Patriots Tuesday 10 Pack

Plenty to kick around this week as the hardest part of the Patriots’ schedule is over and we have a near-complete picture of who the 2016 team is. Once again they’re playing their best football in December and must survive two games before turning all their attention to the playoffs.

Do the Patriots have a fatal flaw? Only if the early season defense returns and they stop getting takeaways, red zone and third down stops. Offensively, it’s no longer all Gronk and Edelman. You have to stop the run, and while they will stay dedicated to pounding it up the middle, their stable of backs are just as capable in the passing game.

And as I mentioned in the Posits, all their receivers can play each receiver position. Then there’s Bennett, who might not be as dominant as Gronk, but is close to being as dangerous, especially when teams get caught up figuring out where the receivers and backs are lining up.

The fact that their special teams are playing dominant football is only the icing on the unstoppability cake.

Put them all together and there’s no question it’s Super Bowl or bust once again.

Here’s a 10 pack of thoughts…

1. What has changed on defense? Yes, even I was questioning the defense after they got smoked by the Seahawks, giving up scores on seven of nine total drives. But I never thought they were bad, I just couldn’t explain why they were playing badly. Too many individuals were trying to do too much, especially in the immediate wake of the Jamie Collins trade. But every week since Seattle, the Patriots defense has improved, getting a jump start off of Colin Kapernick and Jared Goff and using it to shut down Joe Flacco and Trevor Siemian. After nine takeaways in their first ten games, they have eight in their last four. They’ve gone from 28th in 3rd down defense at Week 4 all the way to 7th. Trey Flowers has emerged as a true pass rush threat. The players are playing within the system and it’s translating into what was missing most early in the season — big plays.
2. Most interesting to me in recent weeks has been the shift to more Cover 2 Zone coverage. For the last few seasons Cover 1 Robber has been their staple coverage, but against the Ravens and Broncos, the shift to more zone has been highly effective. Whereas they looked out of sync in zone early in the season they’ve ironed out their issues. Most strange is Patrick Chung being comfortable in the staple coverage of 2010/2011, the same coverage that he struggled in. Chung’s game is complete now and he’s such a key piece to the defense. There’s still plenty of man coverage from them, but they seem to spin the dial a lot more liberally this season, specially late.
3. Things have worked out just as I’d hoped with Dion Lewis. They brought him along slowly after he was PUP’d to start the year and now he’s finding the same groove he had early last season. Lewis is a do-everything running back and proved as much against the Broncos with his hard running between the tackles. He takes the pressure off of Blount, allows James White to flourish as a third-down-only back and gives the Patriots backfield the final bit of versatility that they lacked without a true double threat. I imagine that with Lewis in the fold both games against the Broncos might’ve turned out differently.
4. Crazy that Kyle Van Noy led all linebackers in snaps against the Broncos. I’m still scratching my head how the Patriots can’t beat Denver with Chandler Jones and Jamie Collins, but plug in Van Noy and Shea McClellin and the Broncos shitty offense does even less than their shitty offense did last year. The difference between this game and the ’15 AFCCG kinda sums it up and how defense is about everyone playing together, not how much talent you roll out onto the field.
5. Being 7-0 on the road, especially with wins in Denver, Pittsburgh and Buffalo, is an extremely good sign for the Pats’ playoff chances. Those are three very tough places to play, even when their QBs stink, which they did in all three. Road games are usually harder on offenses anyway. We know this team can win even when they don’t get takeaways and even when they don’t have their best game. Add it all up and it’s a team that should play well in the playoffs.
6. The emergence of Malcolm Mitchell and Chris Hogan has been a godsend for Julian Edelman, who played just 44 snaps to Mitchell’s 67 and Hogan’s 53, while also having to return three punts. Managing Edelman has been a luxury they haven’t had in past seasons, though he still came through with three big third down conversions.
7. I know Hogan had the drop and was quiet, as was Bennett, but with how diverse and deep this offense is I can’t get caught up wondering why everyone doesn’t have a huge game every week. Same thing for Edelman, who a lot of people seem to have already accepted is having a “down year” with 85 catches and 866 yards. Huh?
8. Between the offensive line and the emergence of the new weaponry, the future looks extremely bright for the Patriots offense. The running backs are most exciting because they can take so much pressure off of Tom Brady. Lewis and White will be back next year, while Blount will hit free agency. Teams seemed to avoid him last offseason, and I wonder if it will be the same considering he’s had a career year with 1060 yards and a team record 15 touchdowns, but just turned 30. Once again I’ll be keeping a close eye on big backs in the draft who could potentially take the reigns from Blount.
9. Who scares me in the AFC? Pittsburgh’s offense, Kansas City’s efficiency and defense, and maybe the Ravens despite the domination of them a week ago. Put it this way, which team has a perfect game in them? That’s what it will take. All teams in the AFC have worse flaws than the Patriots. And even if by some chance they have to go to Oakland, I wouldn’t really sweat it.
10. I can’t lie, I would love to get the Giants in a Super Bowl again and I think it’s between them and the Packers in the NFC. Either of those games would be huge challenges but with the Patriots overall depth I’d like our chances against anyone.