Pats Posits: SB51 Here We Come

Here it is folks, the week we all live for, it’s Super Bowl week.

I spent the weekend getting sucked into more Patriots historical pieces than I expected. First came the fourth quarter of Super Bowl 49. For the first time I was able to watch the Kearse Katch happen again. That moment always brought quick-onset Pats pit in the stomach, until now. Now I’m pretty confident Butler will in fact intercept the ball every time afterwards.

Malcolm Butler flashed not just on the interception, but on multiple plays before that. It was a nice reminder of how well he played that entire season, with plenty of glimpses toward what he would become.

Then came Do Your Job, and I still fast forwarded through the Deflategate bullshit.

Bill Belichick’s A Football Life came next, part one followed immediately by part two. I was amazed how much I’d forgotten, and truly what a disaster the 2009 season was. Every Kraft and Belichick interaction was awkward as ever, while the CaserioBot was still on version 3.1.

I even watched about 38 seconds combined of the Super Bowl 42 and 46 recap shows. Progress.

Combined, it put the Belichick/Brady run in new perspective now as they head toward their seventh together. It was a good week of prep on the Falcons, it will be a big circus this week.

Let’s enjoy every moment of it!

Falcons

There were plenty of stats to unwrap last week, none more interesting than the yards-after-catch matchup that clearly favored the Patriots’ defense. There have also been some interesting theories how the Pats will defend Julio Jones. There’s been some significant evidence that the Falcons struggle most when it’s the Ryan-Julio Show.

Those stats point towards a theory floated by Jamie Conway, let Butler handle Julio and focus Ryan and Chung on run-stopping priority. Missed tackles will make or break the defense this week.

— The Sanu pass threat scares me.

— Devonta Freeman is my kind of running back. He is a hard-charging dual threat who reminds me of a Tiny Beast Mode. If they contain Freeman and Tevin Coleman, especially on the underneath catch-and-run/screens, I like their chances.

— BIG Ninkovich game.

— The game likely comes down to Mohamed Sanu (vs. Eric Rowe) and Taylor Gabriel (vs. Logan Ryan), assuming Pats run defense shows up and they give some over the top help to Butler on Jones. That’s where Ryan has to win like Eli won with you know who and what’s his face.

— Gotta get something out of Chris Long and Jabaal Sheard in this one. Fast teams like the Falcons are why you stock up on pass rushers. The Pats have never had this many healthy defensive ends to roll out in the Super Bowl. Let’s see if it makes a difference, especially late in the game.

— Could also be a big Trey Flowers superstar coming out party. Which would be fine too.

I feel pretty good about the matchup. The Falcons have a great offense. It wouldn’t be the first time seeing the Patriots slow down a great offense in the Super Bowl. The Pats match up as well as anyone can.

So you know what that means, it’ll come down to one final score or stop and the Pats will make it (SB36, SB38, SB39, SB49) or not (SB42, SB46).

As you might’ve read, I’ll be trying to enjoy this week, still hoping that somehow Super Bowl tickets will magically fall into my lap. Plenty of content to come, including the Hoodie choice and the gameplan.

Super Bowl week! Let’s go!