New England Patriots Links 12/09/09 - Ressurecting The Secondary, and The Season

Adam Kilgore catches Brian Hoyer's thoughts about Tom Brady and playing for the Patriots.

" [Tom Brady] has been great. He’s been very helpful. Anything that I need to ask him, he doesn’t hesitate to help me out, or even, he’ll just give his opinion on something. For a guy like that to do something – I don’t want to say go out of his way, because we’re always together. But he doesn’t really have to do that. He can just do his thing and move on. But he’s really helped me out a lot."

"His passion for wanting to get better and his passion for the game," Hoyer said. "He always takes practice like it’s a game. That’s something that I’ve always taken from him – go out there and practice like it is a game. If you go out there and prove yourself in that situation, then when the time comes, you’ll be even more ready." "I think every thing happens for a reason," Hoyer said. "If I could pick where I wanted to go, I think New England would have been the place, because it’s a good organization from the top down. I’ve been blessed to be here, and I’ve taken advantage of it every day. I wake up every morning, and I’m like, ‘I play for the New England Patriots. It can’t get better than this.’ "

Dean Pees was asked how to prepare his players from a pass defense standpoint, considering the success the Dolphins had against them.

You've always got to be able to do what your players can do. Where our problem was was primarily on the pass defense in this last game, that's different than the Saints game where we gave up big plays on some missed assignments, was the fact that we couldn't get off the field on third down. So whether teams attack us that way on third down, I can't tell you what other teams will do. Actually playing the passing game - playing no matter what - in this last game, on first and second down, was probably as much success as we've actually had all year.

When we graded the film, first down was fairly successful compared to most games. Second [down] was probably the best second down [game] that we've had all year in 12 games. Our problem in this past game was simply third down; we couldn't get off the field. That's why we had so many plays. That's why they had so many yards. We didn't give up as many plays - didn't give up a lot of big plays. We just couldn't get off the field on third down, for a lot of different reasons, most of which were fundamental mistakes, not necessarily attacking the team this way because we ran this particular coverage, because we really almost never were in the same coverage twice.

I don't know that it's going to be that as much as we've just got to do a better job of - we just fundamentally didn't play well on third down, from the front to the back end. We just didn't play well enough and that's my responsibility and I've got to get that fixed.

TEAM TALK

• New England Patriots vs. Carolina Panthers. Broadcast info, series history, team connections and more.
• Ask PFW: Two Bad. In this week's mailbag, consecutive road losses have everyone searching for answers.
• Tuesday Conference Calls: Bill Belichick (12:44 min. audio), Dean Pees (10:31 min. audio), and Nick Caserio (6:53 min. audio) Plus Transcripts.
• Patriots Today: Division competition tightens; Pats still in control. (9:38 min. video)

LOCAL LINKS

• Albert Breer says this defense needs an attitude adjustment.
• Ian Rapoport reports Dean Pees comments about the secondary, "Four weeks ago everybody was talking about improvement in the secondary and how well they were playing," Pees said. "Well, obviously it’s there and we’ve just got to bring it out."
• Jeff Howe reminds us that the Patriots still control their own playoff destiny.
• Michael Hurley says Tom Brady, one of the few Patriots remaining from the glory years, has taken it upon himself to make sure the Patriots don't fade away.
• Monique Walker notes four of New England’s five losses have come by 7 points or fewer and all of the losses have been on the road.
• Mike Reiss breaks down TE production, saying the initial appearance that the lack of TE involvement in the pass receiving game was a glaring issue, was off the mark. He offers some points that stood out to him after a second look.
• Albert Breer picked up pieces from the Patriots' crushing loss to Miami, analyzing key components to the game.
• Mike Reiss offers ten quick-hit thoughts on the Carolina Panthers.
• Albert Breer says there's a really good chance Julius Peppers hits the market this offseason, and Sunday could be an audition.
• Kerry Byrne picks apart the Patriots last three losses, saying they're stuck in a sorry situation.
• Albert Breer breaks down how the Patriots and Dolphins attacked the quarterback on Sunday.
• Mike Reiss notes Sunday will mark the Panthers' first regular-season trip to Gillette Stadium. they are the only NFL team yet to play a regular-season game at Gillette, which opened in 2002.  The Fox B-team of Kenny Albert, Darryl Johnston and Tony Siragusa will be on call.
• Christopher Price is back for another edition of the mailbag, and this week it gets ugly.  We're talking Tony Siragusa in a hot-tub kinda ugly.
• Mike Reiss' mailbag was overflowing after the Patriots' second straight loss.
• Boston Globe Patriots Notebook: Patriots couldn't get off the field on third down and Miami drove all day; Brian Hoyer knew Brady would be coming back after he jogged into the locker room during the game; Still not sure which QB will be starting for the Panthers Sunday, Jake Delhomme or Matt Moore.
• Kevin Faulk sits down with John Chandler as he and the squad head into their matchup with the Panthers after dropping two in a row for the first time since 2006. (3:15 min. video)

NATIONAL NEWS

• Peter King (SI) All-Decade Team of the 2000s:  Bill Belichick, Randy Moss, Mike Vrabel and former Patriots Adam Vinatieri and Scott Pioli attain the honor.  No question the New England Patriots have been the dominant franchise of the decade.
• Peter King (SI) Highlights and lowlights from the decade.
• Don Banks (SI) NFL: Ten signature moments of the decade.  Numbers 1 and 2 are Mo Lewis' hit on Drew Bledsoe and David Tyree's helmet catch.
• Don Banks (SI) Biggest trades, free agency and draft of the decade.
• Don Banks (SI) Snap Judgments: Why Patriots are struggling; Favre trend continues.
• Mike Silver writes a scathing piece against Bill Belichick for being disloyal to LB Mike Vrabel, fabricating motives, vindictiveness and gutless pettiness on the parts of Belichick, Scott Pioli and Josh McDaniels. Bizarre.
• Dave Goldberg (NFL Fanhouse) Patriots' dynasty coming back to pack.
• Jason Cole (Yahoo! Sports) Vegas action on Patriots, Steelers raises some eyebrows.
• Matt Bowen (Nat'l Football Post) The best defenses step up now.

VIEW FROM CAROLINA

• Charles Chandler (Charlotte Observer) Tough remaining schedule waiting for Panthers: 4 of NFL's best teams.
• David Scott (Charlotte Observer) Panthers' Safety Harris back to his havoc-wreaking habits.
• Charles Chandler and David Scott (Charlotte Observer) AFC Scout breaks down Panthers.
• Andrew Mason (Panthers.com) Unexpected contributors.