PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Patriots vs. Cardinals Film Review: Defense Edition

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It’s always exciting when the Patriots unveil their fully operational defense in the first game of the season, but there wasn’t much surprise this year. The Pats continued to stick to their Cover-1 Man coverage that they’ve played extensively the last two seasons. There were occasional zone coverages and blitzes mixed in, but otherwise it was about lining up and forcing their receivers to beat our cornerbacks.

The real fun of the defense is in the front seven, where you have a collection of athletic pieces who can all rush the passer or drop into pass coverage on any given down. They’ll show a front like the one below, and then let the offense figure out who’s going where. On this particular play, Flowers, Collins and Hightower all drop, leaving a three man rush. Chris Long got the one-on-one and not only got the sack but drew a facemask.

Cardinals Wk 1 Defensive Front

So there you have it. Five guys on the LOS and the offense has to figure out how to block who’s coming after the snap. This is where the magic of this Patriots defense lies and when Rob Ninkovich returns and if Barkevious Mingo finds a defensive role, they’ll have another two pieces to play with like this.

The other fun things they can do are fake a coverage drop, then come on a delayed blitz, or just the opposite, start to come, then stop and drop. This allows the defense to stick to their conservative roots of mostly four- and three-man rushes, but makes the front so fluid it creates more opportunities for free rushers.

Here are some more observations about the defense after reviewing the All-22 film…

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Patriots Terrible Takes Roundup – Week 1

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Debunking the hot takes from this weekend’s “surprising” win. So many takes, so little time.

  1. The Patriots are playing mind games with Jimmy Garoppolo:

Teammates praised the young QB’s ability to execute within the gameplan and the offense, which sounds fine. But many in the media following the game, thought that this was a sign of the team downplaying what they saw as a herculean effort. It was a sign that Belichick had gotten to them and wanted to keep the little guy down.

A small relevant side note: according to Mike Shanahan, Robert Griffin III, a young emerging QB, didn’t want to watch his negative plays after wins or losses. He didn’t want to see the flaws in his game; he only wanted to focus on things he did right. This is one educational point of view, called “positive behavioral assessment”, but it’s not the one Bill Belichick subscribes to.

Belichick is not playing mind games, he’s preparing his player for success (and failure) in the NFL. Belichick likes his players to understand that they wouldn’t win without the guy next to him and the guy next to him and the guy on the Practice Squad replicating a defensive tendency of their opponent. Then when the game is over, he wants them to try to learn from their mistakes and move on. It’s very easy to ride the roller coaster, but good teams don’t do that. They never get too low, never get too high. Yes, good win. We’re onto — Miami. Just a reminder, RGIII is a disaster of a QB and his teammates after the game this week praised his rookie opponent as if he were the next coming.

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Patriots Special Teams Report: Week 1 at Arizona Cardinals

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The NFL’s continuing its attempt to make kickoffs safer by moving the spot of the ball following a touchback to the 25 yard line is supposed to give teams further incentive to not make any attempt to return kicks and simply take a knee in the end zone. Unfortunately for the league, at least in the case of the New England Patriots, that rule might backfire.

While the sample size is admittedly very small, it seems as though the Patriots would far prefer Stephen Gostkowski to loft a high kick that ends up between the five yard line and the goal line, luring their opponents into returning kicks, instead of driving the ball through the back of the endzone and giving the opposing offense the ball at the 25 yard line. Of Gostkowski’s six kicks in Sunday’s game, four were placed between the five yard line and a yard into the end zone, resulting in returns off four of his six kicks (the opening kickoff and Gostkowski’s first kick of the second half were touchbacks). Arizona never made it past their own 21 on those returns, and had an average starting field position off kickoffs of the 18 yard line, the worst starting field position off kickoffs in the entire NFL this week, according to ESPN Stats and Information.

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Notes (and GIFs) on the Pats-Cardinals Re-Watch

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Took another look at some of the key moments of last night’s game. Overall it was a very good start but there are certainly some areas to focus on. Here are just a few leftover thoughts and a few of the big plays that stood out to me. For my full thoughts make sure to check out the Posits.

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Pats Posits: Pats Steal Another One in the Desert

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Oh ye of little faith. Never doubt the Patriots under Bill Belichick in a football game.

For all the turnover and injury attrition, the Patriots still very much looked like the Patriots Sunday night, getting a game-ending missed field goal from Arizona kicker Chandler Catanzaro to prevail over the Cardinals, 23-21.

The defense held on for dear life as Carson Palmer and Larry Fitzgerald started to put on a clinic, but made the last critical play (a drawn hold by Chris Long) and preserved the lead that Jimmy Garoppolo got back.

The offense had to put together a game-winning drive in the fourth quarter. Jimmy Garoppolo, despite one fumble lost, looked every bit a competent professional quarterback. He threw for a touchdown and 264 yards.

He was sacked just twice behind a makeshift offensive line that featured two backup tackles and two rookie guards.

The Pats are 1-0 while the rest of the division is 0-1. Things are looking rosey in Patriots Nation once again as we begin our voyage toward Super Bowl 51. The Bill Belichick magic is very much alive and well.

Here are the Posits on the 1-0 2016 Pats…

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Patriots Lead the Super Bowl Betting Chart

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 This season’s Super Bowl betting public are putting their money on the Green Bay Packers, though it needs to be mentioned that the hot favorite team of the season’s Super Bowl is New England Patriots as mentioned in the Las Vegas sportsbooks. Tom Brady, the New England quarterback won’t play the upcoming four matches for his link to the Deflategate. Yet, according to the NFL betting lines, New England has been leading the money race, as people do are putting their money believing that the Patriots will win this year.
Though a large number of the bet has been placed on the Green Bay Packers too, and they are supposedly the second favorite team for the betting public and is also among the second tier of Super Bowl teams by being at 8-1. The funny thing is, both William Hill’s Nevada book, as well as Westgate Superbook has received more bets on the Green Bay than the New England Packers. Besides, Green Bay Packers, few other teams that are present in the second tier of Super Bowl favorites are – The Seattle Seahawks (8-1) , Arizona Cardinals (8-1), Pittsburgh Steelers (10-1), Carolina Panthers (12-1) and lastly previous year’s defending champion Denver Broncos (25-1).

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Patriots Pregame Meal: Kickoff Sunday

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Yes, the day is finally here! Football is back and we can spend all day watching the appetizer games until the Pats kickoff against the Cardinals tonight.

Some notes and thoughts to pass along as we start pregaming for our pregame.

— Had been wondering about whatever uniforms the Patriots will be wearing for their Thursday night “color rush” game against the Texans next week. The Patriots were one of the only teams to resist the “fly collar” when the league switched to Nike uniforms in 2012, and I expect they’re probably resistant to anything too silly or fancy for this latest NFL marketing ploy. But still, as someone who loves uniforms/helmets/facemasks I can’t help but be a little excited to see a new Pats jersey. They haven’t worn their Pat Patriot red throwbacks since 2012 due to some stupid helmet issue. Apparently they can’t afford a second set of helmets? But hopefully these expected red uniforms that Mike Reiss wrote will be announced on Tuesday will satiate our need for some throwback Patriots.

— Lotta miserable Pats fans already chalking up a loss tonight. I’m not convinced simply because of the Patriots’ defense. The Cardinals aren’t unbeatable at home and if you happened to see the Amazon special All or Nothingabout their season, they were extremely hot and cold at times last year. They lost to the Rams at home early last season. The Patriots have the pass rushers to get after Carson Palmer. That is the key. If Hightower, Sheard, Long, Johnson and maybe Mingo are unleashed tonight, things are going to be interesting no matter how Garoppolo moves the offense.

— This is Belichick with a defense in its prime, with a ton of moveable parts, going against a quarterback who’s been known to struggle against good teams, and could perhaps be fast approaching the end of the line. The Cardinals offense did NOTHING this preseason.

— The Patriots are almost never blown out, but that’s been with Brady and often Gronk. So I get that we’re in new territory here, but the fact remains that New England is one of the best-coached and most disciplined teams in NFL history. The coaches will have a gameplan working around the guys who are out and one that should give the team a chance to win.

— Season openers are always fluky games. Both teams have surprises waiting. Tackling and ball security is often sloppy. That means the better team doesn’t always win early in the season. And let’s not forget the total meltdown the Cardinals had in Carolina in last year’s NFC Championship. Not saying they turn in a stinker like that again, but this Cardinals team has to prove that their aging stars haven’t fully fallen off the cliff.

— Pats continue to make small contract moves, locking up Ninkovich for another season. Good signing. Crazy how many deals Ninkovich has made with the Pats.

— But if we don’t re-sign Hightower and Collins I’m going to be sick.

— What will give me real concern is if LeGarrette Blount is picking up little-to-negative yardage on first down carries. That is a recipe for disaster. Keep Jimmy out of third-and-longs at all costs.

— This was a different defense without Tyrann Mathieu last season. Yes he’s back, but we’ve seen how guys coming off ACLs aren’t the same player immediately. His job is easier without Gronk in the mix, but let’s see how effective he is right out of the gate.

— Games that I’ll be keeping an eye on today: Bengals at Jets, Bills @ Ravens, Packers @ Jaguars.

— The Broncos magical run has apparently spilled over into 2016. Who needs a quarterback? Not the Broncos apparently. They certainly have a talented defense but I don’t get how games just always seem to spin into their favor in the fourth quarter in close games. Every call, every bounce, everything seems to suddenly go their way almost like it used to for the Patriots during their 21-game win streak from 2003-2004. I am trying to embrace them in the role of my NFL villain, but I just don’t understand how they continue to have a horseshoe up their ass.

— Even without Gronk I’d expect plenty of heavy offensive sets tonight. All three tackles, Bennett and Harbor/Derby and a large dose of James Develin as well. There’s certainly a path to victory with the ground and pound if we can get it going (which we couldn’t last year).

— This game feels a lot like 2008 Week 2, when the Pats had to march into New York to face Brett Favre and the Jets with Matt Cassel in his first start. It seemed like now or never for the Jets then, but the Pats still came up with a 19-10 win. They key that day was of course, no turnovers by the offense.

— No matter what happens tonight, it’s one game and the season opener at that. You can never judge a season outlook from this one game. The Pats have had plenty of close battles in the season-opener with teams that went on to be terrible. The Pats have also looked nearly-terrible in many of those games themselves. So take all the hot taeks that are surely coming this week with a grain of salt. Good or bad. It’s a long road and that’s what makes it interesting.