The Jaguars and Bengals are playing on Thursday Night Football. QB Trevor Lawrence is a great example of a winning player going to a bad team.
If his team loses tonight, it will be four consecutive ones which will exceed his total in high school and college.
Coming into the NFL, his career record was 86-4. None of that matters now.
The media and talk shows are salivating over excerpts from a new book about all the things going on behind the scenes with the Pats.
There are some interesting allegations, but everything is from anonymous sources. It's up to the fans whether they believe them.
It's always easy to throw things out there, based on third party sources.
Boston College already has four wins and can qualify for a bowl with two more. They had easy victories over Colgate, UMass and Temple before winning in overtime against Missouri.
They travel to Clemson this weekend where they are 14.5 point underdogs. They have their work cut out for them.
The rest of their schedule gets more competitive, but they should get at least two or three wins which will be enough to get them into a bowl.
Players get hit on every play, especially anyone running with the ball in their hands.
Pats RB James White took a huge hit yesterday which resulted in a partial hip dislocation. He will miss an unknown amount of games.
Injuries can happen on any play. Yesterday was just another example. It's something players need to deal with.
The Pats lost 28-13 to the Saints to drop their record to 1-2. All the doomsayers are pointing to the Bucs game next Sunday with Tom Brady. Another loss could put them in a dire situation to start the season at 1-3.
Teams that start 2-1 have a 54% chance of making the playoffs, while a 1-2 record gives them 25%.
The Pats have a challenge ahead of them.
Players with talent and suspensions from the NFL eventually make it back into the league. WR Josh Gordon has been re-instated after six previous suspensions for substance abuse issues.
He is cleared to play in Week 4 if there is a team willing to sign him. There is no doubt that he will find a suitor. He has immense talent and is a great example of what might have been.
He still has a few years left to write his legacy. Hopefully, it works out for him.
UMass plays Coastal Carolina where they are getting 36 points with an over/under of 67.5
I went with taking the 36 points and think they can keep it under.
Everyone expects UMass to be 0-4 after tomorrow.
It's a tremendous honor to be nominated to the Hall of Fame, but for many of the candidates, this is as far as they will get. The list of 122 modern-era nominees will be trimmed down to 18 prior to Super Bowl LVI.
Vince Wilfork made the list for the first time, along with previous finalist Richard Seymour. Other nominees who played for the Pats include Tedy Bruschi, Ben Coates, Wes Welker, Logan Mankins, Troy Brown, Willie McGinest, Rodney Harrison, Asante Samuel, Jeff Feagles, Brian Walters, Steven Jackson, Fred Taylor, Chad Johnson and Adrian Wilson.
All of them are worthy nominees, but many will never make it as finalists because there are others at the same position..
We keep hearing rumors of a possible trade involving CB Stephon Gilmore or WR N'Keal Harry. Gilmore and Harry are still on IR and can't play until after Week 4.
Gilmore was Defensive Player of the Year in 2019 while Harry as not lived up to his hype as a first round draft pick in 2019.
It doesn't look like the Pats are looking to give Gilmore a new contract before he becomes a free agent at the end of the season. They probably want more for Harry than any team is willing to give them.
Coach Belichick loves to talk about special teams because that was one of his first assignments in coaching. Having been around the NFL for 47 years, he has seen all sorts of changes in the game.
When asked a question about long snapping, his answer lasted nine minutes with over 1,500 words and all sorts of references to players of the past.
His knowledge of the game is endless.
UMass lost 42-28 to Eastern Michigan. They actually dominated the stat sheet. Both teams had over 500 yards of offense with equal time of possession
The Minutemen turned the ball over twice which made all the difference. They were competitive throughout the game, but still dropped to 0-3.
They are better than what their record shows
USC already became the first school to fire their coach when they let Clay Helton go after posting a 1-1 record.
The rumor mill went into overtime with all sorts of speculation about Urban Meyer leaving the Jaguars to take the job.
Meyer made his NFL coaching debut, but the Jaguars lost which only fueled speculation that he would jump back to college. He shot down those rumors, but many wonder if his heart is in the NFL.
There will be some teams that will be 0-2 after this weekend. It's not a good spot to be in. Players and coaches will hear it from the media and naysayers.
The so-called experts say that 0-2 teams have only a 12.6% chance of making the playoffs.
Nobody wants to be on this list.
Boston sports talk radio is already making the Jets game a must-win situation. If they fall to 0-2 and lose to the Saints. it sets up Tom Brady to end their season by making them 0-4.
Anything can happen. Every team deals with its own offensive and defensive issues. Things either get worked out or they don't.
Some teams start the season by losing. It's very easy to be out of the playoff picture by the mid-point of the season.
Rumors start about potential landing spots for Cam Newton. The word is Washington because they feel that Coach Ron Rivera would want nothing more than a reunion with him, especially after losing Ryan Fitzpatrick for a few weeks.
Rivera said they were all set when asked about Cam. He certainly knows him as a player after the Panthers drafted him first overall in 2011.
Some will try to read into their relationship. Nobody really knows. Cam isn't the same player Rivera and the Panthers drafted. Everyone knows that.
It looked like QB Ryan Fitzpatrick was finally going to lead a team when he signed with the Washington Football Team.
That all came to an end yesterday when he suffered a hip dislocation during his team's 20-16 loss to the Chargers.
He will miss at least three weeks and perhaps more. It doesn't end his season at this point, but he will be returning as a 38 year old.
The Pats were on a drive late in the fourth quarter when Damien Harris fumbled the ball of the Dolphins eight yard line as they were trailing 17-16. That basically cost them the game.
Coach Belichick will preach ball control to the end. It can determine the outcome of a game as it did today.
UMass played a very competitive game against Boston College, but lost 45-28 to lower their record to 0-2.
They were in the game for most of it, but gave up the big plays, especially on third down. For the second week, they were unable to stop the running game.
Very few teams can ever win when they give up 270 yards on the ground. The same holds true in the NFL.
It was inevitable that Tom Brady would put up great numbers last night. He threw for 379 and four TD's against the Cowboys. His final drive set up a game winning field goal in the last seconds.
His performance was easy talk show fodder for second-guessing the Pats for not re-signing him. Nobody wants to accept the fact that Belichick wanted to move on from him and Tom wanted to be a free agent.
Fans should be happy to see him do so well. Rob Gronkowski caught two TD's and looked strong out there.
The 2021 season starts tonight when Tampa Bay hosts Dallas in Thursday Night Football. Much is expected from the Bucs this season after their Super Bowl win and returning all of their starters.
Anything can happen on a play. We only need to look at the Pats season opener in 2008 when they lost Tom Brady for the season during their first offensive series.
Have we seen the last of Cam Newton? His name has not been heard in the rumor mill around the league. There is always a market for a quality back-up quarterback, but there is silence.
Last year, the Pats were the only team that expressed interest in signing him. Do teams think he is finished?
Cam plans to make an announcement on Friday, but nobody really thinks it's about retirement. He might speak about his vaccination status and release from the Pats.
Every weekend of college football has a bunch of mismatches. Teams schedule weaker opponents for a few easy wins. If they get six, they qualify for a bowl.
Teams such as UMass line up to take a beating and get a big financial payoff. For some state schools, it's a way to bring in additional revenue.
With all the bowl games, they need teams with winning records or close to it. Easy wins help out.
WR Chris Hogan will continue his remarkable NFL journey with the Saints in Week 1 against the Packers. He signed at the start of training camp, released in the final cut, but was re-signed by them.
It's a great deal for him because his salary will be guaranteed for the season. The Saints get an experienced veteran on the cheap, but who can make a contribution.
Hogan was forced to step away from professional lacrosse to get to the Saints camp. It has worked out well for a guy who never got selected in the 2011 Draft.
He signed with the 49er's, Giants and Dolphins all in his rookie year. He blossomed with the Bills before signing with the Pats. He went to three Super Bowls with them, where they won two.
He left in free agency for the Panthers where it didn't work out. He spent 2020 with the Jets before signing with the Saints as a free agent.
Staying healthy has been a challenge for him at times.
There will be 15 new starting quarterbacks in the AFC with eight of them being under 25.
That's a sharp contrast with the NFC that has eight starters over 30 and four of them over 35.
Every quarterback needs to be ready to play.
Every year, we see some of the great players of their time waiting for a chance to be signed to a roster.
Some realize the writing on the wall and decide to retire, while others are determined to play one more season because they feel they can still make a contribution.
Such is the case with running backs Frank Gore and Adrian Petersen who are third and fifth on the all-time list for rushing yards. Their opportunity could happen at some point as teams start to experience injuries.
WR Larry Fitzgerald is undecided on his future. He can still play at a high level, but what else is there to accomplish other than a Super Bowl win? In his 263 games, he trails Jerry Rice for #2 all-time with 1,432 catches for 17,492 yards and 121 TD's.
UMass starts their football season tomorrow against Pittsburgh. Las Vegas oddsmakers set a line of 1.5 totals wins by the Minutemen. This doesn't sound very optimistic.
On the other hand, DraftKings has given them 38 points with an O/U of 57. I took the under and the 38 points.
You never know with college games. I'm sure there will be some crazy outcomes this weekend.
Every sports team wants the newest stadium with lots of suites and all the extras. The Pats were the exception when they built Gillette Stadium as it was privately financed.
The Bills are the latest to make noise about a new stadium by threatening to move. This immediately got the attention of elected officials.
There is a proposal to have a new one ready by 2027 that will have have 60,000 seats and dozens of suites. The $1.6 billion cost will be shared between the team and public.
What will Buffalo and the state of New York get out of this? Any type of public funding for a stadium or arena is a future burden for taxpayers.
The project will never be built for $1.6 billion. The cost will be much higher.
Coach Belichick and his staff do a great job in tweaking the 53 man roster and practice squad. They continue to make moves.
To some observers, it looks like Mac Jones is the only quarterback on the roster with Brian Hoyer being signed to the practice squad and Jarrett Stidham on IR.
This will change in the next few days for Hoyer. Belichick is moving the pieces around on the board. They will probably bring in another quarterback.
