WEEK 15 ESSENTIALS: PATRIOTS VS. BENGALS

A relatively poor half of football by the hometown team.  A really good half of football by the hometown team.  Some unconscionable calls by the men in stripes.   A 10-3 record.  Two losses in a row.  An end to their 21 game home winning streak.  A magnificus error by some videographer.  Sunday is finally here.  The team is in and onto Cincinnati.  What's in store?    

While the Bengals are 1-12, they still get to play in a December Super Bowl.  With the number one pick dangling in front of them, will they give it their all for a full 4 quarters, or try and secure a possible franchise quarterback?  Regardless of what they choose to do, I hope the Patriots maintain their #2 position and come out injury free.    

RUNNING GAME- If you take a quick peek at yards given up per rushing attempt, you will be convinced that the Bengals can not stop the run and the Patriots should easily run all over them.  If you actually look closely at the game by game results, you will realize that the Bengals' run defense isn't as bad as advertised.  While they have definitely had some games where they have given up a lot of yards on the ground (259 against the 49ers and 269 against the Ravens), they've also had some games where they didn't give up much.  Although they completely got throttled on the scoreboard in their last meeting against the Ravens, if not for a 47 yard dash by Lamar Jackson they would have only allowed 89 yards on 22 touches. 

In reality, the only thing holding back the Patriots' running game is the offensive line.  Assuming we don't have any more setbacks and continue to get healthy, we will have a running game in time for the the playoffs.     

SPECIAL TEAMS- It's still really weird not being one of the dominant teams in the kicking game.  The Patriots are 11th with field goal attempts per game (2.2), 16th with field goals made per game (1.6), and tied for worst with field goals blocked per game (.2).  Prior to this season, the last time the Patriots had a field goal blocked was September 24, 2006 against the Broncos.  It was Gostkowski's rookie year and the Patriots struggled to do anything on 1st and 10 from the 19.  They lost that game at home to Jake Plummer and Mike Shanahan 17-7.  

Enough about the past, the Patriots appear to have things under control when it comes to punting and kickoffs.  While returning punts and kickoffs hasn't been electric, it also hasn't been disastrous.  When it comes to blocking punts, we are head over heals better than everyone else.  Kicking for points, an adventure every Sunday, and entertaining all week long.  You can't win them all.  If the offense could punch it in from the red zone, this problem would be a minor inconvenience at best. 

OFFENSE-  Does the security blanket suit up or not?  Does he make the active roster and just chill on the sideline unless needed?  At this point no one knows.  Not that I get a vote in the matter, I'd like to see him active but on ice.  If the Patriots are going to win the Super Bowl, and that's really what it's all about, TB12 and JE11 need to be relatively healthy.  While home field and byes are nice, their health is much more important.  As does anybody with a pulse, I'd like to see N'Keal Harry get a lot more touches.  Maybe Josh listened to the ever popular suggestion that we run a few easy routes for him.  You know, maybe run a couple of plays that don't have more options than DNA sequencing. 

DEFENSE- The goal here is simple: play 4 quarters, stay healthy and make tackles.  Anything beyond that is icing on the cake.  Would I like to see the defense get into the scoring column, heck yeah.  If they don't and the offense finally makes an opponent pay for their mistake, I'll take it.  This defense is special.  Are they the best to ever play the game?  That's debatable.  Could they hold all of the other NFL teams out of the endzone on any given Sunday?  Absolutely.  With that being said, even if the offense never reaches their capabilities, this defense can get ring #7.