donta hightower

Patriots Over Investment in Secondary Didn’t Pay Off

February 21, 2018 by Mike Dussault

I started blogging about the Patriots around the time that the old dynasty defense was dying. The 2007 defense squeezed the last bit of life out of Rodney Harrison, Tedy Bruschi, Richard Seymour, Mike Vrabel and other supporting members who helped define the Pats teams of the 2000s. Then the retirements and departures began and I realized that if Tom Brady was to ever get four or more Super Bowls, Bill Belichick would have to build him a new defense, mostly from scratch.

It was fascinating to see them emerge from the depths of the 2010 defense that needed turnovers to survive, to the 2014 and 2016 Super Bowl-winning squads that made huge key plays under the most pressing circumstances. But there’s no denying that 2017 was a step backwards. Yes, injury attrition had a lot to do with that, but it was just as much a string of missed draft picks and decisions to cut ties with the picks they did hit on.

I really don’t want to kick a dead horse, but I can’t help but need to vent about how this all unfolded over the past few seasons. How did the Patriots go from having the most promising young defense in the league in 2014 to what’s looking like another rebuild in less than three seasons? But is this even a rebuild this time around? Let’s dive in.

Report: Hightower Done for Year with Torn Pec

October 26, 2017 by Mike Dussault

Welp, you spend a good hour this morning writing about how the Pats can manage for a game-plus without Hightower and then Ian Rapoport drops this bomb.

#Patriots LB Dont’a Hightower has a torn pec and is out for the year, source said.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 26, 2017

No other way to cut it, this is a huge blow to Patriots Super Bowl hopes. Between Julian Edelman and now Hightower, it’s hard to come up with a worse scenario that doesn’t involve the quarterback, and given the depth and meaning of all those players, losing your best wide receiver and linebacker might even be worse. At least with Jimmy G there’d be a small element of excitement.

So what now? Is there a trade out there that could help? Are we ready for a whole lot of David Harris? There’s no easy answer as is often the case when you lose a player of this magnitude. As I mentioned this morning, getting Shea McClellin back would certainly help. Then a trio of Harris, McCellan and Cassius Marsh would be serviceable, complimenting Kyle Van Noy, who has shown remarkable progress in recent weeks and is now the de facto leader of the front seven now. Throw in some Trevor Reilly and Marquis Flowers and maybe someone emerges. Is that a Super Bowl winning linebacker group on paper right now though? Ummmmmm….

Injuries Strike Pats Just After They Clicked

October 26, 2017 by Mike Dussault

We’re all sick of hearing it but here it is again “injuries are the only thing that stand between the Patriots and Super Bowls at this point in the Belichick/Brady dynasty.” You either get years where they stay almost entirely healthy — 2014/2016 (with a notable exception or two like Gronk last year), or 2013/2015 where key guys are lost and it’s just not enough to get past the AFC Championship.

Every year is a bit different. And this year, the injuries to Julian Edelman, such a critical player, and others cam early enough that they could still be overcome. But it’s a long season and we’re not even half way through it. And now, after a couple weeks of injury reprieve, the Pats once again had a frightening injury report on Wednesday with Dont’a Hightower, Malcom Brown and Danny Amendola leading the way.

These were three gut punch absences, especially after the Pats were coming off their first complete game performance of the season. A feel-good “Pats are back” type win that made the sloppy start a distant memory.

Inconsistent Patriots Hang On Again to Beat Jets

October 15, 2017 by Mike Dussault

The Patriots hung on once again to beat the Jets 24-17 to move into first place in the AFC East for the first time in 2017.

It was another up-and-down performance for the Pats that closely mirrored what we saw against the Buccaneers 10 days earlier. One drive they’re forcing three-and-outs or marching down the field, the next they’re getting gashed by big plays with wide open receivers or going three-and-out themselves.

It’s a maddening display of inconsistency that has become the hallmark of this edition of the Pats. What drives you nuts is that they show they’re capable of being dominant at times on both sides of the ball. But in crunchtime neither side of the ball seems to deliver with authority.

But deliver they did even if there is plenty to pick apart.

Still, a win is a win, especially a divisional win on the road. The Patriots definitely still have a long way to go, maybe longer than they’ve ever had to go in the middle of October, but four wins buys you some time.

Here’s how it all went down.

TOM BRADY LEAN BACK pic.twitter.com/RKAfIIlpe2

— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) October 15, 2017

5 Patriots Concerns

October 10, 2017 by Mike Dussault

It’s hard to know at the beginning of the year what problems are real and which can be chalked up to September being more of an extension of the preseason. The Patriots experiment a bit, sit guys for even a minor ailment and are just trying to figure out what they have more than anything.

Of course, that never stops the overreactions but that’s what happens when people have been waiting seven months for football and then a shitty Patriots team gets lit up by some random team who won’t make the playoffs. It’s the same thing almost every year and there’s difficulty knowing what the real weaknesses of the team are.

But here we are five games into the season and the 2017 edition, like all teams have flaws, even if the 2017 betting odds for the next Patriots game don’t quite reflect it.

Here’s a quick hit list of the things that concern me with these Pats and what the real issues they’ll have to overcome are.

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Pats Posits: No Style Points On TNF

October 6, 2017 by Mike Dussault

It wasn’t surprising to wake up to a lot of people pissing and moaning about the style points from last night’s Thursday Night Football win by the Patriots. On an uber-short week, against an unfamiliar opponent on the road you’ll take a victory any way you can take it, especially after how apocalyptic the Patriots defense looked on Sunday.

Really, it was only the fourth quarter that anyone should have any problem with. At that point the Patriots went to sleep on both sides of the ball after actually being quite good for most of the previous three quarters. The defense gave up 214 yards while the offense only picked up 42 in the 4th. So yes, that’s something for the entire team to focus on, but let’s not throw out the rest of the night based on the final frame.

When the narrative for three miserable days was how the defense couldn’t stop a nose bleed and the offense would have to be over-relied on, things were certainly turned on their head last night.

The defense forced six punts, including five three-and-outs and two four-and-outs. It’s hard to ask much more from any defense, even more so one that was busting coverages left and right only a few days earlier. Plus, they had to overcome two Tom Brady turnovers, something none of us would’ve thought them capable of.

The offense continues to move the ball well in between the 20s, but sputtered when the game was on the line. They remain a work in progress despite exciting flashes from Cooks, Gillislee and Hogan, and a 2015 Dion Lewis sighting.

It wasn’t pretty at the end but there was plenty on both sides to build off of and I think it’s safe to say that rumors of this Patriots teams’ demise were once again premature. Here are a bunch of Posits on the third win of the season…

Potential Defensive Adjustments vs. Saints

September 14, 2017 by Mike Dussault

I try not to look at any kind of stats until Week 4. It’s just too small a sample size and too easy to overreact, and that’s certainly the case this morning as I took a peak at my stats site of choice FootballOutsiders.com.

The Patriots defense? Ranked 32nd in overall defense, 30th against the pass and 32nd against the run. Nowhere to go but up, right!? I like Football Outsiders because it’s not based on one random analysts grades but by efficiency in the context of the situation. It gives us a good sense of how the team executed. And clearly the Patriots didn’t execute well at all.

By historical comparison, and again, this is just for shits and giggles at this point, here’s how those numbers stack up.

Of course things will get better, but it won’t exactly be handed to the Patriots, especially with a tough matchup against a great quarterback at his homefield this weekend. Here’s a few thoughts on some personnel switches that might help improve things and be better suited to handling Drew Brees and the Saints diverse attack.