TNK - PATRIOTS TEST FRANCHISE
Game #2 - New England Patriots (1-0) @ Minnesota Vikings (1-0)
The Patriots lost Tom Brady to an elbow injury on the opening drive of the ball game and rookie QB Jimmy Garoppolo was forced in to action. Minnesota took an early 3-0 on a FG by Walsh as both teams struggled to move the ball effectively early on. The 1st quarter would end with the Vikings leading 3-0 but Garoppolo would start to feel comfortable and got himself in to a rhythm as the Patriots marched down the field midway through the 2nd quarter and rookie backup RB James White got his 1st carry of the game and leaped over the pile from the 2 yard line for his 1st NFL TD to give New England a 7-3 lead. The Vikings turned the ball over on their next possession when Cassel was intercepted by Darrelle Revis and the Patriots would settle for a FG and head in to the locker room with a 10-3 lead. The Vikings received the ball to start the 2nd half and had their best drive to this point in the game as they marched down the field and Cassel hit Joe Banyard out of the backfield for a 29 yd TD pass to tie the game at 10-10. Garoppolo was intercepted on the Patriots next possession as he tried to hit Gronkowski down the seam and the Vikings would take over on their own 43 yard line. The Patriots defense would force a punt on the ensuing Minnesota drive and Garoppolo was leading the Patriots on a long drive as the 3rd quarter came to an end with the score still tied 10-10. The Patriots would begin the 4th quarter with 1st & 10 on the Minnesota 20 yard line and Garoppolo would finish the drive off on 3rd & goal from the 9 yard line as he hit Danny Amendola over the middle for a TD t give New England a 17-10 lead. The Vikings moved the ball across midfield to the Patriots 45 yard line on the ensuing drive before being faced with a 4th & 1 and Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer took a gamble and went for it but the Patriots defense stepped up and made a huge stop as Jerod Mayo stuffed Joe Banyard behind the line of scrimmage for a turnover on downs as the Patriots would take over possession with 10:18 remaining. New England was able to pound the ball on the ground with the combination of Ridley, Vereen and White on their next drive and Gostkowski would kick a 35 yd FG to increase the Patriots lead to 20-10 with 7:11 remaining. The Vikings would go 3 & out on their next possession as Chandler Jones came up with a big sack of Cassel and New England would get the ball back with 5:53 remaining and leading 20-10. The Patriots would put the game away as they made it 17 unanswered points in the 4th quarter when Garoppolo hit Tim Wright for a 10 yard TD pass to make it 27-10 with 1:37 to play.
NOTES
* The Patriots win a hard fought game that was tied 10-10 to start the 4th quarter before New England took over the game and put up 17 unanswered points on their way to a 27-10 victory.
* The Patriots improve their record 2-0 on the season with both wins coming on the road at Miami and Minnesota
* The Vikings came in to this game without star RB Adrian Peterson who was injured in their week 1 victory and is out for 7 weeks. Minnesota were also without WR Cordarelle Patterson who was injured in week 1.
* Joe Banyard filled in rather nicely for Peterson at RB for the Vikings and rushed for 92 yards on 25 carries while catching 7 balls out of the backfield for 52 yards and a TD
* Patriots QB Tom Brady was injured on the games opening drive as he was hit by Everson Griffen just after delivering a pass and Brady would leave the game with a dislocated elbow. The Patriots will be without their star QB for a couple weeks as Brady will miss the next 2 games with the injury
* Patriots rookie QB Jimmy Garoppolo had a fantastic NFL debut as he was forced in to action in the toughest of situations after the injury to Brady and responded by completing 27 of 37 pass attempts for 250 yards and 2 TD with 1 INT. Garoppolo will take over as the starting QB for a couple weeks and this performance should give the Patriots confidence that Garoppolo can handle the job until Brady returns from injury
* Jerod Mayo led the way for the Patriots defense with 12 tackles as he has been all over the field for New England in the 1st two games of the season and led the team in tackles in both games.
* Rob Gronkowski caught 7 balls in the game and appears to be back to full health after tearing his ACL last season
* The (2-0) Patriots will return home to Foxboro for their home opener next week as they welcome the (0-2) Oakland Raiders to Gillette Stadium in Week 3
SLIDER NOTES
* We still need more penalties.....I increased the sliders a couple clicks before the game and while I got a little bit more action from the refs than I did in the 1st game - I still have yet to see a holding, offside, false start, etc....Although I did get a facemask and a clipping penalty in this game. I will give holding, offside, false start, etc all another slight boost before playing my next game (likely Tuesday night)
* The sliders still have a great feel to them and I'm loving the overall balance......but the CPU passing game hasn't really tested me much deep down the field and the CPU RB was their leading receiver in both games. We need to get the CPU QB hitting their top receivers a little more.
But then again - I have Revis on my defense locking their top WR down and Minnesota was without Adrian Peterson and Cordarelle Patterson.....and I haven't really faced a prolific passing team yet.
| New England Patriots at Minnesota Vikings |
| Sep 14, 2014 | 1ST | 2ND | 3RD | 4TH | SCORE |
| New England Patriots (2-0) | 0 | 10 | 0 | 17 | 27 |
| Minnesota Vikings (1-1) | 3 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 10 |
| Team Stats Comparison |
| NWE | MIN |
| Total Offense | 386 | 285 |
| Rushing Yards | 158 | 102 |
| Passing Yards | 228 | 163 |
| First Downs | 24 | 15 |
| Punt Return Yards | 11 | 1 |
| Kick Return Yards | 16 | 65 |
| Total Yards | 413 | 351 |
| Turnovers | 1 | 1 |
| 3rd Down Converstion | 8-15 | 5-14 |
| 4th Down Conversion | 0-0 | 0-3 |
| 2-Point Conversion | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals | 3/2 | 0/1 |
| Penalties | 3-33 | 1-9 |
| Posession Time | 35:28 | 24:32 |
| Scoring Summary |
| FIRST QUARTER SCORING | NWE | MIN |
| 9:19 | (MIN) Blair Walsh 23 yd FG | 0 | 3 |
| SECOND QUARTER SCORING | NWE | MIN |
| 5:36 | (NWE) James White 2 yd TD run | 7 | 3 |
| 0:02 | (NWE) Stephen Gostkowski 25 yd FG | 10 | 3 |
| THIRD QUARTER SCORING | NWE | MIN |
| 12:02 | (MIN) Joe Banyard 29 yd TD pass from Cassel | 10 | 10 |
| FOURTH QUARTER SCORING | NWE | MIN |
| 12:52 | (NWE) Danny Amendola 9 yd TD pass from Garoppolo | 17 | 10 |
| 7:11 | (NWE) Stephen Gostkowski 35 yd FG | 20 | 10 |
| 1:37 | (NWE) Tim Wright 10 yd TD pass from Garoppolo | 27 | 10 |
| New England Patriots | | PASSING | C/A | YDS | TD | INT | | Brady | 3/3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | | Garoppolo | 27/37 | 250 | 2 | 1 | | RUSHING | ATT | YDS | AVG | TD | | Ridley | 21 | 98 | 4.6 | 0 | | White | 5 | 35 | 7.0 | 1 | | Vereen | 5 | 15 | 3.0 | 0 | | Bolden | 1 | 8 | 8.0 | 0 | | Develin | 1 | 4 | 4.0 | 0 | | RECEIVING | REC | YDS | AVG | TD | | Gronkowski | 7 | 61 | 8.7 | 0 | | Dobson | 6 | 59 | 9.8 | 0 | | Vereen | 5 | 41 | 8.2 | 0 | | Wright | 4 | 25 | 6.2 | 1 | | Amendola | 3 | 31 | 10.3 | 1 | | Edelman | 3 | 17 | 5.6 | 0 | | Ridley | 2 | 22 | 11.0 | 0 | | DEFENSE | TACK | SACK | INT | TD | | Mayo | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Collins | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Ryan | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | McCourty | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Harmon | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Jones | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | | Hightower | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Dennard | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Ninkovich | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | | Revis | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | | Wilfork | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | | Vellano | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | KICKING | FG | XP | PTS | LONG | | Gostkowski | 2/2 | 3/3 | 9 | 35 | | PUNTING | NO | YDS | AVG | IN20 | | Allen | 4 | 196 | 49.0 | 0 | | KICK RETURN | RET | YDS | AVG | TD | | Slater | 1 | 16 | 16.0 | 0 | | PUNT RETURN | RET | YDS | AVG | TD | | Edelman | 1 | 11 | 11.0 | 0 |
| | Minnesota Vikings | | PASSING | C/A | YDS | TD | INT | | Cassel | 22/33 | 201 | 1 | 1 | | RUSHING | ATT | YDS | AVG | TD | | Banyard | 25 | 92 | 3.6 | 0 | | McKinnon | 3 | 9 | 3.0 | 0 | | Cassel | 1 | 1 | 1.0 | 0 | | RECEIVING | REC | YDS | AVG | TD | | Banyard | 7 | 52 | 7.4 | 1 | | Rudolph | 3 | 41 | 13.6 | 0 | | Wright | 3 | 33 | 11.0 | 0 | | Reisner | 3 | 14 | 4.6 | 0 | | Simpson | 2 | 20 | 10.0 | 0 | | Jennings | 1 | 17 | 17.0 | 0 | | McKinnon | 1 | 7 | 7.0 | 0 | | Ellison | 1 | 6 | 6.0 | 0 | | Smith | 1 | 11 | 11.0 | 0 | | DEFENSE | TACK | SACK | INT | TD | | Greenway | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Brinkley | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | | Cox | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Blanton | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | | Smith | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | | Hodges | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | | Munnerlyn | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Rhodes | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Robison | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Joseph | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Griffen | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Floyd | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | KICKING | FG | XP | PTS | LONG | | Walsh | 1/1 | 1/1 | 4 | 23 | | PUNTING | NO | YDS | AVG | IN20 | | `Powell | 4 | 177 | 44.2 | 0 | | KICK RETURN | RET | YDS | AVG | TD | | Simpson | 3 | 56 | 18.6 | 0 | | PUNT RETURN | RET | YDS | AVG | TD | | McKinnon | 1 | 1 | 1.0 | 0 |
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