The Patriots are full of flaws...
...and so is your article.
This Patriots team really isn't very good.
If you say so.
This is the same team that had a 12.5-win total posted on it in Vegas this year. The one that was a 6.5-to-1 favorite to beat the Jets on Sunday. The Patriots nearly sealed that under and lost as one of the biggest favorites of the entire year.
Oh, they didn't cover, I get it. Oh well, losing a division game or not covering in one was devastating in previous years.
It's a problem that I wrote about last year.
Did you also write about how the team wasn't very good after 3 losses last year? After they lost to the Bills, for instance?
For whatever reason, the Patriots simply haven't been able to reliably draft and develop young talent on defense over the past five years.
Chandler Jones, Jerod Mayo, Rob Ninkovich, Jermaine Cunningham, D'onte Hightower, Kyle Love, Brandon Spikes -- remains to be seen --> Devin McCourty, Tavon Wilson, Alfonzo Dennard, Brandon Deadrick, Myron Pryor.
Have they had busts? Yes, many. But I count 12 players up above.
When you get down to it, none have panned out.
Devin McCourty and Tavon Wilson: BUSTS
Think about it: If the guys the Patriots are taking in the first and second rounds can't grasp the defense or play at an acceptable level, how likely is it that the players they took five rounds later will do much better?
Drafting is an exact science: think about it, if a QB picked in the first round can't play at an acceptable level, how likely is it that a 6th rounder will do much better?
And while that team had a pair of effective pass rushers in Andre Carter (until he got hurt) and Mark Anderson, this Patriots team really only has one impact rusher, rookie Chandler Jones.
Uh-huh. How is Mark Anderson doing now? Ninkovich is clutch and is 10x the player Anderson is. Jones and Ninkovich can set the edge too!
Forgot About Brady
Let's go back to the final play of that Jets-Patriots game, because it shouldn't have been the final play at all.
What the referees didn't call at the time, though (and couldn't overturn on review), was a personal-foul penalty that should have kept the game going. The initial contact with Sanchez is made by Jermaine Cunningham (no. 96), who falls down at the line of scrimmage in front of Sanchez and crawls at Sanchez before diving at his ankles and knocking him down.
Except Cunningham never crawled. Not at all. He was knocked down and pushed and landed at Sanchez's feet. He never crawled once. Barnwell is making stuff up.
Patriots fans will undoubtedly remember what I'm referring to: the Brady Rule.
Most Patriots fans are smart enough to realize the rule was instituted a year and a half prior to Pollard diving at Brady's knees. It was put in when Carson Palmer was taken out by the Steelers in the playoffs 2 seasons before.
But Cunningham is clearly no longer blocked when he crawls after Sanchez for several steps.
This writer's imagination is working overtime.
A lot of this is going around lately. This morning I heard people on WEEI say the Patriots were lucky not to lose to the Ravens in the playoffs last year because the kicker blew the game-winning kick.
