Tuesday Talking Points: Patriots take care of business again versus Jets

The Patriots improved to 7-0 after defeating the Jets last night. But with the schedule getting tougher, how long will the undefeated streak continue?

After a 33-0 dismantling of the New York Jets on Monday night, many are calling the New England Patriots‘ perfect start a ‘fluke’ because of the lackluster schedule. Here’s a look into why that isn’t necessarily true.

We get it, the Patriots are very good at football. However, to call a 7-0 start ‘flukey’ because of a weak schedule is just close-minded and, for lack of a better term, weak. New England already has the largest point differential at this point in a season in the Super Bowl era, as well as the No. 1 scoring offense and the No. 1 scoring defense in all of football.

The Patriots have intercepted each quarterback they’ve faced this season at least once, counting a total of 18. The next closest? Carolina, who have just 9 as a team. Try that on for size (hint, hint).

Is New England good enough to be on their way to Miami in February? If you asked me right now based off what I’ve seen in the first seven weeks, it’d be a no-brainer.

However, there aren’t seven weeks in an NFL season. The schedule gets a lot tougher from here on out, with Cleveland coming to Gillette Stadium in six days, followed by a Patriots trip to Baltimore. After the bye in Week 10, it’s a road date with Philadelphia, Dallas back at home, and  then right back on the road again to travel to face another AFC rival in the Texans.

With all that being said, here’s what you should be talking about with the tougher part of the Patriots schedule on tap.

What will the addition of Mohamed Sanu bring to the Patriots offense?

Sanu is in the midst of his eighth NFL season, and in seven games so far he’s caught 33 passes for 313 yards and a touchdown, all from Matt Ryan. Now, he’ll flip from a dome to the outdoors and start catching passes from Tom Brady… a quarterback whose offense is in desperate need of services that Sanu possesses.

Sanu is primarily a receiver, but he can also be used as both a quarterback and even as a running back, which he has been exposed to in short spurts throughout his career.

To picture the Patriots using a wildcat formation with Sanu in the shotgun is a bit of a wild dream-like scenario, but using Sanu as a running back isn’t that crazy at all. We’ve seen it before, with Cordarrelle Patterson lined up in the backfield at times during his tenure with the team as recently as last year.

The addition of Sanu should excite Patriots fans… but even still, it should also raise a few questions that are worth being addressed. New England gave up a second-round pick to go get Sanu… so, should that turn people’s heads when talking about just how severe Josh Gordon’s knee injury is?

The team will say it’s a precautionary measure to keep Gordon off the field until they’re blue in the face, but that’s just standard Patriots operating procedure. Stick to what’s on the field, and never worry about what’s going on off it. But for us, it’s a little bit easier to speculate.

The offensive line needs to be a lot better

Despite Tom Brady not being sacked at all on Monday, he was still forced to run out of the pocket and escape heavy Jets pressure on more than one occasion. Brady was only recorded for being hit three times, but it felt as if he was running for his life more often that not.

With David Andrews gone for the season and Isaiah Wynn out for at least a couple more weeks, there’s no telling what this offensive line will look like come playoff time. But if New England plans to go anywhere, they’ll need to keep Tom Brady upright; and on top of that, be able to plow some holes open for Sony Michel to run through, which is a good segue into our next topic…

When will Sony Michel break out of his slump?

Will Michel finally get going on the ground soon? After a 90+ yard performance a week ago, Monday night he only gained 42 yards on the ground, but it was still good enough to find the end zone three times.

Michel was solid inside the 10-yard line, but in order for New England to truly achieve the level of success they covet on offense, the second-year back will need to pick it up. This will certainly be something to watch for next week against the Browns, who currently allow the third-most rushing yards per game this season (154.0).

What are YOU talking about leading up to the Patriots versus Browns game on Sunday? Let us know in the comments section below!