Penned by Rj

[pennedbyrj]

Stat you need to know: Brady’s career has been a study in steady greatness, but it’s also bookended by both individual and team accomplishments. There simply hasn’t been much decline, and if anything, Brady might have improved in his later years. His first and most recent MVP seasons came a decade apart. Brady’s first and most recent passing yards titles were 12 years apart. His first and most recent passing touchdowns titles were 13 years apart. More than any other numbers, a single line exemplifies what Brady’s legacy will be: In 17 healthy seasons as a starter, he’s made more Super Bowls (9) than he’s missed (8).

Top 25 Quarterbacks Of All Time

[therosetherockthequeen]

Choice

He said to Her,

I have always heard that you get to choose who you love. But I did not.

I saw your smile. I heard your laugh.

Tell me, what choice did I have.

[pennedbyrj]

808s is a reflection on a Faustian bargain gone wrong, a message from a man who achieved everything he wanted—fame, fortune, critical adoration, and a place in canon—but realized too late that it was at too high a cost and, to his horror, there was no going back. 808s is the sound of living with decisions you regret.

Kanye West albums, ranked best to worst

[pennedbyrj]

Offenses can’t score against them. Defenses can’t stop them. They create points on special teams. They manage the game, the clock and their opponents like simple arithmetic while every other team’s doing trigonometry. What was broken in September has been long fixed.

Hard to find a Patriots equal in soft AFC fw.to/OBJykkD

[pennedbyrj]

*Until I hear otherwise, I’m going with this theory. Something I wrote about last week and seems to be confirmed by this game. That the Patriots scheme is complex, which is why so often it looks like anarchy early on in the season, but usually among the league’s best once you start getting up into the range of 50-60 practices. My old work friend had a BMW that I loved. It had heated seats that felt like your ass was being warmed by the wings of Pegasus and the engine sounded like a choir of angels. But it was a precision machine that needed tons of maintenance that my tank-like Explorer didn’t, which is why I was always giving him rides to work from the shop up the street. That is the Belichick/Patricia scheme. It allows you to swap out freakishly athletic specimens like Chandler Jones and Jamie Collins for their generic store brand equivalents like Cassius Marsh and Kyle Van Noy. But it takes time, attention and practice to get it tuned up and running a peak efficiency. This week, just to officially beat this metaphor to death with a cliche, it finally fired on all cylinders.

Knee Jerk Reactions to Week 7: Patriots vs Falcons

[pennedbyrj]

I was always taught to write your heart, write your life.

Scarface, “Mind Playing Tricks On Me” Started as a Scarface Record

[pennedbyrj]

We can find the love our hearts long for, but not until we let go of grief about the love we lost long ago...

bell hooks, All About Love

[pennedbyrj]

I’ve always acknowledged Rex Ryan’s abilities to scheme up a great defensive game plan. But Sunday in Orchard Park you saw the perfect contrast to his and Rob Ryan’s style versus Bill Belichick’s. And when you look at their backgrounds it all makes sense. Belichick’s safe, conservative style that prevents the big, quick-strike play and forces you to sustain a drive reflects a man raised by a defensive coordinator who refused head coaching jobs and became a tenured professor at Navy so his family would have stability. Rex and Rob’s attacking, gambling, risk/reward style reflects two guys raised by a defensive coordinator who once tried to punch his offensive coach in the jaw.

Knee-Jerk Reactions, Week 8: Patriots vs. Bills

[pennedbyrj]

The key for the Patriots season is simply this: they’ve got to get teams to respect the running game enough to where they can’t just play nickel the whole game. When we walked off the field in Denver, that was the goal of the offseason. We cannot play a team that just basically says to us, or say to them, ‘look, we’re just going to line up in dime, if you want to run the ball, you’ll get two yards. We’re going to line up and dime and no matter what you want to do we’re not going to do anything.

Michael Lombardi

[pennedbyrj]

The importance of The Prisoner of Azkaban to the Harry Potter film series cannot be overstated. This is the movie that established the creative direction and formula for the films that followed, as the series faced a crucial issue post-Chamber of Secrets. How does one adapt increasingly lengthy books into satisfying feature films? The solution: everything that is told from Harry’s point of view or that directly affects his character goes in, everything else is fair game for being dropped.

‘Harry Potter’ Movies Ranked from Worst to Best

[pennedbyrj]

“One of the slogans around here is, ‘Don’t let what you can’t do dictate what you can do,'” said Cooper. “So every aspect other than what I couldn’t physically do, whether that’s the mental aspects, whether that’s just extra work on the body parts that I could [work on], it’s just doing that and taking full advantage of the time I have.” It’s a simple idea: don’t worry about what you can’t do well, just focus on what you can.

Jonathan Cooper Shares Patriots Mantra: ‘Don’t Let What You Can’t Do Dictate What You Can Do’

[pennedbyrj]

On paper, I’m not sure I can remember being more excited about a squad headed into a season. What 2007’s offensive promise was, 2016’s defensive promise is. I’d put this defense up man-for-man against the hallowed 2003 and 2004 defenses. All are deep, versatile and talented all over.

Pats Posits: Time to Get the Jimmy Thing Over With

[pennedbyrj]

The advantage Mingo brings is that his speed is frightening and must be accounted for by the defense. In third-and-long situations Mingo is an excellent chess piece because he brings similar skills to Collins and Hightower. So now you have three linebackers with an elite skill — Collins is pure athleticism, Hightower is pure power and Mingo is pure speed.

A Closer Look at Barkevious Mingo’s Patriots Debut

[pennedbyrj]

Still, for all the debate that rages in Patriots nation right now, all that really matters are injuries. Tell me in January how many guys are on Injured Reserve and I’ll tell you exactly how the Patriots season went and what their Super Bowl chances are.  That’s where the Patriots are now. They’re a hand-picked, finely-tuned football team that is better coached than any one else. The only way they don’t make it within a play or two of their fifth Super Bowl is if the wrong guys get hurt.

Random Pats Musings on the Final Preseason Game of 2016 (and more)

[pennedbyrj]

Gradually break it down and work from there.

Joe Thuney

[pennedbyrj]

The philosophy is pretty simple - spend money on the front seven and offensive line. Of course you have to pay your quarterback too, but wide receivers, cornerbacks, and running backs (really the second level of high profile football positions) are really just plug and play as long as you have the guys to block and the guys to get after the opposing quarterbacks.

The Most Injured NFL Teams Since the 2009 Season – Man Games Lost

[pennedbyrj]

The pass-catching running back is an undervalued asset in football, a player who often spends his career moving around the league and reestablishing himself as a worthwhile talent in each stop. They often sign short-term contracts in free agency for less money than their numbers warrant. Take the most similar player to Sproles, Danny Woodhead. After signing Woodhead off waivers from the Jets, the Patriots used him in a limited role as their backup halfback from 2010 to 2012, during which he averaged 4.8 yards per carry and 10.7 yards per catch on 7.6 touches per game. With a ready replacement in Shane Vereen, the Patriots let Woodhead leave in free agency, where he got a two-year, $3.5 million deal from the Chargers. All he did there was produce 1,034 yards from scrimmage on 182 touches in 2013, scoring eight touchdowns in the process. Any team in football could use that for $1.75 million.

Darren Sproles Is the NFL’s Extra Value Meal