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Five Things to Watch This Week - Week5

By Patty O'Tool

The Patriots play their fifth regular season game on the road against the Denver Broncos on Sunday October 11th at 4:15 PM.

I'm still buzzed from last week's game. Good stuff. But when I broke down the tape of me watching the game, I feel like I could have made a few improvements (what? You don't film yourself watching the game?).

I was watching the game on Tivo, so I didn't haven't to sit through the injuries and challenges. That was good. But I was a little slow on the draw in fast forwarding through the commercials. I promise to do better this week.


1) The Broncos Defense - Are they for real? Or is it just smoke and mirrors? They're 4 and 0, and they've only given up 26 points to date. But they've also done it against such offensive juggernauts as the Browns and the Raiders. The Patriots' offense is slightly better than that. And after us, Denver plays San Diego, Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Yikes. Good luck with all that.

2) Running Backs - The Running Back Committee just lost its most productive member. Morris and Maroney have to step it up. Only it's probably not going to be Maroney. Will we finally see BenJarvus on the field? That would make me happy.

3) The Weather - It snows in Denver in October, right? I thought I heard something about a chance of snow. Snow + football = awesome. Plus I think we're in the throwback uniforms this week. That would look cool.

4) Junior Seau - Because we needed someone to fill the "dive into the pile 5 seconds after the play is dead" role. (Actually, he won't be signed until next week, but I didn't want to not use that joke...)

5) Post Game Handshake - You might even see a full on hug here. Belichick still talks glowingly of McDaniels (unlike Mangini, who's name he won't even say out loud).


My prediction: Pats 24, Broncos 21 .

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