With No. 1 seed on the line, Patriots will give Jets cold reception
Welcome to Season 6, Episode 16, of the Unconventional Preview, a serious-but-lighthearted, often nostalgia-tinted look at the Patriots’ weekly matchup that runs right here every weekend.
Man, talk about one you ought to watch from the comfort of your favorite La-Z-Boy. It’s expected to be so cold at Gillette Stadium come Sunday’s 1 p.m. kickoff that the Patriots sent out a release Thursday afternoon encouraging fans to bundle up for the game while also reminding them of what they’re allowed and not allowed to bring into the stadium. Blankets are OK. Drones are not. I hope Jets coach Todd Bowles knows that isn’t a reference to him. He is allowed to go.
Like any other New Englander who’d just as soon avoid frostbite for as long as possible this winter, I’ll be watching this one from my living room, which happens to be in Maine and, yes, indoors. Jim Nantz and Tony Romo are again on the call for CBS, and they’ve proven to be an enjoyable and informative accompaniment during the seven Patriots games they’ve called this season, including four of the last five. I don’t hear any complaints about this.
Truth is, the NFL experience is often better from the comfort of home The satisfaction of a well-produced informative telecast often surpasses any I-was-there in-stadium event on a day with decent weather, especially when the cost of tickets, parking, frosty beverages, etc. is factored in.
But I do respect those of you who are braving the elements Sunday, at least until everyone starts looking like a frozen-faced combination of Tom Coughlin and the Heat Miser. After all, the game does matter. With a win, the Patriots clinch the top seed in the AFC playoffs. With a loss, the top seed probably belongs to Pittsburgh since the Steelers are playing the winless Browns.
And while the Jets, at 5-10, are assured of missing the playoffs for a seventh straight year, they did play the Patriots fairly tough in Week 6, with New England claiming a 24-17 win. It should be a decent one to watch, if you’re watching from the right place.
Kick it off, Gostkowski, and let’s get this thing started …
Three players I’ll be watching not named Tom Brady:
Malcolm Butler
: This has been a disappointing season in a couple of respects. The fourth-year cornerback has played well at times, including a crucial tackle late in the victory two weeks ago over the Steelers. And he never backs down from a tough assignment, or much of anything, really.
But he has had some strange moments this year, including Sunday’s overall performance against the Bills, when nondescript Buffalo receiver Deonte Thompson had four catches for 91 yards against the Patriots, including a 46-yarder. Butler appeared to be at fault on a couple of the catches, and it’s easy to speculate that his contract status (he’s a free agent after this season) had led him down the risky path of gambling for interceptions to improve his statistics.
He wouldn’t be the first player to fall into that trap. It’s understandable when millions of dollars are at stake. But the greater disappointment would be if this leads to a contentious parting with the Patriots after the season. Butler’s rise is one of the greatest stories in franchise history, perhaps NFL history.
I’ll always remember his instant emotional reaction after intercepting Russell Wilson’s pass to save Super Bowl XLIX, like the magnitude of the moment overwhelmed him a split-second after he seized it. This is a player Patriots fans should always remember well. I hope nothing interferes with that in the coming months and his best football this season is just ahead.
Dion Lewis: Lewis needs 197 rushing yards Sunday to reach 1,000 for the season. The odds are long on that, obviously, but if he gets 20 carries due to his brilliant recent performance and the Patriots’ momentarily depleted backfield, it will be interesting to see how close he comes.
It’s remarkable that it’s something we can discuss even as a longshot considering he had 12 carries for 46 yards total in the first four weeks of the season. The conjecture that he might be traded to the Cardinals to replace injured star David Johnson feels like it happened three seasons ago.
It’s a tribute to Lewis that he’s been so exceptional after the slow start. Over the last 11 games, he has 144 carries for 757 yards (a 5.3 average) and 4 touchdowns. Extrapolate that over 16 games and it equates to 1,101 rushing yards. He may not have been the Patriots’ feature back early, but he sure is now.
Jamal Adams: The Jets’ rookie safety is supremely talented, befitting the sixth overall pick in the draft. But he hasn’t quite put it all together in his inaugural NFL season. He still doesn’t have an interception – he had a crucial drop of a Philip Rivers Uncle Rico-style sling during the Chargers’ win Sunday – and has had sporadic trouble in coverage.
In Week 6, he struggled against Rob Gronkowski, who had six catches for 83 yards and two touchdowns in the Patriots’ 24-17 win. There’s no shame in that. But Sunday, he had a tough time with Antonio Gates, who had six catches for 81 yards and a touchdown. That would be understandable in, oh, any season from 2004 to ’14. But Gates, now 37, did not have more than three receptions or 32 yards in a game this season.
And now Adams has to face Gronk again. Looks ilike t’s going to be a tough last day of school in Adams’s freshman season in the NFL.
Grievance of the week
I’m sure in time we’ll find out a lot more details about the reasoning and timeline for trading Jimmy Garoppolo to the Niners in late October for a second-round pick. Perhaps Bill Belichick will explain it in his memoirs someday.
Hopefully it comes out sooner. A vocal portion of Patriots are enduring sellers’ remorse because Garoppolo, as you may have heard, has gone 4-0 as a starter with the Niners while evoking the best of Brady with his leadership approach on the sideline.
He appears to be as talented and capable as he seemed when he gave the Patriots six quarters of outstanding play in Brady’s absence at the start of the 2016 season. He is also reportedly very dreamy and is all but guaranteed to have one of the most handsome bronze busts in Canton. It’s too bad the Patriots felt they had to trade someone like that.
But my grievance is not that they sent him to San Francisco for just a single pick when common sense suggests they might have received a bigger haul had they shopped him around or traded him during the draft. My connecting-the-dots hunch – and it is nothing more than that – is that something changed between the Jacoby Brissett trade and the Garoppolo deal.
Why would they trade Brissett without believing Garoppolo was sticking around for longer than this season? I suspect that it was made abundantly clear to the Patriots that Garoppolo had no intention of sticking around and backing up Brady once he was free to leave. Which is his prerogative. Who wouldn’t want to play if he believes in himself like Patriots fans apparently believe in him?
My grievance is with how this is being covered. I’ve heard at least a half-dozen radio hosts and sportswriters suggest that there was drama between Belichick, the Krafts, and possibly Brady that led to ownership telling Belichick that Garoppolo had to be traded. I’ve heard some version of this from different reports and on different media and outlets, to the point it’s starting to be taken as gospel. Llisteners are repeating it back as fact on the radio shows.
Yet the details so far haven’t been reported as fact, just as I-know-something-you-don’t kind gossipy speculation. That serves no other purpose than to look like an insider while aggravating the readers and listeners that you’re supposed to be serving. If you know the story, source it and tell it. If you don’t, stop trying to convince everyone you do. Belichick’s memoirs aren’t coming along anytime soon.
Prediction, or somewhere, Drew Bledsoe shudder and doesn’t know why
Did you know that per Pro-Football-Reference’s career Approximate Value statistic, Mo Lewis is the second-most-valuable player in Jets history, trailing only Don Maynard? I’ll wait for you wiseacres to tell me how high Lewis, whose hellacious hit of Bledsoe in Week 2 of the 2001 season unleashed Tom Brady on the NFL, rates in Patriots lore even though he never wore the uniform.
Anyway, about Sunday: The Jets should get some praise for playing the Patriots tough early in the season, but that was with wily veteran Josh McCown at quarterback. Bryce Petty is starting this week, and he’s more or less going to be a crash-test dummy in a football helmet as the Patriots try to figure out whether James Harrison can help their pass rush for a couple of plays a game going forward. Here’s to locking up the No. 1 seed and keeping every key player healthy.
Patriots 41, Jets 14.
