PatsPropaganda

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McDaniels is Staying with Patriots

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The Patriots have done the seemingly impossible by only increasing and adding to the drama and intrigue since losing Super Bowl 52. Josh McDaniels spurned the Colts after a long sit-down with Robert and Jonathan Kraft and Bill Belichick and will remain with the team.

Belichick is still locked for 2018 according to Mike Reiss, but it would appear McDaniels is now the successor-in-waiting, even if no assurances were made.

Given how the Super Bowl unfolded I think pretty much everyone can agree it was on defense where the changes were most needed. McDaniels and Brady have a special relationship as we saw in Tom vs. Time — keeping that intact for the rest of Brady’s career will ensure they squeeze every last bit out of the quarterback.

Brady and McDaniels can just keep on trucking, welcoming back Julian Edelman and Malcom Mitchell to an already-deep group.

The questions for them start at tackle and running back. I would bet a two-year deal like they did with Matt Light in 2011 makes sense with Solder. Then it’s a coin toss with either Dion Lewis or Rex Burkhead. Keep one, add in mid/low-level free agency and draft. It will be interesting to see how they evolve.

After almost losing everyone but Belichick, getting back McDaniels and all the coaches he was taking with him (ST Joe Judge, QB Jerry Shuplinski) is a welcome relief. I don’t know what exactly it means for Belichick, whether he plans on transitioning to more of a general manager role or just peacing out, but it appears McDaniels will be the next head coach, maybe as soon as 2019.

Belichick Falls to 0-3 in Super Bowls With Cutoff Sleeves

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While I thought Belichick would go back to the Hot Jacket for Super Bowl 52, he instead chose to go with the 2013 Blue Hoodie cut.

At first glance this was an okay choice per the Hoodie Database since Belichick had won Super Bowl 49 in the ’13 Hoodie, and was 2-0 when the sleeves were cut. The only disclaimer on it? The 2014 loss in Kansas City, a nightmare 41-14 blowout that led to the first questions of the BB/TB Dynasty being donezo.

Lately this 2013 Bue Cut has been a practice/pregame workhorse. It’s only seen game action twice, in the 2013 opener against the Bills and six weeks later in a miraculous comeback win over the Saints. For four years it’s been behind the scenes, sometimes at training camp, press conferences, etc. That Belichick busted it out wasn’t a total shocker since it was in rotation, but it was kind of the grubbiest choice, if that makes sense?

But then I realized something… the sleeves…the sleeves haven’t been cut off in a Super Bowl since… uhhh…

That’s right folks, Belichick made a critical hoodie mistake for the third time — he cut off the sleeves in the big game. The last two times he cut, Super Bowls 42 and 46, the Patriots lost. And worst of all, this is the shortest he’s cut them off yet. Insult to injury. Do I need to start a rating scale for sleeve cut length? Perhaps.

The coaching was terrible in this game, as was the hoodie choice, and I can’t help but feel a bit responsible myself. I should’ve made the warning more clear that cut off sleeves were a non-starter. I let down Patriots nation that relies on me for hoodie insight. For that I take my part of the blame in a tough loss.

 

Pats Posits: Relief, Bewilderment and Frustration After Pats’ SB52 Loss

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The Eagles made one of the only big defensive plays of the game and beat the Patriots in Super Bowl 52 for their first championship last night. Before we get too heavily into the “what the hell happened” of it all, I think it’s important to say the Eagles played the perfect game. So few teams can put together the flawless 60-minutes of effort required to take down Tom Brady and steady strangulation of the Belichick Pats but that’s what Philadelphia did on the biggest stage and for all the bickering about what the Patriots did or didn’t do, Philly deserves full credit for what they did.

It’s also important to remember that despite one of their worst defensive performances in recent memory (which is saying a lot) Tom Brady still got the ball back with plenty of time to win the game. That’s where it felt like this one was heading, until it wasn’t because Brandon Graham made the clutch play that the Patriots defense could not.

So yes, there’s plenty to unpack from this one, and most of it will take an entire offseason, but in this single game the Eagles were the better team and for whatever reason I’m not finding it all that hard to swallow. It’s been a while since I’ve been in my Patriots cave of misery. The last time I was here was January of 2016 after a frustrating  loss to Peyton Manning and the Broncos.

There were some cobwebs in the cave, some dusty pictures of SB42 and SB46 and Peyton Manning as a Bronco, but there’s a strange comfort in the cave of misery. This is where most NFL fans exist full time, and we’ve gotten far more reprieve than all of them. If anything, this eighth Super Bowl trip was just a reminder of how hard it is to do what the Patriots have done. A better team got them this time, but I think there’s at least enough ammo in New England Patriots Football Weapon for another strong run next season.

Of course there are tons of questions as to what that weapon will look like exactly, but we’ll dive into those in the coming days and weeks.

First, let’s just vent about the Super Bowl…

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Brady/Belichick Docs Save Super Bowl Week

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUdEJJya6T8

I’m pretty sure the media broke me this week. It’s surprising because it wasn’t on the heels of some big controversy, it was a fairly mundane week of your average Super Bowl hype overload, but for some reason, more than ever, I just found myself done with everything anyone had to say about the Patriots. I flipped through a couple moments of all the usual talk radio shows, just to check in, never to actually consume, and found absolutely nothing being said that interested me.

It all peaked with Alex Reimer affair which was just the perfect example of how gross it has all become. The rest, from local to national coverage, was just a rehash of a seasons-worth of mellow drama or that everyone is sick of the cheating Patriots. Probably not a surprise that the Patriots started their own Not Done network this week, because outside of there and some select actual football shows out there, it was just a mess.

People like Rob Parker have made hating the Patriots his old act, while the local yokels on the radio are in a constant disingenuous search for which button to push on their listeners.

I found myself really wondering why anyone tunes into this stuff, especially local sports radio. Every day I see hoards of people raging against the media and their Patriots takes. That rage only fuels the fire on the other side and around and around we go, with the actual game and analysis of the sport being left in the dust. It’s just been a constant reminder that the only way to win against the hot takes is not to play and that’s why I’ve just taken to tuning it all out and focusing here on what interests me — football.

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Patriots Gameplan: Super Bowl 52 vs. Philadelphia Eagles

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It’s hard to believe we’re already back in another Super Bowl. So much of the 2017 season was a blur of 28-3 and stupid storylines, few of which had much of anything to do with actual football. There were usually catastrophic injuries that somehow this Pats team overcame to get here and yes, a couple exciting wins, but mostly I remember noise.

Well, all those are out the window now. It’s all about one game and and another chance for Bill Belichick and Tom Brady to raise the bar even further on what has been a run unlike any other in sports history. But as we all know, these games are never easy. They’re stressful and the highest of drama.

The Eagles are a very tough opponent for the Patriots. Maybe they don’t have the flash of the 2001 Rams’ offense or the 2016 Falcons offense or the 2014 Seahawks defense, but they’re a good football team that has overcome a ton that would’ve torpedoed most teams. They’re balanced and have all the right pieces to challenge the Patriots’ weaknesses.Their resiliency is remarkable and the sign of a team that won’t wilt in the face of the Patriots’ dynasty.

The Patriots will certainly have to earn their sixth title just like they earned the five before it, with a 60-minute effort that will take every last second and maybe even a miracle catch or two. I’m not even sure my heart is ready for another one of these games, but here we go.

This is the gameplan to get it done and hang another banner.

 

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Which Hoodie Should Bill Belichick Wear in Super Bowl 52?

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The time has come once again to make the official Bill Belichick Hoodie Database prediction as to what the Patriots head coach should and will wear in Sunday’s Super Bowl 52. This has never been an easy task, especially as of late when Belichick has thrown two huge curveballs in two of his last three playoff games.

The first came in Super Bowl 51 when he wore the Hot Jacket, but for some reason tore the Flying Elvis logo off of it. Then, in this year’s divisional round against the Titans, he busted out an original blue Reebok hoodie, one that he hadn’t worn in six years! At this point I feel like Belichick is just messing with us. Well maybe just specifically me, but even trusted sites to bet on the Super Bowl are left confused as the what he’s going to wear in Minnesota.

First, let’s start with his Super Bowl history and as you can see from the chart, all signs are pointing toward blue being the color. Everyone freaks out about the red one but even Scott Zolak confirmed he’d avoid that on an interview with Pardon My Take this week. Another interesting tidbit Zolak mentioned was the Belichick was paid to wear that red hoodie in Super Bowl 42, a point he never expounded on and one which I find very much out of Belichick’s nature. Perhaps I’ll do some investigating on that after the big game.

Though he’s known for cutting off the sleeves, Belichick has never won a Super Bowl after hacking his sweatshirt and that’s why I’m hoping he avoids the 2017 Gray Cut Hoodie. He wore it five times this year with a 4-1 record. If he was going to wear a sideline hoodie, that one would be it since it was the only hoodie he wore this season.

Once again, all roads are leading us to the Hot Jacket, which surpassed the iconic Cut Gray Hoodie this season for total wins, now owning a 34-10 all-time record (all coming since 2013) compared to 32-10 for the Hoodie he’s most known for. How crazy is it that his two most favored pieces of attire have nearly identical win percentages?

The question now becomes does he wear the new one he wore this season with the Elvis intact? Or does he wear the same one from Super Bowl 51 that he de-Elvis’d? He was wearing the de-Elvis’d one after the Divisional round win over the Titans, so we know it’s still out there in circulation. And really, after the Reebok Hoodie bomb from that game, what piece of swag isn’t still in circulation? That game made me question everything I knew.

Belichick has won three of the five Patriots Super Bowls wearing a blue windbreaker and that makes the Hot Jacket the clear choice. While we may never know why he tore the Patriots logo off last season, I’m going to guess it was a special circumstance and hence he goes with the good old Elvis-intact Hot Jacket for Super Bowl 52. He’s 7-2 in it this season and it’s the jacket he’s won more games in than anything else.

Another Super Bowl win in the Hot Jacket would truly make it the defining outfit of Belichick’s career, even if he’ll still always be known for his hoodies.

THE HOT JACKET!!!!

 

Patriots Super Bowl First Quarters vs. Fourth Quarters

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Mike Reiss brought up one of the Patriots most impossible and infamous stats to Bill Belichick yesterday, that the Patriots had yet to score a point in the first quarter of any of their seven Super Bowl appearances. Belichick scoffed even though the players said last year he was all over them about getting off to a fast start against the Falcons, which of course did not happen.

For as remarkable as the Patriots’ dominance since the early 2000s has been to never have scored a point out of the gate is just as remarkable and it’s hard to even guess why. The team has run the gamut from a defense-first squad to an unstoppable offensive one, but it never made a difference. Here are the Pats’ overall stats from Super Bowl first quarters:

Team Defense Table
Play Results Play Type
Tm G Plays ToGo Yds 1st% TO% TD FG 1D Int Fum Sack Pass Rush Punt FG
NYG 2 18 8.00 5.17 33.3% .0% 6 11 7
PHI 1 15 8.07 3.00 6.7% .0% 1 7 5 3
SEA 1 20 7.10 3.75 25.0% 5.0% 5 1 11 8 1
CAR 1 19 9.11 4.68 15.8% .0% 3 9 7 2 1
STL 1 11 7.36 4.55 18.2% .0% 2 5 4 2
ATL 1 17 9.24 4.24 23.5% .0% 4 2 10 5 2
Totals 7 100 8.18 4.24 21.0% 1.0% 0 0 21 1 0 2 53 36 10 1
Pct 7% 0% 0% 21% 1% 0% 2% 53% 36% 10% 1%
Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/25/2018.

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