PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Pats Posits: Bye, Bye, Bye!

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The Patriots ran their way to a victory over the Bills that delivered New England’s 10th-straight divisional title and put them back in the driver’s seat for a first-round bye in the playoffs.

Sony Michel racked up 116 yards on 18 carries, while the rest of the backfield, including Cordarrelle Patterson gave the team 273 yards rushing, their most since 2008.

If you wanted a perfectly executed PatsPropaganda Gameplan, you need to look no further. My final score prediction (24-13) was one point off while the running the ball and stopping the run were the key features to this week for the team. I loved the approach and the execution, but there are still plenty of elements giving me pause before firing up the Super Bowl hype train.

With a Chiefs loss the Pats now have an outside shot at the top seed, but what matters most, after Houston’s loss to the Eagles is that the Pats control their own fate for the second seed. All they have to do is beat the Jets. And given how Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski look, never before has a Pats team needed that extra week off more.

Let’s jump in and unpack everything from the second-to-last regular season game of the season.

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Patriots Gameplan: Week 16 vs. Buffalo Bills

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After one of the worst two-week stretches of the Patriots dynasty, playoff losing ones not included, the Patriots return home to cap off the final two games of their season, first against the 5-9 Bills.

Strangely, this is very much a must-win game for the Pats. They need to win out and hope that Houston loses once to open up the second seed in the AFC. With the disparity between how they’ve played at home and how they’ve played away, never has a bye and homefield advantage felt more important.

The 2018 Patriots might not be the same 12-plus-win juggernauts we’ve seen for the past handful of spoiled seasons, but they’re still a very good team capable of making a Super Bowl no matter what seed they end up at. Still, the most favorable road is the one that stays in Foxboro as long as possible and there’s nothing wrong with hoping for that.

The Pats won’t win many people back over with a victory over the Bills. If the sky is falling at 9-5, beating a team Tom Brady has owned more than any other feels more like an obligation. But again, this game matters in the standings and it matters for the team to get back on track and gain some playoff momentum.

Here’s the gameplan.

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Bend Don’t Break Defense Analytics Update

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It was just a couple weeks ago when the Bend Don’t Break Defense Analytic had the Patriots ranking as one of the top five defenses under Belichick. Two games later, things have planed off a bit as you might expect, but there’s one consistent factor that gives the Pats’ defense hope for the playoffs.

Let’s dive into the changes in the four key areas:

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The Return of the Underdog Patriots?

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Usually, I’d be jumping into a film review in today’s piece, but given the fervor and excitement about the Patriots’ potential demise I just needed to vent a bit.

Yes, the sky is falling and the hot takers are more than happy to line up and start celebrating but after taking a day of reflection, I’ve returned to my state of enjoying the ride with Brady and Belichick.

Yesterday, the Boston Globe jumped on the old Trent Dilfer quote, sticking the “they’re not good anymore” on a headline that caught my eye. Isn’t a 9-5 team good even if they did just lose two close road games? Especially in today’s topsy-turvy NFL?

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Pats Posits: The Long Hard Road

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The Patriots season climax came to a disappointing finish yesterday, as Tom Brady’s final drive ended up going backwards just as they were knocking on the door for what I just assumed would be a game-tying touchdown and extra point.

The loss was the second in a row for the Pats, capping off their season road record at 3-5, their first road losing record season since the dreaded 2009 season. This was also the second time this season that they dropped back to back road games, the first time coming in September.

Now the Pats are staring down the barrel of playing on wild card weekend, something that hasn’t happened since that same 2009 season.

There’s so much to unpack from this game. The only way to do it is to just start firing off some Posits.

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Patriots Gameplan: Week 15 at Steelers

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With the Chargers upsetting the Chiefs last night, the Patriots are right back in the hunt for the top overall seed in the AFC. Despite a last-second, depressing loss, at this moment not much has changed in the regular season standings. We’re not dead (in KC) yet.

Regardless of the Chiefs, the Patriots let one slip away on the road last week. This trip to Pittsburgh marks the final chance to put forth on the road the same kind of great team performance that we’ve seen plenty of at Gillette Stadium.

The final two weeks of the season are as easy as they can get in the NFL, so this is really the climax of the regular season. Let’s. Go.

Here’s the gameplan for what the 2018 Patriots need to do to culminate their season appropriately.

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A Final Trip to Pittsburgh?

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One Last Trip to Pittsburgh?

At this point, there are few teams that Tom Brady and Bill Belichick don’t have history with. Even occasional opponents like the 49ers, Saints and Packers have all provided at least one memorable games.

But few places stack up with the Steelers, especially in Pittsburgh. Yes, we saw the nightmares in Miami that can happen and three seasons in Denver have come to a crashing halt. But Pittsburgh was the rare mostly-friendly away stadium of a really good team.

If the Tuck Rule was the unofficial start of the dynasty run, the next game was a 2001 AFC Championship that is often overlooked. They were underdogs in 2004 and again hoisted the Lamar Hunt Trophy on their way to their third Super Bowl.

In 2005, critical injuries took down Matt Light and Rodney Harrison, blows that the team never recovered from.

In 2010, the dejected Pats, coming off a loss to Eric Mangini and the Browns, went into Pittsburgh and showed that the end was a distant place. The following year, the Steelers exposed how bad the Patriots defense was. A flaw they’d hide almost all the way through another Super Bowl run.

Last year’s game came down to the final plays, with one of the more notable finishes to any of the battles of the last 18 years in Pittsburgh.

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