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Controversial sports mouthpiece Stephen A. Smith is clearly well-known for voicing outrageous opinions in search of column inches and attention. Usually, he does so with the ambition of rocking the boat and angering individual players or coaches, but on this occasion, his latest claim is less bombastic than normal.

Smith believes that the New England Patriots, who are in red-hot form of late, are now a genuine Super Bowl contender, and to be honest, he’s not far off the mark. Clearly, Bill Belichick’s side fell in a big way once Tom Brady left for Tampa Bay and last season was nothing short of disastrous, but in 2021 things are looking up at the Gillette Stadium.

Now, if you are looking for the New England Patriots best odds to win the Super Bowl, then you will probably find a price of around (+1400), which is just long enough to warrant a wager, and those odds could have been even steeper when you consider the season started poorly for the Pats.

With tummies still full of turkey, ham, pie, or whatever delights you chose for your Thanksgiving feast (if you do celebrate at all of course) we look forward towards the next Patriots game. The Titans are coming to town!

What many are penning as not an easy match up, the Titans and Patriots have their fair share of names on the injury reports.

At the time of writing this the Patriots have 12 players that did not participate in practice, or were of limited availability, on Thursday 25th November. The Titans presently reporting 8 did not participates, 7 limited availabilities and 1 full availability. 

So, many, many names there to keep your sharp eyes on (as a very dear colleague and friend of mine likes to say). 

But with the Titan’s running game in question this could be a very defense heavy game for the Patriots, cue Matt Judon. Awesomeness. But one man can not carry the team alone, and not to state the obvious, but this win will take a combined effort of the team to really show the Titans what the 2021 Patriots are all about.

So with that in mind, the Pats Prop crew have put forward their predictions. 

Go Pats!

There may not have been a Patriots game but there was plenty of crazy yesterday. So, instead of a recap this morning I have a little league wide sum up. Here are your Sunday scores from around the league…

The Colts spanked the Bills, KC found their feet, kinda, and beat the Cowboys, WFT beat the Bucs last week and the Panthers this week, and in the last few moments the Vikings stole the game from the Packers.

Talk about up is down and down is up right now, oh and the Houston Texans beat the Tennessee Titans (yep you read that correctly folks). 

So the scores on the doors for Sunday were:

Long story short, everyone wants to grow their money. However, before you consider the options, it is important to answer a few questions. 

How rich do you want to be? Do you want to purchase a car or do something substantial for your family? Depending on what your answers are, you need to have money in the future, if you want to enjoy a good quality of life and live luxuriously. 

Coming to the point, how do we get rich? Have you ever been around rich people and see what they have In common? Simply put, it is the attitude towards money and luck for sure. You will find that rich people look at life from a larger perspective and will always invest in future goals. Although they stumble like all of us but are firm about what they want. Here, we will shed light on a few ways, you can grow your money:

Get Rid of Debt

Most people drool over debt when they don’t have any other option to cater to their financial needs. An instant debt might solve the issue but will only strain your financial condition in the long run. Once you get into the struggle, it will be hard to come out. Develop a habit to get rid of debt and say no to interest charges. For many of us, struggling with debt is the biggest hurdle to becoming rich. So if you have planned to invest your money, here’s what you need to do:

Get rid of your current debts timely by paying them through a credit card. Start with paying off the smaller loans and move in chronological order. 

Make a habit of never asking for debt, especially when it is not necessary. Cut down on your shopping expenses and take home-cooked meals to the office for lunch. 

After a thrilling, yet heartbreaking, loss to the Cowboys, the Patriots return home this weekend to face their divisional rivals the New York Jets. Having already beaten the Jets in Week 2, the Pats are firm -7 favorites, which comes at a good time as New England is still searching for their first win of the season.

Patriots fans can take advantage of the favorable line as the full launch for online sports betting in Connecticut has begun, leaving Massachusetts residents with just a short drive to get in on the action in the state that lies between the AFC East rivals.

The Jets managed to pull off an overtime win against Tennessee since falling to the Patriots, as rookie quarterback Zach Wilson and his electric arm have experienced the ups and downs that any young signal-caller can be expected to go through.

The New England Patriots dropped to 1-2 in the season after a 28-13 loss at home to the New Orleans Saints. The lost might have been more costly to the team than a single loss in the standings after running back James White needed to be carted off the field with an injury.

Just a little over a quarter into the game, White took a handoff and darted around the left end for a six-yard gain before being tackled by Demario Davis.  White rolled over and grabbed his right hip, in obvious pain.  While the team gathered around White, he was carted off the field for X-rays.  Coach Bill Belichick saw White during the halftime intermission. However, even after the game there was no update on White, just a word from Belichick saying, “we’ll see.”

Monday morning dawns with the recall that the Patriots are still not playing so great, and no amount of coffee will change that! There was some bad, and there was some ugly, but was there any good? Hold tight folks, I’ll answer that one in a minute.

For those of you who perhaps did not see the game, it has been commented that it was a pretty darn bad showing at Gillette Stadium, and plenty of us were really hoping that Julian Edelman would crack open that jersey case and put it on!

To be honest, many of us were hoping that, even if the Patriots had played well, we miss you JE11!

Now, I am well known for my tight endage enthusiasm, and whilst I had a little bit yesterday (a touch more on that later), Jonnu Smith did not raise any. 

Since the big tight end free agency signings, I have been a Hunter gal, whilst recognising that Smith is more of a versatile weapon, but I like me a traditional bit of tight endage. However, I am afraid last night Smith showed less tight endage than we saw in 2020 (yeah I said it folks – you know I still love me some Ryan Izzo). But in grave seriousness, Smith was not great at blocking, he had a poor block in the third quarter that would have helped Brandon Bolden power through, but Jonnu’s target got free and took Brandon down for zero gain. His “not so great hands” that I mentioned last week were still around and he had too many drops/failed catches for someone of his calibre. Sticky gloves anyone?

Shockingly, plenty of negative reports can be handed out towards special team. We saw poor punt coverage, two special team penalties, a blocked punt, and surprisingly, for the second game in a row, a Jake Bailey kick out of bounds. 

The word of the day, the week, maybe the season, is inconsistent – and not really any of the team hasn’t fallen foul of this.

Whilst Matt Judon brought it in beast mode again with two and a half sacks, two tackles for losses, and three quarterback hits, veteran Kyle Van Noy had two solo tackles, and Dont’a Hightower… one.

The front defense weren’t actually too bad but the same cannot be said for the offensive line as Mac Jones took 11 hits. 

But before you decide to drown yourself in the last bit of coffee in your mug, hear me out.

Now, I’m not going to try and sell you sunshine and rainbows, sure I’m bubbly and a little bit crazy, but I am realistic, and Sunday’s display was not good, not good at all.

However! (Ah yes, there it is!) There were some glimmers of hope amongst the “dumpsta fiyah” some are branding the game.

The front defense wasn’t bad, it has improved a teeny amount, and that is good! They had some containment of Alvin Kamara, not all the time, but Davon Godchaux showed his prowess. Ja’Whaun Bentley and Adrian Phillips definitely showed up, whilst Deatrich Wise had a lovely clutch defense play taking Jameis Winston down towards the end of the second quarter.

So, Smith may have put his gloves on the wrong hands yesterday morning, but Hunter didn’t and he was undertaking some good blocking, playing 52 of the 72 offensive snaps. There was a beautiful throw from Mac Jones that resulted in a catch where Hunter powered through with a guy hanging off him. I have put in a formal request for more of this but am still waiting to hear back from the Coach.

Kendrick Bourne attended the party with a lovely 31 yard catch, playing 55 of the snaps. A glorious little quarterback rush by Mac was followed by a long ball to Bourne who orchestrated great body positioning for the touchdown. Nice.

The two things that I take away from this game are: 

1. The surprise at how much I’m not concerned about the one thing I thought would be at the forefront of my mind for this 2021 season, worries over Mac Jones (other than his literal safety after all the hits the kid has taken).
2. How we are on a road not very well travelled. 

This team isn’t looking like the Patriots of old. Of course it isn’t, it isn’t the Patriots team of old and not just because of the quarterback. Things are different now, and things are changing. And good or bad we are in it for the long haul. 

A phrase I am sure I will use far too much early on in this season, but is so apt and I am rather proud of it is, the journey is long and we are still at the beginning. There may be trouble ahead, but there will be moonlight and music so let’s grab the coffee and just love! 

Go Pats!