Edelman looking really shaky thus far. Not the kind of performance the Patriots will need from him with Gronk out for the season and Amendola potentially missing extended time.

Guess we'll have to wait and see, never said it was going to be easy but only a crazy person would think the Gaints and Dallas are unbeatable. Green Bay always makes me nervous but since the game is in Detroit and not Lambeau I think the Lions can still win.

...for fuck's sake Cyrus Jones. Maybe this will finally convince Belichick to stop letting him return punts. Let Slater return them or something.

...and the football gods immediately spite me for saying that Slater should return kicks. Let's just start fair catching everything.

Peyton Manning will always be my fav QB ever but objectively I have to say Tom Brady is the GOAT.

Welp, special teams tried their hardest to give the game away, but the Pats held on thanks to a particularly generous blown coverage by Baltimore. Offense played about as well as could be expected minus Gronk and Amendola, while the defense (particularly the pass rush) stepped up in a big way. Patriots are going to need to find ways to win games down the stretch; I don't think the offense can consistently be relied upon for as many big plays as they had tonight.

One thing that struck me with Baltimore, especially in the first half, was how much unwilling they were to challenge Patriots DBs down the field. That changed in the second half to an extent, but the weakness of New England's CBs is mid-deep routes. Throwing short not only gives your receivers less time to beat the secondary, but it also allows the strongest part of New England's D, the linebackers, to get involved. That's the one caveat that's holding me back from saying NE's defense is back on track; Baltimore rarely challenged their weakest point.

I don't think either of those teams is unbeatable; I simply think that the Lions' situation represents a near impossibility at a #1 seed. If they were tied with Dallas in the standings, sure, they'd have a genuine shot. But Detroit is two games back, with what is quite possibly the toughest schedule left in the league for a non AFC West team. The Lions basically have to win all of their games and hope Dallas slips up somewhere along the way too. I don't see that happening.

I didn't see it mentioned yet, so...

Jeff Fisher FIRED!

Im cracking up that Todd Gurley literally said he runs his offense like a middle school football coach...BURN!

The Giants seem to have Dallas number. I didn't expect them to win but they shut down Dallas pretty good. That missed field goal right before half that bounced off the goal post would have been nice if it was made and then the game would have went into overtime. Oh well it was a pretty terrible game for both offenses.