PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Notes on the Patriots-Saints Re-Watch

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At second glance, this game wasn’t as close as it seemed to be live. Remove the tension of a “Brees carving our defense in a comeback win” and it was a pretty methodical strangulation by the Patriots. While I’ll await the Coaches tape before doing any real X-and-O deep dives, there was still plenty to digest here.

Here’s something that stuck out to me.

— If ever there was a picture to sum up how calm, cool and collected Brady was in the pocket check out the shot below. Brady completes this pass to James White (circled). Completely unfazed by Cameron Jordan literally right in his face. It was that kind of night for Brady.

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Pats Posits: 1-1 and we’re back having fun!

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The Patriots got their 2017 season on track with a 36-20 victory over the New Orleans Saints, evening their record to 1-1 and silencing any doubters who actually though the season-opening loss would derail the New England football machine.

It now feels like the season is officially underway and despite a handful of somewhat concerning injuries, the Patriots look every bit as primed as ever to make another run at a Super Bowl title. No matter who they do or don’t roll out there, the Patriots will be a tough out for whoever they play this season. Already, just two weeks in, the hope is they can pull Gronk, Amendola, Hightower, Mitchell and whoever else goes down together in January after a bye week for a three-wins-for-Super-Bowl-Six playoff run..

Perhaps most impressive was how this suddenly felt like the Bill Belichick Patriots we’ve become accustomed to. They carved the Saints underneath in the passing game, leaned on Rob Gronkowski when they had to, and played the kind of bend-don’t-break defense we’ve all come to love/hate. This was the Patriots and it was a nice reminder that despite an uneven performance on opening night, this is still a very good football team capable of beating any team on any given Sunday.

First things first, let’s get the injuries out of the way, because there were quite a few. This is a troubling trend in 2017 and we’re going on four-straight games dating back to the preseason with significant players going down. Luckily it seems like the initial reports on all the injuries are positive, but we’ve heard that before and then you find out Hightower’s seeing Dr. Andrews and maybe it isn’t just a “sprained MCL” but a chronic problem.

We’ll see on Wednesday just how serious and lingering these injuries from this one are.

Injury Report

  • Rob Gronkowski – Groin: Gronk told reporters he was “okay” after the game. Just the fact that he stayed on the sideline without anyone really paying attention to him leads me to believe Gronk will be fine. But it sure is scary having to rely on the big tight end that much. Hoepfully Alex Guerrero can work some soft tissue magic and Gronk’s groin will be fine. Of course, the groin jokes just write themselves with Gronk, especially after he nabbed his 69th touchdown catch in this game.
  • Eric Rowe – Groin: Rowe also indicated he’d be oaky with some rest.
  • Rex Burkhead – Ribs
  • Chris Hogan – Knee: Sounds like this problem popped up late in the week of practice. Hopefully it’s a minor sprain that doesn’t linger.
  • Phillip Dorsett – Knee: Injured just as he was starting to click with Brady, hopefully they don’t lose him, it would be a setback for a player still trying to pick up the offense.

Okay, with the injuries out of the way let’s jump into the Posits from a feel good win.

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Patriots Pregame Meal

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I don’t know about you guys but this morning felt like the real start of the NFL season for me. The Thursday night opener came upon us so quickly it never really felt like the real football had started. But now, on a foggy September morning it those old football feels are finally back, as is the nervousness for this big game. Here are some pregame reflections before the carnage unfolds this afternoon.

If you’re looking for an easy and entertaining way to kill a half hour of pregame this morning check out my latest venture with Nick Stevens and the awesome folks at MediaBoss, Patshow. We’re having a ton of fun hopefully bringing to the fans the kind of entertainment they’re missing with the Patriots. A show that embraces the fun of being a fan but also talks about the team in a reasonable and football-savvy way. Please help us spread the word about Patshow, as go live every Tuesday morning at www.facebook.com/patshow6. Please like and share as we try to grow the show each week!

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A Look Back: The 2009 Saints Massacre

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If you have yet to see the entire two-part Bill Belichick A Football Life, stop reading and watch it above immediately. Or for the purposes of this post you can just click play and it will queue right up to maybe the most infamous loss of the Belichick era thanks to NFL Films’ documenting it from the inside.

I am of course talking about the 2009 loss to the Saints in New Orleans by a glaring 38-17 score. The most famous part of this loss was recorded by the cameras as Belichick lamented not being able to get the 2009 team to play the way they needed to, that it had nothing really to do with the Saints and was mostly on the Patriots’ inability to overcome any adversity.

Eight years later we have a good perspective on the 2009 season now and I thought it would be a fun little look back at a terrible game that came in maybe the worst season under Belichick.

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Patriots Gameplan: Week 2 at New Orleans Saints

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The 0-1 Patriots travel to New Orleans Sunday for an intriguing matchup against Drew Brees and the 0-1 New Orleans Saints. The Patriots haven’t started a season 0-2 since 2001 (aka Tom Brady‘s first year as a starter) and after the terrible showing in the season opener, New England’s backs are already against the wall. Kind of.

As we discussed on Patshow this week, this season already has some drama and that can be a good thing. We’ve lived a 16-0 season (and the ensuing 18-1 finale) and that thrill of will-they-or-won’t-they lose a game was special. But we don’t need to live again. 2017 is going to be a battle, that much is already clear. Losing Edelman, then Hightower AND Amendola going down in the first game? Kinda hard to top that outside of losing you know who.

Frankly injuries are usually the only thing that keeps Belichick and Brady from going to the Super Bowl every year, and it’s fair to wonder if this team has already lost too much. The difference this year is that they’ve all happened so early in the year. This isn’t 2009, 2011, 2013 or 2015. Those all featured late heavy-impact injury losses like Wes Welker, Rob Gronkowski, Andre Carter and yes, Julian Edelman. Once again it will actually be any late-season injuries that define this team’s championship hopes.

I’m still holding my breath for the Patriots to make some significant in-season personnel moves. This team still feels like a work-in-progress at this point.

And now they return to the site of the worst regular season loss in BB/TB history.

Here’s my gameplan for pulling out a win by any means necessary in New Orleans.

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Kill, Bill, Vol 3: The New England Patriots Schedule of QB assassins.

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Let me start by saying: FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

The Patriots got beat by Alex Smith.

Yes, Kareem Hunt and yes, the Chiefs and yes, Andy Reid, who previously prompted two overused soundbytes: “Tom Brady’s just not good anymore” and “We’re on to Cincinnati” (my least favorite of the Hoodie catchphrases). So I’m not saying FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK! because they lost to the Chiefs. That’s fine, Andy Reid is as competitive with Belichick as Tom Coughlin was. The loss isn’t a problem, even welcome, if it focuses the team and pushes them to come together.

The reason I am saying FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK! is Alex Smith.  Alex Smith, the dink and dunk QB, who had a career 61% completion percentage. Alex Smith, the number 1 pick who has never amounted to that value, who had only 1 game with 4+ TDs in 142 Regular Season games.  Alex Smith, who was being challenged by a rookie for his starting job in training camp, who had only two games ever where he amassed more than 311 yards.  That Alex Smith torched the Patriots defense for 368 yards, 4 TDs, 80% Comp %, 148.6 Rating.

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Potential Defensive Adjustments vs. Saints

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I try not to look at any kind of stats until Week 4. It’s just too small a sample size and too easy to overreact, and that’s certainly the case this morning as I took a peak at my stats site of choice FootballOutsiders.com.

The Patriots defense? Ranked 32nd in overall defense, 30th against the pass and 32nd against the run. Nowhere to go but up, right!? I like Football Outsiders because it’s not based on one random analysts grades but by efficiency in the context of the situation. It gives us a good sense of how the team executed. And clearly the Patriots didn’t execute well at all.

By historical comparison, and again, this is just for shits and giggles at this point, here’s how those numbers stack up.

Of course things will get better, but it won’t exactly be handed to the Patriots, especially with a tough matchup against a great quarterback at his homefield this weekend. Here’s a few thoughts on some personnel switches that might help improve things and be better suited to handling Drew Brees and the Saints diverse attack.

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