(Ugh, the Pats have just been eliminated from the NFL Playoffs and I'm a few weeks behind on my football analysis. I have to try to write this for completeness and pretend that this game just recently happened.)
The Patriots dominated this game and easily won 34-4 thanks to the sloppy play of their division opponent, the Buffalo Bills.
Offense
Brady set the all-time record for most consecutive passes thrown without an INT. The TV showed a graphic with Brady and two other former players who previously held the record, Brady's numbers were far more impressive because Brady threw for nearly twice as many TDs. Those other players were more game-managers. Ironically in this game, Brady finished with game-manager-like stats, 15 of 27 passing for 140 yards, 3 TDs.
Rookie TE Gronkowski caught a pair of short TDs in his homecoming to the state of NY.
The Pats did a great job running the ball finishing with 217 yards and a TD.
Defense
The Pats' run defense was not good and is possibly a result of all of the injuries on the front line. Wilfork had shifted to DE in this game for matchup reasons but Kyle Love seemed to struggle filling in at NT.
However, the Pats did a great job creating turnovers finishing with 7! The Bills were sloppy and the Pats were able to capitalize each time. Bills QB Fitzpatrick threw 3 INTs to Chung, Page, and Fletcher. The Bills also fumbled 4 times and the Pats were able to recover all 4.
Mayo did a great job of patrolling the middle of the field. He delivered some devastating hits though some looked much worse at first because he left his feet a few times to hit the receivers. However, all of the hard-hitting seemed to have its effect because the Bills started to get timid across the middle.
Special Teams
The Pats did a good job corralling dangerous return man C.J. Spiller.
Other Thoughts
With this win the Patriots have clinched home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. The road to the Super Bowl will go through Foxborough, MA.
Man. I can feel the pain of the last two lines of this post bleeding through the internet.
ReplyDeleteIf you thought that was painful, I still have to write about Week 17's blowout win in a meaningless game over the Dolphins. Only then would I be caught up to write about how the Pats got owned last night.
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