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Patriots Gameplan: Week 8 vs. Los Angeles Chargers

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Just when it felt like the 2017 Patriots had turned a corner and gotten their season on track, they lost their defensive leader Dont’a Hightower for the season to a torn pec. Hightower was one of the walking wounded headed into the season and any hopes that he could somehow grind it out, through knee, shoulder and this pec injury were impossible.

As we should all realize by now the Patriots aren’t doomed by this injury. It’s a huge blow, but they’re as well coached a football team as there’s ever been in history and they’ll find a way to still play some pretty good defense. It will be harder on them all, and the team’s odds of winning another Super Bowl went down again, just like they did when Julian Edelman was lost, but they’ll keep fighting down to the last snap.

So now here come the San Diego Los Angeles Chargers (of Orange County?), a team the Patriots have mostly had their way with over the years. In my time in Los Angeles I saw plenty of the games — the 2006 AFCDG, the 2010 and 2014 wins, not to mention all the times here in Foxboro that the Pats handled Phillip Rivers et al, like 2007, the 2007 AFCCG, and 2011.

This is a good and underrated Chargers team, that is far better than their 3-4 record might indicate. They’ve won three in a row and three of their losses were by seven points combined. They’ve got all the necessary elements to beat the Patriots, good pass rushers, a diverse running back and a quarterback who won’t be intimidated despite only beating the Matt Cassel Pats in 2008 (I was at that one too).

This won’t be an easy game, and you wonder how the defense will respond without Hightower. What the Pats need to do to get the job done, and move to 6-2 as they head into the bye week is here in the gameplan.

 

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Report: Hightower Done for Year with Torn Pec

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Welp, you spend a good hour this morning writing about how the Pats can manage for a game-plus without Hightower and then Ian Rapoport drops this bomb.

No other way to cut it, this is a huge blow to Patriots Super Bowl hopes. Between Julian Edelman and now Hightower, it’s hard to come up with a worse scenario that doesn’t involve the quarterback, and given the depth and meaning of all those players, losing your best wide receiver and linebacker might even be worse. At least with Jimmy G there’d be a small element of excitement.

So what now? Is there a trade out there that could help? Are we ready for a whole lot of David Harris? There’s no easy answer as is often the case when you lose a player of this magnitude. As I mentioned this morning, getting Shea McClellin back would certainly help. Then a trio of Harris, McCellan and Cassius Marsh would be serviceable, complimenting Kyle Van Noy, who has shown remarkable progress in recent weeks and is now the de facto leader of the front seven now. Throw in some Trevor Reilly and Marquis Flowers and maybe someone emerges. Is that a Super Bowl winning linebacker group on paper right now though? Ummmmmm….

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Injuries Strike Pats Just After They Clicked

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We’re all sick of hearing it but here it is again “injuries are the only thing that stand between the Patriots and Super Bowls at this point in the Belichick/Brady dynasty.” You either get years where they stay almost entirely healthy — 2014/2016 (with a notable exception or two like Gronk last year), or 2013/2015 where key guys are lost and it’s just not enough to get past the AFC Championship.

Every year is a bit different. And this year, the injuries to Julian Edelman, such a critical player, and others cam early enough that they could still be overcome. But it’s a long season and we’re not even half way through it. And now, after a couple weeks of injury reprieve, the Pats once again had a frightening injury report on Wednesday with Dont’a Hightower, Malcom Brown and Danny Amendola leading the way.

These were three gut punch absences, especially after the Pats were coming off their first complete game performance of the season. A feel-good “Pats are back” type win that made the sloppy start a distant memory.

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Film Review: Pats vs. Falcons – Defense (Until it Got Too Foggy) Edition

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The Patriots defense turned in their best performance of the season against the Falcons, a total team effort where they were fundamentally sound from top to bottom. Things got a little too foggy to breakdown the entire game, but from a half-plus of review I got a pretty good sense of how well they played and how they were able to shutdown a Falcons offense that had shredded them for much of the Super Bowl.

Here’s what stood out…

— Van Noy continues to make really good progress and his development is a big reason why the defense is playing so much better, especially against the run. The 3rd-and-4 on the Falcons’ second possession was a perfect example as Van Noy splits a double team in space to make a solo tackle for a three yard loss on a toss sweep. It was an excellent play, a great example of the kind of things that weren’t happening earlier in the season.

— After converting the following fourth down via a Matt Ryan scramble the Falcons put together a nice little drive that ended with a Cassius Marsh blocked field goal. On the last third-and-10 the coverage was excellent. Ryan had nowhere to go and the pass rush flushed him out of the pocket. He thought about scrambling again, but McCourty peeled off his middle field help coverage to prevent it. Just an overall really solid team defense play in a key spot, the kind of stuff we haven’t really seen enough of.

— On Marsh’s block he again demonstrated a strength — getting skinny and getting through gaps to make plays. It’s shown up a few times on defensive plays and now it set up what might’ve been a season-changing special teams play. After this the Patriots just played with even more confidence.

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Patshow #111: A Foggy Falcons Victory Wrap

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Join yours truly and Nick “Fitzy” Stevens as we break down the Pats’ Super Bowl 51 rematch win over the Falcons. We’ll also take a look through the fog at Brandin Cooks’ touchdown, check out the best tweets from the game and take a look ahead to this weekend’s matchup with the Chargers.

The Redemption of the 2017 Offensive Line

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The Patriots made a statement Sunday night, dominating the Atlanta Falcons to the tune of a 23-7 blowout in which Atlanta’s lone score occurred with just 4:09 left to play in the game. While the defensive effort made most headlines, it was the unheralded work of perhaps the Patriots most important unit, the offensive line, that deserves their share of the credit for the victory.

After the Tampa Bay game, I wrote about the Patriots offensive line struggles and the essential nature of protecting Brady, and it is clear that they red what I wrote, because we have seen a marked improvement from the unit in the two games since. In the first five games, Brady was sacked 16 times, which already eclipsed his sack total from last season ( just 15). The offensive line conceded three sacks Week 1, two Week 2, five Week 3, three Week 4, and three Week 5, good for an average of 3.2 sacks allowed, and 3.4 quarterbacks hits allowed, in that span. After Week 5, the Patriots were on pace to allow 51 sacks on the season, which would set a record for total sacks in a season with Brady under center.

However, in the past two weeks, we have witnessed a profound rise in the performance of the offensive line, led by the interior line, particularly center David Andrews (Pro Football Focus’s 3rd ranked center) and guard Shaq Mason (Pro Football Focus’s 5th ranked guard). Against the Jets last week, the Patriots did not yield a sack for the first time all year, and in Sunday’s contest with the Falcons, the Patriots did not allow a quarterback hit, also for the first time all year. Brady was sacked twice Sunday night, but one can be attributed to a communication breakdown between Brady and his line, not an offensive lineman being beat by a rusher.

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