An Independent Patriots Blog
After two off days, the Patriots had media access on Sunday morning and the Boston Globe’s Jim McBride broke a trio of bad injury news updates concerning Shaq Mason, Dion Lewis and Sebastian Vollmer.
These are the first significant injury blows of the 2016 season with potential long-term ramifications.
Let’s break them each down one by one.
Last week, I asked these questions about the Point-least Game ever. Here’s what I came up with for answers.
Credit: Winslow Townson – USA TODAY Sports
1. What the hell is happening on defense, specifically at LB?
A: Um, a whole lot. For a more philosophical look read Mike’s piece on BB’s defense 2.0. Also Doug Kyed touched on it in his mailbag.
This defense is jacked with talent, more importantly versatile talent, quick, smart, instinctive guys who will play through the whistle. Shea McClellan looks the part, he was in on nearly everything when he was out there. In front of him, the DTs were able to push into the running lanes early and often; really nice depth there and I think Alan Branch could be cut. Also Pot Roast’s gut is as advertised.
How is that guy a pro athlete?
The player that I was most excited to see was Kamu Grugier-Hill. He looked lost, not a surprise for a 6th round pick, but multiple times he was too anxious to go after his coverage assignment, even if they were staying in to block and even when his assignment was pointed out to him, he got caught up in the wash somehow. His coverage skills apparently stand out in practice, but he doesn’t possess the size at LB to make significant contributions in the running game, as evidenced by his several back-tapping assisted tackles. It is an intriguing enough idea (a coverage specialist LB), but the dude needs time. And protein.
[Read more…] about Review/Preview: 5 Things We Watched & 5 Things to Watch
It’s preseason week 2, and yet again all I truly care about this week is staying healthy. Aside from that it should be an interesting game, as a number of significant players are dealing with seemingly minor injuries that should hold them out of action. That means the trickle down effect should give quite a few under-the-radar types a chance to shine in more prominent roles.
Here are the five guys who I’ll be watching most closely.
Everyone knows the Patriots preseason defense is vanilla ice cream. You’re not going to unveil some revolutionary new tactic or formation when it doesn’t matter. And Bill Belichick is never one to tip his hand if he has something interesting brewing.
It seems like every season everyone gets so wrapped up in 3-4 vs. 4-3, who’s standing up, etc. that we get confused trying to figure out something that is far less complicated than we’re all making it out to be.
Here’s the biggest thing to remember — the Patriots were in sub defense for 84 percent of the snaps in 2016. They’ve been trending that way since 2009. So any discussion of 3-4 vs. 4-3 applies to less than 15 percent of the snaps. And the truth is that the techniques in both these defenses are the same. Just because one guy is standing up or has his hand down doesn’t make much difference.
For all the talk of “Ninkovich is playing linebacker!!”, here he is, playing linebacker in the 4-3 under in 2011, just like McClellin was doing last week.
So here’s a look at the vanilla base schemes the Patriots defense ran against the Saints, using the plays right out of Bill Belichick’s 1997 Jets playbook.
[Read more…] about Breaking Down Patriots’ Preseason Defense
Remember Gary Guyton?
One of the major influences on why I started blogging about the Patriots was to see how Bill Belichick would execute a full defensive turnover with absolute power. How many times in football history has a coach had full control to rebuild a defense from scratch? Few have that kind of longevity, and while Tom Brady has been Belichick’s constant on the offensive side of the ball, the defense barely resembles what it looked like just five short years ago.
Despite the record-setting 2007 season, the Patriots defense was getting old and slow. A lot of their deficiencies were covered by their unstoppable offense. By 2008 the cracks were even more apparent, especially without Asante Samuel. That offseason things went into full turnover mode.
Mike Vrabel was traded. Rodney Harrison, Rosevelt Colvin, and Tedy Bruschi retired. Richard Seymour was traded. And just like that, the dynasty defense was no more.
Jerod Mayo and Vince Wilfork were the cogs to build around, but the holes around them from 2009-2012 were glaring. It was a revolving door in the secondary, where no cornerback or safety seemed to stick outside of Devin McCourty. Gary Guyton and Tully Banta-Cain played prominent roles. Street free agents were regularly making starting appearances. It was ugly.
By the grace of Tom Brady, the Patriots offense was just so good, the team glided through this down period of having a terrible defense. They gave up a ton of yards and more big plays than anyone else from 2009-2012, and were near the bottom of the league on third down. They still won 49 games because they forced turnovers and had Brady.
[Read more…] about Belichick’s 2.0 Patriots Defense Hitting Their Prime
We all know regular season games, seasons and even dynasties are won and lost in the trenches of the first preseason game of the year. In the NFL it is all about getting off to a good start, so THANKFULLY we don’t have to start writing strongly worded letters to Robert and Jonathan Kraft just yet. I was expecting to see Drew Brees play well into the 4th quarter, but thankfully those Cowards from NOLA benched his ass after 1 series. Looks like 2016 is off to a ROUGH start for New Orleans, would not want to be those guys. On to our boys…
Justin Coleman: Mike broke this down in his Pats Posits piece and I couldn’t agree more. There will be Taeks that Coleman played his way off the roster this week, but don’t buy into them. After putting Coleman under the microscope I think he did a decent job in coverage this game, and was decidedly physical.
Again, a lot of people will criticize him for this, but in looking at the first play from scrimmage again, Coleman was in pretty good position but just got beat by a better throw from Drew Brees. Coleman gave up another big reception to Michael Thomas, but was right there again in coverage and showed decent technique with an arm-bar trying to force the receiver to the boundary. I still am not sure how this was ruled a catch, but hey, those are the breaks (read: if this was a playoff game I’d be climbing the NFL offices with suction cups to get an audience with Goodell & Blandino).
I loved seeing Coleman absolutely POP 222-lb Tim Hightower in the flats last night. I jumped off my couch and starting jumping around my apartment when I saw this play in real time, so if nothing else, Coleman deserves credit for forcing me to exercise for the first time in about a half decade. Side Note: No freakin clue how Adam Magnacca was able to complete that conditioning test, if you haven’t seen it check it out here. That’s straight up masochism if I’ve ever seen it.
He also had a solid PBU in the second quarter. Don’t give this kid the splash play PFF treatment. He did a lot of good in this game.
[Read more…] about Patriots vs. Saints: GIFing the Secondary
The first preseason game is always exciting, as it is a return to football…even though you know going in that it will probably be a sloppy game, and most of the players that get playing time will be seeing most of the time on the field are (likely) getting most of the NFL playing time that they’ll ever receive.
The players I was excited to watch in some capacity were all rookies: Malcolm Mitchell, Kamu Grugier-Hill, and Devin Lucien.
The first quarter was rather uninspiring for the remaining three, as the only time any of them saw on the field was Kamu Grugier-Hill getting some special teams reps. If Grugier-Hill continues to play early on special teams, he has a good shot of making the roster, regardless of other factors.
[Read more…] about Preseason Week 1 Rookie Report: Mitchell, Grugier-Hill, Lucien