It wasn’t surprising to wake up to a lot of people pissing and moaning about the style points from last night’s Thursday Night Football win by the Patriots. On an uber-short week, against an unfamiliar opponent on the road you’ll take a victory any way you can take it, especially after how apocalyptic the Patriots defense looked on Sunday.
Really, it was only the fourth quarter that anyone should have any problem with. At that point the Patriots went to sleep on both sides of the ball after actually being quite good for most of the previous three quarters. The defense gave up 214 yards while the offense only picked up 42 in the 4th. So yes, that’s something for the entire team to focus on, but let’s not throw out the rest of the night based on the final frame.
When the narrative for three miserable days was how the defense couldn’t stop a nose bleed and the offense would have to be over-relied on, things were certainly turned on their head last night.
The defense forced six punts, including five three-and-outs and two four-and-outs. It’s hard to ask much more from any defense, even more so one that was busting coverages left and right only a few days earlier. Plus, they had to overcome two Tom Brady turnovers, something none of us would’ve thought them capable of.
The offense continues to move the ball well in between the 20s, but sputtered when the game was on the line. They remain a work in progress despite exciting flashes from Cooks, Gillislee and Hogan, and a 2015 Dion Lewis sighting.
It wasn’t pretty at the end but there was plenty on both sides to build off of and I think it’s safe to say that rumors of this Patriots teams’ demise were once again premature. Here are a bunch of Posits on the third win of the season…
