PatsPropaganda

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devin mccourty

Guess Who Wasn’t at Patriots Practice Today?

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Injuries are really starting to add up for the Patriots. McCourty and Brace were new additions to the hopefully still walking wounded, while Mike Wright and Myron Pryor remained out. Jonathan Wilhite if you hadn’t heard was also put on IR today, ending his season.

Not good, we need all these guys back and soon.

OH and Gerard Warren was missing too. He hurt his knee against the Bears but did return so maybe they’re just resting him. Hopefully. Otherwise your healthy defensive lineman are Wilfork (all-pro), Deaderick (7th round rookie), Love (undrafted rookie), and the FNG Louis Leonard. Eeeeeek!

A Four Pack of Must-Read Patriots Articles

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First we start off with Tom E. Curran’s Patriots go from rebuilding to remarkable. I love when the TEC drops some Patriots positivity on us instead of awkward hand gestures.

Next we have another gem from Mike Lombardi which goes into how the Patriots evolved this off-season and an in depth look at Bill Belichick’s bad weather game philosophy.

Tedy Bruschi is developing a man crush on Devin McCourty, and must be having a hard time containing his homerism while doing ESPN appearances.

Finally we have an excerpt from Peter King where he talks about how the last four seasons have basically proven that the charade known as Spygate didn’t really give the Patriots any kind of an advantage.

New England’s gone from winning two-thirds of its games with the benefit of taping illegally, to winning three-quarters of its games and scoring six points more per game without taping – and with so many new pieces on offense.

Look, the last thing I’m going to do is start dredging up all the Spygate baloney again but finally we can point to some stats when the morons who think the only reason the Pats ever won a game was because they were taping defensive signals start yapping again. 

Patriots Defensive Observations

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Some notes and such on the Patriots defense following the re-watch of the Bears game.

– Jarrad Page was out there a lot, over Brandon Meriweather in some cases. Once Devin McCourty was lost half way through the second quarter there was some juggling so it’s hard to say exactly what the depth chart situation is. But it’s clear that the coaches like Page and he’s getting more and more play time every week. He did have a blown coverage and missed tackle in the second half, but pretty much any defender who played a lot in those conditions did as well. 

– Maybe Meriweather just doesn’t play well in the cold? Sounds stupid but his reduction in playing time was definitely notable as he had re-emerged as an every down player as of late. 

– Patrick Chung had more time in the slot but seemed to do a better job than he had in the last few games. He was reacting quick and getting to the ball. He should be back to 100% by the playoffs.

– There were times when the Patriots had 4 safeties on the field. Clearly they need to get healthy at cornerback.

– Early reports via Gresh and Zo were that Devin McCourty wouldn’t miss a game with his rib injury. It looked like the injury happened on the play where he forced the fumble. Didn’t look like a major collision or anything. If it’s anything serious I’d be pretty surprised, would have to be a freak thing in that case, and it sounds like McCourty isn’t the kind of player who suffers freak injuries.

– Ron Brace saw time at nose tackle for the first time this season and looked fast and strong off the ball. He also got some time as an interior rusher next to Vince Wilfork. With Myron Pryor and Mike Wright out Brace got a chance to do some pass rushing, in the past it had been Kyle Love and Gerard Warren doing it so it’s a positive sign that Brace is improving. You can never have too many big strong defensive lineman, and with Brace playing well it really bodes well for the future.

– Kyle Arrington had a very solid game against the Bears, might come down to him or Dan Connolly for the 12th man award.

– As I kind of expected the lack of Brandon Spikes didn’t really mean much for Dane Fletcher. Fletcher has been primarily a passing down linebacker, and it looks like Eric Moore showed enough in his first week to get some looks as the designated pass rusher opposite Tully Banta-Cain in nickel and dime packages. Moore made some good plays, so I expect we’ll see more of him. If he can bring some consistent pass rush it would be a great addition.

– The Patriots lost their top sack player (Mike Wright) and haven’t lost a game. Pretty impressive considering how much people bag on our pass rush. When he/Pryor get back it should give the defense even more of a boost, especially because their legs should be fresh.

– Great day for Gary Guyton. If had been since the opener versus the Bengals when he last made a big play and in this game he made two. Hopefully he can continue to ascend. Given it’s his third year he really should be starting to hit his stride.

Do the Patriots have a championship defense?

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Tonight as I listened to Bob Neumeir suggest that the Patriots and their fans felt “blase” with this impressive run the team has put together, I realized that it wasn’t too long ago we had the worst pass defense in the NFL. At least according to the “pundits”.

So now, as the media anoints the Pats as the favorites to be playing in Dallas, we have to honestly ask ourselves if this defensive group has what it takes to win the big one.

If they continue to force turnovers like they have been them the answer is a resounding yes. But the fact is Shaun Hill, Mark Sanchez and Jay Cutler aren’t really elite NFL quarterbacks despite what you might’ve heard.

Peyton Manning is elite, and he came within a bad throw of putting just as many points on us as we put on them. Philip Rivers is elite, and he came within a missed Field Goal of taking the Pats to overtime.

I have no doubt that the Patriots run defense is up to the challenge of winning a Super Bowl. I’ve seen them shut down Adrian Peterson, and a number of strong running teams like the Ravens and the Steelers. 

But the teams that have effective passing attacks will give the Pats a run for their money. And with Aaron Rodgers likely out this weekend the Patriots will not face an elite passing attack until the playoffs.

In that case the Pats best chance for the Super Bowl will be to avoid Rivers and Manning at all costs. Luckily they’ll most likely have the home crowd and conditions on their side if facing either of them, but even then it’s probably going to be interesting.

That doesn’t even touch on the teams in the NFC the Pats could face. They could be even more scary, with Matt Ryan, Drew Brees and Michael Vick all possible opponents.

The legacy of this young defense will be written based not on how they beat the Bears on December 11th but how they perform when it’s do or die. To shut down an elite quarterback they will need to play on a level we still have yet to see.

Will they get there? They have three more games to work on it, and a prayer that Devin McCourty’s ribs are just bruised.