Going up against the NFC has not been a pleasant experience for the New England Patriots so far this season. The hope is that this will change on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers.
The team of head coach Mike Vrabel is 0-2 against the conference so far, losing in Week 1 to the Seattle Seahawks and again in Week 7 to the Chicago Bears. So, why might Week 9 be different? For starters, the Patriots are playing in front of their home crowd after playing both the Seahawks and Bears on the road.
Advertisement
Ultimately, however, the performance on the field will decide whether the crowd — home or road — will have something to cheer for.
Let’s find out together if that is going to be the case. Welcome to our Patriots-Packers live tracker and community discussion.
Live score: Patriots 7 : 17 Packers
Sunday, Nov. 8, 4:25 p.m. ET | Gillette Stadium (Foxborough, MA) | Broadcast information | Game day roster | Inactives | Weather forecast
First quarter
Starting the game on offense, it took the Patriots only two plays to turn the ball over against one of the NFL’s most opportunistic defenses. An apparent miscommunication between Drake Maye and Mack Hollins resulted in an uncontested interception, and a return that set the visitors up at the New England 9-yard line.
Advertisement
Just two plays later, Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love found an opening up the middle and scrambled 13 yards for the game’s first touchdown. | Patriots 0 : 7 Packers
New England’s second possession of the game went better than the first, but only barely. While the unit did not turn the ball over this time around, it went three-and-out after a Drake Maye sack on third down.
Whereas the Patriots offense struggled to move the ball to start the game, the Packers had no such issues. Their second possession included back-to-back big pass plays to Matthew Golden for 16 and 49 yards to put them into into the red zone again, as well as an 11-yard Christian Gonzalez pass interference penalty to negate an interception. Golden capped off the series with a 5-yard touchdown when he got wide open on a busted coverage. | Patriots 0 : 14 Packers
Drake Maye hit his first pass of the day to start the Patriots’ third series, connecting with Mack Hollins for a gain of 5 yards. The successful drive starter set up New England’s first conversions of the day on throws to Hunter Henry and Efton Chism, the second putting the home team in Green Bay territory. Once there, however, things went wrong again: a Rhamondre Stevenson run on first down was blown up for a loss of 7, with a subsequent deep ball on 3rd-and-17 falling incomplete when Kyle Williams seemingly failed to locate the football in the air.
Advertisement
The Patriots’ best play of the day up until that point came on the subsequent punt, which was downed by Erick Hunter with an assist by Karon Prunty at the 2-yard line. It didn’t matter. With Green Bay successfully moving the ball to the air, and not shying away from testing the NFL’s highest-paid cornerback, Christian Gonzalez, they found themselves at the New England 16-yard line to close out the first quarter.
Second quarter
Coming out of the first quarter break, the Patriots defense finally found a way to stop the bleeding when Elijah Ponder took Jordan Love down on a clean-up sack on third down. That said, Green Bay still managed to add three points to its lead. | Patriots 0 : 17 Packers
Rhamondre Stevenson gained 12 yards to start the next drive, but any potential positive momentum was quickly erased. On the very next play, Drake Maye attempted to hit Kyle Williams on a go-ball down the left sideline, but the pass attempt was deflected and intercepted at the Packers 23-yard line.
Advertisement
Unlike the first turnover, the second was not turned into any points by the Packers. With an 8-yard Christian Barmore sack as a pivotal play, the Patriots managed to force a quick three-and-out and their first punt of the day.
The defense started showing some life in the second quarter, and so did the offense. After finding a wide-open DeMario Douglas for a gain of 36 yards, Drake Maye hit Rhamondre Stevenson on a wheel route to turn a 3rd-and-10 into a 30-yard touchdown. | Patriots 7 : 17 Packers
Join Pats Pulpit on game day!
Stay on top of every Patriots update and debate every snap with other diehard fans. Game-day discussion is smoother in the SB Nation app.
-
Jump easily between conversations
-
Faster commenting and posting
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
