PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

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NFL loses a legend in Steve Sabol

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As I’ve written a couple times here I owe most of my love of football to NFL Films, and today we’ve lost a legend in Steve Sabol. It was the theatrical and epic nature of NFL Films that hooked me on the NFL early in life and I think their influence here on PatsPropaganda is pretty obvious.

So I just wanted to share a couple Steve Sabol-related items that I’ve enjoyed over the years. The fingerprint that Steve and his father Ed Sabol left on the NFL will not soon be forgotten. They defined how sports should be filmed, and in a way that television just doesn’t capture.

Sabol on Belichick, from Lombardi vs. Belichick:

Belichick is a brilliant planner who creates a mental map of each game, then plays it out in his mind before his team has to play it out on the field. His complex schemes work like a kaleidoscope: with each little twist they present different pictures to the opposition.

Video of Sabol on the Patriot Way.

Steve Sabol on how to shoot your kids football games.

Notes on PFF’s Patriots grades: Week 2 Cardinals

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The grades are out for the Patriots-Cardinals game, and here some numbers that stand out to me.

Top Defensive Player: Chandler Jones (4.7)

Top Offensive Player: Sebastian Vollmer (3.3)

Worst Defensive Player: Jermaine Cunningham (-1.3)

Worst Offensive Player: Logan Mankins (-1.9)

Amazingly the top four players on offense were the offensive lineman. All graded out highly in pass protection, and average in run blocking.

I don’t know how Donald Thomas ended up with the 4th best score. I thought he was the worst player on offense. But apparently that was Logan Mankins.

Gronk had his worst graded regular season game since 2010 in Cleveland (-1.7). He had a -2.0 in the Super Bowl but I don’t count that one since he was on one ankle.

Brandon Spikes was the second highest graded defender (4.6) and had an impressive 7 stops (solo defensive tackle that constitute an offensive failure).

Spikes however was picked on in coverage a bit, allowing 3 catches of the 4 times he was thrown at for 26 yards.

Ninkovich bounced back after an average week in Tennessee with a 1.6, including 2 QB hurries, and 3 stops. He did have 2 missed tackles as well.

Kyle Arrington had a rough day in coverage with a -1.9. He was thrown at 5 times and all were completions for 62 total yards.

Devin McCourty had one of his best days in coverage. He was thrown at 4 times and gave up 0 completions.

A rare non-dominant day for Vince Wilfork, grading out an a -0.6. He still had a sack, 2 QB hurries and 2 stops though.

Patriots were brutal running to the left side, not surprisingly with Calais Campbell sitting over there. -2.4 running behind the tight end on the left, and -3.9 running behind Mankins at LG.

They had their most success running right behind the center, but still only scoring a measly 1.0.

The grader only qualified 8 of 50 plays as having Brady under pressure. Also only had 8 blitzes for the Cardinals.

The middle flat was yet again where the Pats did their most damage in the passing game. Brady was 10-11 for 87 yards and a TD there. To the  outside flats Brady was 8-10 for 49 yards

From 10-20 yards Brady was 5-13 for 54 yards. For 20+ yards he was 2-6 for 61 yards.

Return game was average with McCourty scoring a -0.2 on 2 kick off returns, and Welker and Edelman combining for a 0.8 on 2 punt returns.

Quick hit reaction to the Patriots 20-18 loss to the Cardinals

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I’m a big picture guy so I hope no one’s expecting me to overreact to today’s stinker. In simplest terms the Patriots lost Aaron Hernandez to an injury and seemed unprepared to alter their game plan accordingly. In the first half especially they looked disjointed on offense.

At one point it felt like Stevan Ridley making something out of nothing was the only offense they were getting. 

Brandon Lloyd made some great catches but I wouldn’t call him and Brady “deadly” just yet. Still, he seems to be getting it, and is showing that he can be a threat outside the numbers that we so badly need.

The defense had some patches on inconsistency but ultimately they made enough plays to still keep the offense in it. This is a positive sign. Spikes’ forced fumble is a big play to build on.

Special Teams was somewhere in between the offense and defense. Gostkowski made four field goals but the only one we’ll remember is the one he missed. And obviously the blocked punt, was a huge play that basically won  it for Arizona.

We’ll have all week to speculate about why Edelman is playing over Welker. Is Welker dinged? Are they just trying to manage him? Or is Edelman simply outplaying him? I’m sure we’ll get plenty of this over the next six days.

Sterling Moore looks to have overtaken Ras-I Dowling for the time being as the third cornerback. That could just be a game plan thing though I’m not sure how much we saw of Dowling.

I’ve just never felt comfortable criticizing an offensive coordinator for play calling, but I will say a lot of Josh McDaniels calls left me scratching my head. It was like without Hernandez they lost 80% of what they wanted to do.

In my game preview I thought the Pats would move fast and try more hurry up. It seemed to work later in the game, but where was it early on?

I just can’t get caught up in debating the replacement refs calls. We’ve had good calls and bad calls for us and against us over the years, it’s up to the players to adjust to how the game is being called.

Losses like these will happen early in the season. We see them (almost) every year. Jets in ‘09, ’10. Bills in ’11. It’s a little troublesome that this happened at home, but in the long term an out of conference loss in week two isn’t going to have overwhelming ramifications.

I have no doubt they can overcome the loss of Hernando, they’ll just be a little more conventional. I don’t think there’s any reason to be overly concerned that this offense is in trouble long term. They still need to figure out how to beat teams that aggressive man with them, but it seems like they have the pieces in place to challenge it better this year. Things just went wrong from the start and kept going wrong, and they couldn’t get the ship righted.

The main issues to focus on now:

  1. How long is Hernandez out for?
  2. How will the offense adjust without him?
  3. Can the defense continue to build on these two games?

Now we move on to an AFCCG rematch with the Ravens in Baltimore. Both teams are coming off losses, as if it wasn’t going to be a total war already. Hard to believe us or the Ravens will be 1-2 by next Monday. 

Hats off to the Cardinals for a well-executed game plan. There’s no doubt they were the better team today, but there’s still plenty to be optimistic about in New England.

5 keys for Patriots vs. Cardinals

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As required by the NFL blogger code of content here are our five key areas to watch this weekend when the New England Patriots take on the Arizona Cardinals.

1. Challenge the edges of the Cardinals defense – There’s no question the strength of the Cardinals defense is along their defensive line, but their outside linebackers struggled in week one. Sam Acho and O’Brien Schofield are inexperienced and haven’t seen a precision offensive attack like the Pats’ blitzkreig. The Patriots were extremely successful against the Titans running Stevan Ridley at the edges and I’d expect that to continue this week. So whether it’s on the ground or through the air, challenging the outside linebackers looks like the way to go, especially if we can get them matched up on Gronk or Hernando. What they’ll want to avoid is trying to run right into the teeth of Calais Campbell, Dan Williams, and Darnell Dockett.

2. Jam Larry – I’m most looking forward to seeing how the Pats take away the Cardinals top weapon, Larry Fitzgerald. Regardless if they have one cornerback on him regardless of where he lines up or just roll coverage to him it will be important to be physical with him at the line of scrimmage. A common strategy against the Pats defense is to attack them with short passes and with Kevin Kolb’s experience in the west coast offense in Philly I’d expect we’ll see a good deal of this from the Cardinals. The Patriots defense cannot allow Fitz to make quick catches and then make plays with his feet. Force Kolb to hold the ball, and allow some time for the pass rush to get there. If Larry is given a cushion he’s going to eat us alive.

3. Spread and Dead – The Cardinals defense cannot be allowed dictate what they want to do. Going to the no-huddle will allow the Pats to counter the defense’s aggressiveness, while also testing the conditioning of the Cardinals d-line and the communication amongst some of the more inexperienced players.  I’d expect this means a little more of Woodhead than we saw last week, but Ridley should still get his fair share of touches. This could also be where we truly see how close Brady and Brandon Lloyd are to being on the same page. Don’t be surprised to see Wes Welker with 8+ catches either.

4. Protect our Tommy – Yes, this is somewhat of a generic key but it’s really true for this weekend. Campbell and Dockett combined for 10 QB pressures and 4 sacks against the Seahawks. Using the no-huddle can help keep them at bay, but the Patriots offensive line must play up to the task. There’s no secret that when teams get to Brady the Pats offense becomes very ordinary. The Cardinals will throw a fair share of blitzes as well so the communication must be airtight. The entire key to the Cardinals game plan should be to get to Brady by any means necessary, and it’s up to the o-line to make sure that doesn’t happen. It’s a new group, and Dan Connolly may or may not be out there. This will be an excellent test for them, against an experienced and physical three-man front.

5. Win – As always, this is all that matters. The Pats have always been tough to beat in Foxboro and the last thing they want to do is allow an NFC West team to come in and push them around on their turf. We know they’re probably due for a dud sometime in September but with a challenging three weeks ahead the Pats can’t afford to slip up against a team they should really beat.