(via Silverman’s Best: Patriots vs. Saints – 10/13/2013)
https://www.patspropaganda.com/via-silvermans-best-patriots-vs-saints/
An Independent Patriots Blog
What we learned: With Tom Brady, Patriots ‘always have a chance’ – WEEI | Christopher Price
The Patriots were in no huddle for 44 of their 83 plays on the season (53 percent), far and away the highest percentage for a team that was running no-huddle on just five percent of their offensive snaps through the first five games of the year. Two things to keep in mind: One, New England wasn’t playing uptempo, but once the play was done, they’d get to the line of scrimmage fairly quickly. It wasn’t necessarily fast football, but would prevent substitutions on defense for New Orleans, and so quite frequently, the Saints weren’t able to make the necessary personnel changes. And two, this was a formula the Patriots used to beat the Cowboys in 2011 – that year, Rob Ryan and the Dallas defense were able to keep Brady off balance early, but New England went no huddle for much of the second, third and fourth quarter, eventually running it on 52 percent of their snaps, a season-high.
Chandler has a new fan
https://www.patspropaganda.com/jcincleats-chandler-has-a-new-fan/
Yeah, although I’d call this more of a “Slow Huddle”. Clearly they have to take more time pre-snap to get it all figured out. I noticed quite a few spots where it seemed like Brady was taking an extra second to make sure all the rest of the Pats offense was seeing what he saw.
It wasn’t the get to the line and snap it immediately and everyone just knows what to do like we saw last year. Still, nice to see they’re picking up the pace a bit, just hated to see them go so cold in the second half, essentially until the last drive of the game.
Pats-Saints finish gets Tecmo Bowl’d, with Zo’s radio call…
https://www.patspropaganda.com/pats-saints-finish-gets-tecmo-bowld-with-zos/
As with most of us, it took me a little while to get going this morning. After taking the last 18 hours to enjoy the win, I took another quick look at the replay this morning.
Some of the reality has started to sink in and while I’m generally a positive Patriots pundit, it’s hard not to be a little concerned about a lot of what happened yesterday.
Were there positives and progress? Sure.
But let’s try to keep things even keel with some of the bad stuff that again showed up.
How does the defense give up a touchdown on a 3rd-and-20 to lose the lead late in the fourth quarter. Yes, they played well the last two possessions, due in part to the Saints mailing it in, thinking the game was already won. Still, that was a gross breakdown to give up that touchdown.
To me it looks like a separated shoulder for Jerod Mayo, given the way he fell on it. I had the same injury and it would cost Mayo at least a couple weeks depending on the severity. This is purely my speculation. I would be curious to see how Dane Fletcher does filling in for Mayo, though he might only get in on true passing downs with the Pats preferring Hightower and Spikes most of the time.
Looks like Talib’s hip issue has resurfaced. I remember Greg Bedard saying the Pats should lock Talib in hot yoga all offseason to loosen that hip and it looks like he was right. I don’t think it means he misses much time, but it will likely be something that has to be managed the rest of the season. I think initially we’re looking at at least a game or two that he’s out.
I’m guessing Amendola is out at least until the bye.
I just don’t know how the Pats can keep escaping with wins with all these injuries piling up. Now they have back-to-back divisional games that will likely decide if this is a race down to the wire or if the Pats will walk away with it.
At this point I’ve kind of given up on the injuries. How many more impact guys can you lose?
But to end on a positive note, here’s some good stuff:
– Ridley provided a huge boost, both in explosive plays and short yardage.
– The rookies WRs are still up and down, but that was a good step forward for both of them yesterday.
– The Pats just keep winning and that’s a sign of a good team. They’re not the ‘10-’12 Patriots, but they have their own personality and fight to them that can be frustrating but is starting to grow on me.
Collins will be an interesting matchup on Julius Thomas this weekend.