Defense Dominates Yet Again As Patriots Annihilate Jets

Sam Darnold claimed that he was seeing ghosts on Monday night while his New York Jets were hosting the New England Patriots and their bedlam-based defense.

Actually, Sam, you weren't seeing Ghosts; you were seeing Boogeymen..

The Patriots' self-dubbed "Boogeyman" defense had the second-year signal caller so wide-eyed and rattled, that he looked like a teenager in a bad slasher flick, forced into making the type of fatal decisions that cause the audience to grip their arm rests in suspense, knowing that the poor geek was doomed.

No matter how fast he ran, he knew the Boogeyman was going to catch him - and in true thriller fashion, the New England defense terrorized the young quarterback, wearing him down psychologically to the point that his throwing mechanics broke down and he started throwing off his back foot and floating balls to where he thought his receivers would be...

Devin McCourty returning an interception

...but no one except Patriots defenders were there, picking him off four times enroute to their second shutout of the season, a 33-0 blowout that elevated New England to 7-0 on the season and caused Jets' fans to flee MetLife Stadium in horror.

A common term for when a quarterback starts feeling so pressured by the pass rush that he sees targets that aren't really there, "Seeing ghosts" is the only explanation for why the second-year signal caller was throwing passes to places on the field where there was not a receiver in sight.

Hallucinatory episode aside, Darnold simply suffered the same fate of every other quarterback thus far on the Patriots' schedule. Pressured by a relentless, shape-shifting pass rush that was in his face all night long, Darnold completed only eleven of his thirty-two pass attempts, four of those misses ending up in the hands of New England defenders, who have now logged 18 thefts on the season.

The superlatives being tossed around about the Patriots' defense – and deservedly so – have clouded from most folk's view that the offense has its stake in their success.

When quarterback Tom Brady entered the field of play after the Patriots received the opening kickoff, he didn't leave it until nearly nine minutes of game time had elapsed 16 plays later and with a the eventual winning points on the board.

The Jets were doomed after that, their defense already exhausted. But Brady and the Patriots' offense continued to pour it on, with a huge assist from the defense.

Once the Jets' offense finally saw the field, their first possession lasted a whole two plays as Darnold saw his first ghost and was picked off by safety Devin McCourty, who returned the ball deep into the red zone. That possession resulted in only a field goal but the Jets' defense had little time to rest and recover, now on the field for 10 minutes and only twelve minutes into the contest.

By the time the second quarter rolled around, New England already had a 17-0 lead when two plays in, linebacker John Simon strip-sacked Darnold, and fellow 'backer Kyle Van Noy recovered at the New York 38 – but rather than going for the quick strike, Brady opted for keeping the Jets' defense on the field for another five minutes, eventually taking a 24-point lead on a Sony Michel one-yard blast.

In the end, New England held the ball for nearly two-thirds of the game, their grinding, move-the-chains style a perfect complement to the manic defensive entity – and if the offense does bog down, which it did after taking a three-score lead, there's always Jake Bailey and the Stormtrooper punt coverage team, who routinely pin the opposing offense deep in their own territory, forcing them to cover the length of the field to obtain any points at all.

That's not happening for the opposition – and if the other guys happen to cause a turnover to get great field position, the Boogeymen shift into high gear and drive them backwards.

It's now a familiar refrain in New England, but there is much work left to do, particularly on the offense, which leads the league in points scored, but tend to bog down for long stretches. At issue is the 30th ranked ground game of the Patriots, which is collectively gaining just just 3.3 yards per carry...

...which sucks, but the main culprit is Michel's get-only-what's-blocked-for-him style, which also is an indictment of the play of the offensive line, a unit that isn't getting push when Michel is in the backfield because the opposition stacks the box due to his one-dimensional opportunities – and dropping a screen pass that had touchdown written all over it doesn’t help how defenses perceive him.

That's a topic that needs a little more attention, because it happened again on Monday night, as after the Patriots had taken that 24-0 lead midway through the second quarter, the Jets' defense rose to the occasion and forced seven punts and one interception of Brady the rest of the way...

...mostly due to the Patriots attempting to dictate to the Jets in the four-minute offense against the aforementioned stacked box - the only glitch in their effort another clock eating drive by the Patriots that resulted in Michel's third rushing touchdown of the game and the final points of the game.

Good Stuff:

1. Jakobi Meyers blocking ability: Meyers is tall and thin, but certainly not frail, nor afraid to take on defenders while blocking down the field. Twice on Monday night Meyers exhibited excellent technique in opening the edge on screen plays, solidifying his status of an up-and-coming talent, especially in light of the fact that he catches everything thrown at him and appears to have Brady's confidence. This rookie looks to be another great bottom-of-the-barrel find by Belichick.

2. Patriots may have found a new "Fullback": Or maybe three or four, as linebacker Elandon Roberts, reserve lineman James Ferentz and tight ends Ben Watson and Eric Tomlinson all had turns at lead blocking from the fullback position. Roberts offered up the best audition tape, as on the last of Sony Michel's three touchdown runs, Roberts leveled two defenders, taking them high and low and clearing a path for Michel. Belichick may choose to use a by-committee approach for the position, but for the moment, Roberts appears to be the best option.

3. Ben Watson's seamless debut: After Watson caught a third-down chain mover on a slant route, he rose from the turf with an “I told you so” scowl on his face, perhaps sending a message to Belichick that he should never have cut him in the first place. We'll probably never know if there was a message to be had for anyone, but Watson looked both pissed off and redeemed at the same instant. Regardless, New England now has a legitimate NFL tight end again.

4. A Damien Harris Sighting: Finally. It was in garbage time – well, the game was in garbage time after the Patriots' initial drive, but you get it – and the kid ran with purpose. A third-round draft pick out of Alabama, the Patriots have the luxury of bringing him along slowly, and that's exactly what they are doing. That said, he needs real-game reps, so let's hope that Monday night's appearance isn't an anomaly.

Curious:

1. Why do the officials continue to pick on J.C. Jackson? In last season's AFC Championship game, Jackson was flagged three times on one drive, leading to a Kansas City touchdown. On Monday night, Jackson was again flagged three times on one drive, but the Patriots' defense emerged unscathed when safety Duron Harmon intercepted Jets' quarterback Sam Darnold at the one-yard line. Just as last year, the penalties seemed a bit ticky-tack, or even downright wrong. No harm, no foul I suppose.

Bad Juju:

1. Sony Michel still bogged down: He scored three touchdowns, but only averaged 2.2 yards per carry and dropped a screen pass that probably would have gone for a touchdown, given the wall of blockers that were set up to escort him into the end zone. He broke off a couple of tough runs, but continues to get only what's blocked for him.

For Good Or Ill, Patriots' Offensive Success Depends on Running Backs Becoming Wide Receivers

20 October, 2019

Bill Belichick calls them "Bonus Points".

Points unexpected, scored by the defense and by kick and punt coverage teams, are not rare, but occur seldom enough that they always make the short list on highlight reels and will often alter the course of a football game, for good or ill.

They are considered to be points scored off of turnovers, and Belichick's New England Patriots have been on both sides of the effect that they have on games this season - and, in fact, his Patriots lead the National Football League in points scored off of turnovers. Unfortunately, they are also dead last in the league in points surrendered off of turnovers on their own.

It's not a wash, however, as New England has scored six touchdowns in such a manner while their opponents have posted three, with two of those coming in their last meeting with the New York Jets in a game that the Patriots won 30-14 - a final score that would have been 30-0 had no bonus points been scored...

...New York scoring on a muffed punt returned for a touchdown, and then an easy pick-six. The Jets' offense was just plain bad in that game, and had been until quarterback Sam Darnold returned to the lineup last week.

So how does that translate to tonight's rematch with the Jets? It doesn't translate at all, as Belichick himself will tell you, and that whatever happened in the past has no bearing on future contests - particularly in this case as bonus points are unexpected and the Jets are a completely different entity than they were four weeks ago...

...most obviously at quarterback, where second-year starter Darnold returns after missing their last encounter at New England and gives them some spark on offense, enough to upset the heavily favored Dallas Cowboys last week for their first win of the season.

And given the state of parity that governs the NFL this season, that one win keeps the Jets in the playoff hunt, albeit by a thread, which combined with the win over Dallas, gives the Jets the motivation and confidence that their offense can match the success that their defense has enjoyed, and promises to give the Patriots all they can handle before a national television audience.

That confidence is also due in part to New England's offense being stuck in neutral since that last contest in Foxborough, as injuries have rendered the Patriots' passing game a shell of its normal self, struggling to put together any consistency at all early in games - but to their credit, have scratched and clawed their way to find just enough paydirt to pull out six wins in as many games.

Certainly, the Patriots score more than enough points on average to win any game they play, their league-leading 31.6 points per game easily outdistancing their opponents by an absurd twenty-four points – but that is a collective total. If one were to erase the Patriots' bonus points, their average drops to 24 points per contest which, given the excellence of their defense, is still plenty.

Even so, there is a decline in points scored by the offense over the last three weeks going back to their meeting with the Jets, the talisman being wide receivers Julian Edelman and Josh Gordon going down with injuries suffered in that game which has limited their effectiveness and, as a result, the effectiveness of the offense overall.

In fact, injuries have taken such a toll on the Patriots' offense that in the second half last week against the New York Giants, they had only enough pass catchers to field just one personnel grouping, featuring a gimpy-but-tough-as-nails Edelman and two undrafted rookies. That was enough to squeeze out a win in that game to remain undefeated, but it won't hold up tonight against an aggressive Jets' defense.

Gordon, who had been playing with a variety of maladies for a couple of games since that week 3 win over the Jets, has already been ruled out for Monday night with a knee injury suffered against the Giants – and if speedy Phillip Dorsett isn't able to return to the lineup after missing the last two games, the wide receiver corps may yet again have to depend on those rookies.

But Belichick has assuaged the impact of that scenario by making moves that will mask the deficiencies in the passing game, theoretically.

By signing tight ends Ben Watson and Eric Tomlinson, he adds much-needed bulk to the end of the offensive line, giving him a proven seam target in Watson and a pair of powerful inline blockers that should aid the running game. If one were to simply view these moves on the surface, it could signal that New England is prepared to go toe-to-toe with the Jets' excellent defensive line and bring the running game into prominence...

...a running game that has been bogged down all season due to attrition suffered in the offseason and exasperated exponentially by injuries that have laid waste to the offensive line and the fullback position, a staple of New England's offense.

But with Belichick's stance that the short passing game is an extension of the ground game, not to mention that he employs a stable of running backs who are collectively dangerous in the passing game, he could actually thin the box by spreading out the Jets' defense while at the same time opening room for Edelman and company to ply their trade.

The issue with their passing game is that all of the receivers that Belichick has left to work with are essentially a collection of slot receivers who are incapable of spreading the field vertically, so he could (should) spread out the field horizontally by splitting a  running back or two out wide while keeping one in the backfield. This rare personnel grouping could actually give the offense an element of the read option, dictating to the Jets' defense by forcing them to stay in their base defense and reacting instead of forcing the issue.

Of course, New York could counter this ploy by employing a third safety or by going to a mostly zone coverage look to shrink the field like it would in the red zone, which by its very nature limits the space that pass catchers have to operate. Be that as it may, New England is adept at operating in tight spaces, counting on their backs to work in the flat to move the chains.

How goofy would it seem for Belichick to line up two backs wide, Edelman in the slot, Watson on the end of the line and keep one back in the backfield? That's called “31” personnel – three backs and one tight end, which one might see as an abstract personnel package, or as an old “Wishbone” offense.

That would freak out the Jets' defensive players until they realized that they have a collection of safeties perfect for their own brand of the Big Nickel package in which to provide coverage on the backs and tight end, and they could do so by staying in their base defense, substituting a corner for a strong safety...

...or even using a corner as a deep safety and employing a two-deep zone in front of him to ensure proper run support.

Madness, all of it.

It's a ball control scheme for sure, and one that, if successful, would put a lot of pressure on the Jets' offense to be efficient, working with what should be limited possessions to score points on the Patriots' defense, something that they know from experience is tough sledding.

New England's defense leads the NFL in every major category, most importantly is the fact that they are allowing a miniscule 4.5 points per game and are larcenous repeat offenders, leading the league in forced turnovers and are on pace to shatter the NFL record for sacks in a season.

It should also be noted that Belichick's defense and special teams have outscored opposing offenses twice in their six games, and have collectively outscored those six foes 42-27, those bonus points the difference between New England being undefeated and having at least one loss, perhaps two or even three.

But as good as they have been, the Patriots cannot count on those bonus points. Darnold is a talented, albeit young, signal caller who is light years better than Luke Falk, whom the New England defense beat in their first meeting like he stole something. Darnold has a big arm, can make all the throws and is a bit more mobile...

...but should be held mostly in check by the Patriots' “Boogeyman” defense. The question is, can the offense score enough points with their limitations in the receiving corps to complement their defense and come out of MetLife Stadium still undefeated?

The odds makers in Las Vegas believe so, making the Patriots a double-digit road favorite – so as long as the Jets don't get those Bonus Points that they enjoyed in their first meeting, New England should escape with a decisive victory.

Patriots' Machine Overcomes Rookie Mistakes In Blowout Of Jets

The New England Patriots' defense is on an epic, historic run, allowing just three points in as many games. Too bad the same cannot be said about the Patriots' offense or special teams.

Football is a team game, and the statisticians confirm that by counting any points scored by the opposition as "points allowed", so anyone who didn't watch the Patriots' 30-14 victory over the New York Jets at Gillette Stadium on Sunday afternoon would be predisposed to think that the Jets scored twice on New England's defense...

...but in reality, the Patriots' stoppers held New York's anemic offense to barely one hundred yards of total offense and allowed them to cross midfield just once, forcing ten punts on twelve possessions and picking off Jets' quarterback Luke Falk to end another drive in yet another dominating performance.

Collins celebrates one of his two sacks on Sunday

But then, rookies happened.

The Jets crossed midfield for the first time in the game late in the third quarter on a personal foul by the defense, which then stiffened and drove the Jets backwards from there, forcing another punt - and that's when things took a turn to the absurd.

Rookie returner Gunner Olszewski muffed the ensuing punt that the Jets' Aurther Maulet recovered in the end zone for their first points of the day, and then backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham threw an interception that was returned for another score, blowing the shutout in comical fashion and making the final score appear as if the Jets put up an epic fight, when nothing could be farther from the truth.

Rookies. What are you gonna do?

The fumble by Olszewski was the lone tweak on an otherwise solid day for the Patriots' special teams - save another missed point after touchdown by an increasingly erratic Stephen Gostkowski - which made the score 30-7...

...then head ball coach Bill Belichick decided to mothball quarterback Tom Brady, inserting rookie back up Jarrett Stidam who promptly targeted Jets' safety Jamal Adams in coverage and suddenly New York was within two scores of the defending champions.

But things returned to normal as Belichick reinserted Brady into the lineup and forbade Olszewski to handle any more kicks, and New England coasted to their third straight victory to start the season.

The Patriots' offense came out of the gates like they were collectively fired out of a canon, scoring on their first three possessions to build a twenty point lead, with running back Sony Michel finding paydirt from six yards out and Brady tossing scoring strikes to Phillip Dorsett and Julian Edelman...

...but then sputtered when Edelman was forced to the training room with a rib injury midway through the second quarter and multiple maladies sidelined Josh Gordon for a spell - but an interception of Falk by safety Devin McCourty set up a Gostkowski field goal and Runner Rex Burkhead punched through the crust for a two yard touchdown on their next possession midway through the third period to build the Patriots' lead to thirty points.

Without Edelman on the field and Gordon missing several snaps, the offense stagnated and stalled against the young-but-talented Jets' defense, who took advantage of their absence and went to primarily a zone coverage scheme that locked down Brady's other options in the pattern - and that, combined with the Patriots' inexplicable failure to produce a consistant running game, forced New England to punt the ball away seven times after the first quarter onslaught.

While concerning, the Patriots were missing a primary weapon in running back James White, who was granted the day off by Belichick to witness the birth of his second child. White, arguably the best receiving back in the league, would have spread the Jets' defense thin to account for his prolific production in the passing game, though Burkhead continues to exert his will on defenses as both a runner and pass catcher.

On defense, once again linebacker Jamie Collins led the stoppers in both intensity and production, logging two sacks of New England's five sacks on the day, two quarterback hits, multiple tackles for loss and a pass defensed in his early bid for consideration for Defensive Player of the Year, while McCourty picked off a pass for the third consecutive game.

With Falk at quarterback, the Patriots' defense concentrated on stopping the Jets' running game, holding star multi-tool runner Le'Veon Bell to an abysmal 35 rushing yards on 18 carries and just four receptions for 28 yards. Despite being targeted by New England's game plan, Bell still accounted for sixty percent of New York's offense, though his 63 total yards landed well short of his normal output.

There has been no other team in modern NFL history whose offense and special teams have surrendered more points than their defense, which leads the league in scoring defense with an oppressive one-point per game average and an almost comical 0.08 points per possession by their opponents. Conversely, both the Patriots' offense and special teams are allowing 2.3 points per game.

Regardless of those numbers, the team's stat sheet will show that the Patriots are scoring at a clip of 35 points per game and surrendering just five, leading the league in both scoring and total defense, while the offense ranks second in scoring and fifth in total offense as they head into a showdown in Buffalo with the undefeated Bills next Sunday, a contest that should prove more of a challenge on both sides of the ball.

Good Stuff

1. Jamie Collins playing like a mad man: There is no more dominating force for the Patriots' defense than Collins, who leads the team in tackles, tackles for loss, sacks, quarterback hits, and is second on the unit in passes defended. Collins credits his teammates for opening lanes for him to make plays, which is true, but his intensity and skill produce the desired results when given those opportunities. Though the sample size is small after only three games, Collins is a front-runner for Defensive Player of the Year consideration.

2. Jake Bailey's rocket launcher for a leg: Punters can be true weapons in the field position battle, and Bailey sets up the defense by consistently pinning the opposition's offense deep in their own territory. His booming punts force infinitely more fair catches than returns, his length and accuracy and hang time forcing the Jets to start their offensive drive from an average starting point of their own 12 yard line.

3. Josh Gordon's toughness: The mercurial Gordon was forced from the game twice with injuries to his back and left hand, but he returned both times to make spectacular, leaping receptions in traffic. Playing through pain - and playing well - has endured the skillful Gordon to his teammates, and gives Brady the increasing confidence to toss 50/50 balls in his direction.

Curious

1. Stidham's appearance: Brady looked pissed on the sideline when removed from the game so that his understudy could get some real-time snaps, but Stidham's poor throw that was intercepted and returned for a touchdown ended his day after one failed series. It seemed anomylous and random that Belichick would pull Brady early in the fourth quarter after leaving him in for the full contest in the previous two games.

Bad Juju

1. Sony Michel's inability to get started: Michel's one-dimensional tool set left him an afterthought as the game moved forward. Initially there was hope that Michel would break out of his three-game slump as he scored the Patriots' first touchdown on an off-tackle play early in the first quarter, but he was held to five yards in eight carries the rest of the way. Once again, the struggling Michel was replaced by the far more effective Burkhead.

2. Edelman's injury: The Squirrel appeared to be bent awkwardly as he was sandwiched between a couple of Jets' defenders. He played on the next snap though in obvious discomfort, then headed straight to the locker room. Reports indicate that xrays were negative and that Edelman shouldn't miss any time going forward, but the stagnation of New England's offense in his absence is concerning.

McDaniels Has To Become Mix-Master For Patriots' Offense To Realize Their Potential

After dropping their first two games of the 2017 NFL season, the New York Jets have won three straight heading into their matchup with the New England Patriots this Sunday.

How they are winning is a mystery, however.

In the bottom third of the league in just about any stat you could come up with, the Jets seem to be winning using smoke and mirrors, slight of hand and the constant rubbing of rabbits feet, because there is no other explanation.

Using Gillislee Properly can only help Brady

On defense, they give up 143 yards per game on the ground and a yield of 4.6 yards per carry and through the air they cough up two touchdowns per game to their opponent despite posting a relatively miserly 211 yards per game in that category - while on offense, they go for 111 on the ground and 189 through the air respectively.

Not exactly a juggernaut by any stretch of the imagination, yet they are somehow tied for the AFC East division lead with New England and Buffalo, each with a record of  3-2.

Of course, their three wins have come against the offensively challenged Miami Dolphins, Jacksonville Jaguars and Cleveland Browns while their two losses came at the hands of the aformentioned Bills and the Oakland Raiders - but each contest has been about game planning and optimizing the talent that they do have, and it's worked pretty well for them so far.

For instance, in their win over Miami, they concentrated on stopping Jay Ajayi and the Dolphins' running game and dared Jay Cutler to beat them - the result being 18 yards on 11 carries for Ajayi and a typically dismal day for Cutler. Against the Jaguars, they concentrated on getting to Blake Bortles and let rookie running back Leonard Fournette have his yardage, and Bortles' game was just as dismal as Cutler's while Fournette carried 24 times for 84 yards...

...and against the Browns, they concentrated on nailing rookie quarterback DeShone Kizer, beating him so badly that he was replaced under center by Kevin Hogan, who fared better, but it wasn't enough.

The final score in two of those games were relatively close, but the one thing that they all had in common is that their opponents each scored last-second touchdowns, or got scores from their defense to make the score seem closer than it really was - as evidenced by the thirteen points per game they've surrendered during their winning streak, which reduces down to seven points per game if one were to eliminate defensive and garbage-time scores.

On the other side of the ball is a Patriots offense that is really in no condition to challenge the Jets' Defense.

After all, despite success on the ground, the Patriots inexplicably don't try to optimize the talent they have in the backfield, instead putting quarterback Tom Brady in harm's way by making him drop back to pass on a full two-thirds of New England's offensive snaps - which feeds right into what New York does best on defense.

Brady's forty pass attempts per game put him on pace to set a career high, which currently stands at 637 in 2012, and to top last season's number by more than 200 attempts, which is also partially due to Brady serving a four-game suspension - but still five more attempts per game.

The need to reduce Brady's exposure to abuse should be paramount, given his age and the fact that he's already had to peel himself off the turf more in the first five games of 2017 than in all of last season. To be fair though, the total sacks for all of 2016 is actually 24, and when considering that nine of those came with fleet-of-foot Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett under center in a total of four games, the numbers from the present season don't seem particularly out of line thus far.

Curiously, the running game has been virtually ignored at times when it should be foremost in the mind of offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.

After all, McDaniels used the running game to protect his young quarterbacks while they were filling in for Brady at the start of last season, protecting them while his young offensive line sought cohesiveness and chemistry - balancing out the offense to the point that the Patriots could have actually been considered run-heavy, even when Brady returned in week five...

...yet despite Garoppolo and Brissett being far more mobile than Brady, they still took ten sacks to start the season, and lost Jimmy Clipboard when he took a nasty hit from Miami linebacker Kiki Alonso and Brissett tore ligaments in the thumb of his throwing hand in the following game against Houston, rending him and the Patriots' offense inert the week after that in a shutout loss to Buffalo.

No matter which way you look at it, the song remains the same. Had the Patriots the same imbalance last season as they have this season, the number of sacks suffered by the quarterbacks would be virtually identical - one sack every 12.3 snaps in 2017 compared to once every 12.2 last season. But what's missing and what people are forgetting is that the line allowed fourteen more sacks the rest of 2016, and another nine sacks in three post-season games.

That means that in the 15 games Brady played in last season, he went down in the grasp of a defender twenty-five times and hit times-three.

So the line is just about where it was last season, considering the disparity between running plays and passing plays, which brings us to the eternal question of how to keep Brady upright so that he can survive the season and to give the offense a chance to realize it's full potential - not to mention matching up well with the New York Jets this Sunday - and the answer is as clear as a bell:

Run the damn ball.

Running the ball cures many ills, not the least of which is the fact that all Brady has to do is to turn and hand the ball off and become a spectator. Theoretically, mixing the run with the pass forced the defense to defend the entire field and paves the way for an effective play action sell that mitigates an aggressive pass rush to a certain degree...

...but having a 66/33 split between pass and run, respectively, causes the defense to focus on getting to Brady and dares the offense to beat them on the ground - but the Patriots are handicapped even more by the way McDaniels calls running plays when he decides to use the ground game.

Given the fact that power back Mike Gillislee has not been targeted in the passing game at all, it goes to figure that with him in the game, the opposition is going to stack the box against him - yet he still manages to break into the second level. Where things go south for him is when three or four running plays are called in succession as McDaniels seems to like to go with something until the defense stops it, then moves on.

New England has more success with James White or Dion Lewis in the backfield because they are used in both facets of the game, so teams have to account for them in both the running and passing games.

Gillislee hasn't been used a lot in the passing game, but he has great hands and once the play calling starts targeting him in the passing game, it will eventually force defenses to respect him as a receiving threat and open up wider running lanes - instead what is happening is that the play call will go to fullback James Develin out of a two back set, with Gillislee remaining in to block.

All of this said and true, what will it take for the Patriots' offense to get untracked against a decent Jets' defense?

Simply, they are going to have to mix up the run and the pass, distributing the play calls in a manner that doesn't scream the obvious, because running the ball twenty times in a game by lumping the runs into a condensed time span does the offense no good. Against the Jets, an offense must establish the run to keep the play action relavent, which keeps their pass rushers on their heels...

...though every team the Jets have faced thus far in 2017 have done exactly that, yet there isn't a 300 yard passer among them - in fact, New York has held two of their opponents under 200 passing yards per game.

But the Jets haven't faced a quarterback like Brady yet - Oakland's Derek Carr is the only thrower the Jets have faced in five games who is anywhere close to a true franchise passer, and the Raiders torched New York for 45 points in a lopsided win - so that streak of holding opposing passers under 300 yards may be in jeopardy.

But then again, if the Patriots find a true mix of run and pass, they won't need a big day out of Brady, as the Jets have allowed opposing offenses to rush for more than 140 yards in four of their first five games - if they can't find that mix, however, New York could win their fourth straight by forcing the Patriots to become one-dimensional, abusing Brady along the way.

It's all in the hands of Josh McDaniels.

Analysis: Patriots' Schedule A Matter Of Perspective

It's good to be the king...

The National Football League released the 2017 schedule on Thursday evening, and while the fans of the New England Patriots have known for weeks who their opponents were going to be, the schedule revealed the details - and the schedule makers couldn't have been any kinder to the defending champions.

But many are viewing the Patriots' overall schedule with gritted teeth - and that because of playing five of eight after the bye on the road, including three in a row in early December and two in a row in altitude in November - and those games will be challenging for sure, but things do tend to balance out.

How? Well first of all, the two games in altitude come at a fortuitous time, coming off of the midseason bye.

After playing two consecutive home games to close out the first half of the season, the Patriots take their bye in week 9, the effective two week break giving them many options to prepare for games at Denver and at Mexico City to play the Raiders - perhaps taking off for Denver on Tuesday or Wednesday to acclimate to the thinner air in the Rockies...

...then after playing the Broncos on that Sunday night, they will have the option to either stay in Denver or head straight for Mexico City, depending on the availability of venues in which to prepare for the Raiders.

After that two week stretch, the Patriots return home for the Dolphins, the go for three straight at Buffalo, Miami and Pittsburgh - but then end the regular season with two straight at home against the Bills and Jets.

According to my math, those circumstances neutralize both the disadvantage of playing two straight games in high altitude by giving the Patriots two weeks to prepare, physiologically, for the thin air of Denver and Mexico City, gives them two of their three game roadie against divisional opponents, then see them closing with two straight at home against divisional opponents.

The latter means that if the Patriots take care of their business down thew stretch and secure a first round bye after playing the Steelers in Pittsburgh on December 17th, they may not have to leave Foxborough for the following seven weeks until having to travel to Minneapolis to participate in Super Bowl LII.

So stress out all you want about the schedule, but the glass-half-full perspective shows that there is nothing goofy about the schedule-making - no conspiracies, no hanky-panky.  And the fact that they play five prime time contests and also play in two late-afternoon games scheduled for National Broadcasts means that Patriots' fans around the globe will be sure to catch nearly half of their schedule by doing nothing more than picking up their remote and clicking a couple of buttons.

Thursday, September 7 (8:30pm)
Kansas City Chiefs at New England Patriots
Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts

Raising the banner is always a special occasion, but the Patriots need to figure out where to put the sucker, as they have run out of room adjacent to the scoreboard.  But, alas, they will figure it out - and also get the opportunity to face a dangerous Chiefs' squad that won the tough AFC West last season before being scalped by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Divisional round of the playoffs.

On the surface, the Chiefs did very little to improve upon last season, re-signing a couple of core players and signing TE Gavin Escobar while giving the ax to RB Jamal Charles - so don't look for them to improve much over their 20th ranked offense and 24th ranked defense.

Sunday, September 17 (1:00pm)
New England Patriots at New Orleans Saints
The Superdome, New Orleans. Louisiana

An early test for the Patriots' defense, as the Saints finished first in total offense in 2016 - but lost a playmaker when they traded WR Brandin Cooks to New England.  The Saints still have Drew Brees chucking the ball about and they signed former Panther Ted Ginn to try and replace Cooks' speed on the outside.

They still sport a terrible defense (27th overall, 31st in scoring defense), so the first round pick they got from New England in the Cooks trade will probably go toward shoring up their secondary, which ranked dead last in the NFL.

Sunday, September 24 (1:00pm)
Houston Texans at New England Patriots
Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts

The Texans have a great defense - tops in the NFL last season - and they have plenty of receiving weapons on offense, but no one to get the ball to them.  Unless Houston takes a quarterback in the draft, it will be third-year man Tom Savage pulling the trigger in the passing game.  Savage will have a top ten running game to keep the heat down to a minimum, but that might not be enough for them to repeat as the "Default" champions of a horrible AFC South...but then again, the division is so bad, it just might.

Sunday, October 1 (1:00pm)
Carolina Panthers at New England Patriots
Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts

The Super Bowl that should have been in 2015, but the Panthers were a just a shadow of themselves in 2016 - but a play here or a play there and a little luck, and it would have been them winning the NFC South instead of the Atlanta Falcons.

The Panthers lost seven games by less than three points, and still finished with six wins.  Fighting through injuries, they were able to hold things together, and now they have almost all of their weapons returning healthy.  Don't let the Panthers' record fool you, they were nowhere near as bad as their record indicated.

Thursday, October 5 (8:25pm)
New England Patriots at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Florida

Scary team on the rise.  The Bucs tripped over themselves coming out of the gate in 2016, losing five of their first eight, four of those losses dropping close decisions to eventual playoff teams, then went 6-2 down the stretch to make a valiant run at the post-season, but coming up just short, beating the likes of Kansas City, Seattle and Atlanta in the process.

Sunday, October 15 (1:00pm)
New England Patriots at New York Jets
MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey

Sunday, December 31 (1:00pm)
New York Jets at New England Patriots
Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts

The Jets come into this season is full rebuilding mode, and with a coach who is squarely on the hot seat.  A team with nothing to lose - especially a hated division rival - is a very dangerous team.  Unfortunately for the Jets, they come into the season without a quarterback of any note, offensive and defensive lines in disarray and zero weapons.  Tough go for the Jets.

Sunday, October 22 (8:30pm)
Atlanta Falcons at New England Patriots
Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts

How motivated are the Falcons going to be to cone into Foxborough and give the Patriots a taste of the whip?  This game is the crown jewel of the NFL's first half and a chance for the Falcons to gain some measure of respect after having their hearts ripped out of their chests in the Super Bowl.

Problem is, Atlanta will be fielding a team that is essentially the same as it was in February, a team that gave New England all they could handle and then some, but eventually wore down and blew a 25 point lead.  We all know the story, now the Falcons want some payback.

Sunday, October 29 (1:00pm)
Los Angeles Chargers at New England Patriots
Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts

The second of tow consecutive home games to finish up the first half of the season heading into their bye, the Patriots should have a decided advantage over the helter-skelter Chargers - but this team should not be taken lightly.

Playing in the toughest division in all of football, the Chargers went 1-5 in the division, but taking the Chiefs into overtime and playing the Raiders tough before dropping heartbreakers, and splitting their series with the Denver Broncos - in between beating good teams from Atlanta, Tennessee and Houston.  The Chargers have inherent talent, but not the the intestinal fortitude to finish off an opponent.  We'll see if that improves with a new coaching staff.

Sunday, November 12 (8:30pm)
New England Patriots at Denver Broncos
Sports Authority Field at Mile High, Denver, Colorado

The Broncos may all well be the Patriots' division rivals, having played each other at least once a year since the 2011 season, New England going 6-3 against the Broncos in nine tries in that time span - with two of their losses coming in conference championship games played at Denver.

So no one has to remind Patriots' fans of the consequence of playing the Broncos.  They have a great defense and plenty of weapons on offense, but their quarterback situation took a step back last season after they let Brock Osweiller leave in free agency, as he had already proven that his skill set was a good match for what Denver liked to do with the football.  But altitude aside, the Broncos are always a tough matchup.

Sunday, November 19 (4:25pm)
New England Patriots vs. Oakland Raiders
Azteca Stadium, Mexico City, Mexico

Denver may be known as the Mile High City, but Mexico City has them beat by a full third of a mile. Playing the Broncos in Denver the previous week will act as an impromptu hyperbaric chamber for the Patriots, allowing them to acclimate to being a mile above sea level in advance of traveling to Mexico City, which one can reasonably expect to happen immediately after their Sunday night gig in Denver.

The Raiders are as high-powered on offense as any team the Patriots will play all season, though their defense leaves them scratching and clawing to score enough points to win.  The Raiders bitch-kitty is their run defense, and the Patriots have four excellent running backs to rotate in and out to keep their running game fresh...

Sunday, November 26 (1:00pm)
Miami Dolphins at New England Patriots
Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts

Monday, December 11 (8:30pm)
New England Patriots at Miami Dolphins
Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida

The Dolphins are always a tough draw, and the fact that they play each other twice in a span of three weeks doesn't make that any easier for either team.  Miami may have made the playoffs last year, but did so ranked in the bottom third of the NFL on both sides of the ball.  The difference between the Dolphins and most other teams on the Patriots' schedule, however, is that they have the stones to finish tight games.

Many will remember their comeback and near upset of New England in Foxborough early last season when the Dolphins scored 21 unanswered points to close within a touchdown of the Patriots, and were threatening to tie the game up with seconds to play until safety Duron Harmon picked off quarterback Ryan Tannehill in the end zone to salvage the win.

One can expect the same effort from Miami this time around as well, as the current staff seems to have the team headed in the right direction.

Sunday, December 3 (1:00pm)
New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills
Ralph Wilson Stadium, Orchard Park, New York

Sunday, December 24 (1:00pm)
Buffalo Bills at New England Patriots
Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts

This is another instance when the Patriots have to play a division rival twice in a short period of time.  The first was when the Patriots and Dolphins combined to make a Buffalo sandwich in between their contests, and now the Patriots have to play the Bills twice in four weeks, with the Dolphins and Steelers on the docket in between.

The Bills have plenty of talent on offense and play an explosive brand of football, though most of the explosion comes from their dynamic running game, but in contrast, the Bills defense can't stop the opposition's running game to save their lives.  Their saving grace had been their secondary, that is until New England lured cornerback Stephon Gilmore away.

With all of the speed Buffalo has in their receiving corps, they just don't make enough plays in the passing game to keep opposing defenses honest, averaging a mere 190 passing yards per game in 2016.  But a new regime is taking over in Buffalo and, of course, when it comes to playing the champs, every team has a little more motivation.

Patriots' Defense Elite; History, Philosophies Confirm

Todd Bowles said it wasn't about effort. Brandon Marshall said the loss was embarrassing. Sheldon Richardson said it was about effort and that Marshall should look in the mirror when talking about embarrassing.

Is it any wonder the New England Patriots blew the New York Jets right out of Gillette Stadium on Saturday afternoon?

The in-fighting in the Jets' locker room is nothing new, but a disappointing season in which New York has been a sideshow in the AFC East is a rich environment for discontent and even malcontents, and the Jets are going to have to figure out who is who on their team going forward - but that doesn't have anything to do with the Patriots.

Defensive end Trey Flowers (m) and Chris Long (r) lead a ferocious pass rush

The 41-3 shellacking that New England laid on the Jets in Foxborough is a lesson to all of those who still wonder, after all of these years, what makes the Patriots not just successful, but in the conversation for the Super Bowl every single year. It's not because they have had a franchise quarterback playing in the same system under the same head coach for the past 16 years...

....and it's not because they play in a pitiful division that has offered up only only token participation in the tournament, with the Jets making the post-season six times with 6 different coaches in that same span, next week's foe Miami has been just twice with six different head coaches and division doormat Buffalo hasn't been to the playoffs at all, and have had seven head coaches in Bill Belichick's tenure.

It's because of their unwavering dedication to their philosophies.

Now, this doesn't mean, for instance, that Tom Brady is a system quarterback, it just means that he's a quarterback who has been fortunate enough to work for an organization that values consistency.  It also means that he is the perfect quarterback to deal with Belichick's constant reinventing of his team each week, a process that sees him prepare every single player for one job on any given Sunday.

One job.  Maybe two, but that's it.  Belichick preaches "do your job", and he gives each player one or two specific tasks, and all he wants is for you to do the job you've been assigned and rely on the game plan to glue all of the pieces together. It sounds robotic, and sometimes it is, but you really can't argue with the results.

That's why as a fan, we shouldn't buy into the naysayers who will argue that while the offense has faced some stout defensive units - half of their opponents came into games with Top 10 defenses - the defense hasn't faced top offenses at all in 2016, and that their stats and status are inflated.

But here's the thing and there's no getting around it, they have done the things that they needed to do, and the competition is merely reduced to that week's game plan - and the result of last Saturday afternoon is a direct result of that philosophy.

Of course, you'd have to be crazy on acid to think that the talent level on the other side of the ball doesn't feed into the equation - and it certainly does - but it is also taken into consideration on the game planning level, which every week seeks to neutralize any perceived advantage that the bad guys hold, but for the most part the Patriots follow a defined template that prioritizes threats.

And every single week, the top priority is stopping the opponent's running game.

The 100 yard barrier is the accepted line between success and failure when it comes to stopping the opposition's ground attack, and New England's defense has risen to the occasion nine times in fifteen games this season with five of those instances in the last six games - allowing only the run-heavy Jets to accumulate over a hundred yards...

...simply because the Jets' passing game was pedestrian at best, two quarterbacks combining for a dismal 8 of 24 for 136 yards, three of their two dozen misses finding Patriots' defensive backs instead of New York receivers - lending credence to the notions that as stingy as the New England run defense has been, their pass coverages have been even more miserly.

Mostly due to the Patriots' game plan's second priority, which is to keep the opposing quarterback from stretching the field with long pass plays, happily giving up completions short of the sticks and letting their sure tackling pass defenders make plays to keep the opposing receivers from reaching the marker.

It has been an amazingly effective tactic, especially of late. For the season, the Patriots defense ranks seventh in the league in opposing quarterback rating at a respectable 83.8, but since the bye, that rating has dipped into elite numbers, their 66.8 quarterback rating allowed leading all of football in that time span.

In fact, let's drill down into Belichick's philosophy a little deeper. He has always said that he builds his teams throughout the season to ensure that they are playing their best football after Thanksgiving - and with that holiday being the line in the sand, we can see that the 2016 Patriots have taken Belichick's philosophy to the next level.

In the five contests since Thanksgiving, the Patriots defense is yielding just 62 rushing yards per game, the third best mark in football behind only the Texans and Rams (compared to 89.4 for the season), 216 yards passing (240 ypg for the season), 14 first downs per game, which is tops in the league (18 per game for the season) and have forced 12 turnovers, tops in the NFL for the time frame...

...so it is fair to say that the Patriots are playing at a level that transcends the negative thought processes, and that they will only improve going forward, as they have made themselves the victim of their own attrition, ridding themselves of "freelancing" linebacker Jamie Collins just before Thanksgiving, leaving first year Patriots to soothe the transition.

Thanks to recent pick up Kyle Van Noy, the integration of fellow linebacker Shea McClellin, and the emergence of second-year defensive end Trey Flowers as a pass rushing force, the Patriots' are reaching their sweet spot at just the proper time and are poised to make a run to a fifth trophy, with only three teams standing in their way - those being their two opponents in the AFC playoffs and whomever they meet in the Super Bowl.

In the AFC playoffs - assuming that New England does qualify as the top seed - of the other five teams in the field, those being Oakland, Pittsburgh, Houston, Miami and Kansas City - two will be eliminated by the time New England laces up for the divisional round in mid-January, with a wide open field now that the Raiders have lost their starting quarterback.

Until that point, the Raiders and New England seemed to be on a collision course in the AFC Championship game, the only question whether that game would be played in Oakland or in Foxborough.  But now, with all due respect to the Raiders' organization, the odds of that matchup happening appear bleak - at least in Oakland, anyway - with the Raiders poised to host the winner of a likely Pittsburgh / Miami wild card game...

...while New England hosts the winner of a Houston / Kansas City wild card tilt.  Of course, all of this is speculation until the last whistle of the regular season, but it seems likely that the road to the Super Bowl runs right through Gillette Stadium, where the Patriots have a defense playing at its peak at just the right time.

Patriots' Defense In Flux? Return To Big Nickel Proving Fortuitous

Quick, can you name the team that has a defense that during NFL action on Sunday allowed less than 300 yards in total offense, collected five sacks, forced five fumbles, held their opponent to five of fourteen in third down conversions and forced eight punts, including five three-and-outs?

Surely, you say, not the New England Patriots?

Any team facing the San Francisco 49ers would be expected to limit their anemic passing game, while struggling against their top five running game, and every team has.  One would expect that any team facing the 49ers would beat them handily, and nine of the ten teams they've faced in 2016 have  done just that.

The New England Patriots defense held the status quo in their 30-17 victory over San Francisco at Levi's Stadium on a soggy Sunday afternoon in the bay area, but also holding the 49er's to their second lowest scoring output of the season, only a last-ditch, desperation, garbage time touchdown keeping the 'Niners from establishing a new low water mark for offensive ineptitude.

But that is expected of the Patriots, to the point where their fans sometimes forget that the guys on the other side of the ball are professional football players as well, and are going to make plays.

That said and true, the rhetorical question that emerges in regard to the Patriots' defense is a three-part query: First, why do they look so confused at times and, secondly, was trading off linebacker Jamie Collins the talisman for the aforementioned look of confusion?

The third question is perhaps the the most poignant of all, that being, have our expectations as fans clouded our vision?

All of us bought into the preseason banter that the Patriots sported a top ten defense to compliment a juggernaut offense, and there was really no one that could beat them except themselves, which they did against the Seattle Seahawks last week by the offense turning the ball over twice to the at-the-time sixth-ranked Seahawks' passing game...

...and by shying away from the Big Nickel defensive alignment, a move that many decried as being a harbinger of things to come, when in reality the sloppiness can be attributed to different looks in an attempt to ascertain where the linebacker coverage skill sets lie in a real-world setting in order to make up for the loss of Collins.

They figured to have an easier time of it on Sunday - and they did - but as is often the case against teams with mobile quarterbacks and well developed passing backs, the Patriots struggled at times, because when a mobile quarterback escapes the pocket, more often than not he's looking for his hot read, which is almost always a back or a tight end.

The key to keep this from happening is for the defensive ends and outside linebackers to set the hard edge and funnel everything back to wards the center of the field, where bigger bodies await - but if the quarterback does escape and gets to the edge, the corners, safeties and linebackers have already been in coverage for four-to-five seconds, an eternity in pass coverage.

That's where the Big Nickel (three safety) alignment comes in so importantly,  as it gives the team a better chance to both set the edge and to get on top of backs and tight end in the pattern - the keys, of course, being that strong safety Patrick Chung reduces down to become, essentially, a weak side linebacker.  Chung, despite being undersized in the box at 5' 11" and 215 pounds, is one of the premier tacklers in the league and can set a hard edge by being faster to the spot than the offensive linemen.

That skill was on full display against San Francisco, and didn't escape the attention of head ball coach Bill Belichick.

"When you are coming out of space like that, you can't let the quarterback get outside when they are as athletic as Kaepernick or Tyrod Taylor." Belichick said after the game, adding, "It's a tough open field tackle, Chung is one of our best tacklers, he's got to be one of the best tacklers in the league whether he's in line or in space or whoever he's tackling."

Collins "free-lanced" his way out of New England by abandoning the edge and allowing too many plays to get outside of him, and the film on Jabaal Sheard the past few games suggests the same tendency, which is most likely why he didn't make the trip to San Francisco - so the Patriots made due at Levi's Stadium with greybeards Rob Ninkovich and Chris Long responsible for the edges...

...and the results were mixed as 49ers' quarterback Colin Kaepernick still managed to pick up his hot read on a few occasions - though not nearly the debacle New England suffered at the hands of the Seahawks - and Kaepernick managed to pick up a couple of first downs by scrambling up the middle.

So it's safe to say that the Patriots' defense is a work in progress, but when hasn't it been?

"When you get into the season we know things change - personnel, scheme, whatever the case may be." Defensive Coordinator Matt Patricia offered up on Tuesday. "That's where we go in and try to adjust. You don't get too high, you don't get too low and you try to stay consistent."

Not much has been made of the timing of the Collins move - other than fans loudly wondering why the Patriots would trade away a premiere defensive talent in the middle of what was supposed to be a Super Bowl run - but coming off of the bye and facing two non-conference opponents in a row gives us a clue.

The non-conference record is far down the list on tie-breakers to determine conference seeding, so a loss isn't as devastating as an in-conference or in-division loss would be, so never would there have been a better time to get some game film on pieces like Shea McClellin, Barkevious Mingo or newcomer Kyle Van Noy than having two consecutive games against the NFC West - and both games against mobile quarterbacks who are dangerous in space.

None of the aforementioned players have had a large presence on the defense thus far - though all have seen significant time on special teams - but we have seen them with more of a role on the second level the past two games, and that should continue on a part-time basis.

Part-time, because there is not a team in the league that can run the Big Nickel like the Patriots can, and with the post-Thanksgiving stretch filled with danger - three divisional games and contests against the always tough Ravens and Broncos - fans should expect to see the New England defense back to their normal bend-but-don't-break philosophy.

Next up: The New York Jets, who have had a tough time scoring points and have one of the worst passing games in the NFL, but who rely heavily on their short passing game to - you guessed it - their running backs.  The Jets have had less than a 50% success rate at getting the ball to their downfield receivers, one of the worst rates in the NFL, so the onus will be on the Big Nickel to shorten the field and keep the backs in check.

Belichick's Logic Sound; Accusations Of Throwing Game Senseless

Lost in the controversy surrounding the end of the New England Patriots' overtime loss to the New York Jets - either real or contrived from the minds of paranoid conspiracy theorists - is the fact that the Patriots almost pulled that game out despite the tremendous amount of adversity loaded on the shoulders of the players.

Any other team would have mailed it in and used the injury issues as an excuse.

Yet, despite getting only 13 points from an offense that was plagued with an aversion to the yardage marker- as going just one for ten on third down conversions will attest - the Patriots forced their showdown with the Jets into overtime with a clutch drive when it mattered the most, converting two fourth down conversions along the way...

...after riding the defense for the entire game, a defense that had held the Jets' offense to one field goal and 81 yards for the final twenty minutes of regulation while scoring a touchdown themselves on a Jabaal Sheard strip sack and Jamie Collins recovery and return - forcing two three-and-outs and three punts overall in the fourth quarter.

The hot hand was most assuredly with the defense, so when overtime called and the Patriots had won the coin toss, head ball coach Bill Belichick elected to kick the ball away to the Jets to start overtime and trust his defense that had dominated the Jets in the second half to force the Jets to punt and, hopefully, flip the field position to give Brady and the offense a short field to work with to get into kicker Stephen Gostkowski's considerable field goal range.

Instead, the Jets drove down the field, going 80 yards in five plays to score the winning touchdown in a 26-20 fist fight that gave New York new life in their pursuit of the post-season while denying the Patriots an opportunity to secure homefiled advantage throughout the playoffs.

In truth, even though the Patriots defense had been dominating the Jets in the second half, the secondary had been living dangerously all game, lucking out on several throws down the field that the New York receivers either couldn't quite get a handle on, or that Jets' quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick had just plain overthrown...

...but the key play in the winning drive was a result of reserve safety Tavon Wilson being rubbed into cornerback Leonard Johnson, taking him out at the knees and allowing a short pass in the left flat to receiver Quincy Enunwa to go for 48 yards, opening up a chain reaction that saw the Jets score a walk-off touchdown two plays later.

New York made the overtime drive look so effortless that many in the media and in the fan bases of several teams wondered aloud if Belichick called off the dogs and let the Jets win in order to to drive a stake into the hearts of the Pittsburgh Steelers, whose loss to the Baltimore Ravens just moments earlier severely crippled their playoff hopes.

But, why would Belichick even conjure such a thing?

Some are speculating that Belichick saw a perfect storm that would keep his team from having to deal with the offensive juggernaut of the Steelers, delivering a double whammy that gave the Jets a leg up in the race for the final playoff spot in the AFC, but there are a couple of holes in that conspiracy theory.

First, Belichick is already regarded around the league as a "Cheater", with unfortunate monikers like "Belicheat" attached to his legacy, so in accordance with maintaining public perception he needs to do his thing cleaner and better than the other guy - so a blatant episode of fixing the outcome of a game - something that could and should be considered outright cheating - would not be a prudent choice, as not even the arrogant Dark Master has the stones to pull off something so obvious.

Secondly, a loss to the Jets compounds an already fluid injury situation, as now instead of being able to rest his core players in what would have been a meaningless game against the Dolphins on Sunday, he is forced to expose them to injury if he wants his team to have homefield advantage for the AFC playoffs.

That can not be overstated, because if the Patriots had been able to win on Sunday, It is likely that after about a quarter of work in Miami this coming Sunday for Brady, it would have been the Jimmy G. show, the second year heartthrob (come on, ladies, you know it's true) running for his life behind a makeshift offensive line while the defense would have seen names like Ebner, Wilson and Bostic starting and picking up a few stats...

...while the more injured of the starters would have had a full three weeks to lick their wounds before the Patriots take the field in the divisional round of the playoffs - and with modern medicine being what it is, three weeks is enough time to heal everyone on the active roster and make them available for another Super Bowl run.

Lastly, why in the name of Woody Johnson would Belichick want to take the chance of having to face the Jets for a third time? The last time these two teams hooked up in the post-season, it didn't turn out very well for New England, and since they are natural rivals the games are usually too close for comfort.

The Steelers screwed themselves by losing to the Ravens, with Ryan Mallet (of all people) at quarterback. If Pittsburgh and their funky cold head coach Mike Tomlin don't make the playoffs, well, that's on them. The Jets beat the Patriots because they executed when it counted, and it was legit.

Or at least as legit as it could be given the Patriots' injury situation, which grows exponentially every week and has left New England's offense a shell of itself - and even though the team follows the mantra that they don't use injury as an excuse for losing or for poor play, you'd have to be crazy on acid not to recognize what the injuries have done to this team.

But this loss to the Jets was exactly because of injury and poor play, and even though the Jets played just as poorly as New England, in the end they had just enough to pull out the win.

Regardless of Fitzgerald's struggles with finding open receivers downfield, he pretty much had his way with New England's defense for a little more than one half of play, going 15 of 23 for 155 yards and two touchdowns during that time frame while building a 17-3 lead, much of that yardage and both scores going to enigmatic receiver Brandon Marshall, who consistently abused Patriots' cornerback Logan Ryan...

...while the powerful New York running game hammered the Patriots' front seven - the healthiest unit on the entire team - for 97 yards on just 17 carries, much of it right into the teeth of the Patriots' usually stout run defense, but then gained only 46 yards on 10 carries the rest of the way - and while giving up 4.6 yards per carry down the stretch isn't something for the Patriots to hang their hats on, it's certainly better than the 5.7 yards per carry average they surrendered before that point.

By contrast, New England's offense picked up a measly 113 yards in the first half as Brady took an epic Steve Grogan-like beating every time he dropped back to pass, completing 8 of 10 for 67 yards while his running game accounted for 46 yards on 12 carries, which isn't bad until one stops to consider that 15 of those yards came on two Brandon Bolden carries as New England curiously ran out the last two minutes of the half in a conservative manner.

At least running out the clock with two minutes and two time outs remaining seemed curious at the time, until the struggles by both units combined with the fact that the possession started deep in New England territory are taken into account, as well as the fact that the Patriots' defense had been on the field for 19 minutes in the half and had just given up a touchdown on a 13 play, seven minute drive, and were collectively exhausted.

So Belichick decided, correctly, that had he turned Brady loose to go downfield with the ball and they failed to pick up a first down, the defense would have been back out on the field, exhausted and demoralized, the odds favoring them giving up more points to the hot Jets' offense...

...which happened on the first drive of the second half anyway - but then the Patriots' defense suddenly found life and stiffened, holding New York to just three points the rest of the half and scoring the touchdown that got New England right back in a game that they had no business being in.

But in it they were, and the only real question I have for Belichick is why, instead of playing for overtime, he didn't call for a two-point conversion after Brady's clutch drive, riding the hot hand to give the Patriots the lead and relying on his defense to hold a lead with 1:55 left in the game.

Caution should be exercised when attempting to explain anything that Bill Belichick does, however, and far be it for any Patriots' fan to question his logic, unconventional as it may have been, as the Dark Master has been right far more times than he's been wrong, and to accuse the man of throwing a game to gain a competitive advantage in the playoffs is as paranoid as it gets.

To Rest Or Not To Rest? Patriots Have Decisions To Make in Advance Of Playoffs

To rest or not to rest, that is the question.

Besides armature bloggers plagiarizing the works of famous 17th century poets, there remains a modern day question of whether the talisman of football masterpieces - the great Bill Belichick - has any designs on resting his starters and injured players in the final two weeks of the regular season, having already secured at least the second seed in the American Football Conference.

Of course, having the second seed in the conference assures the Patriots of a first round bye, meaning that they do not participate in the Wild Card round of the playoffs, but will be watching intently as they are guaranteed to host the highest remaining seed surviving the initial knock-out round - a fairly lofty achievement given their injuries this season, but certainly not the pinnacle of conference play...

...that would be securing the top seed, and with it a first round bye, a guaranteed hosting of the lowest remaining seed from Wild Card weekend and homefield advantage in the AFC Championship game, should they prevail in the Divisional round.

Obviously, having the top seed in the conference is important, but it isn't essential for winning out and making it to the Super Bowl, as the following chronology will attest:

2001 - 2nd seed, beat Oakland in Divisional round and Pittsburgh in the AFC Title game, then beat St. Louis in the Super Bowl

2003 - 1st seed, beat Tennessee in Divisional round, beat Indianapolis in AFC Title game, then beat Carolina in the Super Bowl

2004 - 2nd seed, beat Indianapolis in Divisional round, beat Pittsburgh in AFC Title game, then beat Philadelphia in the Super Bowl

2005 - 4th seed, beat Jacksonville in Wild Card round, lost to Denver in Divisional round

2006 - 4th seed, beat NY Jets in Wild Card round, beat San Diego Chargers in Divisional round, lost to Indianapolis in AFC Title game

2007 - 1st seed, beat Jacksonville in Divisional round, beat San Diego in AFC Title game, lost to NY Giants in Super Bowl

2009 - 3rd seed, lost to Baltimore in Wild Card round

2010 - 1st seed, lost to NY Jets in Wild Card round

2011 - 1st seed, beat Denver in Divisional round, beat Baltimore in AFC Title game, lost to NY Giants in Super Bowl

2012 - 2nd seed, beat Houston in Divisional round, lost to Baltimore in AFC Title game

2013 - 2nd seed, beat Indianapolis in divisional round, lost to Denver in AFC Title game

2014 - 1st seed, beat Baltimore in Divisional round, beat Indianapolis in AFC Title Game, beat Seattle in Super Bowl

For those keeping score, as the first seed under Belichick, the Patriots have advanced to the Super Bowl four times and falling short just once, while as the second seed they are 2-2, and any thing lower than that, they are 0-3 - so as far as the difference between gaining the first seed instead of settling for the second seed, there really isn't that much of a difference, historically.

The Patriots need only to win one of their last two games to secure the top seed in the conference, but would also gain as much with one Cincinnati Bengals' loss in their final two games. There is no combination of wins and losses to be had - and it's pretty well cut and dried. New England has road trips to New York to play the Jets on Sunday, then to Miami to take on the Dolphins next Sunday...

...while the Bengals must travel to Denver for a Monday night affair, but then get to return home to host the lowly Baltimore Ravens to finish out their season. With health, the Bengals have enough to win both of their final two games - but their top quarterback, Andy Dalton, is out for the rest of the regular season with a fractured thumb.

Problem is, both teams they are facing have back up quarterbacks playing as well, Brock Osweiler for the Broncos and Matt Schaub for the Ravens. The Broncos have played well defensively but are finding things difficult in the scoring department on offense, while the Ravens are train wreck on both sides of the ball.

So, it is no guarantee that either team will be able to beat the Bengals, even with A.J. McCarron holding down the fort until Dalton returns for the post-season, so it is most prudent for the Patriots to concentrate on their own business and not allow chance to dictate their destiny - that is, if they even care about their seeding at all.

And that's the real question here: the Patriots have suffered through a record-shattering string of games lost to injury this season, at one point depleting the potency of the offense to where their struggles were not enough to overcome poor special teams play, so that we're looking at a team that is currently 12-2 instead of being undefeated...

...a truly remarkable accomplishment considering the aforementioned injury woes, but with a solid defense that has achieved elite status, New England is in position to control their own destiny.

The best scenario for the Patriots would be to beat the Jets on Sunday to clinch the conference's top seed, then piece together a skeleton crew for the game at Miami, which would have no bearing on anything at all. That would essentially give Belichick's charges a full three weeks to lick their wounds and to fuel up the juggernaut for a Super Bowl run to defend their title.

On the flip-side, however, is the scenario in which the Patriots just go ahead and minimize the snap counts of the starters against the Jets and letting their fortunes rest on back ups, then wait and see what happens between the Bengals and Broncos on Monday night before deciding how to proceed against the Dolphins next Sunday - as it may turn out that resting starters against the Jets could give the Patriots' injured nearly a full calendar month to regain health, should Denver prevail over Cincinnati.

That is, of course, if Belichick even cares about securing the top seed in the conference - because right now his team is sitting pretty with the second seed, while everyone else is scrambling to either improve their seeding, or to even make the playoffs at all - and one of those teams, the Broncos, could actually miss the playoffs if they lose one more game.

So with so much riding on Monday night's game against the Bengals for the Broncos, perhaps it is in Belichick's best interest to take a wait-and-see approach to the top seed, then plan for Miami accordingly.