New England Patriots - NESN.com
The New England Patriots are looking to win back-to-back games for the first time in three seasons…
Yes, that’s a real statistic.
Mike Vrabel’s squad bounced back following their season-opening loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, breaking another notable streak by securing a road victory against the Miami Dolphins. It’s time to carry that momentum for the first time in a long time, however, which starts with renewing an old rivalry with the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday.
It’s time for another installment of seven storylines:
New England showed competence on the offensive side of the football for the first time in several seasons last weekend, receiving a career-best performance out of quarterback Drake Maye.
It’s still tough sledding on the ground, though.
Rhamondre Stevenson, TreVeyon Henderson and Antonio Gibson have combined for 136 rushing yards on 32 carries through two weeks, and though they’ve already taken a step forward, there’s some room for improvement as it pertains to controlling the clock when they start fast — which is the unit’s singular focus at this point.
Pittsburgh is a tremendous opponent to do that against, as they’ve been gashed in back-to-back weeks to open the season by New York Jets running back Breece Hall (107 rushing yards in Week 1) and Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker (105 rushing yards in Week 2).
It’ll be more of a collective effort this time around, but expect there to be a running-game focus by offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.
Christian Gonzalez returned to practice on Wednesday, and though his status remains murky, there’s some optimism that he could make his season debut on Sunday.
Good.
DK Metcalf would be his primary assignment should he return to the fold.
Bad.
Metcalf’s entire calling card is the fact that he’s bigger, faster and stronger than just about everyone else on the field. Gonzalez is nursing a hamstring injury that was bad enough to keep him out of practice for six weeks, so that isn’t exactly a great first test. The Patriots might consider keeping those two away from one another, and if it’s still too early for their star defender to return, will have to get quite uncomfortable coming up with that assignment.
The Patriots have more sacks (9.0) through two weeks than any other team in the NFL.
I was surprised to hear that, too.
New England finished at the bottom of the pack in sacks last season, with their 28 being three fewer than the next closest team (Atlanta Falcons; 31) and less than half of the most productive team (Denver Broncos; 63). I’d say their offseason focus of bringing in pass-rushers has worked out so far, with Harold Landry III (3.5), Milton Williams (2.0) and K’Lavon Chaisson (1.5) all leading the way.
Pittsburgh hasn’t done a great job protecting Aaron Rodgers, so there’s an opportunity to keep expanding that lead.
DeMario Douglas,...
