PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

patrick chung

Patriots Gamplan: Week 3 at Detroit Lions

by

It’s been a long week in Patriots Nation. The team got blasted on the field. Another book came out and drudged up more things from 2017, a recurring occurrence now. Even the low-risk Josh Gordon acquisition was met with controversy. Sometimes it can be exhausting being an even-keeled Patriots fan man blogger and this was one of those exhausting weeks. But with a win in Detroit over Matt Patricia the Pats can get everything back on track and shut up a lot of the noise once again.

Despite a first-game shitshow, the Lions are going to put up a good fight. Like the Patriots, they’ve shown some holes but they’ve also had their share of nice plays, especially against the 49ers in a tight three-point loss.

While I know we will see a far better Patriots squad I also don’t expect it to be perfect. There’s still too much to work through, especially dealing with potential absences of Trey Flowers and Patrick Chung. Under any circumstances, a Pats defense without those two would be severely affected and that could be even more exacerbated if everyone plays as sloppy as they did in Jacksonville.

What do they have to do to get the all-important win and return home to face the Dolphins? Here’s the gameplan.

[Read more…] about Patriots Gamplan: Week 3 at Detroit Lions

Pats Posits: Brace for Hot Takes

by

The 2018 Patriots fell back to earth with a thud, losing to the Jaguars in a decidedly lackluster performance.  The defense, losing both key cogs Patrick Chung and Trey Flowers to concussions, looked every bit as terrible as the squad we saw against the Eagles in Super Bowl 52.

Offensively, the Patriots completely fell into my gameplan trap. They couldn’t run the ball, got into third-and-longs and couldn’t covert. There was no explosiveness out of the offense with Phillip Dorsett and Chris Hogan largely invisible and Cordarrelle Patterson‘s trick plays largely ineffective.

Not much worked for the Patriots on Sunday. But this isn’t uncharted territory and September stinkers are often the norm, not the exception. They looked every bit as listless against the Chiefs in 2014 and 2017 and both those squads still made the Super Bowl. If anything this is just a reminder that it’s a long season and what happens on September 15th can often have little or no effect on what happens in February.

The important thing is to figure out ‘what now.’ The Patriots still fought hard, a sign of nearly all Belichick’s teams, but they made way too many mistakes and way too few plays. Building off sparks like Kyle Van Noy‘s interception and Stephon Gilmore‘ and Trey Flowers’ forced fumbles. These Patriots never packed it in, but do they have the pieces to overcome the glaring number of shortcomings they displayed?

Let’s dive into some gut reaction Posits.

[Read more…] about Pats Posits: Brace for Hot Takes

Patrick Chung Extended Through 2020

by


When I started this blog, Patrick Chung was one of the early favorites. Seriously there are 42 pages of posts about Chung, or as I dubbed him early on, Patchung! because he played with reckless abandon and just patchunged the hell out of guys. That fearless playing style was what endeared him to us all, and made him an early favorite to replace Rodney Harrison who retired the year before Chung entered the league.

It didn’t quite work that way out of the gate, but ever since taking a brief hiatus in Philadelphia for a year, Chung has more than lived up to the lofty expectation of replacing maybe the toughest safety to ever don a Patriots uniform. Chung has now signed another contract extension, his third since rejoining the team, locking him up through 2020 and solidifying an area that I thought could possibly transition sooner than many thought.

With guys like Kenny Vaccaro and later Tyrann Mathieu available and Chung set to turn 31 in August with a $3.8 million cap hit, I wondered if it might be one of those year-too-early situations, but happily, I was wrong and Chung isn’t going anywhere.

[Read more…] about Patrick Chung Extended Through 2020

Pats Posits: Let the Tampering Begin!

by

It’s an exciting time to be a football fan with the start of free agency this week, the 2018 season will finally start to take shape. For the Patriots, they already grabbed Danny Shelton and another draft pick for what will likely be a 2019 3rd round pick, making a solid investment in this coming fall without sacrificing much more than a couple million in cap space this season.

There are still plenty of moves for them to make, starting with Nate Solder and the tackle position.

From there they can move on to running back, linebacker and cornerback, doing what they always do — targeting the cost-effective vets in the middle-to-lower tiers. 2017 was a shocker when they made a big splash on a cornerback. Since Adalius Thomas they really had avoided big time external free agent deals, with consideration to Darrelle Revis, who was expensive but really just a one-year rental.

They had the cap space last year, this year they don’t. So until Solder is resolved I don’t expect any big moves. After that there should be quite a bit of action.

More on that and everything else that might come at us this week in a very offseason Posits!

[Read more…] about Pats Posits: Let the Tampering Begin!

Pats Posits: No Style Points On TNF

by

It wasn’t surprising to wake up to a lot of people pissing and moaning about the style points from last night’s Thursday Night Football win by the Patriots. On an uber-short week, against an unfamiliar opponent on the road you’ll take a victory any way you can take it, especially after how apocalyptic the Patriots defense looked on Sunday.

Really, it was only the fourth quarter that anyone should have any problem with. At that point the Patriots went to sleep on both sides of the ball after actually being quite good for most of the previous three quarters. The defense gave up 214 yards while the offense only picked up 42 in the 4th. So yes, that’s something for the entire team to focus on, but let’s not throw out the rest of the night based on the final frame.

When the narrative for three miserable days was how the defense couldn’t stop a nose bleed and the offense would have to be over-relied on, things were certainly turned on their head last night.

The defense forced six punts, including five three-and-outs and two four-and-outs. It’s hard to ask much more from any defense, even more so one that was busting coverages left and right only a few days earlier. Plus, they had to overcome two Tom Brady turnovers, something none of us would’ve thought them capable of.

The offense continues to move the ball well in between the 20s, but sputtered when the game was on the line. They remain a work in progress despite exciting flashes from Cooks, Gillislee and Hogan, and a 2015 Dion Lewis sighting.

It wasn’t pretty at the end but there was plenty on both sides to build off of and I think it’s safe to say that rumors of this Patriots teams’ demise were once again premature. Here are a bunch of Posits on the third win of the season…

[Read more…] about Pats Posits: No Style Points On TNF

Coffin Corner: Introducing ** The A-Team ** The NFL’s New Best Secondary

by

The Seahawks have the Legion of Boom, the secondary that defines excellence in the modern NFL. The unit helmed by Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor and Richard Sherman instills the fear of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy on receivers on a weekly basis. The duo of safeties uses solid and technically sound acts of violence to intimidate opposing pass catchers who seek refuge over the middle of the field. It’s an impressive scheme that requires outstandingly athletic and brutal safeties and opportunistic corners to be successful. Pete Carroll has invested heavily in this unit, using almost 1/5 of his cap space on those three players. That may seem like a sustainable allocation of resources on arguably the best three players on your team, but as we saw last year they completely cratered after suffering the Earl Thomas injury because they could no longer serve their mantra “every last blade of grass” without depth at the position.

The Patriots secondary unit are waiting in the wings to take the mantle of best secondary in the NFL and Belichick spends a similar percentage of his cap on their core secondary. Though, because we’re talking about the Patriots: they employ the same amount of money roughly $18 million on FIVE core players in the defensive backfield rather than Seattle’s three stars. This unit is set to make a splash and should rival the best secondary in football and to do that they need a nickname – That’s where – huh? Do you hear that? Wait, what’s that sound?

[Read more…] about Coffin Corner: Introducing ** The A-Team ** The NFL’s New Best Secondary

Patriots Position Preview: Safeties

by

Today we’re taking a closer look at the last line of defense — the safeties.

It was somewhat surprising to see the Pats bring back Duron Harmon on a four-year, $20 million deal, but it’s hard to complain about keeping a trio of veteran safeties together who have been amongst the best in the league since 2014.

The rotation is clear now. Devin McCourty plays on the back end on early downs but has been used more and more in coverage closer to the line of scrimmage on passing downs. Patrick Chung rarely comes off the field now as well and spends his time mostly in the box or in man-to-man coverage on tight ends.

It’s Harmon’s back end ability that allows the defense to move McCourty around and that kind of flexibility is invaluable.

We know what we’re getting with McCourty, Chung and Harmon, but it’s then bottom of the roster that might be the most intriguing for training camp. The team brought in a trio of rookie safeties who should push third-year player Jordan Richards, who fell off the radar in 2016.

An injury to one of the top three would immediately change the dynamic of the defense on the back end that we’ve gotten comfortable with for the last three seasons. So while it’s easy to just assume everything will be great at safety the complexion can change quickly and suddenly, and the lower end players could end up getting called upon to contribute.

Let’s take a closer look at the safeties and how rookies David Jones and Damarius Travis could be the undrafted rookie(s) to make the team this year.

[Read more…] about Patriots Position Preview: Safeties