New England Patriots News 12-15, AFC East Notes
Steve Balestrieri - PatsFans.com
Good morning, here is your Sunday Patriots news 12-15 and AFC East notes this week.
Gameday! The Patriots are in Cincinnati for their final regular-season road game of 2019 against the Bengals. After going just 3-5 on the road a year ago, the team can improve to 6-2 this year with a win today.
RIP to Pete Frates, who inspired countless people and raised millions of dollars for ALS research. Our thoughts are with his family and friends this weekend.
Quick Hitters For the Pats and the NFL:
Kyle Van Noy – The Patriots linebacker is the team’s nominee for the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year and the Week 14 NFLPA Community MVP. He held a celebration for 153 financially disadvantaged foster families at his ‘A Very Van Noy Christmas’ event.
“We are happy to nominate Kyle Van Noy for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award,” Patriots owner Robert Kraft said. “We are so proud of Kyle’s accomplishments on the field as a New England Patriot, but even more so of his character and his contributions in the community.
His Van Noy Valor Foundation has helped countless children and families. He and Marissa are remembering their childhoods and how foster care and adoption positively impacted their lives. Kyle’s personal connection to the reason behind their foundation is inspiring.” Congrats to Kyle, well deserved. Now vote for him for the Pro Bowl.
Rob Gronkowski – Was named to the NFL100 team and Bill Belichick had a hilarious story of Gronk’s pre-draft visit with the team, where he fell asleep on the floor prior to meeting the Patriots coaches.
Josh Gable – The trick shot kicker and YouTube star had a very brief tenure on the Patriots practice squad, two days, but may have parlayed his brief stay into a 2020 opportunity to compete for the full-time kicking position.
“We had a spot available on the practice squad, and it gave us an opportunity to look at a younger kicker,” Bill Belichick said.
” … Rather than just (have him) come in and do a workout, we were actually able to (have him) kick with the team and put him on the practice squad for a couple of days.”
You Can’t Make This Stuff Up: Noted hot-take artist and Brady-hater Max Kellerman was trying once again (ad nauseam) to denigrate Brady’s accomplishments with Bill Belichick and was telling Damien Woody that “Belichick took that 2000 Patriots team to the playoffs without Brady at quarterback.” It makes for great television hot takes. But Woody, knowing better said, “No he didn’t, they went 5-11.” Kellerman tried to protest but Woody corrected him again ….and he would know, he was on the 2000 Patriots team that year. He must’ve had Bart Scott fact-checking for him.
4th & 2 Podcast – If you’ve haven’t checked out our PatsFans.com podcast, “Patriots 4th & 2” in a bit, Please do check it out.
Harry to Get More Involved in the Offense? About Time:
Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels are trying to get the Patriots offense unstuck out of the mud prior to the end of the regular season and similar to what they did a year ago before embarking on a run to the Super Bowl. One way to do that would be to get 1st round draft pick N’Keal Harry more involved with the passing game.
So it should come as no surprise when McDaniels said this week that he needs to get the rookie more involved in the scheme moving forward.
“I need to do a better job of trying to find a way to get him the ball and get him involved, so that he can do some of those things and do more of them,” McDaniels said, referencing the play Harry apparently scored a touchdown against the Chiefs and his score against the Cowboys.
“He’s here early, he’s here late, and he’s trying to close the ground on being able to go out there and understand who he’s playing against and what he needs to do to be successful,” McDaniels added. “There’s no shortcut to all that, we know that. He’s got a great attitude. He has a skill set that can certainly help us produce and win.”
With Mohamad Sanu still not 100 percent and Phillip Dorsett struggling, getting Harry some snaps and looks in the passing game would take a lot of pressure off of Julian Edelman and James White. And starting with a 1-12 Bengals team may be a great place to start.
Navy’s Big Improvement on Defense Helped by Bill Belichick:
You know of Bill Belichick’s affinity for the Naval Academy. His father coached there for many years and his formative years were spent there. So, after last season when Navy struggled on defense and lost their third straight game to Army, Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo called Belichick, who he has become very friendly with, in a story written by USA Today’s Tom Schad.
As they talked, Niumatalolo was frantically trying to take notes and keep up with up with Belichick as he spoke. The Navy coach said he was too embarrassed to ask Bill to slow down or repeat anything. “It’s like if you’re an artist and you’re talking with Picasso, you know?” Niumatalolo said about speaking with Belichick. “It made me realize that I don’t know crap about football.”
In part of his conversation, Niumatalolo totally revamped the defense, going from a static 3-4 to a more attacking 4-2-5 that allowed the Navy to be more creative, aggressive and deceptive. Their blitzes come from everywhere and there is constant movement at the snap to confuse the opposition (sounds vaguely familiar).
Out of the 129 Bowl sub-division teams in 2018, Navy was 121st on third down. This season they are 29th. They went from 3-10 a year ago to 9-2 (this is written on Friday night before the big game) and a big reason is the play of their defense.
It helps to have Bill on speed-dial, but sorry… Go Army.
NFL Schedule Week 15, Who Are Your Winners:
How are you feeling about the games this week? We have a post on our PatsFans Forum where our readers can predict the slate of games for that week. I did it on our weekly Sunday column here and will post it up below. Here is the link if you’d care to pick your own: https://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/picks/
Last Week: 10-6
Season:131-76-1
Thursday Night Football
Baltimore over NY Jets 1-0
Sunday
New England over Cincinnati
Tampa Bay over Detroit
Tennessee over Houston
Kansas City over Denver
Miami over NYG
Philadelphia over Washington
Seattle over Carolina
Green Bay over Chicago
Minnesota over LAC
Oakland over Jacksonville
Cleveland over Arizona
LAR over Dallas
San Francisco over Atlanta
SNF Buffalo over Pittsburgh
MNF New Orleans over Indy
Bye week: No teams
Saturday Football –
Houston over Tampa
New England over Buffalo
San Francisco over LAR
Eastbound and Down AFC East Notes:
Bills Can Punch Their Ticket to the Postseason Tonight:
The Buffalo Bills are playing in their first Sunday Night Football contest since 2007. And if they can win against the Steelers at Heinz Field, they’ll be in the playoffs for the 2nd time in three years. They travel to New England next week and then finish at home against the Jets.
Obviously, they’d want to clinch it as early as possible, especially considering their record against the Patriots in Gillette Stadium. But facing the Steelers on the road in a prime-time matchup is a daunting task. Buffalo knows that Pittsburgh watched the Ravens game a week ago, where they pressured Josh Allen all game long. Pittsburgh leads the league with 48 sacks and will be looking to do the same.
One way to beat the pressure on the QB is the quick passing game which means more of Cole Beasley. He’ll be the guy to watch this week and in Foxboro next week.
Dolphins Sign Parker to Lucrative Extension:
The Miami Dolphins have signed WR DeVante Parker to a four-year extension keeping him locked up through the 2023 NFL season. Parker’s extension is worth $40 million, including $21.5 million in guarantees and an $8 million signing bonus, according to the NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport.
In an otherwise dismal rebuilding year for the 3-10 Dolphins, Parker has been a bright spot totaling career highs in receiving yardage with 882 thus far and with six touchdowns. He suffered a concussion last week but could be ready to suit up today against the New York Giants.
Parker was originally drafted by the Dolphins in the 1st round (#14 overall) in the 2015 NFL Draft. Obviously, head coach Brian Flores feels he’s going to be a key piece of the offense that they can build around. Now about that QB situation…
Jets Downplay Sideline Tiff Between Gase and Darnold:
The New York Jets got blown out by the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday Night Football 42-21, that wasn’t a surprise as the Ravens have been on a roll in the second half of the season. But a sideline tiff between head coach Adam Gase and QB Sam Darnold did raise some eyebrows, but both men immediately downplayed it as just frustration.
As Darnold left the field late in the loss after an incomplete 4th and 1 pass, Gase seemed perturbed with the QB. Darnold walked away but then came back and the two had an animated conversation that ended with Darnold waving his hand dismissively.
“We were both in the same mind frame where somebody didn’t execute their job, and basically I was bitching about that and he was doing the same thing,” Gase said after the game.
Darnold followed the same line of explanation, “We were not in a disagreement at all. It was just me being … you know, I think just frustrated on the circumstances and what was going on in the game at the time.”
The Jets started well and moved the ball very well but couldn’t finish drives, something that will frustrate the best of QBs or coaches.
________________
“The football team, the football staff and the coaching staff had nothing to do with what happened. Nothing. So, we have no involvement in it.
He was doing his job. That’s what he was doing, he was doing his job. Like we all tried to do. That’s what the football team, the football staff and the coaching staff did last week was try to do their job for Kansas City, and then Cincinnati, and then Buffalo next week and that’s it. I just answered the question. That’s it. We have no involvement in it. Zero.
Yeah, I’ve told you everything. Look, Mr. [Robert] Kraft made a statement, the team made a statement. That’s – I don’t have anything to add.
Do not have anything to add.
Do not have anything to add.– Bill Belichick on being pressed with repeated questions about the filming in Cleveland of the Bengals sideline.
________________
“So, how was your week?”
Follow me on Twitter @SteveB7SFG or email me at [email protected]
Listen to our Patriots 4th and 2 podcasts on blog talk radio as Russ Goldman, Derek Havens and myself from PatsFans.com discuss the latest Patriots news and game analysis.
Posted Under: 2019 Patriots Regular season
Tags: Army- Navy Bill Belichick James White Julian Edelman Kyle Van Noy Miami Dolphins Mohamed Sanu N'Keal Harry Naval Academy New England Patriots New York Jets NFL Patriots Phillip Dorsett Tom Brady
