With the night game in the books and one more to be played tomorrow night the NFL is almost officially 25% through the season. It was a pretty thrilling week of good football to watch. I myself am a die hard New York Giants fan and we had a strong victory 24-10 over the Buffalo Bills. I’m almost sure that all of you don’t hate the Giants to a point where you would root for your division rivals. I must say New England we went into to Buffalo just like you and come out the same way, with a big fat W against Rex Ryan Bills.
Now I’m writing this article today to recap the effect week 4 had on the Patriots. Now I know most of you will say, “Hey we had a bye week it doesn’t matter and no other team matters because we are going 16-0.” and for those of you I pray that there is hope. Think what you want but you are 3 and 0 with 13 more games left to play and this is the NFL and on any given Sunday any team can win, and therefore there is a slight possibility the Patriots finish this season 3-13. Unlikely, Yes, but it could indeed happen. Week 4 has an outstanding impact on the Patriots and let me tell you why.
Let’s start within the division, with the match up I already mentioned in the smaller battle for New York that occurs every four years. Yes the New York Football Giants against the Buffalo Bills. The game resulted in a Big Blue victory and once again the skies of New York, as they always will be, are painted Blue. The Patriots you can be sure will probably watch this game over more than once in the following months as they play the Giants coming up at MetLife in week 10 and then the next week, week 11, they will host the Bills. Analyzing the game, the Patriots have to look at the different styles of play that one, they force other teams to play, and two, they play against a certain team. The Bills attacked the Patriots and tried to force mistakes because they knew the Patriots were a better team than them, and with Rex Ryan begin one of the better defensive strategist in the NFL, he went on the offensive on defense. As we all know it did not end up working, as Tom Brady and Josh McDaniels offensive threw it short before the Bills pass rush could get to Brady and ended up picking up big yardage. Where as against the Giants Rex Ryan choose a significantly more conservative approach. He only blitzed on occasion compared to the game against the Patriots. What is my point? The fact is teams play the Patriots different than the way they would play any other team. This helps the Patriots significantly as they have the ability to get by one single hurdle the other team will key in or throw at them and once they are around that it is home free.
For a standings view, the Bills, who started off strong against Indy, who we will get to later, know have fallen to a .500 record of 2-2 putting them a game and a half back of the New England Patriots for 1st place in the AFC East. With a lot more football left to play and another game between the two sides I’m not saying the Bills are going to be completely out of the hunt for the AFC East title, they are falling back big time. This should not help the Patriots significantly as we move on to the Patriots main division problem, the other team in New York and the one that screams Green, The New York Jets.
The NFL international series continued its first of three games in London, England at the always delightful Wembley Stadium. The New York Jets took on the Miami Dolphins and a tip of the cap, especially to the Dolphins who are willing to give up a home game, to them willing to travel to London to play a football game and they will be rewarded with an upcoming bye in week 5. One team, the Miami Dolphins, for sure need it because they are falling to pieces here a fourth done the season. Miami after four games is 1-3, losing there last three after just barely defeating the Washington Redskins week one. Miami play has simply not cut it this season. They struggle to move the ball down the field consistently and there pre-season big shot defensive has looked average at best this season. They seem to pose the Patriots no treat to win the division but as we know the hard way, the Dolphins ,have historically within the past 10 years, been a constant threat to beat the Patriots in there match ups no matter how bad the team may be that particular year.
As far as the New York Jets a new quarterback has arisen and have shown he can get the job done and win football games. And just like prior Jets quarterback, and no I’m not talking about Broadway Joe, Flash Gordon went to a place far away and stated his name and position and then kicked some tail. Yes I’m talking about Ryan Fitzpatrick going to London, England throwing for two hundred and some change with a TD and an INT, while also picking up some critical first downs with his legs. Fortunately, for Fitzpatrick, Emperor Ming was not in town from what I heard to stop Fitzpatrick’s knocked up running back that hobbled around for only 166 yards and a TD in Chris Ivory. Yes I made a Flash Gordon reference deal with it, I need something to be funny in this to make sure you will come back and read more. We all make a living some way. The Jets D also owned this game and the line of scrimmage especially. Miami’s leading rusher was Jarvis Landry, yes the receiver Jarvis Landry, who picked up a total of 29 yards on the ground, however Landry fought hard all the way around in this game, and if I had the power to give out Gruden Grinder awards this guy would have received the one for the entire week. Landry had 40 yards on 12 targets which is unimpressive but if any of you Monday-Friday 8-5 workers watched the game, on a peaceful Sunday morning with the kids yelling and the wife trying to get more money from you and go out and shop, you would have seen how hard Landry was working today on the field not only on offensive but also in the return game making a tremendous impact there. The Jets D game out with two picks one by the all-pro Darrelle Revis.
The final score was 27-14 and only because of a little something called garbage time, for any of my The League watchers. For anyone that does not know what garbage time is, just think back to week one when Antonio Brown caught a touchdown with time running out. It didn’t matter unless any of you won a million dollars from a big fantasy football contest. What did matter from this game is that the Jets, yes the J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS, are a real threat to the New England Patriots this year. I know none of you want to hear it but I must mention it because anytime you play a team twice and must have a better record than them to make the playoffs, most would say you should give them some attention. The Jets are sitting a half game back of the Patriots for first place in the AFC East, approaching their bye, thank goodness because this half game BS may work for baseball but not us here in the NFL. The Jets have looked good and possess the ability to contend with the Patriots because of their secondary ability to break up passes and under the order of Todd Bowles first year head coach can cause havoc in the back field as they lead the league in highest percentage blitzed on 3rd down and of course a journeymen QB willing to do anything to win, with a RB that can punish and consistently runs over the first defender to him. New England fans, be worried about the Jets this year, I’m telling you they are for real. When the Patriots play the Jets at home week in two weeks watch out New England, but maybe the best game of the whole year within the division could very well be week with the Patriots, mostly likely, riding in on their high horses in first place going into MetLife for the second time in the year and the Jets upset them and take first place in the division with one week remaining in the NFL season.
As far as the rest of the conference goes, New England fans will be shocked, the New England Patriots if the playoffs started today would have the third seed. They would not even receive a bye. Now don’t panic, this is just by virtue of the bye, however the Patriots do have some teams to be troublesome about. As bad as the Denver Broncos have looked and as much as we wonder how it is possible, yes folks they are 4-0, whether you like it or not, but do not worry fans you will get your chance to change that at Mile High in week 12. Along with the Cincinnati Bengals who we always seem to talk about this time of yet come late January into February they don’t even come as a thought, it would be like thinking about you breathing or blinking, irrelevant are also 4-0. The next most likely threat is the Pittsburgh Steelers. With a healthy Big Ben and an non-suspended Le’veon Bell they could easily be at least 3-1 if not 4-0 , and yes I do believe if the Steelers had Bell week one he would have made the difference and the Steelers would return to the steel city with a W and leaving a devastated New England with a Lombardi trophy and a ring, well I guess that isn’t that bad. Now we can’t talk about the AFC and not mention the highly selected champs in the Indianapolis Colts. How dare you count them out after a shaky start. They are the 4 seed in the playoffs and that is all that matters at 2-2. Yes they almost lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars in which the Pats beat 51-17 last week. If I were you I would still be worried about a top 5 QB in Andrew Luck.
Don’t worry folks I refuse to leave out the NFC and I know you want to hear it because all of you are already looking ahead to the Super Bowl. Just because it is Super Bowl 50 doesn’t mean you can drop the zero and take your fifth Super Bowl for yourself before you have stepped onto the field four times or maybe the more important part, a team that doesn’t belong in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference lead by the powerful 3-0 Kingsmen and Regals of California Lutheran lead by Connor Allen and Ben Chavez the second in their rowdy conference opener against the Poets of Whittier at Rolland Stadium. If you didn’t bother to attend this game or at least tune into it on your AM dial also generally found on NPR or XM if you get the real good package, shame on you. The reason I bring this to your attention would be the big rivalry game coming up against the Jacksonville, yes the Jacksonville Jaguars next Saturday morning, lights and field slots are hard to come by in Division III college athletics a lot of money scandals coming out of this one. The NFC is proving to be weaker conference so far however the NFC poses a much bigger threat to the New England Patriots than any team in the AFC simply based on match ups.
In the NFC the always tough Packers from the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field are sitting at a nice and pretty 4-0. From the worst division in football to the best with two teams at 4 and 0 the NFC South holding the Carolina Panthers and Atlanta Falcons flying high. Yes I choose my words carefully there because only one of those animals can fly, hopefully you know that and hopefully you know it is the Falcon who can, because I believe that the Falcons are going to go further than the Panthers. Yes the Panthers have had better games so far and yes they have the better D that will help down the stretch, they d not have an offensive that can simply can out and score at any moment and all the games they play are ugly scores and tough games, they do not make winning easy, which makes it very possible that if one play in a game doesn’t go their way they will lose. Where as the Falcons are the exact opposite with a working machine of an offense and a Dan Quinn piecing together D I think they will make it further and win the division this year. As far as the NFC East one team has to win and become the 4 seed but they will go no where. And the NFC West is a tough won but you have to favor the 1-2 Seahawks based on the previous two year even though the Cardinals are playing better so far this year, despite a loss to the Rams this week. The Rams yes they can be a pain when it comes to division games and any big game as it comes with Jeff Fisher style but sitting at 2 and 2 they are no real threat. And we all know the 49ers will be one of the more irrelevant teams this year. Other than them stealing a win from the 2-2 Vikings, who we may be talking about had they beaten the 49ers on Monday Night week one but they lost so they are out as of now, they have played awful so far under new coach Jim Tomsula.
That covers the Patriots outlook on what they have to face in competition this year for the contention of a Super Bowl. Patriots fans should be mainly looking at Denver within the conference and Green Bay outside of it. Thank you for taking the time to read this I tried to lighten some of the reading and throw in some jokes now and then. I will be writing a Post-Bye week outlook and a look inside the Patriots upcoming game aganist the Dallas Cowboys next week. Read them if you like me, if you don’t hopefully you will still read them for another opinion. Please comment if you have anything to add, subtract, complain, or like. I want to hear every piece of advice I can get from you the fans.
Thanks,
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