Patriots Should Start Returning to Mindset of 2007 Season

Last night, the New England Patriots were able to defeat the pesky Indianapolis Colts behind James Sanders’s late interception. Several positives came out of the win. Through three quarters, the New England offense absolutely dominated the Colts defense. They moved the ball at will, scored touchdowns in each of their first three possessions, and effectively mixed in the rush with the pass. In addition, they intercepted Peyton Manning twice in the first three quarters. Unfortunately for the Patriots, there are four quarters in football, and the final stanza has been a major problem for this team this season.

Sure, the Patriots are 8-2 and have a share of the best record in the NFL. They have beaten three of the elite teams in the NFL in the Colts, Baltimore Ravens, and Pittsburgh Steelers, who have a combined 20-10 record this season. However, the Patriots have had tremendous difficulties putting away teams this season, as their lone convincing, dominating victory this season came on Monday Night Football against the Miami Dolphins.

If the Patriots continue to allow teams to come back late in games, eventually, they will be punished for their porous fourth quarters. Here are some of the poor second halves the Patriots have had this season: they allowed three 70+ yard touchdown drives to the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 1, were outscored by the Jets 18-0 in Week 2, surrendered 17 fourth-quarter points to the Chargers in Week 7, gave up 17 points in the second half to the Browns in Week 8, yielded 23 fourth-quarter points to the Steelers in Week 9, and gave up two late touchdown drives to the Colts on Sunday.

Those are way too many second half collapses for a team with championship aspirations. Bill Belichick-coached teams almost never choke late in games. In fact, in years past, the Patriots always were the team to comeback on opponents or put teams away. Tom Brady is one of the elite closers of this generation, so the porous second halves of late has put him in unchartered territory.

Last night, against Indianapolis, the Patriots had a comfortable 31-14 lead with 10:23 remaining in the fourth quarter. They were in this exact same position (with the same score) almost one year ago to this day, when they allowed three late touchdown drives to suffer a devastating 35-34 loss to their archrivals. You would believe that the Patriots must have learned their lesson from last year about not getting comfortable with any kind of lead against an elite quarterback like Peyton Manning.

However, déjà vu struck all over the again for the Patriots yesterday, as they allowed Peyton Manning to march 73 yards down the field in 2:26 to cut the lead down to 10 points. New England went three-and-out in their next possession, and Manning took advantage by driving 73 yards down the field again, culminating with a second straight touchdown pass to Blair White. That drive took only 2:18 and suddenly, what was once a comfortable 17-point lead dwindled to three in a matter of minutes. The Patriots next drive lasted only 2:21, before punting the ball without forcing Indianapolis to burn a timeout. That gave Manning an opportunity with 2:25 remaining to march 74 yards down the field to pull off an improbable comeback. After driving to the Patriots 24 yard-line, James Sanders intercepted Manning’s pass and helped the Patriots avoid another disastrous result at the hands of the Colts.

New England will eventually be punished, either later this regular season or in the playoffs, if they continue to allow teams to hang around in the game. Although the media blasted New England for running up the score in the 2007 season, they need to return to this mindset and continue to score touchdowns late in games to intimidate opponents and put other teams away. If the Patriots play with the same aggressive mindset in the final stanza as they often do in the first three quarters, they would blow out teams and avoid the possibility of a collapse late in games. The objective of each game is to win, not to satisfy the media’s needs and wants.

The Patriots would not put themselves in this kind of precarious position late in games if they approach each game by seeking to annihilate their opponents. Great quarterbacks like Peyton Manning, Philip Rivers, and Ben Roethlisberger will eventually punish the Patriots if they are given the opportunity to win the game. Thus, although the Patriots continue to win and are in a prime position to have home-field throughout the AFC playoffs, they will need to learn to put away opponents and avoid the potential of a late-game collapse.

Defensive Pressure a Critical Key to Patriots Success

Last week, against a mediocre Cleveland Browns team, the Patriots defense was absolutely torched by Peyton Hillis and Colt McCoy. The Browns controlled the ball for over 38 minutes, Hillis had 29 attempts rushing for 184 yards, and McCoy had a completion percentage of 73.6%. These stats reflect the poor defensive pressure applied by the front seven, as McCoy was never hit or sacked in the game, while Hillis did not rush for any negative plays.

Fast forward one week, and the Patriots suddenly looked like a defensive juggernaut against an elite Pittsburgh Steelers offense. Featuring Ben Roethlisberger, a good offensive line, and a future star in running back Rashard Mendenall, Pittsburgh had every reason to believe that they could steamroll the New England defense. However, the Patriots thought otherwise and absolutely stymied the Pittsburgh offense. The defensive pressure applied on Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh backfield was the key to this quality defensive effort.

Overall, New England sacked Roethisberger five times and hit and pressured Roethlisberger 10 other times, which caused him to make several poor decisions. Hybrid defensive ends Mike Wright and Tully Banta-Cain, two relative unknowns who thrive in Belichick’s system, each led the way with 1.5 sacks and two different knockdowns on Roethlisberger. Through three quarters, the Patriots forced the Steelers to four different three-and-outs, and Pittsburgh’s 23 points in the fourth quarter came when the game was already in-hand.

If the Patriots defense continues to apply consistent pressure to the quarterback like the unit did this past Sunday in Pittsburgh, New England will be primed for success this season. Roethlisberger, who remains one of the elite quarterbacks in the NFL, was clearly rattled from all of the pressure from the New England front seven. Roethlisberger was forced to scramble out of the pocket from the New England pass rush in multiple instances and make several quick decisions to avoid getting sacked. With the tremendous speed and instincts of the New England linebacker corps and defensive ends, the New England front seven can run with almost every quarterback in the NFL.

Most of the better quarterbacks in this league (Brady, Manning, Brees) all play best within the pocket and when they have time to throw. The best way to disrupt their rhythm is to apply quick, consistent pressure, which will get them out of their comfort zone. Teams like Pittsburgh and the New York Jets, two of New England’s primary competitors in the AFC, feature several long developing plays that take several seconds to complete. If the Patriots apply pressure, it will eliminate these plays from their playbooks and force them to make shorter throws, which will allow cornerbacks Devin McCourty and Kyle Arrington to play more aggressively on the receivers.

Last year, the Achilles heel for the Patriots was the defensive pressure. Baltimore absolutely torched the New England front seven in the wild card game last year, as Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco seemingly had at least 4 seconds to throw every snap, while running back Ray Rice had wide open running lanes to rush in.

This year, defensive newcomers Brandon Spikes, Jermaine Cunningham, and Rob Ninkovich have stabilized the linebacking corps and added a new dimension to the defense that was missing a year ago: a consistent pass rush. All three of these players run extremely hard on every snap and use their quickness and instincts on opposing tackles to get to the backfield in a hurry. As a result, the Patriots have improved considerably on defense from the beginning of the regular season, and the Patriots have recently forced upper-echelon quarterbacks Phillip Rivers, Roethlisberger, and Brett Favre into playing below their standard. If the Patriots continue to find a way to get to the quarterback, they will ease the pressure on their offense and continue to frustrate opposing quarterbacks.

Starting Pitching and Closer Carry Giants to World Series Championship

The San Francisco Giants Opening Day Lineup featured Mark DeRosa at left field, Aaron Rowand at center field, John Bowker at right field, Pablo Sandoval at third base, Edgar Renteria at shortstop, Juan Uribe at second base, Aubrey Huff at first base, and Bengie Molina at catcher. Out of those eight position players, only two (Uribe and Huff) started the majority of the postseason games for Giants in 2010.

Three of those players (Bowker, DeRosa, and Molina) were no longer with the team during the postseason, and Rowand, Renteria, and Sandoval, all lost their starting jobs during the season due to poor play. Although Renteria did deliver for the Giants in the postseason when it mattered, he was largely a nonfactor for the majority of the season.

Point of the matter is this: the Giants could have used really anyone on the field with the legendary pitching rotation that they had. Sure, GM Brian Sabean and manager Bruce Bochy made some shrewd moves in acquiring outfielders Pat Burrell and Cody Ross and inserting Andres Torres and Buster Posey into the lineup during the middle of the season. Also, Posey made a strong case for Rookie of the Year with his spectacular all-around play over the final three months of the season.

However, people cannot seem to forget that the offense and defense as a whole was not very good throughout the season and postseason. The team had slow, below-average fielders in Huff and Burrell and scored three runs or fewer in over half of their regular season and postseason games. Otherwise, why would Sabean and Bochy make so many drastic changes to the starting lineup multiple times throughout the course of the season? Want to take about team chemistry? How could a team of self-proclaimed “misfits” really get a feel for each other if half of the starting lineup was not even with the team at the beginning of the season? It takes months, often multiple seasons, for a group of players to really develop strong relationships with each other, so the chemistry within the clubhouse has been drastically overblown by the public. After all, these position players barely know each other, having spent a season or less with each other.

Even the bullpen was in major flux for the majority of the season. At the beginning of the season, pitchers Guillermo Mota, Denny Bautista, and Jeremy Affeldt were primary set-up men for closer Brian Wilson. However, all three pitchers floundered this season and lost their roles midway through the season. By the end of the season, newcomers Javier Lopez and Ramon Ramirez played significant roles in the bullpen, while unknown Santiago Casilla established himself as a force. Outside of Wilson, Sergio Romo was the lone bullpen pitcher to play a key role in the postseason for the Giants, and even he nearly cost the Giants in the NLDS against the Braves, after surrendering late go-ahead hits to the Braves in Games 2 and 3.

The only constants for the Giants this season has been their legendary starting pitching and the clutch play of closer Brian Wilson all season and postseason. Playing behind a subpar offense and defense every night, every pitcher on the Giants had enormous pressure to prevent the opponents from scoring each and every game. The starting pitchers were up to the task right from opening night, when Tim Lincecum shut out the Houston Astros 3-0, all the way until the World Series, when Matt Cain and Madison Bumgarner each shut out the Rangers once in the series.

Overall, the Giants’ starters had an ERA of 3.54 this season, which ranked 3rd in the MLB, and had a Major League-best 2.26 ERA in the final 30 days in the regular season. To put that into perspective, the next-best starting pitching ERA during the final 30 days of the season was 2.75 by the Philadelphia Phillies, who had high-profile pitchers Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, and Cole Hamels anchoring the rotation. The Giants had nearly a 0.50 better earned run differential than the Phillies. Also, Giants starters led the major leagues in strikeouts with 888, 31 better than the next closest competitor. Strikeouts are a strong representation of a pitcher’s performance, since this stat does not rely on defense to make plays.

Excluding Barry Zito, who was not part of the Giants postseason roster, every other Giants starter had under a 3.50 ERA this season. Playing behind the fourth-worst fielding team in the Major Leagues and a 17th-ranked offense, the Giants needed every quality start they could get to reach the playoffs. Despite the subpar offense and fielding, they managed to squeak by the Padres in the final game of the regular season to reach the postseason.

Once they reached the postseason, the Giants starters absolutely carried the team into the World Series. Against Atlanta, each of the four starters pitched at least 6 innings and allowed no more than two earned runs. Cain and Lincecum each did not allow an earned run while Sanchez only allowed one run, which really should have been charged to Sergio Romo, who allowed a home run to Eric Hinske after Sanchez walked a batter. While Sanchez struggled the remainder of the postseason, Bumgarner, Cain, and Lincecum delivered in the NLCS and World Series. Cain did not allow a SINGLE EARNED RUN throughout the postseason his three starts, Bumgarner pitched a shutout against Texas, and Lincecum closed the deal with an exceptional 8 inning, one run, performance against Texas in the final game of the World Series. Pitching against Halladay and Lee twice each in the NLCS and World Series, Lincecum won three of those starts and set the tone with Game 1 wins over Philadelphia and Texas.

While the starting pitching was great, Wilson was equally exceptional in the back end of the bullpen. Wilson led the MLB in saves in the regular season with 48 and had a 1.81 ERA in 70 appearances. He pitched in countless high-pressure situations in the regular season and was the one bullpen pitcher that Bochy trusted on a regular basis. In the postseason, Wilson was even better, posting 16 strikeouts, allowing no earned runs, and pitching 11.2 innings of shutout baseball in 10 appearances. With the starters going deep into most of the postseason games, Wilson pitched in nearly as many innings as every other bullpen pitcher on the staff combined and recorded six critical saves for the Giants.

As the old adage goes in baseball, “great pitching beats great hitting.” The Giants proved this statement throughout the season and especially the postseason, when the Phillies and Rangers, two explosive offenses, struggled to manufacture runs against the Giants pitching staff. San Francisco shut out the Phillies and Rangers a combined three times in two convincing series victories. Overall, San Francisco’s starting pitching and Wilson’s brilliant closing more than made up for the lackluster offense and defense and propelled the Giants to their first championship in 56 years.