tom brady

Unfortunate Brady Injury Allowed Pats to Control the AFCCG Narrative

January 20, 2018 by Mike Dussault

Last week the Patriots were on the defensive in the media all week as the Seth Wickersham not-really-a-bombshell article dominated airwaves and press conferences. This week, things have been a little different, albeit from not ideal circumstances, an injury to Tom Brady’s hand.

The hand story was even strong enough to make an impact on NFL lines but there was no mistake that the Patriots were driving the Brady story, not being dragged along by it. The team went out of their way to make sure everyone was aware of the injury, from announcing Brady would not speak to the media and would be on the injury report, to having Brady wear his gloves and coyly avoid questions when he did finally speak on Friday. Heck they even had Hoyer in two gloves on Friday during practice after he was only wearing one on Thursday.

Behind the scenes things seemed even more haphazard. I’m not a big “sources” guy and I don’t really care to try and break stories, but there are people who occasionally send me inside info. Sometimes it’s been right, sometimes it’s been wrong, and that’s why I always just sit on it and see what happens. This week was no exception, but the info ran the gamut from Brian Hoyer is going to play to it’s no big deal.

At this point I think the “no big deal” is the truth for more reasons than just Kirk Minihane and Michael Felger suddenly entering a world of non-bullshit-speculation to reassure everyone it was just a few stitches and Brady would be fine. The Patriots seemed to squeeze every last ounce of juice from the story they could get, and even Brady had that subtle smile at his presser that just made me think this was being blown up to control the narrative.

Patriots Gameplan: AFC Championship vs. Jacksonville Jaguars

January 19, 2018 by Mike Dussault

The New England Patriots host the Jacksonville Jaguars Sunday in the AFC Championship, for the right to represent the conference in Super Bowl 52. It’s New England’s seventh-straight conference championship game, trying to win three-of-four Super Bowls for the second time with Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. Crazy.

This was a weird year in the NFL as the power structure, aside from the Patriots, has mostly been turned over. After years of being a punchline, the Jaguars introduced their fully-healthy defense to the league behind sporadic but effective Blake Bortles, who has played two playoff games of turnover-free football. For all the talk of the Jags’s defense being the only threat, their offense was 5th in points and 6th in yards.

Pats-Jags doesn’t have the same feel as AFC Championships against the Colts, Ravens and Broncos , but the Jaguars have earned the right to become the latest contender to try and knock off Tom Brady and Bill Belichick at home in the AFCCG, something only the 2012 Ravens did.

Tom Brady’s apparent thumb injury adds a new level of intrigue, with the Patriots being noticeably feeding the flames. Ryan Hannable summed it up nicely here.

What do the Patriots need to do to beat the Jaguars and get back to the ‘ship? Here’s the gameplan.

Injury-Riddled Pats Still Crushing Tomato Cans

January 11, 2018 by Mike Dussault

NFL 2017 Season, Top 5, impact on teams by players lost to injury (Lost-av metric, weighting by 2016 quality of injured players)

1 IND
2 NEW
3 NYG
4 ARI
5 WAShttps://t.co/KbGetSeVfH

— Man Games Lost NFL (@ManGamesLostNFL) January 11, 2018

By now you know the Patriots injured reserve list in 2017 is long and distinguished. Here’s a reminder of what it looks like via Patriots.com and it’s not a pretty picture.

According to ManGamesLost.com (subscription required) the Patriots ranked second overall in the league in lost 2016 performance. Add in that the Pats were particularly hit hard by free agency departures on defense, compounded by the retirement of Rob Ninkovich and it’s understated how different the 2017 team is from the one that won the last Super Bowl.

Five Key Patriots For a Super Bowl Run

January 10, 2018 by Mike Dussault

As I’ve written a couple times the past week, I’m having a tough time getting an exact bead on this Patriots team. Of course, this is a 13-3 team with homefield and the greatest quarterback of all time coming off an MVP season. So maybe I’m a little silly for thinking this season is anything different than what we’ve seen over the last 17 seasons.

Still, each team is unique and if there’s anything about this team that stands out it’s that major injuries barely registered with them. In past years losing players the caliber of Julian Edelman and Dont’a Hightower would’ve at cost the team another loss or two, and they would’ve have locked up the top seed. But this team did, and that counts for a lot because we know how tough the Pats are at home in January.

Outside of the obvious Tom Brady, here are five Patriots that I think are key to the Pats’ Super Bowl hopes.

Coffin Corner: The Benefits of Fan Fic and STATS!!!

January 6, 2018 by James Conway

Friday’s — well it wasn’t exactly a hit job — what should we call it? I think, Fan Fic? Fan Fiction is basically where people take their favorite show, book or movie and develop their own stories for the characters. It’s responsible for some really bad writing and lots of gratuitous sex, but it’s also responsible for the billion dollar 50 shades franchise, which was Erika Mitchell’s kinky fan fic for the Twilight series. In this version, the love triangle centers around the principle characters of the New England Patriots for the last 20 years.

No cheating accusations, no conspiracies (really), just palace intrigue and open and juicy unanswered questions and also the new tidbit that Bill Belichick personally awards a Patriot Of The Week award now (good scoop, Seth!). My read on the piece is that it’s generally true without being accurate. It gathers a growing sense that there may be a rift, while suggesting there is evidence without presenting any. I’m actually shocked, Wickersham never brought up Belichick high-fiving the offense after scoring on Miami late. I mean, what’s more scandalous than that?!

The biggest problem with the piece is that Wickersham never entered the building and likely never talked to anyone of import in the story. Maybe he talked to Guerrero or McDaniels or Patricia or one of the younger coaches, but no one who knows anything about what he’s purporting to know. So it’s just idle workplace gossip and rumor-mongering, which as we’ve learned is sort of Wickersham’s thing.

5 Takeaways from ESPN’s Brady-Belichick-Kraft Article

January 5, 2018 by Mike Dussault

Last night, Bruce Allen dropped the news that ESPN was about to run a “hit” piece on the Patriots this morning that dove into growing tension between Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft. Of course Patriots fans went ballistic at the mere mention of this and the internet was ablaze with takes before anyone had even read what was actually written.

Well the article came out this morning and honestly I found it pretty tame and mostly just expounding on what had already been reported locally.

It did contain plenty of interesting details but, after 18 years of the central figures working together, there’s nothing that is all that hard to believe. There are certainly details that left me scratching my head a bit, things that were left out or muddier than I think they needed to be, but overall, I found it more interesting that outrageous, and a reminder of all the moving parts involved with managing a football team, much moreso one that has had such unprecedented success.

Here are the five takeaways that I found most interesting, and what this all means as we enter the playoff bye week.

3 Reasons Patriots Will/Won’t Win Super Bowl 52

January 3, 2018 by Mike Dussault

As I said on Patshow yesterday, this is one of my favorite football weeks of the year. There’s no official opponent yet so there’s no stress, I can just sit back and watch the Wild Card games and enjoy some playoff football without my stomach in knots. Of course all that changes next week.

Can the Patriots win Super Bowl 52? Of course, but as we’ve seen in every playoff run, they’re going to need to catch some breaks here and there along the way. Maybe even make an impossible play or two. We know the 2017 team pretty well by now, well enough that it’s clear they’re somewhat of an anomaly as far as Patriots teams go. They’ve had some huge injuries this year, but unlike 2013 and 2015, it hasn’t really devastated them.

Those teams couldn’t get by the Broncos in the AFCCG in Denver.

Thee 2017 team still locked up homefield and their three losses are pretty much par for the course of a mostly-healthy season. A couple early season stinkers and a mid-season flat game. Otherwise the Patriots did what it took to win no matter who was hurt or playing. That will be the same approach in the playoffs in a one game scenario where we can throw our “feelings” about how good or bad the team is out the window.

I never in a million years would’ve thought the Pats would find themselves in a 28-3 hole in the Super Bowl, but in that one game situation they did what Bill Belichick’s teams always do, kept fighting and clawed their way back in.

Here are three reasons on both sides of the coin — why they will and why they won’t win the Super Bowl.