After Thursday's Broncos record 7 Touchdown passes for Peyton Manning it seems that we have already seen our weekly issue of blowout football.
As was said before, Peyton Manning hurled 7 touchdowns with his now favorite new receiver Wes Welker hauling 2 touchdown grabs to compliment a 9 catch night. The Broncos dominated the defending champ Ravens by a score of 49-27 and no matter how mad you were at Wes Welker, this was a heck of a way to kick off the 2013 season.
But nevertheless, 3 days after Broncos / Ravens ended, we might soon have at least a glimmer of answer to a burning question that has dominated the minds of NFL followers all off-season long. HOW good will New England be.
Its crazy to think about but over the course of the past few years, there has rarely been such a varied preseason outlook on this Patriots team. As you look back we have always known "Brady will be good, Welker will be good and the Patriots will contend for the Super Bowl." Those facts were true in 2003 and 2004 when the Patriots repeated as Super Bowl champions and they were true in 2012 when New England fell just one win short of getting back to the title game for the 6th time in the new millennium. But now, mere days before the 2013 year begins these facts have been replaced by questions.
Will Tom Brady adapt to his new receivers? Regardless of how Brady plays will his receivers be able to match his skills? And above all will New England be better or worse than they were in 2013.
To this point, the large majority of those questions have been answered. Yes Tom Brady and is receivers have meshed. Danny Amendola and Kenbrell Thompkins have been spectacular and look to fill the void left by Wes Welker pretty well. But for the final question posed earlier, there is no truly statistical answer.
According to Peter King of Sports Illustrated, Tom Brady will have a career year and win the Super Bowl. Yet fellow SI writer Robert Kelmpko predicts a 1 and done exit for New England as he thinks that Andrew Luck might out duel the Pats in a possible wild card game. Now when you look at these predictions, while the focus is largely pinned on Brady the biggest variable throughout this outlook is in fact the defense.
As it stands the defense sits as an almost identical twin to last years with one difference: cohesion. After nearly 4 years of rebuilding the Pats have finally held a defense together for 2 straight years...and that can only mean good things.
Patriots Vs Bills
Many questions will be answered on Sunday but those surrounding the Patriots defense likely won’t. For almost 10 years now, the Bills have been terrible through the air as current starting QB: EJ Manuel is not necessarily the guy who can compete with Tom Brady. Through 4 years at Florida state, Manuel never compiled more than 3,400 yards and was inaccurate with the football hurling 28 Interceptions to 47 Touchdowns.
So even with as bad a pass defense as New England has, the Bills likely won’t be able to capitalize though the air and in all likelihood will turn to a man with a few choice words for Pats fans. According to a local Buffalo news outlet, Bills receiver: Stevie Johnson said "I don't think they got nobody that can stop me...for real."
"They're athletic," Johnson then said. "I give a lot of credit to the New England Patriots. I haven't played against Aqib Talib yet. I've checked him out on tape, long, athletic, try to play with vision. They play as one unit."
PREDICTION:
With a Bills defense as complete as a piece of Swiss cheese, and a Patriots offence serving as a polar opposite I predict a 38-10 win for New England.
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