Identity Football

I don't know why I should care, but when pigskin pundits and bobbleheads talk smack about my pigskin heroes, it makes me so mad. I mean, maybe my baby is ugly, but, get my baby's name out of your mouth!

I don't know if I can be objective about the Patriots but I will admit, I'm not really sure what to make of them. 

At 3-4-0 it's hard to say they're "good." Then again, I'd probably have doubts about that alternate universe 6-1-0 Patriots, what with those improbable, close wins against the Buccaneers and Cowboys, the mind boggling loss to the Saints and the equally boggling underperforming win against the Texans. I'd fully expect pigskin pundits and bobbleheads to call that fictional New England team the weakest 6-1-0 team in the league. 

But are the really real 2021 New England Patriots, as I heard in a recent comment, "trash?"

Was the 54-13 win over the Jets a sign that - like so many of Bill Belichick's teams over the years - getting better as the foliage turns to compost and Thanksgiving checks Halloween in the rear view?

A lot of ins and outs here.

When the Patriots were winning their first three Super Bowls, they were the quintessential Belichick teams, teams without stars, teams that played fundamentally sound, situationally smart, complementary football. Remember, this was before we all knew Tom Brady was Tom Brady. And he was throwing passes to guys named David that will only get into the Hall of Fame by buying a ticket.

In the modern NFL, it's hard to figure out a team that's built like that. It's hard to understand why they always seem to win. 

You might even be tempted to think they were cheating.

You know, because you're a spoilsport cry baby sore loser a-hole.

The modern NFL is all about stars, going all the way back (at least) to the Cowboys' "Triplets" of Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin. Stars are easy to understand, adulate, scapegoat, and celebrate. Stars put teams on their backs. Stars will their teams to win. Stars sell tickets and shoes and cryptocurrency and justify the obscene amount of TV money that's paid for the NFL to sell Nacho Cheese Doritos.

The 2021 New England Patriots are, arguably, a team without any stars. They have some good players, certainly, but there aren't any Patriots that will be mentioned in MVP or Offensive and Defensive POY discussions. There aren't any Patriots on any of the statistical leader boards, either. Mac Jones is just barely in the Top 5 for ROY rankings. (Or not, depending on who you're asking.) Mac Jones. That's the list. And even that comes with some caveats. The gridiron cognoscenti will not easily give up on their view that Jones is - maybe, possibly - the next Andy Dalton (Kirk Cousins?) and not the first Mac Jones. 

Say it with me: He's a system quarterback.

I get it. He doesn't look like Trevor Lawrence, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, or Justin Herbert. He isn't gifted with the athleticism of a Kyler Murray, Russell Wilson, or Lamar Jackson. Somehow, though, he's 9th in passing yards and 4th in completion percentage. 

11 different players caught passes last Sunday. Not one of them was targeted more than 7 times. 

Pass catching stars like Cooper Kupp, Davante Adams, Deebo Samuel, and Tyreek Hill are averaging 10 targets a game.

It strikes me this is the key to Belichick's football philosophy. He will identify that star on the other team that makes them go and create a game plan to nullify that player. He all 11 players on defense doing their jobs, taking out that one player on offense that makes the opponent's offense go, leaving the other 10 to wonder, well, now what do we do? 

He knows it's still a game of field position. Most NFL offenses can't consistently string together drives of 10-12 plays without doing something stupid. So, most NFL offenses are built to create chunk plays. Keep everything in front of you, don't allow those chunk plays and wait for the false start penalties, the holding penalties, the opposing QB getting frustrated, perhaps even forcing a pass into coverage. 

Yes. It's boring at times. It's a style based on concepts from economics and no wonder then that it's boring. It's a style that has led me to Google home defibrillators on more than one occasion (unfortunately my health insurance wouldn't cover it). But it is a style without a specific identity, making it difficult to assess and game-plan for. And that makes for a style that is endlessly fascinating.

The consensus among pigskin pundits and bobbleheads is that the Patriots should be able to run the football against the Chargers. Will Belichick and Josh McDaniels use that against San Diego by dialing up play-action passes early and often?

Does Belichick invite/dare the Chargers to run the football, to take the ball out of San Diego's star QB Justin Herbert's hands (not to mention to cover up for the Patriots' patchwork defensive backfield)? How many down lineman will we see on defense? Will they blitz or play coverage or mix and match?

I can hardly wait to find out.