NFL Week 3: Tampa Bay Buccaneers visit the New England Patriots
By David Miniel
Last Thursday Night was a performance we’re not used to seeing from the New England Patriots. They were barely able to get by Geno Smith and the New York Jets in a game that featured a lot of dropped passes.
It was like almost every receiver who lined up that night were trying to catch a greased up football. It was pretty embarrassing to watch, but exciting at the same time whenever Smith had the opportunity to drive down the field.
Things were looking great early on for the Patriots as Tom Brady found Aaron Dobson for a 39 yard touchdown pass to start off the game, after that it was pretty much a battle for field position and dropped passes until Powell’s three yard touchdown run int he fourth quarter.
Brady displayed his frustration on and off the field as he was clearly irritated at how things were going on offense. He only completed 19 of 39 passes for 185 yards and a touchdown. The man of the night for this game was Julian Edelman who was pretty much unstoppable as he brought in 13 receptions for 78 yards.
New England’s defense was able to intercept Geno Smith three times in the victory and now, they’ll go up against a team who was unable to defeat the Jets in Week 1.
Josh Freeman and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers looked like they were doing just enough to get by the New Orleans Saints with a late pick six by Mason Foster (85 yard return) which gave them the 14-13 lead over the Saints. Freeman found Ogletree late in the first quarterback with a five yard touchdown pass which gave them a 7-3 lead until almost three minutes later.
Freeman was only able to complete just NINE passes of 22 attempts for 125 yards, with a touchdown and interception. Doug Martin was able to get things going on the ground as he rushed for 144 rushing yards on 29 carries. So right now it could be Tampa’s ability to run the ball that could give them the edge over New England.
What New England needs in order to win this game is have their receivers catching passes. Seriously, how do you expect to be a wide receiver in this league if you can’t catch. I understand it was a rainy second half, but you need to find a way to bring in a ball that’s being delivered by one of the greatest quarterbacks to play the game.