Its_The_Patriots
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CLICK HERE to Register for a free account and login for a smoother ad-free experience. It's easy, and only takes a few moments.One thing about this team I've noticed is everyone is doing their job and playing well. There's no player on the roster that makes us fans groan...no Chad Brown, Monty Beisel, Artrell Hawkins, Duane Starks, Reche Cladwell, Ken Walter, Lawrence Maroney (to some), etc etc. Instead everyone's overacheiving and playing out of their head football right now, even someone like Kyle Arrington who nobody here wanted as a starting CB at the beginning of the year is playing good tight coverage and making plays. It's a special season and it definitely has that feeling again...
.It was funny. I expected them to pummel the Bears and Cutler. My only wtf moment all game was the toss sweep to Benny in the first series. In his presser BB was talking about the effect of weather on game plans and how the warmups become a little more significant as you determine what you can and can't do, as you do in the first series or so. Basically he said that play turned out to be the only one they really needed to ixnay...
.Troy Brown on the Big Show and David Givens filling in for Holley yesterday were tremendously insightful as well on the inner workings of a BB team in transition and why once he gets the right kind of mindset in place across the board it all comes together. That is the expectation and they all hold each other accountable for achieving goals. Givens talked about how he and Branch grew up in that atmosphere. After being criticized for his hands as a rookie and being advised to catch 100 balls a day in the off season, he did just that. He credits the assistant trainer who operated the jugs machine for him endlessly, and noted that after a few weeks he wasn't alone...the whole receiving unit was out there working on their hands too. As I recall it led to some spectacular results. He said that was because no one was concerned with catching the ball any more, it had become second nature. They don't sweat the details like weather because coaching has that covered via preparation and they are never asked to do something he doesn't know (because he's proven it to them or they to him in practice) they can do. Ergo...do your job. That's all each game is. Doing your job. And once guys embrace that, all adversity (be it weather or matchup or significance) results in is elevated focus.
The key for Bill is finding enough/the right blend of reasonably talented guys who can check their ego at the door. From 2006 thru 2009 ego became an issue on this team. Led to some departures by choice and eventually to some departures of necessity. This group is largely young, talented, sprinkled with selfless veteran leaders driven to win and at this moment all in. For that reason it is the SB favorite down the stretch. With any luck Bill can lead them to Dallas in February and they once again will do their job and become champions. He has certainly once again done his job which is to put them together as a group in position to be that. That in a nutshell is the system. Individuals fail it from time to time, usually when ego gets in the way, but it never fails to give them every possible opportunity to succeed. That's why so many previously unheralded guys make it here.
I love this quote. I hope I can steal it from you..Embracing that doesn't make you a blind faith homer, just an enlightened realist
..No system or team is perfect, and failing to embrace that just makes you miserable and unable to grasp what is always a work in progress here. Bill is a teacher, the son of teachers, and he is in his element again teaching a young and eager team how to win. That's why it's not a grind for him, or for Brady this season for that matter. Grappling with disfunctional egos...that's the only thing that grinds them. Which is why not every mega talent is a fit for this system.
.Criticizing drafts or FA non moves or their disciplined approach to teambuilding is fools play. Not that fans aren't free to be foolish...that's the lifesblood of fantasy football... I just find it better to sit back and marvel at the process knowing that at it's core lies the courage of Bill's convictions based on a lifetime of experience and no small measure of success...in reality football. Players ultimately win games. Bill will always be the first to acknowledge that. Systems put them in position to, and the smart ones who are a fit here because what they want most is to win figure that out.
The 2007 Super Bowl and the 2009 season apparently never happened.
Wonderful essay. Great comments.
As a manager I am amazed by the wholesale change in culture BB has instituted since 2009. Back to the future with the team culture and offensive philosophy we had pre-2007. It takes introspective self criticism, cogent analysis and diagnosis, strong self confidence and job security to overhaul an org in that manner, jetsoning name players from pre camp (AD) to well after season's start. That's having a well considered philosophy and sticking to it.
The highest quality thread on this site lasted 26 posts........
PWP, great post. In one simple paragraph you sum up what BB does every day. What makes it remarkable is that it isn't really remarkable. Its just a lot of common sense and the courage and confidence to keep to the plan during the challenges that inevitably occur.
It would be kind of nice if we ran our government the same way. Imagine how the team would run if they felt they had to run a poll before they made a decision. :rolleyes; But then again there ARE some franchises who are run like that.
Good catch. Kind of funny since I had been a Moroney apologist for most of his time here, and STILL don't consider him a bust, just a relative disappointment, who had his good moments. But I will admit now that as far as his attitude goes, it wasn't what BB wanted with this young teamExcellent read, as always Ken. Wonderful to read it this morning. Thanks!
One query: wouldn't you include Maroney in the list of guys who were shipped out?
I understand that he was inactive for the Bengals game and but I think almost all assumed him to be part of the team.
Granted, BB could have had his trade in mind but that still points to the fact that team was about to shed a lot of its deadweights and morph into a different animal early this season. And these are not fringe players who were either traded or went to IR; so, to make this whole transformation in the beginning of the season and have the team play at this high level when it matters - UNBELIEVABLE!!
That leapt out at me, too! It's really amazing...take a look at the players who made a significant impact on Sunday's game who weren't even on the roster during preseason:
Woodhead
Moore
Branch
Graham
Page
But one place I disagree, Ken:
I think there's a key element missing there, and it's the one that separates the 2010 Patriots from the 2009 Patriots. It's a roster full of guys with the right team attitude. It's the mindset of an Alge Crumpler vs. a Chris Baker, or a Deion Branch vs. a Randy Moss. It's the work ethic of a class of rookies who were almost all college team captains. BB molded a team that would be responsive to his coaching and Brady's leadership, and it has made all the difference.
Yes, knee-padding, and calling those who've dared to note when the team's made mistakes "foolish" is all that matters to a quality thread. :bricks:
The team's on a very good run right now. It's great that we get to enjoy it. That doesn't make the team perfect or above criticism.
Maybe the reason the rookies aren't making mistakes is that BB doesn't give them that option. By this time of the season he doesn't EXPECT them to make rookie mistakes....and thus they don't. Its the simple law of expectations It seems so simple, but you'd be surprised how often its ignored.
That's a great point Mike, and could explain why we seem to keep adding DBs and DLmen at the expense of LBs. I'd be interested in seeing who was on the field most at LB and DL. I'd like to think that Mayo and Cunningham were getting a majority of snaps. but it was Ninko and Guyton who seemed to be making all the plays.An idle thought on which I'd like to hear comments ...
I've just looked at the snap stats for the defense (from Reiss):
S James Sanders -- 45 of 45
CB Kyle Arrington -- 44 of 45
S Patrick Chung -- 44 of 45
CB Darius Butler -- 30 of 45
S Jarrad Page -- 29 of 45
CB Devin McCourty -- 15 of 45
S Brandon Meriweather -- 14 of 45
Quick arithmetic shows that the Patriots are averaging a tiny shade under 5 DBs on the field (4.91, to be precise) per defensive snap (2 CBs plus 3 Safeties). The stats against the Jets were equally striking.
Clearly, this is NOT your Dad's Patriots 3-4.
Yes, knee-padding, and calling those who've dared to note when the team's made mistakes "foolish" is all that matters to a quality thread. :bricks:
The team's on a very good run right now. It's great that we get to enjoy it. That doesn't make the team perfect or above criticism.