Good afternoon, Patriots fans! Well, we may have been disappointed with how the team played in Miami Gardens, but not on this fine afternoon in Minneapolis. I don’t know about you, but today’s performance was much more than what I was hoping for. Unfortunately, the Vikings are that kind of team that I just can’t think of a pun for. Regardless, I’m happy because the Patriots won this game in dominating fashion!
The Vikings started with the ball and man…they were looking scary. Either that or the Patriots defense just wasn’t there. Both Matts (QB Cassell and RB Asiata) were instrumental in Minnesota’s first drive, which ended with a touchdown pass from Cassell to Asiata. Asiata by the way, was only starting because…well if you don’t already know, Adrian Peterson was deactivated by the Vikings for whipping his 4 year old son with a tree branch (how messed up is that?!). Back to football though, the Patriots just couldn’t find a way to respond. But that was only a temporary thing. On the next Vikings possession, Cassell tried to pass the ball deep to a receiver but it was picked off by Devin McCourty. McCourty initially tripped after catching the ball but got back up and ran it all the way to Minnesota’s 2 yard line. The Patriots didn’t take long to respond as Stevan Ridley ran the ball in for the touchdown. New England never looked back after that. Stephen Gostkowski added a field goal and Darrelle Revis picked off Cassell (the Pats took advantage of that with Tom Brady finding Julian Edelman in the endzone). The highlight of the first half occurred at the end of the 2nd quarter. The Vikings were lining up for a field goal. Instead of seeing Blair Walsh’s kick go through, we got to see Chandler Jones block that and run it all the way down for a touchdown! At that moment, I was jumping up and down, laughing, and clapping. In all, it just felt really good to be a Patriots fan because both the offense, defense, and special teams made a difference. At the end of the first half, the score was 24-7 in favor of our New England Patriots!
In the game against Miami, we saw New England implode in all areas after the start of the 2nd half. This was not the case today. Like I mentioned earlier, the Patriots never looked back and it stayed that way. Gostkowski added 3 field goals to get New England to 30 points. The offense eventually stopped trying and Minnesota was just terrible. The only thing worth noting in the 2nd half was that Cassell threw his 4th pick of the game to the Patriots’ first round pick, Dominique Easley. That being said, the Patriots held on their big lead all the way to the end. Your final score: New England Patriots 30, Minnesota Vikings 7!
Well, Pats fans? This is the kind of play we wanted to see from this team! Yeah, they started off shaky but hey, once they figured out what went wrong, not only did the fix it, but they also dominated afterwards. Next week, New England hosts the Oakland Raiders in their home opener. If they play in that game (and hopefully every other game) like how they did today, this will be a very awesome season for this year’s Patriots. Let’s hope for that!
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