Greetings from vacationland! No film review of the Jets game this week, but after catching up on LeGarrette Blount wired for sound, it’s time to weigh in on all things Pats.
Hard to believe another regular season is going to wrap up this weekend and then another chapter in the Bill Belichick/Tom Brady playoff history books will be written.
1. Congrats to our old pal Fitzy who will be heading to WAAF in the New Year! It’s always fun seeing amazing things happen to great people. But in other media news it sucked reading that Christopher Price might no longer be covering the Pats beat for WEEI. I can’t really imagine Patriots coverage without Price, who has a great sense of Patriots/New England sports history. Wishing all the best to him and hopefully he’ll stick around the Pats. His coverage is vital, along with Mike Reiss, Tom E. Curran and Jeff Howe, my must-read Pats crew.
2. Seemed like a mad dash this week to either minimize the Patriots success this year or find a way they might be beatable. Who are the Patriots AFRAID to play!? Obviously the unfortunate injury to Derek Carr transformed the AFC landscape with homefield still up for grabs. That leaves the Steelers and the Chiefs as the major threats. Making those two play each other in the divisional round is ideal. Of course there are ways that either could beat the Patriots in Foxborough. The Chiefs played them tough in last year’s AFCDG. The Steelers have the two best weapons in conference and the second-best quarterback. The real question — do the Chiefs/Steelers have the perfect game in them that it would take to knock then Pats off at home? I’m not sure. While I am sure the Pats offense will put up some points.
3. Adam Shefter said the starting point for Jimmy Garoppolo would be the Sam Bradford deal — a first- and fourth- rounder. I continue to believe they should hang on to him for another year unless it’s at least a 1st/4th. But can you really put a price on having a quarterback you already know you can win with in house? The x-factor is Jacoby Brissett, as it was hard not to read between the lines with the team bringing him off of IR for the last couple weeks of the season and playoffs.
4. Blount miked up for then Jets game was awesome. Favorite part — James Develin telling Blount he’d block for him for the rest of his life. Blount gave him a “Luv u man” and it was a special moments from two badass running backs. Blount has 17 touchdowns and needs 90 yards against the Dolphins to break 1200.
5. The running backs are what has me most excited for this pending playoff push. From Develin to White and everyone in between, they provide a variety of threats for defenses to decode. Game planning for Tom Brady is more than enough for most defensive coordinators. The fun part is the Patriots will still run spread formations with Develin on the field, or they’ll run up the gut with Dion Lewis. There’s no easy answers, and just when you think you’ve got it figured out you have to tackle Blount in then open field and he rolls you for 20+.
6. Holy Hoodie, don’t look now but the Patriots defense now has the top ranked scoring defense and fourth-ranked third down defense. Both are the third best of Belichick’s tenure. As for then bend-don’t-break of it all, this defense is pretty close to a carbon copy of last year. The 24th ranking in turnovers is glaring, but they’ve been on fire with takeaways lately. Most interesting is these have been the least two back-to-back “bendy” seasons under Belichick. We would’ve killed for these numbers in 2010-2011.
7. We can debate the quality of competition in 2016, but the simple fact is that the Patriots defense is every bit capable of helping Tom Brady get to the Super Bowl. They are fundamentally in total sync as a defense and tackle extremely well. These traits are independent of the quality of the quarterback/offense they’re playing. And they’ve just been getting better every week. The turnover surge of recent weeks (12 in the last five games after nine in their first 10 games) cannot subside, but we already know they can win without turnovers as they proved in four of six games this season. And there’s where their playoff fate will reside. If the opponent plays a clean game it will be interesting.
8. Would be nice to see Danny Amendola soon at practice. He’s really a key piece for any playoff run in his select role of critical punt return/third down receiver. Once again the Patriots will face another contract restructure with Amendola this offseason and with the emergence of Hogan and Mitchell, it might be time to let him go. He’s a clutch receiver who’s come through in big spots over and over. He’s the perfect club to have in the bag for January if he can get healthy.
9. There are three “wow” Patriots offensive years. 2007, obviously. 2011, with the twin tight ends and Branch/Welker combo. And now I’d put 2016 at number three. The stats might not back this up, but what I find most exciting about this edition of the offense is just how many different weapons there are. And that’s even without Rob Gronkowski, aka the best tight end in the game. From a pure football perspective this offense is every bit as confounding as 2007 and 2011’s, this one not from the spread passing attack or no huddle, but from shear volume. They can be stalled at times, but they haven’t been stopped but once, on fourth down in the Seahawks own end zone. That’s the kind of play it’s going to take to send the Pats home next month.
10. I am not really looking forward to the last game of the season. I wish it was meaningless, instead both teams could use, but don’t necessarily need, the win. And there’s just something disconcerting about Suh, especially last year after he went flying into Brady’s legs and I saw my life flash before my eyes. All I really care about is keeping everyone upright. If we have to go play Matt McGloin in Oakland for the AFC Championship, I like our chances with the current health we have. Just grind this one out, keep everybody healthy and use the bye week for all the bumps and bruises, especially Brady’s thigh.