A regular season cold weather game in Foxboro to end 2017. The Krafts are doing their part by hooking fans up with hand warmers and encouraging fans to donate their blankets after the game is over. Assuming they don't run out of hot chocolate and coffee, they've done their part for today's game day preparation.
I'm going to make a small assumption that Belichick and team have also adequately prepared for today's regular season finale and the Patriots get home field advantage regardless of what Pittsburgh does.
GRONK-While we all know that Brady has typically done well in cold weather games, I feel much more comfortable knowing how well upstate New Yorker, Rob Gronkowski, has faired in cold weather games. He's been pretty spectacular in low temperature games as well as against the Jets. I hope to see a lot of passes thrown 87's direction today. With a ball that will be naturally deflated by the cold temperatures, Gronk should have an easy time catching anything thrown his direction. If Brady could try and avoid making him pick it up off the carpet, that would be nice. For those who think Gronk won't be targeted much so he can't reach his incentives, I don't see that happening.
BRADY- I guess Brady's big puffy coat will be on the field today. Apparently we should be referring to it as a scuba suit. Whatever we call it, and however weird it looks, let's hope it keeps his body nice and pliable. Ideally, quick scores with players staying inbounds to keep the clock ticking is what I'd like to see.
PUNTS- The player I hope never gets to the field today is Ryan Allen. While I really appreciate his game, and think his awesomeness is completely under appreciated, no punts by the Patriots would make my day.
There are several ways to avoid punting in a football game. Clearly the route I'm anticipating is by scoring on every possession. Yes, with our recent 0-11 on third downs against Miami still in everyone's memory, not punting isn't highly likely, but at least keeping it to a minimum and maybe being able to just angle it out of bounds will be sufficient.
So, why do I want to avoid punting today you ask? It's pretty much a player safety issue. I feel that during the super cold weather the last thing we need is guys coming off the sidelines and running full speed down the field. That's just asking for an injury to happen. Obviously when fielding punts we are more in control of the speed of the play by choosing not to run it back. We also have a huge say in what happens with kickoffs by what we choose to do.....so long as that choice is not heating up the K balls.
BRADY- I guess Brady's big puffy coat will be on the field today. Apparently we should be referring to it as a scuba suit. Whatever we call it, and however weird it looks, let's hope it keeps his body nice and pliable. Ideally, quick scores with players staying inbounds to keep the clock ticking is what I'd like to see.
PUNTS- The player I hope never gets to the field today is Ryan Allen. While I really appreciate his game, and think his awesomeness is completely under appreciated, no punts by the Patriots would make my day.
There are several ways to avoid punting in a football game. Clearly the route I'm anticipating is by scoring on every possession. Yes, with our recent 0-11 on third downs against Miami still in everyone's memory, not punting isn't highly likely, but at least keeping it to a minimum and maybe being able to just angle it out of bounds will be sufficient.
So, why do I want to avoid punting today you ask? It's pretty much a player safety issue. I feel that during the super cold weather the last thing we need is guys coming off the sidelines and running full speed down the field. That's just asking for an injury to happen. Obviously when fielding punts we are more in control of the speed of the play by choosing not to run it back. We also have a huge say in what happens with kickoffs by what we choose to do.....so long as that choice is not heating up the K balls.
DEFENSE-From the defense I'd like to see some consistency. While I'm all for the give them yards but not points, I'd like to see some stops on third down a little more often. For the season we are ranked 27th with stopping teams on 3rd down (opponents are successful 41.84% of the time). In our last 3 games we allowed our opponents to convert on third down 46.81% of the time. While I don't have the statistics in front of me, I imagine we are the worst at allowing teams to convert when it's 3rd and a ridiculous amount.
​While I didn't want the Patriots to sign him, maybe James Harrison can help our 3rd down issues.
With the Jets not having anything to play for and key players not active, I hope the Patriots don't get lit up by some unknowns. If he gets much playing time, Jahad Thomas is one player the Patriots better keep an eye on. The rookie running back had his fair share of receptions when he was playing for Temple.
​While I didn't want the Patriots to sign him, maybe James Harrison can help our 3rd down issues.
With the Jets not having anything to play for and key players not active, I hope the Patriots don't get lit up by some unknowns. If he gets much playing time, Jahad Thomas is one player the Patriots better keep an eye on. The rookie running back had his fair share of receptions when he was playing for Temple.
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