Garoppolo hurt; Williams carted off after scary hit

Despite landing a huge victory on Sunday against the Miami Dolphins, the New England Patriots have been placed in a very tight spot following quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo’s injury.

You might expect Tom Brady to be a nervous, anxious wreck while watching someone else play quarterback for a team he’s led since 2001, but that just isn’t the case.

It wasn’t all good news, however, as star running back Adrian Peterson finished with just 19 yards and left the game in the third quarter with a right knee injury.

Garoppolo, who has been New England’s starting quarterback while Tom Brady serves a four-game suspension, took a hard hit from Dolphins linebacker Kiko Alonso with 4:20 left to play in the second quarter, and the right-handed Rolling Meadows High School grad landed on his throwing shoulder.

Brissett, 23, was selected by New England in the third round of this year’s draft.

Miami marched 42 yards to the New England 29 but Duron Harmon picked off Tannehill’s fourth-down pass in the end zone.

Kraft, introducing Faulk and said Patriots fans “love unselfish players, especially the little guy who comes up big”. Garoppolo will be assessed day-to-day but likely will be unvailable when the 2-0 Patriots host the 2-0 Houston Texans on Thursday night. Garoppolo started the first two games of 2016 in place of the 2-time NFL MVP. Jimmy Garoppolo completed 18 of 27 passes for 234 yards and three touchdowns while Jacoby Brissett added 92 yards in six completions. Can Brissett fill in capably enough for the Patriots to have a chance against the Texans? “There were too many plays previous year where it didn’t make a difference who the back was, we just couldn’t get him started, couldn’t get him into any kind of space, couldn’t let the back gain any kind of momentum”. Names like Jimmy Clausen, Josh Freeman and Matt Flynn might be waiting for a phone call, but they would have to learn the playbook and gameplan in just three days.

“How many yards did they run for?” defensive tackle Jordan Phillips asked. His performance earned the support of Belichick despite the team’s second-half collapse.

Later on WEEI, coach Bill Belichick said the team “possibly” will work out a free-agent quarterback.

For this reason, the Patriots could bring in a veteran quarterback who has a lot of experience playing the starter position.

“If you’re going to play a team that’s going to run the ball, we have to do a better job of letting them have less plays during the game”, he said. “I guess today [during film] I thought he did a good job with his opportunities of producing for us in some critical situations”.

At 2-0 with a win over an AFC East opponent in the books and the bumbling Buffalo Bills one of two games at home prior to Brady’s return on October 9, perhaps this may not necessarily be the worst thing for the resilient Patriots. Third-string, rookie quarterback. Two rookie guards.

He’ll have to pull off his magic again if the Patriots are going to keep their early season momentum.