Sports\/freelance journalist and co-host of \u201cPatriots Monday Aftermath\u201d on Spreecast.com Chris Pollone (@ChrisPollone; Facebook.com\\Cpollone) gave Jetnation his thoughts on the Patriots before their Thanksgiving Day matchup with the Jets.\u00a0 Pollone covered Southeastern Conference (SEC) football for over 15 years and hosts an SEC show Saturdays on Spreecast.com, this week\u2019s show title \u201cTide and Tigers\u201d:<\/p>\n
JN:<\/strong>\u00a0 Patriots all-pro tight end Rob Gronkowski suffered a broken forearm against the Colts. How do you see the loss of Gronkowski affecting the Patriots offense?<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0 It\u2019s obviously a huge loss Gronkowski, along with Jimmy Graham, is one of the best tight ends in the league in terms of being a real weapon in an offense.\u00a0 They are lucky it happened now since Gronkowski could be able to return for the playoffs.\u00a0 The Patriots will have to adapt but they\u2019ve had to adapt before being without Aaron Hernandez and have dealt with problems along the offensive line, others guys are going to have to step up.<\/p>\n JN:<\/strong>\u00a0 The Patriots offense usually relied heavily on the pass but they are 5th<\/sup> in rushing this season.\u00a0 Could you tell us about the team\u2019s running backs and how they\u2019ve created this more balanced offense?<\/p>\n Chris: \u00a0<\/strong>Bill Belichick does not believe in the star system running back. \u00a0He is not a guy who is going to go out and find the hot running back, because the Patriots have found that over the years that if you have capable runners who don\u2019t fumble and have a good offense line you can have an affective ground game.\u00a0 In the past they\u2019ve been quick to give up on that ground game and go more towards the pass, especially when the defense was struggling.<\/p>\n This year they\u2019ve had many more attempts running the ball then they did last year, and part is the play of the offensive line, the play of the tight ends and then you have some dynamic runners.\u00a0 Second year player Stephen Ridley out of LSU has done a very nice job but the biggest surprise, who the Jets will not have to face due to suspension, is Brandon Bolden out of Old Miss, he has been a big bruiser, you\u2019ll see Shane Vereen get some carries and he is pretty good in space.\u00a0 The Patriots use to have for years Kevin Faulk on third down and now the former Jet, Danny Woodhead, is filling that role nicely.<\/p>\n JN:<\/strong> \u00a0New England\u2019s offensive line has gone through some transition.\u00a0 How are the players currently on the offensive line performing?<\/p>\n Chris:\u00a0 <\/strong>Over the past few years the offensive line has been the biggest concern because everybody knows the key to disrupting the Patriots offense is getting to Tom Brady.\u00a0 In the preseason the line was having a real hard time coming together but the play of Donald Thomas and Nick McDonald filling in for guards Logan Mankins and Dan Connolly has been nothing short of surprising.\u00a0 Right now the play of the line is not a huge concern and as Mankins and Connolly get healthy the line will once again be an asset in terms of depth.<\/p>\n JN:<\/strong>\u00a0 The Patriots just released veteran receiver Dion Branch, can you give us your thoughts on the release of Branch and the receiving core as a whole?<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing how the Patriots tend to get good receiver play out of guys you won\u2019t expect it from, with the exception of the Randy Moss years, they really haven\u2019t had a head turner in the receiving core, and that is why guys like Hernandez and Gronkowski were so important.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got an incredible slot receiver in Wes Welker but lining up on the outside you never really knew what you were dealing with.<\/p>\n The move to bring back Dion Branch was almost a security blanket type of thing for Brady, the guys played together for years, they won Championships together, when quarterbacks have a favorite receiver they know instinctively where they are going to be, how they are going to run the route, where\u2019s the ball is going to be and that is how it was with Brady and Branch.<\/p>\n I think Branch was seen as expendable, this is the second time he has been released in the past year, and he is not getting much of a look from the rest of the league.\u00a0 Branch might have hit the end of his stride in the NFL and his skill to separate from the defenders, so to strengthen the defense they brought in (Aquib) Talib, let go of Branch and promoted (Greg) Salas.<\/p>\n At this point Brandon Lloyd is doing enough, he\u2019s not the home run hitter that the Patriots expected just yet, but when you line up Lloyd and (Julian) Edelman or Lloyd, Welker and Edelman they could be very effective.<\/p>\n JN:<\/strong> \u00a0Rookie first round draft choice defensive end Chandler Jones has 6 sacks so far this season.\u00a0 Could you just tell us about Jones and the other Patriots rookies?<\/p>\n Chris: <\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s been a little bit of an up and down season for Jones, there are times when he is not generating the pass rush he needs to, but Jones is leading the team with six sacks as a rookie and does have games where he is very effective.<\/p>\n The other big rookie is linebacker Dont\u2019a Hightower out of Alabama. \u00a0I cover him for his entire college career and I think he has the potential to be a very special player in the NFL someday.\u00a0 He was a pass rushing linebacker at Alabama but is being used more in coverage with the Patriots.\u00a0 He is playing more and more snaps, the coaches are gaining confident in Hightower as the season goes along and he\u2019ll just need to continue to improve.<\/p>\n JN:<\/strong>\u00a0 New England traded for cornerback Aquib Talib. How do you see the acquisition of Talib helping the New England secondary and are you concerned about Talib\u2019s off the field issues?<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong> \u00a0I think you saw an immediate effect, the difference Talib makes is he moves (Devin) McCourty to safety, he is a much better player there.\u00a0 Now the secondary looks a lot better because McCourty is not lost, which will start to pay dividends and Patrick Chung, who has been injured, at some point will be back in playing opposite McCourty.<\/p>\n As far as the off the field issues the Patriots are very good at taking players under their wing, he has to understand this is his last chance to impress and get a new contract.\u00a0 The Patriots have some veteran leadership and Bill Belichick does not play, so he will not sacrifice a season for a guy, the second he makes a false move he is cut and may never play again.<\/p>\n JN:<\/strong>\u00a0 Can we get your prediction on the upcoming Jets v. Patriots game?<\/p>\n Chris: <\/strong>\u00a0Jets did have some success passing the ball against the Patriots earlier in the season but I feel the Patriots defense is playing a little better now and possible the \u201creal\u201d Mark Sanchez shows up on Thursday night:<\/p>\n I have the Patriots winning \u2013 Final Score:\u00a0 Patriots 31 \u2013 Jets 24<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sports\/freelance journalist and co-host of \u201cPatriots Monday Aftermath\u201d on Spreecast.com Chris Pollone (@ChrisPollone; Facebook.com\\Cpollone) gave Jetnation his thoughts on the Patriots before their Thanksgiving Day matchup with the Jets.\u00a0 Pollone covered Southeastern Conference (SEC) football for over 15 years and hosts an SEC show Saturdays on Spreecast.com, this week\u2019s show title \u201cTide and Tigers\u201d: JN:\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":16488,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1337,213,10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16466","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-home-slider","8":"category-jet-news","9":"category-jets-preview"},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/jn_logobig16.gif","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peLffi-4hA","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16466"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16479,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16466\/revisions\/16479"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}