Patriots Pregame Meal: Surprise Absences Throw Late Twist

After what felt like two weeks off the Patriots are back to take on the Jets today. I gotta admit it, I miss Rex Ryan still, he made the season so much more interesting and his defenses usually gave Brady and the offense some trouble. I guess I won’t miss those parts, we’ll see what the young Jets can do today. I expect they’ll play with their hair on fire with nothing to lose, which might make it interesting early, but I expect the Pats to pull away in the second half.

Certainly hurts that they’ll be without Bilal Powell, who was the one multi-threat weapon that I thought could really get the Pats on their heels. Josh McCown might play up to Bill Belichick’s lofty expectations but ultimately this is a traditional offense and those haven’t really seemed to be a problem for the Patriots defense.

Yesterday was a crazy day of Patriots news, with Harvey Langi getting into a car accident and Stephon Gilmore mysteriously turning up with a concussion. Obviously I hope Langi and his wife are okay, I drive by the area where his accident happened all the time and it’s scary to imagine getting plowed into like that. On a football level it would seem like Langi season could very well be over which isn’t exactly a devastating blow for the team but it’s just another injury that thins depth, hurts a promising player’s development and is yet another linebacker down.

So now it looks like Jonathan Jones is going to start at corner with Malcolm Butler. Jones started much of the offseason as the slot corner and is really fast and an excellent special teamer. He’s also made some plays in limited cornerback work. So this will be a good chance to get a look at him. I’d expect to see him match up with Jeremy Kerley a lot. Otherwise the Pats can lean on Patrick Chung in the slot a little more which should be fine. We had amazing injury luck in the secondary the last few years, now with Eric Rowe and Gilmore out, the depth is being tested for the first time in a while.

It’s just unfortunate that Gilmore can’t be out there to get a chance to build on some positive strides 10 days ago.

Plenty of fans are salivating over Navorro Bowman but I’d be really surprised if the Pats went out and got him. They’ve already got a vet linebacker who can’t run sitting on the bench, what’s Bowman going to do that David Harris can’t? Of course, I’ve been surprised before and I’ll be surprised again. I just think too many people think it’s 2012 Bowman we’d be getting.

I can’t believe it, but I really hope Shea McClellin can come off of IR. I’ve always been a big critic of him, but this defense needs his athleticism at the second level so badly.

It feels like the season is on a reset start today. Hopefully we finally get a glimpse of who these Patriots can be when they put together a full game. They had three pretty good quarters against the Bucs under special circumstances. Now we’re back in the division against an opponent they match up well with. Will this be the 2017 game we’ve all been waiting for? Fingers crossed.

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