Pats look to put foot down in play-off race
Star QB Brady hopes for better protection
>> LOS ANGELES: Tom Brady has called on the New England Patriots to step on the accelerator as they aim to speed away from their rivals in an unusually crowded AFC East divisional race.
The Patriots could reach the halfway stage of the season sitting pretty with a 6-2 record if they are able to halt a resurgent Los Angeles Chargers in today’s home game at Gillette Stadium.
So far this season, the Patriots have been a shadow of their usual dominant selves, crashing to defeats against Kansas City and Carolina while looking less than impressive in scratchy wins over Tampa Bay and the New York Jets.
However a clinical 23-7 demolition of Atlanta last Sunday in a rematch of last season’s Super Bowl has given the Patriots a fresh jolt of momentum as they prepare for their final game before a bye week.
Brady, the five-time Super Bowl champion, challenged the Patriots to close out the first half of the season on a winning note.
“We’re close to the midway point; this is when we really have to hit the accelerator,” he said. “That’s what the good teams do. To get to 6-2 would be huge for this team.
“Knowing that this is the last game before that [the bye week], you want to finish on a high note and you want to go in feeling really good about what you’ve done,” Brady added.
The Patriots preparations have been disrupted however by an injury to defensive stalwart Dont’a Hightower, who is expected to miss the remainder of the season with a torn pectoral muscle.
New England also must find a way of offering better protection to Brady, who has been sacked 18 times already this season, compared to 15 sacks in 12 games during the 2016 season.
That might prove to be a challenge against an in-form Chargers defensive unit led by Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram.
The Chargers sacked Denver quarterback Trevor Siemian seven times in a defeat of the Broncos last weekend.
“They have a really good group of pass-rushers,” Brady said. “Those guys are very good one-on-one, so it’s a big challenge for our offensive line. “They really get after you. I’m not going to be able to stand back there and hold it forever.”
Elsewhere today, the NFL’s form team, the Philadelphia Eagles, host the league’s worst side when the winless San Francisco 49ers arrive at Lincoln Financial Field.
The Eagles improved to 6-1 when they dismantled the Washington Redskins 34-24, with second season quarterback Carson Wentz once again outstanding.
Wentz already has 17 touchdown passes this season, one more than he managed in the entirety of 2016, when the Eagles finished the year 7-9 in the NFC East.
“I just have a ton of confidence in our guys,” Wentz said. “That’s something that makes, I think, our offence tough to defend, that we have guys everywhere that can step up and make plays.”
The Eagles free-scoring offence will send a shudder through the 49ers’ ranks. San Francisco have stumbled from one defeat to the next, and are currently propping up the NFC West with an 0-7 record, shipping an average of 26.6 points per game.
A win for the Eagles will see them stretch further ahead in the division, where the Dallas Cowboys (3-3) will aim to keep their play-off hopes alive when travel to Washington (3-3).
The Cowboys will have running back Ezekiel Elliott in their starting line-up, for what could turn out to be his last appearance for a while.
Elliott has a court hearing next week which could see the NFL successfully impose a six-game suspension on the Dallas star over a longrunning domestic violence case.
Elliott had his best game of the season with 147 yards and two touchdowns in a 40-10 rout of the 49ers last weekend. “We’ve got some momentum, so we’ll try to keep that rolling,” Elliott said.