New England Patriots Hoping to Avoid Sense of Deja Vu

The New England Patriots are hoping to avoid having deja vu this season, as they want to secure a home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

Sometimes you can find some weird quirks in the way the NFL schedule unfolds. Last year because of the winter classic the Patriots closed out their season with trips to the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins. Two ugly losses doomed them to the second seed and an eventual AFC Championship trip to Denver.

This season the Jets-Dolphins double to close out the season repeats itself, though the Jets game is in Gillette Stadium, and Bill Belichick will be hoping his team ends this season in better shape than last year.

All things considered, the 2016 version of the Patriots are entering the home stretch in a stronger position. Last year, the team was coming into this on a 2-2 stretch whereas this time, they have just recorded back to back impressive wins against tough teams. Baltimore is the rare case of a team that comes to Foxborough and feels like they belong on the same field as the Patriots. Following that they traveled to a place they have never played all that well in and while some may think the Denver defense is the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they are in fact a very good unit and made Brady work for every yard. Despite a poor performance by Brady’s standards, he still was better than average compared to what the Broncos give up according to the passer rating statistic.

Momentum is not the only thing that is different to last season, one of the two biggest changes involves the better performance of the defensive unit. While they are not at the standard of the 1985 Bears, the 2000 Ravens or even last year’s Broncos, they have in recent weeks proven themselves capable of carrying their weight when asked to. Most recently in Denver when Brady and the offensive unit were struggling, the other side of the ball stepped up to hold the Broncos to three points.

Compare that to earlier this season against the Seahawks when Belichick had so little faith in his defense he did not want to leave any time on the clock at the end of the game for them to try and make a stop. On paper the unit took a big hit with the trade of Jamie Collins, however, the whole of the unit appears to be performing greater than the sum of the individual parts. It cannot be overstated how much the chemistry on that side of the ball has grown in recent weeks. Having an athlete of Collins’ capability would be useful throughout the playoffs but his replacements have performed well in their specific roles so far.

On the other side of the ball, the biggest change from the 2015 edition of the Patriots is the fact they have a competent running game this season. The loss of Dion Lewis and LeGarrette Blount last season changed the way the Patriots had to operate and in the biggest moments, Steven Jackson and James White could not get the job done. This year Blount has surpassed all expectations and managed to break the franchise rushing touchdowns record. When they have needed to turn to the running game to either get something going or to close out a game, they have been able to produce at a high enough level to get by.