Patriots Have Serious Playoff Implications in Loss to Eagles

While they had been far from ideal, the Patriots were clearly in control of the game.

He had only 11/2 sacks over the last eight games, and the Eagles as a team had only three over the last two games. The Patriots opened the season with 10 straight victories before losing and haven’t lost two games in a row since September 2012. They followed that up with a 45-14 loss to the Detroit Lions.

OVER/UNDER: 2 1/2 touchdowns for Tom Brady – Whaddya got? He’s one of them, and needs to do so Sunday in New England.

Rodgers finished the game with 26 of 36 for 289 yards and two touchdowns, compared to Matthew Stafford’s 23 of 35 for 220 yards and two touchdowns.

The New England Patriots host the Philadelphia Eagles in one of the National Football League games on Sunday, December 6 start time at 4:25 PM ET, at Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Mass. Sam Bradford did make a big completion to Riley Cooper on third down shortly before Barner’s fumble by stepping up and away from Rob Ninkovich to deliver a first down that looked like it would ice the game and he threw a pair of touchdowns, but there were long stretches when the Eagles didn’t do much offensively.

Just when it seemed the Patriots had it figured out, as James White’s 24-yard catch yielded a first-and-goal from the 1, it got even weirder. After stopping Philadelphia’s two-minute offense and forcing a punt, the Patriots took over at their 13 and picked up a quick first down.

Yet Eagles coach Chip Kelly made some lineup tweaks, perhaps to shake up his struggling team. Murray, of course, was the Eagles’ prized free agent signing with a five-year, $42 million contract.

Kelly also benched wide receiver Miles Austin in favor of Jon Krause, promoted less than two weeks ago from the practice squad. At that point, the Eagles’ offense was a mess. The Hub will have three hours of postgame coverage after the game, and you can see Bill Belichick and Tom Brady’s press conferences live on Patriots 5th Quarter on myTV38 following the game.

That changed when the Patriots tried a drop-kick after scoring. Nine plays later, Brady got into the end zone on a 1-yard plunge to pull within one score with three minutes to play.

On the team’s second drive, Bradford threw a pass in the flat to Sproles with 7:44 to go from the team’s 49-yard line, but threw it too soft, and it should have been intercepted, but the Patriots defender instead elected to hit Sproles.