Temperatures soared this weekend, but even hotter are the expectations for the rookies and incoming free-agent veterans to hit the ground running Week 1 against the Eagles - a team already starting the season at the top of the NFC. When the 1996 Patriots lost to the Packers in Super Bowl XXXI, the team at least looked like it belonged in the Super Bowl. At the time that’s all I was hoping for, with memories of the 1985 slaughter still tender when poked.
While I can explain in my head why things went so wrong for the team in 2022 it still makes me cringe thinking about the drive-killing penalties, the inept play-calling —the Pats doing the very things that made us laugh at other teams for two decades.