PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Clare Cooper

Spotlight on Judon

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Matt Judon has hit the ceiling and danced upon it!

Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

This season saw plenty of new faces welcomed into Patriots Nation, and one of the most successful and possibly the one most fans would vote as MVP so far, is Matthew Judon.

Drafted in 2016 by the Baltimore Ravens, Judon is possibly on track to have one of his best years as a player. In 2017, his statistically best year overall, Judon ranked 6th on PFF with 8 sacks, but in 2019 he topped his sack amount by another 1.5. So far this season he has put up 22 solo tackles, and is already at 11.5 sacks with a new team. That’s something that people shouldn’t take too lightly, being integrated into a new system can affect a player significantly. It’s a completely different player position, but take for example Jonnu Smith, a great tight end but struggling a little to really get going.

Not only is Judon putting out great stats, he is distinguishing himself as one of the team. His personality and character shines during media meetings and he isn’t shy to express himself fully – I refer your attention to the great mac and cheese Thanksgiving storm of 2021.

But seriously, how the Patriots plucked this gem stone from the clutches of the Ravens is beyond me. Although I know sensible people will say money, and that’s fair, he still seems to be one of the those players that you shuffle some cash around to keep. 

But let’s not misunderstand me here folks, I am not complaining! The confidence this 6 foot 3, 29 year old, edge-defending linebacker, Mr Redsleeves, gives this Patriots defense is fantabulous (yes that is a word, I say so).

This guy is pretty unstoppable. In fact, the only way to stop him is by a penalty-risking hold, which offensive lines have had to do, many, many times, and of those many times, officials have not called very many penalties… but now I’m just grumbling. 

Either way, I think all of Patriots Nation are in it for the long haul, I see red sleeves all over baby!

Go Pats!

The Patriots take on the Titans and triumph!

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Brian Fluharty-USA TODAY Sports

T’was the night before… actually it’s a little bit early for that, let’s get down to business on this chilly Monday morning shall we!? The Patriots hosted the Titans and got themselves a sixth straight win!

Not only is it the sixth win, Sunday saw the sixth undefeated November that the Patriots have completed under Coach Bill Belichick. 

And, whilst we are talking numbers, the Patriots spent the game against the Titans, driving. Ten drives to one punt. Not a bad ratio, huh?

But, whilst all those numbers are rather good, we can’t ignore some of the facts. The stats might look attractive, with a 36 to 13 win, but it wasn’t exactly an easy match up.

Even with an overall depleted crew the Titans didn’t just roll over and let the Patriots take the win. Their defense was still reasonably strong against the run and held the Patriots to 105 rushing yards. 

Contrast to that, the Titans managed 270 rushing yards, which in all fairness shows the lack of “picture painting” statistics can do sometimes. The Patriots defense generally played well. Kyle Van Noy batted down passes,  Devin Godchaux went fists in to knock a ball loose, and Kyle Dugger was quick on the recovery, and that was just in the second quarter! The third saw JC Jackson punching the ball loose, and Jalen Mills with the recovery to shut down a big run by the Titans.

Whilst Hunter Henry provided some good blocking, he was plagued by tight coverage, and only managed 2 receptions for 16 yards. Mac was not dropping dimes all game and his first quarter throw to Hunter in the end zone was just too high. 

Meanwhile, Jonnu Smith had perhaps one of his better games as a Patriot, with 49 receiving yards. His best since the Jets game at Gillette, and second best in yardage for the whole season. Although it wasn’t a roaring success, it was still glimpses of what the guy can do, and a chance to show that he is worth his two cents (okay his many, many cents but you get my point). 

Star of the show has to be Kendrick Bourne and his dainty feet! His 41 yard after the catch run was rather pretty, and in stark contrast to such prettiness, was the savage and awesome block Jakobi Meyers put down to assist Bourne in the touchdown resulting run!

So, if you’re keeping note, the Patriots are presently at 8 – 4, top of the AFC East, and second in the AFC. And we are on to Buffalo!

Go Pats!

Week 12 Sunday round-up!

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In case you missed any of the NFL action yesterday (perhaps you were watching the Patriots take on the Titans) but either way, Pats Propaganda has you covered. Here are the Sunday results for week 12!

Bengals41Steelers10
Dolphins33Panthers10
Giants13Eagles7
Patriots36Titans13
Jaguars14Falcons21
Colts31Bucs38
Texans14Jets21
Broncos28Chargers13
49ers34Vikings26
Packers36LA Rams28
Ravens16Browns10

New England hosts the Tennessee Titans: Predictions!

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Staff Photo By Matt Stone/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald

With tummies still full of turkey, ham, pie, or whatever delights you chose for your Thanksgiving feast (if you do celebrate at all of course) we look forward towards the next Patriots game. The Titans are coming to town!

What many are penning as not an easy match up, the Titans and Patriots have their fair share of names on the injury reports.

At the time of writing this the Patriots have 12 players that did not participate in practice, or were of limited availability, on Thursday 25th November. The Titans presently reporting 8 did not participates, 7 limited availabilities and 1 full availability. 

So, many, many names there to keep your sharp eyes on (as a very dear colleague and friend of mine likes to say). 

But with the Titan’s running game in question this could be a very defense heavy game for the Patriots, cue Matt Judon. Awesomeness. But one man can not carry the team alone, and not to state the obvious, but this win will take a combined effort of the team to really show the Titans what the 2021 Patriots are all about.

So with that in mind, the Pats Prop crew have put forward their predictions. 

Go Pats!

The Titans offense is in trouble right now, Adrian Peterson didn’t work out, nor the replacement for King Henry. I’ll be at the game on Sunday, and the Pats have always won with me in attendance (1-0). LFG! 

Patriots 30 Titans 14

From Tom Shaw-Mellors (currently on location in Boston!)

The Titans are a very solid team but their offensive depletions can’t be ignored. If the Patriots continue to roll with the positive progress of the last few games, and the offense can beat out the Titans good defense, this should be another nice one for the win column.

Patriots 27 Titans 14

From Clare ‘clazzyclare’ Cooper (holding down the pats prop fort!)

Sunday round-up!

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There may not have been a Patriots game but there was plenty of crazy yesterday. So, instead of a recap this morning I have a little league wide sum up. Here are your Sunday scores from around the league…

The Colts spanked the Bills, KC found their feet, kinda, and beat the Cowboys, WFT beat the Bucs last week and the Panthers this week, and in the last few moments the Vikings stole the game from the Packers.

Talk about up is down and down is up right now, oh and the Houston Texans beat the Tennessee Titans (yep you read that correctly folks). 

So the scores on the doors for Sunday were:

Bears13Ravens16
Vikings34Packers31
Bills15Colts41
Browns13Lions10
Panthers21WFT27
Titans13Texans22
Jags1049ers30
Eagles40Saints29
Raiders13Bengals32
KC Cheifs19Cowboys9
Seahawks13Cardinals23
LA Chargers41Steelers37

The Patriots streak a win in Atlanta!

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Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Hi there Patriots Nation, to all my fellow UK fans, I wish you oodles and oodles of coffee on this sleep deprived Friday!

So, another win against the Atlanta Falcons huh?

It wasn’t an easy, utterly clean game, there were a few blips on the radar with this one, but the defense was definitely bringing the nasty against the Falcons and Matt Ryan. 

As well as the Patriots ran the ball, they went 4 for 12 on third down, and that’s not great when you compare it to last week particularly. But the Patriots defense still found a way to shut out the Falcons, and please excuse the colourful language here, spanked, a solid, veteran quarterback.

For the tight endage enthusiast, it was a little slim pickings this week. Hunter Henry played 32 of the snaps (50%) and was more often than not, heavily covered when running routes. When Nelson Agholor caught his touchdown, Hunter had three guys covering him. The Falcons cottoned on that he was a regular target of Mac Jones, his go-to tight end, and they kept him closed down. There was a beautiful, beautiful, catch towards the end of the third quarter, a nice li’l sweet treat for me, but this was undone by a throw from Mac towards Jonnu Smith for an interception. Boo.

Speaking of interceptions, the Patriots had, four. One for each of the Falcons quarterbacks and then a spare. Mr Interception himself, JC Jackson had one, well that’s becoming a given, right? Adrian Phillips and Devin McCourty didn’t want to be left out, and finally Kyle Van Noy, who took it for 35 yards, and a touchdown. Exactly what the word fabulousness was created for!

Matt Judon, a name to star on my game recap every week, stacked up another sack and that’s 10.5 for his New England Patriots season so far, SO FAR!

Kyle Dugger brought it again this week with six tackles and some glorious blocks. My favourite was towards the end of the third quarter where he just pancaked Isaiah Oliver to the floor, you could almost hear the ‘boom’. 

Another name that I should create a shortcut for, as I am typing it every week, is Jakob Johnson. This guy is slapping the face of anyone who thinks a fullback isn’t important, and I love it! With the quality of his blocking, and his integration into plays a little more, I don’t think I’m remiss in saying he is having his best Patriots season so far.

And on the note of effective blocking, from the result of that, Damien Harris ran like a freight train. Sometimes he was so quick I almost lost him! This week showed an even split of runs between Rhamondre Stevenson (now officially to be referred to as ‘Mondre, hey, if it’s good enough for the beloved David Andrews, it’s definitely good enough for me!) and Damien Harris. ‘Mondre notching up 12 attempts for 69 yards, and Harris 10 attempts for 56 yards. 

Okay, that’s enough of me for this week folks! I’m off to top up my coffee. 

Go Pats!

Don’t forget to pick up your tight endage design t-shirts exclusively at Pats Propaganda!

The Browns came to town and the Pats shut them down!

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Adam Glanzman/Getty Images

As the Patriots notch up their second home win of the season against the Cleveland Browns, they move to the nail-biting 6 – 4 for week ten.

This morning (this afternoon, this evening, whenever you take the time to read this) Patriots fans are happy bunnies, of course! And I’m not known for my negativity, so you probably won’t find much in this recap today.

However, I did want to point out one thing, fortunately, it didn’t really impact the outcome of the win for the Patriots, but they still notched up six penalties at home. Pretty much the average for a game so far this season. 

Okay, I think that brings a healthy balance of negatives so lets move it right along to the positives shall we folks?

Seriously, I’m almost lost as to where to start!

The Patriots defense against the run did have a little shaky start but they adjusted to what the Browns wanted to do and shut them down. Then the Patriots offense bullied their way through. 

The good played great: Christian Barmore with constant pressure up the middle, forcing a number of errant passes, Jakob Johnson blocking like a darn wrecking ball, and Matt Judon, well, being Matt Judon! These names make my recap every single week, and to that point I apologise for being repetitive, but these guys deserve to be mentioned every darn week!  

Kyle Dugger showed up and owned up this week being second on the defensive plays list with 5 tackles, 1 assist and an interception. Only to be bettered by Ja’Whaun Bentley with 6 tackles and 1 assist on the board. 

The ‘old guys’, and I say that very tongue-in-cheek folks, played great. Kyle Van Noy, Devin McCourty and Dont’a Hightower showed us why old guys rule baby! If only Devin could have made that one handed catch for the interception early in the first quarter, the Browns might not have even racked up a touchdown! 45 -7 is great, 45 – 0, oh my!

N’Keal Harry is a slightly controversial topic in Patriots Nation, but he brought something to the game Sunday and may be making his mark as a very effective wide receiver blocker. Going into this match-up the name Myles Garrett was the one people were most concerned about, and well, Harry said “yeah, not in my house” and he shut that guy down!

Mike Onwenu looked to be an absent with the return and line up of Trent Brown but oh no, Belichick wouldn’t take out one of his best offensive linemen. Onwenu lined up as an eligible tight end and blocked the heck out of the Browns defense. I knew I liked that guy…

The Mac-attack had himself an awesome game, throwing the ball deep to prove there was a new gunslinger in town, and his name was McCorkle Jones. That’s Michael McCorkle Jones to you Cleveland.

I know I mention tight ends a plenty, but in my own defense, this year is a bit of a year for it on the Patriots. So, whilst keeping my excitement in check, I will simply touch upon the fact that Hunter Henry had four fabulous receptions, (they were all great catches so can easily be classed as fabulous). Of those 4 receptions, 50% were touchdowns, and 100% of his targets he caught. Just sayin’…

Finally, I can report Jakobi Meyers had his first receiving touchdown and it was thrown by Brian Hoyer. Not perfect, but you know what, I think the whole of Patriots Nation will take it. Pretty much the whole Patriots team celebrated it with him in the end zone. 

And even though at this point in time I haven’t seen which players were given the game ball, mine would go to Rhamondre Stevenson. Not only did he have 4 receptions from 4 targets and 37 yards, but the kid had 20 rushing attempts for 100 yards and a total of 2 touchdowns. But, the numbers aren’t what did it for me, it was watching this guy play. Powerful, masterful and impressive! He ran through gaps that were made well by the Patriots o-line and also a few that didn’t even seem to be there! And as I can’t roll my r’s, I’ll stick with chanting STEVENSON thank you very much.

Go Pats!