Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Week 11 rewind

It's the dreaded short week for the Pats. Play (and win big) on Sunday and play (and hopefully win big) on Thursday night. Win two games in four days and you go from 6-3 to 8-3 and are in charge of your division. Lose two in four days and your season suddenly changes for the worse. The Pats took care of the first step Sunday with a convincing win over the surprising Colts. Is there much doubt they will take care of business against the Jets on Thanksgiving?

GOOD

  • Offense, offense, offense. The Patriots are one of four teams that have a point differential of more than 100 points on the positive side. The other three teams -- Niners, Bears, Texans -- do it mostly with defense. Not that Pats. They put up lots of points. They have lots of weapons. Gronk (before he got hurt) had two more TDs. Edelman had a score. Ridley. Vereen. Throw in Welker, Lloyd, and a soon-to-return Hernandez and the offense with Brady at the helm is as good as it has ever been.
  • Special teams. Julian Edelman's 68-yard punt return for a touchdown was the second big kick return this season. The other being McCourty against the Jets. Edelman had 117 yards in punt returns and McCourty added 94 yards in kick-off returns. Nothing like giving the best offense in the league great field position.
  • Turnovers. The defense had four more Sunday against the Colts. They returned two of their three picks for touchdowns. The defense is still giving up too many yards and too many big plays, but the turnovers are offsetting that for now.
BAD
  • Gronk broke his arm on the extra point at the end of the game. Now that's bad. There'll be lots of talk about why Belichick leaves his starters in games when they are out of reach blah blah blah. But really? Gronk breaks his arm blocking on an extra point? Has a guy ever broken his arm on an extra point? It's just bad luck. He could have just as likely broken his arm standing on the sideline.
The Gronk-less Pats head to the new Meadowlands for a Thanksgiving night clash with their enemies. It's a game all Pats fans couldn't wait for when the schedule came out. With or without Gronk, the Pats will be ready for this one.



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