PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

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New England has the easiest remaining schedule in the NFL.

ESPN.com’s NFC West blogger Mike Sando recalculated the strength of schedule at midseason. The Patriots’ opposing win percentage in the final eight games is .369.

After Sunday’s game against New York, the Patriots play six of their final seven against teams without winning records. The Buffalo Bills are the only remaining opponent with a winning record – and the Patriots will get that rematch at Gillette Stadium.

The game this weekend is not must win for either team. If the Jets win they still won’t have much margin for error and can expect the Patriots to be breathing down their neck the rest of the way. Of course if the Patriots lose the fans of New England might just decide to eliminate the franchise, three straight losses don’t happen to geniuses. (Anyone seeing a trend today?)

https://www.patspropaganda.com/new-england-has-the-easiest-remaining-schedule-in/

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I think the Jets have been the better team in recent weeks, but I don’t think all the gloom and doom around the Patriots is reflective of a team that won’t show up. I expect the Patriots’ best effort and could envision a scenario where Tom Brady will play his best game of the season, the defense will rise up in the red zone again, and special teams will tighten up. I like the Jets’ mental toughness, but I also like the Patriots in that area. I think they get rewarded this week for hanging tough in tough times.

Mike Reiss summing up my feelings exactly.

https://www.patspropaganda.com/i-think-the-jets-have-been-the-better-team-in/

CHFF/Braig: Bill still knows defense

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CHFF/Braig: Bill still knows defense

Here’s a detailed article with some Patriots positivity in it. One thing I’d like to touch upon further that Braig does a great job of mentioning is the whole “genius” label. I found this little piece to be extremely well put:

Genius is a marketer’s brand that is as superficial as an iron-on alligator on a golf shirt.  Genius also is—as David Harris recognized in his biography of Bill Walsh entitled The Genius—a brand that inevitably will turn on the article—the coach’s knowledge—to which it is attached.
 
“Perhaps worst of all,” Harris wrote, “the [genius] label created a host of expectations that [Walsh] would have to meet or exceed simply to avoid being considered less than himself.”

I’m so sick of every time the Patriots lose a game or make a personnel mistake the boobirds come out with their “BUT BILL BELICHICK IS A GENIUS!!!”, sarcastically mocking him. It really annoys the crap out of me. There’s no doubt that superficial label has been used against Belichick for every misstep the organization has made over the last five years. As if a “genius” football coach should never lose…

War Room Review

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Insider books about the Patriots are few and far between so when one like Michael Holley’s War Room comes out I pounce on it and rip through it in a matter of days.

War Room takes an in depth at the genesis of Scott Pioli and Thomas Dimitoff’s football careers and how they were groomed by Bill Belichick. Now while I appreciate what Pioli and Dimitroff did for the Pats, and both seem like interesting branches on the Belichick tree, it was really the behind the scenes Patriots stuff that I yearned for.

Much of the early parts of the book have already been covered in depth in books like Education of a Coach by David Halberstam and Patriot Reign which was also written by Holley. I mostly skimmed those parts because there wasn’t anything we didn’t know.

While there were some interesting tidbits about the Patriots I was left wanting more of them. By the end of the book the focus shifted heavily toward Pioli and Dimitroff’s current situations with the Chiefs and Falcons respectively and away from Belichick and the Pats.

It seems pretty clear that Belichick wasn’t giving Holley the same kind of insight or access he did for Patriot Reign. The final chapter looked at the 2011 draft and other than revealing Belichick was ready to take Ras-I Dowling at 28 there wasn’t much we didn’t already know. Most of the Belichick quotes by the end are the kind of basic fluff we’ve come to expect when BB talks to the media.

The most interesting Patriots stuff revolved around the 2006 and 2007 seasons, where it seems that Josh McDaniels and other insiders had a big part in giving some inside info to Holley.

There was the already much publicized stuff about Belichick ignoring the advice of his scouts and drafting Laurence Maroney and Chad Jackson. This definitely was some unflattering evidence that supports some of the Pats recent draft struggles.

McDaniels revealed a great deal about the build up to the 2007 season. The disappointment after the 2006 AFC Championship Game, the early days with Randy Moss and just how they managed to put together the historic 2007 offense by taking advantage of their many dangerous weapons. Even McDaniels didn’t know what to expect when they took the field against the Jets in the opener.

It was tough re-living a lot of the Spygate stuff, but hearing about how it spun out of control even on Mangini was interesting. The motivation that the whole Spygate affair brought to the 2007 season was confirmed as well.

From a Patriots perspective War Room really documents the dissolution of the dynasty Patriots. The departures of players, coaches and executives are well documented, leaving us with an impression of the current Patriots with a Godfather-like Belichick still running the organization without any of the trusted confidants that built it with him.

I was surprised to see a complete lack of mention of Nick Caserio who seems like the next generation of Pioli and Dimitroff. The way that Belichick values developing young coaching and executive talent is well documented and one of his greatest contributions to the NFL.

Overall I’d say War Room was a good but not great book from a Patriots perspective. What Patriots fans want is a look behind the curtain, and those looks were truly limited in nature.

However the book does illustrate the effect Bill Belichick’s coaching and executive tree is having across the NFL, as well as the influence of his coaching and management styles.

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I love the fact that we’re playing at home. Our fans could be the difference. That’s the challenge I’m taking to our fans this week. That we’re here, we’re undefeated at home, and let’s make it miserable [for New England]. See if you can’t make them burn timeouts. See if our fans can’t make them false start. I truly believe, I wouldn’t ask our fans to do this if I feel they couldn’t be the difference.

Rex Ryan

Can someone forward this to Logan Mankins please? No more false starts, mauler!!

https://www.patspropaganda.com/i-love-the-fact-that-were-playing-at-home-our/