New England Patriots are chasing the franchise’s own greatness

This collision of counterblows has added an interesting twist to Sunday’s game: New England likely will have revenge on its mind for those aforementioned Super Bowl losses, but the Giants also should relish another chance to ruin the Patriots’ pursuit of regular-season perfection.

The New England Patriots are 8-0 and they are standing alone in the AFC East. The Patriots offense is averaging 34.5 points and 420.2 yards per game and they have a plus seven turnover ratio. They’ve had a great organization for a long time. “I was very, very impressed with the young man”, Coughlin said, via CSN New England.

So here we go again, on Sunday Brady and the unbeaten Patriots (8-0) will take on Eli Manning and an inconsistent Giants (5-4) squad that is a one-touchdown underdog at home.

“I’d much rather have won them than lost them, but they won’t have any bearing on this week or what the matchups are”, Brady said.

They know how the Pats operate, what makes Belichick and Brady so hard to beat and how much they undoubtedly are thirsting for a win over the Giants. The Jets loom as the best team of this bunch, and with a 5-3 record right now they may very well be fighting for a playoff spot when they face New England.

The New England defense was expected to be the team’s vulnerable area, but the Patriots rank eighth overall in yards allowed and they have been able to impose their will at times with hard-hitting linebackers Jamie Collins and Dont’a Hightower. They do a lot of things well.

Going forward, the Patriots are expected to be favored in every game, per Fivethirtyeight.com’s projections, and the only matchup where they have a less than a 70 percent win probability is their huge Week 12 tilt in Denver (51 percent). We know the quality of the team. THe Giants have taken advantage of their opportunities but eventually they will need to get heat on the passer if they hope to keep winning. But also of note, half of their eight victories have been decided by no more than eight points. The Patriots just want to win, although deep down you have to think they want revenge for those Super Bowl losses (they would never admit this).

When it comes to ranking the NFL’s greatest all-time quarterbacks, in this scribe’s opinion Tom Brady has clearly distanced himself from Peyton Manning based on his dominance in head-to-head meetings and number of Super Bowls won.

The recent history between the two teams includes a pair of regular-season contests that both came down to the wire. That’s a part of this season for them and certainly for me as well. There are just a few players on New York’s roster that have even played the Patriots, the last game being Super Bowl XLVI, in February 2011. “I’ve recognized it and I know all the fans and all the people that know what those two people have done for our league as well as that team respect and appreciate their contributions”.