That part of the plan failed, too, as Tom Brady suffered a right ankle injury. That play set up the New England Patriots in scoring position where on fourth and two, newly acquired running back Steven Jackson bulldozed himself in for the touchdown to pull the Patriots within one.
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After starting the season 10-0, the New England Patriots have lost 4 of their last 6 games. In his weekly Boston radio appearance, Brady insisted he would be fine and that he has had worse injuries. We’ll be ready to go two weeks for now.
Brady, who had an MRI on Monday morning, was limping noticeably and said he was “pretty sore” after the team’s season-ending 20-10 loss to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday. It was obvious after the game, that Brady, was in pain after.
In the Patriots’ postgame press conference, the full effect of Brady’s injury was evident as the camera caught him hobbling down the stairs of the podium when heading back to the locker room. The Patriots appeared they had returned to the team they were to start the season.
Hopefully for their sake, other injured and banged up players can use the bye week to improve and be better when they do play in the playoffs. Ryan Tannehill threw for 350 yards and two scores in the victory, while the defense suffocated Tom Brady and the New England offense for much of the afternoon.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick had little to say about his offense, which was held to 196 total yards.
“It just went that way”, Gronkowski said of not being targeted through the first three quarters.
PLAY-CALLING: Brady spent most of the first half handing off, with the Patriots running the ball on 16 of their first 18 plays.
In the second half, that workload diminished and the Patriots started to throw to get back in the game. Both players were significant contributors to the Super Bowl winning time of a year prior.
“I think every year is different, just like every game is different”. It also meant that New England would have been left to hope that the Chargers could take down their division rival later that day and that Philip Rivers could beat the Broncos and secure the Patriots’ chances of playing all their postseason games at Gillette Stadium. “I’m very confident I know how to deal with injuries and I’ll be doing everything I can to be out there”.
Kicker Stephen Gostkowski missed his third field of the season when a 46-yard attempt in the second quarter went wide right.
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During his Monday visit with WEEI’s Dale & Holley, Belichick was asked why the team chose to run the ball when faced with a couple of third-and-longs in the first half. We didn’t have many possession in the first half.
