PatsPropaganda

I’m not really worried about the future without Tom Brady yet. I’m worried about getting the new offense healthy and up to speed. Seems like people are conveniently forgetting the change and injuries the offense has undergone this year. I know everyone expects 35+ points every game, but that’s just not realistic. It’s not 2007 anymore. Take this season in and of itself and realize it’s a process and it’s about putting together a clutch offense that comes through in January.

Look around the rest of the NFL and the AFC especially. Has there ever been this much parity? The Pats have been in every single game, and granted they’ve all been a grind to the end, but that’s how the best teams are formed in the regular season. Those are the teams that are the hardest to eliminate in the playoffs, because they’ve been through adversity, they’ve kept fighting and really, they have nothing to lose.

I know the rest of the AFC East is not-so-patiently waiting for Brady to completely fall apart, but I think they’ll be waiting another couple seasons for that.

Vollmer, Solder, and Mankins have been pretty solid. Granted each has had their hiccups, but overall it’s hard to ask for much more out of them. Connolly and Wendell haven’t been good.

PFF has them as the lowest ranked players on offense, and both have matching -8.1s in pass protection. Connolly has been battling injuries for as long as I can remember now. Wendell was a great run blocker and average pass blocker last year, but he’s seemingly regressed.

I like Wendell’s chances of righting the ship a little better than Connolly’s. With Connolly it feels like he might just be best served as an interior swing guy. Maybe Marcus Cannon gets a shot starting for him again, but there’s not much depth to play with.

It’s way early but look for the interior offensive line to be an offseason priority.

Impossible to measure accurately unless you know the play call and the needed route adjustments against the defensive play. Let’s just call it 50-50 and understand that everything is connected, and that includes the offensive line that certainly was not at their best against a very tough Jets front seven that has always caused a lot of problems.

Let’s take a walk down memory lane. It was 2010 and Tom Brady just turned in the following stat line in the second half against the Jets in New York:

7-of-16 (43.8%) for 69 yards and 2 interceptions.

He had Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez in that game, and would go on to win the first ever unanimous NFL MVP award.

Now, there’s no question he needs to be better, as do the rest of the offense and coaches. The Jets also deserve some credit. That’s a very good defense, playing at home in a game they really had to have.

There shouldn’t be any rush to judgement that Brady has suddenly lost it, even though that time will certainly come and this has been a sad preview of how quickly fans will turn against him. 

It’s been an inconsistent start to the season, but there are two big games coming up and really great chances to not only right the ship, but really put the Pats in a strong position divisionally and in the conference.

Gronk is back. Amendola could be back this week. Let’s let the next two games play out, then we’ll get Vereen back and things should start looking a lot better.

Email me… PatsPropaganda [at] gmail.com.