Through 3 games, Tom Brady had thrown just 48 complete passes. His lack of passing targets had made it so that he had only thrown for 473 yards meaning he is on pace for a career low of 1,892 yards, a statistic that would likely have him missing out on a Pro Bowl nomination for the first time in 4 seasons.
Danny Ammendola has been out since week one with a groin injury and Rob Gronkowski is still and enigma loosing muscle mass while watching his QB struggle with inept rookies.
Brady has already been ripped for yelling at his receivers and through the first 2 weeks of play New England had barely scraped past 2 drastically inferior football opponents. They drop passes, their kicker misses field goals, and 3rd downs often transform not into 1st downs but to punts.
Rookie punter: Ryan Allen has been as good as any other NFL punter but that is only because he had been given “too” much work.
In one way, the Patriots have been awful, the bottom of the barrel as bad as the mere 59 points that they have scored says. But in another way, the Patriots have been spectacular. After 3 weeks they are one of just 4 NFL teams who have gone without a loss in 2013-2014 and well, that’s about it. But when you think about it what’s to pout about.
As bad as they have been, 3-0 is a darn good way to start a season. In truth at the end of the season it is wins that count. Having more of them is a good thing.
With 3 wins in the books, the Patriots have complied more victories than not one but two 2012-2013 NFL teams. With their next victory they will up that number to 5. What’s better is the fact that amidst the 2 previous 3-0 starts that Tom Brady is guided this team to in his years as starter, the Pats have made the Super Bowl both times.
“There’s a lot of football left to play. I think we can be as good as we want to be, as long as we continue to get better as a team.” Patriots linemen: Vince Wilfork said when asked for his opinion on New England’s 3-0 start.
The defense that Wilfork is a part of has allowed just 27 points and combined for 3 sacks in this game with Tampa alone. Those 27 points that the Pats have allowed is the lowest 3 game total since 1979.
We have known for a while that while offence is great a good defense coupled with an acceptable Tom Brady can and will often be enough to scrape by. In fact over the past few seasons it has been widely shown that Super Bowl champions don’t necessarily need to be the ones with mega star power.
Last season’s winners: the Baltimore Ravens finished with just 10 wins but stormed past the Broncos and Pats in the playoffs to beat the Niner’s in the Super Bowl.
1 year before that, Giants dropped the favored Patriots in the title game all after losing their first 2 games of the year.
But while 0-2 may have worked for the Giants I can guarantee that they would easily have traded for the 3-0 start that New England has going right now.
The Patriots look ahead to next week where they will hopefully move to 4-0 against the Falcons.
“I think that’s the biggest thing for us right now: individually raise our level of play and just take every day as it comes. If we attack each week like that, then we’ll be OK. This week will be another challenge going down to Atlanta. So every week is different, but our goal is going to be the same and that’s to get better each week. “
The Atlanta team that the Pats play next week is currently 1-2 but has allowed almost 3 times as many points as the Pats have. Regardless of that, the Falcons are still a great team and one that fell just a few points shy of getting to the Super Bowl last season. They are an ample opponent.
“Every week the urgency is more because there are less games and there is less you can do about your season. Just to get to 3-0 – we’ve only done it once in the last seven or nine years, which is a pretty good stat. I'd love to get to 4-0.” Tom Brady said in a press conference that in a way symbolized this season for New England.
First there was a gleeful look ahead to game number 4. Then there was talk about the struggles and controversy surrounding Kenbrell Thompkins and Aaron Dobson, all before there was talk on the greatest underlying fact of this crazy up and down season for New England. They are 3-0 with a chance to go 4 and 0 in just 7 days.
When wins are capped off, you move up in the standings, and when the year ends playoff teams are not decided by dropped passes. No, contenders and pretenders are separated by wins meaning that none of the other things matter in the slightest.
