By Mike Devarenne
Editor-in-chief
More often than not, a surprise team makes an unprecedented
run to the Super Bowl and wins it all. The 2012-13 Baltimore Ravens, 2008-09
New York Giants, and (hey!) the 2002-03 New England Patriots come to mind as
teams that defied the odds. Clichés (one that I have admittedly used before)
are brought up with these teams – heart, grittiness, and a solid defense. Regardless
of what you believe, there is one universally known fact that directly relates
to post season success: a world class quarterback. Since 2000, only two teams
have won without what I consider a top 5 quarterback (‘01 Ravens – Kyle Boller
and ’03 Buccaneers – Brad Johnson. The jury is still out on Joe Flacco). Well,
as you all know we have a world class quarterback who has been with our team
since that Cinderella season of the ’01-’02 season. Just having a quarterback
of that caliber gives us a pretty good chance of winning it all, because as
long as he is healthy Tom Brady will punch our ticket into the playoffs. And
once we are there…we’ve witnessed firsthand the pros and cons of the magic that
is the NFL postseason.
Moving from blatantly obvious to…just as blatantly obvious
is this: injury, or lack thereof, is also critical for obvious reasons.
However, injuries in sports are unavoidable so it comes to two things:
hopefully Lady Luck spares you an elite player; and when the injury happens,
how does the team react? Luckily, the Patriots are incredibly good of finding
stopgap players out of the woodwork that are capable of stepping into a
situation and performing at a high level.
So right there in the introduction is the first couple Keys
to Lombardi: a top tier playcaller and avoiding that pesky injury bug. After
that, the keys tend to fluctuate depending on the team. So here we go for the
New England Patriots:
Get off to a good
start. The Patriots’ first four games are against the Buffalo Bills, New
York Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Atlanta Falcons. Those teams (excluding
the Jets who were 10th) finished in the bottom half of the league for DVOA
(Defense-adjusted Value Over Average) in 2012. You don’t need to know all that
mumbo jumbo, but you should know that that bodes well for the Pats, who can use
some cupcake defenses early in the season to get acquainted with all the new
faces on the offense.
Establish the running
game. Last year, the Patriots had their first legit running game since the
2004-05 season with Corey Dillon when he rushed for 1,635 yards. I brought up
in another piece how Stevan Ridley & co picked up some serious yardage against
some below average defenses, but regardless, their committal to the running
game last year was a promising sight and it’s critical they hit the ground
running (AWFUL pun, I’m over it) so we won’t be so heavily relying on Brady as
he grows older.
D-line generates a
consistent pass rush. I’m not looking for them to put up stats such as
sacks, TFLs, etc., I just want the defensive line and Brandon Spikes (let’s not
consider him a blitzer because he should always be rushing the quarterback) to
apply steady pressure on the quarterbacks they face and force them to check
down to their running backs and maybe make decisions they don’t want to. Vince
Wilfork and the oft mentioned on this site Chandler Jones should figure to lead
the pack in backfield penetration. Also and more importantly, it would be a
huge help to the secondary if they don’t have to work as hard covering
receivers and worry about quarterbacks exploiting them as often if they are
feeling rushed.
Linebackers improve
in pass coverage. The formula to beat the Patriots is to get to Tom Brady
early and often and focus your passing offense up the middle of the field. The
linebackers of New England are pretty good, but few are exceptionally skilled
at coverage. Dane Fletcher should look to contribute in that department, and
young upstart Steve Beauharnais assuming he makes the team. If this team can
adequately cover talented tight ends and defend running backs out of the
backfield, they would be a finely tuned, well rounded defense.
Get gritty.
Touched on in a previous piece, fans shouldn’t expect for the Pats to win their
trademark 35-21 games of years past; at least in the beginning of the season.
Although blowing out teams are nice, I always felt bittersweet because the
regular season to New England should be a warm up for the playoffs. If they’re
blowing teams out of the water, that doesn’t prepare you for the postseason
where games are (typically) closer and harder fought. So if this team can get
in some “bar fights” to take a page out of Kevin Garnett's bottomless
book of quotes, it could ultimately be a positive in the long run even if it
means them losing a couple.
Enter the playoffs on
a roll. Quick problem I have that is related to this – people need to stop
overreacting to Rob Gronkowski’s injury status, assuming he doesn’t have any
setbacks. He can come back in Week 12 for all I care, the Patriots are a good
enough team to not collapse like a house of cards without having their best
playmaker besides Tommy Football. If Gronk can play with Brady for a couple
weeks before the playoffs, combined with a soft last four games of the schedule
(Cleveland Browns, Miami Dolphins, Ravens, Buffalo Bills); that could build
some serious momentum going into the postseason.
So there you have it. The Patriots have the main ingredient
for success in their quarterback, so think of these only as complimentary
pieces to make the whole meal (wow, first the awful pun and then the awful
analogy). Regardless of questionable literary devices used, I think I generated
some fairly easy things for New England to improve on this season. Just because
they seem easy, definitely do not underestimate how critical these are. If this
team can step up and execute these pointers, we will be able to follow this
team all the way until they lift the Lombardi trophy in New York at the end of
the season.
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