Thursday Morning Third Down Back

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 New England Patriots play Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs at Gillette Stadium on Sunday December 8th at 4:25 PM. Hey guys! How's it going? Golden Power Rankings: 1) Path 2) Girls 3) Goose 4) Child 5) Egg Nog 6) Colorado 7) Tate 8) Fang Here's three things I'll be watching for Sunday afternoon: 1 - 3) Sony Michel, Rex Burkhead and James White. I thought they ran the ball fairly well last week. One of the few positives. The defense should be fine. The passing game will be meh to meh plus. If the Patriots are going to control this game, it will be by running the ball. (Of course, now that I've predicted this, they'll throw the ball 55 times.) Perfect Season Watch 2019 The Cincinnati Bengals went ahead and won themselves a game, thus ending Perfect Season Watch 2019. The 2008 Detroit Lions and the 2017 Cleveland Browns crack open a case of room temperature Natty Ice in celebration. Here's Week 14 of The...

The defending Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots play Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday November 3rd at 8:20 PM. We’re on to Alderaan. Falcon Power Rankings: 1) Millennium 2) Maltese 3) Sam Wilson 4) and the Snowman 5) Atlanta Here's three things I'm looking forward to tonight: 1) First round pick N’Keal Harry - He's active! I like it. Show me what you got. 2) The Defense - Can the defense contain Lamar Jackson? It'll be fun to find out! 3) Cut the kicker. They did! Perfect Season Watch 2019 HOLY CRAP THE DOLPHINS WON A GAME. That leaves the Bengals as the only remaining team without a win. Here's Week 9 of The Buck Stops Here , featuring some of R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck's tastiest riffs. Let's jump in the wayback machine. Carnival Of Sorts (Boxcars) Tight tight tight. Did Jakobi Meyers have a catch last week? Yes. But just one. /tasteful bass solo from You Ca...

The defending Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots play Eli Manning Daniel Jones and the New York Giants at Gillette on Thursday October 10th at 8:20 PM. Ouch. Demi Power Rankings: 1) Moore 2) sexual 3) Lovato 4) -gorgon 5) glacé 6) -lle, Cecil B. We're on a short week, people. Let's keep it rolling. Here's three quick hits for Thursday. 1) Dont'a Hightower looked great out there after missing week 4. They should expand the rosters so that more players can take rest weeks. I'm only half kidding. 2) This defense against a rookie quarterback should be fun to watch. And Saquon Barkley appears to be out this week. Belly rubs for everyone!   3) Cut the kicker. Perfect Season Watch 2019 The Broncos went ahead and won a game last week, knocking themselves out of contention for the perfect 0 - 16 season. The Jets, Bengals, Washington Football Team and Dolphins are all still alive. Unfortunately Miami and Washington play each other...

The New England Patriots play Marcus Mariota and the Tennessee Titans at Nissan Stadium on Sunday November 11th at 1:00 PM. Beauty, eh? Ahhh... finally a 1:00 PM game.  Phew. Flowers Power Rankings: 1) Trey 2) for Algernon 3) in the Attic 4) King of Carrot 5) 1-800 Here are three things I enjoyed from last week's win over the Packers: 1) Flea flicker?  Flea flicker!   If I was an offensive coordinator, I would call five or six of these per game. 2) Edelman pass . Trick plays for everybody! I don't know why everyone doesn't try to convert college quarterbacks to wide receiver... 3) ...then you can have your other WRs play RB. "Having position players play their normal positions on offense?  That's so mainstream"  -- Hipster Patriots Did Rob Gronkowski play last week?  He did not! Recipe of the Week Whoopie Pies There's probably very little nutritional value in these.  Just a giant blob of sugar and cocoa an...

The first place New England Patriots play Colin Kaepernick and the San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium on Sunday November 20th at 4:25 PM Congratulations to Rob Gronkowski on a major touchdown milestone. Holiday Power Rankings: 1) Thanksgiving 2) Festivus 3) Road 4) Roman 5) Madonna - Holiday Not a lot of positives to take away from last week's game.  Let's move on to San Francisco. Here's three things I'll be keeping an eye on this week. 1) Martellus Bennett - Gronk got blown up  by Earl Thomas late in the game last week.  Bennett will need to step up this week. 2) Barkevious Mingo / Elandon Roberts - We need a non-Hightower inside linebacker to show up on a regular basis going forward. 3) Cyrus Jones - Hang on to the rock there, Big Guy. FREE AGENT WATCH: Has Malcolm Butler, Jamie Collins or Dont'a Hightower been resigned yet?  Not yet! The day after a Bills fan threw a rubber dong on the field in Buffalo, Jamie Collins go...

The first place New England Patriots play Tyrod Taylor and the Buffalo Bills at Gillette on Sunday October 2nd at 1:00 PM. Gettin' squirrely. Who's going to start at quarterback for the Pats on Sunday? This is our concern, Dude. David Power Rankings: 1) Ortiz 2) Bowie 3) Michelangelo's 4) Larry 5) Lynch Here's three things I'm looking forward to watching on Sunday: 1) Jimmy Garoppolo - My sources are telling me he plays this week. 2) Rob Gronkowski - He played last week, but that looked like about 10% Gronk.  I'm guessing he goes off this week. 3) LeGarrette Blount - Do I goof on Blount a bit here?  I do!  He was also the AFC Offensive Player of the Month.  So good on him. FREE AGENT WATCH: Has Malcolm Butler, Jamie Collins or Dont'a Hightower been resigned yet?  Not yet! Did Malcolm Mitchell have a catch last week?  Aww yiss. My prediction: Pats 24, Bills 13 ***** And now we present The Continuing Adventures of Jul...

The Patriots play the AFC Championship Game at Sports Authority Field at Mile High Stadium against Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos on Sunday January 24th at 3:05 PM. Awwww!  The Denver Broncos?! Chung Power Rankings: 1) Patrick 2) Jose 3) Wang 4) -king Express 5) Jamie Here are three guys I'll be watching closely on Sunday: 1) Patrick Chung - Not quite excellent , but Patrick Chung has been very good  all year.  Probably his best year as a pro in his seventh season. 2) Jamie Collins - If everybody is relatively healthy, I feel like we can win this game on defense.  If we can keep Denver under 20, we should be good. 3) Dont'a Hightower - Again... I apologize for calling him a bust in his rookie season. My prediction: Pats 24, Broncos 15 ***** And now we conclude The Adventures of Julian Edelman, Private Dick. "You guys don't do protein shakes, right?" "That's correct." "But you can do milkshakes?...

The 6 - 0 New England Patriots play Ryan Tannehill and the 3 - 3 Miami Dolphins at Gillette on Thursday October 29th at 8:25 PM. (That's two weeks in a row playing teams lead by Ryans.  That's got to be some kind of record, right?  I'll contact the folks over at Elias Sports Bureau.) Good Week 7 win over a surprisingly not at all terrible Jets team.  They might be for real this year. Game balls to Danny Amendola and Dont'a Hightower.  Those guys were all over the place. Robert Gronkowski: Difficult to Tackle Lewis Power Rankings: 1) and Clark 2) Huey 3) Dion 4) Reggie 5) Mo Here's three things I'll be watching for on Thursday night: 1) Dolphins D-Line - Their biggest strength will be going up against our biggest weakness.  Level of concern: moderate to high.  Spooktacular. 2) Dropped Balls - So many dropped balls last week.  It was worse than a locker room full of old guys. 3) Running Backs - Will the Patriots run the ba...

The 4 - 0 New England Patriots travel to Lucas Oil Stadium to take on Andrew Luck (?) and the 3 - 2 Indianapolis Colts on Sunday October 18th at 8:30 PM. (The game starts at 8:30?!  Oh man... I'm going to be tired Monday morning.) I love this picture. Max Power Rankings: 1) Max Power 2) Mad Max 3) Max Bialystock 4) IMAX 5) Max von Sydow ... 11,997) Max and Ruby Here's three things I'll be watching closely on Sunday: 1) Left Tackle - Nate Solder is done for the year.  I find him average at best, but it's never good when one your starters go down. 2) Corners - It's Malcolm Butler and... Some other guys?  I don't even know anymore.  I'm afraid of facing a team with multiple good receivers. 3) Julian Edelman (again) - I just wanted an excuse to post this gif  of Edelman breaking ankles. With Hoomanawanui gone, who will we affectionately deride around these parts for their modest productivity? I nominate 6' 6", 304 l...