Some thoughts as the Patriots capped off Week 13 with their 10th-straight victory over the Giants to finish off another surprising week in the NFL:
1) Before Monday night’s Patriots-Giants game at Gillette Stadium, they showed an aerial shot of US Route 1, the major highway that abuts the stadium and its predecessor, Schaefer/Sullivan/Foxborough Stadium.
It looked like the end of the movie Field of Dreams. If you build it, they will come.
Joe Buck said, “You can see the long line of traffic on Route 1! Looks like all those people will be getting to the game a little late tonight!”
And I said to myself, “Wow. Nothing has changed in over 50 years.”
August 15, 1971. It was the first game in the history of Schaefer Stadium. The Patriots were playing the…we’re not kidding…New York Giants. It was a preseason game. The game was not known for being the first football game played in the town of Foxborough. The game was known for the traffic jams on Route 1 and Interstate 95. Oh, and don’t forget also about the exploding toilets.
My first time ever at Schaefer Stadium was in September of the following year. It was the only time my dad and I approached from the north as we came from Winchester, where we got our game tickets. Every future time we approached from the south and west. On this first trip we had to take Route 1 to the stadium. Traffic was heavy and we did get into the stadium after kickoff.
Admittedly, I haven’t been to Foxborough since 1986. But seeing that view of Route 1 last night brought back memories. It still takes forever to make it to Gillette Stadium. Most NFL stadia are built along secondary roads like Route 1, and not exits just off freeways. And it’s not just the NFL. You should see how long it takes to get out of the Rose Bowl golf course when the Granddaddy of Them All is over.
2) Geek of the Week: In addition to the best catch of the year, there should also be a Worst Attempt at Tackling Award. Right now one of the leaders would have to be Alonte Taylor, a cornerback for New Orleans. The first Miami touchdown came on a right end run by De’Von Achane for 29 yards. Achane took the handoff and ran a wheel route around right end. Achane approached Taylor, and Taylor gave Achane the best ole move anyone has seen this side of Mexico. Actually, if you watch the replay on YouTube, Taylor runs right by Achane as he is approaching the cornerback. At least he could have made an attempt to arm tackle him.
3) Thanksgiving Day was really amazing. Both Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson were shells of their former selves. Lions head coach Dan Campbell reportedly punched a hole in the Detroit locker room. And then the next day, the Eagles played so poorly that you still have to wonder, despite the one Super Bowl win, how Nick Sirianni still has a job there.
4) If you can look me straight in the eye and tell me that you predicted that Chicago would be leading the NFC North into December, I will still not believe you. Not for a second.
5) Call me parochial, but I am rooting like crazy for J.J. McCarthy to realize his full potential and become a star NFL quarterback in Minnesota. And that he stops getting injured.
Meanwhile, I continue to be flabbergasted that Sam Darnold is doing as well as he is in Seattle. Drafting McCarthy was a common-sense move at the time. Who could have thought that Darnold would suddenly figure this league out?
6) You had two of the sickest catches this week, and the name Odell Beckham Jr. keeps coming up. Puka Nacua of the Rams made one against the Panthers that was just shocking. Then Treylon Burks of Washington made an unbelievable grab against Denver later that evening.
7) NBC’s Mike Tirico had to put Chris Collinsworth on the spot. Was the OBJ catch still the greatest he has ever seen? Collinsworth, who called that OBJ catch along with Al Michaels, still stands by Beckham. Tirico nagged him a little bit, but Collinsworth held firm.
8) Back to school: One has to wonder if you need to get rid of the conference championship games. The committee might possibly be a little put out with this Big Ten title game featuring #1 versus #2 and both teams 12-0. This is the game you want in the finals, not before the playoff placements and seedings are established. Ohio State and Indiana should be a barnburner, and a proximity advantage for Indiana with the game only about 30 miles north of the IU campus in Bloomington.
This isn’t like college basketball. In March Madness you have 68 teams. So, if the ACC championship features Duke versus North Carolina and both teams are #1 and #2, it’s not that big a deal. Chances are both teams could still wind up being top seeded in different regionals if the ACC title game is very close. In football, it’s only 12 teams and it’s a little different.
What the football committee would like is a perpetual repeat of 2023, where you had two 14-0 teams in the championship game. And us Michigan folk would love the result in perpetuity, too.
9) I know that Shedeur Sanders is the sentimental choice for Browns fans at quarterback, but keep Dillon Gabriel on the backburner.
10) And believe it or not, Kyle Shanahan should not let Mac Jones get too far away mentally from getting back in there. I would love to see Brock Purdy take on the current Patriots versus when he last faced them, which was in 2024, and Jacoby Brissett started at quarterback for the Patriots and not Drake Maye.
Matter of fact, seeing Mac Jones take on his former team might not be that bad either.
11) The AFC South is really something. The Colts look great except they also look like they are running low on fuel. The Jaguars finally have some players for Trevor Lawrence to work with, and a decent, albeit eccentric, head coach. And the Texans might now have the best defense in the league. Stay tuned to that division, folks.
12) This league really is filled with mostly good to great players. Matthew Stafford has one bad game, and all of his MVP advocates are silent for now.
13) Remember him: He was a linebacker at Ohio State from 1993 to 1996. He was a third-round draft pick in the 1997 draft by Pittsburgh. In his rookie year, he sealed a 9-7 playoff win over the Patriots by strip-sacking Drew Bledsoe in the final seconds of the game. He became a free agent after the 2000 season and signed with the Patriots. Over the next four seasons, the Patriots won three Super Bowls. He caught a touchdown pass in both Super Bowl XXXVIII and Super Bowl XXXIX. He played in New England until 2008, then he was traded to Kansas City along with Matt Cassel for a third-round pick in 2009, which turned out to be Oregon safety Patrick Chung.
Vrabel played two seasons in Kansas City and retired after the 2010 season. He then got into coaching. He was a linebacker coach at his alma mater, Ohio State. He then went to the Houston Texans and was a linebacker coach for three years and a defensive coordinator for two years. He then got the head coaching job at Tennessee in 2018, where he led the Titans to the AFC Championship Game in 2019. The Titans were the top playoff seed in 2021, but lost in the Divisional round. He was fired in 2023, was an assistant in Cleveland in 2024, then became a head coach again in 2025. He is currently 11-2 with the Patriots and having one of the best debut seasons for a new head coach in recent memory. Jennifer Vrabel has every right to be mighty proud of her husband.
14) If the 2025 Patriots at least make it to the Super Bowl, Bob Kraft had better get into the Hall of Fame. Whatever is keeping him out is both hissy and petty. If it has anything to do with what happened in Florida some years back, shame on all of you voters.
15) Every time the Giants come to Foxborough, it’s scary. Not because of those two Super Bowls we don’t care to talk about. It’s because this used to be Giants country. I know. From 1966 to 1973, I was a Giants fan. Starting in 1974, I converted. I paid zero attention to the AFL in the 1960s, least of all the Boston Patriots. Channel 3 in Hartford came in better than Channels 22 and 40 in Springfield, so we all became Giants fans.
16) It was mentioned on the broadcast last night that Eli Manning is a semi-finalist for the Hall of Fame. That is galling to Patriot fans. Manning won two Super Bowl MVPs that he didn’t deserve. Both of those Super Bowls were won because of the Giants’ defense. He is not a HOF quarterback. Heck, you could have given the MVP of Super Bowl XLII to David Tyree instead of my choice, Justin Tuck.
So, what will you do next weekend? Players love bye weeks, fans don’t. Well, you could go Christmas shopping, but you can do that on your computer. Binge-watch Hallmark Christmas movies? Yeah, if you have a nice significant other to watch them with. Go play in the snow? If it’s there. It may not be.
I have an idea. Get out your Blu-Ray player and watch all six Patriots winning Super Bowls. Get back into the real holiday spirit. It’s all about The Reason, food, family, snow, and of course, all that Patriot playoff talk.
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Covering Boston Sports since 1997. Native of Worcester, Mass. Attended UMass and Univ of Michigan. Lives in California. Just recently retired after 40 years of public school teaching. Podcasts on YouTube at @thepic4139
Kraft’s biggest contribution to the NFL may be his work in lucrative media/network deals and expansion in that space. He had a lot of clout in the ownership circle accordingly. That’s my understanding. He changed the league. He also rebuilt that old Patriots Schaefer stadium era into what it is now at One Patriot Place. On the field, he doesn’t need another super bowl to prove anything. Kraft is the anti Woody Johnson, where coaches don’t want to work for the Jets, and are still looking for a QB since Joe Namath. Kraft’s org has done nothing but win since… Read more »