PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Belichick on Patriots Injury Improvements (so far…)

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Brady after Gronk looked lost for the season in Denver, 2015.

If there’s one dead horse I’ve been beating this season it’s that all that really matters for the 2016 Patriots are injuries. We can argue about Jamie Collins, the ups-and-downs of the run game or the defense’s lack of sacks or poor start on third downs early in the season, but all that’s going to matter come January is what the Injured Reserve list looks like.

In the last three seasons, the Patriots won a Super Bowl and lost to the Broncos in Denver. One team was almost fully healthy. The other two were shells of their initial September rosters.

It’s sad that this is what football has come to in some ways… that who got hurt is nearly as important as who won. But when you have a well-oiled machine like the Patriots at this phase of Bill Belichick’s tenure, that’s what the season gets reduced to. And with the rest of the NFL withering into mediocrity or worse, I can’t help but wonder if this is the year the Patriots just go berserker right through the Super Bowl and finish the job the 2007 team fell just short on.

If the Patriots core remains intact, it’s hard finding a team that will be able to stop them, at least on paper, though history tells us any potential Super Bowl will go down to the final drive no matter who the opponent is.

The good news is at the halfway point the Patriots are pretty as close to full health as could be realistically hoped. Belichick touched on it a bit on Sunday, including how the team has made changes to try to prevent injuries.

We’ve tried every year to work a little bit harder, try to do things a little bit better, and hopefully some of those little things are paying off. I know the players work extremely hard on their training as well as their nutrition, hydration, rest, recovery, all the things that go into performance. We’re always looking to fine tune those for each individual because they’re all different. We all have different makeups and different little things that can help different players in unique ways, so always trying to stay on top of that. I think our staff has done a good job and the players have done a good job, so hopefully we’ll be able to continue that over the next eight regular season games.

I always viewed injuries as the will of the Football Gods, but it’s good to know the team is making every effort they can to prevent them.

 

Patriots Defense Setting Tone With Big Hits

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The Bend-But-Don’t-Break Defense can drive fans nuts. Thrilling, eye catching hot take, I know.

As the Patriots’ season has gone along through eight games, it certainly has become much less prone to break, and even better, less bendy. Third down defense has steadily gone up (19th in the league, 10th in the last 3 games), red zone stops have steadily gone up (19th in the league, 8th in the last 3 games), and points allowed has been a strength, the Patriots at third in the league as of this writing with 16.5/game behind Minnesota (14.9) and Seattle (15.6).

One more thing has started to tick up in recent weeks, and that is something else that makes a Bend-But-Don’t-Break defense hit the next level: Big Hits!

Not just big hits…but intelligent, punishing, and fundamentally sound big hits. Nothing dirty, nothing late, no launching. Discipline. Growing up playing football, every good coach will give some version of this instruction on hitting the opponent: Hit them clean, make them HATE football.

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Best/Worst in Weekly Patriots Links-11/5

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bill belichick GIF

Wow. And here I thought we’d be getting a nice, relaxing bye week. Talk about a roller coaster of emotions. Morale couldn’t have been much higher coming out of Ralph Wilson Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Sure, the defense wasn’t great (more on this later), but the offense looked flat out unstoppable with Brady continuing to light the world on fire every 7 days. Plus, save for a handful of teams, the quality of play in the league is down (Exhibit A: AFC East). As nit-picky as we can be, and as flawed as we perceive them, the reality is the Pats are the most well rounded team with the greatest top to bottom talent in the game. Locally, Chris Price (WEEI) summarized the Patriots first half of the regular season in his “What We Learned Sunday” piece:

“It’s still pretty early, still,” cautioned Tom Brady when asked about reaching the midway point with a 7-1 mark. “We’ve got a long way to go.” 

Yes, but with apologies to Yogi Berra, when it comes to the AFC East, it’s getting late early. The Bills are starting to fade. The Dolphins are wildly inconsistent and the Jets are just lucky to be 3-5. 

In other words, rinse and repeat. Don’t be the guy that picks against the Pats in the AFC East before the season starts. Until proven otherwise, the division goes through New England, no matter what the circumstance.

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Pats Potential Playoff Primer: The AFC Elite Scouting Report

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The bye week is often a time to reflect on the first chunk of the games a team played and to look forward to what is to come. I’ve been thinking a lot about the scope of the league and how the Pats will fare come playoff time. It has seemed for a while now that the regular season is just one big warm up for the real show in Foxboro, the playoffs. So let’s dive in, shall we?

Here’s everything you need to know about the best of the best of the AFC aka, “The Teams Just Trying to Keep Up.”

This is where the AFC stands as of today in terms of playoff seeding

Credit to CBSSports

Credit to CBSSports

The Patriots are at the top of the conference at 7-1, followed closely by the Raiders, only 1 game back. The Steelers being behind the Texans is a little shocking, and you’d think you could pin that on Ben Roethlisberger being out injured, but he was only out a game against the Patriots, a contest Pittsburgh was hardly guaranteed to win with Roethlisberger. Clearly, the best QB of these six teams belongs to Pats Nation followed by a (when healthy) Roethlisberger, and then Oakland with Derek Carr. The other three are serviceable QBs ranging from inconsistent to above average. Looking beyond these 6 teams, the only other teams with at least 4 wins are the Bills, which received a thrashing from TFB last week, and the Tennessee Titans who still feel one season away before being competitive with the top of the AFC.

All these teams have their strengths, and how exciting that the Raiders are relevant in the NFL again, but now let’s look at how they might match up with the Patriots.

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Ranking the Patriots Impending Free Agents

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Dont'a Hightower

Dont’a Hightower

The Patriots are set for a major re-evaluation of their defense this offseason with a number of key free agents that will force them to determine the direction they want to go. The offensive free agents won’t be far behind. Of course, things certainly look a lot easier now (unfortunately) than they did when both Chandler Jones and Jamie Collins were still on the team. Two less major pieces to worry about paying.

And really, the poor overall performance of many of the impending free agents still on the team make it easier too. Again, unfortunately. But of course things can change quickly as the important part of the season and playoffs roll around. A huge playoff performance by one of these players could up their importance and price tag.

We’re at the halfway point of the season, so why not take stock of where we’re at?

One note before we dive in, Malcolm Butler is a restricted free agent. The Patriots should, in my opinion, pursue a long-term extension with him, but the team can easily slap a first round tender for around $3.6 million and retain his rights unless someone wants to give up a first rounder for him, which I wouldn’t entirely rule out.  So for our purposes here, I’m leaving him off this list, but if he was on it he’d be second.

Let’s do it, starting from the lowest priority, counting down to the most important.

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5 Patriots Defensive Fixes for the Bye Week

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The bye week is a time to take a step back and reflect on what the team needs to do better moving forward into the second half of the season. Never has that been more true than with the Patriots defense, now that they’ve traded away one of their key contributors. There are holes to fill and improvements to be made.

Aside from replacing Jamie Collins from a personnel perspective, it’s also worth taking a look at the scheme and what things haven’t quite been working out the way the Patriots coaching staff might’ve envisioned them.

Here are five moves for the Patriots defense that should help them moving into the winter months.

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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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