Patriots Report Card: Smart win for Brady, Pats

It was closer than it was supposed to be, but in the end, the Colts couldnt help themselves. They had to do something stupid. As Julian Edelman put it when asked about Indianapolis ill-advised fake punt: Shame on them for trying that again. You know youre not surprised with anything how they play. You know, Colts.

In other words, You know, desperate housewives.

Trailing by only six points late in the third quarter, the Colts did what they so often do against the Patriots. They panicked and made beating them easier. Do that against Tom Brady, and youre going down, which Indy did for the fifth straight time in this rivalry since Andrew Luck arrived.

QUARTERBACK

A-minus

Statistically, this wasnt Tom Bradys finest hour, but he deserves high marks for the way he moved in the pocket, often buying time for his depleted offensive line. The Colts put a lot of pressure on him, but he delivered accurate throws despite being chased off his spot. Bradys shoulder fake froze the Colts secondary just long enough to loft a 39-yard completion to Keshawn Martin early. Late in the second quarter, he was flushed from the pocket but stepped up, his movement allowing Danny Amendola to create space on a 35-yard reception. He did have several passes tipped at the line and was the victim of a batted one by Julian Edelman for his first interception of the year, a pick-six that originally was on target. But his legs created an opening for LeGarrette Blounts 11-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter, buying time in the pocket and then rolling right as the running back followed him on a parallel line, Brady putting the ball on the money for an easy score. He even made a good play while being sacked by safety Dwight Lowery on a blitz. Brady knew there was no one to block Lowery and wanted to go to Rob Gronkowski on a shallow cross, but at the last moment, the tight end was jammed by linebacker DQwell Jackson. Brady wisely took the sack rather than risk a hurried throw. This was a night he won more with his head and feet than his arm.

RUNNING BACK

B-plus

Dion Lewis had become a staple in the backfield but was all but invisible as LeGarrette Blount did the heavy lifting with 93 rushing yards, including a 38-yard touchdown burst on which he showed great acceleration through a massive hole on the right side. Blount also bounced off a pile of humanity at the line and stepped inside for an 11-yard gain that was all about vision. Credit him with a sound blitz pick-up on DQwell Jackson at the Patriots 10-yard line as well. Blounts TD catch was easy money partly because he gave Tom Brady an easy target by drifting with him once linebacker Jerrell Freeman bolted off in pursuit of the quarterback. Lewis time was limited, but he made it count, taking a screen for 12 yards that was doubled when he was hauled down by his face mask. Later, with the Pats facing third-and-6, Lewis made a nifty run for 7 by bouncing left then cutting back through a small crease. Good days work all around.

WIDE RECEIVER

B-minus

This was Danny Amendolas night. He hauled in seven of the nine b***s aimed at him for 105 yards and two long gains. His 35-yard out-and-up route on a slow developing play read the zone perfectly as Tom Brady bought him time to get free. Julian Edelman was playing with an injured finger that might have explained three dropped passes and another he batted into a Mike Adams pick-six. The finger must have been an issue because the passes were on point. He ran a fine route between linebackers, avoiding an attempted jam by Robert Mathis coming out of the slot and finding open space on his 11-yard touchdown. We could have done without his spike into the Colts logo, but thats Edelman. One day, somebody is going to spike him. Edelman also made an agile spin that shook off Mathis on a fourth-and-1 sweep and gained 2 yards. Keshawn Martins 39-yard catch wasnt his only contribution. He also drew an interference call on a fade route that had Greg Toler holding on, putting the ball on the Colts 7.

TIGHT END

C-minus

It was a below-average night for Rob Gronkowski, who often was jammed by a defensive end or linebacker and seldom left one-on-one. Because the method held him to just three second-half catches, Gronk can expect to see more of that. His blocking wasnt super effective, either. He was unable to maintain his leverage several times. The Colts had safety Dwight Lowery on him much of the game, but someone else usually had a hand or a body on him first. The few times he was out wide and one-on-one, he won the battles, including his touchdown. Scott Chandler averaged 19.5 yards on two catches because the emphasis was on Gronk. Chandler made a tough catch of a high throw from Tom Brady for 25 yards. He also got away with a nice hold on LeGarrette Blounts 38-yard TD run. Mike Williams blocking was spottier than usual. He couldnt hold his block on nose tackle David Parry, resulting in LeGarrette Blount being stuffed for 1 yard.

OFFENSIVE LINE

B-minus

Considering the line lost two left tackles Nate Solder (torn biceps) and Marcus Cannon (toe) this was a fairly solid performance. One of the two sacks allowed was of the coverage variety. While the six hits on Tom Brady and the consistent pressure are concerning (especially with the Jets coming to town), the Pats ran the ball effectively and did a better job in the second half once the linemen became accustomed to their spots. The upside is the kids in the middle kept a solid enough pocket that Brady usually was able to step up to avoid outside rushers, the two glaring exceptions being when T.Y. McGill beat guard Shaq Mason clean inside and forced an incompletion, and when center David Andrews missed Billy Winn and got the quarterback leveled. Sebastian Vollmer is one of the leagues best right tackles but had to move to the left side with Solder done for the season and Cannon limping. Ex-practice squad denizen Cameron Fleming stepped in for Cannon and held his own without holding the Colts. The line continued to pull effectively and get out in front of screens. The Pats averaged 4.6 yards per carry, which is effective.

DEFENSIVE LINE

B-plus

Good or bad, it starts up front, and Sunday night was pretty good. Three sacks and 10 hits on Andrew Luck forced the quarterback into too many off-target throws. End Chandler Jones finished with 21

Source: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/patriots_nfl/new_england_patriots/2015/10/patriots_report_card_smart_win_for_brady_pats

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Before biggest game of season, Colts mum on Patriots

Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck walks away from New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady after the game. The Indianapolis Colts play the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game Sunday, January 18, 2015, at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough MA.(Photo: Matt Kryger / The Star)Buy Photo

Story Highlights

• Patriots at Colts, 8:30 p.m. Sunday, NBC

Here"s what they said in that morgue of a locker room nine months ago, after that 38-point loss in the rain that ended their season.

Linebacker Erik Walden: "Until we fix it, they"re our nemesis."

Tight end Coby Fleener: "It"s frustrating because it feels a little too much like dj vu."

Tight end Dwayne Allen: "They"re going to be here in our way every year, and we"re going to have to come through them."

Here"s what the Indianapolis Colts said Friday, asked about the same topic, those pesky New England Patriots, the team that has manhandled them 189-73 over their past four meetings including 45-7 in January"s AFC Championship Game and comes to town next Sunday (8:30 p.m., NBC) for the most anticipated showdown of this NFL regular season.

Allen: "It"s the next game. It"s the next opponent."

Tight end Jack Doyle: "We"re worried about us, about coming together as a team. We"re seeing how good we can become."

Receiver T.Y. Hilton: "They"re hot. Can"t wait to see (what happens). That Patriots team hasn"t played this Colts team."

No, they haven"t, but until this Colts team (3-2) proves it can do more than previous Colts teams which is helplessly absorb beatings by the Patriots the narrative will not change. New England (4-0) remains the immovable object in the Colts" path to a Super Bowl, the big bully from the Northeast that takes what it wants, when it wants, how it wants, without much semblance of a fight.

It was clear Friday, a day after the Colts" 27-20 victory over the Texans, that coach Chuck Pagano had handed down a missive to his players: Don"t talk about the Patriots. Don"t provide bulletin board material. Don"t add any hype to an already immeasurably-hyped game.

Thus the clichs spewed and the players awkwardly stumbled through interviews, avoiding what becomes the unavoidable this week. This game isn"t just "the next game, against the next opponent." This game is everything. This game is the biggest of their season, against the one opponent the Colts would rather beat than any other in the league.

This is the game that tells us if the Colts are for real or not.

"No excuses," Pagano told Sports Illustrated"s Peter King during training camp in August. "We got our a***s kicked. Period. End of story. None of us here will ever forget that day, that final score. We got a d**n near artery gushing and no sutures to stop the bleeding. You never forget that."

The bleeding looked on that rain-soaked Sunday in Foxborough a lot like it has looked throughout these annual punishings by the Patriots: New England ran it down the Colts" collective throats, daring the Indianapolis defense to stop it. The Colts could not. That"s why the Patriots have won four straight since Pagano took over in 2012 by an average of 27 points, why they"ve averaged 219 yards on the ground in those games, why 45-7 happened.

Why, when asked about the Colts" current predicament in the offseason, owner Jim Irsay didn"t need a cheat sheet to convey his feelings.

He knew the numbers cold the 657 rushing yards the Colts have allowed to the Patriots in the teams" past three meetings, all mirror images of one another. The fact that Irsay has that statistic memorized, seared into his mind like a nightmare-on-repeat that won"t go away?

That says it all.

The champs are coming to town, the team that has knocked the Colts from the playoffs each of the past two seasons. Pagano was asked Friday if Sunday would provide a measuring stick as to where his football team truly sits. He said nothing of arteries, or sutures, or stopping the bleeding.

"Really not concerned with that," he said. "Our concern is us right now and getting better, so that"s what we"re doing right now. The guys are watching the tape, evaluating it, looking at the positives, looking at areas where individually and position group-wise, offense, defense, special teams, where we can get better. Our focus is on us and us only. We know we"ve got a big game coming up because it"s the next game."

But this is the Patriots. Pagano has to love the challenge of facing the Patriots, right?

"I love the challenge of coming here every day as a coach," he said. "Our players love the challenge of coming in every day as players, coming in and challenging themselves to get better. That"s the challenge that we kind of wrap our minds around. We"re worried about us."

They should be worried about the Patriots, and about Bill Belichick, and about Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski.

The real sentiment in this locker room, the one hidden beneath the piles of clichs and non-answers, came from linebacker Trent Cole back in March, shortly after he signed with the Colts in free agency. It didn"t take long for Cole to learn.

"There"s a lot of energy here to win ballgames, to especially beat the Patriots," he said. "When I first got here, you could tell you just don"t use that word around here. But, hey, from what I"ve seen and heard and from what happened, there"s a lot of hatred and there"s nothing wrong with that."

No, there"s not. The only thing that"s wrong is not going out and doing something about it.

Call Star reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134. Follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.

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Source: http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nfl/colts/2015/10/12/before-biggest-game-season-colts-mum-patriots/73673024/

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Patriots Front Seven Preview: Versatile Pass-Rush Corps Assembled

Its time to find outif the 2015 New England Patriots canset a new highfor sacks by a Bill Belichick-coached defense. The goal isnt overlyoutlandish.

Surprisingly, that record isnt held by the 2004 Patriots, who had Mike Vrabel, Willie McGinest, Richard Seymour, Jarvis Green and Rosevelt Colvin obliterating blockers, or the 2007 team, withVrabel, Green, Colvin, Seymour, Adalius Thomas and Junior Seau, but by the 1992 and 1993 Cleveland Browns, led by Clay Matthews Jr., Rob Burnett,Michael Dean Perry and Anthony Pleasant.

Thisfront seven, which has the best talent and depth the Patriots have seen since 2007,has a chance to break that 23-year-old record.

The Patriots pass rush is led by a three-headed monster of defensive ends, Chandler Jones, Rob Ninkovich and Jabaal Sheard. Sheard figures to not only combine with Jones and Ninkovich on obvious passing downs but also give the starters some much-needed rest against the run.

The Patriots also can mix in rookies Trey Flowers and Geneo Grissom and first-year players Rufus Johnson and Eric Martin, all of whom impressed as pass rushers over the summer, either in training camp or the preseason.

Being hand-selected by Belichick, all of the above players have valuable versatility, which will allow Belichick to get creative with his personnel groupings. Jones, Flowers, Grissom and Johnson can line up at defensive end and defensive tackle, while Jones, Ninkovich, Sheard, Grissom and Martin have experience standing up at outside linebacker in a 3-4.

The Patriots startinglinebackers, Donta Hightower, Jamie Collins and Jerod Mayo, are three of the best in the NFL at blitzing, and they offer their own versatility, each being able to playin a 4-3 or 3-4 in any of the linebacker roles. Hightower and Collins alsohave experience at defensive end.

Hightower and Mayo are two of the best run-stuffing linebackers in the NFL, and Collins ability to cover tight ends is rare. If they stay healthy, the Patriots undoubtedly have the best 4-3 linebacker corps in the NFL.

Backup linebacker Jonathan Freeny was a pass rusher in college who has converted to linebacker in the NFL. Dane Fletcher will begin the season on the PUP list, but he knows the Patriots defense well.

The Patriots interior defenders are experienced pass rushers, as well. Dominique Easley is built from the same mold as Green, and his first step gives him an advantage over interior offensive linemen. Sealver Siliga, Malcom Brown and Alan Branch also regularly find themselves in the backfield, and Chris Jones, who will begin the season on PUP, is just one yearremoved from a six-sack season.

The Patriots will miss Vince Wilfork, who left over the offseason for the Houston Texans, against the run, but Siliga, Brown and Branch provide big bodies who can clog the line of scrimmage while Mayo, Hightower and Collins clean up with their smart, dependable play.

The Patriots also have Collins college teammate, defensive tackle Khyri Thornton, who is a bit of an unknown after missinghis entire rookie season last yearas a third-round pick by the Green Bay Packers.

The Patriots have talented pass rushers from top to bottom in their front seven, and theyll need to hurry the quarterback effectively to make up for a patchwork cornerback group. If they all stay healthy, topping the 1992 and 1993 Browns total of 48 sacks should be no problem for this versatile front seven.

Coming this week:Monday: Quarterbacks and offensive line previewTuesday: Offensive skill position previewWednesday: Front-seven previewThursday: Secondary preview

Thumbnail photo viaJeff Hanisch/USA TODAY Sports Images

Source: http://nesn.com/2015/09/patriots-front-seven-preview-versatile-pass-rush-corps-assembled/

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Bombshell ESPN Report: The Patriots Were Huge Cheaters And Roger Goodell ...

I want to hug and kiss this beautiful story from ESPNs Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham and take it out to a fancy dinner. Splendidly reported and brutally damning of both the New England Patriots and Roger Goodell, it alleges that the Patriots Spygate scandal was worse than anyone imaginedand was actively swept under the rug by the commissioner and the NFL.

You should read the story immediately, but the thrust is thisciting interviews with 90 sources in and around football as well as primary documents, ESPN reports that Bill Belichick and the Patriots videotaped opposing teams signals from 40 different games from 2000 through 2007. And when the scandal broke, Goodell did everything in his power to protect Robert Kraft, who was one of his strongest supporters and without whom he would not have been named commissioner. The thesis statement in this story is that the cover-upand if this report is accurate, the leagues actions cant be called anything else but a cover-upso rankled other owners that Goodell came down extra-hard on New England and Tom Brady for Ballghazi as a makeup call.

The Patriots defense for Spygatewhen they were caught taping Jets coaches signalshas always been that it was an honest mistake, that they had misinterpreted the rules. Their track record implies otherwise. Belichick reportedly placed his complex spying program in the hands of Ernie Adams, the Patriots mysterious director of football research. It began way back in 2000, Belichicks first year as New England coach, and only became more efficient as time went on.

As the Patriots became a dynasty and Belichick became the first coach to win three Super Bowls in four years, an entire system of covert videotaping was developed and a secret library created. It got out of control, a former Patriots assistant coach says. Sources with knowledge of the system say an advance scout would attend the games of upcoming Patriots opponents and assemble a spreadsheet of all the signals and corresponding plays. The scout would give it to Adams, who would spend most of the week in his office with the door closed, matching the notes to the tapes filmed from the sideline. Files were created, organized by opponent and by coach. During games, Walsh later told investigators, the Patriots videographers were told to look like media members, to tape over their team logos or turn their sweatshirt inside out, to wear credentials that said Patriots TV or Kraft Productions. The videographers also were provided with excuses for what to tell NFL security if asked what they were doing: Tell them youre filming the quarterbacks. Or the kickers. Or footage for a team show.

Former Patriots coaches and employees say the videotaping was just the tip of the iceberg.

Several of them acknowledge that during pregame warm-ups, a low-level Patriots employee would sneak into the visiting locker room and steal the play sheet, listing the first 20 or so scripted calls for the opposing teams offense. (The practice became so notorious that some coaches put out fake play sheets for the Patriots to swipe.) Numerous former employees say the Patriots would have someone rummage through the visiting team hotel for playbooks or scouting reports. Walsh later told investigators that he was once instructed to remove the labels and erase tapes of a Patriots practice because the team had illegally used a player on injured reserve. At Gillette Stadium, the scrambling and jamming of the opponents coach-to-quarterback radio line small s- that many teams do, according to a former Pats assistant coach occurred so often that one team asked a league official to sit in the coaches box during the game and wait for it to happen. Sure enough, on a key third down, the headset went out.

The Patriots taping apparently went undetected until 2006, when Packers security caught cameraman Matt Estrella filming illegally. (He claimed he was merely taking scenic shots for Kraft Productions.) That offseason, the NFL warned the Patriots in writing. Before the next years opener the Jets set up a sting operation, with the assistance of team and NFL security, to catch the Patriots in the act.

They caught Estrella filming, and actively trying to hide his employer.

During the first half, Jets security monitored Estrella, who held a camera and wore a polo shirt with a taped-over Patriots logo under a red media vest that said: NFL PHOTOGRAPHER 138. With the backing of Jets owner Woody Johnson and Tannenbaum, Jets security alerted NFL security, a step Mangini acknowledged publicly later that he never wanted. Shortly before halftime, security encircled and then confronted Estrella. He said he was with Kraft Productions.

Thats when the NFL stepped in, and by all accounts, never had any interest in anything other than making it all go away.

On Monday, the day after the game, the tape arrived at NFL headquarters. On Wednesday, Goodell spoke to Belichick over the phone, and the Pats coach assured the commissioner he had misinterpreted the rules and that it was a small mistake that didnt give the team a significant edge. In this conversation, according to ESPNs sources, Goodell did not believe the Patriots explanation, but did not press for details. Goodell didnt want to know how many games were taped, another source said.

On Thursday, the NFL announced the Patriots punishment. The entire official investigation had taken three days.

Privately, the NFL continued to act. The next week the league dispatched three executives, including general counsel Jeff Pash, to Foxborough. There they obtained eight videotapes of opposing teams and a stack of documents containing notes on other teams signals. Goodell ordered all the evidence to be destroyed.

This part of the report is unimpeachableit comes directly from the Patriots counsel.

Inside a room accessible only to Belichick and a few others, they found a library of scouting material containing videotapes of opponents signals, with detailed notes matching signals to plays for many teams going back seven seasons. Among them were handwritten diagrams of the defensive signals of the Pittsburgh Steelers, including the notes used in the January 2002 AFC Championship Game won by the Patriots 24-17. Yet almost as quickly as the tapes and notes were found, they were destroyed, on Goodells orders: League executives stomped the tapes into pieces and shredded the papers inside a Gillette Stadium conference room.

Jeff Pash stomped the tapes!

The next step was to get the controversy to blow over. Coaches and executives from the Steelers (who believed they had been taped prior to their 2002 AFC championship loss) and Eagles (the 2005 Super Bowl) put out public statements denying that the spying had anything to do with the games outcomes and supporting the NFLs investigation. We do not know if they were pressured to do so, but former Rams coach Mike Martz says Roger Goodell called him personally and urged him to do the same regarding the 2002 Super Bowl.

During a five-minute conversation, Martz recalls that the commissioner sounded panicked about Specters calls for a wider investigation. Martz also recalls that Goodell asked him to write a statement, saying that he was satisfied with the NFLs Spygate investigation and was certain the Patriots had not cheated and asking everyone to move on like leaders of the Steelers and Eagles had done.

He told me, The league doesnt need this. Were asking you to come out with a couple lines exonerating us and saying we did our due diligence, says Martz.

Martz believes the statement he gave was later changed by the NFL before being released.

Shown a copy of his statement this past July, Martz was stunned to read several sentences about Walsh that he says hes certain he did not write. It shocked me, he says. It appears embellished quite a bit some lines I know I didnt write. Who changed it? I dont know.

With the NFLs power brokers in lockstep, the league managed to avoid a congressional investigation. It appeared to be the end of things, but, apparently, not in the minds of the other owners.

ESPNs interviews with owners and executives paint a picture of an NFL as resentful of the Patriots special treatment as they were jealous of the teams onfield success. So when the Patriots were accused of illegally deflating footballsan overblown scandal if there ever was oneGoodell decided to bring down the hammer. The massive investigation, the unprecedented penalties, the preemptive court filing? All were apparently efforts to assuage other owners sick and tired of the Patriots getting away with things. One NFL owner declared Goodells heavy-handed response was his makeup call.

Ballghazi looks very different in this context. Not merely the NFLs usual clownish mishandling, its the culmination of 15 years of the Patriots bending and breaking the rules, and of pent-up acrimony accrued by Goodells chummy relationship with Kraft. The NFL, attempting to trump up the charges against Tom Brady, relied largely on his destruction of evidencea tactic, it turns out, with which the leagues investigators had firsthand familiarity.

And after all that, the NFL couldnt even get it to stick.

The Patriots have issued a statement in response to ESPNs report. It manages to sound strong and deny nothing.

Spygate to Deflategate: Inside what split the NFL and Patriots apart [ESPN]

Image via AP.

Source: http://deadspin.com/bombshell-espn-report-the-patriots-were-huge-cheaters-1729286402

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