5 non-PSI related Patriots thoughts

by Dakota Antelman

As roomers, comments and opinions regarding the "Deflategate" controversy in Foxboro seem to dominate football headlines this week, here is a look at a few non-deflation related Patriots thoughts and story lines...

Patriots practicing indoors

The Patriots held their first practice of the week inside the climate controlled Dana Farber Field House. With temperatures outside perched right around 35 degrees, the move could be one made in an effort to reacclimate the team to what indoor football is like. 

Next week's Super Bowl will of course be held in Glendale Arizona's University of Phoenix Stadium, a domed venue. 

Bryan Stork practicing again 

Rookie center Bryan Stork hit the field for practice on Thursday for the first time since he injured his knee during the Divisional Playoff round vs. Baltimore. According to multiple observations by members of the Patriots media present at the indoor practice, Stork wore a brace and a medical wrap around his left knee. 

Stork was still slightly hobbled by the injury but was surely well enough to be written in as being a "full participant" in the practice.

Still with over a week to go before the Super Bowl and with "Deflategate" dominating press conference topics, no comment has been made by the team about Stork's status for the big game. His participation Thursday remains a good sign nonetheless and at first glance works to remind fans of the sizable chance that he will be ready to go on February 1.

Richard Sherman commenting on Darelle Revis

Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman spoke to media personnel this week about Patriot, Darelle Revis, one of the few CBs in football who seem to challenge Sherman's self-proclaimed title of "best corner in the NFL."

While Revis openly said that he would not answer questions regarding any comparison to Sherman, Sherman responded to a comparison question Thursday saying, "I haven’t thought about that honestly, but he’s had a great year. He’s been doing his job effectively and I’ve liked what I’ve seen from his game. I’m sure people make comparisons, they always do. But I think we play the game two different ways."

He elaborated.

"He plays it more conventional is what people would say, and mine's a little more unorthodox, which means it’s just more difficult to replicate what I do on the football field. So everyone is going to make comparisons but it’s just two different styles to compare. I play my way, he plays his way, and both of them are effective."

As many have pointed out Sherman and Revis have an intense personal rivalry which predated a highly publicized Twitter feud back in 2013 over who was a superior CB. Sherman has been cordial so far in addressing the topic of Revis though while Revis has taken the absolute vow of silence.

HOWEVER...

Richard Sherman taking shots at Tom Brady

Patriot QB Tom Brady has a long list of players who hate him. Sherman apparently is one of them. 

The two famously engaged in an on field verbal scuffle after the Patriots last played the Seahawks in 2012. Sherman and Brady exchanged trash talk before Sherman ultimately took to Twitter to post the now famous taunt "U MAD BRO?" 

This week, Sherman shed light on the moment. He in fact blamed Brady for instigating the clash.

"He was pretty much saying that we were nobodies, and that we should come up to him after they get the win. So we should take that pretty well. ‘Cool, can I get your autograph too?’"He said.

Sherman then more blatantly undercut what he believes to be a facade of professionalism that Brady has created.

"Like I said before, I think people some time get a skewed view of Tom Brady," Sherman explained. "That he’s just a clean-cut [guy], does everything right, and never says a bad word to anyone, and we know him to be otherwise. But in that moment of him being himself, he said some things and we returned the favor. Unfortunately he apparently didn’t remember what he said."

Date for Super Bowl sendoff rally set 

Earlier this week, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and the City of Boston announced that a date had been set for the Patriots Super Bowl sendoff rally. 

The rally will take place next Monday at 11AM in City Hall Plaza. Walsh will be hosting the rally while Patriot owner Robert Kraft, coach Bill Belichick and players Tom Brady, Vince Wilfork, Dan Connolly, Devin McCourty and Matthew Slater are all slated to speak. 

The Patriots will depart for Glendale following the conclusion of the rally.

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Very early look at Patriots vs. Seahawks Super Bowl storylines

(Photo by Elaine Thompson/Associated Press)

by Dakota Antelman

The combatants who will battle in Super Bowl XLIX were decided Sunday afternoon when the Seattle Seahawks toppled the Green Bay Packers by a score of 28-22 and the New England Patriots routed the Colts 45-7.

As their February 1 date at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale Arizona nears, the Patriots and Seahawks prep for each other's scheme riddled play calling and power heavy offences.

Below are some initial observations and storylines made at the very beginning of these team's Super Bowl preparations...

Comeback king Seahawks vs. dominant Patriots

The Patriots and Sehawks are alike in the sense that they both finished the season with the best record in their conference and proceeded to win their conference championship. Aside from that, they are two teams with vastly different paths to this season's Super Bowl.

Seattle started the year with a record of four and three and took much longer to find its identity in 2014 than the Patriots did. Furthermore, once they did start winning games, they were only doing so by 7 to 10 points. The Patriots on the other hand scored 40 or more points on five different occasions during a stretch where they won 10 of 11 games between Week 5 and Week 16.

Lastly, in the AFC Championship game, they blew the Colts away with ease while the Seahawks needed a last second drive from Russell Wilson and a stunning overtime hail mary to advance to the Super Bowl.

Pete Caroll faces his old team

Before Tom Brady was in New England and before Bill Belichick left the Jets to coach the Patriots, Pete Caroll spent three seasons as the Patriot bench boss.

He inherited the job from hall of fame bound Bill Parcels before the 1997 season and promptly led the team on a mediocre 27-21 three year run. Caroll was fired after the 1999 season and was replaced by Belichick.

As Belichick earned national recognition as one of the greatest coaches in the history of football, Caroll trundled around the college football ranks before breaking back into the NFL in 2010 as coach of the Seahawks.

He enters this rare meeting with the team that fired him looking to win his second Super Bowl as a head coach.

Brady and Belichick get yet another shot at 4th title

Over the course of 15 seasons, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick have now been to six Super Bowls. Their last two appearances have not gone exactly to plan though with losses being handed to them by the Giants in 2007 and 2011.

In 2015, the Brady/Belichick duo are desperate to avoid having the same number of Super Bowl losses as wins.

As for their chances, this year's Super Bowl, according to Las Vegas is the closest in history. When betting opened on Monday, multiple lines offered a pick-em while still others favored either the Patriots or Seahawks by only one or two points.

If Brady can swing those odds in his favor on February 1st, he will win the Super Bowl and tie Joe Montana for the most Super Bowl rings in NFL history.

Doing that, for many, would erase much of the pain felt by those painful losses to the Giants.

Major injuries on both sides could effect game

The last time the Patriots got to the Super Bowl they did so with depleted forces.

In 2015, injuries will once again be a major storyline going into Super Bowl Sunday. This time though, the bug has bitten both teams.

Notably, eccentric Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman was limited in the NFC Championship game with a sprained elbow. Beyond him, teammate Earl Thomas was in a "dire situation" Sunday according to coach Pete Carrol after he dislocated his shoulder in the first half.

While both Sherman and Thomas had MRI's Monday and are expected to play in the Super Bowl, their injuries could have lingering effects two weeks from now and lead to an amended approach for the Patriots offence and secondary.

On the Patriots side of the ball, rookie center Bryan Stork was the biggest Patriots injury story going into the AFC Championship and will likely remain so for the next two weeks. He sprained his knee in the Divisional Playoff Game against Baltimore and missed Sunday's game vs. the Colts. The Patriots are yet to comment on his status for the Super Bowl.

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Analysis: Patriot pocket protection throughout season

Please note, Week 10 is omitted so as to not cause confusion. The Patriots did not play in Week 10 as it was their BYE. As a result, the figure jumps from 9 to 11 along the "Weeks" axis for the sake of accuracy.

 The Patriots will play the Indianapolis Colts Sunday with an offensive line, shuffled by a recent knee injury to center Bryan Stork. That storyline has reopened the season-long conversation about the effectiveness of the offensive line at keeping pressure off quarterback Tom Brady. 

The above figure is an analytic representation of the sacks and QB hits allowed by the Patriot offensive line (Week 10 BYE week omitted). Those two statistics prove telling in the judging of a offensive line. Very simply, when the quarterback is not getting hit and/or sacked, the line is keeping control of defenders pressing their way. When the QB is getting knocked down, that means the defenders are beating them. 

A quick glance at the Patriots OL numbers this season shows rather sporadic work at different points in the year. 

The first four games of the season, which were marred with inconsistencies within most every part of the team, involved six sacks by New England opponents. Tom Brady was hit 18 times in those games and, consequentially finished Week Four's loss to the Chiefs with a season completion percentage of  61.1 and a four game passer rating of 80.95. 

Following the abysmal start though, the OL locked down and allowed just 9 sacks over the next 10 games. With less pressure, Brady himself turned his season around. He threw for two or more touchdowns in all ten of those games and successfully lead his team on a seven game win streak that toppled many of the NFL's best teams. 

After the Patriots clenched the AFC East and soon after, the number one spot in the conference, the offensive line ran into trouble once again. 

They allowed four sacks in back to back games against the Jets and Bills. Tom Brady was hit 17 times in just those two games alone and was forced to run far more than he would have liked. In the finale against Buffalo, the offence was rendered stagnant partially because of the Bills pass rush. Brady threw for just 80 yards before being pulled from the game in the third quarter. 

Things ended up slightly better two weeks later in the Divisional Playoff game vs Baltimore. Allowing just two sacks, the offensive linemen managed to keep the Ravens off Brady long enough to let him make his throws.  He was still hit nine times, far too many for an offensive line as physically powerful as the Patriots'. 

The Patriots will go up against the Colts without Bryan Stork and yet they cannot feel bad for themselves. Stork was not the entire OL and at times this season, the unit as a whole played a shutdown game for the team. 

If they can get the same results that they did between Week 4 and Week 15 Sunday in the AFC Title Game, all will be well. If they choose to keep with the trend set in the first four games of the year as well as the last three, than look to the running backs to bail Brady and company out of this one. 

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Why even without Stork, Brady and Co. should be able to deal with Colts pass rush

(Photo by the AP)

by Dakota Antelman

In a season where the defense has been hailed as one of the best of the Belichick era and the offense has been clicking at a rate similar to 2007's, the offensive line has at times been woefully bad. At certain points in the season Tom Brady has appeared to be perpetually under pressure from sometimes sub-par opposing pass rushes.

That has been especially true in recent games where the Patriots line has caved with painful regularity. That combined with the news that Bryan Stork will not play Sunday due to a knee injury  has the potential to strike fear into the hearts of Patriots fans the world over.

But before the alarms are completely sounded and the panic button hit, fans could take a look at the trends shown by these teams that have so effectively exploited the Patriots; then they would see that the Indianapolis Colts do not fit that trend.

Of the eight teams that the Patriots have faced since their BYE week, six of them finished the season in the top ten in the league in sacks. Furthermore, of those eight teams, all but two of them had more sacks that the Colts currently do.

The Colts, though possessing a somewhat acceptable blitz, have the weakest pass rush the Patriots have gone up against in weeks. Arguably, Sunday could be the easiest day for the offensive line since Week 14 in San Diego -- even without big bodied Bryan Stork.

So what does this mean for Tom Brady and company?

Not much. This is true simply because even when the pass protection has been bad, Brady has found ways to move the ball down the field.

Through what has been some rough few weeks for the Patriot QB, Brady has not dipped noticeably in his completions.

In Week 16 against the Jets, one of the most definitive flops made by the O-Line, Brady was hit 11 times and sacked four times. He kept mobile though, getting passes off before contact was made, and eventually throwing for 182 passing yards as well as a touchdown.

Last week, against the Ravens, Brady was hit 9 times and dragged down for a pair of sacks. He played lights out football late in the game though, ending the day with 367 yards through the air and three touchdown passes.

2014 has been a year of redefinition for Brady. He has been completing passes at his more regular rate but has suddenly introduced a new style of mobility to his game. He has ran the ball for some of the best gains of his career this season.

He is shaking tackles and throwing on the run. With an unrivaled arsenal of talented receivers, he has been able to complete those throws with great success and consistency.

His mobility is allowing him and the Patriots offence to break away from the traditional pocket-passer approach that has defined their offense for over a decade and a half now.

Needless to say, if the offensive line can pin the Colts down and give Brady a comfortable pocket to throw from Sunday, he will oblige.

Very simply, the AFC Championship Game looks to be one that Brady will dominate. Either through his new found mobility or through his traditional cannon throws from behind the capable backs of his offensive linemen, the Colts secondary could soon be inundated by big gains.

If that turns out to be the case, I would challenge anyone who could think of a scenario where the Colts could turn in a victory.

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Patriot Bryan Stork out vs. Colts

(Photo by Getty Images)

by Dakota Antelman

After missing all three team practices this week, the Patriots officially listed center Bryan Stork as "out" for Sunday's AFC Championship Game vs. the Colts.

Stork injured his knee last week vs. the Ravens and has been a touchy subject for Patriots coaches and players this week. Bill Belichick devoted no time to answering questions on Stork, obviously taking the injury one day at a time.

As soreness apparently persists in Stork's knee though, the team was forced to make the call Friday morning, holding him out of practice and effectively disqualifying him from Sunday's game.

Stork's absence reincarnates what was somewhat of a revolving door on the offensive line a week ago. General speculation from Patriot media outlets suggests that the team will have guard Ryan Wendell playing center while rookie Cameron Fleming and possibly reserve OL, Josh Kline, will get time Wendell's normal place.

Little will be stable on an offensive line that has been grossly unstable at many points during the year.

That being said, of all the weeks for New England to suffer an injury blow to their offensive line as severe as this, this might be the best one. The Colts have one of the weakest pass rushes the Patriots have faced in over a month. In the most telling statistic when rating a pass rush, sacks, the Colts ranked 9th in the NHL this season, tied with the Broncos, Packers, and Vikings with 41.

That is worse or equal to the sacks totals of 7 of the last 9 teams the Patriots have faced this season.

The Patriots face the Colts at 6:40PM on Saturday in Foxboro. Then and there they will try to keep pressure off Tom Brady and, even without Stork, dispatch a Colts team they is heavily favored to beat.

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