Patriots' Mystique Tops Jaguars For AFC Championship, Berth In Super Bowl LII

Jacksonville Jaguars' free safety Tashaun Gipson assured the football world that he and his teammates had the New England Patriots right where they wanted them.

And they did, they did.

But when you play the New England Patriots, you are not just playing against the Patriots, you are also playing against a mystique that carries with it an air of inevitability - the kind of resignation that comes when one knows what is about to happen to them, but they can't do anything about it.

It's like a sixth sense. The Patriots have been so successful for so long, and have consistently pulled victory from the jaws of defeat so many times that it causes a curious psychological phenomenon known as "soft determinism" in that, in the case of sports dynasties, while all empirical phenomena must occur from determining causes, human nature introduces the ability to conceive of the world of how things are supposed to be...

...and in the case of the New England Patriots, that means that their reputation precedes them and, at least subconsciously, their foes have predetermined that the Patriots will come back and win the game, regardless of how far behind they become during the course of a game.

That attitude was always prevalent in the Belichick era, but has been cemented in the wake of their victory in Super Bowl 51, when they spotted the Atlanta Falcons a twenty-five point lead, then scored 31 unanswered points to take the championship.

For certain, that would be the easy way to explain what happened to the Jacksonville Jaguars during the course of their contest with New England in the AFC Championship game on Sunday afternoon, that it was determined before the players took the field of battle, and that the only way that the Jaguars could possibly win the game is if they forced the Patriots into committing enough errors to change the predetermined outcome.

The Jaguars actually had the phenomena half-beaten, as Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady entered the contest sporting multiple stitches on the knuckle at the base of the thumb on his throwing hand, which had the potential to affect his accuracy - reinforced by a head injury suffered by his main target in the pattern, tight end Rob Gronkowski, which forced the All Pro from the game.

So there they were at halftime, the Jaguars thinking that they just may have done enough to destroy the aura surrounding the Patriots, and emerging with supreme confidence and actually building upon their lead - in essence having the Patriots right where they wanted them - but all they really did was instill themselves with false sense of confidence...

...the Patriots' defense clamping down on the Jaguars' fifth-ranked offense and the Patriots' offense finding a rhythm that hadn't existed prior to the half, scoring 14 unanswered points in the final nine minutes of the game to take the conference championship for the third time in four seasons and earning a trip to Super Bowl 52, where they will take on the Philadelphia Eagles.

The young Jaguars learned on Sunday what many clubs around the league already knew, that the veteran Patriots always seem to have two things in common when the game is on the line. First, that you can never count them out with Brady under center and secondly, someone always steps up to make the crucial play to save the day.

On Sunday afternoon, that person was Danny Amendola.

Already with the reputation as being clutch when the lights are the brightest and the stage is the largest, Amendola helped the Patriots punch their ticket to the Super Bowl simply by being open and catching the balls that Brady threw - the same player he has been throughout his career.

"Danny's such a good football player." Belichick commented after the game "If you look up 'good football player' in the dictionary, his picture is right there beside it. He's just a tremendous player, very instinctive, tough, great concentration. He had some big plays for us today."

The usually evasive Belichick stopped just short of effusive when speaking of Amendola, who hauled in seven of Brady's rockets for 84 yards and two scores, the last score a graceful toe-tapper that left Gipson's jaw on the turf in amazement, so clean that he didn't even bother trying to contest the referee's contention...

...but what really hurt Gipson and the Jaguars was a play that occurred halfway through the final frame, when the Patriots trailed by ten points and were faced with a 3rd and 18 from their own twenty-five yard line, Brady evading the Jacksonville pass rush and launching a wobbler towards a well-covered Amendola, who came down with the ball and momentum.

But anyone who watched the game knows that, and also knows that Brady soared to 290 yards on a 26 of 38 performance and that Brandin Cooks had yet another 100 yard receiving game and drew another 69 yards in pass interference penalties - but the players who deserved just as much credit as those that either blocked for them or played on the opposite side of the ball.

The Patriots' offensive line held the fearsome, top-rated Jaguars' pass rush to a meager nine pressures on Brady - and while that included three sacks, only one of those occurred in the second half. In fact, as the game wore on into the fourth quarter, the Jacksonville pass rush looked timid the more the dink-and-dunk approach by the Patriots started paying off...

...which was aided a great deal by the Jaguars inexplicably retreating into zone coverage in the fourth quarter. In fact, the entire nature of the Jacksonville game plan seemed to wane after that point as the aggressive approach by the Jaguars was replaced by complacency, and especially after they took a two-score lead midway through the third quarter.

How much of that had to do with the Patriots' mystique, only Jaguars' coach Doug Marrone knows for sure, but going into a zone defense against a veteran Patriots' receiving corps was akin to throwing meat to a starving wolf, as time after time Amendola and Cooks found holes in the coverages, and Brady exploited it.

How thorough the exploitation was can be found in the statistics. Up until the start of the fourth quarter, the Patriots had a grand total of 137 yards in total offense, and the only reason why New England wasn't behind by three scores or more was due to Cooks drawing a pass interference on A.J. Bouye...

...right after safety Barry Church drew a personal foul for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Gronkowski, the two penalties combining to give New England a first and goal with a little over a minute left in the first half and opening the door for a short James White touchdown run that turned an eleven point Jaguars lead to just four going into the room.

But once Jacksonville had gained back their two score advantage just seconds into the final frame on two field goals, they retreated into the zone look - presumably to protect against the big play, like in a prevent defense - which played right into Brady's hands.

Make no mistake, the Jaguars were dominating the Patriots on both sides of the ball until that point, and would have continued to do so had the Jacksonville coaching staff remained aggressive - but instead they concentrated on keeping the ball in front of them and New England countered by flooding the middle of the field with crossing patterns designed to open holes when the receiver moved from one zone to another.

The result is yet another Super Bowl appearance for the boys from Foxborough, who merely play their game, stay disciplined in their assignments, and wait for the other team to shrink back and commit the fatal mistakes that fundamentally sound teams always take advantage of.

One would think that after the Jaguars allowed the Pittsburgh Steelers back into their divisional round game by going zone and failing to stay aggressive, they wouldn't have made the same mistake against New England.

But that darned Patriots' mystique makes coaches and players do things that cause them to blow it when the chips are down, and to this point in football history, very few have learned that you have to keep the gas pedal mashed to the floorboard when playing the Patriots - no matter how big a lead they have or how much time is left on the clock.

Until the other 31 teams figure that out, the Patriots will just go on about winning championships.

Brady Good To Go For Title Tilt, But Patriots Are Well-Covered Just In Case

"Look at your thumb, that wondrous mechanism that separates us from other animals - the world-famous opposable thumb, that amazing device that has transported more students to college than the Boston post road, ideal for sucking, especially as a baby, and lauded in song and story as the perfect instrument for pulling out a plum...
...or in the case of the Caesers, for holding it down for the gladiator to die, or holding it up, which means 'see you later at the orgy.' My friends, for getting up and down the pike, in your pie, in your eye, I give you the thumb." - Hawkeye Pierce, M*A*S*H, season 4, episode 19

There hasn't been this much fuss over a thumb since Little Jack Horner stuck his in a Christmas pie...

Well, maybe that's pushing the envelope a bit, especially considering Hawkeye Pierce's thumb rant above, but when word broke that New England Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady suffered an

Hoyer (7) and Brady have remained close

undisclosed hand injury, the internet nearly broke under the weight of the sky over Massachusetts falling.

The secrecy surrounding the injury promoted a plethora of speculation, with the doomsayers taking the word of some quack in San Diego who claimed that Brady's injury could only be a dislocation of the thumb that was so pronounced that it exposed the bone, while the more conservative crowd looked to two possible scenarios.

First, that Brady would find a way to play in Sunday's AFC Championship Game even if he had to sell his soul to Old Scratch or, second, that the entire debacle was a sham created by head ball coach Bill Belichick to troll his foes, the Jacksonville Jaguars, into preparing for the Patriots' "Plan B", the "B" in this case belonging to backup quarterback Brian Hoyer.

Now, Hoyer has enjoyed some success in the league since departing the Patriots via free agency in 2012, going 16-21 as a starter for a variety of pretty bad teams, gaining most of his starting experience and a winning record with the Cleveland Browns, of all teams, and then with the Houston Texans before bottoming out with first the Bears and then the 49ers.

He went 10-6 with the Browns over two seasons, handing off to a washed up Willis McGahee and throwing to the likes of pre-suspension rookie Josh Gordon and tight end Jordan Cameron, both of whom made the Pro Bowl in 2013 with Hoyer under center but both folded in 2014 as Hoyer was forced to hold off Johnny Manziel while throwing to Taylor Gabriel and Andrew Hawkins...

...and all while trying to learn new systems under two different head coaches. In fact, in his five-year mission to explore strange new worlds, Hoyer had to learn a new offensive system in each - so the prospect of starting a game in Foxborough in a system that he knows by heart with an obscene number of potential targets to get the ball to probably doesn't sound too bad in Hoyer's world right about now.

And it shouldn't sound too bad in our world either.

Hoyer isn't Brady, but he's not Manziel, Brandon Weeden, Jason Campbell, John Skelton, Kevin Kolb, Ryan Mallett, T.J. Yates, Jay Cutler or C. J. Beathard either, all signal callers whom Hoyer replaced and performed better than - that is until a guy named Jimmy Garoppolo arrived in San Francisco and precipitated Hoyer's release.

Hoyer was supposed to be part of the trade when the Patriots sent Jimmy Clipboard to the 49ers, but some mention of compensatory draft picks prevented that portion of the deal to go through, so the 'Niners released Hoyer so the Patriots could pick him up.

That should tell everyone how Hoyer is viewed in the locker room and how much confidence the coaching staff has in him.

But, alas, that darned Brady seems to be good to go for the title game, as it has been revealed that the savior is dealing with a few stitches to a knuckle on his throwing hand - or maybe to his index finger, as another report has leaked since I started this thing - but whatever it is, it doesn't sound as if it's nearly as bad as the internet doc in San Diego first had us believing.

But even if Brady couldn't make a go of it, the Patriots have his position covered pretty well.

Jaguars Have An Offense, Too...

Guess what? The Jacksonville Jaguars have an offense as well as a defense.

Just wanted to make sure that everyone was aware of that.

And not just any offense, as it may surprise many that they have the fifth-ranked offense in the National Football League, featuring the top rushing offense in all of professional football - yet all anyone wants to talk about is the Jaguars' defense.

Maybe that was where the Pittsburgh Steelers went wrong.

Bortles is dangerous with his feet

Let's put to rest the idea that the Pittsburgh Steelers were "looking past" the Jaguars and were instead pining for a rematch with the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game, because the Steelers' advanced scouting department and the coaching staff had a proper game plan in place but, as is typical for Mike Tomlin and his staff, they fell apart when things started going wrong for them...

...which started with their inability to stop the run, then mixed in a few turnovers and some really poor play calling - all of which gave the Jaguars excellent field position. And because they lost the game, no one really cares that they put together four touchdown drives of 75 yards or more to climb back into the game.

The aforementioned inability to stop the Jaguars running game was the real bitch-kitty for the Steelers, because just when it appeared that they were going to turn the tides and perhaps even tie the game midway through the final frame, the Jaguars put the game away with a five minute drive highlighted by quarterback Blaine Bortles working the play action and consistently burning the Steelers pass defense using his running backs in the pattern.

No, the Steelers were not looking past the Jaguars - they did something even worse: They simply did not respect Jacksonville's offense.

Bortles has one less 300 yard passing games than Tom Brady - 4 to 5 - and the reason he doesn't have more than that is that the Jaguars are so numerically balanced that they don't need him to - not when Bortles can use the second best starting position in the entire league thanks to a larcenist defense and very good special teams, not to mention the fact that he can turn and hand the ball to Leonard Fournette.

On offense, the Jaguars ran 527 passing plays and 527 running plays. They don't turn the ball over. They are second in the league in red zone scoring. All of these things make them very dangerous, yet all you hear from players on other teams is that Bortles isn't fit to be an NFL quarterback.

"He's trash" the Texans' Jadeveon Clowney stated after Bortles and the Jags mopped the floor with Houston in a week 15 matchup, which was a week after Seattle safety Earl Thomas referred to Bortles as a "sub par quarterback" in the wake of the Seahawks' season-killing loss to the Jaguars the week before. Both players mouthed off as they dejectedly sat in front of their lockers, trying to make sense of how they allowed the trashy, sub par quarterback to beat them, and to do it soundly.

A lot of people would look at the Jaguars' schedule and and have their "A-ha" moment as they played one of the easiest schedules in the league, some may simply say that Jacksonville's defense bailed them out time and again and still others would chalk it all up to a mediocre quarterback hitting a rare hot streak...

...and all of those things may be true, but it is no reason to dismiss and disrespect Bortles and, as a result, feel that the Jacksonville offense isn't a reason to explain how they have gotten to the AFC Championship Game. As Pittsburgh found out last week, you get what you deserve when you do that.

We all know that Patriots' head ball coach Bill Belichick would never allow his coaches and players to lapse into that trap - hell, if the Patriots were facing Foxborough High he'd build up their team to be the greatest thing in football since his Giants' defenses in the mid-90's and the turn of the century Rams' "Greatest Show on Turf".

What the Jaguars do best is to run the ball, so concentrating on stopping the run, setting the edge and shadowing Bortles - who has proven that his best attribute may be his athleticism, and who was targeted in the 2014 Draft but didn't drop to the second round - is most assuredly the game plan.

Isn't that always the game plan in New England?  It worked like a charm against the Tennessee Titans in the divisional round, and the Jaguars present a similar structure.

Patriots' Concept-Based Offense Renders Advanced Metrics, Jaguars' Defense Inert

There are some advanced metrics floating through inner space regarding the best way to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars' defense, in particular their pass defense - and the story that these statistics tell are a carbon copy of what the New England Patriots' offense is all about.

That said, we don't need to get into some plagiaristic tome with charts and graphs - all we need to do is look at how the Patriots offense is constructed, because they are perfectly designed to take advantage of the weaknesses of the Jaguars defense.

Gronkowski is an issue for any defense

And that is regardless of the status of quarterback Tom Brady's throwing hand, which has been the subject of much speculation and even some accusation of subterfuge among the more light-hearted of Patriots' fans, claiming that the Brady injury is simply a matter of head ball coach Bill Belichick climbing inside the heads of the Jaguars' and their coaching staff.

And, why not? Belichick resides in the frontal lobe of just about every coach who ever lived, and he savors his reputation as a "cheater", as it is the chisel that breaks through their skulls and into whatever gland that causes paranoid delusions touched off by such things as towel hampers and hearing static in headsets, or hearing nothing at all.

Hell, Belichick is such a sick bastard that he made sure that some poor slob on the field crew installed half a dozen temperature gauges - at eye level - on the bulkhead from where the visiting New York Jets' players would be emerging from their nice overly-warm locker room and onto the frozen turf at Gillette Stadium, just to reinforce the notion that they were preparing to play in the midst of an arctic cold snap...

...and then hung 147 rushing yards on them in 38 bone-chilling carries, building upon the nearly 200-yard rushing performance the week before against a desperate Buffalo Bills' squad - then hammering the Tennessee Titans with 101 yards on 27 carries in the divisional round of the playoffs.

You see, while production in the running game is important, it's not nearly as important as just running the ball. Those 27 carries against the Titans and the 38 against the Jets yielded only what amounts to three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust, but the effect on their respective defenses was colossal in that both units were exhausted midway through the third quarter, and that's when Brady had his way with them.

Sometimes, you get the five yards a carry like they did in 38 carries against Buffalo, when instead of Brady going off in the second half, he turned and handed the ball to Dion Lewis and had a chat with the referee.

The point is that New England doesn't need to see these advanced metrics - because they are the advanced metrics.

The stats tell us that teams that run with an "11 Personnel" package - one running back, one tight end and three receivers - are doomed against the Jaguars top shelf secondary, and there is a certain obvious logic to that in that for most teams that means playing right into the Jaguars hands - but not for New England.

The Patriots could come out in "32 Personnel" package - three backs and two tight ends - and still run most of the same concepts as if they were in an "11 Personnel", because the Patriots' offense requires all of it's skill position players to know the entire route tree, and to be able not just to run the routes, but to run them efficiently.

Now it goes to figure that typical vertical patterns would be fruitless without some speed to take the top off of a defense, but the Patriots make up for that with seam routes, wheel routes up the sideline and jailbreak screens where someone like Lewis or James White end up with the ball in the flat with a big ugly escort down the field.

It's not like they would do that, but the point is that could if they wanted to and that would attack the Jaguars' smallish but quick twitch linebackers and force the secondary closer to the line of scrimmage, essentially rendering them helpless bystanders.

That would be fun, but the Patriots can do that in the "11 Personnel" if they desired, with the same effect.

The trick - which really isn't a trick at all - is to dictate to the Jaguars' defense, to put them on the defensive, as it were, back on their heels and wondering where the ball is headed next. The Patriots can do that to anyone, because that's how they are built.

Brady's 337 passing yards against the Titans was just his third effort of over three hundred yards over the course of the 2017 season, and his first in nearly two months - which is a testament to the balance that the Patriots' offense enjoys. What that doesn't tell you is that between the running backs and tight ends, a full seventy percent of the Patriots' offense flows through them.

Seventy percent. No other team in the league can boast numbers like that, so maybe it's time to look at the Patriots offense as an issue for the Jacksonville defense instead of just being concerned that the Jaguars' defense will be an issue for the Patriots' offense.

Sneaky Good Amendola Clutch As Usual In Playoff Setting, But Has Been That Way All Season

The quarterback rolled to his right, escaping the collapsing pocket through a large gap created by his linemen who escorted the strong-side pass rush up and over the imaginary protective bubble, headed towards the line of scrimmage, where just beyond his receiver was engaged in a hand fight with the opposing cornerback...

...the receiver locking eyes with the quarterback as he pump-faked the ball once to cause the corner to react and break discipline on the receiver, who took advantage of the fake and sprinted towards the opposite sideline, raising his hand to give the quarterback a target over the big bodies converging on him...

Amendola, Gronk and Hogan celebrate a touchdown vs. Titans

And, yes.

When New England Patriots' wide receiver Danny Amendola saw Tom Brady breaking the pocket and chugging into the flat, he locked eyes with Brady who, by sheer familiarity with Amendola knew that he was going to sprint to the open flat on the opposite side. Brady stopped just short of the line of scrimmage, set his feet and fell backwards, lofting the ball over the outstretched arms of three defenders...

...delivering a perfect bucket throw that gained a first down and kept the Patriots' final scoring drive alive. Not that they needed more points, but once you get locked into a serious point scoring groove, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.

Amendola had other receptions in the 35-14 victory over the Titans - eleven to be exact - but that was most highlight reel worthy play of the bunch. That's because Amendola is anything but flashy - he doesn't possess elite speed, has all the size of a standard garden gnome and an injury history that reads like a human anatomy quiz...

...but it's worth noting that of those eleven receptions, seven went for first downs and five of those converted third downs - and you wouldn't know it unless you looked at the box scores the next morning.

Something else you probably wouldn't know is that including the performance against the Titans, Amendola is the second-leading receiver on the entire Patriots' roster with 72, behind only tight end Rob Gronkowski's 75 - of course, Gronkowski has a huge edge in yardage gained, but that's not the point.

The point is that Danny Amendola had a solid season. In fact, Amendola has the third most receptions in the league among teams remaining in the tournament, behind only Philly's Zach Ertz and Gronkowski.

Known for being especially clutch in the postseason and an afterthought during the regular season, Amendola teams with Gronkowski and running backs James White, Rex Burkhead and Dion Lewis to form the most formidable short game in the league, built particularly to take advantage of linebackers and safeties in isolation.

The versatility of the backs in particular make things challenging for opposing defensive coordinators - even for Todd Wash, the defensive coordinator for the upstart Jacksonville Jaguars who has guided his charges to being recognized as one of the top set of stoppers in the league and lead all of professional football in passing yards allowed.

That number is skewed some, however, when one considers that the Jaguars were thrown against only 509 times this season, which was fourth lowest mark in the league - why? Simply because their opponents had such success in rushing against them (4.3 yards per carry), so why test that excellent secondary?

With the backs that New England employs, defenses must be aware of the threat of the run, even on obvious passing downs, which gives the Patriots the advantage of fully calling upon their play action, led by the master of the play fake in Brady, whose wizardry and slight of hand can stagger a pass rusher and freeze a linebacker...

...and whose skill at looking off defenders only to burn them is unmatched, which can only help against the Jaguars' secondary, who are playoff neophytes despite their successes and regular season experience.

They get to deal with the likes of Brandin Cooks, Chris Hogan, Phillip Dorsett and Kenny Britt - not to mention Gronkowski up the seam - who will rotate in and out of the lineup like a hockey line changing out, taking turns running corners down the field and just plain running them down. And if Brady is on with the uptempo game, the trend has been that he can toy with an exhausted defense for the entire second half.

And when a defense allows a quarterback like Brady artistic expression, the entire world gets to see Brady playing like he's drawing up plays in the dirt - a true men among boys, as it were.

And that's where Amendola makes his bones, hauling in the tough circus catch or a laser beam to the sidelines like he did in the overtime session of last February's Super Bowl to extend the game-winning drive - that notion, married to his performance in last Saturday's victory over Tennessee, causing Gronkowski to label him Danny "Playoff" Amendola for his penchant for heroics when the lights are the brightest and the stage is the largest.

But it's really just Danny Amendola - or "Dola", if you prefer - because he's just as clutch in the regular season. Just no one really notices.

Big Plays, Patriots' Gaffes Help Jags to Preseason Win

All Matt Patricia could do is shield his eyes against the debacle unfolding in front of him.

Granted, it was his New England Patriots' defense's first preseason game, and hardly any of the players he had available to him had any sort of impact during last season's championship run, and most were still in college - but it goes without saying that he had to have higher expectations than what he actually got.

The bane of his existence on a warm, mid-August evening in Foxborough, Massachusetts wasn't the second and third team offensive units of the Jacksonville Jaguars, who put up most of the Jags' total yards, rather, it was his own players who gave up the chunk plays that the Patriots are usually so good at avoiding.

As a result, backup quarterback Chad Henne went 5 of 6 for 139 yards and third-year back Corey Grant carried the ball eight times for 120 yards, leading the not-as-explosive-as-the-Patriots-defense-made-them-look Jacksonville Jaguars to a 31-24 win over New England at Gillette Stadium on Thursday night...

...because if you take away the chunk plays - Henne's 97 yard bomb to rookie Keelan Cole and Grant's 79 yard touchdown run right through the heart of the Patriots' defense - their numbers were average and ordinary as Henne went 4 of 5 for a pedestrian 42 yards and Grant 7 carries for 41 yards. Even third string quarterback Brandon Allen got in on the fun, hitting rookie wide out Dede Westbrook with a 42 yard scoring strike to provide the winning margin.

Those chunk plays accounted for nearly half of Jacksonville's 447 total offense, and came at the expense of a secondary missing all of it's starters.

Both touchdown passes came with second-year corner Cyrus Jones in coverage with third-year safety Jordan Richards over the top.  Jones lost Cole in man coverage when he looked back for the ball, and didn't have the recovery speed to catch him, giving up at about the 20 yard line, then later looked as if he was releasing Westbrook to Richards in zone, but on both plays, Richards was nowhere near the play.

Even worse was safety Richards's form on Grant's touchdown rumble, buying an shoulder feign from Grant, getting turned around in the box and allowing Grant the sideline where he easily outran the entirety of the Patriots secondary.

But despite all of the issues with the defensive depth, the Patriots offense moved the ball well and matched Jacksonville score for score until a fumble by Patriots' running back D.J. Foster broke the pattern and gave the Jaguars the advantage, the only real surprise being quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo playing nearly three quarters of football before relenting to third-string passer Jacoby Brissett with less than five minutes left in the third frame.

Always the gamer, Garoppolo shined with a nearly perfect 22 for 28 performance for 238 yards and two scoring tosses while six different backs combined for 116 rushing yards on 29 carries.  Brissett went 8 of 13 for 88 yards in a little over a quarter of uneven work - not bad for an offense that, like the defense, was giving it's starters the night off in order for the coaching staff make some initial impressions of their depth players.

Two players that made immediate impressions were tight end Jacob Hollister, who flat owned the seam against a Jags' safety corps that had just as rough a night as the Patriots' blue liners did, putting up a seven catch, 116 yard stat line that was a game high for either team, while wide receiver Austin Carr hauled in five balls for 44 yards, one for a touchdown in which he elevated in the back of the end zone and came down with the tough grab.

K.J. Maye also found paydirt, taking a bubble screen from Garoppolo and showing good vision in traffic, weaving through a maze of defenders to go five yards for the score, while running back D.J. Foster found the edge on a three-yard touchdown run after previously putting the ball on the ground and ending a Patriots drive inside the red zone.

There were few bright spots on defense, though strong safety Damarius Travis had a strong game in the box, contributing three tackles and a pass defended.  The linebacking corps was the best unit on the field all evening with solid performances by veteran Jonathan Freeney, second-year load Elandon Roberts and versatile rookie Harvey Langi, all of who were flying to the ball.

The teams exchanged field goals in a measured performance for both, but after a beautiful coffin-corner punt by Ryan Allen that pinned the Jaguars inside their own five yard line, Henne went right after Jones on the first play - Cole baiting Jones to look back for the ball, then angling him off to gain separation, then taking the pass in stride and easily outdistancing Jones to the end zone.

After the next Patriots possession stalled, Ryan got off a flat punt that was returned to midfield, four plays late rookie back Leonard Fournette finding paydirt from one yard out to give the Jags a 17 - 3 lead,

Garoppolo responded on the next series, running off nine plays in less than two minutes and moving the offense 76 yards, capping off the drive with Carr's high-wire, trapeze catch in the back of the end zone to cut the Jacksonville lead to seven going into the room, then tied the score early in the third quarter on the screen to Maye.

Gordon's explosive run off left guard gave the lead right back to the Jaguars, then Allen took advantage of Foster's fumble, hooking up with Westbrook seven plays later to run the Jacksonville lead to two scores - and Foster's three yard scamper late in the game got the game close, but it couldn't make up for the turnover that ended what promised to be the tying drive earlier in the half.

Belichick is giving his charges a couple of days off to rest and recover before meeting up with the Texans for some joint practices next week leading up to the second preseason game for both next Saturday in Houston.

Brady, Gostkowski Make History As Patriots Punk Jaguars

Tom Brady on Sunday became only the fourth quarterback to throw for 400 touchdowns.

The New England Patriots scored on every possession they had against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday afternoon.

Well, almost every possession - there was the final series where Jimmy Garoppolo traded in his clipboard for the pigskin, kneeling down twice to kill the final minute of the game - but the Victory Formation doesn't count. Or maybe it does, but either way you want to look at it, to score on nine consecutive possessions to start the game is mighty impressive.

For the third week in a row, the Patriots offense has proven to be increasingly unstoppable, going from scoring 28 points against the Pittsburgh Steelers to 40 last Sunday at Buffalo, topping off the season-starting trifecta approaching juggernaut status by hanging 51 on the Jaguars at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Next week the Patriots face the only thing that will be able to hold them down, as an early-season bye will keep that offense off the field - which was the only chance that Jacksonville had of staying in the game on Sunday - but they even lost the time of possession battle by a wide margin, scoring only 17 points in the process, seven of those in garbage time with New England in their three-deep shell.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady again had his way with an opposing secondary, going 33 of 42 for 358 yards and two touchdowns as his vendetta tour against the league continued at record pace, his two scoring strikes both notable as his first to Danny Amendola was the 400th of his career, while his second to the newest Patriot Keyshawn Martin was Martin's first NFL touchdown,

Amendola actually gave away Brady's historic ball to a fan after scoring, but Brady said he didn't care and Amendola admitted he wasn't aware of his gaffe. "I didn't realize until I was halfway back to the sidelines that I gave the 400 ball away, but we got it back, so it's all good." Amendola said with a shrug.

Tight end Rob Gronkowski continued his torrid pace as well, smothering four of Brady's offerings in his huge mitts for 101 yards, while Julian Edelman contributed his usual yeoman-like effort in catching eight balls for 85 yards and running back Dion Lewis pitched in with five receptions for 30 yards.

The Patriots ground game finally found its legs against a stout Jacksonville front seven, with LeGarrette Blount coming on as the designated clock killer in the second half to post 75 yards on 18 carries and scoring three times, while Lewis contributed 37 yards in eight carries but seeing his lowest snap total of the young season, giving way to Blount and passing back James White, who had 34 yards in six touches.

Defensively, the formerly porous New England run stoppers held the second-ranked Jaguras to just 57 yards on 20 carries, a 2.6 ypc average, while keeping second-year signal caller Blake Bortles in check while it mattered, with 80 of his 242 passing yards coming on Jacksonville's last possession, a scoring drive that came against the Patriots version of the prevent.

Coming into the game, Bortles had thrown an interception in each of his previous games, and had two very close calls before safety Devin McCourty picked off  a badly underthrown ball deep in the second quarter with the Patriots lead standing at just ten, setting up Brady and the New England offense with good field position near midfield, that Brady quickly turned into his 400th career scoring toss to Amendola.

In all, Brady led the Patriots on touchdown drives of 64, 57, 67, 80, 24 and 58 yards, the last of which was the most impressive of the afternoon - a 17 play effort that took nearly ten minutes off the clock, converting five third downs while mixing eight passes with nine runs, helping to tie a franchise record with 35 first downs for the game.

With the defense forcing Jacksonville to a three-and-out on their first series, the Patriots offense went 65 yards in five plays to take a 7-0 lead, Gronkowski accounting for 53 of those yards on two receptions, one a 43 yard catch-and-run up the seam, Lewis running the ball in from eight yards out to give the Patriots a lead they would not relinquish.

Two Stephen Gostkowski field goals capped the next two possessions for New England, sandwiching a 17-play, 58 yard field goal drive for Jacksonville to make the score 13-3 in the second quarter, the Jaguars driving for what would have been at least for a field goal, but McCourty's interception turned the momentum of the game and Brady's scoring strike to Amendola 1:29 later gave New England a 20-3 lead going into the rooms at halftime...

...another Gostkowski field goal got the second half started, with a one-play, 67 yard "drive" for a touchdown to run New England's total to 30 points following, 66 of those yards coming on two pass interference calls on Jacksonville to get the ball to the Jaguars' one yard line, where Blount powered into the end zone for his first of three scores on the day.

Bortles responded on his next series with a gorgeous 59 yard pitch and catch for a Jacksonville touchdown, receiver Allen Hurns finding a soft spot in the Patriots zone between a leaping Malcolm Butler and safety Duron Harmon, the latter overrunning the play, leaving Hurns nothing but green as the Jaguars closed the gap to twenty points.

But Brady found Martin for a 13 yard score on the Patriots' next series - after which Gostkowski set a new NFL record by nailing his 423rd consecutive point after - then Blount scored on consecutive possessions to close out the game.

After three games, Brady is 96 of 133 for 1112 yards and nine touchdowns, all except the touchdown total on pace to smash his career high numbers.

His average of 32 completions on 44 attempts would net him personal bests of 512 completions on an insane 704 attempts, eclipsing personal bests set in 2012 by a wide margin, the difference of which will see him complete 72% of his passes, which would also be a career high.

At his current pace, Brady will approach 6000 passing yards and will lead this offense to 635 points, far and away the best in franchise history, but he's not doing his numbers any favors by letting his running backs find paydirt, as LeGarrette Blount scored three touchdowns on short runs and Dion Lewis broke a few ankles on an eight-yard run to get things started, as on this pace he will fall a couple short of his record 50 passing touchdowns.

But Brady isn't thinking about records, though he became just the fourth quarterback in NFL history to eclipse the 400 touchdown plateau, and could have had plenty more were it not for that darned running game.

"I've always said that I don't care whether we run it in or throw it in," Brady said after the game, "As long as we score points and we're winning, it makes it fun for me, so I'm happy."

The Patriots are most assuredly scoring points and no team has won as much as the Patriots have since the turn of the century, so that must mean that Brady is having more fun than anyone else in the game, and judging from the pace he's set for himself and elevated skill level he's demonstrating, he's likely to have more fun than anyone else for years to come.

Lewis, Twin Towers Present Challenge For Jacksonville's Stout Front Seven

So, Tom Brady is pissed off.

And why not?  NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell ruined his Super Bowl week, victory celebration, Valentine's Day, Easter, Spring Break and most of his summer with his relentless pursuit of cheating allegations aimed at the New England Patriots' quarterback, who wisely chose to remain mute with legal action pending against the league.

He remained quiet while the national media - not to mention quite a few Boston media personalities - trashed his character. He remained quiet while several of his contemporaries suggested that he should fess up and admit that he had a hand in deflating footballs, and when many Patriots' fans publicly pleaded with him to accept whatever reduced penalty he could get and just put the whole issue behind him.

Rookies Andrews (60) and Mason (R) have their hands full

But Brady never wavered. He stood firm when the NFL was leaking false information to various media outlets - ok, ESPN and the Indianapolis Star - He stood tall when the owners of 31 NFL teams and their fans prayed for his ban to hold and he kept his mouth shut, waiting for the season to start so that he could do his talking with his play.

Yes, Tom Brady is angry - not just angry, but a special kind of pissed off.

Brady has eight months worth of remaining quiet and unable to defend himself in public under his fingernails - and now that he can speak about deflategate, he refuses.  Brady stiffed NBC Sports when he had originally agreed to a post-game interview following the season opener against Pittsburgh, mostly because the talking heads that hosted the pregame show had already discussed the issue ad nauseum.

Tom Brady has nothing to apologize for, nothing to explain - and whatever he feels he needs to get off of his chest, he appears to want to do it on the football field, taking down one antagonist at a time - the aforementioned stiffing of the national media on opening night his first act of defiance to a group of people who dragged his character through the mud since January...

...and then the entire Buffalo Bills defense who had nary a good word to say about Brady nor the Patriots in general the week before the sure first ballot Hall of Fame quarterback punked them to the tune of 466 yards last week - and this weekend, his sniper sites are set on the Jacksonville Jaguars.

No particular reason to rip their defense to shreds, other than the Patriots are hyper-motivated and intensely focused on a fifth Lombardi Trophy, and the Jaguars are in the way.

But if one was really reaching for a reason for Brady to have a little extra mustard on his throws this Sunday, he could do a Bobby Boucher and imagine that now-retired, ex-Jaguars' quarterback Mark Brunell is under center for Jacksonville, and Brady most assuredly has a score to settle with that guy - Brunell appearing on ESPN just hours after the whole Deflategate business broke into a major news story, shedding tears at the thought that Brady had something to do with the controversy.

But that's absurd, right? The best thing that Brady could do in that situation is to tell Brunell that he's drinking the wrong water, and that his momma told him that Brunell was the devil, and that "Foosball" is the devil's game.

Most feel that the Jaguars are perennial doormats, and while that has been the case for the past dozen seasons or so, it appears that head coach Gus Bradley has his team ready to take an upward turn, particularly on defense, where the Jags are loaded with talent and aggression in their front seven, even in spite of losing their prize first-round rookie to a torn ACL.

Chandler (88), Gronkowski and Lewis should be too much for Jaguars defense

In fact, the Jacksonville Jaguars are in first place - and while it's true that being in first place after the second week of the season doesn't mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things - except when considering that they play in the God-awful AFC South division - folks should just let them have this moment of glory, because it isn't going to last long...

...not because anyone in their division is showing any signs of life and not because their schedule is that brutal and not even because their own offense is terrible, but simply because they are the next victim of the New England Patriots, who have the aforementioned huge chip on their collective shoulders.

But what better way to assess where your team truly is early in the season than to take on the defending world champions on their home turf, where anything remotely resembling a close game would give the Jaguars a big shot of confidence heading into the rest of their schedule, which right now looks like an lineup of patsies?

In fact, the Patriots, Falcons and the upstart New York Jets are the only team on Jacksonville's schedule over .500 to start the season, while the rest of their opponents are a combined 4-18 after two weeks of play, hardly a murderer's row of foes, even with teams like the Colts and Ravens on the list, both a dismal 0-2.

Does that mean that there is hope for the downtrodden Jaguars?  Certainly it does if their defense continues to improve from last season, and if their offense can hold out and keep putting together balanced attacks until their injured stars return from the hot tub - but the next three weeks will tell them all they need to know about the character of the team going forward...

...as after they visit Foxborough on Sunday, they travel to Indianapolis to face a desperate Colts' team that can't get out of their own way on offense and then go to Tampa Bay to face a Buccaneers' team that is currently 1-1 after two weeks before heading home to host the Texans.

About the only thing that the Jags have going for them coming into their Sunday matchup with the Patriots is that they can run the ball, and have done so against two pretty decent front sevens in Carolina and Miami, while defensively holding both to a dismal 2.9 yards per rush, good for second in the NFL.

In that respect, it appears that the Jaguars are building a team with a solid fundamental base despite a rash of injuries that have plagued them since the inception of the offseason.

First round draft pick OLB/DE Dante Fowler tore his ACL in OTA's, which was a huge blow to the Jaguars dream of not only putting more pressure on opposing quarterbacks, but doing so at an elite pace. Jacksonville recorded 45 sacks last season, the majority coming from their blind side combination of three-tech tackle Sen'Derrick Marks (8.5), defensive end Chris Clemmons (8) and reserve end Ryan Davis (6), but hardly anything coming from the strong side combination of Roy Miller and Tyson Alualu.

But the Jaguars did not settle for the same production going into 2015, as they backed up the Brinks' Truck to Jared Odrick's bank account, making him the fourth highest paid defensive tackle in the game to pry him away from Miami and joining an interior rotation that is suddenly stout against the run and can get after the quarterback.

In fact, the Jaguars' rotation on the interior could be one of the strongest on the schedule for the Patriots, and certainly the most underrated - but takes a significant hit as Marks is doubtful to play on Sunday while still rehabbing a knee injury that ended his 2014 season, meaning that the veteran reserve Alualu has become a more significant part of the tackle rotation in Jacksonville's 4-3 alignment.

Obviously, Marks' absence is terrific news for the New England interior linemen, who have been impressive against two of the better pass rushing teams in as many weeks to open the season, even giving Brady time to step into his throws, and the results have been staggering

On the second level, the trio of second-year man Telvin Smith, veteran incumbent Paul Posluszny and San Francisco retread Dan Skuta are solid. Smith was a tackling machine from his weak side post in 2014 and was adequate in coverage, defending four passes and chipping in with two blitz sacks, while Posluszny was limited to just seven games after suffering a torn chest muscle. In his tenth season, the Penn State product is closing in on the 1000 tackle plateau.

The Patriots' running game to this point has been based primarily with utilizing the skill set of running back Dion Lewis, who is easily one of the top ten feel-good stories in the NFL this season, and this game should be no different - mostly because the Jaguars tend to not blitz their linebackers much, meaning that Lewis will be spending less time getting in the way of a 250 pound human projectile to protect his quarterback, and spending more time in the pattern.

The way the depth in the backfield has worked out, it appears that Lewis is not so much a change of pace back as originally advertised, but as tone-setter - the guy that gets to wear out the front seven by making them chase him all over the field. It's a genuine reversal of roles from the contemporary line of thought in the NFL that a team uses a bigger back to grind down the opponent, but the Patriots' bigger back. LeGarrette Blount, seems to now be the change up...

...which isn't the worst thing in the world, as Blount is as good as anyone in the game at clock killing in the four-minute offense, plus he holds onto the ball and as long as the play call doesn't take him outside of the tackles, he rarely loses yardage.

It remains to be seen if the Patriots maintain the status-quo against the stout Jacksonville run defense or it they make use of their speed advantage over the Jags' linebackers, which will in turn force the box light, making room for both Lewis and Blount to maneuver.

The Jaguars are light in the secondary as well, with nickle cornerback Dwayne Gratz on the skids with an ankle injury. Former Packers' nickle guy Davon House mans one corner while second-year man Aaron Colvin takes care of the other, while corner-safety hybrid Jonathan Cyprien joins ex-Colts' and Patriots free safety Sergio Brown on the blue line, with Louisville rookie James Sample hot on Brown's heels as the third safety.

The Patriots present a huge challenge for this young secondary, especially with the size and speed of New England's tight ends, something that Brown can attest to as he was abused by the monstrous Rob Gronkowski last season, then got "thrown out of the club" by Gronkowski after getting up in his face...

...so it's a good thing that Jacksonville has Cyprian to take on the best tight end in football, lest Brown end up tossed into another camera stanchion, though it wouldn't be as embarrassing as least season when the incident took place on national television.

Cyprian has the requisite size at 6' 0" and 225 pounds to at least grapple with Gronkowski, but a better choice might be weak side linebacker Smith, who at 6' 3" and 225 pounds is built more like a free safety, and runs a 4.54 - so when the Jaguars attempt to double up on Gronkowski, it is likely one would see one or both on him every play.

But that's the end of the good news for the defense, as their young corners are no match for the sage wisdom of Patriots' receivers Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola, nor are they up to the task of defending Lewis, James White or Tavaris Cadet out of the backfield - not to mention that Aaron Dobson and Scott Chandler both present their own unique challenges to any secondary...

...Dobson for his deep speed and willingness to break off post routes to come back for the ball, leaving corners lagging behind, and Chandler simply due to his massive height and flypaper hands.

The Patriots' offense is no joke.  They have scored on 12 of the 21 possessions (not counting victory formations) that they have had thus far in 2015 and are currently on pace to score 544 points, which would qualify as the third most in franchise history, behind only the 2007 (589) and 2012 (557) teams - and being as it is too early to be making assumptions, we'll leave it at that with the caveat that this offense typically doesn't start rolling until October, so the best is yet to come.

Fortunately for the Jaguars, they get to see the Patriots before they bond into the machine that they will become toward the midpoint of the season, but what they get on Sunday afternoon will be plenty enough for them to handle anyway - and given their injuries and lack of depth, one could reasonably assume that 40 points is ultimately reachable...