WEEK ELEVEN VS. BUFFALO BILLS W 20-13

hey kids-

 

i should’ve written this last night. after our win against the bills, i was as fired up as our fearless quarterback was on the sidelines – and not because of our victory. two words: inadvertent whistle.  holy mother of infuriation.

 

this was one of those knock down, drag out divisional slugfests, and our fearless quarterback had his work cut out for him this week. between injuries to the receivers and the offensive line, a relentlessly blitzing buffalo defense,  and you know, the odd inadvertent whistle, it seems like a blessing that tommy wound up 20 of 39 for 277 yards and a touchdown. I know most of it wasn’t his fault, but he looked pretty off balance all night. i know the feeling, tommy.

while our offense is being held together with duct tape and paperclips (not unlike my life), our defense is looking strong and healthy. it was nice to see jerod mayo stepping up like the leader he is and also nice to see james white stepping in for both lewis and edelman – scoring touchdowns as each. what was NOT nice was watching stephen gostkowski miss his first field goal of the season, into the wind from 54 yards. and it alllllll started with the inadvertent whistle.  with miles and miles of open field ahead of him, danny amendola made an awesome catch and took off – only to have it called back because the ref accidentally blew the whistle (probably at rex ryan, who was having some kind of fit along the sideline).  the drive stalled out, stephen missed, and i’ve never been more angry after a win in my whole life. danny must’ve been pretty angry too – he came right back out to pull down a 41 yard pass that set up white for his second touchdown. amendola wound up with 117 yards and a sprained knee that he’s totally gonna bandage up and play through – and for both, he gets this week’s tommy. run, danny, run!

 

we play denver on sunday night, and it’s going to be a super weird game, kids. peyton isn’t playing, but you can bet the denver defense will be – and i can think of anywhere tommy plays worse football than mile high. i hope our blossoming defense is ready to pick, because tommy’s gonna need all the help he can get. know what goes great with turkey? happy patriots thoughts! better start prepping them now!

 

have a happy thanksgiving, and go pats!

 

love dav

WEEK TEN @ NEW YORK GIANTS W 27-26

well kids-

dad was way more righter than i was, and i couldn’t be happier about it. while the giants were in fact our toughest test of the season thus far, dad predicted we’d beat them. i’m not exactly sure “beat” is the right word – it was more like “skirted” or “slinked past,” but the W looks the same.

our fearless quarterback  went 26 for 42 with two touchdowns and one interception, but he was on target when it matter. brady threw over 200 of those yards in the fourth quarter – including one amazing 76 yard pass that was all gronk. it wasn’t tommy’s best, but if you can run out of met life (and you should always run out of jersey) with a win, it’s best not to complain.

i fall a little more in love with malcolm butler every week, and it was super fun to watch him get all fired up (awesomely) defending beckham, jr. gronk also had another huge game, amendola looked awesome, and julian edelman got broken but we’re not going to talk about it because it’s sad and he’s going to be back by the playoffs.  it’s nice to see so many consistently-solid performances, but the king of consistently-solid performances is stephen gostkowski, and he gets this week's tommy. stephen has yet to miss a kick this year and nailed his 35th consecutive field goal with his game-winning 54 yarder. I think i was wayyyyyy more excited about it than he was.

we play buffalo next monday night, kids, and I have no doubt we’ll have completely adjusted our game plan to make it work without julian, but i’m still gonna be sad about it. i’m also gonna be sad if we lose to rex ryan, so think lots of happy patriots thought this week. it would be awesome to start thanksgiving week making turkeys out of the bills.

have a great week and go pats!

love dav

WEEK NINE VS. WASHINGTON REDSKINS 27-10/WEEK EIGHT VS. MIAMI DOLPHINS W 36-7

hey kids-

 

who knew moving day would be the least stressful part of moving? after dramadramadrama, delaydelaydelay, and one very dark and stormy Halloween night, i never thought i’d be so relieved to finally be in portland! 

 

last week our pats beat the dolphins, and I’m sorry I missed telling you all about it, because it was a fun game (and a very fun last drunken night in san diego). here’s the short version: our fearless quarterback went 28 of 38 for 356 yards and four touchdowns – and he gets last week’s tommy. yay patriots.

in more relevant football news, our fearless quarterback had a slightly less spectacular outing against the redskins. he went 26 of 39 for 299 yards and two touchdowns – but also threw his first real and second statistical interception (though he did tackle the guy who made the pick to prevent the touchdown). i’m not loving it, but it could be worse. ask green bay.

 

it was actually a pretty sloppy game with plenty of turnovers on both sides, but there were a few highlights. brandon bolden replaced an injured lewis to get his first career touchdown, logan ryan pulled down an interception, and steven gostkowski continued his consecutive field goal streak. while it was fun watching blount bulldoze his way to a career high 129 yards, this week’s tommy is going to chandler jones. just past the midway marker, jones leads the NFL in sacks with 9.5 and is just two away from his career high. with an offense that’s possibly slowing a little and is definitely getting depleted by injury, we’re going to need big plays from our defense. something tells me jones is ready to lead the way.

 

fun fact of the week: every time tommy’s had the nfc east on his schedule, he’s gone to the super bowl. we play what will probably be our toughest nfc challenger on the sunday – and given our track record against the giants, it may also be our toughest game thus far this season. think your happy patriots thoughts super hard this week. brian will be intolerable if we lose.

 

have a great week, and go pats!

 

love dav