Why Tom Brady Is Smiling Less These Days

They weren’t playing for their coach.

Sunday’s win had saved the Eagles’ season.

It’s simply the way they’re programmed.

Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Connor Barwin (98) sacks New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015, in Foxborough, Mass. The Eagles beat the Patriots, 35-28.

“We’ve got to try to outsmart Brady”, Rowe said. “People started to believe in themselves again”.

21 of those points came without New England’s defense even stepping on the field, (interception return for TD, punt return TD, blocked punt returned for TD) breathing some life into a Eagles team that had lost three straight games. He only missed a game with his knee injury and returned Sunday with seven catches for 62 yards and a touchdown – and also connected with Brady for a 36-yard gain. Of those hits, I charted eight as primarily protection issues, three as “coverage” hits, and two where both the protection and the receivers seemed equally responsible. “It gave me time to see where my blockers were”.

“I think the last three weeks were tough on us all”.

“I wouldn’t say it was a turning point, but it was another huge play by our special teams”, Kelly said.

The Seattle Seahawks scored five touchdowns in six drives and dominated the Minnesota Vikings 38-7. But as we all know and saw, (Sunday) he pulled some things out.

“It feels great”, said Newton who threw five touchdown passes.

The Patriots (10-2) dropped their second game in a row and fell into a tie with the Broncos for the best record in the AFC. New England has done pretty well in those rare times in which it actually has lost two games in a row. No one can save us from that.

Carr completed 31 of 48 passes for 283 yards and two touchdowns with three costly interceptions as the Raiders (5-7) took a huge blow to their wild-card chances.

“I think the concept of that play is a lot different than the true onside kick where you kick the ball 10 yards”, Belichick said on a conference call yesterday.

When healthy this season, the Patriots’ trio has combined for 154 catches for 2,011 yards and 18 touchdowns-51% of Brady’s passing yards and 58% of his scoring strikes. But more importantly, it was Jenkins’ interception return and Darren Sproles’ 83-yard punt return in the third quarter that broke the game open, with a Bradford touchdown pass to Jordan Matthews giving the Eagles a 35-14 lead early in the fourth.

Imagine what Tom Brady might do.

It took eight plays for the Eagles to go 59 yards, with Bradford connecting with Zach Ertz from the 5 to make it 14-7. 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. Ryan Allen’s kick was blocked by Chris Maragos; Goode scooped it up and ran it 24 yards for the touchdown to send the teams into the break tied 14-all. Rowe replaced Nolan Carroll after the cornerback sustained a season-ending injury; the rookie allowed two touchdowns in the 14 snaps he covered Johnson.

There’s a long list of things that went wrong for the Patriots when they played the Eagles on Sunday. “But this was a game we needed to win, we needed this spark to kind of carry us on”.

Another controversial decision from the coaching staff came in the fourth quarter.