48 lines on 24 NFL issues
9. Look, the Patriots can certainly win with the wide receivers and offensive weaponry they have. They play the most evolved style of NFL football ever morphing week-to-week, play-to-play even huddle to line of scrimmage.
10. Anyone worried about the offense not being good enough needs a hot bath, a cold shower and something else to do with their Sundays. That person has no idea what he/she is looking at.
11. HOWEVER! Unless their opponents are complicit in beating themselves offensively as the Cowboys, Jets and Chargers all were in not attacking the Patriots' secondary, the offense needs to continue scoring in the 30s.
12. And the offense will have a harder time doing that with the success other teams have had playing press, man-to-man, reducing the efficiency of Wes Welker (12 catches, 84 yards the past two games) and Rob Gronkowski. A field-stretcher that terrifies corners and safeties (like the Steelers' Mike Wallace) would alter the pressure defense.
13. To me, the barrier between getting to Indy in February comes down to this: either get better at stopping offenses or make your offense even harder to stop. Improving the offense seems a quicker fix than improving the defense.
14. So I'll say it. Moss.
15. What's the Patriots' greatest drafting blind spot? Is it wide receiver, linebacker, safety or corner?
16. The notion that the Patriots should hire a GM to take the personnel duties off of Bill Belichick's full plate may seem intriguing at first thought. But then give it a second one.
17. Will that GM have say over Belichick? Will that GM come from outside the organization?
18. Think Belichick is going to sign off on answering to someone at this juncture no matter how many high-draft picks have gone bellyup and free agent signings have gone bust? Me neither.
19. But if someone else in some other town had fanned on almost the entire 2006 draft, the entire 2007 draft, top-50 picks in '08 and '09, Adalius Thomas, Shawn Springs, Derrick Burgess, Tully Banta-Cain, Leigh Bodden, Chad Ochonono, Shaun Ellis and Albert Haynesworth? Right, that guy would be sitting next to Eric Mangini and Herm Edwards in Bristol.
20. And current personnel overseer Nick Caserio does absolutely nothing to inspire an iota of confidence that he's going to change Belichick's mind about anything ever. He may be smart, he may be well-spoken but I want to see if there's a string on his back that you pull and programmed Belichick-speak just pours out of his head.
21. Antwaun Molden was the scaredest guy in America this Halloween. On that blitz where Patrick Chung came from the safety spot, Molden sprinted 20 yards downfield because he had no over-the-top help on Mike Wallace who caught a WR screen and gained 12.