PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

new york jets

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At one point during Sunday’s practice, the Jets ran the ball 22 straight times. Ryan called that a “tremendous” development, one that he hadn’t planned. Perhaps that illustrates, as well as anything could (especially in July), that the Jets will be committed to a ground-and-pound philosophy in Sparano’s first year as offensive coordinator.

New York Jets training camp: Mark Sanchez trumping Tim Tebow – NFL.com

With the Pats spending more time on a nickel front style defense it should certainly be interesting to see what they do against the Jets with the return of the ground and pound.

https://www.patspropaganda.com/at-one-point-during-sundays-practice-the-jets/

New York Jets Ready to Compete With Patriots Again: Enemy Week | NEPatriotsDraft.com

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New York Jets Ready to Compete With Patriots Again: Enemy Week | NEPatriotsDraft.com

So let’s run down these points with some counter points:

1. Quinton Coples – maybe he is the next coming of Justin Tuck, but he’s a rookie and rookies who can transform a pass rush are rare.

2. No More Eric Smith – Or Jim Leonhard for that matter. Not out of the question that Landry could be a good anti-Gronk, but he’s still not healthy and hasn’t proven he can stay healthy. Yeremiah Bell could be helpful here too, but again saying they can stop Gronk and actually doing it are two very different things.

3. Brandon Lloyd will have minimal impact – Sure, if you put Revis on him the whole game, but it’s the trickle down effect that’s going to hurt because now you’ve got Cromartie and Wilson on Welker and Gaffney which are mismatches that favor the Patriots. There’s no other way to slice it, a legit X-receiver for New England makes things harder for a man to man team like the Jets.

Stephen Hill’s Downfield Threat – Hill was seen as extremely raw coming out this year, and assuming that he instantly has an impact, and that Mark Sanchez can develop the pocket presence and chemistry to make those deep throws is a bit of stretch.

Jeff Otah – again, not healthy.

Dedication to the running game – it takes more than dedication, it takes players to execute, and I’m not sure Shaun Green and whoever else are those players.

There’s no question that Coples, Landry, Bell, Otah and Hill could become significant impact players for the Jets and that would improve their team by leaps and bounds, but counting on all their rookies to make an impact and all their banged up guys to get and stay healthy is an extremely optimistic outlook.

But hey, maybe all our rookies and injured guys will be great this year too and then we’ll really be talking about some epic battles.

Super Bowl win for Pats in 2012 would cement Brady/Belichick legacy

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A couple of days ago I finally for the first time willingly watched some of Super Bowl XVI. It was the Sound EFX episode, and though I turned it off as soon as Welker didn’t make that catch and watched a lot of it on mute, I once and for all put the 2011 Pats to rest.

Going into the Super Bowl I really saw no way the Pats would lose. Up to that point every game seemed to have its own poetic justice (except that first Giants loss). Brady beat the Jets in New York for the first time since the Spygate, and ended the seasons of both the other teams that had ended his in 2005 and 2009.

Peyton as a Colt vs. Brady was over. And hey, we even let the Steelers finally win one! I knew you had it in you guys! 

Add all that with Myra Kraft’s magical presence over the team and I just didn’t see how we would possibly lose that game. It was just too perfectly all lined up. The Pats would cap off the season by beating who else but the Giants, and avenge the biggest and worst defeat of the Belichick era.

Forget about the Perfect Season, that’s the Perfect Decade.

To be honest it even scared me a little bit in the week leading up to the game. Half the fun of the NFL season is avenging past losses and trying to right wrongs. There would be no one left to beat.

And had the Pats won the Super Bowl my ultimate nightmare could’ve possibly come true. It would seem as good a time as any for Belichick call it a career. And that is something I don’t want.

Well it must’ve been too perfect for the football gods because they decided to tear our heart out on a grand stage yet again, and here I am, left really hating Eli and the Giants a good deal more than I hated them starting in February 2008, and general apathy towards everyone else.

The Jets will always be the Jets of course, and I’ll always respect and enjoy the games against the Ravens and Steelers, but outside the Giants it’s all just slightly less meaningful. 

Still, there should be some great games this season. Getting a shot at the Texans and 49ers should be interesting, and going into Baltimore should be a dog fight. But new rivals must emerge.

Perhaps Buffalo or Houston are ready to give us a run in the AFC, but as things are lining up right now  the Pats should be favorites to secure homefield advantage for the third straight year.

Being a Pats fan has been quite a ride for the past decade. It all seemed easy early on, but lately no professional sports team has fallen just short of championships more than BB and TFB. Yet again the pieces are in place to make a run at another Lombardi which would definitely cement the Brady/Belichick combo as the best of all time.

Another win would tie Brady for most Super Bowl wins with Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana, not to mention that he’d stand alone having gone to six. Another MVP would also tie him with Montana with three.

For Belichick another Lombardi would give him a tie for most Super Bowl appearances with Don Shula (who only won two of six), and would tie him with Chuck Knoll for most as a head coach. Overall another win would give Belichick six total Super Bowl rings, putting him second all-time, pretty much undeniably the greatest coach of all time.

And one more shiny silver football for The Hall at Patriots Place would certainly put a different gleam on the two Super Bowl losses to the Giants. I just doubt we’ll ever get another shot at them in the big one.

No matter how it ended, 2011 was a fun ride and there’s plenty of reason to believe the 2012 Patriots can be even better. There might not be a lot of teams who we still owe a pounding to, but there’s still a lot to play for.

AFC East thoughts from a Patriots perspective

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I’ve resisted commenting on the goings on (or lack of goings ons… cough Dolphins) around the rest of the AFC East until now but it seems like a good point to review the moves made thus far by the Patriots main opposition, and by that I mean Bills and Jets since I have no idea what the Dolphins are doing.

The road to the playoffs goes through the division, and the Patriots have won the division nine of the last eleven years. So what have the Jets and Bills been doing to close the gap?

Let’s start with the Bills. By now everyone knows they’ve signed the big fish Mario Williams, adding him to a defensive line with Marcel Dareus and Kyle Williams. Then they added Mark Anderson as the other bookend.

I have mixed feeling about Anderson. He’s like that guy you let stay in your castle and he’s a valued warrior in a couple battles, then the next thing you know he’s taking a buttload of money to go fight for one of your direct rivals. (I’ve been watching a lot of Game of Thrones lately if you can’t tell). So whatever Mark Anderson, you got paid and that’s fine. Just keep any celebrating you do at the Pats expense to a subdued minimum. You owe us.

On paper, and with a pending 10th overall draft pick, the Bills look formidable. Seems like they’ve seen what the Giants have been able to do to the Patriots and are trying to replicate it, to their credit.

The problem however is the same problem they had last year, and that is lack of depth. The Bills were off to a great start until the injury bug hit them, and then they finished 6-10.

The Patriots off-season has illustrated yet again why they value the middle of their roster as much as the top, and there has yet to be an injury, no matter how major that the Patriots haven’t overcome in the last decade.

So the question is, can the Bills stay healthy? If they’re the rare team that escapes the injury bug they should surely challenge the Patriots. If they can’t keep Anderson, Dareus, K. and M. Williams on the field it could be lights out just like it was last year. And by lights out I mean Sean Merriman who hasn’t quite turned all the lights out since 2007.

I like Ryan Fitzpatrick but it’s all going to have to line up perfectly for him. If the Bills defense stays healthy they should be able to keep Fitzpatrick in a good position. If they don’t, and Fitz is forced to play from behind or “keep up” he will struggle.

The other question is can Fred Jackson continue the kind of dominant performance he turned in last year before getting hurt. He’s a huge key to everything they do on offense and they need a full year from him.

I expect the Bills to get off to a good start, how long they stay on that course will directly relate to how healthy they stay. But for the first time in a long time the Bills games will be ones that Patriots fans circle before the season.

And then there’s the Jets.

Look, I’m a Patriots fan. My general feeling toward our main rivals is well known. But all bias aside, I don’t know WTF the Jets are doing.

If you’re not building your team to specifically take down the Patriots what are you doing? The Jets holes are well documented. Safety, Right Tackle, and Pass Rush are three major needs for them, and what have they done to address any of them? Took a gamble on Laron Landry and signed Tim Tebow.

If Landry is healthy it’s a good move. They absolutely needed someone to help deal with Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez because Eric Smith and Jim Leonhard were not getting it done in 2011. Landry could be an answer there.

But the Tebow move does nothing to attack a Patriots weakness (they shut him down twice last year) and it also undermines the quarterback you just extended. We all know Jets fans. Does anyone doubt there will be chants for Tebow, even just mockingly, at the first mistake Mark Sanchez makes? Tebow is another whole sideshow for a circus that has been full of sideshows over the past couple seasons.

To be honest I like being a Patriots fan even more when the Jets are making moves that concern me. Moves that make me think this could be the year they actually win the AFC East. But I’ve seen none of those kind of moves this off-season.

It’s seeming more and more like the only real talent on their roster was either brought in by Mangini or with Rex from Baltimore. Is there a single elite player that’s been added by the Rex Ryan regime? I can list off quite a few Patriots that have been added since 2009 that are impact players, who are on their way to elite if not there already. The Jets cupboards are starting to run bare and I’m not sure where the plan is to restock and build a team that can beat the Patriots.

Not that I’m complaining about it, but come on Jets. The NFL is better when you’re a tough ground and pound team, not a bunch of attention-seeking, contract-misreading, buffoons with no real plan to get back to those AFC Championship games you lost two of.

The Bills sure look like they’ll be ready to give the Pats a run for their money, at least in the early part of the season. While the Jets seem like they’re still trying to figure out what they’re doing. The Jets should have huge concerns about the Bills, especially with the pass rushers they’ve added. The Jets offensive line needs to be a lot better this season or it won’t matter who’s playing quarterback.

I’ll write something about the Dolphins when we know who their quarterback is. Until then, they don’t concern me.