PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

A Final Trip to Pittsburgh?

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One Last Trip to Pittsburgh?

At this point, there are few teams that Tom Brady and Bill Belichick don’t have history with. Even occasional opponents like the 49ers, Saints and Packers have all provided at least one memorable games.

But few places stack up with the Steelers, especially in Pittsburgh. Yes, we saw the nightmares in Miami that can happen and three seasons in Denver have come to a crashing halt. But Pittsburgh was the rare mostly-friendly away stadium of a really good team.

If the Tuck Rule was the unofficial start of the dynasty run, the next game was a 2001 AFC Championship that is often overlooked. They were underdogs in 2004 and again hoisted the Lamar Hunt Trophy on their way to their third Super Bowl.

In 2005, critical injuries took down Matt Light and Rodney Harrison, blows that the team never recovered from.

In 2010, the dejected Pats, coming off a loss to Eric Mangini and the Browns, went into Pittsburgh and showed that the end was a distant place. The following year, the Steelers exposed how bad the Patriots defense was. A flaw they’d hide almost all the way through another Super Bowl run.

Last year’s game came down to the final plays, with one of the more notable finishes to any of the battles of the last 18 years in Pittsburgh.

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Patriots Film Review: Defense Edition

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The Patriots defense was gashed on the ground against the Dolphins, long before the final miracle play. It was another road game where the front seven was pushed around and the secondary was out of sync for some key plays.

I hoped to make this as quick and painless as possible because I knew which play was waiting for me at the end. It went how I thought. It’s just amazing how inconsistent the defense is, from game to game and especially here, from drive to drive.

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Pats Posits: Latereally!?

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Imagine yourself before the final mind-blowing play of the Patriots loss to the Dolphins. The Pats were poised to take a five-point victory and with Kansas City in a tight one with Baltimore, potentially looking at ending the day with the top seed in the AFC.

It wasn’t going to be a perfect victory. The offense, despite resurrecting Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman, still had its trouble finishing. And the defense once again had turned into Mr. Hyde for large stretches of the game. Gostkowski misses cost them four points.

Still, until that point the Pats had overcome their continued inconsistencies, which were as drastic within this game as they’ve been between home and away in 2018. The defense got the stops needed and the offense got the points needed. All they needed was to get one last tackle.

Then suddenly, in one play, everything changed.

Where to begin? It’s the kind of loss only the Posits can help me get over.

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Patriots Gameplan: Week 14 at Miami Dolphins

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Patriots Gameplan
Week 17 at Miami Dolphins

Miami and Denver are unquestionably the worst two places for the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady Patriots dynasty. They’ve seen three seasons ended in Denver, while Miami has been their most consistent division road struggle.

In 16 trips to Miami, the BB/TB Pats are 7-9. They had a nice run from 2010-2011 to briefly claim a winning record in South Beach. But since then the Pats managed just one win, a strong season-closing performance by the 2016 squad.

There’s no secret the Pats have been a home-road Jekyll and Hyde this season. The disparity has never felt bigger and now we’re at a critical time of the season. The proving ground.

What do the Pats have to do in Miami to get their second win in three years? Here’s the gameplan.

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Bend Don’t Break Update: ’18 Pats D Hits Top 5

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTKKjGeraFE

The cat is out of the bag on the 2018 Patriots defense, they’re actually pretty good. Their defining trait not a dominating front seven like the 2001-2007 defenses, but a shutdown secondary and a coordinated front that all work together.

At his core, Bill Belichick is a conservative defensive coach. He wants a defense that tackles well and doesn’t get beat deep. He’ll be aggressive in key spots and disguise plenty but generally, it’s a four-man rush with seven in coverage. When that four-man rush contains and constricts the quarterback they’re extremely effective. When they’re six-man rush stunts do the same they’re dominant.

On the road, they’ve been guilty of being out of sync. In each of the first three months, they had a defensive stinker on the road. Even the win over Kansas City wasn’t great. They were probably a little lucky to escape Chicago with a win.

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Film Review: Deep Dive on Gronk, Brady, Edelman vs Vikings

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I was a little surprised to find this week that Rob Gronkowski, Tom Brady and Julian Edelman were catching a bunch of criticism after Sunday’s win over the Vikings. Admittedly I’m a bit more of a defense guy. When the offense is on the field, it’s my time to relax and not get overly caught up in minutiae, at least on the initial live watch.

So when I saw Gronk’s game being labeled as one of the worst of his career I was scratching my head a bit. I remember him getting stopped short on third down which seemed weird and I remember the penalties, of which I wasn’t wasn’t entirely sure how good or bad they were. Edelman and Brady both had some similar moments but nothing that gave me much initial concern. The results overall were good and if anything, I felt like this looked like the Patriots offense we know and love — the scalpel — and this was the first time in a while it felt like they were playing to their strengths.

Maybe part of that was getting Rex Burkhead back and having three running backs for the first time all season. Or maybe it was just everything gelling like it usually does around this time of year.

This made an offensive film dive critical. Yesterday I banged through the defense’s film, which I loved, and today, I jumped into the other side of the ball.

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10 New England Patriots Gift Picks 2018

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After all these years of blogging, the one thing I do get is plenty of books and new Patriots materials sent my way. I know it can be hard to sift through everything Patriots that is out there so here are some of my favorite picks for that special someone or your own wish list.

Of course, you can always help on the blog by simply clicking through my Amazon link here before you make a purchase or pick something up at the Prop Shop. Thanks, and you can’t go wrong with any of the books or videos below.

This was an exciting look behind the scenes at the Patriots machine from Mike Lombardi. Great stuff that shows what a typical week is like under Belichick. I did a full review here.

An all-time favorite, this is a must-read for anyone who wants to learn what makes Bill Belichick tick from a wonderful writer.

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