PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

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We’re On To The Patriots

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Big news! This past week I signed on to be a Content Producer for Patriots.com. Yes, THE Patriots. After nine years of PatsPropaganda and 12 seasons blogging Pats, I’m going to work in the mothership.

It’s as surreal for me as you can imagine it might be. When I look back on how it all started it’s crazy the way it all came together. A few days later and it’s still just slowly sinking in. I’m grateful to Fred Kirsch for giving me a shot. I can’t wait to jump in and put all my Pats passion into the team full time, in all the ways I’ve been trying to do for the past decade.

After making the announcement on Twitter, the outpouring of support was overwhelming. I so appreciate the people who have been reading my stuff since the start and supporting my work. Thank you! You are why I did it and why I could never stop.

Many of you know exactly how long I’ve been at this and that makes it extra special to share it with you, along with my family.

The good news is that you’re a fan of this blog then you’re going to get more of my kind of content. And instead of doing it during slow periods around the office or in-between all-nighter video shoots, I’ll be focusing all my time and energy on it.

All of my wildest Patriots dreams are coming true and I hope to use it to make great stuff you will all enjoy!

There will be just another post or two here but starting Monday you will find all my content at Patriots.com. Yes, I’m sitting on all my camp-related observations until they explode.

LFG

Belichick Hoodie Update: A New Cut Hoodie Rises

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The Patriots bounced back after two road losses with a merciless domination of the Dolphins back in the friendly confines of Foxboro. Getting into stats before October is a sample size recipe for overreaction, but now in Week 5 let’s take a quick look at the signature statistic of PatsPropaganda, the Bill Belichick Hoodie Database.

Last season, the Hot Jacket surpassed the infamous cut gray hoodie in wins and win percentage. It was once again the centerpiece of the Belichick gameday attire. The biggest twist of the year was when Belichick wore the old blue Reebok Hoodie under his winter jacket in the AFC Divisional game against the Titans.

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Foxboro & Friends: Episode 1!

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Excited to introduce the first episode of Foxboro & Friends, a new webshow I’m doing with Nick “Fitzy” Stevens! We’ve got big things planned and this is just our Wayne’s World’y first episode, but we’re glad to be able to launch it after such a bummer loss.

Please like our Facebook page as we hope to get back to doing live broadcasts there.

Much more to come!

Video: Patriots Training Camp Practice #2 Report

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Great to finally see some football today at a muggy second practice! As we try to get Patshow Season #2 going I’m going to try and use my video producer skills to bring some more video content. Let me know what you guys think!

A few other things I forgot to mention in the video:

— Marcus Cannon did leave practice early, walking off under his own power. LaAdrian Waddle slipped into his reps. Hopefully Cannon is back sooner than later, though his injury history is starting to add up.

— Stephon Gilmore had an AFC Championship-sealer-esque diving pass break up over Julian Edelman. Gilmore is on the left side this year and is the a clear-cut number one cornerback.

— As much as I wanted to notice him nothing about Sony Michel really stood out to me. Again, IT’S NO PADS, DAY TWO. All the backs had their share of work, including Burkhead, Gillislee and Hill, and I can’t say any of them really stood out, though Burkhead always looks shot out of a rocket.

— As I mention, Edelman looks like Edelman, and it’s such great news.

— On and by the way, Brady is still Brady. Yikes.

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Patriots Gameplan: Who Are the 2017 Pats?

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Ahhh, the bye week. A time to relax and reflect without a football game to worry about.

The 2017 campaign so far has been interesting to say the least. Let’s face it, they’re always interesting in unexpected ways. But the headline, as always, are injuries. Injuries define NFL seasons now, and the Patriots are not immune and this year they’ve been hit as hard as ever.

Usually injuries are the only thing that stands between the Patriots and a last-possession game in the Super Bowl that could go either way. In 15 seasons together, Brady and Belichick have played in AFC title game 11 times.

2005 was one of the years they bowed out in Denver. That team had critical injuries (Matt Light, Rodney Harrison) and was one of Belichick’s worst Patriots defenses. But even then the problem in 2005 was not getting a bye. If that Bronco game was in New England it probably would’ve had a different outcome. In 2009, there was the backbreaker injury to Wes Welker in the last meaningless game. In 2010, it was the Jets bouncing back from a 45-3 beatdown to execute the perfect game that exposed a flawed defense that had survived on turnovers.

That was the last time the Pats weren’t playing in the conference championship game, seven long years ago.

My point is this — Does this Pats team have some of the injury issues those teams had? Yup. Will their (currently improving) defense be exposed at home by the right team? We’ll see.

Losing Rob Ninkovich, Julian Edelman and Dont’a Hightower says it all. Those guys were the playmakers of the last four seasons. The guys who made big plays in big moments, and that isn’t easy to replace.

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A Look Back: My Experience at Pats-Chargers 2006 AFCDG

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The 2006 AFC Divisional playoff game between the Patriots and Chargers in San Diego was one of the best fan experiences of my life. I recounted the whole story on my original Patriots blog way 10 years ago, and my original plan was to just throw out a link to that but unfortunately that blog has finally gone dark. So now I must re-write and re-tell the story but it’s one that’s well worth it and something that must be preserved in the history of Pats Propaganda.

So buckle up, it’s a fun ride.

2006 was when my Patriots craziness really kicked in. Yes, I had grown up just a few towns over from Foxboro and saw plenty of the Patriots getting their asses handed to them in the 80’s and 90’s. I had the thrills of the ’85 and ’96 Super Bowl runs, but by their first title in 2001 I was living in Los Angeles, watching from afar, and disappointed that I wasn’t living at home when all the success started happening.

One thing about Los Angeles, there are fans of all teams and gathering together with your fan-ily on Sundays was a great way to get a taste of home, especially at a bar like Sonny McClean’s in Santa Monica. The 2005 playoff loss to Denver hit me hard. It suddenly dawned on me that we had this young quarterback and “genius” head coach who still had a long career ahead of them. How many titles could they get? How great could they be?

For whatever reason that loss was what pushed my obsession into overdrive. I started frequenting PatsFans.com’s message board and devouring any and all posts by Mike Reiss, who scratched the major itch I had to understand the game at a higher level. I became a student of the game and a student of being a fan on the internet all at the same time. It would be another year, in December 2007, before I started blogging about the Pats, but in 2006 I was all in. Every Sunday was a major event like it had never been before.

I didn’t realize it until I was sitting in Sonny McCleans for the Pats’ AFC Wild Card game against the Jets that if they won, they’d go to San Diego to face the Chargers, an easy two-to-three hour drive depending on traffic as everything in Souther California depends upon.

The Pats won and I vowed to myself I’d find a way to get to the game.

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Patriots Sunday Practice Report

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It was a surreal day to say the least. It was my first time as a credentialed member of the media so I got an up close look at practice, but it also just happened to be the day Rob Ninkovich, a longtime favorite of the blog, announced his retirement.

My head was spinning, between meeting some of the Patriots writers I’ve followed and tweeted with for so long to then suddenly sitting in the press conference room surrounded by the team as Ninkovich hung them up, it was an awesome day and one I won’t soon forget.

But ultimately I was there to finally get an up close look at some football and that’s what this was all about. I even bought some binoculars as I learned are a must-have for these kind of practices where the team can often be all the way across the field working behind a wall of players. Hard to see it all, but I still saw plenty.

Let’s start with some officially credentialed observations from practice.

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