There comes a time, but once a year, when the respective schedules of 3 decorated Boston Sports teams overlap. It is the most sanctified of trifectas. One could call it the sports equivalent of a three-way eclipse. When such a thing happens, the real-world is opaqued and overshadowed by it’s importance.

Okay, ditching the bombast now.

On this past Thursday, the Red Sox, the Bruins and the Patriots all participated in very important games. This smorgasbord of sports was served at a most opportune time for New Englanders. We were all starting to get a tad depressed, considering the most recent downward trend of our beloved franchises.

I mean going into Thursday night, the Patriots were tied with the New York Jets in the AFC East. That sentence alone encapsulates just how poorly things have been going here in Boston, as of late.

How will we ever get through this densely entangled mess of Boston Sports? You already know: It’s time for another highly anticipated edition of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

There was 5 minutes left on the clock and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were marching down the field.  Oh no, not this again!  Yep you guessed it the Patriots were in another game ending scenario. Something we have seen the last three games.  Luckily they were better prepared this time around.  They choose to Ice the Clock after kicking a Field Goal.  It was a smart move.

Listen the Pats were with out Rob Gronkowski, their All Pro Tight End.  They didn’t have the type of offense that they usually have.  So going for the 1st Down instead of Icing the Clock would not have been a great move.  They had to trust in their Defense to make a good stop.  They Scored their 4th Field Goal of the game with less than 8 minutes on the Clock.  Making it a one score TD game [19-14].

But how exactly did they get there.  Well they started out getting the first possession of the game.  It was a slow first drive and you could just tell that this would be a real grindy game.  They didn’t score and went on to punt the ball.  Oh boy, here we go again!  Yep you guessed it they punted the ball, after going 3 and out, at least 3 times.  They would finally score with a Field Goal and a Touchdown late in the 1st Quarter.  They played their best Football before the end of the half.

There were dazzling catches by Danny Amendola and Chris Hogan.  Hogan scored the only TD by the Patriots.  Amendola played the slot well and had some huge yards.  Then there was Dieon Lewis who had one heck of a game.  He was all over the field making plays!  You could tell it was something that Tampa Bay didn’t anticipate.  Brandin Cooks also played well, though there was at least one drop that I shook me head about.

Even with all these guys on Offense they couldn’t convert 3rd Downs.  It was disheartening to say the least!  I mean every time that they got a drive going they would stall out on 3rd Down.  And the penalties didn’t help either.  There were several drive ending penalties that I’m sure Bill Belichick would like to have back.

There was also another huge component to this.  They got to make hits on Tom Brady.  TB12 got sacked several times.  He even lost the ball on a strip sack fumble.  It was just not what you wanted to see.  Brady took several hits and that lack of Offensive Line Protection, could have cost them the game.  You know when you see Brady run for it out of the pocket, that things are going south on a play.  Yeah, there were a couple of plays like that!

Luckily the Buccaneers’ Kicker couldn’t kick the ball.  No seriously, he missed 3 makeable Field Goals.  One of them was just inside the 30.  Man, did he miss that one bad!  So with that, the pressure wasn’t as bad as it could have been on the Patriots.  They took advantage of the situation and just ran out the clock.  They played “bend don’t break” Defense the rest of the 4th Quarter.  And hey look at that, it worked this time!

Overall I’d have to say that they coming off of a 3 Day rest with no Gronk.  It wasn’t too pretty but they got the job done.  The Patriots next game is Sunday October 15th at MetLife Stadium against the New York Jets, at 1pm on CBS.  Get your popcorn ready, ’cause they will have Gronk back, as they play against their bitter Rivals!  Me, I’m looking to go with a 5 Layer Dip for the Game or maybe some Ripple Chips and Onion Dip!  Either way, it’ll be an excellent one to watch.

Patriots Talk: Patriots Win Over Buccaneers 19-14

Patriots 19, Buccaneers 14 (final). Ugly football. But much-maligned defense does enough. They'll take the win on short week and move on.

— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) October 6, 2017

The team came into Tampa Bay with the expectations of a blowout game, but instead the team kept the Tampa Bay offense to only 14 points in their 19-14 win. It was a rather odd game to see as many saw both offenses likely to play strong tonight. Instead, Tom Brady had 2 turnovers with his first interception of the year and a fumble late in the game. Regardless though, with their win tonight, Brady is now tied with Peyton Manning for the most regular season wins in NFL history (186).

I have to say though the offense tonight was not what most expected. They had a strong showing during the first half of the game, beating out Tampa Bay Buccaneers by less than a TD(13-7 by the first half). However there were several takeaways from this game that much is certain.

Tom Brady Played Bad Tonight

Bad INT by Tom Brady on opening drive. Bad drop by Brandin Cooks to end second drive. Good football players playing bad football early.

— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) October 6, 2017

I know its not like he lost the game for the team, but 2 turnovers nearly cost the team their win tonight. Despite Brady having a show showing early on, he also started the game with an INT that was targeted for Brandin Cooks. Tom Brady doesn’t play terrible football unless he isn’t comfortable and it was clear tonight. He was sacked at least 2 times tonight (Nate Solder was obviously not healthy to start at Left Tackle tonight). Brady had 30 completions for 40 passing attempts tonight, with 303 yards, a TD and INT. Not the most impressive stat line for Tom Brady but the same could be said for Buccaneers QB, Jameis Winston who was 26-for-46 tonight and a TD.

Bottom line: Brady played good football, but not Tom Brady good football.

Patriots Defense Stepped Up Tonight

Patriots defense — yes, the defense — leads way in ugly victory. Matching up CBs helps settle game-plan down. https://t.co/KnFJBnzJtN

— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) October 6, 2017

The Pats defense was better than usual tonight. However, that can be attributed to the Buccaneers offense playing terrible. The Bucs offense was playing DeSean Jackson on slants and inside cuts and not vertical routes which is where he is the most strongest at. (Deion Sanders pointed this out during the post game show last night) The Bucs still point up yards on the defense which was expected, but they still kept the Tampa Bay offense to a stand still.

In terms of overall play, the Bucs played bad offensively and the Pats defense capitalized on it. The pass rush was barely there, but they still kept the receivers covered. However, I could see several chances the Pats defense could have had turnovers on three different accusations in this game. Its ironic but they could have done better than what they had tonight.

If anything, the Pats nearly gave the game away to Tampa Bay on offense and the defense was trying it best to keep them out of the endzone. Of course that didn’t stop either team from receiving penalties.

Penalties Everywhere

Patriots fortunate to avoid damage of back-to-back roughing-the-passer penalties. Bad football caps what had been good complementary play.

— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) October 6, 2017

Oh my goodness. this team had so many penalties on all three phases of the game: offense, defense or special teams got flagged hard. In fact, they got back-to-back penalties during the second quarter that nearly cost the team 30 yards downfield and could have made The Bucs be in a good position if Nick Folks  didn’t completely mess up his field goal early on. That ultimately lingered into the second half and ruined the Buccaneers chances of winning this game.

The Patriots had two penalties on special teams, one came on Brandon Bolden who was off sides cost the Patriots the chance of getting the ball back on 4th downfield. It’s unbelievable how bad the flags cost the Pats defense, and the offense was equally as bad if not worse because it cost them on several drives.

At the end of the day, it’s all about winning. The Patriots won in an UGLY way. The Pats offense should get better once Rob Gronkowski gets better (especially with more than a week to recover). As of now, the team has plenty of time till their next game against the New York Jets for Sunday, Oct. 15th.