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Mike Smith

Sporting Insights: The New England Patriots are already having a great season

The New England Patriots are off to a 3-0 start. Tom Brady hasn't taken a snap, and Rob Gronkowski hasn't recorded a catch. But none of that matters because the Patriots just keep doing what they do best: winning football games.

The Patriots were big underdogs when they traveled to the desert to take on the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday Night Football. Along with no Gronkowski and Brady, the Patriots were also missing a few offensive linemen, their starting running back and a few starting defensive players.

Third-year pro Jimmy Garoppolo from Eastern Illinois University made his first career in that week one game against the Cardinals and played terrifically. So the Patriots beat Arizona, who played in the NFC Championship last year, with a quarterback making his first career start, a few backup offensive linemen starting, a few defensive backups starting, and without their best offensive weapon. That is unbelievable.

Then, Jimmy Garoppolo gets hurt in week two during a win over the Miami Dolphins. Rookie Jacoby Brissett out of North Carolina State University is the next man up. Their next game is against the Houston Texans, who have one of the best defenses in the NFL, on Thursday Night Football. Doesn't matter at all as the Patriots made it look easy in a 27-0 win.

No other NFL team could have done what the Patriots did with the adversity they have faced. The man who deserves a lot of credit is of course Bill Belichick. Belichick is the best coach in the NFL, and it's not even close. Guy just wins double digit games like it's nothing year in and year out. His slogan of "Do your job" fits his teams perfectly. He is a football genius. The argument that he would be nothing without Brady is now irrelevant.

Defensive tackle Terrance Knighton, also known as "Pot Roast," opened up about his brief stint with the Patriots on Peter Schrager's podcast before he got cut before the season started. He has, in my own opinion, the best nickname in the league. Anyways, Knighton said Belichick is "straight football." "He's on the treadmill watching film," Knighton said.

The point is the Patriots are just way ahead of the rest of the NFL. It seems like everything they do works. As a Chicago Bears fans, I wish the Bears were like the Pats. The Patriots are only going to get better when Brady returns on week five. It is scary to think about how successful that team is going to be.

Mike Smith is a senior studying journalism at Ohio University. What is your opinion on the Patriots? Let Mike know by emailing him at ms983012@ohio.edu.

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