Is it a "must win" game for the Patriots this Sunday in Cleveland?
No. Of course not. It's week 6. Still a lot of football left to play.
Wait! Are you kidding me? They're all "must win" games! And as "must win" games go, this one is mustier than most.
Why This "Must Win" Game is a "Must Win" Game
Stop Digging - As the saying goes, when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging. 3-3-0 feels like anything is possible. 2-4-0 feels like rough sledding at best, not to mention a whole lot less possible, and that's just the doctor's way of saying you're not going to make it. Sure, 13-4-0 would still be a possibility. A mathematical possibility. And if the last six years have taught us anything, math isn't real. Which is good, especially if I have to wake up next Monday to the mathematical possibility that the Patriots could finish 2-15-0.
Identity Pigskins - This is a "put on your big boy pants" kind of game. Both teams want to run the ball like it's 1899 (or whenever it was in ye olden tymes when the forward pass was illegal), which means both teams need to dominate the line of scrimmage. Can the Patriots be the kind of offense that pass-first defenses hate to play? Can the New England defense show they can stop the run? Even the pass-wackiest offenses in the NFL will run the football if the opposing defense can't stop them (relies on less expensive, fungible resources in RBs, less risk to expensive assets like QBs, opens up explosive plays in passing game off play-action). It's October and Halloween candy has been getting stale on the shelves at Market Basket for weeks. Time to find out what this team is.
QB or not QB - I suppose pigskin pundits and bobbleheads like it when there's a QB controversy. X's and O's can only provide so much content. I mean, how many times can you trade Nelson Agholor? Maybe it isn't the "car wreck in slow motion" of the Brady-Bundchen marital drama but then, what is? (Quick Parenthetical: All of that makes me terribly sad. I really hoped those two crazy kids were gonna make it. Because if two of the richest, most successful, most beautiful people on the planet can't find a way to make it work then what chance do the rest of us have?) We may not have that, but we do have Bill "Schrodinger" Belichick, refusing to open the box and tell us which QB - Mac Jones or Bailey Zappe - will be starting this Sunday, right up until whatever the league-mandated deadline is for that. I actually saw what was described as "binocular footage" of Mac Jones at practice on one of the social media platforms I frequent. At least, I think it was Mac Jones. Hard to tell at 1:144 scale. I will root for whoever starts at QB to play well but I still believe a healthy-enough Mac Jones gives the Patriots the better chance to win.
And this is, after all, a "must win" game.
Go Pats!
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