Patriots-Broncos

I have been pondering Sunday’s Patriots-Broncos game. It is clearly too early in the season to be excessively depressed about the team, but they clearly were not the team that we have come to expect. Tom Brady looked very much of out of sorts and I cannot help but wonder whether the issue is the departure of Branch and Givens. It felt to me that Brady was uncomfortable with his receivers and that he seemed to focus primarily on Troy Brown. The reality is that the Patriots need a balanced offense. Their passing game is not good enough to carry the team and so they need the running game. Fortunately, they have Dillon, Maroney and Faulk all of whom are very talented. This should help bring more balance to the offense, but this was not evident on Sunday. The Patriots have a tough game this weekend versus the Bengals and hopefully they will use it as an opportunity to get back on track.