Finding flaws in the Patriots’ game

By Os Davis  |   Tuesday, October 23, 2007  |  Comments( 0 )

New England Patriots
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You know what's not coming easy to the New England Patriots this season? Creating negatives for journalists and analysts to pick at. Over at the Patriots' official Web site, they're trying hard to find chinks in the armor and address a couple of key issues for the seemingly unstoppable team that showed up in the 49-28 immolation of the Miami Dolphins on Sunday. I'd add a third.

First, there's Matt Cassel, or specifically speaking, "the coaching staff's apparent lack of confidence in Cassel." Fair point here. Cassel indeed looked as unbelievably lame in his three plays as one possibly could against a bad and beaten Miami Dolphins defense: We now understand what precipitated the taking on of Vinny Testaverde last season.

(You don't have to be a Belichick to figure out this one. Playing Madden 2007, I ran with the Patriots to a 12-0 start before Brady went down with a season-ending concussion. Rather than risk implementing Cassel, I grabbed big names Mike McMahon and Marques Tuiasosopo off waivers. Testaverde wasn't available.)

The interesting question here is how high in the draft New England goes with a quarterback to back Brady up in an emergency. And Belichick is preparing for an emergency, have no doubt - more on this momentarily. Though their seemingly late first-round draft pick is forfeit thanks to Videogate, they still have the San Francisco 49ers' No. 1, which is increasingly looking like a top-10 choice.

Then there's the effort on the part of the 'D' later on in the laugher against the Dolphins. Patriots.com goes a bit old maiden aunt here but presents a salient point of the New England game plan in 2007: "Defenders shouldn't get in the habit of letting their guard down or easing up on the fundamentals of wrapping up an opponent. In games to come, i.e. the Colts in two weeks, missed tackles could cost the Patriots dearly."

And this is the crux of the matter. While Belichick may indeed be blowing out opponents for the sake of history, to erase the black mark from the historical record, I believe that stuff like the fake spike near the end of the Miami game's first half is purposeful beyond racking up BCS points. Though Belichick may be conscious of history, he is certainly conscious of the playoffs: Last year, the Patriots were a play (the Reche Caldwell drop in the red zone) or two (Troy Brown's poorly run route in the fourth) from playing in the Super Bowl.

That won't happen this year if the coach can help it; all these games, every play, is a dress rehearsal for the real thing, at which time the Patriots must be perfect. Call Belichick ultra-careful, call him paranoid, just don't call him a loser.

This writer would add a third point of concern, especially if this team has always been about running through the playoffs: the red zone defense. The first six touchdowns scored against the Patriot 'D' this season, spread over the first four games, were all scored inside the red zone. In fact, opponents started a perfect 6 for 6 inside the red zone in those games. "Ridiculous" was how The Man himself described it.

The Dallas Cowboys put together 17 points from drives getting to the 20 or closer, scoring the first three times they got into the red zone in the second and third quarters. When Patriots.com talks about slack play, guess wherein it was most indicative? You guessed it -- on two red zone TDs in the fourth quarter.

Unbelievable to think that red zone and goal-line 'D' has been a hallmark of these Belichick teams, and this year, it's becoming near-guaranteed points on the board.

Now, all right, all right, it's true that New England hasn't been tested in 2007; yes, the Cowboys went up in the third quarter against 'em, but the subsequent no-nonsense, 77-yard drive put together by Brady quashed that fear. If the fairly low-watt Washington offense doesn't scare the navy blue-and-silver on Sunday into putting up a front near the goal line, the Colts surely will in two weeks.

Or maybe I'm just going old maiden aunt here ...

Ever examining all year-round at RealFootball365.com
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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