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Pats Posits: Brace for Hot Takes

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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.

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Patriots Gameplan: Week 2 at Jacksonville Jaguars

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Week Two is here and the Patriots face a tough AFC Championship rematch on the road in Jacksonville. How many times have we seen these kinds of games early in the season? The young upstarts are looking for a franchise-altering win. Sometimes, like the 2009 and 2010 Jets,  they live up to the hype. But often the emotional drain of beating the Patriots makes the young upstarts sleepwalk through the rest of their season.

More often than not the Patriots just prove their still the Patriots.

There’s no question the Jaguars are a talented team, but talented teams are hit or miss when they go against methodical football machines. If the Jags play with the kind of energy that the 2009 Jets did, they could and should exact their revenge. The Patriots are in it for the long haul though and even a loss in Florida that exposes flaws will be just a bump in the road of their development toward December and January.

It’s always fun to have an exciting road game against a potential new rival early in the season. What do the Pats have to do to get the win and make the rest of the league Patriots-depressed again?

Here’s the gameplan.

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Pats Posits: And We’re Off…

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The Patriots got the 2018 season rolling yesterday with a 27-20 win over the Texans. For all the talk of last season and offseason drama, the Patriots very much looked like the same old Patriots that have laid waste to the league for the last 17 seasons.

Tom Brady finished with three touchdowns and one tipped-ball interception, looking nothing like an average 41-year old should look navigating an NFL pocket. The biggest difference was that he still had Rob Gronkowski, and the devastating QB-TE combo was just unstoppable.

This was nothing like last year’s maddening loss in the opener to the Chiefs. The Patriots have depth and new personnel issues, but they managed to rotate plenty of players in and showed that there isn’t any personnel problem that can’t be overcome with good coaching. Most exciting is a defense that has had an influx of improvement on a variety of fronts.

Yes, if you’re not a self-hating, self-punishing Patriots fan you should feel pretty good today. Clearly, the New England Football Machine is still firing on all cylinders and looks like they’ll once again be a formidable opponent for every team they face.

Let’s fire off a bunch of Posits and we finally get into the regular season flow!

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What Will 2018 Pats Unveil Sunday?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-q7OC4su4Y

With the roster set and the first week of the regular season upon us, it’s time to find out who the 2018 Patriots are. Or at least get the first chapter of what will be a long book, with ups and downs. But this one counts and that means it’s time to see how the team has evolved for the new season.

Some pieces are obvious. Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski and James White will make the offense go. Dont’a Hightower and Stephon Gilmore will be the playmakers for the defense. But who else will need to chip in? What are the options and what will they ride on both sides of the ball?

Let’s break out the crystal football and predict what we’re going to see from the Pats on Sunday.

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On Britt, Dez and the Remaining Patriots Receivers

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As you’ve heard by now the Pats released Kenny Britt on Wednesday, just as most of the attention was turning toward him as the x-factor in the receiver battle. I know I was focusing fully on him as recently as yesterday morning and now here we are, a third lost receiver this summer in addition to the departures of Danny Amendola and Brandin Cooks in the offseason.

Early in camp I thought the hot takes about the receiver situation was overblown and to some extent I still do, but it’s still hard to fathom losing five receivers off the roster in seven months, even if the writing was on the wall with Amendola and Cooks was more a luxury than someone to lean upon. So what are the Pats left with? Julian Edelman, who is somehow being very much underappreciated because he’s coming off an injury and will miss the first four games. He’s not dead. He’s still the all-time leading post-season receiver and one of Tom Brady‘s most trusted targets, but for some reason that’s mostly getting swept under the rug these days.

Then there’s Chris Hogan, who led the league in yards-per-catch two seasons ago and still topped his catch total in 2017 despite missing multiple games to injury. Between Edelman and Hogan there’s a very solid base to start from, so if you’re throwing yourself off the bridge now I’m not sure how you lived through 2006 or 2013.

Remember 2013? Wes Welker and Deion Branch left, Aaron Hernandez was released after being arrested and Brady’s weaponz went back to ground zero. The talking points that offseason? Edelman hadn’t done anything since his rookie year four years earlier. Danny Amendola was too fragile. After them it was undrafted Kenbrell Thompkins and second-round pick Aaron Dobson. Josh Boyce and Austin Collie made guest appearances and that was it.

The result? The Pats offense fell from 1st overall in 2012 to… 4th overall. They were third in points and 10th in yards, en route to a 12-4 record. Edelman broke 100 catches/1,000 yards.

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Film Review: Patriots vs Eagles Preseason Week 2

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As always, I never feel like I’ve actually watched the game until I can sit and study it with easy pause and rewind abilities. Once again that was the case with this preseason game, where the 2018 Patriots continue to come into clearer view. Rookies and young guys continue to get auditions with the top defense, but who is actually making the most of those opportunities?

Here are my film review notes from the first half of the Pats-Eagles.

— Opened in 3-CB nickel with Gilmore, Rowe, Crossen. Van Noy, Bentley. Davis, Shelton, Brown, Clayborn. Third down – Harmon, Rivers, Butler in, Shelton, Brown, Bentley out. Clayborn stood out with disruptive pressure on third down.

— The offense opened in a spread with James White who was clearly the centerpiece of the attack. This was the offense they opened with many times last year and if often sputtered out of the gate. Jacob Hollister got a full audition as the primary “Y” tight end. He struggled blocking defensive ends which isn’t all that surprising.

— The Hogan, Edelman, Dorsett trio looks like the go-to guys at this point. Dorsett continues to not impress me. Brady’s pocket movement on Hogan’s touchdown was impressive and as good as it’s always been.

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Can We Be Excited About 2018 Patriots Now?

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The Patriots’ preseason win over the Eagles was a different viewing experience for me as I got tied up down the cape on a beautiful and perfect day and had to listen to the first half in the car on the way home. I actually kind of enjoyed it. Obviously, Dan Roche and Matt Chatham know their stuff and are fun to listen to but it was also a bit of a throwback to the old days when catching a Patriots game didn’t always trump everything else. You’d tune into Gino and Gil as you ran your Sunday errands and the Pats *most likely* got toasted.

There was also no way to consume any kind of social media or worry about blogs, it’s was just old school football consumption and from the sounds of it, it was a bit of an old school win. Of course, I started re-watching the game as soon as I got home, eager to see how many of the impressive plays I’d heard actually looked, and it was every bit as delightful as it sounded.

Yes, I’m excited the defense was so disruptive, but let’s also remember that this was a far cry from that fearless gameplan offense we saw from the Eagles the last time these two teams met in Minnesota. The good news is that we can still feel good, and you can bet your five Super Bowl rings that Eagles fans definitely feel pretty miserable about being 0-2 in the preseason.

It feels like it will be hard for even the most negative Patriots fans to piss and moan about this one, which could possibly mean that the local narrative will become one that is excited about this Patriots team, instead of gleefully awaiting an internal soap opera to destroy the entire franchise from within.

But I’m sure they’ll do their best to keep fans angry and calling in about their trash takes.

Here are my rapid-fire notes on a preseason game that felt like it announced the 2018 Patriots’ presence.

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