Sports activities
That is the primary time in Patriots historical past that they’ve opened in opposition to the NFC champ.
Welcome to Season 12, Episode 1 of the Unconventional Preview, a critical but lighthearted, nostalgia-tinted take a look at the Patriots’ weekly matchup . . .
Nicely, the Patriots aren’t precisely easing into this new season, huh?
After profitable eight video games a season in the past, the Patriots enter 2023 with a deeper, extra well-rounded roster and a training workers boosted by the important return of offensive coordinator Invoice O’Brien. The protection, which scored seven touchdowns a yr in the past — or simply three fewer than quarterback Mac Jones threw for — is gifted, quick, and versatile.
If the offense is merely competent — which might be an infinite improve over final season’s Matt Patricia-led tribute to ineptitude — the Patriots will likely be a a lot better crew this season. A lot better.
However they will must beat a number of groups alongside the best way that enter the season with the notion of being higher than they’re. The schedule is brutal, proper from the get-go with Sunday’s opener in opposition to the defending NFC champion Eagles.
That is the primary time in Patriots historical past that they’ve opened in opposition to the NFC champ, and fifth time they’ve begun a season by dealing with a crew that was within the Tremendous Bowl the earlier yr. In 1974, they beat the two-time defending champion Dolphins en path to a 5-0 begin below Chuck Fairbanks. In 1979, they misplaced in extra time to the Steelers, who would win their second straight Tremendous Bowl that season. In 1993, they misplaced to the Payments in Invoice Parcells’s debut as coach. And in 1998, they fell to John Elway and the Broncos, who would win their second of back-to-back Tremendous Bowls that season.
So the 2023 Eagles aren’t the very best crew the Patriots have opened in opposition to, however they are often talked about within the dialog after going 14-3 final yr, ending second within the NFL in factors per sport (28.1) and with the second-fewest factors in opposition to (20.2 per sport), and almost taking down the Chiefs within the Tremendous Bowl.
Twin-threat quarterback Jalen Hurts (22 passing touchdowns, 13 dashing TDs final season) has emerged as one of many faces of the league. And the Eagles’ protection, which racked up 70 sacks final season, simply two in need of the regular-season document set by the 1984 Bears, will give the Patriots’ unsure offensive line a take a look at that they haven’t had a lot time for which to organize.
The Patriots have an opportunity, an actual probability, to start placing final season’s frustrations behind them. However the Eagles are as powerful an opponent as they’ll face all season. The place are the Arizona Cardinals while you want them?
Kick it off, Ryland, and let’s get this one began . . .
Three gamers to look at aside from the quarterbacks
Christian Gonzalez: Let’s make this clear straight away. It’s not affordable to anticipate Gonzalez, a gifted cornerback from Oregon whom the Patriots had the great fortune of touchdown with the No. 17 choose within the draft, to come back in and be this yr’s model of Sauce Gardner. The Jets star, picked No. 4 total final season, made the transition to lockdown cornerback look simple, and it’s not. Gonzalez goes to have rising pains. That public service announcement apart, it’s going to be intriguing to see how Gonzalez fares. He will likely be examined straight away, almost certainly by 6-foot-1-inch, 226-pound A.J. Brown, who had 88 catches for 1,496 yards and 11 TDs after the Titans gifted him to the Eagles in April 2022. He’s removed from the lone weapon at Hurts’s disposal. DeVonta Smith had 95 catches for 1,196 yards and seven TDs final season, and drew rave critiques this summer season. The Patriots’ go protection, sixteenth within the league a yr in the past however with out Devin McCourty for the primary time since 2010, have to be locked in instantly.
Ezekiel Elliott: Positive, he’s a shell of what he was throughout his glory days because the Cowboys bell cow. Maybe he received’t supply way more than 1980 Chuck Foreman, 1982 Mark van Eeghen, and diverse different growing older ball carriers which have completed out their NFL days in Foxborough. However this looks as if it may very well be a superb match. Incumbent working again Rhamondre Stevenson is the Patriots’ finest offensive participant, totally able to being a workhorse. However Stevenson was working on fumes by the top of final season. O’Brien is not going to permit that to occur this yr. Elliott — simply 28 years previous, although his Dallas workload primarily aged him one other 5 years — stays a goal-line menace, with 12 dashing touchdowns final season. The Patriots lack their standard definitive third-down again in that J.R. Redmond-to-James White lineage, and Elliott will assist in that regard. And we’ve heard a lot about his knack for blocking that perhaps he ought to be within the combine at proper deal with.
Trent Brown: As soon as it turned clear that Jones and O’Brien had been copacetic, the most important query for the Patriots by coaching camp was the standing of the offensive line. The ifs have carried over to the common season, which isn’t ideally suited in opposition to the mighty Eagles go rush, which has added gifted however troubled first-round choose Jalen Carter. If Brown stays engaged and wholesome, and if Mike Onwenu and Cole Unusual can step proper in after spending coaching camp recovering from harm, and if 31-year-old middle David Andrews doesn’t present indicators of decline, and if somebody emerges from the auditions at proper deal with . . . OK, advantageous, that’s a whole lot of ifs, however not less than some will likely be solved in a optimistic means. The hot button is the huge, succesful Brown, who regarded checked out at instances final season, although not almost as typically as former first-round choose Isaiah Wynn, who can now stop on the Dolphins’ time.
Grievance of the week
Teaching issues in soccer greater than in some other sport — basketball, baseball, pickleball, jai alai, no matter. And for no matter legitimate frustrations followers might have had with a few of Invoice Belichick’s personnel and staffing choices in recent times, this stays true: There isn’t a higher head coach within the NFL as soon as the sport begins. The argument could be made that within the three post-Tom Brady seasons, the Patriots received extra video games than their rosters instructed they need to have. The Patriots have a sooner, higher, and deeper roster now than most nationwide pundits have observed. They’ve added competence and eradicated ineptitude from the workers of assistants. And so it’s past ridiculous that BetMGM has the Patriots’ over/below for wins at 6.5. The worst is behind the Patriots. They don’t seem to be happening to all-time low once more. With a couple of breaks and Aaron Rodgers flopping in New York, they may simply win greater than that by December.
The flashback
A recollection of a sport, second, or efficiency from a earlier matchup.
The Patriots and Eagles have met in two Tremendous Bowls, as chances are you’ll bear in mind. With the Patriots honoring Brady at halftime Sunday, it’s becoming to recollect the great instances that introduced a lot pleasure, so we are going to be aware the primary assembly right here and never the second. The Patriots formally established a dynasty with a 24-21 win over the Donovan McNabb/Andy Reid Eagles in Tremendous Bowl XXXIX, which gave them their third championship in 4 years. It’s wild that this sport was tied going into the fourth quarter, as a result of it feels now just like the Patriots received it with relative ease. This was in all probability essentially the most gifted crew of the six champions, and it’s one among their two Tremendous Bowl victories by which somebody aside from Brady was named Most Worthwhile Participant. Deion Department claimed the honors on this one with an 11-catch, 133-yard efficiency. (Julian Edelman additionally received it for Tremendous Bowl LIII in opposition to the Falcons.) A favourite stat from this one: David Givens had a landing catch for the fifth straight postseason sport, and he would lengthen it to seven the next yr. This sport additionally featured essentially the most clutch punt you’ll ever see, when Josh Miller pinned the Eagles on the 4-yard-line with 49 seconds to play.
Prediction, or Randall Cunningham might in all probability nonetheless assist a crew at the moment
Query: Is it doable that the Eagles may have a Tremendous Bowl hangover? I picked them to get again to the Tremendous Bowl this yr, however for as gifted as they’re, there are some crimson flags. 5 defensive starters have gone elsewhere. Each coordinators acquired head teaching jobs. Heck, Patricia is now on Nick Sirianni’s workers, as a defensive assistant (He ought to have to educate the offense this week. It’s solely truthful.) And so they did type of blow the Tremendous Bowl after holding a 10-point lead within the second half. It’s not out of the query that the Patriots expose some flaws right here.
I don’t suppose the Patriots will win. And that’s advantageous. Let’s simply see if they will resemble their previous, best-of-Belichick selves once more. No extra particular groups blunders and dumb, lazy penalties. Play to the strengths of the gamers. Don’t go away factors on the sector. Resist the temptation to lateral. In the event that they play nicely however come up quick in opposition to crew, that’s progress. Come Monday, will probably be all proper. Eagles 30, Patriots 24.
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