The Encore

The second start of Jimmy Garoppolo’s career was going to be the biggest. Of course, that was because we thought it would be coming off a loss. And because it’s a divisional game. At home. You can’t lose a divisional home game. Well, unless you’re the Buffalo Bills. Then you absolutely can do that. If we’re being honest, we all thought 3-1-0 was the best case scenario for Jimmy G. 3-1-0? We were going to be happy with 2-2-0. The Pats would lose in Arizona and they’d lose on a short week to the Texans. But they had to win the divisional games against Miami and Buffalo. They had to. That’s why Week 2 was going to be so important.

It still is.

If Jimmy Garoppolo was a publicly traded stock your financial advisor would be begging you to buy now before his price doubles with Monday’s opening bell. If (I’m too karmically smart to say when) Jimmy G puts up big numbers on the Dolphins and leads the Patriots to a win, his stock will be up, way up, and the good citizens of Patriots Nation will fall to their knees and speak in tongues, dance like Beyonce’s backup dancers on their desks at work and hug total strangers on the streets.

I know.

We’re not huggers.

But I think that’s going to happen.

Well, maybe not the hugging part.

The Garoppolo playing well part and beating Miami part followed by everyone falling down and going crazy part.

Belichick started the week reminding everyone of what happened the last time the Patriots played the Dolphins so no worries about this being a “trap game.”

No word on whether Gronk or Nate Solder will be ready to play this week but it’s almost certain Dont’a Hightower won’t be able to go so no worries about their not being enough adversity. The Patriots seem to feed on adversity as if they were adversity vampires. For most of us, what doesn’t kill us does not make us stronger; it makes us take Advil and tell our wives we’ll get to the yard work next weekend. What doesn’t kill the Patriots turns them into a goddamned pigskin Tyrannosaurus.

Vampire T-Rex.

Bad. Ass.

I get it. It’s only Week 2. Nobody’s clinching a playoff spot. Nobody’s getting eliminated from the playoffs. (Except maybe the Bills. And the Rams.) Having said that, this is a big game. A divisional home game. Chapter 2 in The Adventures of Huck Garoppolo. Another opportunity for the Patriot to make the haters cry. Another chance for Belichick to stick his thumb in Roger Goodell’s eye.

Or not his eye.

Well, I wouldn’t go there.

Not with my thumb.