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New England Patriots News 12-29, AFC East Notes

Steve Balestrieri
Steve Balestrieri on Twitter
December 29, 2019 at 5:00 am ET

New England Patriots News 12-29, AFC East Notes(PHOTO: Kirby Lee - USA TODAY Sports)

🕑 Read Time: 7 minutes

Good morning, here is your Sunday Patriots news 12-29 and AFC East notes this week. 

With the Patriots wrapping up their 11th straight AFC East title last week, they still have some work to do in the regular season and with a win today against Miami, they clinch the #2 seed and a bye for the first round of the playoffs. 

It has been a long series dominated by the home teams so it bodes well for a Patriots victory today. The team has stated that they’re treating it like a playoff game. So there’s that.. 

 Quick Hitters For the Pats and the NFL:

Tre’Davious White – The Bills talented cornerback took exception to Tom Brady block that helped spring N’Keal Harry for an 18-yard run last week. “Chill Tom, we all know if I hit you, I’ll get fined and suspended not vice versa.” Which led us to one of the bigger myths about Tom Brady, that he is protected by the refs and “gets all the calls.” 

A great tidbit this week on Twitter from Tucker Boynton that is worth passing along, not that the legion of Brady detractors will pay attention. “In 2019 there were 140 unnecessary roughness penalties, and 127 roughing the QB calls. Tom Brady didn’t receive one of those.”

Chandler Jones – The former Patriots defensive end has a shot of breaking Michael Strahan’s record for sacks today and we all here wish him the best in that pursuit. Having met him at Gillette a few years ago, Jones was personable as well as a talented pass rusher. But like everything else around here, there has been a lot of revisionist history surrounding Jones. 

The Patriots weren’t going to pay him $82.5 million, and as much as I liked Jones, the defense hasn’t missed a beat, going to three straight Super Bowls, winning two. This season, the team can win their 13th game of the season. What Jones is earning this year, the Patriots are paying five of their defenders. And his stellar play rushing the QB (notice we didn’t say setting the edge), hasn’t transformed the Cardinals defense one bit. 

And without the trade, they’d be no Joe Thuney who has been one of the best guards in football the past three years. It has been a trade that was a win-win. The Patriots got talent that took them to three straight Super Bowls, and Jones got his mammoth payday.

NFL Investigators – The league is supposedly growing frustrated with their inability to pin their investigation of the Patriots filming of Cincinnati’s sidelines from the film crew to the Patriots football operations. They’ve confiscated numerous devices and can’t find the smoking gun that links the two entities…

Frustrated? Wow, I always thought that an investigation was supposed to find the truth, not just to reinforce a theory of wrongdoing. But as we saw with Tom Brady with the asinine “more probable than not”, that never stopped Park Avenue. I would imagine this thorough “investigation” will finish sometime next week or the week after…timing is everything.

Navy Bowl Game: The Navy was stuck without a flight to their bowl game in the Auto Zone Liberty Bowl. They generally fly Southwest Air to their away games but the airline had no planes available at the last minute during the Christmas holiday. Robert Kraft and the Patriots stepped up and the Midshipmen flew in style. 

Navy’s football team arriving for their bowl game in the Patriots aircraft

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.  

Farewell 2010s, A Decade of Dominance: 

With the game today, this will be the Patriots’ final game of the decade. The first playoff game will begin the 2020s decade. It will be hard for the team to match what the past decade has brought. 

The Patriots, with a win today will end up the decade with an incredible record of 126-34. The next closest team is the Steelers who currently sit at 102-56-1, far behind them. If you factor in the postseason, the Patriots in the 2010s are an amazing 142-40.

Of course, when the talk of New England comes up, we always hear about the AFC East. Well, at home against the AFC East, the Patriots are 27-2, which would lend some credence to that…right? Well, against the rest of the AFC at home, the Patriots are 28-2. Hmm, how about ‘dem apples?’ 

The best record in any decade used to belong to the Dallas Cowboys of the 1970s, who went 119-46. Bill Belichick, Tom Brady, and the team have smashed that. 

NFL Top 100, Fascinating, Must Watch Television:

If you haven’t watched the NFL Network’s Top 100, then you’re really missing out. And for Patriots fans, seeing Bill Belichick talking history of the NFL is like manna from heaven. 

Tom Brady joined Belichick, Rich Eisen, and Cris Collinsworth and the back and forth with the coach was something that we’ve never had many opportunities to see. It had a little bit of everything. Brady spoke his friendship with Peyton Manning and how the two spent a few weeks during the offseason together and how he (Brady) copied some of the Colts’ play calls and how much it factored into Rob Gronkowski’s success. 

Brady and Belichick had a great moment when he said after the first Super Bowl win, the two shared a limo ride together and Belichick in perfect Bill-speak said to him,  “Tom, just wanted to let you know you had a pretty good year.”

But Belichick also added a great moment telling Eisen when he believed that Brady was going to be special, and it wasn’t in a game, but in practice before Brady had even began to play. 

Forget about the lists, like any other list, or poll, it is just an exercise to get people talking and discussing the game. People get too hung up over who is on the list and who isn’t. It is just an opinion folks. Tune in and enjoy some great football talk. 

 

Players to Watch Today:

The Patriots put a bow on the 2019 regular season today and here are our Patriots players to watch for the game. 

Sony Michel – The Pats 2nd-year running back has had a frustrating season but the last two weeks have seen him beginning to turn it on. His 96 yards last week against the Bills were a season-high. Now facing the Dolphins 27th ranked run defense, he has the opportunity to hit the playoffs on a three-week highpoint. 

 With LB/FB Elandon Roberts leading the way, we expect Michel and the running game, in general, to have a big afternoon running the ball today. 

Stephon Gillmore – The Patriots top cornerback will be going against DeVante Parker who is having a career season this year. Parker is the Dolphins’ go-to guy this year and naturally, Gilmore will be assigned to guard him closely.

This should be a great matchup to watch this afternoon. The Patriots have done a good job on Parker in the past, but every week is a new game. 

Tom Brady – Brady had arguably his best game of the season last Saturday against the Bills #3 ranked defense. Spreading the ball around to nine different receivers, completing almost 80 percent of his passes, Brady looked as good as he has all year.

Going against Miami’s 28th ranked pass defense, it should be another big game for Brady and he wants to get the offense and himself in the best possible position before the playoffs begin…Today he’ll be focused and ready to do just that.

Jamie Collins, Kyle Van Noy, Dont’a Hightower – The Boogeymen are collectively facing a team with the worst running game (72.9 yards per game) in the NFL. That means there should be plenty of opportunity to rush the QB against a team that has allowed 56 sacks in 2019. We expect that number to rise today. 

I expect the Patriots to get after Ryan Fitzpatrick early and often this afternoon and the trio of linebackers should be disruptive and active in the Dolphins backfield. 

NFL Schedule Week 17, 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: 13-3
Season:154-85-1
Cleveland over Cincinnati
New England over Miami
Minnesota over Chicago
Kansas City over LA Chargers
Buffalo over NY Jets
Green Bay over Detroit
New Orleans over Carolina
Tampa Bay over Atlanta
Philadelphia over NY Giants
Houston over Tennessee
Dallas over Washington
Baltimore over Pittsburgh
Indianapolis over Jacksonville
Oakland over Denver
LA Rams over Arizona
SNF San Francisco over Seattle

Bye week: No teams

Sorry due to the Christmas holiday break, there will be no AFC East notes this week, they’ll be back soon…

________________

Yeah, I don’t think you really know a player until you spend a lot of time with him, day-in and day-out, where you really see what that player and what that person is like. We knew some things about him from Buffalo, but it’s not the same when you spend every day with a player, so we know a lot more about him now. He’s, again, very professional and impressive. He puts a lot into it, he puts a lot into his training, he puts a lot into his preparation and I think everybody has a tremendous amount of respect for him in part because of that..” Bill Belichick on the preparation of Stephon Gilmore and his work ethic since coming to New England. 

________________

“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.

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About Steve Balestrieri

A former US Army Special Forces NCO and Officer, Steve has been following the Patriots since their days at Fenway Park. Steve has worked in the film industry and wrote as an Military Editor at SpecialOperations.com, 1945.com as a reporter for the Millbury Daily Voice, Millbury-Sutton Chronicle, and the Grafton News. He's also a member of the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA)


Posted Under: Patriots Commentary
Tags: Bill Belichick Dont'a Hightower James White Jamie Collins Julian Edelman Kyle Van Noy New England Patriots Rex Burkhead Sony Michel Stephon Gilmore Tom Brady

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