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Pats Posits: Peaking Pats Dispatch Overmatched Jets

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Merry Christmas!! The Patriots wiped out the Jets 41-3 on Christmas Eve, moving to 13-2 with just one win in Miami next weekend standing between them and homefield advantage in the AFC. If there was any worry about a repeat of 2015, when the Pats lost to the Jets and Dolphins to close out there season, it was quickly apparent Bill Belichick’s squad came to prove a point on Saturday.

There’s plenty of praise to go around — Malcolm Butler had two interceptions and a recovered fumble, LeGarrette Blount put up his team-record 16th and 17th touchdowns and the defense was once again near impossible to score on. Tom Brady was, well, Tom Brady and, perhaps most importantly, NO ONE GOT INJURED!

The 13th win of the year only cemented what we had learned the last two weeks, that the Patriots are now firing on all cylinders and are peaking at the perfect time.

Here’s the Christmas edition of the Pats Posits…

— What a game from Malcolm Butler, fresh off being snubbed for the Pro Bowl. For all the times Butler was a millimeter away from an interception, this was finally a game where he made up that extra millimeter. It was also interesting to see the Pats blitzing him off the edge a couple times, which led to his fumble recovery as well as a hands to the face penalty. Love seeing Butler so involved and he’s only further cementing his status in my book as the best Patriots young corner since Ty Law.

— The Patriots running game, the best new development of the 2016 season, was once again a balanced monster, getting 52 yards from Dion Lewis and 50 yards from Blount. No one will look at the stat sheet and think New England’s rushing attack is the biggest problem an opponent will face, but it’s the new twist this season that enables the Pats to keep the pressure off Tom Brady, literally and figuratively.

— Lewis was the lead back for the second week in a row, grinding out the early tough yards and opening things up for Blount to come in later. Add in the pure passing threat that is James White and the Pats can dictate however they want to with their running backs. I loved seeing them open with Lewis and James Develin, then even spreading Develin out wide at one point. That gives you an idea of what they’re capable of.

— Eric Rowe grabbed an interception and had two passes defended. He’s really developed over the course of the year since the Pats got him. For all the analysis we do all offseason about what to expect, the Patriots are getting significant contributions from guys they picked up in-season, including Rowe, Kyle Van Noy and special teams ace Barkevious Mingo.

— 24 points off turnovers, that sums up everything the defense is doing now that they weren’t in the middle of the season. As I said then, it was a good sign they learned how to win without turnovers. Now that the takeaways are coming in bunches the Pats are dominating.

— Elandon Roberts led the team with 11 tackles and showed some of the pop that he had early in the season before hitting a quiet stretch the last handful of games. Really excited to see how he progresses next year with a full offseason in the program. He’s an asset.

— Just two total sacks for the defense, but again the disruption was there. They’re settling in and playing great complimentary football with the secondary. There was this article from The Ringer saying we don’t know how good the Patriots defense is because they haven’t played many good QBs. Look, you can only play who’s on your schedule. Here’s what I know — this defense is playing fundamentally sound, tackling well, and getting takeaways in bunches. There is disruption in the passing game. And this might be their best run defense of the last decade. All of this translates regardless of opponent. I don’t care who the quarterback or offense is, they’ll make everyone earn every yard.

— What a season by Blount, and never would I have expected him to do this well. Lewis’ return has been a huge late-season boost for the big back, who added touchdowns number 16 and 17 to his record setting 2016. The Pats haven’t had someone running like him going into the playoffs since Corey Dillon 2004.

— Blessed injury season so far and seeing Derek Carr go down only made me appreciate it even more. Rob Gronkowski was a significant loss, but one they were as well prepared to deal with as they’ve ever been by having Martellus Bennett. One more game to go, but the Pats have had some of their best injury luck, which always mirrors deep playoff runs like 2007 and 2014.

— The old joke was that Tom Brady’s favorite receiver used to be the open one. Then there was Moss and Welker and Gronk and Edelman, and with them came frequent criticism that Brady would lock onto one of them. But in 2016 the Patriots offense doesn’t have a single guy to key off of anymore. Even back in 2003/2004/2005, it was Branch and Givens and the also rans in the passing game. Now, there’s legitimately six threats in the passing game. You can key on Edelman but they are nowhere close to relying on him like they used to. None of the receiving stats are all that impressive on paper, but in context of the game, each receiver seems to have a key catch every week. That’s what’s so exciting about the playoffs, they can hurt defenses in so, so many ways.

— In 2007, the offense was so unstoppable early on but as the season progressed they got stale, especially going into, and in, the playoffs, before bottoming out with just 14 points in SB42. You could feel that coming. I don’t feel it coming this year. If anything, this 2016 offense is just finding out how unstoppable they can be.

— Not sure what happened with Malcom Brown in this one. He’s been a stalwart all year but didn’t see the field at all early until the second half. Maybe he was still recovering from the stomach thing from last week? He’s been playing really well so I don’t think it’s a performance issue. In his place, Vincent Valentine continued to play like his hair was on fire. He might be the most improved rookie.

— The defense allowed just eight passes to be completed. Allowed ONE third down conversion.  Zero red zone scores. It’s the first time under BB they’ve gone two games without giving up a touchdown. They’ve given up just four TDs in their last 18 quarters. I don’t care how bad you want to tell me all their opponents are. This is the NFL. That is ridiculously impressive and the sign of a defense that is all on the same page and gaining confidence. I can only imagine how good the stats are going to look at the end of the season. The improvement has been constant this year.

One more game to go. Both teams need it and thus it should be a good battle as they usually are in South Florida. Obviously Carr going down was a significant blow, but even if it would make a trip back to the Bay Area a little less scary, the Pats seem on a mission this year to finish strong and lock up homefield advantage.

Let’s hope they can put forth then same kind of injury-free, efficient performance against the Dolphins and put a nice exclamation point on the 2016 that truly illustrates how different this team is from the one that limped to the finish line in 2015.

The playoffs are coming. Start getting right.

Merry Christmas!!