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Two Key Plays: Patriots Defense at the end of the first half

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The Patriots’ third down defense is off to a strong start in 2017. After losing three key pass rushers this last offseason, the youngsters consisting of Trey Flowers, Adam Butler, Dietrich Wise and Cassius Marsh have shown consistent disruption getting after the quarterback early on.

After two games, the Patriots defense is tied for 10th on third down at a rate of 34.8 percent. Historically this is even better than the 2015 (37.3, ) and 2016 (36.9), defenses that finished ranked 10th and 7th respectively. Yes, it’s just two games, but it’s a good start and nice to see an injection of youth and promise at a critical area. One of need especially this year.

Let’s take a look at a two-down sequence to see how the third, and fourth-down defense allowed the Patriots to pull away toward victory.

As you can see below, the situation is that it’s the end of the first half and the Saints are just outside the redzone, down by two scores. Whether or not the game stays close depends on the Saints getting points here before getting the ball to start the second half. It’s a third and three, favorable distance for an offense, who can run or pass.

The Patriots appear to be in man defense, and with Elandon Roberts still in the game, they still have a pretty good run-defending linebacker behind a light front. Still, they’re clearing expecting pass.

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Pats Posits: 1-1 and we’re back having fun!

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The Patriots got their 2017 season on track with a 36-20 victory over the New Orleans Saints, evening their record to 1-1 and silencing any doubters who actually though the season-opening loss would derail the New England football machine.

It now feels like the season is officially underway and despite a handful of somewhat concerning injuries, the Patriots look every bit as primed as ever to make another run at a Super Bowl title. No matter who they do or don’t roll out there, the Patriots will be a tough out for whoever they play this season. Already, just two weeks in, the hope is they can pull Gronk, Amendola, Hightower, Mitchell and whoever else goes down together in January after a bye week for a three-wins-for-Super-Bowl-Six playoff run..

Perhaps most impressive was how this suddenly felt like the Bill Belichick Patriots we’ve become accustomed to. They carved the Saints underneath in the passing game, leaned on Rob Gronkowski when they had to, and played the kind of bend-don’t-break defense we’ve all come to love/hate. This was the Patriots and it was a nice reminder that despite an uneven performance on opening night, this is still a very good football team capable of beating any team on any given Sunday.

First things first, let’s get the injuries out of the way, because there were quite a few. This is a troubling trend in 2017 and we’re going on four-straight games dating back to the preseason with significant players going down. Luckily it seems like the initial reports on all the injuries are positive, but we’ve heard that before and then you find out Hightower’s seeing Dr. Andrews and maybe it isn’t just a “sprained MCL” but a chronic problem.

We’ll see on Wednesday just how serious and lingering these injuries from this one are.

Injury Report

  • Rob Gronkowski – Groin: Gronk told reporters he was “okay” after the game. Just the fact that he stayed on the sideline without anyone really paying attention to him leads me to believe Gronk will be fine. But it sure is scary having to rely on the big tight end that much. Hoepfully Alex Guerrero can work some soft tissue magic and Gronk’s groin will be fine. Of course, the groin jokes just write themselves with Gronk, especially after he nabbed his 69th touchdown catch in this game.
  • Eric Rowe – Groin: Rowe also indicated he’d be oaky with some rest.
  • Rex Burkhead – Ribs
  • Chris Hogan – Knee: Sounds like this problem popped up late in the week of practice. Hopefully it’s a minor sprain that doesn’t linger.
  • Phillip Dorsett – Knee: Injured just as he was starting to click with Brady, hopefully they don’t lose him, it would be a setback for a player still trying to pick up the offense.

Okay, with the injuries out of the way let’s jump into the Posits from a feel good win.

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Patriots-Chiefs Film Review: Defense Edition

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Plowed my way through the first defensive review of the All 22 film and as always it put things into perspective when watching without the emotion of the broadcast. Of course there were bad plays and busted coverages, but there was also plenty to feel positive about.

In a lot of ways it did remind me of the 2014 Chiefs loss in that players just weren’t getting off blocks and making plays. That kind of performance is often common the first few weeks of the season, with one ugly game almost always popping up — remember losing to the Cardinals at home in 2012?

But the poor performance would’ve been so much different if not for a few blown coverages and I fully expect there to be fewer blown coverages the rest of this season than there were in Week One.

Here are my observations on the big defensive picture.

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Pats Posits: We’re Not in 28-3 Land Anymore

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The electric celebratory atmosphere inside Gillette Stadium was slowly strangled to death before our very eyes on Thursday Night as the Chiefs poured in on late to blow out New England 42-27. The Patriots asked fans to get there early for the celebration, and well they left early too and even I, someone who yelled at people for walking out of the 2009 opener, hit the exits early.

I’m not sure what’s worse, that the Patriots laid a total team turd or that two critical players who couldn’t get hurt, got hurt. The injuries make the second blowout loss in four seasons to the Chiefs taste even worse than the original in 2014.

This one was historically bad with the most points the defense has given up under Belichick. Yes, it’s still only week one and my golden rule is to never overreact to a game in September, but there were certainly some cold hard truths revealed on Thursday Night — they miss Edelman, and without Hightower the defense was lacked both rudder and tooth.

The two players that had to go the distance this year were Danny Amendola and Hightower. The game was competitive when they were upright. When both were lost, the offense and defense were lost.

What’s clear is this team has no identity yet, and they’ve lost much of what’s made the tick the last few seasons. New players must emerge but it’s going to take time.

After a season where the team really didn’t face much adversity until 28-3, the 2017 Pats got an instant dose of drama at the outset.

Thoughts on how it’s all going to turn out in the Posits.

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A Preview of the Real 2017 Patriots

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After an entire offseason spent analyzing who the 2017 Patriots would be, we now have just a short window between actually finding out who made it through training camp and the official start of the campaign. This is why injuries are such a huge part of the game. No one could’ve predicted the early defining characteristic of the 2017 Patriots would be replacing an injured Julian Edelman but here we are.

So it’s a good time to take a quick breath and analyze this edition of the Patriots before the proverbial train leaves the station. You’ve read plenty of season previews by this point, but it’s really only the one that happens right now that truly matters.

Now we know who we’re taking to battle and what the strengths and weaknesses could potentially be. As always it’s important to remember that September really is just an extension of the preseason. The schemes, especially on defense, really start out slowly. Random guys will still get long looks in significant roles. The team will probably have a flat game where an inferior team on paper plays them tough. They’ll fight through it and ignore any noise.

This is September. Don’t overreact. Let things play out and let the coaching staff figure out exactly what they have and how to best use everyone. Then it’s pedal to the metal.

Let’s dive in.

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Concern Over Patriots Front Seven Turnover?

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This is probably as close as you’ll get to a hot take here on the Prop, but a recent commenter pointed out my concern over the front seven so I think it’s worth diving into a little more deeply. Or at least expanding upon my reasoning that there are more questions about this Patriots defense than some might want to admit.

Look, I skew toward the defensive side of the ball and I’ve got to be honest in my analysis, as much as we all want this to be a fanboy blog that does nothing but spew rainbows and sunshine about how awesome the Patriots are.

This isn’t doom and gloom. These are legitimate questions. But we can all agree that the defense remains well coached and has a number of promising young players. That is exciting. But those unproven players will need to step up because this is not an insignificant transition at the most important part of the defense.

And yes, the secondary is awesome. So hopefully that can help as things turn over.

Still, here’s what we’re looking at:

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Patriots Tweets of Note: The Final Training Camp Practice Open to Fans

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The Patriots closed out the public portions of their training camp practices on Monday, with developments on the injury front.

Now the Pats will head to West Virginia to practice with the Texans, whom they’ll play in Houston on Sunday. It’s like one big former Patriot reunion camping trip in the mountains!

It should be a fun week. I’m excited to see new Texans defensive coordinator Mike Vrabel. He should speak to the media at some point. Vrabel never disappoints with a great quote or two.

Here’s what those who were there saw at Monday’s practice.

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