PatsPropaganda

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PFT: Patriots off-season needs

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PFT: Patriots off-season needs

It’s so hard to really know for sure what’s going to happen with the offensive line between now and next summer. Is Vollmer really the LT of the future? Because if he is the time would probably be now to move him there. But Light is such a leader of that group, replacing him cannot be gone about lightly (no pun intended). Can the bridge with Mankins be mended? And how does Nick Kaczur fit in? He can play almost any position on the line so it’s a good bet he could well be back in a starting spot somewhere, be it for Mankins at LG or replacing Vollmer at RT if Vollmer goes to LT.

Offensive line is by far the most interesting area to watch on that side of the ball. There and running back.

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I think the biggest thing Bill Belichick has to consider is whether he’s willing to use a late first-round pick on a pass-rusher who might project to play only on third down. Ideally, a team wants its first-rounder to be able to play all three (or even four) downs, but I think those standards can be loosened if you think you have an explosive edge rusher who could help your sub packages. The Patriots were in sub packages more than 50 percent of the time. The way I look at it is that the Patriots were willing to pay Tully Banta-Cain a generous contract to fill that type of role, so why wouldn’t they consider a first-round pick in that type of role?

Mike Reiss, echoing something I posted yesterday…

https://www.patspropaganda.com/i-think-the-biggest-thing-bill-belichick-has-to/

Patriots news and over-reaction analysis

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I apologize for the straight up text posts the last couple days, but the fact is that I don’t really feel like seeing any stupid Jets stuff on here, nor do I really feel like being overly positive about the regular season just yet and posting highlights or any of that stuff.

My TV went off as Shonn Greene went to sleep on the football in the end zone and I haven’t turned it back on for anything sports related since. So yes we’ve seen tweets popping up about Bart Scott’s angry interview, Kris Jenkins telling Brady to shut up, the Jets staying up until 4am partying after the win, the Jets taunting those brave Patriots fans who stuck around until the end, the videos that Rex showed the Jets of the Patriots mocking their Jet celebration, and so on. But I’m just ignoring it all.

So this will continue to suck for a couple days then pretty soon no one will care any more and it will be all about what happens in the championship games. So we just need to ride out another twenty four hours and then the Pats will be out of the cross hairs and fade into offseason anonymity like everyone else.

So here are just some quick hit thoughts about all the storylines that are swirling right now:

I never like to stereotype the fan base of any team. I think every team has it’s intelligent, civil fans as well as it’s loudmouth, jerk fans. But let’s just say I’ve never seen so many personal attacks and trash talking from a collective fan base like I’ve seen from some Jets fans the last couple days. It was yesterday afternoon that the emails and comments really started rolling in. I’m thinking about doing an entire blog post about one special email that was sent to me. Again, I’m not going to say all Jets fans are a-holes, because we all know there are some a-hole Patriots fans out there, but the collective vitriol from a chunk of them is unprecedented for me.

Let’s be honest if the Jets didn’t get us this year they might never get us. The have zero rookie contributors and a collection of hungry vets on one year deals. Combine those factors with a veteran defense and a quarterback who played a perfect game, it’s not really that hard to understand how they beat New England. On paper is looks like a 6 seed beat a 1 seed, but we all know how close these teams really were, especially when the game went like it did.

The Patriots meanwhile have one of the youngest defenses in the NFL, and will get back at least two huge defensive starters for 2011. No doubt the Patriots have work to do, but there’s no question about which team is better set up for the future. I said it all last summer that I truly didn’t believe we’d see this incarnation of the Pats really start to peak until 2011/2012 and nothing that happened this season will change that. We might not get perfect MVP seasons out of Brady next year or the year after, but as the defense gets better we won’t need him to.

A lot of people seem critical of BB’s decision to bench Welker for the first series. While Welker’s presser was subtle and funny, I support BB’s decision. As my Dad always used to say ‘never get in a pissing contest with a skunk’ and that’s what WW did. I appreciated the comedy of it, but that’s not how the Pats do business. When Welker did that I became more concerned about the game because for the first time it felt like maybe the Jets really were getting under the Patriots skin. Ultimately I know it’s all in fun, but I much prefer to walk quietly and carry a big stick.

A week ago the Pats had one of the best offenses of the last decade but today apparently they must find a wide receiver. I’m not on board with that. While I think a mid-round draft pick could be a possibility I highly doubt there will be a major free agent splash like Ochocinco. Brandon Tate deserves another year. Welker and Branch need an offseason to get completely healthy. Let’s not forget the jump Brady had from year one back from an ACL to year two back. Then there’s also Taylor Price and Julian Edelman waiting in the wings. So I really wouldn’t even be surprised to see zero additions to this position in the offseason.

I’ve always really liked Matt Light but there’s part of me that wonders if this offensive line needs a little shake up. The last three playoff games they have not been able to keep the pressure off Tom Brady, and at some point you have to wonder has this line combination has peaked. I’m not a huge Kaczur fan but would a Vollmer-Mankins-Kopper-Connolly-Kaczur line make sense? I don’t think the Pats can pass up a dominant OL in the draft, especially if they don’t figure out a way to get Mankins back.

The Jets can say whatever they want. I really wish Deion Branch hadn’t said anything about them being classless. We all know the personality of that team. Did you expect anything differently from them after the ended our season? And that’s why I’ve been in a media black out since Sunday. This game was in fact not the last time these two teams will ever meet. And if the Jets lose this weekend or in the Super Bowl their offseason will be almost as miserable as the Patriots will be.

That’s all for now as we slowly begin getting to know the draft prospects….

Not playing the Patriots blame game.

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So hopefully by the end of the day today we’ll be able pin the exact one thing that was responsible for the Patriots loss. 

Was it Welker’s benching? Was it Patchung!’s bobbled fake punt? Are the wide receivers simply unable to get open? And where was Aaron Hernandez? Do Woodhead AND Law Firm now need to be replaced? Tom Brady’s lost three straight playoff games, let’s get rid of him! And so on…

Trying to find the one or two ingredients responsible for a loss is like trying to find one or two ingredients in meatloaf. Yes you can see some of the obvious ones, but others you can’t, and ultimately it’s the special combination of ingredients that are responsible for the result, each contributing in their own small special way.

The Patriots did not execute like champions and they deserved to lose. There’s no one positional fix or upgrade that is going to solve all the problems we did or didn’t see against the Jets.

The off-season will begin with a good hard look at the Patriots personnel and coaching staff based on the entire season. Some big picture concerns based on not just what we saw yesterday:

  1. pass defense – biggest weakness of the 2010 Patriots.
  2. pass protection – break downs in the last three playoffs losses.
  3. pass rush – loss of Mike Wright/Myron Pryor didn’t help.