Off The Grid

0% Disrespect for my Fellow Patriots Fanatics who're in various stages of Mourning:

Each one of us must work through our Rage and Sorrow in our own way...

But for me, the best cure for a Super Bowl Hangover is to wake up the next morning and immediately get to work on the next Super Bowl...even if it's only in my own mind.

I CAN Handle the Truth!!

Avoid footage of Super Bowl 46...or Super Bowl 42??

Hell, no.

In fact...There is no game that interests me more than Super Bowl 46.

Why??

Because, in the words of Brother Brandon Spikes: "I never want to feel like this, again."

What Is Our TRUE Objective??

I couldn't care less about going 13-3.

I care only about building a team that wins in the Dead of Winter.

I care only about building a team that should expect to beat teams like the Ravens...and the Giants.

How Do We Make This Happen??

We need to run the #$%&ing ball, gentlemen.

Break it down:

~ We need to develop an O Line that can exert its Will upon any team in the World.

~ We need Running Backs who can consistently exploit that advantage.

~ And we need our leadership to finally remember how critical it is to do so.

That's my take from the Super Bowl...not that I haven't been screaming this for the last 5 years.

Other Issues

I like the direction our Defense is headed in.

And I pray we bring in Impact Players, for the D Line in particular.

OutSide Receivers?? Sounds good to me. Spread the enemy out.

By all means.

The Ultimate Goal

But, above all, I want to feel like we can impose our Will on the enemy...Like we did in 2001, 2003, and especially in 2004, in that beautifull Divisional PlayOffs domination of the Colts, when we slowly, incrementally, and relentlessly drove down the field, 4 or 5 yards at a time, CONSUMED the Clock, rested our Defense, and slowly, incrementally, and relentlessly...KILLED them.

Paradise Lost: When The Patriots Lost Their Way

That was before we became Air Brady in 2007.

Frankly ~ as intensely as I hate to say it ~ we haven't been the same, since.

And yet the wailing that it's "a Passing League" continues.

Morlocks Versus Eloi ~ A Retrospective

2000 ~ Morlocks (Ravens) win with Ball Control + Sweet, Ugly Defense.
2001 ~ Morlocks (Patriots) win with Ball Control + Sweet, Ugly Defense.
2002 ~ Morlocks (Pirates) win with Ball Control + Sweet, Ugly Defense.
2003 ~ Morlocks (Patriots) win with Ball Control + Sweet, Ugly Defense.

~ The Rules Change, Courtesy of Bill Polian, former King of the Eloi ~

2004 ~ Morlocks (Patriots) win with Ball Control + Sweet, Ugly Defense.
2005 ~ Morlocks (Steelers) win with Ball Control + Sweet, Ugly Defense.
2006 ~ Morlock Bob Sanders gets healthy for 4 consecutive weeks.
2007 ~ Morlocks (Giants) win with Ball Control + Sweet, Ugly Defense.
2008 ~ Morlocks (Steelers) win with Ball Control + Sweet, Ugly Defense.
2009 ~ Eloi (Saints) hire Morlock Greg Williams, discover Defense, and win.
2010 ~ Eloi (Packers) hire Morlock Dom Capers, discover Defense, and win.
2011 ~ Morlocks (Giants) win with Ball Control + Sweet, Ugly Defense.

***

I don't know about y'all, but I count:

~ 8 Super Bowl Victories by MORLOCKS.
~ 3 Super Bowl Victories by teams that never made it until they learned to SPEAK "Morlock".
~ 0 ~ ZERO ~ Super Bowl Victories by ELOI.

This Year??

The Packers...

The Saints...

And, yes: The Patriots ~ who ran on less than 1/3 of our plays that day ~ went DOWN.

So much for the "Passing League".


The Road Back to Valhalla: Paradise ReGained!!

You are what you eat, I guess.

We feasted on Eloi for so freaking long that we BECAME Eloi.

That does not please me.

But it's not too late to get our Morlock back on.

RUN...THE...DAMNED...BALL.

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Snake Eyes

Amen, Brother!

For a while I've been championing the idea of getting a REAL Fullback for this exact reason. I was hoping Vereen would become our main back and that we'd get serious about running, I wish that would happen.

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"The secret of steel has always carried with it a mystery, you must learn it's riddle, Conan, you must learn its discipline, for no one in this world can you trust, not men, not women, not beasts...this you can trust"


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olschool

Paradise Lost: When The Patriots Lost Their Way

I firmly believe that they lost their way when they let Dan Klecko go.

Wasn't it Bob Kraft who absolutely loved Klecko and his Patriots attitude ?

And to add insult to injury he scored a touchdown against us in the playoffs.

I'm entirely for the lunchbucket brigade, putting the feet back in football.

Unfortunately, as long as Brady puts up fantasy stats, we'll never see the running game where it should be, as 50% of a balanced offense.

And I don't think that Josh McDaniels, the architect of the 50 TD season, believes in it at all.

__________________
" We have to coach better "...Bill Belichick.
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makoute

Let the church say Amen. The Mantra of the Pats this off season should be, DEFENSE, AND RUN THE DAMN BALL!

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reflexblue

All Hail Brother Grid..Get away from being Brady centric, anyone player can be shut down. Go back to earlier years when TB was used more as a game manager, opposing Defenses are built around stopping Brady.

Climb into the 'Way Back Machine' and go back to the days of yester year when the Philosophy was Defense first, as opposed to what its become since the '06 AFCCG against the Colts. Yes, if Branch had been on that team we probably would have won. I think we were one catch away from holding on to the game. Manning and the Colts Offense came back and won the game, but the Pats D was sick all week with the flue, and Polian had the temp in the RCA dome jacked up making it worse. Anyways in IMHO you don't change what brought you success over that loss. Defense and ball control. Which is what happened just a couple of months later during the draft. It hasn't worked, the pats may win a lot of regular season games, but when it becomes crunch time TB and the passing offense gets grounded. So Please, PLEASE go back to Defense and ball control.

Off The Grid

PREACH it, Brothers!!

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reflexblue

Forgot to add that TB is pushing 35 years old, most athletes prime, or peak years are around 28-29. While i'm not saying he is over the hill, far from it, but that with age and the numbers of hits hes taken over the years he may not throw the deep ball as well as he use to. So i think its time to scale back, start to come full circle, take the pressure off him to win EVERY game, and thats whats it become over the last 6 or so years.

RhodyPatriot

Amen brother Off The Grid. Amen!!
As our soon to be 35 year old HOF QB is getting older we must lighten the load on his aging and all too often ailing shoulders.
This team needs to develop the ability and the WILL to ram the ball down the opponents throat with the ground game.
Unfortunately the biggest obstacle to achieving this necessary adjustment to the offense IS the HOF QB who has the HOF ego and wants to throw the ball on every down.
What they focus in on with free agency and the draft will tell us if there is good shot to win another Super Bowl.
If it's all about getting Tommy more toys for the passing game another championship ain't happenin' any time soon.

PATRIOTSFANINPA

I think most fans,including me would love to have a Corey Dillon again and play a Steelers type of Smashmouth offense but I don't think we have a Dillon type ..yet,perhaps the draft.

I think when it comes to Belichick and Mc Daniels there is an old saying,"you can't teach a old dog new tricks"

I think they are burying Brady year after year with the burden to win on his shoulders and there is coming a time VERY SOON when his age catches up and he can't do it anymore.

The time to start preparing for life after Brady and running the ball is going to become a very important issue within the next 2 years.

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Snake Eyes

An offence doesn’t need to be 50/50 in order to be “balanced”. The point is to maximize one’s effectiveness, obviously the offense becomes less effective if the defense has to defend less rather than more, so you need to keep them honest but that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to make yourself less effective (season-perspective, not game). The 09 Colts was a VERY pass heavy team and it worked for them, passing was their strength so they might have only needed to run 30% of the time to keep the defense honest, so I don’t think 50/50 split is necessary, just whatever numbers work to give you the best chance of winning.

That said, if we don’t run during the regular season how do we expect to get good at it so that we’ll be effective running in the post-season? Even though we might be able to get 9yds on pass play as opposed to 5yds on a running play, 5yds per play is plenty good enough, and it helps get your team better at running, which you need to do in the playoffs.

__________________
"The secret of steel has always carried with it a mystery, you must learn it's riddle, Conan, you must learn its discipline, for no one in this world can you trust, not men, not women, not beasts...this you can trust"


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