PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Pats Posits: Pats Make It Look Easy in Mexico

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The Patriots rolled to an “all-too-easy” 33-8 win over the Oakland Raiders in Mexico City on Sunday afternoon, cementing their place as Super Bowl favorites. Even without Marcus Cannon, David Andrews and Chris Hogan (to go on top of all the other significant injury losses this year), the New England football machine rolls on!

This one wasn’t all that interesting to be honest as the Pats controlled things pretty much from the outset. While I always enjoy a stress-free victory there’s still something unsatisfying about an easy win. But at this point obviously we’ll take it. The offense put some of their red zone troubles behind, Stephen Gostkowski kicked a career-long field goal (62 yards) to go with four others and the defense didn’t surrender a point until the game was already decided.

There’s really not much to complain about at this point of the Patriots season, which is prime spoiled fan area. So much of the rest of the league has fallen back to earth after promising starts, with the Bills leading the way, the Patriots just keep on rolling.

Still plenty to unpack from the win, here are my initial thoughts without a film review in the Posits!

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Coffin Corner: Greedy Goodell is a Patriots fan for a day

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Numbers are increasingly how we digest and analyze football play: fantasy stats, advanced analytics, workout metrics, pass charts, etc. Even writers describe game narratives differently than they used to, abandoning word salads like “The Catch”, ‘The Drive,” “The Butt Fumble” for numerical idioms: 28-3, 18-1, TB12. But there’s one big, vast, terrifyingly yuge number that defines what it means to be an NFL owner.

$25,000,000,000.00

That number tells the story of why owners stand by the leadership of Commissioner Roger Goodell, despite his objectively horrible performance. It tells the story of the league’s response to President Trump’s anger at the protesting players. It tells the story of ignored CTE research. It tells the story of non-guaranteed contracts. Abandoned fanbases. Tax-payer funded stadiums. It tells the story of everything that NFL ownership is about in 2017. A singular narrative of Greed.

The owners are greedy. They don’t hide it. They want their product to be worth $25,000,000,000.00 and no amount of player protest, early-onset dementia or Thursday Night Football will get in the way. It is their explicit, transparent, shouted from the rooftop aspiration. In this pursuit, they have one problem: The NFL isn’t getting any more popular in the United States. In fact, it appears that the sport is losing eyeballs based on television ratings and attendance. The US market is saturated. Full to the brim. That’s why this Sunday is very important for them.

Expanding to $25,000,000,000 hinges on one potential development, global expansion. An NFL Team will be an international market in the next five years. Goodell has expressed this desire publically, despite the many complications it presents. Sunday is his attempt to whet the appetite of someone like Carlos Slim, the Mexican billionaire.

Ironically, to drum up interest, Roger Goodell needs to champion the team he seems to antagonize the most, Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. The Patriots are the best sales tools the NFL can offer. The fact that the Patriots have never given up a home game for an international game confirms their negotiating leverage. The league needs them more than they need to sell a few million more jerseys in.

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Start Planning Your Super Bowl Trip Now!

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It’s never too soon for Patriots fans to be thinking about Super Bowl tickets, and with today’s onsale of the first-ever “The Night Before” concert, there’s a lot more to do around Super Bowl weekend, whether or not you’re planning to attend the game.  The show, which is co-produced by On Location Experiences and CBS Radio, will give 20,000 fans an opportunity to soak in the Super Bowl atmosphere at Xcel center, which is home to the Wild and every major concert that goes through the Twin Cities.

While parties have always been a staple of Super Bowl weekend, they’ve always been ultra exclusive, invite-only events.  For fans that didn’t have a connection to get a ticket one of the big parties, whether it’s Playboy, Maxim, ESPN, you were basically on your own to come up with a plan for the weekend, which required navigating through a ton of options. For average fans looking to get into one of the big parties, the secondary market was often the only option, with prices usually ranging from $1,000 to $5,000.

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Patriots Gameplan: Week 11 vs. Oakland Raiders in Mexico City

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The Patriots high-in-the-sky two-game road trip continues this weekend, as New England goes from last week’s game against the Broncos at 5000 feet above sea level, to a week of practice in Colorado Springs at 6000 feet above sea level and now on to Mexico City, which is 7000 feet above sea level to face the Raiders.

Before the season this looked like a potential AFC Championship preview, but the Raiders haven’t quite lived up to expectations, losing five of their last seven. The Pats and Raiders are similar teams in that their offenses are good (NE 1st DVOA, OAK 3rd DVOA) and their defenses have been at the other end of the spectrum (NE 30th DVOA, OAK 32nd DVOA). Usually all those things kind of cancel out and what we’re left with is: Tom Brady vs. the 32nd-ranked pass defense in the NFL.

But it isn’t exactly a slam dunk. Oakland is better than their record indicates and have shown good resiliency. Nowhere was that more apparent than against the Chiefs when the Raiders had a miraculous last drive that featured two chances at the end zone with time expired. With the game coming at significant elevation, and with unknown field conditions, there are some x-factors that could play into things.

Simply put, the Patriots cannot afford to let the Raiders hang around in this one, because they can sling it when their backs are against the wall. The young Oakland team will see this game as a huge opportunity for them to make their presence in the AFC and NFL felt after a poor start. If it was in Oakland I’d like the Raiders’ chances more, but an experienced New England team, that has been practicing close to altitude all week should be extremely well-prepared and focused on this game.

What the Pats need to do to get that eighth win of the season and finally descend from the clouds back home in the gameplan.

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Is 2017 Most Balanced Patriots Passing Attack Ever?

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The Patriots offense suffered a devastating blow in preseason when Julian Edelman tore his ACL. Edelman was the engine that made the offense go, the guy who made the tough catches in the biggest moments and without him there wouldn’t be two more banners hanging over Gillette Stadium

However this season the Patriots were uniquely prepared for such a loss. They added two very good running backs to go with two they already had, and gave up a first round pick for the explosive Brandin Cooks. Even after Malcolm Mitchell, a promising rookie from 2016, started the season on IR, the Patriots still had enough depth with Chris Hogan and in-season acquisition Phillip Dorsett to keep the passing offense going.

With their best receiver missing the Patriots have almost become harder to defend. We all remember the original Tom Brady motto — that his favorite receiver was the open one. Well in 2017 that might be truer than ever, as Brady has spread the ball around far more evenly than any recent season. This has made the Patriots offense even harder to stop because there’s no one to key on.

Let’s take a closer look this devastating balance that is making 2017 one of the most unique years of the Brady offense and how it stacks up historically.

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Patriots Film Review: Defense vs. Broncos Edition

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The Patriots’ defense has finally settled in and is back to playing their good old bend-don’t-break style of defense. This isn’t the ’85 Bears, but they’re doing what well-coached defenses do — playing within the system, limiting big plays and getting stops in the red zone. As maddening as it can be to watch, we should all know by now that it’s a winning formula.

Despite their improvements I still have my concerns about the defense. The last two games have pretty much unfolded perfectly for them so I can’t get too high on them at this point, but improvement is improvement and there’s no question the product on the field has looked far superior to what we were seeing early in the season.

The truth is against the Broncos the defense turned in one red zone stop and they were already up 14-3. That’s the context of this game, which is important.

So yes, it’s okay to feel better about the defense, but there’s still a ways to go and some good offenses to stop.

Here’s what stood out in reviewing the All-22 game film.

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Patshow 113: Broncos Wrap

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Here’s the latest episode of Patshow, featuring the best of Broncos social media, what a feel-good win it was and a breakdown of Rex Burkhead’s first touchdown of the game. It’s Patshow!!