{"id":9547,"date":"2016-12-04T05:00:17","date_gmt":"2016-12-04T10:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/?p=9547"},"modified":"2016-12-05T17:45:21","modified_gmt":"2016-12-05T22:45:21","slug":"new-england-patriots-news-12-4-afc-east-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/2016\/12\/04\/new-england-patriots-news-12-4-afc-east-notes\/","title":{"rendered":"New England Patriots News 12-4, AFC East Notes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning, here are\u00a0Sunday\u2019s Patriots news 12-4<\/strong>, and AFC East Notes for this week.<\/p>\n

So sad to hear the news about former Jet RB Joe McKnight<\/strong> who was shot to death in a needless road rage incident this week in New Orleans. Thoughts and prayers go out to his family<\/p>\n

Martellus Bennett Sums Up Patriots Success:
\n<\/strong>While you won\u2019t hear many sound clips of his answer after he was asked how he equated the Patriots success, it was spot on. He made a succinct, perfect answer when asked after the Pats win over the Jets on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the only way to look at it \u2014 you just expect to move the ball,\u201d the entertaining Bennett said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like, \u2018Oh, let\u2019s hope.\u2019 We don\u2019t hope to move the ball. We expect to move the ball. Hope don\u2019t get you anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the offense struggled for much of the first half, Bennett was asked why the Patriots expect to have success. Said Bennett, \u201cBecause we work (expletive) hard every (expletive) day,\u201d Bennett said. \u201cWe work hard at this (expletive). Those moments, we work in those moments. They get paid millions of dollars to stop us, but we get paid millions of dollars to make plays, and we\u2019re going to make them.\u201d<\/p>\n

There you go, it doesn\u2019t get any simpler than that. Somebody pay the man.<\/p>\n

Bennett will become the go-to tight end now:<\/strong>
\nWith Rob Gronkowski\u2019s back injury, Bennett will once again become the go-to target at tight end for Tom Brady. He\u2019s was brought to New England to be a dual tight end with Gronkowski but with #87 shelved with back surgery, he\u2019ll be the sole receiving threat out there at the position and he\u2019ll handle it just fine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in the league for a long time. It\u2019s Year 9 for me. I\u2019ve started, and me and (Gronkowski), we\u2019re interchangeable,\u201d Bennett said. \u201cWe do a lot of things differently, but at the end of the day, I always come in, and everyone treats me like a starter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey respect me, and nothing changes in the game plan or anything if I\u2019m in or Gronk\u2019s out or anything like that. We just run our offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expect to see much more of the three or four wide receiver sets now, if the Pats do go two tight end formation for the running game, they have Cameron Fleming and Matt Lengel\u00a0mainly as blockers.<\/p>\n

Marcus Cannon Gets Paid:<\/strong>
\nThe Patriots right tackle has been a lightning rod for criticism (including here) in the past, but in 2016 it has been a completely different story. Now healthy after battling thru foot injuries in 2015 and with Offensive Line coach Dante Scarnecchia back in the fold, Cannon has had the best season of his career. And he\u2019s parlayed that into a big contract extension.<\/p>\n

The Patriots signed Cannon to a 5-year extension this week worth $32.5 million dollars with $14.5 million fully guaranteed. The first three years of his new extension will pay Cannon a total of $19.8 million dollars.<\/p>\n

With Sebastian Vollmer out all season with a hip injury, Cannon has been the starter since Day 1. He\u2019s been especially effective in the running game where he uses his 6\u20195, 335-pound size to great advantage. Scarnecchia has worked with Cannon on his pass protection technique which he credits to his resurgence this season.<\/p>\n

Vollmer, a free agent in 2017 is likely done in New England. But with Cannon, the Patriots now have the right tackle position locked up for at least the next three years. He\u2019s already come back from cancer in his senior season in college which led to his drop in the 2011NFL Draft, now he\u2019s making a second comeback and played it into a big payday.<\/p>\n

Former NFL PR Exec Gets Blasted by Pats:<\/strong>
\nOne can imagine that there is no love lost between the Patriots front office and the NFL these days after the long-drawn out affair between the team and the league over Deflategate. So, it wasn\u2019t a shocker when the Patriots jumped all over an insensitive tweet by former NFL PR Exec Joe Browne when he tweeted about the recent plane crash in Colombia of a football team from Brazil.<\/p>\n

Browne, in a now-deleted tweet, was trying to complement the NFL on its forward thinking if a tragedy like this struck, but it came out all wrong. “NFL club partnership so strong that if there were tragedy similar to Brazilian soccer crash other NFL clubs would restock affected team,” Browne tweeted out on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The Patriots from their own Twitter account blasted Browne stating \u201c\u00a0Poor choice of words & disrespectful to all who lost lives. Players are not stock; they’re the most important people in NFL.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"joe-browne-tweet-brazil\"<\/p>\n

Browne deleted the tweet and apologized stating \u201cThought I was being informative today re: terrible Brazil soccer tragedy but the tweet was ill-timed and poorly worded. I’ve deleted it.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the Patriots snarky comment is surprising, it shouldn\u2019t be. Browne was\/is a long-time hater of the Pats and while Robert Kraft may play nice with Roger Goodell, there are some in the ownership group who have long memories and this was a small bit of payback.<\/p>\n

Bledsoe Speaks to High School Football Players Tuesday:<\/strong>
\nIt was great to see former Patriot great Drew Bledsoe this week. He was the featured guest speaker at the MIAA Championship Breakfast. Bledsoe reminded all of the players that just being in the state championship games is a tremendous feat in itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody gets to play in a state championship game by accident,\u201d Bledsoe said. \u201cMost of you have been working hard at this game, been working hard in the room, been putting in all of those hours and hours of blood, sweat and tears into this game. That work ethic that you have to have in order to be successful at the game of football is really, really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bledsoe then spoke about his father and the relationship he had with his athletes and how now he is coaching high school football and how important it is to building character and relationships.<\/p>\n