If you celebrate, I hope that you and yours all had a lovely Thanksgiving, and if you didn’t see my tweet please know I am thankful for you…
And whilst I sit and write this, I have myself a sneaky piece of leftover pie, something sweet to take the edge off the game that was the Patriots at Minnesota last night.
I don’t know about you, but I think maybe the most frustrating thing I took away from this close loss of 26 to 33, was the parts of the team you were confident in, special teams and the defence, generally were the weaknesses in a game against a good team.
However! As you lovely lot know by now I like to be positive, and whilst this loss stunk, I’m going to attempt to highlight those things that you might smile about instead!
I can’t gloss over the things that went wrong, the unnecessary penalties, one from Myles Bryant, Jon Jones pulling face masks, and Pierre Strong running into the kicker. Poor Strong may be sitting out the festive season in the Belichick dog house!
Some fans will be ready to highlight poor officiating too, and I gotta say I can’t disagree, but those are points the Patriots can’t control… I mean Hunter caught the ball with his hand between it and the floor and he broke the line for a touchdown, worse case scenario it was a catch… but like I said, things they can’t control so I shall move swiftly forward!
Whilst that touchdown may have been denied, we weren’t fully deprived of some Thanksgiving tight endage. Yes folks, that high pitched noise your dog reacted to, may have in fact been my squeal of celebration, as Mac Jones found Hunter Henry down the middle of the field, with several men attempting to get hold of him, unsuccessfully, as he crossed the line for his second touchdown this season. Possibly, the sexiest thing this thanksgiving… but I digress.
Jakobi Meyers may have had only a couple of plays (official stats: 4 targets for 3 receptions for 62 yards), but the catches he made were great! Good throws from Mac and nice catches by Meyers. Unfortunately, he seemed to get a little banged up and I wouldn’t be surprised if he turns up on an injury list of sorts this coming week.
Rhamondre Stevenson continues to be a beast, even when he doesn’t have a super successful game, it is ridiculously difficult not to look at this guy and put him on your good list for his sheer prowess, power, and growing versatility in this offence.
Whilst the defence didn’t seem to show up as strong this game, there were still some fantastic plays. Judon was denied a sack, but I would bet a couple of bucks on Kirk Cousins having the occasional Mr Red Sleeves nightmare. Raekwon McMillan displayed some of his football smahts, aka instincts, as he charged around making some great shut downs. Josh Uche had a beautiful sack to commence the fourth quarter, a big rush and a big play. Definitely a tasty treat to begin the dish of the last quarter of the game this Thanksgiving. Jon Jones may have incurred a few penalties, but he had an interception for 55 yards, and almost notched up a second before the game was done.
So there you have it once again you lovely lot! And with the fantabulous Tom Shaw-Mellors doing the Pats Prop on tour thing, I shall be holding down the fort and will be back next week with your Pats Prop preview of the upcoming game against the Bills!
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