New England Patriots: Grading the 5 bold player predictions vs Raiders

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New England Patriots (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) /

Grading the 5 bold player predictions from the New England Patriots solid 36-20 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 3.

The New England Patriots didn’t need a superman effort from Cam Newton to beat the Las Vegas Raiders Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium.

In the 36-20 victory over the Raiders, the Patriots featured a strong running game and timely defense to stretch a 13-10 halftime lead to a dominating performance in the second half of the game.

Offensively, the running backs were the show in this game. The Patriots rushed for a total of 250 yards in this game. Rex Burkhead, who combined for 98 yards rushing and catching the ball, scored three touchdowns. But Sony Michel was really the story in this game.

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After watching both Burkhead and undrafted rookie running back J.J. Taylor get things rolling on the ground, Michel joined the show rushing for 117 yards on just 9 carries. Those total yards were highlighted by 38 and 48-yard runs that really set the tone in the second half.

In all, an overall solid performance from the New England Patriots against a 2-0 Las Vegas Raiders team that were starting to gain confidence in the first half of the game.

Here is what Bill Belichick had to say about his team’s performance, via Patriots.com:

"“We ran the ball well. We got some good blocking in there, but our backs and receivers, especially the backs ran hard. They made a lot of yards on their own. They broke tackles and made a lot of yards with the ball in their hands. We made some big plays in the passing game as well. Scored enough points to win. Defensively turned the ball over, and I thought that was a great sequence we had there about five minutes ago in the game where we scored, made the tackle, had him back up inside the 10, and strip sacked him. Had a good complementary sequence there with our defense, with our offense and special teams, and then the defensive score.”"

For this Week 3 contest, I predicted big games from Rex Burkhead, Anfernee Jennings, Devin Asiasi, N’Keal Harry and JoeJuan Williams.

How did those five players perform in the 36-20 victory?

Here are the grades for the 5 bold player predictions in the New England Patriots win over the Las Vegas Raiders.

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