The Patriots currently are the consensus favorite to win the AFC, but which team in the conference makes for the toughest obstacle as New England vies for a fourth consecutive Super Bowl appearance?
It very well could be the Patriots’ Week 9 opponent, the Baltimore Ravens, who only seem to be growing stronger with each passing week. It’s also tough to ignore Deshaun Watson and the Houston Texans, and the Kansas City Chiefs might not look back once Patrick Mahomes returns from injury. But if you ask Stephen A. Smith, a team led by an old friend in Foxboro currently is New England’s biggest threat.
“I got the Indianapolis Colts as potentially the No. 1 threat to the New England Patriots,” Smith said Friday on ESPN’s “First Take.” Here’s why: That offensive line is real. There’s some men up there. When you talk about beating a team like the Patriots, helping to keep Tom Brady off the field goes a long way. Now, this (Patriots) defense is elite. Nobody has really played smash-mouth football against the Patriots and said, ‘Look, man. We ain’t smarter than you. We understand you know all the tricks. We know that that secondary with (Devin) McCourty and those boys is real, but what you can’t plan for is us playing smash-mouth football.’ …When they sit up there and say, ‘Yo, this is how we’re going to play this game and we’re coming this way. We ain’t going this way, we ain’t going this way. We’re coming right here at you. Let’s see what you do with that.’
“So for me, I’m looking at Jacoby Brissett, who’s not having a bad season right now, completing nearly 65 percent of his passes. He’s only thrown three interceptions on the year, 14 touchdowns. He’s playing some really impressive football. You look at what they bring to you, defensively, they’re relatively respectable. The fact that they can play smash-mouth football and keep the football away from you offensively, I think that’s something that you gotta pay attention to.”
Outside of Smith’s line of thinking, there are a few other factors that would make Indianapolis an intriguing matchup for New England. Given his familiarity with the Patriots organization, Brissett, unlike the average quarterback, probably wouldn’t be intimidated by having to play at Gillette Stadium in January. Head coach Frank Reich, who served as the Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator in 2017, also knows first-hand what it takes to beat New England on the biggest stage.
We’re only in Week 9, and a lot can and probably will change over the next two months. But the Colts certainly are a team to keep an eye on as the second half of the regular season unfolds.
