Thursday 19 November 2015

Patriots stay unbeaten in dramatic finish; Bills and Dolphins edge wins

Article by Dean Wright


New England Patriots 27-26 New York Giants

 

Along with Bengals and Panthers, The Patriots entered into Week 10 undefeated and were facing an opposition in the New York Giants, who they have not beaten in play since 2008.

Although not a great game by the Patriots standards with them trailing by 10 points in the third quarter and trailing also twice within the fourth quarter, the Offense pushed and clawed to achieve a game winning field goal winning drive to make Stephen Gostkowski become the NFL’s leading kicker ahead of Adam Vinatieri.

The New York Giants fought well and looked good except for the final minutes of the game where they just could not close the game out.

Beckham Jnr was thought to have won the game for the Giants with a touchdown to make the score 29-24 with just over 2 minutes left to play, but Malcom Butler knocked the ball clear before Beckham could get both feet down to make a completed catch. Although at first it was ruled a touchdown, after review the judgement was overruled.

Even with Eli Manning hitting a career high 251 yards in the first half and the Giants being the dominant team for a good proportion of the game its was Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski who shone through after completing his longest career touchdown with a 76 yarder.

With a close but vital win for the Patriots there was still bad news in the form of  Julian Edelman who was taken off the field with a broken bone in his foot which will see him side lined for 6-8 weeks

 

Buffalo Bills 22-17 New York Jets

 

It was a game that Buffalo Coach Rex Ryan knew would be where all eyes were on him and his strategy as he faced his old team the New York Jets. Equally for Jets Coach Todd Bowles who was trying to show the old guard how it’s now done in New York.

All that being said it was not a very pretty game to watch with many dropped balls and fumbles and all in all some terrible play calls including Bills Punter Colton Schmidt’s missed catch while deep in their own half.

The Bills came out on top with their running game against a Jets weak defense. The Bills managed to rush 148 yards in the game and that is the most the Jets have given up all year.

Both teams looked a little shaky more times than they should have and even though both teams are still in the hunt for AFC playoff places it’s fair to say a lot of things need to improve. Rex Ryan took the win but it was in no way as dominant as he would have liked and it can be fair to say that Bowles either felt robbed or lucky that the gap in the win wasn’t bigger.

 

Miami Dolphins 20-19 Philadelphia Eagles

Eagle QB Sam Bradford was taken out of the game with a left arm injury which was later discovered to be a AC joint sprain halfway through the third quarter while the Eagles led the Dolphins 16-13 and the Eagles then failed to close the game out when replacement Mark Sanchez only gained small yardage and then threw an intercepted ball into heavy play with under five minutes to go. Also Sanchez disappointed when he failed to drive for a game winning field goal with enough time remaining on the clock.

The Dolphin's defence applied plenty of pressure to both Sam Bradford and Mark Sanchez plus keeping Demarco Murray in check by limiting him to only 61 yards from 23 carries it was clear that the defence was the difference between the two teams.

The Dolphin’s Ndamukong Suh finally hit some good game numbers with eight tackles, three QB hits, three tackles for a loss and a sack which was praised by his team mates.

At 4-5 and only one game out of a playoff spot in the AFC, the Dolphin’s still need to improve offensively if they want to make the grade and give the fans what they have yearned for such a long time.

On a side note it was great to see Jay Ajayi back in action. With 48 yards gained in just 6 carries, it will be great to see what this young guy can bring to a team who is starting to get its sparkle back.

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