New England Patriots: 5 observations from Week 17 win over Jets

The New England Patriots finished up their season with a 26-6 win over the New York Jets, giving them a 13-3 record in the regular season.

Well, we made it. We’ve witnessed wins, losses, great plays, bad plays, controversial calls, and injuries. Now, the New England Patriots finally get to play some real football. Well, after their first round bye, of course.

Yes, the NFL’s regular season is over. I hope you didn’t blink, because it went by quicker than Dion Lewis in the open field. 17 weeks have come and gone, and to nobody’s surprise, the Patriots are still playing football.

This past Sunday, their victim was the New York Jets. Todd Bowles and his poor excuse for a football team didn’t stand a chance, as they were held to two field goals the entire game. Even when the Patriots seemed slow on offense, they managed to build up a 20 point lead.

So, folks, we’ve been through a lot. But now, our work really starts. Sure, we get to take a 1 week hiatus and prepare for Saturday, January 13th, but that doesn’t mean we get to sit on our butts and do nothing. To quote Happy Gilmore before staging one of the greatest comebacks in golf history: “The way I see it, we’ve only just begun.”

This is our chance to show the strength of our fandom. In the immortal words of Bill Belichick, “No. Days. Off.” Fire up the Twitter machine, send out your hot takes, and bully opposing fan bases into submission. The postseason is where we separate ourselves.

Welcome back to the final regular season installment of my “5 observations”, where I write about 5 things I saw and considered notable. It could be anything from a great play to a funny sign I saw in the stands. Without further ado…

Jedi mind tricks

You can have all the God given talent in the world, but if you’ve got nothing between the ears, you won’t succeed. No one is more cognizant of that fact than Bill Belichick.

Naturally, Belichick decided to channel his inner Jedi and play a few mind tricks on the Jets. He chose to do something so small, so insignificant, that it would disrupt the Jets psyches without them even realizing it. The simplicity of his mind control would make Leonardo DiCaprio’s character from Inception proud.

The move? He put big thermometers in the Jets tunnel. “And then what, Ben? I don’t get it.” Well, that’s it. Seriously. All he wanted to do was remind their players how brutally cold out it was. “Brick”, as the kids would say.

Therein lies Bill Belichick’s genius. It’s impossible to tell whether this tactic worked or not, but it took minimal effort to put into action. If even one player or coach for the Jets looked at the thermometer and said “wow, it’s really cold out”, then it was worth it.

A lot of people are trying to minimize this move, saying that the Jets already knew it was cold. That it was freezing in New York too. Well, the naysayers may be right, but they’re also completely wrong.

Of course anyone standing outside in 0 degree weather could tell you it’s cold. However, a good player will do whatever it takes to neutralize the elements. Maybe Bryce Petty had convinced himself it wasn’t that cold out. When he took a look at the giant, strategically placed thermometer in the tunnel, he said “Oh s*%t, it really is cold”. Checkmate.

Welcome, James Harrison

I would like to make a public announcement that I am happy to have James Harrison on the New England Patriots. You hear that, Steelers fans? James Harrison is on the New England Patriots.

Harrison played his first game in a Pats uniform on Sunday, and he didn’t disappoint. He’s the oldest defensive player in the NFL, but he looked explosive.

Related Story: James Harrison proved he can still make an impact

That’s probably due to him playing just 40 snaps all season with the Steelers. His legs are fresh and he’s hungry to stick it to his former team. Thank you for that, Mike Tomlin.

In his Patriots debut, Harrison had 5 total tackles, two of which were sacks. The veteran linebacker didn’t play every snap, but he showed quickness and intuition when he was on the field.

He even set the edge, which we haven’t seen a Patriots player do in what feels like forever.

Now, I would like to make a public apology to Mr. Harrison and the New England Patriots organization. When the Patriots announced the acquisition of Harrison, I accused him of being a Steelers spy.

Not only did I underestimate Harrison’s character, but the intelligence and decision making skills of the Patriots personnel. It’s clear to me now that Harrison has moved on from the Black and Yellow and is firmly entrenched in the Patriots title defense campaign.

I hope you can accept my apology, Mr. Harrison. I was partially kidding, after all.

No Gronk, No Problem

Despite what the box score might indicate, Rob Gronkowski was, in fact, active this past Sunday. He was in for most of the Patriots snaps, but he didn’t record a single catch. As a matter of fact, he wasn’t even targeted on Sunday.

If you look back in Gronk’s career game logs, you’d be hard pressed to find the last time he wasn’t targeted. You’ll actually never find the last time that happened, because this was the first time in his career that Gronk was active and wasn’t thrown to.

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The last time Gronk didn’t record a reception in a game was November 27th, 2016, against… the New York Jets.

Fortunately for the New England Patriots, they didn’t need Gronk and his utter dominance to win on Sunday. He was still an important part of the rushing attack, setting many key blocks for Dion Lewis and Brandon Bolden.

You can chalk this game up as a statistical anomaly, and don’t expect it to happen again. It doesn’t matter whether Deion Sanders is on Gronk next game, he’ll get open and record at least one catch.

Moving forward, Gronk has to be involved heavily in the Patriots aerial attack. He’s the most dominant receiving tight end in the NFL, and he should be targeted as such. We’ve seen him take over games, and he will continue to do so as long as he’s healthy.

I’ll go so far as to say this will never happen again, though I do think it happened for a reason this time.

Thanks to a higher, Freudian power, Gronk finished the regular season with 69 total receptions. It’s his favorite number, for some unknown* reason. You can’t script that.

*wink wink

Half way there

Whooooaaaaa, we’re halfway there, whooaaaaaaa! Livin’ on a prayer, take my hand and we’ll make it I swear, whooooaaaaaa, livin’ on a prayer!

That, my friends, is the chorus to a song by the talented and incomparable Jon Bon Jovi. More recently, however, it was sung by Patriots fans at Gillette Stadium when the game entered halftime. Turn up the volume and make sure there’s no one around: it’s Patriots karaoke time.

For whatever reason, I had never noticed this before. It makes me feel like an awful Patriots fan. But as Aristotle once said, “the more you know, the more you know you don’t know.”

As I learn more about the New England Patriots and watch the games more closely, I learn about things I was completely unaware of before. This is one of them.

Fortunately, I can now take part in this wonderful tradition. When halftime is upon us, it’s time to break out the speakers, open Spotify, and blast some Bon Jovi like there’s no tomorrow. Might even sing along. My voice tends to be flat, but my cohorts don’t have perfect pitch. They’ll never realize.

Anyway, this was one of my favorite occurrences during this week’s contest. The Gillette faithful was present and into the game. Get used to it, AFC foes, because the road to the Super Bowl runs through Foxborough.

Punting perfection

I just want to take a moment to give praise to Ryan Allen and Matthew Slater. Together, this duo pinned the Jets inside their own 5 not once, not twice, but THREE times. That’s absolutely incredible.

The first two times, Allen placed the punts perfectly, having them sail inside the Jets 5 yard line. When the ball came down from its beautiful parabolic arc, Slater was waiting for them. He downed the ball and left the Jets no room to work with.

The third time, Allen’s punt bounced out of bounds at the two yard line, giving Bryce Petty and company no hope of, well, anything. The incredible punt placement even led to a safety.

Week in and week out, the special teams unit continues to be the most consistent part of the New England Patriots team.

It may seem like an insignificant part of the game, but special teams can make the difference between a win and a loss. In the playoffs, punting like this could mean the difference between and early exit and a Lombardi Trophy.

Moving Forward

Next week, the Patriots get to rest up and prepare for their first real game of the season. While all the other teams are duking it out for an opportunity to come to Foxborough, Bill Belichick and the rest of the team will be studying up on how to defeat them.

The extra week off will be paramount for the health of the team. Players like Rex Burkhead, Chris Hogan, Alan Branch, Malcolm Mitchell and James White will have an opportunity to heal up. If all the Patriots players are ready for their first playoff game, they’ll be an even more fearsome opponent than they are now.

Finally, I just want to wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year. 2018 will be a wild one, and there would be no better way to start it off than with a Super Bowl win. So Tom, Bill, Gronk, and the rest of the New England Patriots, happy New Year.

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That goes for all of you who are reading this, as well. I appreciate each and every one of you and hope you’ll continue reading my stuff in the future. Happy New Year to you all and Go Pats.