"Ladies, if this doesn't kill us, it will surely break our hearts."
Indeed. In the film Heartbreak Ridge, a Gunnery Sergeant with a seeming lifetime of dirt-eating battle experience takes over a recon platoon of young Marines who were undisciplined and held accountable for nothing...
...the main messages that he stresses to his troops throughout the movie is to fight as a team and that when you are faced with a circumstance in which your best laid plans are not tangible any longer, you live by the motto, "Improvise. Adapt. Overcome."
It's difficult to recall the last time a professional football franchise has endured the type of devastatingly macabre season that the New England Patriots have, if ever - from the turmoil of the Welker "firing" to the baneful actions surrounding Aaron Hernandez to the complete refabrication of the receiving corps, it's been one salvo after another - and it surely has, at times, broken our hearts.
And then, there were weeks like this one - a week to which many are asking just how much more the besieged franchise can shoulder before the roof caves in on them.
Patriots' fans across the nation and, indeed, around the globe have been busy lamenting the injury news coming out of Foxborough - news that wide receiver Danny Amendola is about to join running back Shane Vereen on the shelf for the foreseeable future...
...this on top of a much tougher than expected win over Buffalo on Sunday in which the Patriots offense didn't get in sync until the fourth quarter, but made just enough plays to overcome their plethora of miscues.
Problem is, Amendola and Vereen were the Patriots' go-to guys down the stretch, both showing exceptional toughness in playing through injury to help the Patriots nail down an opening day win - Amendola getting treatment on his sore groin in the locker room at halftime, while Vereen gutted out a broken wrist, suffered on the first play of the game, to account for 101 of the Patriots 158 rushing yards on the day, and is now on the short-term IR and won't be back until after Halloween.
And let's not even mention that Kenbrell Thompkins looked overwhelmed on Sunday, The Bills were coming after Brady so fast that he had no time to target anything deep and Aaron Dobson was a scratch from the game day roster with a sore hamstring - add that to the fact that Brady just didn't look comfortable and running back Stevan Ridley is suffering from a case of the yips, and you have Patriots' nation curled up in the fetal position, sucking their collective thumb...
But it's very doubtful that Patriots' coach Bill Belichick would be found that way in the corner of his office, nor will you find any of the players feeling sorry for themselves. They know that no one is going to have one ounce of empathy for their situation - certainly not this week's opponents, the New York Jets - and that these injuries mean just one thing: Next man up.
But how in the world does Belichick make up for the production lost to the injury report?
Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.
Brady needs to trust the players around him, and throw the ball like he did in the 4th quarter against the Bills.
The New England Patriots host the New York Jets at Gillette Stadium on Thursday night, most likely without the serves of Amendola, probably without all world tight end Rob Gronkowski and assuredly without duel-threat running back Shane Vereen, leaving Julian Edelman as his lone target with any NFL game experience...
...but if this team is going to win, the future Hall of Fame quarterback needs to give his trio of rookie receivers the benefit of those wicked fastballs that he was feeding to Amendola on Sunday and let them make a play on them.
Because he doesn't have any choice. If he stands in the pocket and waits for Edelman to come open, he's going to be a stationary target for the New York Jets' pass rush - because it goes without saying that the Jets are going to do whatever they have to do to eliminate Edelman from Brady's arsenal.
And it's not like there's nowhere else to go with the ball - but, again, it comes down to trust.
Stevan Ridley is still the featured running back on this team, and the offensive line is still one of the better lines in the National Football League - so the foundation for a solid game plan is already laid. What's going to make the difference between victory and defeat is what kind of game plan that Bill Belichick surrounds them with, and if Brady can throw caution to the wind.
Coming out conservative might have the reverse effect, and play right into Rex Ryan's hands - because with the Patriots' veteran receivers on the skids, focusing on stopping the run and blanketing Edelman and making Brady throw to his rookies is exactly what Ryan should do, but Belichick can't let them get away with it.
The offense must dictate to the Jets. Don't wait them out, come out aggressive and put them back on their heels - and force them to defend the entire field.
Assuming health for the quartet of Edelman, Josh Boyce, Kenbrell Thompkins and Aaron Dobson, and especially if rookie tight end Zach Sudfeld is able to play through his hamstring, the Patriots will be able to spread the formation or, even better, make all of the formations unbalanced and create weak side running lanes based on sheer numbers...
...because although all of these players except Edelman are untested and are an unknown quantity doesn't mean that the Jets don't have to cover them. If Brady floods the pattern with four wide, particularly if it is unbalanced utilizing a bunch formation on either side, it may creates an instance where the Jets will have to utilize split coverage schemes.
Edelman has shown that he can be a go-to kind of guy when the heat is turned up, and it's good for Brady to have a familiar face in the pattern, but with the Jets preferring to clamp down on the inside and leave their corners on an island, don't limit Edelman to the slot - move him around to create your mismatches, particularly when running a bunch formation where you can isolate either him or Thompkins on the weak side corner and run routes to their strengths.
With this unbalanced coverage, Brady can send one deep, one up the seam, one between the intermediate zones and one underneath or to the sidelines, clearing out a zone on the weak side that a running back can operate out of - and when the Jets counter by try to bring balance back to the set by overloading one side and coming after Brady, the blocking can just guide them around the pocket while Ridley or Blount takes the ball right to where the pressure came from...
...and...whatever.
What all of this comes down to is that the offense needs to grow and come to trust each other - and no matter which way they choose to do it, it's got to be done. There is no choice. Easing the rookies into the offense really isn't an option any longer - so win or lose, succeed or fail, It will be the first real-time step toward realizing the potential of this offense.
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