The pendulum on national Patriots coverage has swung the other way — perhaps too far.
During Monday morning’s “Get Up!” episode, former NFL player-turned ESPN analyst Ryan Clark lamented what he believes is inevitable: New England will make it to Super Bowl LVI in Los Angeles. Clark’s take was delivered the morning after the Patriots earned a 24-6 win over the Carolina Panthers, moving them to within a half-game of the Buffalo Bills for first place in the AFC East.
None of this sat well with co-host Rex Ryan, who has been critical of Mac Jones and the Patriots this season. However, Ryan now is coming around, as is fellow analyst Dan Orlovsky.
“The Patriots are gonna mess around and get in the Super Bowl, man,” Clark said. “And, when I said it yesterday, I said it out of disgust. It wasn’t something that I analyzed and that I felt really good about, and then watching and rewatching the film and saying to myself, ‘You know what? I’m so excited that the dang Patriots are good again’ — I’m absolutely not.
“This is everything that we thought they’d be, right? Thought they’d be really good on defense. We thought they added some pieces on free agency to make the offense flow a little bit better for, at the time, what we thought was gonna be Cam Newton. … Well, guess what? The guy that’s quarterbacking this team (Mac Jones) is actually more efficient than we’ve really ever seen Cam be. … And you have a defense that is now playing Bill Belichick-level defense. … This team is a team that, at the end of the season, we’re gonna look up and be like, ‘Oh, the AFC goes through Foxboro.’ “
Check out the full segment in the video below:
Settle down, everyone.
The arrow indeed is pointing up on the Patriots, who now are in seventh place in the AFC and in control of their divisional destiny. But they have a long way to go before being considered Super Bowl contenders.
