Esiason On Toucher & Rich: Injuries Piling Up For Patriots
BOSTON (CBS) - Uh oh. Not again.
The Patriots were plagued by the injury bug in 2013, and a disturbing pattern is unfolding again in 2014.
New England was without the likes of Dont'a Hightower (knee), Bryan Stork (concussion), Dominique Easley (knee), Cameron Fleming (finger) and Nate Ebner (finger) to start against Buffalo, and throughout the course of the game lost Dan Connolly (concussion), Jerod Mayo (knee) and Stevan Ridley (knee) -- the latter two players could be lost for the season.
The Patriots are pretty banged up, and now have to play on Thursday Night Football.
"Everybody is dealing with injuries," CBS Sports' Boomer Esiason told 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich Monday morning.
"It looks like the Jets lost a starting cornerback and an offensive guard yesterday. The amount of injuries in the NFL seems to be alarming. Every year we go through this, especially compared to the year before and the last 10 years. It just seems like so many guys are going down each week. I don't know what the reason for that is. What I do know is the players hate playing on Thursday night, which both the Patriots and Jets have to do this week. Lining up a team full of legitimate NFL players is getting tougher and tougher these days."
As for the game itself, the former MVP NFL quarterback came away very impressed with Tom Brady's performance against the Bills.
"What Brady did yesterday was the vintage Tom Brady performance we've all been waiting for. Even though he played well against Cincinnati last week, yesterday was pinpoint perfect. The fact that the ball was actually thrown down the field has to make Patriots fans feel really good about moving forward," said Esiason. "Hitting a few of those deep passes over the top of the defense like they did yesterday was a thing of beauty."
The second half in particular was most certainly a thing of beauty for the Patriots offense and Tom Brady.
The quarterback completed 15 of 17 passes for 274 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions in the second frame. All told, he connected with 10 different receivers, three of whom (Julian Edelman, Rob Gronkowski, LaFell) tallied more than 90 receiving yards.
"Yesterday was probably Brady's most accurate game of the last couple years. When he's throwing the ball down the field and putting it on the money, that's a good sign. That's showing he's gaining confidence in his receivers."
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