Patriots News 12-24, Can The Patriots Reverse The Denver Curse?
(PHOTO: Kevin R. Wexler / USA TODAY NETWORK) 🕑 Read Time: 8 minutes
Posted Under: Patriots Commentary
(PHOTO: Kevin R. Wexler / USA TODAY NETWORK) 🕑 Read Time: 8 minutes
New England Patriots > Patriots Blog
(PHOTO: Kevin R. Wexler / USA TODAY NETWORK) Good morning, Happy Gameday, and a very Happy Christmas Eve. From all of us here at @Patsfans.com, we wish you all a very happy, safe holiday week.
Here are our Sunday 12-24 Patriots news and notes for this week. We’ll add some of our key players to watch and keys to the game from a Patriots perspective below.
The Patriots are traveling to one of the places that they’ve traditionally saved their worst football for, the other being Miami. The Patriots are 11-21 in Denver 0-4 in the playoffs. During the Bill Belichick era, the Patriots are just 10-10 in Denver.
We’ll get into that discussion below.
Quick Hitters For the Patriots and NFL News:
Underinflated Footballs… Again? By now, we’ve all heard about the underinflated kicking footballs the Patriots and Chiefs used in the first half of the game on Sunday were underinflated. But it turns out that the fault was with the officials. When the players took the field, both teams’ kicking balls were between 2 to 2.5 underinflated.
MassLive.com was the first to report on this, where the kicking footballs are supposed to measure between 12.5 to 13.5 pounds per square inch. Bill Belichick was asked about it and quickly pointed out that it was a league issue and not one for either team.
“We don’t have anything to do with it. Were we aware of it? Yeah, definitely,” Belichick said. “As I understand it, they were all the same. I don’t know what the explanation is. It was the same for both teams.
“You’d have to talk to the league about what happened on that. That part of it, they control all that.”
This time, the NFL, through a league spokesman, declined to comment on the subject of deflated footballs. Huh, imagine that. Last time, they submitted an 82-page junk science report that suspended Brady for four games. And took 1st and 4th round draft picks away.
Belichick said that missed field goals by Harrison Butker (39 yards) and Chad Ryland (41 yards) in the first half and two kickoffs that almost went out of bounds were indications “you could see” how the underinflated footballs affected the game.
Butker said that the underinflated footballs had no effect on his first miss of the season and that it was a technique issue. “I made a lot of big kicks with flatter balls, and shoot, even in college, I kicked a lot of flat balls,” he said, as quoted by ESPN’s Mike Reiss.
Nathan Rourke: We haven’t seen much tape of the Patriots’ newest QB on the 53-man roster. But he was the Most Outstanding Canadian of the CFL. He set a CFL record with a 78.7 completion percentage in 2022.
In his first meeting with the beat writers, he was asked a variety of questions, and he seemed pretty forthcoming in the craziness of changing teams this late in the season. (Thanks to Ian Logue for transcribing the interview)
On what these last few days have been like:
“It’s been a whirlwind. A lot of information. A lot of new faces. A lot of new people. But it’s been good so far, yeah.”
On the conversations with Bailey Zappe, picking the brains of other QBs:
“Yeah, it’s been great. Yeah, I mean, obviously trying to learn the system, and these guys have obviously got a handle on things so it’s been great to talk to him and Mac [Jones] and try to get a sense with that. But I think they also get the sense that we all love football, which is cool to be in the same room with people like that.”
The only player on the roster that Rourke has played with before was RB JaMycal Hasty, but he added that this is the nature of the business.
His thoughts on playing for the Patriots:
“Yeah, I’m honored. It’s a great organization. I have a lot of respect for this league and obviously a lot of respect for coach Belichick and coach O’Brien. It’s been pretty cool to be here so far.”
On what he brings to the table for the team:
“I’m not big on tooting my own horn, so you’ll just have to see.”
On how the process has been learning the offense so far:
“It’s been a lot. I think football’s football to a certain extent but learning the language this far into it has been difficult. But I don’t put it past myself to be able to pick it up. Doing my best and the guys are supporting me as best as possible.”
Rourke added that he really appreciated the opportunity to play for the Patriots and is looking forward to working with OC Bill O’Brien.
On if he was surprised the Patriots claimed him:
“A little bit, yeah. But that’s how things work. I think just being part of the league, people leave and find new places all the time. The role I was in, you knew it was possible, so definitely a little bit surprised but glad it happened and excited for this opportunity.”
With his mobility, he will function for the last three weeks as the scout team QB trying to prepare the defense to face Russell Wilson and Josh Allen. After that, who knows?
Patriots 4th & 2 Podcast: If you haven’t listened to our PatsFans.com podcast, Patriots 4th & 2”, in a bit, please check it out. Patriots 4th & 2 has expanded.
Derek Havens and I did a quick recap of the Chiefs game and looked ahead to the Denver game on Christmas Eve. Derek is out of the hospital (as he mentioned on the podcast) but is still in recovery mode. However, it was great to see him back. If you get a chance, you could shoot him a msg on Twitter/X. He’d love that.
Russ Francis/Chuck Fairbanks: The former Patriot tight end and head coach should be in the Patriots team Hall of Fame, and the fact that Francis isn’t in is an absolute travesty. Francis and the Raiders’ Dave Casper changed the game with how teams used the tight end position…this will be on our Sunday posts until it happens. Casper is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Francis’ numbers stand up well against Casper’s, yet he isn’t in the team’s.
How Can The Patriots Beat Denver On The Road —
The Patriots and Broncos will meet for the national Sunday Night Football game tonight. Their defense is not a top-tier unit, especially their run defense, which is dead-last in the league in both yards per game (146.9) and yards per rush (5.2).
However, the offensive line, which has had issues all season long, is beset with injuries. Trent Brown missed the game with KC and is questionable with ankle and hand injuries and only a limited participant this week. Cole Strange was placed on IR, and Connor McDermott suffered a concussion.
Expect the Broncos to stack the box and dare Bailey Zappe to beat them. JuJu Smith-Schuster is out, and Hunter Henry was limited this week, but they can find some success with using play-action. During Denver’s five-game winning streak, the defense forced 16 turnovers.
This is where Demario Douglas could find some success against mostly man coverages that the Broncos run. If Henry isn’t able to go, then Mike Gesicki will have to step up. They’ll need to avoid Patrick Surtain’s side of the field, however. It will be curious to see who the Broncos line up Surtain against.
This is where Bill O’Brien and Zappe need to do a much better job of being aggressive and productive in the second half.
Defensively, the Broncos shouldn’t be able to run the ball against the Patriots’ defense, which has been excellent against the run this season. However, they’ll have to account for Russell Wilson scrambling this week.
Denver has good weapons in the passing game with Courtland Sutton, Jerry Jeudy, and all three backs (Javontae Williams, Jaleel McGlauthin, and Samaje Perine), who are productive receivers out of the backfield. Interestingly enough, Denver has only averaged 0.2 yards more in the passing game than the Patriots, 187.1 as compared to New England’s 186.9. You would expect a much larger disparity with their weapons.
With the Patriots really thin at cornerback, expect to see more zone coverages this week. However, I expect they’ll roll out either Shaun Wade or Alex Austin against Courtland Sutton with some safety help. That isn’t a good matchup for the Patriots. Jon Jones will probably get Jeudy. The key for the Patriots is to put pressure on Wilson and not allow him to move around the pocket and extend plays.
The secondary will be without Jabrill Peppers, who is suffering from a hamstring injury this week, which is a significant loss. Peppers has been an outstanding player on the field whose leadership is a much-needed boost to the team this season. His absence could open the door for Marte Mapu to see more snaps this week. He got some nice kudos from Bill Belichick this week on the progress he’s made this season. The rookie flashed last week against the Chiefs, and his sideline-to-sideline speed could be a factor against Wilson and the backs out of the backfield.
I think the Denver defense will find a way to keep the Patriots in check once again. The banged-up defense will play well but not well enough for the moribund offense to win. They’d need multiple turnovers to pull off an upset in a place that they’ve traditionally never played well at. Denver 27-13.
Thursday Night Football:
LA Rams over New Orleans 1-0
Saturday Games:
Pittsburgh over Cincinnati
Buffalo over LA Chargers
Sunday Day Games:
Indianapolis over Atlanta
Seattle over Tennessee
Detroit over Minnesota
NYJ over Washington
Green Bay over Carolina
Cleveland over Houston
Jacksonville over Tampa Bay
Chicago over Arizona
Miami over Dallas
Sunday Night Football:
Denver over New England
Monday Night Football:
Kansas City over Las Vegas
Philadelphia over NYG
San Francisco over Baltimore
Last Week 12—4
2023 Season 142—82
2022 Season: 178—92—2
2021 Season: 183—88—1
2020 Season: 169—86—1
2019 Season: 162—93—1
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“Sean does a great job. Sean’s a really, really smart guy, has a great background in terms of just football fundamentals, toughness, a playing style that’s a little bit of a throwback style, but at the same time, very creative. Understands defenses extremely well, knows how to attack defenses, and really puts a lot of pressure on the defense.
“Almost every play he runs, especially once he runs against you, and he may run other stuff against other teams that wouldn’t be that big of a problem for you, and you probably won’t see it. The things that you see are things that are designed to give you a headache, and they usually do, especially if you can hit it right. Sometimes, the plays don’t match up, but you can see what he’s trying to do and come out of there saying, ‘Well, we were fortunate we were in this defense and not that defense because that would have really put us in a bind.’
“They play fast. There’s not much no-huddle, but the tempo that they play within the huddle, the motion, snap the ball, receivers are aggressive. [Lil’Jordan] Humphrey, guys like that, guys that he’s had, [Michael] Thomas in New Orleans and all, so they have a very aggressive style of play. Play with a fullback, play with multiple tight ends, play with heavy linemen.
“Then, you have to deal with a passing game, too, that’s obviously got a good quarterback and multiple good receivers, good tight ends. The tight end’s been hurt a little bit, but you’ve got to deal with a heavy run, heavy personnel with an aggressive running game, all the way to multiple receivers and good skill players with a very mobile quarterback.
“I think the offensive line, he’s done a good job of – those guys have really, I’d say, continued to get better on a week-to-week basis. [Quinn] Meinerz has had a good year, [Mike] McGlinchey, [Garett] Bolles, [Ben] Powers. Sean’s built certain things around what he – what the team is right now.
“I don’t know if that’s what it’ll be eventually, but what it is right now, He’s done a good job of building and playing into those player’s strengths. He’s got a bunch of veteran players in there that know how to play, know what they’re doing. Kind of once they’ve got going, they’ve played really well. A ton of respect for Sean. He’s one of the best. We had a common experience through Bill Parcells. We’ve both been yelled at a lot. We share a lot in common there.”
Bill Belichick, during his Friday press conference, after being asked what kind of challenges the Broncos and Sean Payton bring to the table for the Patriots.
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“Talent sets the floor; Character sets the ceiling.” Bill Belichick
Follow me on Twitter @SteveB7SFG or email me at [email protected]
Listen to our Patriots 4th and 2 podcasts on Stitcher and Streamyard as Russ Goldman, Derek Havens, and myself from PatsFans.com discuss the latest Patriots news and game analysis.
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