10 Things I Love About the Patriots So Far This Season...

[minvardar]

11. It seems like Junior is starting to stay home on those stretch and cut back runs, resulting in less big gainers on the ground.

12. Hawkins seems to be the real deal at safety.

Count me in as a Seau and Hawkins fan. I will even include Scott in there. Seau has helped enough to make the linebacking crew decent again. Hawkins has really helped out the secondary. Both he and Scott, while not spectacular, are the cagey veterans that can really help this team out and help to develop the younger players.

Great list!

 

[Mike the Brit]

Something I love about the Patriots EVERY season

There is one guy in charge.

He consults with others but he makes the decisions and no one, but no one -- not Tom Brady, not Mr Kraft, not some laundry room assistant -- second-guesses him in public.

Just look at the top stories on ProfootballTalk.com this morning!

1. T.O. says "why the f**k am I here?" The story is about the conflict between Parcells and Jerry Jones as to whether bringing T.O. to Dallas was a good idea.

2. Culpepper, Saban caught in a cat-fight. Relates the history of Culpepper running to the media.

3. Edge is getting upset. Edgerrin James complaining about not getting enough touches at the end of the Chiefs game.

4. Coles not happy with playing time. Speaks for itself.

What a circus!

To be fair, at least three of those coaches will give their players zero tolerance if they think that they can use the media to get their way (as ProfootballTalk makes clear).

But you have to love the way that it's clear from day one to all our players that that is not something that happens in New England. Furthermore, there's no coach-general manager split to exploit.

 

[Fencer]

My supplementary list: 1. Bruschi has 1 1/2 takeaways and generally seems to be very much back -- with further upside as his wrist heals. 2. Ty Warren is having a breakout year. 3. OL depth. 4. Several great smashmouth games on both sides of the ball. 5. With the huge exception of Brady and maybe the FG snapping/holding, I can't think of anybody that's REGRESSED from last season. Of course, it helps that almost nobody is left who's old enough that they "should" be regressing. 6. Late pickups like Gabriel and (I thought) Poteat worked well. And last year's late pickups of Hawkins and Evans continue to work well. 7. All the positive team chemistry stuff. 8. BB is letting his sense of humor show a bit more. 9. Except for Denver, all major AFC rivals have obvious weaknesses: SD coaching, Indy run defense, Pittsburgh current record, Baltimore offense, and Cincy -- well, we clobbered them.

 

[sieglo]

Downside -- we released Poteat, and we all know that games without him on the field are dangerous for us.

 

[SamBam39]

Bill Belichick is our coach.

That gives us a huge advantage over every other team.

Or hadn't you all noticed?

 

[Patsgirl_DK]

Great thread.

Just want to add:

Gostkowski seems to be doing better. His KOs is one of the reasons why our KO coverage is better this season.

BTW I´m really glad we have Miller and Paxton. We saw a few missed punts this week (Miami, Dallas comes to mind). I never doubt our guys when they have to punt - always seem like a done deal and Millers kicks are high and long.