PatsPropaganda

After Week 4 is when we start to get a realistic sense of what they’re good at and what they’re not good at. Then I’ll start to feel comfortable being critical of things like I was last year with the 20+ pass coverage, MOF pass coverage, offense lacking the wide and deep dimension, etc. I’ll continue to expect some up and downs with  the offense and passing game until the bye, after that my expectations for them will rise.

Yeah, personally I always skew a little more toward the defensive side of the ball, but maybe Pats fans have just forgotten what it’s like to have a dominant defense.  But also, everyone loves offensive firepower – big passes, touchdowns, etc. are far more exciting to a standard fan than forcing a three-and-out.

And yes, New England fans are famous for their pessimism and there are plenty of media outlets that play on it. I try not to get too high or low here on the blog, keeping sight of the fact that the season is a process and taking everything that happens early in the season with a grain of salt. Am I a homer? Sure. But does that mean I won’t be critical of the team? No. I’m not a cheerleader, but I do try to remind people that we’re in the middle of what might be the best run of Patriots football ever. For those who are kicking and screaming the whole time, I feel bad.

I’ve just accepted that sports are how a lot of people unleash their negativity and really, that’s okay if it happens instead of on their family, friends, co-workers and random passer-bys. 

I  do get tired of talking people off the ledge or shooting down the “we need this WR who’s been out of the league for two years” ideas. Let’s try enjoying the process with the young wide receivers. We’ll reap the rewards down the road, just like we should be starting to reap the rewards from the defense that has been really young the last couple seasons.

Really hard to compare Romeo Crennel, Dean Pees and Matt Patricia, because defenses are so much more tied to what offenses are doing.

The biggest thing is just the overall talent level on the defense. Crennel had a veteran group in their prime. Pees got that group for end of their run, and squeezed every last bit of play out of them.

Now Patricia has basically had to re-build the defense, obviously with the help of Belichick. But I think that Crennel and Pees had it a little easier given the talent levels they had to work with.

While there has been plenty of evolutions schematically, as discussed yesterday, with the nickel defense essentially becoming the new base. Crennel could roll out his 34 for most of the game, rotating the linebackers a bit between Roman Phifer and Ted Johnson depending on what needed to be stopped. Otherwise, it was a veteran crew who could not only disguise their intentions, but execute with physicality and win one-on-one matchups.

Now Patricia has to stop modern NFL passing games and his secondary can’t put a hand on the receivers more than five yards past the line of scrimmage.

But the defensive rebuild is a huge area of focus on this blog, and when you look at the key additions over the last few years, you can see how things are taking shape.

Major moments of the defensive rebuild

2008 – Jerod Mayo drafted.

2009 – Rob Ninkovich, Kyle Arrington added via FA.

2010 – Brandon Spikes, Devin McCourty drafted.

2011 – Ras-I Dow.. nevermind…

2012 – Chandler Jones, Dont’a Hightower, Alfonzo Dennard drafted, Steve Gregory signed as FA, Aqib Talib traded for.

As you can see the core they’ve put together over the last few years should really be coming together this season. I have high expectations, it’s a similar time frame now as it was in 2001 for Bruschi, McGinest, Ty Law, Lawyer Milloy, etc.