The New England Patriots (3-2) are at home this week against the Tennessee Titans (0-5), and should have no problem against them.    The Patriots have been solid this year, but have not looked like the dominate team of recent years.  Tom Brady is still working his way back to his 2007 form, and this should be a great opportunity for him to have a break out game.  Brady has been decent this year, throwing 1344 yards with six touchdowns and two interceptions, but still looks a little rusty after missing all of last season.

The Titans have been awful this year, so the Patriots defense should not have a problem. The Titans have been bad all-around this season, with their running game being the one bright spot.  They average 127 rushing yards a game, but when they are down every game it doesn’t do them much good.  Stopping the run is probably the Patriots weakest aspect, giving up 96.8 rushing yards per game.  They should build an early lead though, so the Titans probably wont run the ball often.  I’m expecting to see a Patriots offense that looks like the 2007 Patriots, so this should be a blowout.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTION:  New England Patriots 34, Tennessee Titans 14

The 40-year-old linebacker Junior Seau has officially signed with the New England Patriots after a few weeks of speculation that he would return to his former club.  Seau has stated he is not sure what his role will be, but that he trusts head coach Bill Belichick and he knows that the savvy coach has a plan for him.  I don’t know how effective Seau can be at 40 years-old, but the 12-time pro-bowler will at the very least provide some veteran leadership to a younger looking Patriots defense this year.  DL Terdell Sands was released to make room for Seau.

The New England Patriots (3-2) failed to score any points in the second half and fell to the Denver Broncos in OT Sunday on the road.  The Broncos have usually been relying on their running game to win games this year, but with the Patriots building an early lead they were forced to throw the ball early and often.  The Patriots defense did not do a good job holding on to their lead and let the Broncos score 13 unanswered points.  They made Kyle Orton look like John Elway, as the Broncos’ quarterback threw two touchdowns and 330 yards on 35/48 attempts (73%).  Tom Brady looked like the old Kyle Orton, missing receivers all day and finishing with 215 yards on 19/33 attempts (58%).  Brady did have two touchdowns, but he had two key separate plays that would have been touchdowns had he made an accurate throw.  He overthrew a wide open Randy Moss in the endzone and under-threw a streaking Wes Welker, who had nobody between him and the goal line had Brady hit him in stride.

The Patriots are looking less and less like the dominant team of recent years and Tom Brady is still rusty.  The defense gave up a total of 424 yards and did not come out focused in the second half.  Orton hit receiver Brandon Marshall late in the 4th to tie the game, and Matt Prader hit a 41 yard field goal to win it in overtime.  The Patriots need to realize you can’t win games on reputation in the NFL and they need Tom Brady to step his play up.  Good thing they are taking on the winless Tennessee Titans at home on Sunday.

The New England Patriots (3-1) are headed to the Rocky Mountains to take on the Denver Broncos (4-0).  The Patriots will be facing one of their former coaches and a Bill Belichick student, Josh McDaniels.  McDaniels has done a great job in his first year as head coach, as the 33-year-old has led his team to an undefeated record so far.  The defense and running game been been the main reasons the Broncos have been successful, so the Patriots will need to bring a solid effort on both sides of the ball.

Tom Brady has looked very rusty throughout the first few games, and the Broncos have been doing a good job shutting down the opposing teams’ passing games and have 15 sacks, so that is an issue of concern for the Patriots.  Fred Taylor has been having a great year for the Patriots’ running game, but he had surgery on his ankle this week and might be done for the year.  That means Laurence Maroney will be getting the bulk of the carries and he has not been anywhere near as good as Taylor this year, as he is only averaging 2.9 yards per carry.  The Patriots will need more production out of Maroney in this game.  The Patriots defense needs to key on the Broncos running attack, with Correll Buckhalter and Knownshown Moreno killing defenses, but Buckhalter is out with an ankle injury so hopefully for the Pats Moreno is not as effective with more carries.  I think this will be a very close game, but I think Tom Brady will finally break out and lead his team to victory over the Broncos.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTION:  New England Patriots 27, Denver Broncos 23

The Patriots are 3-1 which is remarkable when you consider that franchise QB Tom Brady still looks rusty.  His 83.7 QB Rating is not bad for most QBs in the NFL but it is terrible for him.  He has completed 108 of 174 passes (62.1%) for 1,129 yards with 4 TD passes and 2 INTs.  Brady can’t blame the offensive line for not giving him enough time as he has only been sacked 4 times this season.  Randy Moss is only averaging 11.4 yards per catch so far this season and that’s not a good thing for the Patriots as Brady needs to start attacking defenses down the field.  He’s better than he has played this season and the Patriots will need him to have a big game in order to beat the Broncos on the road this week.

The Patriots will be without starting running back Fred Taylor indefinately due to ankle surgery.  Taylor has carried the ball 45 times for 201 yards (4.5 ypc) with 2 TD runs and he also caught 2 passes for 17 yards (8.5 avg).  Taylor was by far the best running back on the roster right now but at least the Patriots are deep at this position.  Laurence Maroney, Sammy Morris and Kevin Faulk will likely split carries until Taylor is ready to return.  Maroney is the youngest of this bunch so he might be able to shoulder more of the load.  He has carried the ball 27 times for 78 yards (2.9 ypc) this season and he has caught 3 passes for 26 yards (8.7 avg).  Sammy Morris is best at running hard between the tackles.  He has carried the ball 13 times for 41 yards (3.2 ypc) with 1 TD run and he has also caught 9 passes for 95 yards (10.6 avg).  Kevin Faulk is the best third down type back on the roster so he will get a lot of work.  He has carried the ball 16 times for 62 yards (3.9 ypc) and he has also caught 11 passes for 72 yards (6.5 avg) this season.  Maroney, Morris and Faulk should do a decent job for the Patriots while Taylor is out of action.

Reports have surfaced that the New England Patriots are set to sign the 12-time Pro Bowler Junior Seau as early as today.  The linebacker will be starting his 20th season in the NFL and will be a great veteran addition to a young linebacking crew.  The future hall-of-famer has 1,515 tackles, 56.5 sacks, 18 interceptions, and 17 fumble recoveries in his career.  In four games last year with the Patriots Seau had 15 tackles.

Hopefully for the Patriots the 40-year-old Seau has some juice left in those legs and will handle some running backs better than he did the bull that ran over him last week.

The Patriots fought tooth and nail in this game to prevail at home.  Tom Brady had a solid game completing 21 of 32 passes for 258 yards with 1 TD pass.  He also carried the ball 5 times for 11 yards (2.2 ypc) with a TD run.  All was not good for Brady as he lost a fumble that was recovered by the Ravens in the end zone for a TD.  Fred Taylor rushed for 25 yards on 7 carries (3.6 ypc) to led the Patriots on the ground and he also caught 1 pass for 13 yards.  Sammy Morris was also somewhat effective carrying the ball 6 times for 21 yards (3.5 ypc) with a TD run.  He also caught 5 passes for 35 yards (7.0 avg) in this game.  Randy Moss led the Patriots in this game with 50 yards receiving on 3 grabs (16.7 avg) with a TD.  Wes Welker was also busy with 6 grabs for 48 yards (8.0 avg).  The Patriots finished up with 319 total yards on offense (85 rushing, 234 passing) in this game.

Brandon Meriweather led the way on defense for the Patriots in this game with 9 tackles and 2 passes defensed.  DE Mike Wright had the best game of his NFL career today as he finished with 3 tackles, 2 sacks, 1 tackle for a loss and 3 QB hits.  The Ravens finished up with 363 total yards on offense in this game (116 rushing, 247 passing).  The Patriots are now 3-1 on the season as they are now tied with the Jets for first place in the AFC East.

The Ravens’ offense faces their toughest test against a Patriots’ D that is only allowing 262.3 yards per game.  This should be very interesting to see if the Ravens come out attacking the Patriots through the air as QBs (98.4 Rating) have had success throwing the ball against the Patriots this season. 7 players have at least six catches on the Ravens as Flacco likes to move the ball around.  That makes it very hard for defenses to double anyone.  The Patriots only allow 88.3 yards rushing per game but 4.0 yards per carry so the Ravens will also pound the middle of the Patriots’ D with Ray Rice and Willis McGahee. 

The Patriots realize that the Ravens’ defensive stats are skewed by the fact that Brady Quinn and Brodie Croyle started two of those games at QB.  In the other game the Chargers showed where the weakness is on the Ravens’ D and it’s at cornerback.  The Ravens like to blitz the QB but Tom Brady has only been sacked 1 time this year.  Randy Moss will likely have a huge game against the Ravens’ secondary which is allowing 231.7 yards passing this year. 

PREDICTION:  PATRIOTS 23, RAVENS 17

Julian Edelman was selected in the 7th round of the NFL Draft out of Kent State where he was the starting QB.  The Patriots converted him into a WR and he has learned how to play it very quickly.  When Wes Welker went down to injury, Edelman has stepped up.  He has caught 11 passes for 118 yards (10.7 avg) this season and he has also carried the ball 1 time for 5 yards.  That’s not all Edelman has done as he has helped out on special teams.  He has returned 2 kickoffs for 39 yards (19.5 avg) and 1 punt for 2 yards this year.  Coach Belichick proves once again that he is a master of the draft finding this guy in the 7th round.