The Patriots encountered more adversity
http://www.giantsprosale.com/phil-simms-jersey-c-1_12.html over the first half of the season than the plethora of pigskin prognosticators who were touting 19-0 in August could ever have envisioned.
There were two home losses, season-ending injuries to offensive sparkplug Julian Edelman and defensive leader Dont
’a Hightower, the poor play of marque free-agent signee Stephon Gilmore, a leaky defense in September, and the lack of a finishing touch by the offense in October.But through it all, and so much more, the Patriots find themselves in the midst of their bye week with a 6-2 record after defeating the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday to run their winning streak to four games. They
’re tied for the best record in the conference and sit in first place in the AFC East, half a game ahead of the Buffalo Bills.Team captains Rob Gronkowski and Devin McCourt both said following Sunday
’s win they like how the Patriots are positioned, but this is a week that will set the stage for the final eight games and two months of the season.“
We’ve got to improve this week,” McCourty said. “It’s a good time, especially halfway through. We got to go back throughout the season, see what we’ve been doing wrong, see what we’ve been doing well. We get to self-evaluate, obviously get healthy and then move forward and get ready for the back half.“
Eight games to go. We obviously have a chance at 6-2 to do some good things. We’ve got to just take advantage of this week so we’re ready to go for the rest of the season.”The Patriots will practice only on Wednesday this week. Otherwise their time will be devoted to self-scouting and resting physically and resetting mentally for a second-half stretch that kicks off with a rugged road trip.
They
’ll take on the Broncos in Denver on Nov. 12 and face the Oakland Raiders a week later in Mexico City. They’ll train in Colorado in between.The Patriots also have five games remaining against divisional opponents, including two with the surprising Bills, who are 5-2 heading into a Thursday night matchup with the unexpectedly pesky New York Jets. They play the Steelers, who are also 6-2, in Pittsburgh in Week 15.
“
We have all AFC opponents in the second half of the season, so we know each game is going to be important,” safety Duron Harmon said. “Each game is going to be a must-win game. So we’ll take this break, but then we know that when we come back, it’ll be time to go.”Some good news
It didn
’t look good when receiver Chris Hogan http://www.izlesunu.com/57-michael-wilhoite-jersey-c-1_6.html departed the locker room on Sunday with his right arm in a sling after suffering a shoulder injury following a reception with 3:21 left to play in a win over the San Diego Chargers at Gillette Stadium.
However, the news on Tuesday was about as encouraging as could be expected as an MRI on Monday revealed that Hogan, per Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, reportedly
“does not need surgery for his shoulder injury,” just rest and rehabilitation. The expectation is Hogan will be out a couple of weeks and be reevaluated following the bye week.Not counting special-teams captain Matthew Slater, that leaves the Patriots with three healthy receivers on their 53-man roster in Brandin Cooks, Danny Amendola and Phillip Dorsett. They do have the option of activating Malcolm Mitchell off injured reserve, assuming his cranky knee is OK.
Now in his fifth season, the 6-foot-1, 210-pound Hogan has missed only one game in his NFL career. That was for a bad back last season, his first with the Patriots.
Hogan has appeared in all eight games this season, making seven starts and playing 90.2 percent of the offensive snaps. He
’s tied for third on the team in receptions (33), is third in receiving yards (438) and tied for first in receiving touchdowns (5).Hogan has been especially impressive on third down and in picking up first downs. He
’s tied for 11th in the league with 12 receptions, including two for touchdowns, on third down, and 22 of his 33 receptions (67 percent) have gone for first downs.
