PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Does the colts game have the feeling of a trap game to you too? I mean after the whole offseason and it being an away game and everyone expecting us to just roll over them.

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I think it’s going to be a lot more of a battle than many are expecting. The last few matchups look like blowouts in hindsight, but last year’s regular season game especially was closer than we might want to think. This is a Colts team at home fighting for their season in many ways. At some point Luck is going to stop throwing interceptions to us. Now I’m not sure how well they can stop our offense, but I think this will be a real test for the defense.

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Guess we won’t be running this play this week. 🙁

As you’ve probably heard by now Nate Solder has reportedly been lost for the season with a biceps tear. It’s a significant blow as Solder is one of the best left tackles in the game despite what many complaining Pats fans say. 

Luckily the Pats have good tackle depth and experience with Sebastian Vollmer, Marcus Cannon and likely practice squad call-up Cameron Fleming. Cannon got a bad rap after his failed move to guard last season, but he’s been a solid rotational guy who can play both sides of the line and the Pats even rewarded him with a new contract last year that surprised a lot of us. 

There is some question if Vollmer might flip to left tackle, a spot he played as a rookie and in college but I think they’ll try to mitigate the number of changes and just insert Cannon there, at least to start.

The NFL season is a campaign of attrition as much as anything else. This is the 2015 Patriots first taste of injury adversity and it likely won’t be the last taste of it. But they’ve overcome plenty of significant injuries before and have built in the necessary depth to navigate this loss. They will miss Solder’s ability in space, but with Tom Brady unloading the ball so quickly these days the edge rushers can be mitigated.

https://www.patspropaganda.com/guess-we-wont-be-running-this-play-this-week/

New England Patriots defense steps up, led by Malcolm Butler | The MMQB with Peter King

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New England Patriots defense steps up, led by Malcolm Butler | The MMQB with Peter King

Nice read from Andy Benoit although from his tweets while watching the Patriots defense he was a little more harsh than he is here, especially questioning how good the Patriots’ pass rush really is and if they’ll be able to consistently bring it against a good passing team. Can’t argue they have’t really faced a fully functioning offense yet, although the Steelers were pretty close. One thing you can count on, they’ll get no credit this weekend no matter how it goes, but I think it will be their biggest test yet and I’m very curious how they matchup in the secondary with the Colts’ WR threats.

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https://www.patspropaganda.com/768/

What do you think about the Cowboys giving the rest of the NFL a blueprint to slow down the Patriots’ offense?

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I never buy that inevitable talk every time some team sticks with the Pats offense for a (usually short) period of time. I do like how the Cowboys had a new wrinkle to throw at the Pats but the problem is that they didn’t have a counter punch to that.

Just about any team with a good front seven can get some shots on Brady, but how many can do it for 60 minutes? That’s the question and that’s the blueprint.

I always go back to Eric Mangini’s gameplan against the Pats in 2010 when he was with the Browns. He went into depth about it on ESPN later that season and made a few good points that are still true:

1. If you’re not lying you’re not trying: DISGUISE PRESNAP. You can’t let Brady know what you’re going to do. Guys should be walking around and not give away any keys as to what is comein

2. Have two gameplans, one in the first that should be coverage heavy. Disguise like you’re going to blitz a lot, but drop almost everyone. Then, once the Pats figure that out (Which they will) you need a second gameplan for the second half to throw them off again. Then you can go back to the stuff that worked in the first.

3. 60 minutes: It’s a cliche but once Brady figures out what you’re doing he’s going to torch it. Look at SB42. All of sudden they march down the field and take the lead after not being able to move the ball most of the game. Luckily for the Giants that Eli and the offense had a miracle drive of their own.

So I like some of what the Cowboys did but they didn’t do it long enough as the Pats put up 30 points on them. There’s long been a blueprint to slow Brady down, it’s just not many teams have the personnel, creativity and full-game discipline to execute it.