Anger In Foxborough

New England fans have been lashing out all week following a pitiful Pittsburgh performance that saw Big Ben slice up the Patriots’ defense with relative ease. It appears that 3rd & long against this New England secondary is no cause for alarm for anyone except Patriots Nation, who are left with the uneasy feeling that this team isn’t getting better. Weeks 9 through 12 were destined to be gritty grind-’em-out victories or heartbreaking losses for the Patriots, but that was back when New England fans thought they had a shot of being 7-0 or 6-1 in a semi-contentious AFC East and THEN having to face the Giants, Jets, Chiefs and Eagles. But now the Patriots find themselves in a bitterly-tough conference, one loss away from being knocked out of the top position.

Primary concerns with the Patriots have to do with the fact that they don’t have a single player capable going for the big play. Because of this, opposing teams can smother them with man-defense and ruin Brady’s day. Perceived solution: Ochocinco. History says he’s a long-ball threat, not quite in the stature of Randy Moss, but close enough to spread the field. New England fans have mostly called for Ocho’s head at this point, due to his non-existent presence on the field. But more astute analysts are wondering if his poor performance is more a question of his inability to fit into the scheme that Bill Belichick and Ernie Adams have built this team around. This would explain why so many solid players have been cut, waived, sold and traded out of New England. Patriots fans are prone to overreacting after any rare loss, and those calling for Belichick’s job will undoubtedly forgive Bill with a victory over the Giants. But their fiery emotions are symptomatic of a larger point, which is that this Patriots team is not capable of playing the intellectual football game that Ernie Adams constructed to win three Super Bowls in New England. No Patriots fan really wants Belichick to leave, but many are wondering if the scheme and philosophy of this team is keeping good players from blossoming into great ones.

Also of concern is their defense -- the worst-rated in the league. Big Ben held the ball for 40 minutes last week, doubling the amount of time Brady had to make something of his offense. Vince Wilfork is confident that his defensive squad can be one of the best in the league. But if you turn on Patriots Radio at any part of the day, you’ll hear New England fans rabidly attacking this sense of self-flattery. Again, Patriots fans are distraught right now, and they’re speaking from an overly-emotional place. But the emotional concerns of Patriots Nation is part of a larger picture; New England can’t win games on reputation any longer. Their defense is being trash-talked all over the league, most notably by Hines Ward, who publicly stated that he didn’t have to play last week for his team to beat the Patriots. Both Brady’s offensive unit and Wilfork’s defensive unit need to reestablish a new identity that’s built less on finesse and more on physical domination. It’s a question of how many pints of blood the defense is willing to donate to give Brady more possessions, and to what degree they’re willing to play as a misfit team instead of a cerebral one.