There’s plenty of anticipation surrounding several of the Patriots’ tilts in the upcoming season, including matchups against the Baltimore Ravens, San Francisco 49ers and reigning champion Kansas City Chiefs.
Those are shaping up to be exciting contests, but we certainly shouldn’t look past Week 1.
New England will open its 2020 slate by hosting the division rival Miami Dolphins. Pats-Fins matchups typically don’t generate much pre-game buzz, but that likely will change given how the teams’ last collision played out. NFL writer Dan Hanzus, for one, views Dolphins vs. Patriots in early September as one of the 10 “spiciest” revenge games in the upcoming season.
“Hell hath no vengeance like a Belichick scorned,” Hanzus wrote for NFL.com. “The Patriots were primed to extend their incredible streak of consecutive seasons with a playoff bye to 10 as they prepared for their regular-season finale against the last-place Dolphins. But Ryan Fitzpatrick connected on a 5-yard touchdown pass to tight end Mike Gesicki with 24 seconds remaining for a stunning 27-24 victory at Foxborough. New England dropped into the Wild Card Round for the first time in a decade and was immediately dispatched by the upstart Titans in Tom Brady’s final game as a Patriot. Think Belichick likes the idea of getting the post-Brady Pats off to a positive start while also snuffing out optimism in Miami? It’s all the man thinks about.”
Revenge aside, this season-opening game will all but surely mark Jarrett Stidham’s first career NFL start. There’s also an outside chance we could see Tua Tagovailoa’s NFL debut, too.
So yeah, there were will be plenty of reasons to be dialed in when these AFC East foes meet at Gillette Stadium.
