Colvin: Can Pats Beat Teams Like Packers Or Saints?
The Patriots improved to 9-3 with a 31-24 win over the Indianapolis Colts. The Patriots went into the fourth quarter up 31-3, but the Colts went on a run scoring 21 unanswered points to close the gap.
Former New England linebacker Rosevelt Colvin joined Toucher & Rich to discuss the win over the Colts, Rob Gronkowski and the Patriots defense.
Tight end Rob Gronkowski scored three touchdowns in Sunday's win and at times was wide open. Why do teams seem to ignore Gronkowski in the red zone?
"Rob is a great talent, but a lot of times you see these catches that he's making they weren't like they were yesterday. He's been covered and Tom's put the ball in a great spot and then he's made a play after that," Colvin said.
They also talked about the play of Devin McCourty and the defense. McCourty was stiff armed by Donald Brown on his way to a touchdown and was beat twice by Pierre Garcon for two more scores all in the fourth quarter. Is this a sign that McCourty might still be injured?
"Well anytime you have any kind of little nick or injury of something that's ailing it changes your game a little bit. I don't think he's having the same season he had last year obviously the stats are not there, but stats are not everything. At the same time missed a game or two, maybe I think he just missed one or two games, first time out there he's got to get back in the flow," the former Patriots said.
The Patriots gave up 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter and let the Colts get themselves back in the game. Was this a case of the Pats taking their foot off the gas or did the Colts just catch them playing bad defense?
"I don't this the guys took their foot off the gas. I think you saw a couple third downs where it was short and minimal, and they didn't get them," Colvin said.
Can this team make a deep playoff run with the defense as is?
"I think you can and the only reason I say that is because there has been a hiccup in there. Early on in the season we said they need to mature and continue to develop, that's when guys were healthy, that's when they had a full stockpile of Mayo and they had Spikes in there and they had Chung. McCourty was healthy and they were working with a full tilt. It felt like Haynesworth was going to be able to come on and play. Well, that kind of hit a bump in the road and now Bill's kind of continually trying to scramble to put the pieces in a place where he can have a patchwork defense," Colvin said.
Plus, does Rosevelt Colvin think that this Patriots team can beat a team like Green Bay or the Saints?
