Thursday Morning Third Down Back

 The 5 - 4 New England Patriots play Baker Mayfield and the Cleveland Browns at Gillette Stadium on Sunday November 14th at 1:00 PM. Hold on to that ball, Rhamondre Stevenson! I have no complaints after last week. Solid road win. Feels good to be over .500 again. Game ball to Jamie Collins. Jamie Collins' interception was insane. (Gah! Now he's on IR.) Subtle nod to Brandon Bolden. I'm not the world's biggest Brandon Bolden fan, but I'll  begrudgingly  admit he's been relatively good the last few weeks. Hopefully we'll get some production from the running backs group back this week. It looks like Damien Harris is going to be out. I don't know who is still healthy. Baker Power Rankings: 1) Joe Don 2) Street 3) Kenny 4) Danielle Pana- 5) Mayfield Here are three guys on the offensive line I'll be watching this week: 1) Trent Brown - Welcome back, Trent Brown. If he can stay healthy, he's a game changer. 2) David Andrews - The offensive line hasn&#

The 4 - 4 New England Patriots play either Sam Darnold or P.J. Walker and the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium on Sunday November 7th at 1:00 PM. Game ball for Damien Harris. The Patriots won a "road" game last week against a "good" Charger team. That was nice. The Panthers have a running back named Chuba Hubbard. I don't really have anything interesting to say about him. I just wanted to bring his name to your attention. Chuba Hubbard. Checking in on the WAD Scale (Wins Above Dalton), the 2011 Bengals were 6 - 2 at this point,  so Mac Jones is at a  -2 right now. Walker Power Rankings: 1) AT-AT 2) White  3) Jimmie 4) Paul 5) Texas Ranger 6) P.J. We haven't discussed the defense much so far this season. Here are three guys I'll be watching closely this week: 1) Matt Judon - 8 sacks on the season so far! One of the better recent additions. 2) Christian Barmore - Second round pick Christian Barmore looks like a real find. Bill doesn't usual

The 2 - 3 New England Patriots play Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys at Gillette Stadium on Sunday October 17th at 4:25 PM. Laundry day - separate your lights and darks. Bourne Power Rankings: 1) Jason 2) Kendrick 3) Bridge 4) Ozzy Os- 5) shell Other NFL leaked emails you may have missed last week:   - Matt Patricia had some very serious concerns about the final season of Battlestar Galactica.   - Mike McCarthy DID NOT get Hamilton .   - Jason Garrett maintains a separate Instagram account for his cat. The defense is a major weakness so far. Not what we were hoping to see. That first 10-minute drive to open the game from Houston was brutal. You never want to see your defense getting rolled by the 3rd string quarterback from a bottom 5 team. Disrespectful, to be honest. On the other side of the ball, Mac Jones is... fine? Not great, but not terrible. It's five games in. It's tough to ask him to come in and replace the greatest quarterback ever (and whatever last year was).  L

The 1 and 3 New England Patriots play Davis Mills and the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium on Sunday October 10th at 1:00 PM. Doink! Davis Mills sounds like a mixed use luxury condo development. I'd like more information, please! Despite my predictions of gloom and doom, the Patriots did not get completely crushed last week. That was nice. But there's no "moral victory" column in the standings. Nelson Power Rankings: 1) Mandela 2) Muntz 3) Vice-Admiral Horatio 4) "Big Head" Bighetti 5) Agholor 6) Craig T. 7) Rockefeller 8) Judd 9) (band) 10) Tim Blake The Patriots said goodbye to Stephon Gilmore this week and traded him to the Panthers for a late pick. I don't feel great about the move... but I get it. You probably don't want to give a 31 year-old corner a long term deal. I can't tell what the timing of this move means. Either Bill is giving up on the season... OR... he really likes the current group of guys. OR... He's just sick of Gilmore'

The 1 and 2 New England Patriots play Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Gillette Stadium on Sunday October 3rd at 8:20 PM. Desperately clinging to some type of relevance. Mac Power Rankings: 1) Ronald "Mac" McDonald - It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia 2) Fleetwood 3) -Gyver 4) Mid-American Conference 5) Jones 6) the Moose Here are three things I'm not liking about the season so far: 1) The offensive line is even worse than I thought. 2) The linebackers look lost and tired. I mistakenly assumed this would be a strength on this team. 3) Jonnu Smith's hands. CLANG. Did J.C. Jackson have an interception last week? No. How good does Pat feel about this team making the playoffs this year? 11.3% chance, maybe? Down significantly  from last week. They're going to be 1 and 3 after this week. Maybe it'll look better later in the season, but they're not there yet. If you asked me what it is this team is good at right now, I wouldn't know how to answer

The 1 and 1 New England Patriots play Jameis Winston and the New Orleans Saints at Gillette Stadium on Sunday September 26th at 1:00 PM. Setting up a long drive to get into field goal range. Folk Power Rankings: 1) Nick 2) -lore 3) Implosion 4) Mer- 5) Metal Here are three things I like about the season so far: 1) Mac Jones - Adequate! 2) Nick Folk - I was mentally  preparing  myself for the Quinn Nordin Era to begin, but Folk has been a pleasant surprise in his 13th season. 3) The secondary - Not getting lit up so far. Even without Stephon Gilmore! Did J.C. Jackson have an interception last week? Yes! Two! How good does Pat feel about this team making the playoffs this year? Let's say 29.2% chance. Down slightly from last week. They beat a terrible Jets team, but the offensive line and defensive line both still look shaky to me. Cookie of the Week Chocolate Cookies with Peanut Butter Chips Just the recipe off the back of the bag of peanut butter chips. I use Ghirardelli instead

The New England Patriots play Zach Wilson and the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium on Sunday September 19th at 1:00 PM. The Future is Now. I blame that loss on the coaching staff. Game plan was too conservative. It felt like they could have been a little more aggressive with the play calling at times. Damien Harris was having a monster game. He was set to be my Week 1 MVP... until he wasn't. I don't have any stats on the issue, but potential fourth quarter game winning drives that end with fumbles in the red zone are tough to overcome. Can't be good for your win percentage. If I was the coach, I would have simply called one fewer running plays at the end of the game. Mac Jones looks like he belongs. That was good. Norm Power Rankings: 1) Macdonald   2) Peterson 3) -a Jeane Baker 4) Abram 5) social Once a major source of strength in the Olden Times, the tight end position had fallen on hard times as of late. In 2020, all Patriots tight ends combined had a total of 18 catches

 The New England Patriots play Tua Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins at Gillette Stadium on Sunday September 12th at 4:25 PM. In  remembrance  of David Patten, who seemed like a super good guy and was always fun to watch play. Jones Power Rankings: 1) Indiana 2) David Robert 3) Forgetful 4) Mr.  5) Mac 6) Jessica 7) Norah 8) John Paul 9) Davey 10) Howard 11) Tom 12) Jeffrey 13) -town I'm still somewhat shocked by the Cam Newton cut. I thought for sure we'd see him as the starter for at least the first six weeks. Rumor has it it wasn't the covid protocol violation - it was that he still hadn't learned the offense. Life comes at you fast, I guess. I have no idea what to expect from Mr. Michael McCorkle "Mac" Jones this year. It'll be fun to find out .  This is the first time the Patriots have taken a quarterback in the first round since Drew Bledsoe if I remember  correctly . That was a long time ago, kids.  I'm guessing this is a nine or ten win team.