1st Glance #shootout

Jackson and Spiller came up big.
Bigger than I thought they would.

This was a wild football game. Seriously, a classic. It was the Kevin Faulk halftime ceremony that gave Danny Woodhead the strength to score 2 TDs. Of course, I left him on the bench of my fantasy team, but whatever. The real story of the game is that Tom Brady played a near perfect game, but his stats are unimpressive. 23/38 for 237 yards and 2 TDs, but no INTs. This was a vintage Brady game, but unfortunately his vintage game sometimes involves sweating-it-out on the sideline because of a 6-point lead.

Brady had a few balls tipped at the line, and he also had dropped passes from Welker and Gronkowski. His completion percentage was not impressive, but Brady controlled the game, leading the team to 7 of 12 on 3rd down. Brady also led 7 scoring drives on 9 (full-length) possessions. The only reason this one was close was that Ryan Fitzpatrick was equally impressive (except for his INT at the end to McCourty).

Ryan Fitzpatrick was not the source of the game-changing Offense, that was C.J. Spiller. Spiller finished with 131 total yards on 9 carries and 4 receptions. Fred Jackson added 80 yards rushing on 16 carries, and 4 receptions for 35 yards, unfortunately Jackson fumbled twice and lost one at the goal line. The Bills running game kept the chains moving, but Fitzpatrick was very efficient as well. He finished 27/40 337 with 2 TDs. His one blemish was the decisive INT to end the game.

The Patriots Defense looked a little different with McCourty and Gregory at Safety, but the biggest difference between this game and the rest of the season is that The Pats couldn't stop the run. I actually think that a lot of this had to do with the McCourty/Gregory Safety pairing. I saw McCourty take bad angles against the run at least twice. Gregory is not known for being a good tackler, but I think I noticed the drop-off in tackling without Tavon Wilson. Having Gregory didn't necessarily make much difference against the pass, but I definitely saw some issues in run support.

It bears mentioning that Stevan Ridley was pretty impressive, finishing with 98 yards and a TD. He was great in the open field, but I feel like he's not the guy we want down inside the 2 yard line. He's not a traditional power back, but I'll take what he is giving us. He carried it 22 times, and really carried the load to keep the offense on track, and in good situations.

Overall, The Patriots started off fast, but they had trouble finishing. They got lucky with that terrible pass from Fitzpatrick. It seems that the same problems are continuing to show up. The pass Defense was unable to build on their performance in London, but they were able to come up with timely turnovers. The Patriots pretty much are what they seem like at this point. Without a couple of timely turnovers, we'd be looking at a loss. No matter how impressive the offense was in this game, they'll have trouble winning games if the Defense doesn't improve. These lucky turnovers just won't continue. Figure it out guys.