PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Pats Posits: Big picture problems

by

It’s going to be a rough week Patriots fans. Everyone will have their theory about what the root of the Pats problems are. 

Tom Brady doesn’t have enough weapons. There’s no deep threat. Belichick the GM isn’t helping Belichick the coach. They shouldn’t have traded Logan Mankins. The play calling. You’ve heard them all by now and it didn’t take a blow out to make any of them definitively true.

On defense it was pretty simple, they weren’t ready to play. They were out-coached. Blown tackles started them off on the wrong foot, over compensating with over-aggressiveness just made it worse, and things snowballed from there.

Offensively the protection was a bit better but the blocking still looks messy and out-of-sync. The running game is all but ignored. And in a recurring theme, teams are just stacking the line of scrimmage because they don’t think the Pats offense can beat them beyond seven yards. 

Thus the box is stacked for the running game, and any receiver who catches a short pass is immediately killed if he doesn’t get immediately to the ground.

The defense still has potential. They were way to sloppy last night and that is a concern – not that they don’t have the talent, but it seems almost as if they think they don’t have to earn it every game. Once they start playing like they have to earn it every down, they’ll be pretty good. There’s too much talent for them to be as bad as they were last night.

Offensively, the concerns are real and have been for a while. It’s as if they just can’t get our of their own way to get this offense to where it needs to be. Everything seems overthought on offense. They can’t put two good plays together at this point.

The hard part is that after a quarter of the season you should know to an extent what you have and I can’t say for sure what the Patriots have on either side of the ball. 

I tend to think the defense can and will be okay, but I have real concerns about the offense that run deep and have for a while now. Pointing out individual players seems like a waste because everyone is at fault.

My only prescription? Find the best OL combo and stick with it. Establish a level of trust from Brady because he doesn’t have that now. Lean on the running game more. Get Dobson in there and do whatever they can to pull some coverage away from the line of scrimmage.

Ignore the noise this week. There’s plenty to be excited about this weekend with an undefeated team coming to town on national TV. Things look bad right now, but one thing I’ve learned is to never count the Patriots out until their season is over.

The season isn’t even close to over.

the problem on defense is more than just everyone needs to tackle better right?

by

More on this coming today, but pretty much. It was just like the Dolphins game. They were in position to make plays, especially on third downs but they just missed the tackles or slipped.

Then the problems were compounded by guys like Chandler Jones and Dont’a Hightower trying to do too much. Both played over-aggressive which opened up more seams in the defense.

Jones’ play on the edge was not good, he lost contain thinking he had the ability and quickness to cut inside on the tackle. It didn’t work and there were at least three big gains run right past him.

I know how bad the result looked but I still have hope for the defense if they can just find some consistency. They’re there to make the plays and get off the field, they’re just not finishing.

I was too busy applying my palm to my face the entire game so could you please tell me based on what you saw what you think they were trying to do without dobson and thompkins?

by

This was just the first of the Patriots mistakes and it really played into the Chiefs gameplan I think. KC stacked the box and showed zero respect for the Patriots having either a “deep threat” or the ability of the Pats offensive line to give Brady any kind of time to hit anyone deep.

The All-22 will give a better look at it, but the Pats need Rob Gronkowski very badly right now and he just isn’t the same player yet. As I said this offseason, Gronk is in a tough spot. Year 1 after an ACL tear is notoriously difficult. Gronk just can’t threaten the seam of a defense or block like he once did… yet.

They need Dobson almost as much and I have no idea what’s going on. Whether he’s stinking in practice or they just like LaFell better, but it’s the same old problem and teams will continue to load the box and short zones until the Patriots prove they can throw the ball farther than seven yards.