PatsPropaganda

Bengals on defense given their Giants model of being able to get pressure with four, and Saints on offense just because of Brees.

Falcons could give them problems with their offense as well given their big, athletic wide receivers, but I fear the Saints more. Probably because of what they did to us in 2009. Even though our defense forgot to show up at that game.

Let’s start on defense because that’s my thing. I have two big concerns, first is letting Julio Jones and Roddy White get deep. As we’ve talked about a lot, no one has been worse the last three seasons in defending the 20+ passes than the Pats. They’ve been pretty good so far this season, but this will be their biggest test to date.

Of course pressure plays into that and thus getting Matt Ryan off the spot with their interior rush is a must. This is another area of weaknesses I’ve written on a lot.

The other big concern for me are dumpoff passes, especially when we have Spikes on Jacquizz Rogers or even Jason Snelling.

So defensively my biggest key is Chandler Jones and his interior rush on passing downs, and Tommy Kelly/Vince Wilfork and blitzing linebackers on base downs.

Offensively, it depends on whether or not Gronk is in the fold. He’d be a huge help this week, but let’s assume he’s out. There really isn’t a lot the Patriots can do creatively given their limited personnel at this point. It really comes down to just executing with the players they have.

But I do think the Falcons can be had in the passing game, especially with the 2nd and 3rd wide receivers. So I’d look for Thompkins and Dobson to once again be a big part of the game plan.

As I wrote last night, they need to be better on first down, especially on the ground. If they’re doing that, the offense should get just the kickstart it needs.

Again, more than specific game planning stuff, this is the kind of game the Pats will have to bring their “A” game and be mentally tough enough win in a tough dome environment. Should be a good experience for the team regardless and pay dividends down the road, even if they lose.

Not “so much”. Slightly.

At this point he just seems like the more polished player, as his quickness and agility, especially getting off the line are better. Also like how slippery he seems.

Dobson seems more in the Braylon Edwards mold, and once he learns to use his size and length better he’ll rapidly improve. He also needs to attack the ball better, seems like he’s not used to how close DBs will be on him in the NFL. 

Still think both players will be good, but at this point Thompkins seems like the better of the two, three weeks into their rookie seasons, which is admittedly way too early to judge anything.