How are we already 10 weeks through this NFL season?
And how are the Patriots currently sitting at 8-2? With road wins over the Bills and Buccaneers?
I’ll tell you how: like Tony Romo said in yesterday’s broadcast, this team is D.T.F. I don’t remember what Romo filled out those letters with – Determined, Talented, Fast? Deep, Trained, Fighters? – but that’s neither here nor there. The Patriots won another one and are now not only positioned well atop the AFC East, but may very well be in the conversation for the…
You know what, I’m not even going to go there. Let’s just leave this as it lies and get into the Fan Notes.
- I don’t know if anybody else coined this game the Draker Mayefield Bowl. but if not, consider this first Fan Note my official filing for copyright
- And a lot of folks, yours truly included, had pegged The Draker Mayefield Bowl as a loss as soon as the schedule was announced. But like they have done all season, the Patriots made the plays they needed to make and closed out a tough road win against a very talented team.
- Let’s be fully honest with ourselves, though. This Bucs team is not the one we all thought we’d see back in early September. They were without their best three offensive weapons. They’re banged up along the offensive line. Baker Mayfield is playing through injury as well. A full-strength Tampa Bay roster might have allowed for a different outcome. But that’s the NFL. You play who’s available.
- It was good to see New England get back to their roots of allowing their opponent an unfathomably effortless opening drive score with wide open receivers and massive chunk plays. Are scripted plays that much more effective than game-fluid plays? If so, why aren’t DCs looking at how terrible the Patriots are at stopping opening drives and just scripting the first 40 plays?
- I’d also call a decent chunk of the playcalling yesterday more than a little odd. I don’t know how many times you can fail at an A-gap run before you decide to pivot, but McDaniels was going for some kind of record yesterday. The tosses, sweeps, and off-tackle runs were working…so let’s cram it down the middle some more!
- This also marks the second week in a row where Marcus Jones has been asked to cover a receiver with at least a foot on him. Unless Jones has plans for a second career taking all of Kevin Hart’s roles and there are NFL receivers looking to replace The Rock in that never-ending slew of bad buddy comedy movies, I’d like to see Jones doing what he does best in teh slot and just leave the WR1s to our DB1.
- Which means I guess I’m starting with the defense. As always, other than that first drive, which just seems to be baked into the New England pie at this point, the Patriots...
Pats Pulpit
