The second team in our series is the New England Patriots, who have proved to be the best team in the NFL with a 14-2 record. The Patriots won the AFC East as well earned the top spot in the AFC playoffs and home field advantage throughout.
Coming into the season as you may recall from my preseason predictions I had the Patriots to finish 9-7 and boy was I wrong. I just felt the Patriots was going to have a tough season adjusting to having so many rookies coming in this season that would play, also not making many changes on defense which gave them troubles in 2009 and cost them the playoffs. There also was contract drama with two stars on the team quarterback Tom Brady and Wide Receiver Randy Moss both of those players was taken care of in their owns ways Brady as awarded a $72 Million deal and Moss was traded in a mid-season acquisition to the Vikings for a third-round draft pick in 2011.
The season started kind of rocky for the Patriots at that time I thought I was going to be right with my predictions. About a week prior to the week one game with the Bengals, Brady was in a car crash that some might have an effect on his play but it didn’t and he had a decent start with 25-of-35 completion with 258 passing yards to lead them to a 38-24 victory. It was also a first great game for Wes Welker who caught eight passes for 64 yards and two touchdowns, who was playing after a speedy recovery from a knee injury that ended in surgery but he was back after eight months of recovery. Most people did not believe that he was ready and like the rest of the team he proved everyone wrong.
In week two they would suffer one of their two loses of the season to AFC East rival New York Jets. I actually predicted this lose but I’m sure the Patriots did not they was ready to play the trash talking Jets but came up short 28-14. In this game Brady was plan out played as Jets Quarterback Mark Sanchez as he went for a career-high three touchdown passes. The Patriots had a touch game as they only had a total of 20 first downs and was held to only 291 offensive yards. They also had trouble on third downs as they only went 5-of-11.
Week three the Bills come into Foxboro and the Patriots are looking to have a big bounce back game. This was a bounce back game for Brady as he threw three touchdowns and the team also had two rushing touchdowns in a 38-30 victory. In this game the Patriots started a streak for the season, as well as showed that the only way you are going to beat them was to outscore them because they are going to put points on the board anyway they have to.
Week four would be a blowout 41-14 game in Miami against the dolphins and the team would go into the bye week in week five.
Coming off a well rested bye week the Patriots take on the Ravens in week six and prior to this game is when the Moss trade goes down. It may have been the best move of the season for the team as they removed the aging veteran and brought back Deion Branch. Branch would be a big spark for the offense in the game for sure as he helped lead a comeback form 10 down to a 23-20 win. Branch had left the Patriots four years prior but it was as if he had never left. He had nine receptions seven of which came after a 20-10 Ravens lead. Coming into this game the fans had worried how the team would do in its first game without Moss but I believe they showed them that they would be fine without him.
Week seven looked to be easy win for the Patriots as they had a 17 point lead going into the fourth quarter against the Chargers but they would hold on for a 23-20 victory.
Week eight would put the gunslinger Brett Farve up against Brady as they would take on the Vikings at home. But it was Brady who would look like the true gunslinger in the NFL as he had 65-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Tate in a 28-18 win. Farve would take a tough hit and would be removed from the game.
Week nine would be the final lose for the team as they would go into Cleveland to take on the Browns. In this match up rookie quarterback Colt McCoy made his first appearance against the Patriots and it was a big one. He led his offense to a 34-14 victory over the Patriots. Brady was had a 19-36 passing completion and threw for two touchdowns but that would not be enough. He also stopped by the play of Rob Gronkowski who had a couple drops and a fumble. The Defense just could not stop the Browns running game as they would have four rushing touchdowns including one from McCoy. After the game Brady said.
“We were out of sync all day,” Brady went on to say. “It was not a good game at all. As an offense, we didn’t do much to advance the ball, and that includes the quarterback. If we play like we played today we are not going to beat anybody.”
After a tough lose to the Browns everyone expected a big comeback game against the Steelers and that is what they got as they went to win 39-26. Brady had his way with the defense of the Steelers as he threw for 350 yards and had three passing touchdowns as well as a rushing touchdown. The Patriots defense was also able to take a big piece of the Steelers offense in Hines Ward early in the game. This was a big win for them after the embarrassing lose the week before.
Week 11 would bring in what some would call the biggest rival the Indianapolis Colts and former MVP Peyton Manning. This game would belong to Danny Woodhead as he did it all in this game, he had seven carries and one for a touchdown as well as four catches for 21 yards. Woodhead joined the team after he was cut from the Jets in September. As they say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure and he proved to be a treasure for the Patriots. Manning had a late game comeback and threw four touchdowns and 396 but fail short 31-28.
Coming off the close win week 12 would bring the Jets again but this time at home and the Patriots was ready as they killed them 45-3. Brady threw four touches and 325yards in this game he did not want to lose. It was made out to be a big game because of the early season defeat but it was a blow out.
Week 14 would is known as the “snow game” and everyone knows Brady shines in the snow. The Patriots went to Chicago and defeats the Bears 36-7 in the snow. Brady threw for 369 yards and two touchdowns. Need I say more about this game? Brady always shines in bad weather as he did against the Titans the previous season.
Week 15 would be the last real match up of the season for the Patriots as the Packers come in with backup quarterback Matt Flynn as Aaron Rodgers had suffered a concussion the week before. The Packers would have the ball for 40:48 of the game and would hold the Patriots to only 14 first downs but that seemed to be enough. As the Patriots would have a comeback fourth quarter to win 31-27. A standout moment in his game was when offensive lineman Dan Connolly, who is over 300 pounds, had a 71 yard kickoff return which is probably the longest for a lineman in the NFL but I’m not sure.
The Last two weeks of the season was a joke as they outscored the Bills and the Dolphins 72-10 together.
This season has clearly been there best season since they went 16-0 and love him or hate him Tom Brady has showed the he is deserving of the MVP award as he played in all 16 starts and put up amazing numbers.
Going into the playoffs the Patriots they are the team to beat as they have the top seed and home field throughout. I believe there best chance of making it to the AFC championship game would be to face the Jets as we saw what they have done to them already this season.
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