PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Mike Dussault

Patriots Gameplan: AFC Divisional Playoff vs. Tennessee Titans

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You might not realize it after spending the week listening to the Boston sports media, but the Patriots open their 2017 playoff run against the Tennessee Titans on Saturday night.

We’ve spent the past week hearing every possible theory about the lukewarm Seth Wickersham ESPN article that was being billed as a bombshell. It was really just the jumping off point for a week spent airing grievances toward the Patriots, and especially Tom Brady. Gross.

Even when they were talking football it was the same old thing we’ve been hearing for the past decade: yeah, the Pats were 13-3 but are they really that good? I kept flashing back to 14 years ago when it was the same thing. Remember? Yeah the Pats were 13-3 but Peyton Manning and the Colts are the best offense ever and they’re going to expose the pretending Patriots.

Again, it just illustrates why this dynasty has been so special, dominating despite the doubters, proving over and over that it’s about the team. Well, it’s still about the team and this Patriots team was ignoring the noise all week and will be ready to face a Tennessee team that had four 4th-quarter comebacks this season and five game-winning drives, and just knocked off a team that smoked the Pats at home in the season opener.

What do the Pats need to do to advance to their record seventh-straight conference championship game? Here’s the gameplan…

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Injury-Riddled Pats Still Crushing Tomato Cans

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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.

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Five Key Patriots For a Super Bowl Run

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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.

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Pats Posits: Off-Field Noise Will Dominate Titans Week

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The Patriots’ first playoff opponent is set, but there won’t be much discussion of the Titans this week. Instead the ESPN article from last week will continue to be rehashed, the Pats will be faulted for not having better opponents and everyone will sit and wonder whether Robert Kraft will sell the team, Bill Belichick will jump ship and start over somewhere else or Tom Brady will demand a trade.

Of course none of those last three are going to happen, but that’s what we get to listen to and read this week, unless you’ve developed the superhuman power to avoid the loudmouths and idiots who cover Boston sports as I have. Just this morning I had Kirk and Callahan on for a brief moment by accident and was amazed to hear their entire developed narrative from the ESPN story.

There’s plenty of that going on out there. That the Pats should’ve gotten more for Garoppolo. That they could’ve managed to keep both Garoppolo and Brady under the salary cap. That Belichick is going to go work for Dave Gettlemen and the Giants because this entire episode just infuriated him and made him have a “tantrum” as Kirk and Callahan were putting it.

The perceived lack of drama on the field, especially facing a team like the Titans, has left a vacuum. Now those who get paid to talk about football, and can barely do it when the Pats are playing a team with the league MVP on it, much less a lackluster one like Tennessee, are all in on the ESPN story and are spinning into something far bigger than the article itself even was.

So whatever. If you enjoy having your buttons pushed like they’ll do all week, more power to you. Everyone is allowed to be entertained however they choose. I started this blog so I could write about football. Well, football and Bill Belichick’s hoodies. But the battle between the lines is what is most fascinating to me and that’s what I’ll stick to.

Here are this week’s Posits on Wild Card weekend, the Titans and nothing more to do with the Kraft-Belichick-Brady love triangle.

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Patriots vs. Titans 2017 AFCDG

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuTxtPYnrOs

After the Tennessee Titans miracle comeback against the Chiefs, and the Jaguars snoozefest win over the Bills, the Patriots will face the Titans in the AFC Divisional Game next Saturday night at 8:15pm EST.

The two teams haven’t met in the playoffs since 2003, when Tom Brady took down league Co-MVP Steve McNair’s team in the divisional round as well. It was a nail-biting 17-14 win in arctic temperatures, reminiscent of the weather in New England the last couple weeks. Luckily the forecast doesn’t appear to be quite so frigid this time around.

Since that playoff game the two teams have met just four times, with the Pats winning all four by a combined 166 to 52.

Initial impressions? Well, I guess I’m glad it’s not the Chiefs, who had me petrified when they were rolling over the Titans early in the game on Saturday afternoon. Of course we all saw how they fell apart so I guess the Chiefs weren’t the threat I believed they were. They just matched up well and had some talented pieces that could give the Patriots key problems in key areas. But oh well, their season is over and now we have to deal with Marcus Mariota, who made all the plays down the stretch that the Chiefs couldn’t.

We’ll dive more into the matchup this week, but in terms of the big picture the Titans are a below average team in just about every metric. Yes, they’ve got some tough trench players on both sides of the ball. Tight end Delanie Walker led the team with 74 catches, while Derrick Henry had 744 yards rushing. The loss of Demarco Murray to an MCL tear hurt both on the ground (659 yards) and through the air (266 yards).

I know. You don’t want to get overconfident, nor feed the Shank Tomato Can narrative but the Pats should roll in this one as the Titans might be the most overmatched opponent in recent Patriots playoff history. Still, they’re a young team who will play with nothing to lose. Their season has already been made, with their coach picking up another year with the team after their previous upset win.

The Patriots won’t care of course. They’ll lock in on the Titans like they’re an AFC favorite. It may lack some excitement but a playoff game is a playoff game and that’s why we write all them blogs. Let’s do our best to get fired up. Yay.

Historical Stat Comparisons for 2017 Patriots

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Upon further review, I’m having a tough time putting this Patriots team in historical context as far as the stats go. One advantage of blogging solely about the Pats for the past decade and keeping detailed stats on each season, is that I’m able to quickly look back and compare how each season stacks up against those that came before it.

2017 feels like a mix of a lot of the bad seasons, but with just enough sprinkling of the good seasons that this year feels totally unpredictable to me.

Let’s dive in on both sides of the ball and try to find some common threads.

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