While Bill Belichick’s squad often appears as favorites in the brunt of their schedule, being heavy underdogs was uncharted territory for New England. “I am really proud of our guys, really happy for them”. “He inspires me. Every time he makes a play, I want to make a play.”.
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The suspended quarterback had to watch from home as his replacement, Jimmy Garoppolo, threw for 264 yards and a touchdown to led the Pats to the season-opening win.
Allen left the field on a cart after suffering what looked like a serious right knee injury with less than 2 minutes left in the first half.
Regardless, with 3:38 left and the Cardinals only needing a field goal, I was pretty sure the Patriots were toast. Danny Amendola had three catches for 48 yards, all of them in the fourth quarter on the winning drive.
“All the adversity we had in the first game, it’s good”, Bennett said. Perhaps maybe another one of Belichick’s great finds, but only time will tell.
Last night during the Patriots game against the Cardinals, you may have noticed a certain stand-in quarterback’s old tweets circulating around the good ol’ interwebs as various people dug through his archives and retweeted his thoughts.
Fitzgerald’s 100th score came on a dramatic over-the-head diving catch on a fade from Palmer that gave the Cardinals their first lead of the game, 21-20, early in the fourth quarter.
The Patriots, also without injured tight end Rob Gronkowski, ran the ball almost half the time – they threw 65 percent of the time last season – but in many ways, this offense didn’t look much different with Garoppolo at the helm.
The real Tom Brady was not in Arizona to play the Cardinals on Sunday because he was serving the first game of his four-game deflategate suspension.
“I’ve got to make that kick, just a good old-fashioned miss”, he said. Russell Wilson completed 27 of 43 passes for 258 yards and one touchdown against one interception. That pass opened up the scoring and proved that he was able to handle a big moment on a national stage in a hostile environment.
What do they Patriots do when most of the country thinks they are going to lose? “Coming out here, playing on the road in a tough environment against a really good team”. Just didn’t get it done and there were a lot of reasons we didn’t get it done and that certainly needs to improve and it’s unacceptable. The rest of the drive felt seamless, especially the TD strike to Hogan. Garoppolo left the field ecstatic. Meanwhile, more than 30 percent of those who play in survivor pools breathed a huge sigh of relief when Russell Wilson led the Seahawks on a late touchdown drive for a come-from-behind 12-10 victory over Miami. He hooked up with receiver Mike Evans, running back Charles Sims III and tight ends Austin Sefarian-Jenkins and Brandon Myers on scoring plays. That might be my first game ball. He misfired on a few throws, but otherwise made some nice throws and ran the offense seemingly in flawless order most all game long.
While Brady remembered the Patriots on Facebook, the team has made a decision to get rid of a massive banner of him they had installed to show their respect for the future Hall of Famer. “. But me and Cat (Catanzaro) have a job to do and I’ll definitely take some blame on that one”.
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If Jimmy Garoppolo can maintain his performance in the next three games the #New England Patriots play without Tom Brady, he just might solidify his erstwhile status as the future #NFL Hall of Famer’s heir apparent at starting quarterback.
