86.9% (good for third all-time), which is a sharp contrast from his 75% average thus far this season. Last season, he hit 91.7% of his field goals, missed just three, was a first-team All-Pro and was named to the Pro Bowl for the third straight year. In 2014, his success rate was a career high 94.6% on field goals, missed just two, and setting his personal record for field goals made in one season with 38. In 2013,  he hit 92.7% of his field goals, and missed just three. Gostkowski’s worst season of his career (not including his injury-shortened 2010 campaign that was cut short after just eight games) was his rookie season in 2006, in which he hit on just 76.9% of his field goals. While it is only a seven game sample size, Gostkowski’s 2016 season is on track to produce a career-low in field goal accuracy. Gostkowski is certainly not paid to perform like this (he received the second-most guaranteed money ever for a kicker in his newest contract), and a large faction of Patriot Nation is up in arms with the performance of their All-Pro kicker.

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