The New England Patriots Have True Grit

There are many views about how the Patriots fared Monday night, the majority of which say the Bills just plain choked.  I prefer to think that New England just stepped up to the challenge. 

A young secondary clamped down on Terrell Owens and Lee Evans but somehow failed to shore up the middle part of the field.  They still couldn’t stop the run.  Yet when it counted they stepped up to the challenge and gave Tom Brady the opportunity he needed to lead them to victory. 

Bill Belichick now has a raw defensive blueprint from which to draw on.  He understood that both teams were inexperienced and both Owens and Brady were coming back from injury.  The game was essentially up for grabs and his team found a way to win.

The Mayo injury will test that blueprint even further.

Media heads are now thinking that Belichick must be missing Richard Seymour now, especially since he had a great defensive game.  His team lost when it counted.

Where was that fire when he was here?

Last year when Bruschi needed defensive leadership help, the only one that provided that help was Mayo with his fire and tenacity.  Bruschi saw that and taught him the little nuances of leadership that helped  him to elevate his  game.

Seymour will wow you with statistical numbers, but no one trusted him enough to follow.  New England made a great move; they took their eye-candy Richard Seymour and used him as a dowry for a future option.

I’m sure you have all had some eye-candy in your past lives at one time or other.

Jerod Mayo is the real deal and the defensive coaches of New England will conjure up schemes as the defense continues to grow. 

This weekend the Jets and Rex Ryan smell an easy win because they think they can take advantage of the defense.  They are now for all intensive purposes, in the Jets mind, on equal footing with a slight advantage.  Their next glamour boy of Broadway, Mark Sanchez,  is fresh off a win in Houston. 

The Patriot offense and defense were tested under the bright lights of Monday Night Football and passed.  The Jets walked all over a clueless Texan team.

I’ll put my money on the Pats any day.

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The Patriots “Sey”-No-“Mour” to Number 93 and his Championship Dreams

A few days ago, Patriot Nation received a shock to the system.  The last remnants of the defensive link to all three Super Bowl championships had left. 

Richard Seymour was traded to the Oakland Raiders for a 2011 first-round pick.  NFL insiders on ESPN did not even list New England as a Super Bowl contender after they heard about the trade.

This makes it a total of three veteran players, Mike Vrabel and Tedy Bruschi being the others, that the Patriots have lost in the preseason.  

The on-the-field leadership for the defensive backs has been placed on the broad shoulders of Jerod Mayo, a second-year player whose rookie season warranted his selection as the 10th overall in the first round. 

Young players like Brandon Meriwether and Tully Banta-Cain as well as rookies Patrick Chung and Darius Butler will have to step it up.

The media have all but given up on a championship parade in Government Center for the Patriots.  Rumors abound about how “Uncle” Bill has all but given up on the season and this trade proves it, especially since Seymour has refused to report to the Raiders as of this writing.

The Patriots have no claim to him.

The past few years the Patriot defense has been a lackluster bunch.  There was a sort of malaise that had them allowing the offense to dictate the flow of the game.  They had forgotten it was defense that had gotten them those rings and the right to be given the “D” word…”Dynasty.”

They had a Hall-of-Fame coach, quarterback, and possibly a wide receiver in Randy Moss.  Yet, last year, when Tom Brady was felled, they failed to step up their support  for his replacement, Matt Cassell, in tight games.

The offense wasn’t the problem, his team had went 11-6 and in any other year that would have been good enough to make the playoffs. Bill Belichick knew then that he had to do something; his defense had gotten lazy, and let’s face it, he needed new challenges to whet his championship appetite. 

Like Larry Brown of the Charlotte Bobcats, Belichick is a teacher by nature.  He has been studying football film since he was 12 years old.  Therefore, he must have some genius behind what others have considered madness with this blow to his defensive unit. 

Dean Pees has been experimenting with the 4-3 base defense. Such a defense requires young legs, and who knows maybe “Uncle” Bill will come up with a hybrid defense that will stop all this talk about the lack of a dominant defense.

The New England Patriots face challenges on both sides of the ball with a quarterback returning from injury and the sheer youth of the defense.  

This season, the doubting pundits have reignited that fire in Belichick’s belly. He will lather the boys up with the disrespect card and send them out on the field. 

Meanwhile Patriot Nation should keep repeating this mantra: “In Bill we Trust!” three times every night before they go to bed.

 

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The New England Patriots: Retool, not Reinvent, the 3-4 Scheme

The New England Patriots under Bill Belichick have primarily used a 3-4 defensive scheme. It is a scheme that employs three very large defensive lineman that will patrol and control two gaps each.

As a result it requires very cerebral players to effectively occupy the blockers and clog lanes so the linebackers can tackle. Patriots’ rookie Jerrod Mayo was able to take advantage by leading the team in tackles.

This years draft brought Ron Brace who was largely overshadowed by B.J. Raji at Boston college. Ron is a little bit one-dimensional; but the one thing he does well is exactly what the Patriots need. He is very effective at jamming the middle. 

More teams are leaning toward this scheme so it is very important to have offensive players who can block and help protect the quarterback.

This scheme requires a good run blocking tight-end which the Patriots haven’t seen in a long time. Tom Brady is coming off of major knee surgery and this was one area of concern. The Patriots hope the trade for Alex Smith will help keep their franchise quarterback healthy.

The 3-4 scheme gives the defense the greatest amount of flexibility and allows a team to make better use of the versatility of the linebacker. This allows the defense to rush the quarterback or drop back into pass coverage rather quickly.

The Patriots defensive lineman do not have eye-popping stats when it comes to tackles.  Instead, this allows them to be able to withstand the offensive line surge and push back.  Players in this defense must be able to maintain good leverage in order to sustain the push.

Vince Wilfork and Richard Seymour are currently the heart of this line.

The Patriots drafted Myron Pryor out of Kentucky as insurance if in case they can’t re-sign Vince Wilfork.

Darius Butler is New England’s Corner back of the future a Troy Brown type of player.  He doesn’t have blinding speed to paraphrase Bill Belichick “he just makes football plays”. This makes Ray Vetrone expendable.

There are also trade considerations for this team to shore up the defensive line. Rumor has it that New England is in trade talks with the Raiders for DL Derrick Burgess. Burgess is a two time pro-bowler and is seeking a contract extension Al Davis is unwilling to do this.

He would play weak outside linebacker which would help with the rush.

The Patriots are now loaded at this position with Vince Redd, Banta-Cain and Pierre Woods. Because of the abundance of prospects this most likely means that this will be a rotational position.

New England now has a nice mix of free agents, young veterans and rookies to compete for starting spots on defense. This allows for a very competitive camp as very few positions are open. 

This is a low risk high reward type of atmosphere that lends itself well to the Patriots philosophy of making football decisions based on players who can make football plays.

The AFC East: A Race to the Finish

Last year saw a significant upgrade in talent and toughness in the AFC East. 

Miami Dolphins: The “Tuna”, Bill Parcells got tired of being on dry land.  He loaded up his footballs and landed in Miami in 2007.  Since then he has methodically cleaned house as only the “Tuna” could do. 

He turned Miami from doormat to a team to be respected under Tony Sporano who took the Dolphins to the playoffs. Last season the Dolphins and the Patriots split the season series the Patriots blew them out in the week five game.

The secondary was mediocre unlike the Patriots they were able to mask it enough to make the playoffs.

Look for Miami to avenge that week five loss and challenge themselves to sweep the regular season games.

 

Buffalo Bill: have sold its soul to “Little Nicky” himself, Terrell Owens. He even brought his own reality show to mini-camp. Give it to them its a great PR move; who ever thought we would be talking Buffalo Bills and offseason in the same sentence.

Getting Owens is certainly an upgrade at receiver but for now T.O.’s loud entrance will see them go out with a whimper again.

 

New York Jets: J-E-T-S Jets! Jets! Jets! New England’s rivals are the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins.  Six degrees of separation stacked with former players, and coaches.

The Jets hit the jackpot when they landed golden boy Mark Sanchez; the media have even dubbed him as a pseudo-Joe Namath. The bright lights of the New York media can turn a star athletes game to mush. 

Let’s hope he holds up when he sees his only weapon is Jerricho Cotchery. The defensive line is a little old with no prospects behind them.

 

New England Patriots: New England has a more balanced roster than  all of the teams in its division. Tom Brady is back and all reports are that he is either on or ahead of schedule. They’ve brought in Alex Smith via trade at the tight-end position to use as extra protection against the pass rushes of the teams in their division. 

They have infused the defense with youth and most of all a healthy Adalius Thomas. 

 

Prediction: Miami is going to make it tough, but look for New England to make the playoffs and win the division.

In Randy Moss We Trust!

The Patriots had a disappointing season by their standards last year. 

They finished the season with an 11-5 record that at any other time would have gotten them in the playoffs.

The football gods placed their fate on the hapless arms of Brett Favre and the New York Jets. They did what was expected and tanked the game causing Belichick protege Eric Mangini to lose his job.

All in all the Patriots had an admirable season for a team expected to finish with just about eight wins if they were lucky. Their starting running game was on the PUP list most of the season and Moss faced numerous double teams because of it. 

Moss didn’t help his cause much when he gave a lukewarm response to his new quarterback. He said the right things, but one was left wandering if he would help Matt Cassell out.

Welker was the lone bright spot on the receiving corp, taking advantage in the slots with his shifty moves.

There were moments when Moss would tease us with his talent dragging the corners of the end zone with fantastic catches. Other times it looked like he quit on the play in moments when the Patriots needed their star receiver to stretch the limits of his talent.

He just didn’t trust that Cassell could get him the ball in tight corners, he took plays off and misjudged the trajectory of the ball. It was a natural reaction to have doubt since Cassell had not experienced life as a starting quarterback since high school.

I am sure if he knew what he knew now that the Cassell had the system down, he would have trust.

Trust that when he jumped at his peak that the ball would be there and he would gladly accept the hit.

Trust that his speed would not be wasted on what he thought was an average arm.

That season is done with and his comfort zone Tom Brady is back ready to form once again, a potent Patriots passing game. Trust will be seen once again when he shows his Pro-Bowl talent. 

Trust will be seen when Randy’s sudden burst of speed leads him to a single step and catch into the end zone. 

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