PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Rob Gronkowski

Goodnight Sweet Gronky

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It’s hard not to sit here and try to write about Rob Gronkowski’s career without a big fat smile on my face. The Patriots selected him just a couple weeks after I focused all my three-years-of-blogging energy into my own site, PatsPropaganda. So Gronk has very much been a main character here for almost nine years.

From that very first glimpse of him, it was clear that Patriots football just got a whole lot more fun. Little did we know we were about to witness perhaps the most spectacular career the NFL has ever seen from a tight end.

Gronk would play just nine seasons, with injuries marring significant games of the 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2016 seasons. But among the rest he put together an easy Hall of Fame career with three Super Bowl rings.

Let’s take a look back at nearly a decade of Gronk spikes.

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A Quick Look Ahead Patriots 2019 Offseason

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There’s no better weekend than wild card weekend when you’re on the bye week. There’s wall-to-wall playoff football and no stress if you’re a Patriots fan.

It’s easy to overreact to how the season ends so now’s a good time to take a quick glance ahead at the storylines we’ll turn the page to as soon as we know the final fate of the 2018 Pats.

Here are the six areas to get a jump on:

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Pats Posits: Here We Go Again

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The Patriots finished off their 2018 with perhaps their most complete game of the season. Most importantly, the Pats survived the 2018 campaign with the key pieces intact.

Against the Jets, the offense spread the ball around and had success both on the ground and through the air. Despite reports of his decline, Tom Brady looked every bit like his same old self.

The defense once again put together a strong home performance. The continued playmaking of Trey Flowers and Kyle Van Noy, along with shutdown corner Stephon Gilmore, have rounded this into one of the more underrated of Belichick’s defenses.

They’ve earned the right to get a bye and a home game. After that, we’ll just have to see. A lot can happen over the next two weekends. Maybe they will have to prove themselves on the road, or maybe not.

Let’s dive in with a bunch of travel-delayed Posits!

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Patriots Gameplan: Week 17 vs New York Jets

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The Patriots wrap up their regular season on Sunday, hosting the Jets. It’s pretty simple, if the Pats win they lock up the second seed. Yeah, maybe they could also get as high as the top seed but it’s more likely that the Chiefs will hold serve at home against the Raiders, securing the top spot.

I’ve been on vacation this week in California, and I’m most looking forward to my favorite thing about the Pacific Time Zone — 10am football starts. The break comes at a good time because I feel like I have a pretty good handle on who the 2018 Patriots are and how the next month will play out. It’s nice to just get out of the media cycle and take in that we’re on the verge of another BB/TB playoff run and one with lowered expectations.

It’s impossible to separate each season into its own separate headspace. Inevitably, Tom Brady of 2018 must be compared to Tom Brady of years past, just as the entire team is. The ticking clock of decline has everyone waiting with baited breath for the easiest and epic final chapter of the Belichick-Brady Dynasty. The next month will be fascinating as the 2018 team writes its fate.

Here’s the gameplan to finish off a tumultuous regular season.

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Film Review: Deep Dive on Gronk, Brady, Edelman vs Vikings

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I was a little surprised to find this week that Rob Gronkowski, Tom Brady and Julian Edelman were catching a bunch of criticism after Sunday’s win over the Vikings. Admittedly I’m a bit more of a defense guy. When the offense is on the field, it’s my time to relax and not get overly caught up in minutiae, at least on the initial live watch.

So when I saw Gronk’s game being labeled as one of the worst of his career I was scratching my head a bit. I remember him getting stopped short on third down which seemed weird and I remember the penalties, of which I wasn’t wasn’t entirely sure how good or bad they were. Edelman and Brady both had some similar moments but nothing that gave me much initial concern. The results overall were good and if anything, I felt like this looked like the Patriots offense we know and love — the scalpel — and this was the first time in a while it felt like they were playing to their strengths.

Maybe part of that was getting Rex Burkhead back and having three running backs for the first time all season. Or maybe it was just everything gelling like it usually does around this time of year.

This made an offensive film dive critical. Yesterday I banged through the defense’s film, which I loved, and today, I jumped into the other side of the ball.

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Film Review: Pats-Jets

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The Patriots’ latest win over the Jets had its share of weird plays and penalties. As I pondered how much angst I had toward then performance, I wasn’t sure how to divvy up the blame. After watching the film, I think there’s quite a few to just chalk up to weird situations, bad bounces and calls.

What was apparent right out of the gate was the Jets were going to mix what has hurt the Patriots defense most over the past few seasons — bunch sets, crossers… anything to get the linebackers in coverage. It’s nothing new, but it was often effective.

The offense had some self-inflicted stumbles but showed some big play ability, which is a necessity in today’s NFL. With the offensive line opening up big running lanes for Sony Michel everything seemed to be clicking. There’s no secret, when their ground game is going the Patriots offense is very hard to stop.

Here’s some more quick-hit thoughts as I banged through the All 22 film.

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Pats Posits: Bye Week Not a Magic Elixir, But Pats Still in Playoff Bye Hunt

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On one hand, I feel like this weekend’s win over the Jets just reinforced what I’m already sure about with the 2018 Patriots, that with Sony Michel going they’re a very good offense. Without him, they’re up and down, and the struggles on third down are very real. Defensively, they’re up and down as well, but technically sound enough to take down an offense like the one the Jets rolled out there. Can they do it against a great offense on the road? Sunday did nothing to alleviate the concerns there, because it was Josh McCown and not some dual-threat quarterback they can expect to see in the playoffs.

But on the other hand, how much of this game was a traditional Jets struggle? How much were the penalties the Pats’ sloppiness compared to the flag-happy refs that call more penalties than anyone? How much was bye week rust? We can sweep this one under the rug, but there will be nowhere to hide on the road in Miami and Pittsburgh.

This sure didn’t feel like the reset button win we hoped would come post-bye, but it was still a solid victory. It might not have allayed my fears about what this editions weaknesses are, but it showed that even if they’re not perfect, the Patriots are still a very solid football team that will give any team problems.

More on it all in Posits.

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