PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Mike, if you could play any position for the Patriots (minus QB) what would it be and why? Disregarding body type, size, and all that other normally important physical attributes.

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Ha! Love it. For a little flashback article about how very very bad I was at actual football check this out. And yes it includes pictures of me, possibly the worst tackle to ever play the game.

But if we can throw out my lack of speed and strength I always wanted to be a linebacker or fullback growing up. Probably because those are two positions you didn’t need great speed to play, so now in fantasy land I’d probably want to be a safety like McCourty. 

Would love making the calls, seeing the plays develop from the back end and coming up to deliver some big hits. I was a defensemen in hockey and I think this is probably the closest thing to that.

What’s the best way you think is it to attack the buffalo defense? Quick passes and screens? And what about the buffalo offense? Should we stack up against the run and dare them to beat us through the air?

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Check out today’s gameplan article for a lot more on this. But generally you do try to use their aggression against them with misdirection and screens, and a quick pace that doesn’t allow them to get into all their disguises. You can’t let them dictate, you must make them react to what you’re doing. Once they get on their heels it can be a long night for them.

I do think we see more of a “base” defense, and very possibly a 3-4 which is their run-stopping package. It’s similar to the Super Bowl gameplan and I think we’ll see more Brown-Siliga inside than someone like Grissom who is too light to be a DT in this game.

Put the game in Taylor’s hands and make him read coverage, go through progressions and execute without turning the ball over. Maybe he has that game in him again this weekend, but history tells us that he’ll likely make a critical mistake if the Pats play disciplined enough and shut down the run.

What are your thoughts on Keyshawn Martin? Texans fans seem glad to have gotten rid of him, and I’m of the impression that he won’t crack the WR lineup.

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I think he’s really about depth and protecting Edelman and Amendola in the return game. Highly doubt he plays a significant role unless someone gets dinged, but he has experience in what is a similar system and can back up multiple positions. He’ll stick around until LaFell comes back and then he’s likely gone unless he really makes some plays in whatever limited opportunities he gets.

Do the Pats keep Butler on the left vs Buffalo? Or do you see him matching up well to a specific one-on-one?

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I am very curious to see the answer to this question myself because it will tell us a lot about whether or not the Pats really plan on sticking to matchup defense like they did most of last year. The wild card is that man defense is a lot easier on quarterbacks to make reads and I don’t think they want to make anything easy on Tyrod Taylor. The easy answer is that it will be a constant mix of zone and man, but generally I don’t think we’ll see the corners following receivers around the entire game in man. They’ll want to throw a lot of disguise at Taylor, especially in the secondary.

New England Patriots Gameplan: Week 2 at Buffalo Bills

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This is what the NFL season is really all about – a tough divisional matchup on the road against an opponent who is gunning for you. It’s games like this that I live for because if you judge your football enjoyment solely on whether or not your team wins the Super Bowl you’re almost always going to be disappointed.

Rex and the Bills are flying high after their Week One domination of the Colts and they have every reason to be. Their young quarterback played a near-perfect game, their defense played like tough bullies and there’s plenty of reason for the team and their fans to believe they’re going to build on last season’s 9-7 record.

Let’s face it, early season divisional games are almost always close for the Patriots, especially when facing a Rex Ryan defense. This version of the Bills looks a lot like the Jets did when Rex first got there – an elite defense and an offense centered around the ground game and a quarterback who doesn’t make the critical mistakes.

Sometimes it works to beat the Patriots – like Week 2 in 2009 and 2010, the 2010 AFCDG, and the 2013 OT Week 7 one – and sometime it doesn’t, including 45-3 and the rest.

It should be a great game against a team that is ready to give us their best shot. Here’s the gameplan!

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Offensive Gameplan

The evolution that Bill Belichick engineered to his offense during the bye week of 2010 seemed in large part a reaction to Rex Ryan’s brand of physical press coverage and masterfully disguised blitzes. The long-developing deep routes run by Randy Moss were just unavailable, especially with Darrelle Revis on him. So instead Belichick fully embraced “the scalpel”, or as some might call it “dink-and-dunk”, by bringing back Deion Branch and employing an attack that could win quickly at the line of scrimmage with smarts.

That ideology is still largely in place with Edelman and Amendola, but the presence of Rob Gronkowski is what truly tips the scales for the Patriots because it allows them in large part to dictate the matchups.

But the biggest key is protecting Brady right out of the gate. Brady mentioned they had been working on complicated pass protection since the spring and it’s absolutely vital against Ryan’s defense. They will pretend everyone is blitzing only to drop everyone, they’ll overload one side then bring the blitz from the other, or, as we saw last week, move the defensive linemen behind the linebackers and then send them on a delayed blitz. All of this must be decoded at the line of scrimmage by Brady and his offensive line, and with three rookies in the middle (unless Wendell returns) things could get dicey.

It’s not like Brady needs a ton of time like he might’ve needed while waiting for Moss to get thirty yards downfield, but what we’ve seen in the games where Rex’s defense gets in Brady’s head is that the pressure gets to him early, and then often. 

Identifying when it’s man and when it’s zone will be important as well. In the 2010 playoff loss Brady seemed to have no read on the defense and they couldn’t move the ball. Once he knows, it goes.

A big part of this is winning on first and second down with no negative plays. If they get into third-and-long Rex is able to open his entire bag of tricks. So while I welcome LeGarrette Blount back, there have been games where he has trouble getting going. That can’t happen here and it’s why I think you could see more Dion Lewis (or maybe Travaris Cadet) than expected because he’s so quick he usually picks up positive yardage. At least in the limited amount we’ve seen him so far.

Defensive Gameplan

This has all the makings of one of those maddening games where the Patriots defense just tries to keep Tyrod Taylor in the pocket and he ends up completing a bunch of passes and going right down the field on them. That’s just the Belichick style, and the necessary ingredient, and one the Pats haven’t always been very good at in recent memory, is generating pressure with only four rushers.

Expect it to be a similar approach to what they did to Russell Wilson in the Super Bowl. A somewhat slow, but definitely deliberate rush, that forces Taylor to be a pocket passer.

When the Patriots last saw Greg Roman’s offense with the 49ers in 2012 they were in a base defense 71 percent of the time, easily a season high and a number they haven’t come close to topping in seasons since. Most interesting is that they reverted to the old 3-4 defense, which has evolved into their run-stopping specialty package now.

It’s very possible they’ll return to that with Brown-Siliga-Jones up front and Ninkovich-Collins-Mayo-Hightower at linebacker. Now this is a lighter version of the old 3-4, especially when you consider the swap of Seymour at RDE for Chandler, but it’s far more athletic.

But one advantage with that athleticism is how they’ll be able to disguise their rushers from Taylor. Belichick won’t send more than four very often, but which four comes will be constantly changing, forcing the young quarterback to identify who is coming for him.

If the controlled rush can keep Taylor contained, then collapse the pocket around him and finish him off it will be ideal. But the Patriots have won plenty of games with subpar pressure that is saved by their overall discipline that forces turnovers. 

Maybe Taylor has the perfect game in him like Mark Sanchez did a few times. If he does the Patriots could very well be headed home with a loss. But one thing is certain, the Pats won’t sell out with a ton of blitzes. They’ll force Taylor to beat them with a perfect game throwing the ball.

But I’m really praying we can finally see some consistent disruptive pressure out of our front four.

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Five Areas of Emphasis

1. Decode the Blitzes – As I mentioned above, getting the protections straight for the Bills’ complex blitzes is paramount. This is especially true along the interior of the line where we can expect to see some rotating combination of Josh Kline, Tre Jackson, Shaq Mason and (hopefully) Ryan Wendell. Having two veterans like Kline and Wendell in there could be a big plus. Buffalo’s front is no joke and they’ll make some plays, but it’s important to not let one bad play lead to another bad play. If Brady can find a comfort zone early he should tear the Bills apart just like he can tear any other defense apart.

2. Stay on Schedule – Nothing will get the Pats in a quicker hole than if their runs on first and second down go nowhere. Or worse yet if they try to pass horizontally and get stopped behind the line. The Patriots’ offensive conversion rate against Rex’s Jets plummets as the yardage gets longer: 3rd-and-6+ = 30.5%, 3rd-and-8+ = 20.7%, 3rd-and-10+ = 16.3%. These numbers are well below the Patriots’ averages against the rest of the NFL. Essentially their chances of converting a first down are cut in half going from 3rd-and-6 to 3rd-and-10, so positive plays on early downs are critical.

3. One-on-One Must Win – With a number of talented pass rushers the Pats should be able to dictate some matchups on the defensive side of the ball. The key is when guys like Chandler Jones or Jabaal Sheard get only one blocker they must win. This has long been a sore spot for the Patriots but they finally have a number of different guys who can win these kind of matchups. There’s no more direct route to victory than making Tyrod Taylor uncomfortable in the pocket.

4. Feed Gronk – Tom Brady is Tom Brady, but Gronk is the deadly weapon that makes Brady and the Patriots offense truly lethal. He’s in the prime of his career and the more times he touches the ball the better. More than that, Gronk’s ability to block is the true wild card in this game, especially if the Bills give him too much attention as a pass-catcher. Whether he’s the target or he’s just pulling the attention of three players, Gronkowski gives the Patriots a chance to win every game with his complete dominance.

5. Win – Maybe no one wants to admit it but the Bills needs this game more than the Patriots do. But taking the division crown from the Pats is never done via a home win in September. It’s done by beating the majority of the other teams that aren’t quite as easy to get fired up for and THEN beating the Patriots in Gillette Stadium. The Pats have lost plenty of road AFC East games early in the season over the years, but it’s never mattered and a loss this weekend probably won’t really matter either. Not that I’m trying to mail this one in, but we’ve seen so many stinkers from NE in Week 2 in recent years we should at least be prepared for it. Still, there would be no better feeling than taking the wind out of the sails of the Bills once again. This is in all likelihood the hardest road division game of the season as the ones in New York and Miami don’t come until the last two weeks of the season. So there’s no pressure really, the Pats can just go in there and let it fly and see what happens.