New England Patriots links 11/15/18 - Scouting Brady’s struggles; Finding fixes on the bye

TEAM TALK

• Patriots sign LB Ramon Humber.
• Press Conference transcripts: Tom Brady - James White.
• Lauren Williams reports the Patriots hand-delivered a hat designed by a Boston Children’s Hospital patient, to show him the finished product.
• Press Pass: Bye week plans include family time and healing. (1 min. video)

LOCAL LINKS

• Evan Lazar posts the results of his film review of Tom Brady’s recent struggles to see what’s behind it. /Hot-take free article, good read.
• Phil Perry sites one metric that shows Tom Brady is the worst QB against the blitz this season, but Brady knows the Patriots need to improve in those situations.
• Mark Daniels adds his scrutiny to Tom Brady’s performance saying the question isn’t whether he’s falling off a cliff but whether he can turn it around.
• Tom Keegan says the Brady vs. Blitz stat is mystifying, but he’s confident Brady will figure it out.
• Doug Kyed suggests Brady’s numbers are off because Jimmy Garoppolo isn’t here to compete with him anymore.
• Doug Kyed looks at the numbers to assess New England’s standout players.
• Matt Dolloff assesses the team at the bye: The good, the bad, and the ugly.
• Kevin Duffy reports the team is relatively healthy heading into the bye, with only Dwayne Allen missing from yesterday’s practice.
• Kevin Duffy sees the team’s early woes starting to be an issue.
• Mike Reiss points out how Tom Brady is eager to have Rob Gronkowski back in the huddle.
• Kevin Duffy talks about the ways the offense misses Gronk.
• Mike Dussault (PatsPropaganda) Film Review: Patriots defense vs. Titans edition. A look at the scoring drives and what went wrong.
• Ryan Hannable notes Devin McCourty isn’t buying into the loss being a wake-up call: ‘Losing sucks.’
• Phil Perry tells us why the activation of Duke Dawson matters for the Patriots.
• Matt Dolloff sees the signing of Ramon Humber as evidence of Bill Belichick’s efforts to find a fix for the sub-par special teams unit.
• Zack Cox reports Albert McClellan aims to bring an ‘aggressive’ edge to the Patriots’ special teams.
• Zack Cox notes Tom Brady mentioned how he’d love to be cast in the show Hamilton, but Matthew Slater nixes the idea, saying his dancing skills would keep him out of any musical.
• Matt Chatham (BlogTalkRadio) Real Thing Patriots Podcast: Lessons from Titans blowout; What it means, what it doesn’t. (56 min.) /Always worth a listen, folks.

NATIONAL NEWS

• Kevin Clark (The Ringer) It’s harder than ever for New England to stay ahead of the pack.
• Frank Schwab (Yahoo! Sports) Bill Belichick responds to Dion Lewis’ ‘cheap’ comment about Patriots.
• Conor Orr (SI) Morning Huddle: The search to save NFL defenses.
• Lorenzo Reyes (USA Today) NFL Week 11 questions: Is Monday night’s Chiefs-Rams game a preview of Super Bowl LIII?
• Kevin Seifert (ESPN) The NFL’s rule tweaks are saving the kickoff from extinction.
• Jason Owens (Yahoo! Sports) ‘Colossal Shame,’ anger in Mexico City over loss of NFL game.
• Mike Florio (ProFootballTalk) NFL “immediately” realized Azteca Stadium field would not meet the standard for play.
• Michael David Smith (ProFootballTalk) NFL moves Chargers-Steelers Week 13, Rams-Bears Week 14 into prime time.
• Jonathan Jones (SI) Which players will most likely be franchise-tagged in 2019?
• Bill Barnwell (ESPN) Ranking the best and worst potential NFL head-coaching openings.
• Ed Bouchette (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) Steelers wipe Le’Veon Bell’s name — and belongings — from the locker room. /Such an odd reaction.
• Matt Yoder (Awful Announcing) Jason Witten responds to criticism of his MNF rookie season by owning his flubs and mistakes. /Good guy, just bad in the booth.