Best week ever / Worst week ever: Week 5
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Now time to dish out some awards.
BEST WEEK EVER
Usually with a weird score like 19-14 you wouldn’t think there would be much to celebrate offensively, but there were plenty of diamonds in this turd of a game. This game was a good old-fashioned dog fight. In those types of games, you really need your heroes to step up. And Thursday night revealed plenty of medal of honor candidates in this blogger’s mind. So, before we get to Best Week Ever, I have to throw out some honorable mentions.
1. Danny Amendola. AKA Mr. Reliable. Danny has had an unorthodox tenure in New England. He came in with a pretty fat contract, and was supposed to be “The Guy.” Then injuries and Julian Edelman happened, and it looked like Danny might not have a place on this team. But many years and many pay cuts later, Danny has become a hero. This dude comes up with the most insane 3rd down catches ever, and consistently seems to be a guy Tom can call on when all seems lost. Thursday night he had 8 catches for 77 yards, and was instrumental in moving the chains.
2. Stevie G. Gostkowski is back ladies and gentleman. Last year things started looking shaky with the best kicker in the league. He was missing extra points, pushing field goals, and even started kicking from the hash mark like some jack ass with the yips. Thursday, he was an assassin. 4 for 4 with a 48-yard missile. Saved the day for us.
3. Chris Hogan. Another week, another touchdown. 7 catches for 74 yards and a tuddy. Hoags has been a beast, and after a horrible week 1, he has proved that he and Tom are clicking in his sophomore season. With Gronk always an injury question mark, and the loss of Bennett, we need another red zone option. Chris “Lax” Hogan seems to be it.
Now that that rant is over, let’s move onto the guy who actually had the best week. His name is Matt Patricia. The colossal sigh of relief Fat Matt must have exhaled after that game could have blown out the fires of Mordor. Having the worst ranked defense through 4 weeks is not a good look. Going into a short week against a top 10 offense will make the bowels start moving. But Matt buckled down, and with the exception of the late 4th quarter touchdown drive, the defense looked unsolvable. There were no big plays. Gilmore was doing his job, and the pass rush was much better. Field goals misses aside, Matt’s defense wasn’t giving up the endzone easily, and it was wonderful to see. I have all the confidence in the world he will get this thing right moving forward, but as far as Thursday was concerned, just plugging the leak with his thumb was good enough.
WORST WEEK EVER
And that brings us to the sorry son of a bitch who's having the worst week ever. Nick Folk.
Have yourself a night, Nicky!!! Usually I like to save these accolades for Patriots personnel, but this was just too good to pass up. How shitty it must be to be a Bucs fan. You spend a fairly high draft pick on the best college kicker in football, and the guy is so bad you had DT Chris “Swaggy” Baker calling out his misses in Hard Knocks previews. Then you get Nick Folk, who used to be a fantastic kicker, and when you think things can’t get worse, he goes 0-3 on TNF and costs you the game.
I mean my god was that awful. The first two were bad, but nothing to freak out about. Both were 40+ yards, and nothing the football world hadn’t seen before. But the 31 yarder was ROUGH. It was his third attempt of the day, and the entire stadium could feel his nerves. He looked like Chuck Knobluach trying to throw a ball from second base. The entire world knew Folk was missing that field goal, including and especially himself. As a pats fan, it was a beautiful thing to behold.
Hey Nick, you can play against me any day.
**Official David Harris snap count through Week 5: 7
**Weekly “Are we sure if David Harris is alive?”: Concerned for the worst…
