Pats Recap – The Good, The Bad, and The Injury

The good news is that the Patriots won! The bad news is they played only one half of decent football again, and were handed the game (basically) by the officials. Oh yeah and Gronk is done for the year.

Have we experienced a Patriots season as wild as this one?!? Four of the thirteen games the Pats have played have literally come down to the last play. Three of them have come down to shady officiating; most notably the Panthers game three weeks ago where I compared the NFL to the NBA. Sadly, it appears as if Knowlestradamus was correct.

Let's start with how poorly the Patriots played in the first half of this game, something that's been plaguing them for a while. I hear a lot of chatter about Josh McDaniels needing to step up his play calling. Play calling? I don't see bad play calling resulting in dropped passes, poor throws, offensive line breakdowns, and turnovers. The Patriots as an offensive unit need to approve in all areas. Period. Don't ask me about the defense; they just suck.

After I regained my senses, the Patriots were marching down the field! We've seen this episode before. The Pats had an improbable comeback against the Saints and an unthinkable comeback against the Broncos. What are we going to call this one?!? Well maybe we'll let the referees decide what to call it since they decided the outcome of the game. Finally, the Patriots benefited from a bad call! Yay! But seriously, the NFL needs to take a look at how Pass Interference is called today.

The PI call, and the Defenseless Receiver call before it, were both bad calls but the Patriots still had to recover an onside kick (which they did), get the ball in the end zone (which they did), and stop the Browns with 30-seconds left (which they barely did). Kudos to Gostkowski for a great onside kick, and a subsequent celebration full of fists and elbows.

Can the Patriots keep this up? The Gronk injury will limit their offense for sure, but the AFC is still up for grabs.

*Has anyone checked on Cleveland this morning?!?