Monday Night Football. Prime time. That’s what the Patriots have to look forward to in a few short days. The opponent? The 5-4 Buffalo Bills. The Bills are similar to the Giants in that their record does not reflect how good of a football team they are. They caught the injury bug early and have had to deal with a lot of adversity so far this season. Tyrod Taylor came on to the scene in training camp and everyone was stunned when Rex Ryan named him starting quarterback before the season opener. He played decently well to start the year and then was replaced by former first rounder EJ Manuel because of injury. Manuel has been a huge bust since being drafted out of Florida State, and when the Bills lost to the Jaguars in London he became the first QB in NFL history to have lost a start in 3 different countries (The Seahawks beat them in Toronto a few years ago). But with Taylor under center the Bills are 5-2 which is pretty impressive considering their only 2 losses are to the Patriots in Week 2 and against the Giants, who played well enough to put them in a position to beat the Patriots (Tom Brady prevailed yet again however). The Patriots come into Monday Night as hot as anyone in football right now. They are 9-0 and coming off of their biggest win of the season against the Giants in the Meadowlands. But they lost Julian Edelman in the process, which is a huge blow to Tom Brady and the Patriots offense. It’s not all bad however, because both Sebastian Vollmer, Tre Jackson and Marcus Cannon returned to practice this week which would drastically improve the offensive line if they were ready to go for kickoff. Another guy to keep an eye on is Scott Chandler. He was a Buffalo Bill a year ago and had a touchdown catch against the Giants this past week. With Edelman out, it will create more space in the middle for another target. And between him, Gronk and Amendola stepping in to replace Edelman, it will be tough for the Buffalo secondary to lock up all of them. To add to this, the Patriots are without Dion Lewis, who was a huge threat out of the backfield against Buffalo in week 2. This is because the Bills defensive line is one of the best in football. Marcel Darius, Jerry Hughes and former Texans number one overall pick Mario Williams have shown to be the backbone of Rex Ryan’s defense. Tom Brady threw 59 passes in that game, many to Lewis who used that stage as his “coming out party” in terms of reestablishing himself as a legitimate NFL back. With LeGarrette Blount as more of a big, short yardage runner, expect to see a lot more of Brandon Bolden or James White to get serious playing time to act as the receiving back that Lewis was during week 2. The Bills are coming off of a huge win of their own. They have 11 days to prepare for the Patriots because they most recently played on Thursday Night Football, also in the Meadowlands, against the New (Jersey) York Jets. It was Rex Ryan’s first time back since being fired a year ago and it was an extremely emotional win for the Bills. They played extremely well and made enough plays to win the game when Jets QB Ryan Fitzpatrick threw an interception against his former team. It was Taylor’s second game back from injury and he has proved all of his doubters wrong after backing up Joe Flacco in Baltimore for the past 4 seasons. Shady McCoy has played well when he is in the lineup, and historically has played exceptionally well on Monday Night Football dating back to his days in Philadelphia. And Charles Clay has done a tremendous job all season long replacing Scott Chandler at the TE position, alongside Sammy Watkins and Robert Woods on the outside. For as much as I love to give the Bills fans I know a hard time about this offense is full of nothing but rejects, they are very good when healthy and have shown it on the field. One thing to keep in mind is the discipline of the Bills. Historically, Rex Ryan led teams are fairly undisciplined and this season is no different. Through 9 games this season, the Bills have an NFL high 107 penalties (90 accepted) for 808 yards. This will play a factor because it means that they traditionally beat themselves in games, and the Patriots will take advantage of every opportunity that Buffalo gives them. Watch for Tom Brady to have another huge game as well. Bacarri Rambo came out yesterday and said that he felt “disrespected” that Tom Brady threw the ball so much when they were up by so much in the fourth quarter of their week 2 matchup. Are you kidding me?! Hey Bacarri, want to know how to stop the Patriots from throwing so much? Make a couple plays and force them to try and mix it up. It’s not rocket science. Anyway, this went public today and you can bet that Tom Brady is licking his chops hearing that. Prediction:
Patriots 38 Bills 17
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Finally got em. This past Sunday was a massive team win for the Patriots for many different reasons. It was the most decimated the offensive line has been this season, the first game without Dion Lewis and they lost Julian Edelman early in the game with a broken foot. And they were facing a team that has historically beaten the Patriots, and was the only team in the NFL since 2008 that they had not been beaten. Now obviously they don’t play every year, but it’s not often that Tom Brady loses to anyone more than once. It was huge as well because it was the latest in a game that the Patriots trailed. They battled hard, played as a team and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. It was an extremely tough game from the get go and we realized real quickly that Odell Beckham Jr. is the real deal. On the Giants second drive he hauled in a “go” route downfield with his fingertips and took it to the house following a poor read from safety Devin McCourty. 87 yards just like that. And not a great start to the matchup that would decide the game. OBJ was the responsibility of Malcolm Butler all day and if the first play had everyone nervous for what appeared was going to be a very long day. But Butler stepped up huge in this game and bounced back tremendously. Following the touchdown, OBJ was thrown to 11 times and only had 3 catches for 17 yards. Incredible performance against arguably the most dominant receiver in the game right now. Butler’s biggest play came in the 4th quarter just before the 2 minute warning where OBJ got open near the pylon. He had a touchdown in his hands which would have more than likely sealed the deal for the Giants. But Butler stuck his hand in and knocked the ball out of his hands as he was completing the catch, similar to Sterling Moore’s play against Baltimore at the end of the 2011 AFC Championship game. The pass fell incomplete and the G men were forced to kick a field goal to put them up by 2 with 1:47 remaining in the game. This was big as well because the Patriots only had 1 timeout remaining and the play happened with 2:01 left in the game. This meant that the Giants had to run another play before the 2 minute warning which was a huge part why the Patriots had a chance at the end. WAY too much time for Tom Brady. Brady took the Pats down the field 44 yards and set up a 54 yard Stephen Gostkowski field goal with 0:01 remaining on the clock. Danny Amendola had a HUGE catch on 4th and 10 to start off the drive, and had a great catch with 6 seconds to go that put the Patriots into field goal range. 54 yards seemed like a chip shot for Gostkowski who is 80% from 50 or more yards away in his career, which is nothing short of elite. It’s pretty tough to say that a New England kicker will ever be better than Adam Vinatieri, but Gostkowski is getting pretty close to that. This win was huge not only for the season, but it also shuts up all the national media that has given Brady and Belichick a hard time for losing. It seems like every time anyone makes a catch on Sunday Night Football, Cris Collinsworth finds a way to compare it to either the Tyree or Manningham catches and that will most likely never end. People like that will always want to bring that up because they are envious of the success that the Patriots have had. The Giants will always have those two Super Bowl wins, and they earned them fair and square (with a little help from the referees not blowing the Tyree play dead before he even threw it). Despite standing at 5-5, the Giants are leading their division and have lost 4 games in the final minute. They are a damn good football team and I would not be surprised if they made a late season run to put themselves in a position to punch a ticket to San Francisco in February.
I think that it’s safe to say that this season has gone well for the New England Patriots so far. At the midway point they are sitting atop the “competitive” AFC East, and are tied for the number 1 seed in the AFC at 8-0. This NFL season as a whole has been incredible so far and it starts with the amount of successful teams. After week 6 there were 5 unbeaten teams and after week 9 concluded last night with the Phillip Rivers led collapse of the San Diego Chargers, which I love, there are 3 unbeaten teams remaining. The Patriots, the Carolina Panthers, and the Cincinnati Bengals all stand at 8-0 currently. It is the first time in NFL history that 3 teams opened the season 8-0. But, as much as I love and respect the rest of the NFL, this is a Patriots blog. Tom Brady has continued to play the best football of his already unbelievable career and is on pace to throw 44 touchdowns and only 4 interceptions. At the age of 38 he looks like he could play for another 10 years if he really wanted to (which would be every Patriots fan’s dream). This is the first time that the Patriots have gone 8-0 to start a season since they ran the table in the regular season in 2007. The similarities from that season to this are very similar in that Tom Brady had weapons to throw to. In 2007 it was Randy Moss, Wes Welker (who just signed with the Rams yesterday) and Donte Stallworth who were TB12’s main targets. This year he has Edelman, Amendola, Jojo Lafell and the big man Rob Gronkowski. The 2007 team had an elite defense, something that Tom Brady has been gifted with only a few times, but every time he has, the season has been special. And something that is weird and unorthodox is their schedule. Obviously they play the Jets, Bills and Dolphins two times every year because they play within the division. But the non-divisional opponents are eerily similar. The Steelers seem to be an opponent every year, but the way that the schedule was set up this year is that they play every team from the NFC East. That means that the Cowboys, Eagles, Redskins and Giants were 2007 regular season foes, just like this season. In fact, the Ravens, Chargers, Bengals and the Browns are the only teams from the 2007 schedule that are not on the 2015 schedule. I’m sure that in the grand scheme of things this means nothing but it is just an interesting irony. So what is there to look forward to in the second half of the season? The next stop on Tom Brady’s “F*** You” Tour is to the meadowlands to play against the New (Jersey) York Giants. This game goes MUCH further than the rivalry between Boston and New (Jersey) York. I will never forget what happened in Arizona in 2007 or in Indianapolis in 2011. And as a diehard Patriots fan, that was the worst feeling I have endured watching a sporting event, with Aaron effing Boone’s walk off homer off of Tim Wakefield in the 2003 ALCS. The worst part about it is the fact that the fans of the Yankees are typically Giants fans, making it 300 times worse. And from an actual football standpoint it is a tough matchup for the Patriots. JPP and his 1.5 hands are back on the field and although he is not in mid-season form yet, he is someone that needs to be located on each play because of his ability rushing the passer and defending the run. Although they don’t light up the stat sheet they do a lot of good things. Say what you want about Odell Beckham Jr. being overrated but he is a ball player. Already with 7 touchdowns he is leading the team in catches, yards and touchdowns by a landslide. Eli has bounced back following a historically bad season a year ago and has 19 touchdowns and 6 interceptions to add to a Rashad Jennings led rushing attack. The Patriots need to find a way to get pressure on Manning and get him rattled early. Expect a big game from guys like Chandler Jones and Rob Ninkovich coming off the edge and pressure up the middle from Donta Hightower and (if healthy) Jamie Collins. It will be tough for the secondary to try and match up man to man for a lot of the game so I wouldn’t be surprised if they used some safety help from McCourty, Chung and Harmon over the top of Beckham to force Manning into using short passes and make the other receivers beat them. It is tough to go an entire season and not lose a game, but as I look at each individual matchup I don’t see the Patriots losing. With teams like the Giants and Broncos on the road, the Eagles at home and each divisional opponent again still remaining on the schedule it will definitely be a challenge but if they keep playing well defensively and Tom Brady continues playing like the MVP of the league, there is no reason that the road to Super Bowl 50 wouldn’t go through Foxborough.
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Pat O'Hearne
Just a kid from Boston trying his luck in Cleveland Archives
March 2017
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