New England Patriots links 11/30/20 - Pats cut Cards in the clutch; Field goal wins it 20-17

TEAM TALK

• Post Game Notes: Cardinals at Patriots. Belichick coaches in 454th game to tie Tom Landry for third-most in NFL history.
• Game Book: Full Patriots-Cardinals stats.
• Erik Scalavino’s Game Recap - Card-Tricked: Patriots snatch late victory from Arizona’s grasp.
• Mike Dussault’s Game Observations: The Patriots record improves to 5-6 on the season, as they overcame some late mistakes and made just enough clutch plays to pull out the 20-17 win.
• Post Game Quotes: Patriots and Cardinals.
• Press Conferences: Bill Belichick - Cam Newton - James White - Adam Butler - Nick Folk.
• What Went Right: Defense contains Arizona offense in a narrow victory. (1.30 min. video)
• Pool Report: Interview with Referee Bill Vinovich.

LOCAL LINKS

• Evan Lazar tells us ten things we learned from the Patriots’ 20-17 victory over the Cardinals. “Although Cam Newton struggled, the story of the game was Bill Belichick’s defense delivering its best performance of the season to shut down Kyler Murray and the Cardinals’ offense.”
• Steve Balestrieri (PatsFans) Patriots pull out last-second win over Arizona 20-17.
• Matt Dolloff highlights the Patriots playing great complementary football, overcoming an awful game by Cam Newton.
• Mike Reiss talks about how the defense mostly bottled up Kyler Murray and didn’t allow him to beat them with his legs, and notes the kickoff-and punt-return units delivered big plays.
• Mark Daniels writes the 2020 Patriots have this unique way of keeping themselves in a game even when times are tough, and they escaped with a win yesterday.
• Chad Finn offers 15 thoughts from Sunday: 6. I’m on record as wondering what the Patriots see in Gunner Olszewski, especially as a kick returner, where he hasn’t often made explosive plays or wise decisions.
• Dave D’Onofrio gives us 5 takeaways from the Patriots’ hard-fought win over Arizona. 1. Credit the special teams.
• Doug Kyed talks about the unexpected contributions from WR Donte Moncrief and DT Akeem Spence.
• Zack Cox highlights how the Patriots’ goal-line defense delivered the turning point in Sunday’s win.
• Alex Barth details the goal line stand that ignited the Patriots on Sunday.
• Bob George (PatsFans) Patriots kicker becomes a Folk hero after clutch kick.
• Darren Hartwell gives us his Pats-Cards overreactions: Was that New England’s best defensive effort?
• Tom E. Curran doesn’t appreciate Belichick’s defense of either Cam Newton or the win yesterday.
• DJ Bean calls Sunday’s win the ‘worst of both worlds’ for the Pats. /Beat writers sure can be miserable, lol.
• Doug Kyed recaps the most memorable play from Sunday, Gunner’s 82-yard TD negated by a blindside block flag.
• Michael Hurley explains why the referees threw the flag on that “blindside” block that, according to the rule, doesn’t actually require the contact to come from the blindside in order to be considered illegal.
• Darren Hartwell isn’t happy with the referee’s explanation for the punt return penalty that negated Gunner Olszewski’s 82-yard punt return touchdown.
• Zack Cox notes the players strong response to the ‘cheap shot’ on Cam Newton, ‘We’ve got to have each other’s back.’
• Matt Dolloff notes the flagging of Isaiah Simmons for a late hit on Cam Newton was the subject of controversy.
• Zack Cox Patriots Notes: Adam Butler terrorizes Kyler Murray in breakout game; Putting Cam Newton’s rough day in context.
• Doug Kyed points out who helped the Pats the most in the 20-17 upset over the Cardinals.
• Michael Hurley picks his four ups and four downs from the comeback victory.
• Dave Green passes along a report that the Patriots were fined $350,000 for COVID-19 protocol violations.
• Trevor Hass notes Bill Belichick praised his players for showing ‘mental toughness’ in comeback win
• Michael Hurley says Tom Brady is learning the grass isn’t always greener, as the Bucs drop to 7-5 with loss to KC.

NATIONAL NEWS

• NFL Game Center (NFL.com) Patriots vs. Cardinals: Stats, drives, highlights.
• James Fragoza (Pro Football Focus) NFL Week 12 ReFocused: New England Patriots 20, Arizona Cardinals 17.
• Tyler Sullivan (CBS Sports) Cardinals at Patriots: New England boots game-winning field goal as time expires for fifth win of 2020.
• Charean Williams (ProFootballTalk) Nick Folk’s last-play field goal lifts Patriots to 20-17 upset of Cardinals.
• Tyler Sullivan (CBS Sports) Pats need more from first-rounder N’Keal Harry to improve lackluster passing attack.
• Josh Alper (ProFootballTalk) Bill Belichick: Offense made plays we needed to make.
• Albert Breer (SI) Monday Morning QB: Kendall Hinton plays emergency QB, Ravens–Steelers on for Tuesday in season’s wildest week yet; Plus, A.J. Brown and Kirk Cousins discuss big Sunday wins, Deshaun Watson walks us through his Thanksgiving touchdowns, love for Robert Saleh and Patrick Mahomes, and much more.
• Peter King (ProFootballTalk) Week 12 FMIA: COVID Wreaks havoc on the NFL, But what did we expect?
• Gary Gramling (SI) Week 12 Takeaways: Unstoppable Tyreek Hill, Derrick Henry doing it again; Plus, Kyle Shanahan gets McVay’s Rams again, Cardinals collapse in Foxboro and much more.
• Around the NFL (NFL.com) Week 12: What we learned from Sunday’s games. 3) What if I told you that a QB with a 13.0 passer rating at halftime would end up in the winner’s circle? Well, that’s what the Patriots managed to overcome to beat the Cardinals.
• NFL Nation (ESPN) NFL Week 12 takeaways, stat leaders. Patriots-Cardinals: It’s a fine line in football, and Cam Newton was walking it in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s win.
• Frank Schwab (Yahoo! Sports) NFL Winners and Losers: Raiders won’t make postseason with any more games like Sunday’s bad loss.
• Rodger Sherman (The Ringer) The Winners and Losers of NFL Week 12. Loser: The NFL’s insistence on playing; Winner: Everybody who has ever played quarterback in the NFL, ever.
• Lorenzo Reyes (USA Today) NFL Week 12 winners, losers: Raiders, Colts have costly setbacks.
• John Breech (CBS Sports) NFL Week 12 grades. Patriots B-, Cardinals D. ”Arizona appeared like they were going to run away with this game at various points in the first half, but they never really put their foot on the gas to put New England in the dust.”
• Mike Florio (ProFootballTalk) 2020 has seen 35 double-digit comebacks, most ever through 12 weeks.

VIEW FROM ARIZONA

• Darren Urban (AZCardinals) Cardinals suffer brutal ending in loss to the Patriots.
• Dan Bickley (ArizonaSports) Cardinals’ loss to the Patriots is of the rage-inducing variety.
• Bob McManaman (AZCentral) Cardinals done in by last-season field goal by Patriots.
• Darren Urban (AZCardinals) Stopped at the goal line, and Patriots aftermath.
• Kyle Odegard (AZCardinals) Stellar defensive performance goes for naught in New England.
• Bob McManaman (AZCentral) Cardinals’ playoff push takes hit after late-game missteps help Patriots pull out win.