PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Do you think Edelman’s hand/pinky finger will play a part in this weeks game? Such a small issue but it was very much part of last weeks game.

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I’m not really sure what to believe because Jeff Howe’s been tweeting that this finger has been screwy for a while now and the overdicussion of it on the NBC broadcast last weekend was way overblown. I tend to believe Jeff and Edelman isn’t on the injury report for it, so I think everything will be just fine with him, at least what we’re used to. Edelman does have the second-most drops in the league this year, so there’s that too.

Balanced Jets Offense as Much of a Threat as their Vaunted Defense

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Balanced Jets Offense as Much of a Threat as their Vaunted Defense

Always enjoy insightful reads from Matt Chatham breaking down the progression of the Jets offense. This only reinforces for me how important it is to stop Ivory. The big key to that is Dont’a Hightower playing because if you have him and Collins along with run support from Patrick Chung the Pats shouldn’t have to put 8 in the box to stop Ivory. But if Hightower is out it’s going to be a lot harder with Mayo or Freeny in there.

Your thoughts on Jerod Mayo? He looks very slow and hesistant this year. Being passed up by Freeny is not good especially when you were one of the defense’s best players a year ago prior to injury. According to the guys at PFW, he’s been a full participant at camp and hadn’t looked hampered by an injury. Could he still be dealing with something? I can’t think of any other explanation. This is alarming because I feel if he went back to his level of play, the defense can make some positive strides

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I’ve been a pretty tough Mayo critic for a while now and I feel bad piling on a guy who suffered a major injury but he still doesn’t look like the player he was yet. We can’t dismiss that a torn patellar tendon is a major injury and a player might never be the same again after it, especially when that player relied on speed like Mayo did.

I wonder why he didn’t start the year on PUP. Honestly at this point I’m really missing that idiot Brandon Spikes. They could really use his presence in this linebacker corps right now, especially against a team like the Jets.

Mayo just doesn’t have that pop to defeat tackles and seems easily blocked at this point and unable to blow a play up with superior anticipation and quickness, his old hallmark.

The hope is that he gets back to where he was this season, but we’re at the halfway point from August to February so if it’s going to happen it has to happen soon.

Is Jamie Collins the best LB in the league?

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Hard to say he’s better than everyone but he does so much and is really the perfect linebacker for today’s game. What sets him apart is his size. Guys like Kuechly and Bobby Wagner are probably just as athletic as Collins but he has at least two inches and twenty-plus pounds on them. That’s what makes his such a beast as a pass rusher, he simply slaps running backs out of his way.

Not to take anything away from him but we saw last week why he’s such a great partner with Hightower. When it’s just Collins out there offenses can scheme to take him out of the box, but when Hightower’s there too there’s no escape from at least one of them coming after the quarterback.

Hopefully he has a long healthy career. It will be fun to see how good he gets.

If sheard doesn’t play do you think they will activate trey flowers

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Flowers has his own injury issues (shoulder and knee) so I don’t think it’s a lock, but it would make a ton of sense if Flowers is able to go. We’re all waiting for Flowers’ debut and this type of game would fit him well if he’s able to go. Otherwise Grissom probably has to step in in some capacity.

It’s pretty amazing, two weeks ago the Pats had no injuries and everyone was talking about going 16-0. Now they’ve lost their left tackle for the year, his backup went down too along with our best pass rusher (Sheard) and who knows how long they’ll be out despite saying the injuries were “minor”.

Hopefully Wendell is able to return this week and step into a guard rotation with Kline and Jackson (I’m guessing Mason is out). We just have to pray to the football gods we don’t sustain another tackle injury because then it starts to get ridiculous.