 Everyone knew that when Brady came back the New England Patriots would find that leadership that the young Matt Cassel simply could not provide (at no fault to his own). Nobody was quite sure what kind of a player he would be though. The results have been mixed so far and the Patriots are 3-2 and tied for first place in the AFC East. Unfortunately, the Patriots scoring differential is thin. The offense is averaging 20.8 points and the defense is holding teams to 18.2 points. These numbers and these scoring margins have remained pretty consistent. Their biggest win has been by six points and the biggest loss has been by seven points. The fact that this team has been able to go 3-2 when they play teams like the Jets, Falcons, Ravens, and Broncos (all potential playoff teams) is a good sign. Perhaps as the season advances and some of the worse football teams in the NFL end up no the schedule that scoring margin will increase. The offense has been pretty prolific in terms of yardage, averaging 361.8 yards (9th in the NFL) and only has four turnovers. Brady and company simply have not been able to put the ball in the end zone. Instead the Stephen Gostokowski has made the second most field goals in the league, mostly from the 20-29 yard range. Brady has been unable to dominate with Randy Moss and Wes Welker battling nagging injuries. Just two seasons ago Brady, Moss, and Welker were unstoppable. Now Moss and Welker have one touchdown each and Brady has a pretty mundane quarterback rating at 85.9. He has not thrown a lot of interceptions and is completing a decent percentage of his passes. He is just averaging far less than he is used to per pass (6.49 yards). The good news is that this is probably just Brady knocking the rust off after spending a year coming back from an injury that hurt his ACL and MCL. The running game is a three headed effort. Fred Taylor, Sammy Morris, and Laurence Maroney share the carries. In fact Kevin Faulk has even gotten a few carries a game. Together, this group of running backs is averaging about 3.8 yards a carry. Still, these four players have scored a total of three touchdowns. While the passing game is not quite there the lack of finish in the running game is really becoming obvious, thus Gostokowski's six field goals from 20-29 yards. The road ahead has two games that could get the Patriots back on track. The Titans and Bucs both have soft defenses. After those two weeks, the Pats get their bye week before beginning a hellish five week schedule that should scare fans at Gillette Stadium.
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