A win in Houston last week gave more hope for the Patriots but injuries are continuing to linger on for the already injury riddled Patriots.
Tom Brady led the Patriots past Houston with some help from some new faces. WR Keshawn Martin came over from Houston (what a coincidence) and CB Leonard Johnson, who we acquired from Tampa Bay, contributed in the secondary with some deflections and veteran moves. This week, the Patriots acquired some other players and switched around the roster. WR Leonard Hankerson, who the Patriots signed this week from the Atlanta Falcons injury reserve, provides another big body receiver for Brady. Hankerson is 6’2 and weighing in at around 210 pounds. Hankerson does have a history of dropping passes but hopefully he can put that behind him.
Injuries that have hurt the Patriots was when Blount went down against the Texans and is now out for the rest of the season with the hip injury. Remember, Hall of Famer Bo Jackson suffered a hip injury which ended his career so Blount should be very careful with the hip injury. Belichick went out and signed former Wisconsin Badger star Montee Ball to the Patriots roster. Ball, if you remember, was a Heisman candidate in 2011 as he scored 38 touchdowns, which was not too far off from breaking Barry Sander’s record at the time. Patriots also signed DL Ishmaa’ly Kitchen from the Cleveland Berowns this week as well. Kitchen, who is in his 4th year in the NFL, attended Kent State for college (Edelman’s school).
Coach Bill Belichick had to say this about the Tennessee Titans at the press conference, who besides having a 3-10 record, are capable of doing more. “They’re very disruptive, hard to block, experienced guys in the secondary – they really know what they’re doing and cause a lot of problems. Offensively it’s an explosive group – [Delanie] Walker, [Harry] Douglas, [Dorial] Green-Beckham, [Marcus] Mariota. They do a good job and really anybody can pretty much get you on any play so everybody’s got to be disciplined. The quarterback is a great athlete, very hard to defend out of the pocket, we saw that in the Jacksonville game, but their misdirection plays and things like that are challenging as well as stopping the point-of-attack and the point-of-entry plays.”
Tennessee has some gifted athletes. Former Oregon Duck Marcus Mariota is a dual threat quarterback with some speed to kill. Mariota has thrown 19 touchdowns this season and has ran in 2 touchdowns so far, which isn’t the amount you usually think of when Mariota comes to mind but Tennessee could potentially throw in some QB runs. Former Missouri/Oklahoma WR Dorial Green-Beckham is a huge receiver with a troubled past. Beckham is Calvin Johnson sized and his potential is through the roof.
The Patriots, according to the sports books, are heavily favored and I do not see why the Patriots lose this game.
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