Everybody in the NFL betting circles was talking about the Atlanta Falcons’ Super Bowl hangover, but, not for a second, did anyone think that the New England Patriots might have had one too many a can of Pawtucket Patriot Ale. In a shocking turn of events, which flew in the face of everything people betting on NFL find to be good and decent, the Kansas City Chiefs upset the Pats 27-42, in spite of which loss New England remains the favorite to win division, conference, and league. And, unforeseeable and unpredictable as it was, this loss may even have been necessary.
Tom Brady questions team's attitude after Patriots suffer a humbling loss they probably needed https://t.co/TC9fymGdeg
— Ian O'Connor (@Ian_OConnor) September 8, 2017
As O’Connor writes, “the postings on the Gillette Stadium scoreboards that read “ATL 28 NE 3” and “2:12 3RD QTR”” were, for a constantly forward-looking as the Patriots, “a bit overdone for a franchise that never dances in yesterday’s confetti” (except, that is, of course, when they play a preseason game against the Texans). It was, in that sense, a textbook case of hubris. And it turned out, as a matter of fact, to be one of the worst games in head coach Bill Belichick’s career, during whose tenure the Pats had never allowed as many points or yards, 42 and 537, respectively. If Alex Smith was, in O’Connor’s view, “Marlon Brando,” then, New England’s defensive front was The Magnificent Seven – as compared to Akira Kurosawa’s infinitely superior Seven Samurai.
One other thing that NFL betting experts were shrugging off was Julian Edelman’s, Tom Brady’s preferred target, absence. Eric Berry followed, other than to the bathroom, Rob Gronkowski everywhere the Gronk – whose greasy fingers cost the Pats a touchdown – went. Danny Amendola, who was, in lieu of Edelman, Brady’s go-to guy, left, after finishing with six catches and 100 yards, with a head injury. There was, all things considered, no one who could translate one of Brady’s passes, of which he completed, out of 36 attempts, only 16, into a touchdown. It was, without being it, as close a Super Bowl LI scenario as it could get, but the game being actually the Kickoff, there was, in terms of urgency, none for New England.
The Boston Herald’s Ron Borges, who brings shame to the last name of the greatest writer of the last century, headlines an article of his thusly, “Chiefs put perfectly punishing end to Patriots’ 19-0 talk,” which is all, except one part, well and good, that part being that it, 19-0, was never the “Patriot’s talk.” It was, if anything, everybody else’s, but the Pats’, talk. This is, channeled though Tom Brady, the Patriots’ talk: “We have to be a lot better in a lot of areas, starting with our attitude and our competitiveness,” he said via NFL.com. “A winning attitude and a championship attitude, you need to bring it every day. We had it handed to us on our own field. It’s a terrible feeling. We’ve got to dig deep, a lot deeper than we did tonight. We didn’t dig very deep tonight.” And Brady can, as the John Cena of NFL betting, dig deepest than anyone else.