Bob George's Archive:

The Cowboys pummelled the Patriots, 38-3 on Sunday at AT&T Stadium, sent Mac Jones to the bench in the third quarter, and inflicted most every malady possible on this once great franchise.

Look at the bright side. The last time the New England Patriots started 0-2, they won the whole thing.

The crowd roared. He waved to the crowd. Then he sprinted down to the south end of the field. When he got to the end zone, he screamed his familiar “Let’s go!!!!!” with perhaps a few colorful words thrown in. He then ran back to the podium at the north end zone, hugged his three children, and the ceremony began. Tom Brady came back home after three years. Finally.

The loss still stings. But the Patriots played the Philadelphia Eagles tough all game long on Sunday at Gillette Stadium.

Bailey Zappe was the quarterback for most of the evening for the New England Patriots, and he was never able to get anything going all night long.

Now that Isaiah Bolden is back home, now that we know he had a possible concussion, we feel a bit better and begin to move forward.

A fairly entertaining preseason game between the Patriots and the Green Bay Packers suddenly turned into Damar Hamlin flashbacks.

On Thursday night at Gillette Stadium, the Patriots played their first preseason game of the year, a rare in-conference preseason matchup with the Houston Texans.

In an environment which most any visiting team would have no chance to win, credit the Patriots for hanging around until late in the fourth quarter.

If the Patriots made a laundry list of New Year’s resolutions, they perhaps checked a few boxes on Sunday.

The Patriots are 7-8 and do not look like a playoff team, whether or not they actually do make the playoffs. The Patriots no longer have control of their own destiny, and maybe the young players need a closer look.

The Patriots were left with rookie running backs Pierre Strong and Kevin Harris, and each player scored his first NFL rushing touchdown in the game.

If the fact that the Patriots actually forced the Buffalo Bills into three punts is the only real positive of the game, you more or less have to shake your head and wonder how far this team has dropped off the playoff contender map.

Kirk Cousins threw for nearly 300 yards and was sacked only once. Justin Jefferson had to be the main shutdown target, and he lit up the Patriots instead.

The only way the Patriots were going to win on Sunday was going to be on a defensive touchdown or a special teams touchdown. Offense? Good gracious.