{"id":3349,"date":"2015-12-06T05:00:10","date_gmt":"2015-12-06T10:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/?p=3349"},"modified":"2015-12-05T19:33:55","modified_gmt":"2015-12-06T00:33:55","slug":"new-england-patriots-news-12-6-and-notes-around-the-afc-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/2015\/12\/06\/new-england-patriots-news-12-6-and-notes-around-the-afc-east\/","title":{"rendered":"New England Patriots News 12-6 and Notes Around the AFC East"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning, here are Sunday\u2019s Patriots news notes<\/strong> and what\u2019s happening around the division.<\/p>\n

Patriots Running Game Stuck in Neutral: <\/strong>With the epidemic of injuries at the offensive line and wide receiver position, the Patriots offense has really slowed down in recent weeks. In fact the running game has largely been ineffective since Dion Lewis went down with his ACL injury.<\/p>\n

Look no further than the Patriots third-down percentage the past two games to see that the running game is slowing down the offense. New England is 5 for 28 on third down percentage the last two weeks including just 2 of 13 against Denver.<\/p>\n

LaGarrette Blount has had precious little room to run and James White along with Brandon Bolden don\u2019t have the elusiveness of Lewis and been largely ineffective in the running game.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s game against the Eagles presents an opportunity to get the running game untracked a bit against the 27th<\/sup> rush defense in the league. The past five games, Philadelphia\u2019s run defense has allowed a whopping 165.6 yards per game.<\/p>\n

Moving forward, the signing of diminutive running back Trey Williams will bear watching. Williams has a bit of that elusiveness that Lewis possesses. He\u2019ll initially get some looks at kick returner and possibly in the passing game. Can the Pats catch lightning in a bottle twice in a year?\u00a0 It will bear watching.<\/p>\n

Is Gronkowski Being Targeted with OPI Penalties<\/strong>?: Much of the talk this week after the Denver game centered around the injury suffered by and two offensive pass interference penalties called on Pats TE Rob Gronkowski.<\/p>\n

It reached the point where many in the NE area believe that league officials are targeting Gronkowski by unfairly watching him too closely while running his routes. Gronkowski stated this week and has previously that he won\u2019t change the way he plays the game.<\/p>\n

That is a good thing if you\u2019re Gronk, because when you\u2019re an athletic 6\u20196, 265 lb tight end, you have a tremendous height and weight advantage against much smaller safeties assigned to cover him.<\/p>\n

Mike Reiss<\/strong> of ESPN Boston looked at the tape<\/a> and did a study of his OPI calls and we looked at the coaches\u2019 tape of them as well. While some are no-brainers and obviously penalties on Gronk, others seem less so, at times much less. The simple fact of the matter is that Gronkowski has more OPI fouls than 30 teams \u2026.yes that is teams.<\/p>\n

So if they\u2019re watching Gronkowski this closely, then why aren’t\u00a0officials keeping a closer eye on some of the other receivers in the league because there is plenty of pushing off on each play for them to witness.<\/p>\n

One final thought, if the officials are watching Gronkowski so closely how can they possibly miss this sequence? This is courtesy of PatsPulpit<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Gronk-giants.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

NFL\u2019s Concussion Protocol Being Tested \u2026and Failing Again: <\/strong>When the Rams QB Case Keenum had his head snapped to the turf against the Baltimore Ravens on November 22, he needed help from a teammate to even regain his feet. He was wobbly and was a clear candidate for the independent league official to call down, stop play and take him off the field to test for a concussion.<\/p>\n

For reasons known only to the league they failed to do so. Rams coach Jeff Fisher claimed to have no view of Keenum teetering and called it \u201ca combination of unusual events that took place.\u201d It was a total breakdown of the NFL\u2019s policy and rings hollow the constant proclamation of the league that it is dedicated to player safety.<\/p>\n

The fact that no punishment faced the Rams after this incident was more probable than not that St. Louis coach Jeff Fisher is a member of the NFL\u2019s Competition Committee. Keenum missed last week\u2019s game due to a\u2026.concussion.<\/p>\n

But the league acted (?) quickly. They scheduled a conference call with all 32 teams the following day to ensure that the league\u2019s protocols be followed accordingly.<\/p>\n

So what have we learned? That the NFL\u2019s system continues to be broken. Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger was taking a beating in the Seahawks game last week. He too was slow to get up after taking a hard shot to the head from Michael Bennett while simultaneously being hit low by Bruce Irvin.<\/p>\n

Once again the league\u2019s independent spotter sat on his hands and did nothing. It was only after Roethlisberger took himself out of the game and complained of a lack of peripheral vision did Pittsburgh\u2019s staff act.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can have, when you\u2019re done playing, knee replacements and hip replacements and all kinds of surgeries,” Roethlisberger said after the game. “There\u2019s no brain replacement surgery. That brain is too valuable to mess with. I\u2019m proud of myself and I think more guys should do it and not try to be tough guys when it comes to the brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roethlisberger did the right thing but his team ultimately failed to follow the protocols. The Steelers\u2019 team doctor reportedly came under fire last season for allowing both Roethlisberger and TE Heath Miller to re-enter a playoff game without being tested for concussions against league guidelines.<\/p>\n

Roethlisberger expects to play this Sunday against the Colts and claimed to not have a concussion but an ocular migraine in response to his hit.<\/p>\n

Flowers to IR, Pats Add Returners:<\/strong> Earlier above we mentioned new running back Trey Williams the FA from Texas A&M who played high school football under Danny Amendola\u2019s dad. We profiled his potential impact<\/a> earlier this week. The team also added WR\/KR Demaris Johnson and re-signed WR Austin Hill to the practice squad.<\/p>\n

But it came at the price of placing rookie DE Trey Flowers on IR. Flowers had been battling injuries all season and it ends a year that started very promising. He came out quickly in training camp and was a standout in the early going. He then had a great start in the Patriots first preseason game, getting a sack of Packers QB Aaron Rodgers before being hurt later in the first quarter.<\/p>\n

Flowers is a very personable and soft-spoken individual who we had the chance to interview in the locker room earlier this season.\u00a0 Hopefully he\u2019ll have a speedy recovery and we look forward to his competing again in 2016.
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