Best week ever / Worst week ever: Patriots versus Bills

VH1

The NFL has proven to be the most unpredictable league in all of sports. It’s what makes it equal parts entertaining and miserable. For example, who would’ve known the LA Rams would be 9-3 through week 13?? Additionally, who would have thought the Chiefs could ever possibly manage to lose to the Jets?? What a world.

With that said, the one thing that as a Patriots fan we can ALWAYS count on is Tom and the gang making AFC East games significantly harder than they need to be. It’s something I’ll truly never understand. Don’t get me wrong, we got the win and that’s all that matters. The defense played out of their mind, and the injuries were limited. That’s a great day. But god damnit did it feel tougher than it should have been. Tom leaving that game with less than 300 yards, no tuddies and a pick (bullshit) is giving me hemorrhoid levels of discomfort. Alas, I can’t complain too much. There’s a lot to be pleased with.

BEST WEEK EVER

The defense played incredibly. This group has done not a 180, but a 720 from the beginning of the season. Holding any team to 3 points and opposing QB(s) to under 120 yards in the air is no joke. So many players on the squad had stellar days. Malcolm Butler and Stephon Gilmore had their first truly elite day as a pairing, showing signs of what we all expected of them. But this day belongs to Eric Lee. Who?? Yea, I agree. Eric Lee, I don’t know ya, but it’s nice to meet ya!

E-Lee had a phenomenal game. The 23-year-old, 6’3”, 260lb defensive end from South Florida is a perfect Patriot. This guy went undrafted, bummed around the Texans practice squad, spent a short stint with the Bills practice squad, until he was finally signed by the Pats in late November. Lee under the radar made his NFL debut last week against the Dolphins and recorded 4 tackles and a sack. With his first game under his belt, Lee made sure people knew who he was last night.

Lee recorded 57 snaps in the game (85%) coming in at 4th most on the team. On the first drive of the game he recorded his first career INT. Now it wasn’t exactly a Ty Law esque jump route pick considering Tyrod Taylor wrapped it in a Christmas box with cinnamon sticks and sprigs of holly and dropped it into his lap, but it was a sign of Lee being in the right place at the right time. In addition to the pick, he was making plays all over the field. At the end of the day, Lee added 4 tackles, 1.5 sacks, and a phenomenal pass deflected that very nearly ended up with a Deatrich Wise Jr. pick.

There’s nothing better than getting surprise work horses added to the roster. After 2 games, Eric Lee has a total of 8 tackles, 2.5 sacks, 1 INT and two passes deflected. At this rate, I say we keep rolling this kid out there.

WORST WEEK EVER

It wasn’t a great week for many. The offensive line was getting man handled, Mike Gillislee is still stuck in the upside down, and the Bills franchise as we know it is dead. But the worst week goes to Tre’Davious White’s brain, which has been reduced to soup after Gronk torpedoed into his skull. Let’s recount the moments that led to this sad occurrence.

Rob Gronkowski enters the NFL and due to his freak of nature abilities makes it impossible for any earthling to guard him. Rodger Goodell is a spineless donkey and poo poos the Patriots because they constantly win even when he cheats to make sure they don’t. The NFL implements a different set of rules for the refs to use against Gronk, because they need to do something, anything, to slow him down. After 7 years of friendship, tuddies, Gronk spikes, and bro hugs, Gronk develops a love for Tom Brady that knows no bounds. Season after season Gronk has to put up with lesser beings cheap shotting him, grabbing and holding him, and hanging all over his body with no repercussions just to try and stop him.

All of that brought us to last night. Gronk dominated the Bills with 9 catches and 147 yards. All the while he had defenders essentially throwing nets on him to prevent him from humiliating them. Then the refs go even further by calling offensive PI against him to try to stop the bleeding. Finally in the 4th quarter, Gronk runs a route against little Tre’Davious White. White sees he is out manned immediately so he grabs and tugs Gronk’s jersey not once, but three times, then arm bars him, then pushes off him and picks off the pass. Gronk gets up pissed off waiting for the flag and it doesn’t come.

In this moment, 7 years of frustration brewed from unfair treatment combines with the fact that Tom Brady just had an interception added to his stat line when the ball was CLEARLY thrown knowing a flag was coming. That recipe is something Gronk could not handle. So he saw White and from Gronk’s view White was maybe, possibly, definitely not still in bounds and untouched, and Gronk went full nfl blitz.


Seriously I thought the new North Korea nuclear missiles looked bad. I think we should send them the clip of this play and they might cool off. I will never condone cheap shots, but I will say there were clearly a lot of factors that led to this moment.

Pray for Tre’Davious White’s mush brain.

Official David Harris snap count through week 13: 151
Weekly “is David Harris alive?”: Alive and getting sacks!!!!