The past couple weeks have been tough for the New England Patriots. A great win on Monday Night Football against the division rival Bills led to a complete bag job by the NFL six days later in Denver. The Patriots battled hard and had the game won in the snow on Sunday Night Football. But a botched punt led to a fumble. Despite Patriots safety, Nate Ebner coming out from the pile with the ball, the officials granted Denver the ball back. That was the first of several blatant horrible calls against the then undefeated Patriots. Phantom penalties on both Gronkowski (offensive pass interference on third down) and Patrick Chung (defensive holding in the end zone on a third and goal sack) led to the Patriots losing their first game of the season. They battled back and Tom Brady led his team back to tie the game and send it to overtime. But with Denver being a tough enough opponent, the referees made the game virtually unwinnable for New England and they lost on a walk off touchdown run by C.J. Anderson. And we as fans had the scare of the century when Rob Gronkowski went down grabbing his knee after a Broncos safety went low on him during a catch attempt. Although technically it is legal, those hits cause an injury more often than not and luckily this one was just a scare. Gronk thought that his knee was injured like it was in 2013 (torn ACL) after taking a similar hit. Luckily he was diagnosed with simply a sprained knee and is week to week rather than being out for a long period of time. This was one of the only positives from that game, but they were still 10-1 going back home where Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are virtually unbeatable. This game should have been an opportunity for the Patriots to get back to their winning ways playing against a much inferior opponent, but much to the chagrin of the City of Champions it didn’t end up that way. The Eagles were in a completely different point in their season. Coming into the game at 4-7 they needed a win to stay in the playoff picture, and Chip Kelly was coaching for his job. He had been on the hot seat for a long time and after a horrible loss on Turkey Day in Dallas, it looked like it was a win or get fired for Chip Kelly. The Eagle offense got Sam Bradford back after several weeks on the sideline with a concussion and a shoulder injury. Tom Brady got Danny Amendola back on Sunday but it was the Special Teams that proved to be the x factor for the Patriots. And not in a good way. The offense looked like it was right back where it was, and they jumped out to a 14-0 lead over the visiting Philadelphia Eagles. Then a botched pooch kick from former Ohio State Rugby player Nate Ebner set up the Eagles with great field position and Sam Bradford led them down for a score to cut the Patriots lead in half. But in the next New England drive the Patriots couldn’t decide whether to try and get a score before the half or run the clock out, and by the time they decided to go for a score they were forced to punt right before the half ended. It was then that Ryan Allen had his punt blocked and returned for a touchdown. So the gamble of a trick play backfired and the Patriots found themselves in a unique position…tied at the half. From there the Patriots put together a couple solid drives but Tom Brady had a pass deflected and then intercepted 100 yards for a touchdown. To mix that up with another Eagles scoring drive and a Darren Sproles punt return for a touchdown the Patriots found themselves facing a 35-14 deficit late in the fourth quarter. Tom Brady took his offense full of rejects and misfits back into the game and scored twice in 8 minutes to cut the lead to 7 with just over 3 minutes remaining. After failing a second onside kick, the Patriots defense had the responsibility to get a stop. And Jamie Collins answered the challenge. With just over a minute remaining, on a 3rd and 5 for Philadelphia, he stripped the ball away from Kenjon Barner and the Patriots gave the ball back to Tom Brady and the offense. But after 4 consecutive HORRIBLE dropped passes by the Patriots receivers, they turned the ball over on downs and lost the game. Just an absolute disaster in all phases of the game, and very uncharacteristic of a Bill Belichick coached team to lose 2 in a row, and hadn't happened since September 2012. Despite the loss and all of the obvious issues with both the team’s health and consistency, I think there is a silver lining. Brady connected with Scott Chandler for a touchdown and he was targeted a lot more during the game on Sunday, which I believe is only beneficial for the offense when Gronk comes back from injury. And the Patriots are still tied for the lead in the AFC. They have had an extremely unlucky season as far as injuries to major players are concerned, but they are still 10-2 overall. Things could be a lot worse. The Dallas Cowboys and Indianapolis Colts were projected Super Bowl contenders, but are both barely hanging on to playoff contention right now. The Patriots are expected to get a lot of guys back in the lineup in the coming weeks which is huge as well. Jamie Collins came back from his undisclosed illness that kept him out of the lineup for over a month. Dont’a Hightower and Rob Gronkowski will be healthy for the playoffs, as well as Julian Edelman. They will be fine once the regular season is finished and the real season begins. The only thing that concerns me, and will continue to concern me is the offensive line. Brady was hit 13 times on Sunday against Philadelphia, and he threw 2 interceptions because he was forced to rush a throw out due to lack of protection. That will only become a bigger issue as the year goes on because the only person that the Patriots cannot do without is Tom Brady. Obviously losing 2 games in a row is never a good thing, but losing in the way that the Patriots have is not all bad. The Denver game was a complete disaster and I honestly believe that the referees took the game away from the Patriots. Credit to Brock Osweiler and the Broncos for capitalizing on their opportunities but that was a complete scam by the NFL to keep the Patriots from winning. And everything from the game this past Sunday can be cleaned up, mainly on special teams but also just simply catching the football. Tom Brady’s receivers have the most drops in the entire league this season, and it’s not even close. With 4 games to go I see the Patriots worst case scenario going 12-4 which should at the very least give them the 3rd seed in the AFC. The ones that I can see going poorly are this Sunday on the road in Houston against former offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien and on the road against the Jets. Houston has one of the best defensive lines in the game and I could see JJ Watt having a field day against the Patriots hilarious excuse of an offensive line and don’t forget about former Patriot Vince Wilfork wearing Texans blue nowadays. That being said, the last time the Patriots played in Houston was the game where all of the Texans players wore letterman jackets to the game. This was originally supposed to be a cool idea that brought some tradition back to the team, but it turned into the Patriots dismantling them on their own field and they have not been the same since. And the Jets always play the Patriots tough, no matter what their records are at a given time. The Jets game is Week 16, with possible playoff implications for the Jets which will also play a huge factor. I honestly see this little skid as a minor hiccup in what will hopefully be another legendary season for the Patriots. It seems like a lot has gone wrong for them in the past couple of weeks, but it will only help them in the long run when players start to come back and eventually lead them to Super Bowl 50 in San Francisco. But these games are as crucial as ever when it comes to earning a top 2 seed in the AFC and earning a bye week in the first round. But the strive for 5 is still alive!
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Pat O'Hearne
Just a kid from Boston trying his luck in Cleveland Archives
March 2017
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