PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

If the steelers come to New England, how do the corners match up against their receivers with Martavis Bryant in the mix now, unlike week 1?

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Yeah that’s what’s fascinating and I think what we’d see would be Butler-Brown, Ryan-Bryant, Wheaton-Johnons. Usually the Pats have given the bigger receivers to Ryan and though he’s a had a good season, he certainly had his struggles against those guys, especially late in the season. Hard to kill him too much when the pass is caught out of his reach, but I do like the Pats’ chances with these matchups. Butler handled himself pretty well in Week 1, was right there on every catch he gave up. That experience would serve him well. But without DeAngelo Williams the Pats can stick to their same sub-heavy game plan. The bigger problem in this game (for the Steelers) is how they slow down Gronk who has killed them pretty much every time he’s played them.

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The thing about playoffs is that you’re probably going to make or break based on the play of those second tier guys making plays that you can’t really predict. Duron Harmon’s game-sealing interception against the Ravens, Butler’s SB interception… those are the kind of plays that you need from players that don’t get the headlines during the year.

The number one guy I look at is Leonard Johnson who, despite having a huge target on his back the last few games, has been their best slot guy this year. Justin Coleman was decent, but after a wrist injury and then a concussion it’s tough to count on him.

We all know the drill as Patriots fans. Defensively they’ll take away the opposing offenses best player, leaving it to their second and third receiver to win the game. The list of “who the hell is that” receivers who suddenly have big games against us is long and not really distinguished. 

Easiest example is Chris Matthews last year going off for the Seahawks. Zero catches all year then has 5 for 109 yards and a touchdown in the Super Bowl. 

So this year, Leonard Johnson’s going to be the guy who gets that key third matchup. If he’s getting torched like Arrington did by Matthews early in the Super Bowl we could be in trouble. But if he plays like Butler did after entering the game (which allowed Browner to move to Matthews) the Pats defense will be poised for success.

As for the offense all the guys you might consider are the guys who have been kind of duds this year without Edelman, Amendola. Especially Keshawn Martin who might not see the field in the playoffs (I hope). I guess the easy choice is LaFell. If Edelman and Amendola are back in there it might make things a little easier on LaFell’s role, and really all he needs to really do is hang on to the ball and block like a mad man. We know he can do it. But will he?

https://www.patspropaganda.com/patspropaganda-what-sub-will-help-the-team-most/

Pats Posits: Just Because Edition

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Per my earlier post of the SB49 Sound FX episode, it’s starting to feel like the playoffs are coming and I’m getting fired up. Probably played “For Those About to Rock” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday” a little too loud on my way into work this morning, and we’re still nine days away from the 2015 Patriots season actually starting.

One of the things getting me fired up was listening to Felger and Mazz for Bedard’s appearance this week. This is the only time I’ll listen to Felger and Mazz for reasons like Mazz pumping the brakes on Malcolm Butler all season long only to name him his number one star for the season on this episode. But what really got me fired up was Felger’s pressing Bedard to choose whether the 2015 Patriots underacheived or just didn’t have as good of depth as the he’s been led to believe. Felger kept hitting “they lost four of their last six” over and over and even Bedard was getting frustrated.

Had I not been listening to it after the fact I might’ve been tempted to call in. In Felger’s black and white sports world it has to be one or the other, but what he leaves out is that this was not the same Patriots team for the last six weeks of the season. Every single one of those games they were missing someone new. Gronk, Hightower, Vollmer, Easley, Blount, McCourty, Chung, the list is long and distinguished. 

How can you just lump those games all together when each one had significant new challenges?

Here’s the bottom line – the Patriots lost more man games that any other team in the NFL and still finished 12-4. Yes, they had 14-point leads in two of those losses and had some bonehead play calls and strategy, but name me another team that would ever call a 12-4 season “underachieving”. 

Or name me another team that would be anywhere close to competitive with their third-string right tackle starting at left tackle. Yeah, let’s just put Brady back to pass 50 times with Cameron Fleming protecting his blind side. What could go wrong?

Felger and Mazz know what their doing so I don’t often take the cheese, but this is one time his dismissiveness really got me fired up. So yeah, whatever. You do you, guys.

Another bit of news this morning that excited me was the announcement that Peyton Manning will be the Broncos starter for the playoffs. I love it. And yet there are plenty of Broncos fans thinking this is the year Manning will take them to the promised land. 

Nevermind his playoff history, nevermind how bad he looked at the start of the season when he should’ve been healthy, nevermind he’s still not fully healthy, nevermind the weather in Denver could severely limit his already limited game, nevermind he doesn’t really fit Gary Kubiak’s offense, nevermind his lack of arm strength basically makes Emmanuel Sanders nothing but a deep decoy, nevermind all of it. This is the year Peyton will get it done!

Gameplanning for Peyton is simple for the Patriots and actually helps their defense. They can stack the box against the run and honestly their running game scares me more than anything. You take away the short throws and force Manning to beat you on deep passes. I don’t know if he can do that anymore in perfect conditions, much less if there’s some kind of bad weather on game day.

I hated losing homefield at the time, but now the Broncos are almost assured to play the Steelers or Chiefs, two teams that will give them major problems. I’ll be shocked if we don’t see Brock Osweiler at some point, whether the Broncos are in a hole or it’s just a terrible weather day.