INSIDE THE NUMBERS — After serving his four-game suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse policy, Patriots wide receiver Terry Glenn finally returned to action on Sunday and helped his team finish with their best offensive performance of the season. He finished the afternoon with 7-receptions for 110-yards including a touchdown and looked faster than ever out on the football field.
One thing that everyone could certainly see was his ability to make his teammates better as well as create opportunities for them. Through the first half of play, Glenn caught six of his seven passes and totaled 97-yards, while teammates Troy Brown (2-catches for 40-yards at the half) and David Patten (4-receptions for 30-yards at that point) were kept fairly quiet through two-quarters of play. At halftime it was pretty obvious that San Diego made adjustments to have help on Glenn because both Brown (117-yards on 11 catches on the afternoon) and Patten (7-receptions for 73-yards on Sunday) were able to come out in the second half and put up big numbers against the Chargers defense after it was apparent San Diego made an effort to double cover him.
Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come.
If he is able to stay healthy, with Glenn back in the line-up the Patriots may be able to finally begin having continued success in the passing game. Both Brown and Patten have shown that in one-on-one coverage they are able to get open, and having safeties helping out on Glenn’s side will also hopefully help them spread the field and give them more opportunities to make big plays.
There’s no question that his presence on the field makes a difference, and Sunday’s game was a key example of how much better he can make his fellow receivers, who by the way are far more talented than the likes of Tony Simmons and Shockmain Davis who lined up with him last season. Brown will also now benefit from having the speedy Patten lining up along side him, as teams can no longer commit an extra player to him like they did last season.
Sunday’s big offensive performance proved that the Patriots needed something to try and jump-start their offense, and Glenn may have helped in doing just that. One game doesn’t make a season, but hopefully it may have given the fans a glimpse of what New England may be able to accomplish now that they have one of their best players back on the field.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
