Patriots Blues

For the umpteenth week in a row, the New England Patriots could not put together 60 solid minutes of football. The defense was okay, but failed to come up with big stops when needed, such as on the 4th and 5 play in the forth quarter when Charles Clay escaped a tackle on a screen pass to get the first down and keep the drive going (I’ll give credit where credit is due, that was a very nice play). It’s blatantly obvious that this defense is not a very good unit without Vince Wilfork, Jerod Mayo and Tommy Kelly in the middle. While guys like Joe Vallano, Isaac Sopoaga and Chris Jones have given their maximum effort all year and been suitable replacements, it is clear that they have a disadvantage when it comes to their front seven against almost any line in the league. They continue to show that they can’t stop the running game, and therefore almost any quarterback in the league can torch the secondary for big gains (ie. Jason Campbell, Case Keenum, Geno Smith). Essentially, there is mediocrity across the entire roster and Tom Brady’s career is just sand in the hour glass being wasted by a lack of personnel. 

Image courtesy of ESPN.com

Tom Brady is 36 years old right now. Time is of the essence, and while the Pats still have this gift from the Gods, we as fans should be outraged at the Patriots’ inability to put some solid players around him. The depth at the wide receiver and tight end position coming into this season was already am absolute joke, and it seems the entire organization and fan base was banking on Gronk to come in and save the day. When he was on the field this offense was clearly much better than when he was not on the field, but in the NFL you need to have more depth. At wide receiver, the starters from this past game against Miami were Danny Amendola, Julian Edelman and Josh Boyce who stand 5’ 11”, 5’ 10”, and 5’ 11”, respectively. This is a joke, in my opinion. I am aware that Dobson and Thompkins are hurt, who are 6’ 3” and 6’ 1”, respectively, as well as Gronk who is 6’ 7”, but the lack of size at the wide receiver position is definitely a concern. 

On the subject of the offensive struggles... WHY ARE WE NOT RUNNING THE BALL?? Especially in the redzone, where our lack of size without Gronk is blatantly apparant. We all know Ridley has had his fumbling issues, but c’mon Bill and Josh you gotta give the guy a chance. He’s the best runner we have, in terms of down hill running and making guys miss. Their offense takes on a different element when he’s out there, especially when he’s running the ball in the way he’s capable of. Blount can not do some of the things that Ridley can do on the field. We need Stevan Ridley down the stretch Bill, let the dude play!

The offensive line is a big issue right now. Tom has been hit far too often this year, especially in the past couple games. He hasn’t had enough time in the pocket to let the plays develop in the way they’re supposed to. The loss of Volmer was fixable, but losing Solder is a whole bigger problem. He has had two head injuries in a matter of a week, along with some type of lower body injury he was working on with trainers before the game. If they lose Solder for an extended period of time, that is a big problem for this offense as he has been one of the best tackles in the league this year and a huge (literally) piece of this offensive line. 

Basically what I’m trying to say is that this team is in a lot of trouble, to put it bluntly. They’re not getting to the Super Bowl, and they would be very lucky to get to the AFC Championship game at this point given the injury situation and lack of personell The NFL is all about match ups, and Bill has his hands full trying to make match ups that will go in his teams favor.