October 2010
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On the Patriots 3rd Down Defense
The Pats defense currently sit 32nd overall in the NFL in 3rd down stop percentage. While the Bears sit at #1 overall giving up a first only 30% of the time. The Patriots give up a first down 49% of the time.
A quick break down of the 3rd down performance by game:
CIN 8/15 = 53%
NYJ 6/13 = 46%
BUF 5/10 = 50%
MIA 10/15 = 66%
BAL 5/16 = 31%
SD 7/15 = 46%
Basically you want to see your 3rd...
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New England Patriots Game Plan: Minnesota Vikings
Earlier this week I felt like this was a huge game for the Patriots to prove that they are indeed in the conversation of Super Bowl contenders. Sure, they’ve beaten two very good teams since the bye week, but it’s been the old school brand of Patriots football that we were more accustomed to in the early part of the decade. Playing solid football, capitalizing on the other teams...
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Butler Wins Practice Player of Week →
I think Kyle Arrington has been okay since replacing Darius Butler, but I just don’t think he has the ceiling that Butler has. This quote was especially encouraging from Bill Belichick:
“He had a good week of practice,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said. “He did a good job, got his hands on a lot of balls, made it hard on our offense.”
So maybe this is a...
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“Belichick was also Parcells-like when discussing running back Fred Taylor and...”
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Brett Favre Tosses Balls Today →
Of course… is there a more annoying team than Brad Childress and the Vikings? I don’t hate them. I just want them to go away.
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NFLN: The Patriots & the Loss of Moss →
Someone asked me yesterday what I thought about what kind of info Randy Moss could give Chilly and pals about the Patriots. I don’t really think it will have the big of an effect. Ultimately it all comes down to execution. The Patriots will change any signals or calls that Moss might give them, and anything else he can tell them, i.e. “watch out for Shawn Crable, he’s an absolute...
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Patriots Defensive Game Plan Reviews UPDATED***
San Diego Chargers
The 3-4 defense was again solid vs the run. But the subpackages in the second half gave up alot of yards and almost cost them the game in the fourth quarter. Clutch special teams come through again causing a false start penalty that backed the field goal attempt to tie five yards.
Sub: 50 of 71 Base: 18 of 71 Short-yardage: 3 of 71
Base vs. Sub Defense
For past games...
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Beating the Vikings Would Prove Patriots Are Elite
While most of the pundits seem to be picking the New England Patriots to beat the Minnesota Vikings this weekend, I’m finding myself quite nervous about this game.
Not because it’s necessarily a must-win, but because I have a feeling the Vikings are going to turn it around at some point, and I’d prefer it not come at our expense. You can never count out a team with Adrian...
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ProFootballFocus.com: Patriots ReFocused →
Here are the stats from ProFootballFocus.com’s refocused segment this week. I used to love this site when it was free, now they just throw you these little bones. I like it, but not ‘willing to pay $60’ like it.
Check out Guyton’s coverage numbers. Evidence is building, could Dane Fletcher cut into Guyton’s playing time even more this week?
Patriots: Three...
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NFLN Playbook: Patriots Better Without Moss →
It’s interesting how they point out part of getting rid of Moss was a reflection of how they’re changing to beat the Jets. Never thought you could tell me we’d be without Moss for the rematch and I’d actually feel better about our chances.
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Football Outsiders: Patriots #3 Overall DVOA →
The Patriots are again ranked third this week in DVOA. They are 2nd in offense, 27th in defense and 5th in special teams. Their defensive DVOA is slowly starting to creep up the rankings which is a good sign. They’re actually a lot closer to the middle of the pack than they are to last place, so don’t let the 27th ranked defense fool you too much.
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Reiss & Bruschi ESPN Podcast: Vikings Edition →
Must listen alert! Must listen alert! Great stuff as always.
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Patriots - Vikings Flashback Highlight →
To kick off Vikings week we’d like to share what is probably Chad Jackson’s greatest highlight as a Patriot, which yes, I realize isn’t saying much. But still, this was a pretty sweet touchdown scramble and made us believe, for maybe just one play, that Jackson might turn out to be a player. He didn’t.
Sifting through some of these highlights from 2006 reminded me how it...
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NFLN Playbook Review: Pats vs. Chargers →
This is mostly a “wow the Chargers make stupid mistakes” edition of playbook, opposed to a “hey the Patriots are actually pretty good”. Of course the only Patriots-centric thing they brought up was the 4th and 1 stop. Glad that will be dead and buried by tomorrow.
Favorite part had to be Solomon Wilcots not even attempting to say “Leominster” instead choosing...
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“Third-down defense
This week: 32nd (41 of 84, 48.8 percent)
Last week: 32nd...”
– Look who improved .5% in 3rd Down Defense this week…!
(Had I invented the sarcasm emoticon yet I would’ve inserted it at the end of that sentence)
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WatchPatriots History Tuesdays: 1988 Patriots
In honor of the throwbacks this weekend here’s a nice recap of the 1988 Patriots who were pretty unmemorable. But this was the height of the Steve Grogan neck roll era. An era that I saw more than a few games at the old stadium. So it will always be special. This was just as the night was growing darkest for the Patriots franchise, just before Mr....
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“UP
Dane Fletcher — On his first play, the rookie inside linebacker...”
– Mike Reiss echoing my comments yesterday about Fletcher vs. Guyton.
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Football Outsiders: Lengthy Dissertation on 4th... →
I’ve avoided discussing the 4th and 1 call this week because personally I’m all for aggressive coaching. Had the Ravens been similarly aggressive two weeks ago they probably would’ve beaten the Patriots. But they didn’t and they lost.
So here’s a long explanation of what Bill should or shouldn’t have done. I really don’t care because a win is a win and we...
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WatchShhhhh, let’s just keep talking about how the Chargers stunk last weekend, and not how the Patriots are somehow under the radar.
P.S. Can someone get Trent some afrin? It’s Cold and Flu season buddy.
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Patriots/Belichick Excerpt from Kirwan's Take Your...
The following is an excerpt from Pat Kirwan’s excellent book Take Your Eye Off The Ball, chapter 11 FBI: Football Intelligence. You can purchase the book here. I highly recommend it. I plan on doing a full review of the book as soon as I finish it, which at this rate should be tomorrow.
Testing For Football Smarts
Everyone knows about Bill Belichick’s FBI. He has one of the NFLs best...
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Advanced NFL Stats: Pats vs. Chargers Game Graph →
Well if this was 2009 this game graph would’ve kept falling at the end there. Ah, the death drop… I sure haven’t missed that this year. So far…
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NFLN: Patriots vs. Chargers Highlights →
Just because I like watching highlights from all the different sports news shows in case they put any shots of me in them. So far no luck.
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WEEI: BB Weekly Interview →
Must listen alert! Must listen alert!
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Bruschi on Tap: Chargers Wrap →
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CHFF: Stupid is as San Diego does →
Here’s a nice little recap of all the stupid plays the Chargers made against the Patriots on Sunday. The mediots might say the Patriots didn’t deserve to win, but playing smart football does actually count for something.
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Notes on the Patriots-Chargers Re-Watch
While the RedZone Channel is the greatest invention of the modern football watching experience, DirecTVs Short Cuts (each game in a half hour) isn’t far behind.
While it’s hard sometimes to get a read on the personnel before the snap because they are cut so tightly, it’s an easy way to go back and see what happened without having to be constantly fast forwarding.
Anyway, this...
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“Sources tell us that Patriots Safety Patrick Chung will miss 1-2 weeks after...”
– Gresh and Zo Twitter Feed 