Pats write up from SI

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS

Pats wideout Wes Welker underwent surgery in February to repair the knee ligaments he tore near the end of the 2009 season.
AP
What the Patriots do best: Throw the ball.

The Patriots had the NFL's third-best passing attack in '09 (277 yards per game), and several factors suggest it should be even better than that this season -- if not up to its incredible standard from '07 (when New England gained 296 yards per game through the air, 25 more, on average, than any other team), then something close.

First, quarterback Tom Brady, who turned 33 in August, should by now have shaken off all of the latent rust he'd accrued after missing nearly all of the '08 season with a blown-out knee. Second, he now has more weapons than Randy Moss and Wes Welker (who appears to be at nearly full strength after his own knee injury, suffered during last season's Week 17) at his disposal, particularly in second-year wideout Julian Edelman and precociously skilled rookie tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. Through the Patriots' first three preseason games, those three were all tied with Moss for the team lead with seven receptions.

What the Patriots need to improve: Rushing the passer.

Less promising so far in the preseason has been New England's ability to get to the quarterback. No Patriot has more than a single sack, and the team has just four, total. The loss of veteran defensive end Ty Warren has made the Patriots' front seven very thin and reliant on pressure from aging players like end Gerard Warren and outside linebacker Derrick Burgess, both 32. That means the Patriots might be in for many games similar to last Thursday's exhibition loss to the lowly Rams, in which they yielded 36 points and a combined 326 passing yards to rookie quarterback Sam Bradford and his no-name backups, Thaddeus Lewis and Keith Null. New England's offense will ensure that it will more often than not be on the right side of those high-scoring affairs, but it won't be easy.

What Patriot needs to step up: Outside linebacker Tully Banta-Cain.

Banta-Cain, 30 and in the second year of his second tour in New England (after two years with the 49ers), is set to start opposite Burgess, and will need to prove that his stellar 2009 -- his 9.5 sacks led the Patriots -- was not a fluke for a player who hadn't registered more than 5.5 sacks in any of his previous six seasons. "It was something I've always felt capable of doing," he said. "Last year I really got an opportunity to be on the field more, and I was healthy -- previous years I had been either a backup or I had injuries. Last year was really my first complete season of playing, and I think that was the biggest key." Now Banta-Cain enters 2010 as perhaps the biggest key to the Patriots' defense.

Predicted record: 9-7.

The Patriots' embarrassing 33-14 wild-card loss to the Ravens, in which they yielded 234 yards on the ground, served to expose just how far removed the team was from its glory days, which effectively ran up until it shocking, undefeated season-killing Super Bowl loss to the Giants in February 2008. This year's team is very different from that 18-1 iteration -- just 18 players remain from that season (not counting Ty Warren or the holding-out guard Logan Mankins). While the defense features a fair amount of young talent (like rookie inside linebacker Brandon Spikes, the former Florida Gator) with the potential to quickly develop, it is the offense that will bear the brunt of the Patriots' load. The offense, however, is talented enough to lead New England to a potential wild-card berth.