What does it all mean, Bill?

Rumblings of rude discontent filtered through the service window at Barnies last night, and I didn't even have to go out into the bar to understand why. Bill Belichick had just shocked Patriot Nation, releasing mainstay Wide Reciever Deion Branch, as well as long time Center Dan Koppen and backup Quarterback Brian Hoyer as part of the 22 cuts New England had to make to get down to the 53 Man roster limit.

There was some talk of Koppen and what a shame it was to have to get rid of him, and of the team ridding itself of Hoyer's nearly 2 million dollar contract, but most of the hate and confusion was due to the release of Branch, which came on the heels of the team releasing fellow recievers Donte Stallworth and Jabar Gaffney earlier in the week, leaving the team thin at that position.

After much speculative talk and bad noise, a voice boomed from a table in the corner.  "It's Smashmouth", said the gruff construction type who identifies himself only as 'Captain Moe'. 

Moe is usually soft spoken and at least smart enough to keep his mouth shut 99% of the time, so when he decides to say something loud enough for everyone to hear him, most folks defer to his wisdom.  "Smashmouth football," he continued, "He's getting back to fundamentals.  He's going to line up all of these beasts that he's assembled and say 'Stop us if you can'."

All throughout the preseason, the promise of a jaugernaut on the scale of the Greatest Show on Turf has been dancing in the heads of Patriots' faithful, as has the frustration with the recieving corps as they hadn't produced numbers to that end.  Confusion reigned as Belichick signed and released recievers like they were hobos that he had invited in for a cup of coffee.  Then the team layed out a 90 million dollar investment for thier beastly duo of tight ends after not being able to come to terms with franchise-tagged Wes Welker.

The writing on the wall started to become more pronounced when Stallworth and Gaffney were released - and when the final cuts were announced that left the team with only two pure wide outs, the writing exploded off the wall in vivid color.  Let's see...keeping 27 players on defense, and only 22 on offense: 2 Quarterbacks, 4 Running Backs, 4 Tight Ends, 8 Linemen and only 2 recievers (Edelman and Slater not included)... 

But let's look at this another way.  In reality, Belichick has kept a Quarterback, an H Back, and 20 support personnel. 

Not to discount the importance of a Rob Gronkowski or Wes Welker, but with a weapon such as Aaron Hernandez on the field, the key is to use the other "skill" position players to help open things up for the newly wealthy X Factor.  Belichick has admitted that his defense can't cover Hernandez in practice, so why not run a traditional Pro Set moving Hernandez around to take advantage of mismatches?

Gronkowski and Welker are arguably the best in the NFL at their positions and normally require double-team attention from the defense.  Add the skill of Brandon Lloyd outside of the numbers and the hard nosed running of Ridley and Bolden, there's just not enough defenders to account for Hernandez.  Conversely, when Hernandez IS accounted for, someone else will not be.

In other words, the Patriots are primed to dictate to defenses, to  physically impose their will on defenses.    They are not excessively fast, but they are fast enough, and the entire team reeks of violence - and by the time Belichick is hoisting the Lombardi Trophy in New Orleans this coming February, smarter heads will be trying to come up with a scary nickname to fit this team's style of play, something imposing such as the Philadelphia Flyers' "Broad Street Bullies" or the 1927 New York Yankees "Murderer's Row"...