The Patriots aren’t exactly world beaters right now — that much has been confirmed. They also aren’t as bad as they might seem. Rick Reilly would disagree.
ESPN’s heavily opinionated and critical columnist has taken jabs at the Patriots before, and he did so again this week. With the Patriots narrowly squeaking out two wins against the Jets and Bills, sitting at 2-0 entering Week 3, Reilly took to one of his video blogs to thrash Bill Belichick and the team for such a dismal start to the season.
Reilly went so far as to say the Patriots were “just not that good” and called them the “worst 2-0 team in the NFL,” even overlooking the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins for that title.
The Patriots did put forth arguably their worst offensive outing in Belichick’s tenure in Week 2, managing just nine first downs and forcing rookie Ryan Allen to punt the ball 12 times. Tom Brady is working primarily with a group of raw rookies on the outside and hasn’t quite looked like himself without Rob Gronkowski or Danny Amendola fully healthy. So, Reilly may not be entirely wrong about the Patriots not being that good, but he’s definitely being harsh in his assessment of their place among the NFL’s elite.
Watch Reilly’s complete breakdown of the Patriots in the video below, and you can decide for yourself.
