Are you enjoying this Patriots season so far? We’re two games in and it seems like our Patriots Nation is on fire, raging against itself in an endless cycle of small-picture angst . The hot taeks are rolling in faster than we can even keep up with them. Why haven’t the Patriots signed a quarterback!? The hubris of Bill Belichick! And now he’s going to force Jimmy Garoppolo to play with one arm!!
Yes, the Patriots are driving many people mad this week and it’s quickly feeling like us against the world once again.
And if all that wasn’t enough there’s a glowing puff piece on the front page of the New York Times website this morning about Exponent. You know, the company that told us second hand smoke wasn’t dangerous and that the Patriots balls were deflated .02 PSI below where the Ideal Gas Law said they should be. I’m going to resist going down that rabbit hole since we’re so close to end of Deflategate, but let’s just say there’s no specific mention of the two biggest criticisms of Exponents work — the lack of any timing element and the assumption that referee Walt Anderson was wrong in remembering which gauge he used. Read Florio’s takedown of it if you want more on this. I don’t.
Let’s try to talk about real football. Although if it wasn’t clear before, it sure is now — we’re going to be hearing about Bradoppolo non-stop for the next year-and-a-half, at least. Of course this is an unheard of “problem” in the NFL, having two very good quarterbacks and having to choose between them. It’s a fascinating story but one that I prefer to put on the backburner until the offseason. Meanwhile most of the media will waste the football season wondering “WHAT WILL THEY DO????”.
In a little over a week Tom Brady will be back and the New England Patriots 2016 season will truly begin. It’s nice to know Garoppolo has a lot of promise, but there’s plenty to play out over the next four months before we have to really worry about what will happen in the future.
Here’s the gameplan for a Texans team looking to come into Foxboro to make a statement win. Well, a statement win that would have a big Jacoby Brissett-sized asterisk.
[Read more…] about New England Patriots Gameplan: Week 3 vs. Houston Texans
