Team Grades: Patriots Play almost Flawless Offensive Game Against Jaguars

Right guard Brandon Linder played through his shoulder injury on Sunday and will continue to work with him to improve his strength.

Marshawn Lynch is quickly becoming my favorite player to see in a commercial. Quarterback Blake Bortles – seemingly throwing the ball to god knows where – was picked off by Patriots safety Devin McCourty with 1:47 left in the first half. It was touchdown pass No. 400 for Brady, putting him in elite company. “So we just try to take advantage of it and use the time to… try to get ready for a team like Dallas that we haven’t played in a long time”. The Giants were more like the Giants in beating Washington 32-21 on two Manning TD passes and three takeaways by the defense. And frankly, when Tom Brady twice converted a QB sneak into a first down on two separate third-and-1’s for the 1 millionth consecutive time, I found it to be a much more impressive feat.

On Brady’s milestone touchdown, Amendola faked a spike and then ran over to hand the ball to a fan in the front row.

The win over the Dolphins was nice, but their hasn’t been a firm sense of direction in any of the three games so far.

Brilliantly stoked by their mind master, the Patriots set out on Sunday to take on the world for a full 60 minutes. For all their red zone trips, the Patriots only ran that new scheme – where they go heavy with tight ends and then spread them wide and make defenses figure it out like Lemarchand’s box from “Hellraiser” – only sparingly. Dion Lewis has been surprisingly dynamite (146 rushing yards, 179 receiving yards, 2 touchdowns), and LeGarrette Blount looked very much like LeGarrette Blount on Sunday (78 yards, 3 TDs). On Danny Amendola’s touchdown, Edelman was the intended target, and he ran the same inside-outside route in which he caught the Super Bowl-winning touchdown. Every game should not be this one sided so it is tough to say if these roles will stay the same.

Rich Gannon mentioning how the game clock is too high for his liking and how he prefers it closer to the ground so he doesn’t have to look away from the field. But the league never consults with me before changing the rules, so I guess I’ll just have to live the rest of my life in the dark on that one. But Brady was also proficient at producing with Randy Moss and Wes Welker through the first three weeks of 2007, hitting 42 for 49 for 624 yards and six touchdowns.

All week, heck, every week, Bill Belichick stresses to his team the importance of playing a 60-minute game.

Good for the Jags going for a fake punt!

“All of those personal achievements are really a result of what our team has been able to accomplish”. Because it just makes it look like the thing either just finished a berry punch Kool Pop or is asphyxiating.

■ Really liked what I saw out of Richards, the rookie second-round pick. He was really firing off the snap – did he somehow know the snap count? – and made a great play to smother the screen pass at the end of the first half.

Also…I’ve always been a HUGE proponent of showing a team the respect of giving them 100% from whistle to whistle. I haven’t paid attention to politics in a long time.

The Clean Jersey of the Week award goes to punter Ryan Allen, who didn’t see the field at all yesterday. He took ownership of the Patriots loss marred by 14 penalties.