Three things we learned in the Patriots; 45-7 pounding of the Rams in London:
Nice recovery
The game couldn’t have started off worse for New England: St. Louis scored an opening-drive touchdown in just 2:35 to take an early 7-0 lead. To make matters worse, it came via a 50-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Sam Bradford to receiver Chris Givens. New England could have panicked, but instead it was the opposite. Tom Brady and Stevan Ridley led the Pats on a 78-yard drive of their own right after, evening up the score on a Brady to Brandon Lloyd 12-yard touchdown midway though the first quarter. As you can see by the final score, 45-7, they never looked back.
Passed the driving test
Nobody benefits more from Patriots scoring drives than punter Zoltan Mesko. On Sunday, it looked like he may not have had to make a single punt. The Patriots’ first six drives ended like this: Lloyd touchdown catch, Shane Vereen touchdown run, Rob Gronkowski touchdown catch, Ridley touchdown run, Lloyd touchdown catch, Stephen Gostkowski field goal. It wasn’t until the 2:28 mark of the third quarter when the Rams received their first punt, a touchback, from Mesko. He punted once more in the fourth quarter. The moral of the story is that the Patriots offense was clicking on all cylinders, the way everybody thought it should.
All is well, for now
It’s been a very up-and-down season for the Patriots, but there’s no doubting the fact that they head into their Week 9 bye on a very high note – perhaps the highest of the season. Not only did the offense look good, but the Pats only allowed 205 passing yards to Bradford. The coaching staff lives on the “just trying to improve every week” saying, and they can actually look themselves in the mirror this time and say that they are, in fact, improving. Now, the team will get a few days off (and try to find a plane back to New England) before they start to prepare for the Bills at home on Nov. 11.
