New England Patriots links 12/11/19 - Taking a closer look at the rookies

TEAM TALK

• Game Preview: Patriots at Bengals. Series history, scouting the matchups, tale of the tape; More.
• Broadcast Info: Patriots at Bengals. How to watch, listen.
• Mike Dussault shares the locker-room buzz from Tuesday at Gillette: Patriots rookies could hold the playoff keys, Bengals stat matchup.
• Mike Dussault tackles this week’s Patriots Unfiltered Q&A: Hope for a Patriots playoff run?
• Conference Call transcripts: Bill Belichick, Josh McDaniels, Bret Bielema.
• From the NFL: 2019 NFL playoff scenarios for Week 15.

LOCAL LINKS

• Evan Lazar gives us his Pats-Chiefs Film Review: Examining the issues with the Patriots offense once again. There’s no sugarcoating the current state of the Patriots offense. /Read it and weep.
• Andy Hart says Julian Edelman IS the Patriots offense. Edelman is in line to top previous career highs of 105 catches (2013) and 1,106 yards (2016).
• Zack Cox takes a closer look at which Patriots rookie has had the greatest impact in 2019.
• Ryan Hannable notes Josh McDaniels is well aware he needs to get N’Keal Harry the ball more.
• Michael Hurley lays out exactly why the home crowd was booing on Sunday.
• Andy Hart gives us his Pats Stats Check-In: Defensive highs and offensive lows.
• Phil Perry issues his Week 14 Patriots report card: Receivers fail to answer Chiefs’ aggressive plan.
• Ryan Hannable reports the Patriots lost 2 members of their practice squad to other teams.
• Ryan Hannable wonders if Patriots DL coach Bret Bielema might leave to go back to college.
• CBS Boston reports the Patriots hosted their annual Children’s Holiday Party at Gillette Stadium.
• NESN reports Tom Brady is stepping down as Honorary Co-Chair of the “Best Buddies Challenge: Hyannis Port.” Brady served in the role for 16 years, but now he’ll pass the torch to teammate Julian Edelman and Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum.
• Patrick Dunne tries to figure out if we should read anything into Tom Brady’s changing his role in Best Buddies charity.
• Locked On Patriots podcast: Mike D’Abate with his Takeaway Tuesday Mailbag and the latest on the videotape incident. (29 min.)

NATIONAL NEWS

• Mike Freeman (Bleacher Report) 10-Point Stance: 1. NFL isn’t giving benefit of doubt to the Pats. “I believe him. To me, the odds that this is some type of nefarious cheating plot are zero. Less than zero. But very few people seem to believe that.” 6. More bad officiating: Everyone should hate what happened to the Patriots on Sunday.
• Mike Florio (ProFootballTalk) Looming “top-down review” of officiating puts even more pressure on officiating.
• Danny Kelly (The Ringer) The impending NFL free agents who have set themselves up for big money.
• NFL Nation (ESPN) 2020 NFL draft nuggets, picks and what you need to know for all 32 teams. Patriots: Projected first-round pick, No. 30.
• Josh Alper (ProFootballTalk) NFL projects 2020 salary cap in range of $196.8M – $201.2M.
• Tim McManus (ESPN) ‘Bring it on, man’: NFL players prep for work stoppage, but vulnerability remains.

DUMPSTER DIVE

• NESN reports that according to NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport and Judy Battista, the NFL is “inclined” to believe New England’s explanation.
• Tom E. Curran gives us the best reason why we should believe Bill Belichick: The Mona Lisa Vito press conference.
• Peter Botte (NY Post) The Patriots actually might not be cheating this time.
• Mike Florio (ProFootballTalk) Common sense likely will prevail in spygate 2.
• Andy Hart says that fair or in this case not, the Patriots’ reputation will always precede them. A reputation that was relentlessly shaped and forged by media with an agenda.
• Ty Anderson sees the new Patriots “controversy” as coming down to one single question: Do you believe them?
• Tadd Haislop (Sporting News) Did the Patriots cheat by videotaping Bengals? Examining evidence on both sides of the NFL’s investigation.
• Doug Farrar (TouchdownWire) Why the NFL will throw the book at the Patriots for another video scandal.
• Michael Rosenberg (SI) Your move, Goodell: NFL should punish the Patriots for taping the Bengals. “It’s very possible that New England didn’t knowingly break league rules... and the commissioner should still dock the Patriots in some manner.”
• Mike DeCourcy (Sporting News) As Patriots try to explain another videotaping issue to NFL, they face a credibility problem. /Nah...
• Jason La Canfora (CBS Sports) Patriots video drama: There’s no benefit of the doubt for a franchise that has been down this road before.
• Mark Maske (Washington Post) NFL hopes to decide quickly whether to punish Patriots for taping Bengals’ sideline.
• John Breech (CBS Sports) Illegal Patriots video reportedly shows Bengals coaching signals, cameraman wanted to delete footage.
• Charles Robinson (Yahoo! Sports) Some NFL executives want to see the Patriots tape for themselves.
• Tom E. Curran Patriots Talk podcast: Rich Eisen on ‘positively absurd’ Spygate 2.0. (39 min.) Curran: “I believe Bill Belichick.”
• Kevin Clark (The Ringer) Slow News Day podcast: The Patriots were caught filming the Bengals’ sideline at last weekend’s Browns game. Was it cheating or just incompetence? (8.10 min.) Amy Trask shows why she’s the boss, cites ‘Hanlon’s razor’: “Never assign to malice what can be explained by incompetence.”
• Terez Paylor and Charles Robinson (Yahoo! Sports) NFL Podcast: The evidence behind the Spygate sequel and truth behind the OBJ trade rumors. (60 min.)