Patriots Sink Buccaneers’ Pirate Ship with Strong Win at Home

Good evening, New England Patriots fans! I hope everyone’s Sunday and weekend has been great so far. If you tuned into this afternoon’s Patriots game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, you are nothing but smiles right now – and that’s good! With the dominating win, the Patriots are now 3-0!

This game really started off slow for the Pats. It seemed like they were heading towards performing like how they did against the New York Jets last week. On the other side, the Buccaneers were getting a lot of yards. One of those drives in the first quarter resulted in a 30 yard field goal from Bucs kicker Rian Lindell. The second quarter started off the same way. Except this time, both teams were going 3 and out and didn’t have anything going their ways. But the defenses on both sides were doing pretty well. Finally, the Patriots executed one awesome drive. Tom Brady found rookie WR Kenbrell Thompkins, who ran it in for a touchdown. That touchdown pass extends Brady’s regular season touchdown pass streak to 51 consecutive games. He needs to throw at least one touchdown pass in each of the next three games to tie Drew Brees’ record of 54 (which he set last season). After the touchdown, the Pats played more confident on offense and defense. However, the confidence didn’t prevent the 3 and outs. Tampa, on the other hand, thought it would be cool to act like one of those annoying trolls on Madden who keep going for it on 4^th down. I lost count of the amount of times they went for it on 4^th down but New England shut them down every time. The Pats also went for it on 4^th down once, but they actually made it and didn’t make themselves look dumb. They also were able to create one more strong drive which culminated in another Brady-to-Thompkins touchdown. That drive could not have been possible if Brady didn’t pick up a first down with a sneak of his own. While it seemed like the Pats would take the 14-3 lead into half time, Josh Freeman threw a pick to Aqib Talib, which gave New England the ball deep in Bucs territory. After one last sneak from Brady, the Pats called a timeout and asked Stephen Gostkowski to hit a 53-yard field goal, which I thought he would miss because we all know he’s got problems these days. But he ended up drilling it through the middle and the Patriots took the 17-3 lead into halftime.

The Buccaneers got the ball to start the 2^nd half, but they punted and the Patriots ensuing drive looked really promising. But Brady had to throw an interception in the end zone. That was really heartbreaking but at least he took the full blame that time (his body language even proved it). At least Tampa’s offense had no response. Not much was happening from the Patriots’ side of the offense either but I was very impressed with all 3 running backs. Stevan Ridley, Brandon Bolden, and LeGarrette Blount all played terrific in the 2^nd half. The only points the Patriots got in the 3^rd quarter came from Gostkowski, who hit another long field goal (46 yards). The fourth quarter was pretty much the same as the third. Both defenses played their best but Tampa’s offense was not helping one bit. Neither did the Patriots’ offense but they were able to get deep enough to have Gostkowski hit a 33 yard field goal. If you have Stephen Gostkowski on your fantasy team, I hope you started him because he had a monster day…something he rarely has. The Bucs tried to get a score and got yards, but the Pats defense stood strong. Freeman continued his frustrations and your New England Patriots came out on top by defeating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23-3.

I was very impressed by the vast improvement in the offensive and defensive game. Thompkins and the other rookie WR, Aaron Dobson, had a big day because Julian Edelman was covered by Darrelle Revis (even though he was irrelevant during the game). I wanted to see the rookies step up and they did. The Patriots have a tough test in Atlanta next week so it’ll be interesting to see how they do then. But, there is a good chance we might see Rob Gronkowski play next week, too! Stay tuned and have a great week! Let’s go Patriots!!!