Patriots Gridiron News: 3 midweek stories worth watching in Week 3
New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is onto old friend Matt Patricia and the Detroit Lions in a Week 3 Sunday night matchup.
While most of the media attention have turned to the acquisition of Josh Gordon, the New England Patriots do have some other issues to address.
Coming off an embarrassing Week 2 loss to the suddenly mighty Jacksonville Jaguars, Bill Belichick and his defense need to make some adjustments because what Blake Bortles did against them is both ridiculous and a bit concerning.
The overall performance quickly turned optimism of an improved defense into reminders of the lack of talent on the defensive unit. It could’ve been just a bad game in which the Jaguars exposed a bad game plan, but Matthew Stafford and the Detroit Lions present more of a challenge.
Yes, that’s right. The 0-2 Lions that got blown out by the New York Jets in Week 1 have the ability of giving the Patriots defense major problems.
Speaking to the media Tuesday, Belichick addressed the threat Detroit’s playmakers present.
"“Yeah, [Kenny] Golladay, [Michael] Roberts, [Luke] Wilson. It’s a good group plus the backs –[Theo] Riddick, [Kerryon] Johnson and [Ameer] Abdullah. They’ve got a lot of good players,” Belichick said. “Obviously, a really good quarterback so they present a lot of problems there. [They have] very good receivers. Tate, Jones, Golladay are all good after the catch. They’re strong runners, so the tackling is – it’s not just keeping them from getting the ball in the passing game but tackling after the catches will be challenging, too.”"
Add to the fact that Patricia will be looking to get his first win as an NFL coach against his former team, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots may have their work cut out for them on Sunday night.
Although the offense has some problems to work out, the defense has to return to the way they played against the Houston Texans to prevent Stafford from going off in front of the home crowd. Injury concerns to both Trey Flowers and Patrick Chung doesn’t help the situation, but players will need to step up to prevent the Patriots from falling to 1-2 on the season.