Showing posts with label New England Patriots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New England Patriots. Show all posts

Monday, January 12, 2015

NFL Championship Games Set

COLTS v PATRIOTS and PACKERS v SEAHAWKS

The teamswho will compete for the AFC and NFC Championship games have been decided on the field of play. The Colts will travel to New England to take on the Patriots while the Packers will head west to face the defending Super Bowl Champion, Seattle Seahawks.

The Colts upset the reigning AFC Champion Denver Broncos, in Denver, 24-13 behind Andrew Lucks' 265 yards passing with 2 touchdowns and the running of Daniel Herron who ran for 63 yards and a TD. The Indianapolis defense held Peyton Manning to just 211 yards and a touchdown while limiting the Broncos to 88 yards on the grond with no touchdowns.
Read the Grantland.com Piece here.


The upset minded Ravens were unable to overcome the play calling, Coach Harbaugh called it cheating, in the 35-31 loss to the Patriots. This despite having lead the Patriots twice by 14 points. Joe Flacco threw for 292 yards and 4 touchdowns but threw 2 interceptions, the last with 1:39 left on the clock and the Ravens driving. The Ravens defense held the Patriots to 14 yards on 13 carries but allowed Tom Brady to score on a 1 yard QB keeper. Brady meanwhile, threw for 367 yards and 3 touchdowns and Julian Edelman threw a 51 yard TD strike to Danny Amendola.

In the NFC, the defending Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks used 3 touchdown passes from Russell Wilson and a smothering defense to defeat the 8-8-1 Carolina Panthers 31-17. Wilson threw for 268 yards with no interceptions and the the Seahawks rushed for 100 yards. Jermaine Kearse, Luke Willson and Doug Baldwin caught the TD passes from Wilson.

The Cowboys came up 1 play short of defeating the Green Bay Packers, who won the game 26-21. Aaron Rodgers threw for 316 yards and 3 touchdowns with no interceptions while Tony Romo tossed the ball 19 times and completed 15 of them for 191 yards and 2 touchdowns. Demarco Murray carried the ball 23 times for 123 yards and a touchdown but the play that will be remembered will be Dez Bryant's non catch of a 4th and 2 pass from Romo that turned the ball over to the Packers on downs and let Green Bay run out the clock.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Patriots Down Chargers 24-13 on Sunday Night

The New England Patriots defeated the San Diego Chargers 24-13 on Sunday to improve to 10-3 on the year. This is the 12th consecutive season of 10 or more wins for the Patriots. Only the '83-'98 San Francisco 49ers have more, winning 10 or more for those 16 seasons. I think they also had a couple of pretty good QBs during that time, Joe Montana and Steve Young. Tom Brady must be in the conversation when talking about the "greatest" quarterback of all time.

Brady threw a 69 yard catch and run touchdown pass to Julian Edelman with 8:41 left in the game to give the Patriots the 24-13 lead and the defense did the rest. The defense sacked Philip Rivers 4 times and intercepted him once. They stopped the long pass and were tremendous against the run, holding the Chargers to 53 yards on 17 carries.

Read the ESPN article here for more detail.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Brady Outduels Manning in 43-21 New England Win

Tom Brady threw for 333 yards with 4 TDs and 1 INT as the Patriots downed the Broncos and Peyton Manning 43-21. Manning was 34 of 57 for 438 yards and 2 TDs but he had 2 INTs.

Manning was forced to attempt so many passes because the Denver rushing game was held to 43 yards on 17 carries and the Broncos were down 27-7 at the half.

"Well, I don't usually stink, but I stunk today," said Manning, 38, who broke into the NFL in 1998, two years before Brady. "I don't make any excuses. "

Julian delman retned a put for a touchdown in the New England win. Brandon Browner and Rob Ninkovich had the interceptions of Manning passes for the Patriots.

Read the ESPN recap here.

Peyton Manning added these comments about the game in a post game press conference. Read it here.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Buccaneers Make Trades Before Deadline

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have traded safety Mark Barron to the St. Louis Rams and reserve linebacker Jonathan Casillas to the New England Patrionts.

There is no word on who the Bucs got, or will get in return.

Friday, October 17, 2014

Jets Lose to Pats 27-25 Drop To 1-6

The NY Jets ran for 218 yards, controlled the ball for almost 41 minutes and had no turnovers. Geno Smith was 20 of 34 for 226 yards and a touchdown. Given these stats it could be assumed that the Jets won.

Sadly, they lost. Nick Folk was 4 for 5 on field goal attempts. His last try, from 58 yards, was blocked by Chris Jones on the last play of the game to preserve the Patriot's 27-25 win.

The Patriots improved to 5-2 on the year while the Jets have lost 6 in a row and are on the brink of elimination from the playoffs with a 1-6 record. Realistically with 9 games remaining, the Jets would have to win out to have a chance.

Tom Brady was 20 for 37 for 261 yards with 2 touchdown passes to Shane Vereen, including a 49 yard catch and run, and 1 TD pass to Danny Amendola, his only catch of the night.

The Jet defense, ranked 5th in the league overall, held the New England patriots to 63 yards on 15 carries.

Chris Ivory had 107 yards on the ground for the Jets on 21 carries with a touchdown and Jeff Cumberland had 3 catches for 50 yards and a TD.

The Jets sacked Tom Brady once while the Patriots got to Geno Smith 3 times for -21 yards.

Monday, October 6, 2014

Patriots Not Dead Just Yet - Beat Cincinnati 43-17

The Patriots faced a Bengal team on Sunday night that had given up just 11 points per game in the 3 games they played this year.  With the 43-17 loss to the Patriots, that number has climbed to 19 per game.

Tom Brady became the 6th player in NFL history to pass for 50,000 yards. To put that in perspective, his pass completions equal 28.41 miles on a field that is 100 yards long.

When asked about the achievement, the understated Brady said, "That's awesome."

Read the ESPN story here


Monday, September 29, 2014

Monday Night Football Mayhem

I watched a football game tonight that got me to thinking about dynasties and football. If there ever has been a dynasty in the current era of the National Football League, it would be the New England Patriots. The fans call this the Belichick era or the Brady era. You could always pencil in the Patriots for a playoff berth. And you could never count them out of a run for the Super Bowl.
Since Belichick arrived in New England in 2000, they have won all but two AFC East titles. They are third in Super Bowl appearances with 7. (The Steelers and the Cowboys have both appeared in 8)  From 2003 through 2012 they won 126 games, a league record for a decade. They have not had a losing season since 2000.
But tonight the Patriots looked very pedestrian while facing the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. Tom Brady looked ordinary, throwing for just 159 yards on a 14 for 23 night with 1 TD and 2 interceptions. He also fumbled twice, losing 1. His QB rating was 59.9. The rushing game faired no better gaining just 75 yards on the ground against a banged up Chiefs defense. Shane Vereen was the leading ground gainer for the Patriots with 26 yards on 8 carries.
The Chiefs, on the other hand, completely dominated the Patriots on both sides of the ball. Had there not been a missed tackle by Marcus Cooper on Brandon LaFell's 44 yard TD reception, this would have been the Patriot's worst defeat since losing to the San Diego Chargers 41-17 in 2005.
A masterful performance by Alex Smith, game manager extrodinare, had the Chiefs up 27-0 before the Pats could score. Smith was 20 of 26 for 248 yards, 3 TDs and no interceptions. He had a 144.4 QB rating on the night.
Kansas City rushed for 207 yards. Knile Davis had 107 yards rushing for the Chiefs and although he didn't score, he had a 48 yard scamper to set up a KC touchdown. Jamal Charles, back from an ankle sprain, rushed for 92 yards and a TD and caught 3 passes for 2 more scores.
Kansas City had 303 yards of offense in the FIRST HALF! The most yards allowed in a half by a Bill Belichick team...EVER!
With the loss tonight and an early season loss to the Dolphins, the Patriots are 2-2. Admittedly they are not out of the running yet but they seemed old and slow this evening and with games against the Cincinnati Bengals and the Buffalo Bills the next two weeks the schedule doesn't get any easier.

Read the ESPN story