Prime Time Patriots

Monday Night Football!

 The New England Patriots travel to Arrowhead Stadium tonight for the season lone appearance on Monday Night Football. This is one of 4 straight games against AFC opposition with the Patriots welcoming the Bengals to Gillette Stadium for Sunday Night Football before facing divisional rivals Buffalo and the New York Jets.

After starting the season with a lacklustre performance against Miami the Patriots have bounced back to win their last two games with a convincing 30-7 victory versus the Vikings and a hard fought victory against Oakland last week 16-9. While the 2014 edition of the New England offense is going through some teething problems the defense has looked steady often producing good play and signs of potential to be one of the best in the league.

They rank 1st in the NFL with the fewest yard against them over the first 3 weeks of the season giving up just 818 yards and 3rd in points against with just 49 given up leaving them just behind Arizona on 45 and Cincinnati with 33. Success at forcing turnovers has also been impressive in the opening weeks of the 2014 campaign for New England, something Bill Belichick's defense have always been known for, with the team having racked up 6 interceptions already on the year which is tied for 2nd in the league. As well as these stats they have forced 3 fumbles so far recovering 2 and have sacked opposing quarterbacks 7 times.

The Chiefs didn't start 2014 too well themselves going down heavily against the Titans 26-10 before almost taking the Broncos to overtime in week 2 when they narrowly lost 24-17. Last week was much better for Andy Reid's team as they dismantled the Dolphins 34-15 to chalk up their first win of the year. Kansas City will be the hardest opposition that the Patriots have faced so far this year especially as Arrowhead stadium can often conjure up quite an atmosphere. Tonight they're attempting to regain the crown they once had as "The loudest stadium in the world" so Tom Brady and co could be in for a tough task.

While tonight's matchup could be rather tough for New England especially as they've had early season offensive woes so far this year it has to be said that typically on Monday Night Football Tom Brady excels in front of the prime time cameras; his MNF record is 13-5. Brady has thrown three or more touchdowns in a Monday Night game nine times, including four four-touchdown performances. He has also thrown four touchdowns in three of his last four Monday Night games. It's also worth noting that Brady is tied with Steve Young for third place with 42 touchdown passes on Monday Night Football, behind Brett Favre (69) and Dan Marino (74). Steve Young threw 42 touchdown passes in 25 Monday night games, while Brady has 42 touchdowns in just 18 games!

Last week was Brady's 150th career regular-season victory as a starting quarterback.

With Rob Gronkowski's snap count growing as the season has begun it's only a matter of time before the Brady-Gronk partnership lights up and tonight could be that night. There have been struggles on the offensive line but every team has its own individual chinks in their armour to deal with especially during the early stages of the season. Julian Edelman, Shane Vereen along with Stevan Ridley offer the Patriots versatility in the offense and either of the two could have a big game tonight as New England will look to take advantage of a Kansas City secondary that has looked sloppy at times during the early stages of the 2014 season.

Spare a thought for Danny Amendola as he is struggling performance wise while Aaron Dobson is still recovering from injury, as for Brandon LaFell well he saw some more targets from Brady last week and either him or Kenbrell Thompkins will be looking to build up some rapport with Brady tonight also watch out for Timothy Wright who seems to be growing in to the system week by week following his trade to the Patriots from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers earlier on in the season.

As mentioned before New England's defense has been playing well so far this season and will have to be at their best tonight when they go up against the likes of Alex Smith, Dwayne Bowe and Jamaal Charles. The likes of Chandler Jones, Dont'a Hightower and Jamie Collins continue to made big stride week by week and these 3 young defensive players are becoming big time assets to the Patriots along with the likes of Jerod Mayo and Vince Wilfork. The secondary has been progressing well as Darelle Revis settles in along with Devin McCourty who always seems to perform at a high level and I personally can't wait to see Brandon Browner make his debut for the Patriots which should be next week versus the Bengals now that he has served his four game suspension.

Chandler Jones is coming for you Chiefs!

With Tom Brady's record on Monday Night Football and Bill Belichick revitalising his team following their week one defeat I expect the Patriots to put in their best performance of the season as despite the Chiefs ranking 7th in yards against their defense and 6th in points given up so far this season they giving up an average of 354 yards a game. Ahead of that mouthwatering encounter against the Bengals next Sunday New England will be hoping to return back to Boston with a 3-1 record and give Bill Belichick his 16th victory as the head coach of the Patriots on Monday Night Football games.

Houston you have a problem: Tom Brady

Tom Brady and the New England Patriots torched the Houston Texans in a 28 point blowout win at Gillette Stadium. With the Patriots wrapping up the AFC East last week they have now set their sights on the top spot in the conference with the win taking them to a 10-3 record and leaving the Texans at 11-2 following this defeat.

In a game that was hyped up to be a potential preview of a future AFC Championship game only one side rose to the occasion and it was no surprise that it was the Patriots who got the win when you consider their recent record on Monday Night Football. Ahead of the game they were 10-1 in the team's last 11 games scoring 33.1 points per game and only giving up 16.2 points per games.

The Patriots also averaged 396.7 yards per game in their last 11 on Monday Night Football and last night they racked up plenty of yardage too; 419 yards in total. They were 50% on 3rd down completing 6 out of 12 attempts and had 17 first downs in the whole game; overall it's safe to say that the offense was efficient and definitely at its best last night.

Tom Brady himself put on another amazing performance as he continues to be a frontrunner for league MVP. Thanks to his four touchdown passes New England raced out of the blocks and destroyed Houston. He completed 21 out of 35 passing attempts for 296 yards including the four passing touchdowns.

Brady's 2012-2013 season continues to be out of this world. He has now thrown for 3833 passing yards in the team's 13 games. He has only turned the ball over 4 times and has thrown 32 touchdown passes leaving him with a Quarterback rating of 104.2. Finally a passing score in the team's next 3 games means Brady will overtake Johnny Unitas in second place for throwing a touchdown pass in consecutive games giving him a shot at Drew Brees' record next season.

With the win Brady and the Patriots continued their crazy second half of the season record which now stands at 21-0 since the 2010 season. The win over the Texans was their seventh straight victory meaning that they are now just a game behind Houston in the race for the first seed with them still having to play their divisional rivals the Colts twice in the next 3 games.

It has been mentioned many times before but the Patriots offense really is beautiful to watch even without the likes of Rob Gronkowski. They get it done whenever it matters and change it up game by game to combat against any type of defense. This week the no huddle offense and play action passing worked to perfection and on Brady's 37 yard touchdown pass to Bradon Lloyd late in the first quarter Tom Brady should win an Oscar for how well he faked the handoff to the running back.

That touchdown came around 6 and a half minutes after the early touchdown pass to Aaron Hernandez from 7 yards out meaning that the Patriots ended the first quarter 7-0 ahead. Brady hit Hernandez again, this time  four minutes in to the second quarter, on a quick slant to his left with the tight end open giving him an easy passage in to the end zone.

At halftime the Patriots were in the lead by a score of 21-0 and any hopes of a Houston comeback were dashed when Brady connected on a spectacular 63 yard deep pass to Donte' Stallworth who announced his comeback to New England in style. Arian Foster got the Texans on the board from a yard out leaving the score at 28-7 going in to the final quarter.

Bradon Lloyd recovered a Danny Woodhead fumble in the end zone giving the Patriots another touchdown early in the fourth and Stevan Ridley ran 14 yards for a score mid-way through the quarter; he had another very productive day rushing for 72 yards from 18 carries and showed why he is one of best young running backs in the NFL.

The Texans got a consolation touchdown late on but it finished with New England winning in style. It was supposed to be close but the Patriots showed why they may be the best team in the league by declaring their dominance. The defense is looking great too with the secondary again putting in another impressive display with the likes of McCourty, Talib and Dennard all stepping up to the plate. Vince Wilfork seems to be everywhere up front and this defense can cause problems for anyone.

On offense they took one of the league's best defense's to town and swatted away the NFL's best pass rusher J.J. Watt despite his best efforts. Now New England will look ahead to another big home game when they take on the league's most talented defense in the form of the San Francisco 49ers. It will be a different type of test for the Patriots on both sides of the ball. On offense they'll have to either deal with Colin Kaepernick or Alex Smith at quarterback, on defense they will face a unit that can pretty much get anything done.

It will be very close and will be a tougher test than this week but with Tom Brady at Quarterback and this team on the roll expect New England to continue their run of form by asserting themselves on both sides of the ball. If they can knock off another heavyweight team ahead of the playoffs this Patriots team could really gather the serious momentum needed by anyone ahead of the post-season. Based on what this team is doing it is safe to say that New England really does have the talent to go on and get to the Super Bowl in New Orleans and dare I say it win Super Bowl 47.