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Pats Posits: No Style Points On TNF

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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…

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Pats Posits: No Rest for the Wicked (Bad Defense)

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Took some time to reflect upon the Patriots disappointing 33-30 loss to the Panthers and now it’s time to quickly put it to rest. To bury the proverbial football if you will. There’s already another game in three short days, and in this case it’s a really good thing.

I try to avoid overreacting to anything early in the season, at least until we’ve got a sample size to work with. Now, four games in, we have the sample size and yes, the defense has been historically bad. It’s almost unfathomable how many points they’ve given up. They’re dead last or close to it in every defensive stat out there and they deserve to be. There is no silver lining. No “yeah, but”. They’re all out of sync and admitted to as much after the game.

This isn’t a talent issue. This is a fundamental “play the coverage called” issue, so that’s why there actually is some hope for the defense. I’ve seen and blogged extensively about untalented defenses like those in 2010 and 2011. Those were hodge podge crews that survived because they played zone defense that allowed them to prey on turnovers while giving up epic amounts of yardage. This is a defense that can and should vary coverages like they’ve won two of the last three Super Bowls with.

Could the pass rush be better? Always, but when there are just wide open receivers or a screen pass where no one is within a mile of the ball, those are coverage lapses that cannot happen. The first couple weeks of the season? I’ll give you a slight pass. Four-straight games to start the season? Unacceptable. And historically bad.

128 points allowed through four games is the worst in team history. How is that possible? We’ve seen one- and two-win teams, but this, a team coming off a Super Bowl win, a perennial 12-win team, is THAT bad? Mind boggling.

Okay, let’s talk about the offense, who once again almost had a chance for a last-minute victory. It wasn’t perfect for them, but as far as NFL offenses go and what we’ve come to expect, they’re going to be fine.

Schematically I do worry about the pounding Brady is taking as the team goes more vertical, but I think the short passing game will continue to grow as the season goes along. Some pass protection issues, an inconsistent ground game? All things we’ve seen and overcome before. So while we can discuss and dissect plenty of minutiae, as long as he’s upright, Brady’s going to find ways to put up 30 points like he did today.

Can the defense get on the same page and hold opponents under 30? That right now is the question of 2017.

Here are a bunch more quick-hit posits as we all trudge into work on a victory-less Monday.

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Pats Posits: Toughness and Resiliency

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The Patriots survived the Jets like they often do, coming up with three big defensive plays and a game-winning touchdown drive in a 22-17 victory that moved Tom Brady into a first place tie with Peyton Manning with 200 all-time wins.

The defense that hadn’t forced a turnover in three games came through with a forced fumble from Malcolm Butler, a blocked field goal attempt by Alan Branch and a game-clinching strip sack by Chris Long.

The offense turned in a gritty performance, with Brady still hobbling with a knee injury and losing Rob Gronkowski in the first half to a back injury. The final come-from-behind touchdown drive took eight plays and 83 yards and including a fourth-down conversion that went to James White.

Vintage Brady, with passes to Edelman (24 yards), Lewis (16 yards) and Hogan (25 yards). It once again illustrates why the Patriots are always so hard to beat — they never quit and are always at their best with the game on the line.

The Jets couldn’t make the last play to seal the game and the Patriots did.

The Pats are now 9-2 and remain tied for the top seed in the conference with a two-game lead in the division.

More on the win, with only Rams standing between Brady and becoming the winningest QB of all time in then Posits…

malcolm mitchell

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Patriots Special Teams Report – Week 7 @ Pittsburgh Steelers

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It was an ugly win, but a win nonetheless, and the Patriots now have a two game lead in the AFC East heading into their revenge game in Buffalo this Sunday. While the team is 6-1 and leading AFC overall, there is still room for improvement from a few noticeable areas, with the play of kicker Stephen Gostkowski near the top of that list.

So far in 2016, Gostkowski is tied for 24th in field goal accuracy, having made just 9 out of his 12 attempts. For comparison, three kickers are perfect so far in 2016: Justin Tucker, Greg Zuerlein, and our old friend Adam Vinatieri, who set the NFL record for consecutive field goals made at 43 yesterday (equaling his age), an astounding accomplishment for the 21-year pro. Six kickers have missed just one field goal, 10 have have missed two, nine (including Gostkowski) have missed three, and four have missed four or more.

Gostkowski’s career average is 86.9% (good for third all-time), which is a sharp contrast from his 75% average thus far this season. Last season, he hit 91.7% of his field goals, missed just three, was a first-team All-Pro and was named to the Pro Bowl for the third straight year. In 2014, his success rate was a career high 94.6% on field goals, missed just two, and setting his personal record for field goals made in one season with 38. In 2013,  he hit 92.7% of his field goals, and missed just three. Gostkowski’s worst season of his career (not including his injury-shortened 2010 campaign that was cut short after just eight games) was his rookie season in 2006, in which he hit on just 76.9% of his field goals. While it is only a seven game sample size, Gostkowski’s 2016 season is on track to produce a career-low in field goal accuracy. Gostkowski is certainly not paid to perform like this (he received the second-most guaranteed money ever for a kicker in his newest contract), and a large faction of Patriot Nation is up in arms with the performance of their All-Pro kicker.

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Patriots Special Teams Report: Week 1 at Arizona Cardinals

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The NFL’s continuing its attempt to make kickoffs safer by moving the spot of the ball following a touchback to the 25 yard line is supposed to give teams further incentive to not make any attempt to return kicks and simply take a knee in the end zone. Unfortunately for the league, at least in the case of the New England Patriots, that rule might backfire.

While the sample size is admittedly very small, it seems as though the Patriots would far prefer Stephen Gostkowski to loft a high kick that ends up between the five yard line and the goal line, luring their opponents into returning kicks, instead of driving the ball through the back of the endzone and giving the opposing offense the ball at the 25 yard line. Of Gostkowski’s six kicks in Sunday’s game, four were placed between the five yard line and a yard into the end zone, resulting in returns off four of his six kicks (the opening kickoff and Gostkowski’s first kick of the second half were touchbacks). Arizona never made it past their own 21 on those returns, and had an average starting field position off kickoffs of the 18 yard line, the worst starting field position off kickoffs in the entire NFL this week, according to ESPN Stats and Information.

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Two Flukey Plays In Denver

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I came across the ultimate spoiled Pats fan comment in my internet travels the other day, someone complaining that the Pats have “only won one Super Bowl in the last 11 years” and I had to laugh. How incredibly easy it is to dismiss how impossible it is to consistently win in the NFL. No, the Patriots have made that part look easy and we’ve all just come to accept that ho-hum we locked up our 13th AFC East title in 15 years and came within a couple plays of going to our third Super Bowl in five years but that’s not good enough.

This also circles the bigger point of how whatever deficiency is exhibited in the season-ender is what everyone obsesses about for the entire offseason. Oh, and that of course must also include adding a deep threat and more pass rushers. This cycle happens every year on the outside, meanwhile inside the walls of Gillette Stadium, the Patriots just keep doing what they do despite the calls to blow certain things up each and every year.

Yes, the offensive line got toasted time and again in the AFC Championship, leaving many Pats fans to think that upgrading third-string swing tackle Marcus Cannon and usual-right-tackle-playing-left-tackle Sebastian Vollmer is the answer for 2016. The main theory is to cut them both, sign a high-priced free agent to pair with Nate Solder and then they’ll be all set. Yet, I still have trouble seeing how any right tackle in league was going to shut down Von Miller in Denver, especially when not even Carolina could do it at a neutral site.

Because despite all the flaws of the 2015 Patriots that everyone loves to point out, they should’ve been headed to overtime in AFC Championship. Were they a flawed team? Well after all the injuries, sure, but despite that the season still came down to what it always comes down to–making the last play.

If Malcolm Butler doesn’t make the SB49 game-winning interception what would everyone be complaining about last offseason? That not even Revis and Browner could save the Patriots’ terrible defense that blew three Super Bowls for Tom Brady. They had no pass rush. They needed a deep threat.

The unsexy truth is that if you want to point the finger at where the 2015 Pats hurt themselves the most you have nowhere to look but two flukey plays in Denver. You never know when one play is going to change the course of your season, but that’s what happened with Harper’s Muff and Gostkowski’s extra point miss.

The first very well cost the Pats the chance to host the AFC Championship. The second cost them an overtime shot at the Super Bowl. Yes, this is oversimplifying it, and I can’t kill an undrafted rookie (who shouldn’t have been trying to field the punt) messing up on the road in the snow, or a kicker who hadn’t missed an extra point since his rookie year, but it’s hard to argue the Pats season wouldn’t have ended on different terms had those two plays gone the other way. And yes, the irony of the Pats being the ones who suggested moving the extra point back drips thick.

Chris Harper Muffed Punt Patriots Broncos

But there’s no way to hem and haw about two random plays over the course of a season and that’s football. That’s why it’s so hard not only to win, but to make the key plays in the key moments. The Patriots Super Bowl runs all featured the Pats making those clutch plays. Even the years they came up short they made plenty of those plays as well — they just didn’t make the last ones.

So everyone can worry about the offensive line, about the lack of weapons, about the lack of a pass rusher like Von Miller, but none of it really matters. The truth is that no matter who comes or goes this offseason the Patriots will once again win a ton of games next season. Winning the Super Bowl takes your three best games with plenty of clutch plays and a little luck sprinkled in. The 2016 Pats will just come down to whether or not they make the last play, but they’ll be in thick of it and go down swinging. That’s all we can ask for, even if we “only” have one Super Bowl in the last 11 years..

 

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pottsisstarksheart:

I had one job to do. If I let anything get me off focus, I have a good chance of missing the kick. … I go out there and attack every kick to try to make it, don’t worry too much about results. Obviously, if I’d have missed that kick, we would’ve lost, but that’s the name of the game. It’s fun to be in those situations.

https://www.patspropaganda.com/pottsisstarksheart-i-had-one-job-to-do-if-i/