After a short week, can Patriots find some defence?
New England doesn’t have much time to work on patching up that leaky defence.
And next up are Jameis Winston, Mike Evans and perhaps the returning-fromsuspension Doug Martin for the Buccaneers.
Only Indianapolis has yielded more than the 128 points the Patriots have given up. Mobile quarterbacks (Alex Smith, Cam Newton, Deshaun Watson) have given them fits.
The Patriots have scored 129, so the offence is in good form. Is there finger pointing among the New England players heading into tonight’s game?
“Well I’ve been on teams where we didn’t score many points and we just relied on the defence to do everything,” Tom Brady says. “That’s just the way football is. There’s going to be games this year where we don’t do well on offence and we’re going to need our defence to play well. It’s four games in. We’ve got ... a long way to go.
“This team has never been about ‘Hey, what are you guys doing wrong?’ We just focus on what we need to do. It’s score more points than the other team. It doesn’t matter if it’s three points or 30 points or 50 points. Whatever they score, we need to score more and if they score three then we need to score four. That’s how you win. That’s all we care about. That’s all we’ve ever really cared about.”
The Patriots are three-point favourites over Tampa Bay. These teams hardly ever play, with the Patriots leading the series 6-2 and not having lost to the Bucs since 2000, before Brady was a starter. They haven’t visited Tampa Bay since 1997.
A loss drops New England to 2-3. Can’t see that. PATRIOTS, 36-30 ARIZONA (plus 6) at PHILADELPHIA Something about Eagles excites us. Can’t say same for Cardinals. EAGLES, 28-20 TENNESSEE (minus 2 12⁄ )
at MIAMI Dolphins finally get to play at home, curing some ills. DOLPHINS, 20-16 KANSAS CITY (minus 1)
at HOUSTON Chiefs won’t go unbeaten, but will win this one. CHIEFS, 21-18 GREEN BAY (plus 2) at DALLAS Great early season matchup in great all-time series. COWBOYS, 33-30 CAROLINA (plus 3) at DETROIT Lions only win close games that go down to wire. LIONS, 27-26 BUFFALO (plus 3) at CINCINNATI We probably should believe more in Buffalo than we do. BENGALS, 19-17 SEATTLE (plus 1) at L.A. RAMS We probably should believe more in Rams than we do. SEAHAWKS, 22-21 JACKSONVILLE (plus 8 12⁄ ) at PITTSBURGH Schizophrenic Jags too unpredictable to pick. STEELERS, 27-16 SAN FRANCISCO (plus 1 12⁄ ) at INDIANAPOLIS Frank Gore gets back at his former team? Don’t think so. 49ERS, 17-16 BALTIMORE (plus 5) at OAKLAND Even without Derek Carr, going with Raiders to wake up. RAIDERS, 16-13 N.Y. JETS (pick-em) at CLEVELAND Jets 2-0 at home, 0-2 on road. Make it 0-3. BROWNS, 17-13 L.A. CHARGERS (plus 3) at N.Y. GIANTS Did someone say nil-nil draw? GIANTS, 24-23 MONDAY NIGHT MINNESOTA (OFF) at CHICAGO Would’ve been our BEST BET had there been a line. VIKINGS, 23-10 ——— 2017 RECORD: Last week: Against spread (9-6). Straight up (9-7) Season Totals: Against spread (27-33-1). Straight up: (38-25)