Well it was an anti-climactic Sunday but of course now I’m happy to have a MNF game getting me through the first and hardest day of the week.
One thing that jumps out to me after watching a lot of other teams play on Sunday is the level of parity in the NFL this year. Most likely we won’t have an undefeated team left after the Chiefs travel to the Colts this coming weekend. Wonder when the last time was when there wasn’t an undefeated team by week 6.
This is what the NFL has always strived for and it seems like it make the race for playoff spots even more intense this year.
Of course I kept an eye on the Jets-Bills game until it started to become a blowout. No way around it, the Jets are playing great football right now. Hats off to them, but there’s still a lot of football to be played. Biggest question now is if LT2 can stay healthy, especially with the amount he’s touching the ball. In New England we know all too well how quickly running backs over 30 can get dinged and miss time. Their next game against the tough run defense of Minnesota should be a good one.
PATS GAME THOUGHTS
If these were the old Patriots I’d feel a lot more confident about the tide of optimism turning against them this week as a motivating factor. The fact is proud dynasty defense, it’s a collective group that has never proven they can win big games on the road. The X factor is if these young players, who we hear are all talented, can take to Belichick’s coaching and show improvement.
I have no doubt they are all working hard every day, but it needs to translate onto the field. If it doesn’t then we have not yet seen the low point of this defensive rebuild and it could very well be coming tonight or, gasp, even later this season.
With the Pats killer schedule and young defense there will be no easy games this year. The Browns and Lions both showed yesterday that they can compete with anyone this year, and going to Buffalo is rarely as easy as it was for the Jets yesterday.
Tonight’s game one way or another is going to tell us a lot about the state of the New England Patriots. Not to say a loss will be insurmountable, but given the upcoming schedule it would certainly be an uphill climb.