Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports

Now that Woodhead is gone, the task of replacing him falls to Shane Vereen, who is the ideal candidate to replace Woodhead. Although he is not as consistent of a rusher as Woodhead is, Vereen is more explosive and has plenty of upside. Both are just as good pass-catchers as each other, but the big difference is that Woodhead was a significantly better pass blocker- let’s hope Vereen can improve in that facet of his game. Vereen’s task is a tall one, but he is poised for a breakout year in his third season. However, Vereen will need to remain healthy and take the next step in his game. I’m confident he will do so, and I can almost guarantee that you’ll see Vereen playing a big role in the Patriots offense next season. I mean, it’s not often that you find a back with the upside, pass-catching ability, and explosiveness that Vereen has. He’ll never be more than a No. 2 back, but he has a chance to be a truly game-changing No. 2 for the Patriots a la Woodhead if all goes well.

Vereen has been speaking frequently to the media in recent days, and he talked about the tall order of trying to replace Danny Woodhead. Here is what he said, via WEEI, “It’s going to be hard to replace a guy like Woody. He had a lot of experience. He had a lot of knowledge. He’s a smart player. His role was pretty key to the team. I learned a lot from him. You can’t really replace him. All you can do is move on and hope to get better from there.”

“You can’t really replace him.” That quote stands out to me, and it’s great to hear that Vereen learned plenty from Woodhead. The first step in replacing Woodhead is learning from him, and the experience and intelligence that Vereen spoke highly of. We tend to forget that Woodhead is an incredibly smart player, and Vereen also fits the same mold as a guy who played for the California Golden Bears in college. Vereen has a tough task ahead of him, but it is a job that he has a good chance of filling out given his skill-set and outlook.

You can follow Joe Soriano on Twitter @SorianoJoe.

Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports

The Seattle Seahawks dealt the New England Patriots a tough blow on the road a week before, and the Pats were looking to make things right by taking it out on the circus of the division. But the Jets were anything but a laughingstock in this one, as Mark Sanchez led them to an incredible fourth quarter performance. They came into the fourth down 23-13, but Sanchez tossed a seven-yard touchdown pass to Dustin Keller and Nick folk knocked down two 43-yard field goals to give the Jets a 26-23 lead.

Now that’s scary. The Jets were leading 26-23 in Foxboro, and the Patriots had just 1:37 left to put some points on the board. Sanchez showed some clutch ability in giving the Jets a lead, but Tom Brady showed that he is the king of clutch drives by hitting up star tight end Rob Gronkowski for back-to-back 15 and 12-yard completions to set the Pats up at the 48. Then, Danny Woodhead took over and showed why he is one of the must clutch players in the league by reeling off a big 20-yard gain on his first reception, then putting Stephen Gostkowski into better field goal position by snagging a seven-yarder. Brady and the Patriots were incredible working out of the no-huddle in a clutch situation, and they were able to save their third timeout to give Gostkowski the chance to knock down the field goal with five seconds left.

Gostkowski was criticized for not performing in the clutch and missing late field goals, as some Pats fans were still upset over his miss against the Arizona Cardinals. I felt somewhat vindicated by standing by Gostkowski as a great kicker when he nailed the 43-yarder to tie it up at 26, but there was still work to be done.

The Patriots started off with the ball in overtime, and their drive was nearly killed off on third-and-seven with the ball at their own 44 after an incomplete pass to Aaron Hernandez, but a pass interference from Jets corner Kyle Wilson saved the Jets. Gostkowski had a second clutch field goal to attempt, and he delivered by also hitting a 48-yarder to give the Pats a 29-26 lead.

The Jets weren’t done, though, and they continued to scare the Patriots at home. Alfonzo Dennard committed a penalty of his own (holding) on third down to get the Jets going, and Sanchez hit up Jeremy Kerley for a 17-yard pass to get the Jets to their own 40. But that’s as far as the Jets would go, because Rob Ninkovich performed one of the most heroic plays of the Patriots season. He and Jermaine Cunningham teamed up for a 12-yard sack of Mark Sanchez, and Ninko (one of the best players in the league at forcing and recovering fumbles) pounced on the loose ball to give the Pats the win. Thus, the Pats won on a game-winning fumble.

Each week, I do a “What We Learned” post on Monday after the game, but I feel like we need to run through some stuff we “learned” from this game in context. So below are some bullet points on why this game was so significant.

1. We realized just how bad the Patriots pass defense was, and I think this is when the Pats realized they needed to get another cornerback. The Pats managed to make Mark Sanchez look good by allowing him to throw for 328 yards, 8.0 yard per attempt, and a 90.3 QB Rating. While those numbers are a bit inflated (his TQBR was below 50), Sanchez still looked a lot better than he should have. The Pats acquired Aqib Talib during the bye week following their blowout victory in London over the St. Louis Rams, but let’s just say that this too-close-for-comfort game against the Jets was the final straw. They realized that Kyle Arrington is a good slot corner, but he is terrible on the outside; Arrington had a terrible game against the Jets. It showed the Pats that they needed a true outside CB and someone who could lock down possession receivers, as they were unfairly playing Arrington out of position throughout the beginning of the year.

2. The fact that the Patriots were able to pull this game out and not completely blow it after the Jets near-comeback in the fourth quarter was a moral boost for this team. They really needed it after losing out at the end to the Seahawks, and this game against the Jets started a seven-game winning streak for the Patriots. This game taught the Patriots a real lesson, and that is to not discount any opponent. Tom Brady, Vince Wilfork, and other veterans will tell you this all the time, but it seemed like younger players like Dennard and Stevan Ridley needed to have that lesson ingrained into their minds.

3. Rob Gronkowski, Wes Welker, and Aaron Hernandez all did a solid job moving the chains, and they rose up to help Brady move the ball down the field in important situations. Gronk caught six passes for 78 yards and two touchdowns, and that’s the kind of dependability, solid production, and playmaking ability at the TE position that the Pats were making. He was their best playmaker last season, and the Pats lost a lot of schematic advantages when he went down.

4. We didn’t learn this, but if you watch this game again closely, you’ll once again be amazed at just how good the Patriots starting linebackers are. Dont’a Hightower looks like a solid LB for a long-time, Brandon Spikes is a true difference-maker on defense, and Jerod Mayo is indeed one of the best linebackers in the league right now. If you still think he is overrated, then you probably didn’t watch him as closely as you think you did this past season. He improved greatly in pass coverage (Hightower and especially Spikes still have some work to do in that regard, though) and looked lively against the run.

This “Look Back” series is driven by reader suggestions, and this piece was suggested to us by Musket Fire staff writer Cyrus Geller, who told me that this game was an extremely important one for the Patriots.

Past “Look Back” pieces

Patriots score 21 points in 52 seconds to help destroy the Jets.

Defensive end Chandler Jones debuts against the Tennessee Titans.

The Arizona Cardinals upset the Patriots in Week 2.

You can follow Joe Soriano on Twitter @SorianoJoe.

The suggestion for the Cardinals game was given by my good friend Max, and you can reach him on Twitter @seytonmanning. This is the second piece of the series, and you can read the first one on Chandler Jones here.

Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports

In Week 1, the New England Patriots easily defeated the Tennessee Titans 34-13, and a home game against the Arizona Cardinals seemed like it would be a guaranteed win. The Patriots were high off of the convincing win against the Titans, and the Cardinals lack of offense made most people think the Patriots would easily outscore the Cards.

But the Cards vaunted defense showed up big time, whilst the Patriots heavyweight offense looked very light indeed. Stevan Ridley wasn’t the first or last running back to be stifled by the Cardinals run defense, and one can argue that averaging 3.94 yards per carry against the Cardinals is actually solid.

Nevertheless, the Patriots offense couldn’t get anything going against the Cardinals defense. Tom Brady played his worst game of the season against Arizona by posting a putrid 30.6 TQBR. The 316 yards in that game meant nothing, because Brady looked uncharacteristically inaccurate and averaged under seven yards per attempt overall.

The big issue for the Patriots in that game was the fact that they got absolutely nothing going downfield. Brandon Lloyd finished with eight receptions, but they were all on very short passes (7.5 yards per catch). Julian Edelman also averaged just ten yards per reception. The irony of this game for the Pats receivers was the fact that Wes Welker was their best deep threat (19 yards per catch), and you have to look at this game as damning evidence that the Pats need a deep threat this offseason. They still haven’t found one, and I would be extremely disappointed if the Pats didn’t come away with somebody in the draft or Emmanuel Sanders.

One of the reasons why I wanted to do this “Look Back” series is because it brings these sort of issues to the forefront in hindsight so that we have 20/20 vision and can put things into context.

Anyway, back to the game. So the Patriots ended up getting the ball back after a clutch play from Brandon Spikes to force Ryan Williams into fumbling the ball. Defensive tackle Vince Wilfork promptly pounced on it, and Danny Woodhead won us the game. He ran for an incredible 30-yard touchdown with just a minute left in the game, and thus Woodhead proved in the biggest way possible why he is the most clutch back in the NFL.

Unfortunately, that would have been the headline had Rob Gronkowski not been flagged for a controversial holding call (my buddies were really pissed at the replacement refs after this game). But all was not over for the Patriots even though that touchdown was called back. Stephen Gostkowski had a chance to punch the ball through the uprights with the Pats down 20-18, but the 42-yard field goal was sent wide left.

Now Gostkowski in the beginning of the season was a storyline of his own. There were so many people who wanted Gostkowski gone after this game, and I even got into it with a few people on Twitter over wanting to kick Gostkowski out of his job. It was a very disappointing miss, but releasing Gostkowski would have been a scapegoat move for the Patriots. Let’s face it, the offense played like crap against the Cardinals. 18 points? I don’t care whose defense that is or how unlucky the game was from your perspective, losing 20-18 to the Cardinals was not acceptable.

And the fact that it was unacceptable made it a lesson for the Patriots. Call it the “WTF” loss (a la the Buffalo Bills loss in 2011) and the Pats getting it out of their system early on, because this truly was a learning experience for the Patriots early in the season. The Pats were humbled by this loss, and I bet Bill Belichick had some choice words following the game to give it a nice wrap-up.

What happened to Gostkowksi? Well, the talking heads, radio show hosts, and fans all spit their takes, some more educated than others. The Patriots handled the Gostkowski situation the right way by bringing in other kickers for workouts to push Gostkowski, and it never seemed like they were going to legitimately replace Gostkowski (unless if things really did slide out of control). I was initially critical of their decision to work out several subpar kickers like Billy Cundiff and Graham Gano, largely because I was paranoid about them signing one of those guys and paranoid that Gostkowski had a fragile psyche. However, Gostkowski proved he was a gamer, and the message I got from some of his press conference was, “Get off me, I know I’m in a small funk but it’s not a big deal. I’ll snap out of it, I have one of the best career field goal percentages, and the holding and kicking will get better. Relax. They’re pushing me to do better, and I’m going to do better; it’s not a big deal.”

Playing teams in the NFC West last season was certainly treacherous, and the Patriots only defeated one NFC West team last year; the St. Louis Rams. You have to also remember that the Arizona Cardinals were a much different team with Kevin Kolb under center and without Kolb, because they were undefeated with Kolb healthy. After Kolb went down, they couldn’t even beat the New York Jets (7-6, still have no idea how that was a real football game).

So the Pats loss to the Cardinals delivered some shockwaves throughout Foxboro, but there were several fans who kept it all in the right context and just looked at it as a learning process. In the end, those fans were right. Just want to give a shout out to the commenters and writers on Pats Pulpit, because I distinctly remember those guys offering up great takes on the game.

One of the most important events that took place during this loss was the injury to star tight end Aaron Hernandez, and this most definitely had a lasting effect on the Patriots in 2012. Hernandez’s ankle sprain was slow to heal, and the Pats rushed him back in the middle of the season. Had Hernandez not suffered that injury against the Cards, he would have had a true breakout campaign.

You can follow Joe Soriano on Twitter @SorianoJoe.