The New England Patriots face an unfriendly schedule in Week Five, forced to play on Thursday Night Football against the Indianapolis Colts. Playing on a short week is obviously difficult, both physically and mentally, and not all teams are able to handle the added adversity of short a short week. However, if history is any indication, the Patriots will be fine. The New England Patriots Thursday Night Football record is unmatched over the past five years so the short week shouldn’t have an adverse impact on the Patriots.
New England Patriots Thursday Night Football Record Best in the League
Since 2013, the Patriots have played in seven Thursday Night games. Of those seven, five came on a short week (The Patriots opened the season on a Thursday in 2015 and 2017, so those games don’t really count as a short week).
In those five games, the Patriots are an undefeated 5-0. Of those five wins, three have been one-possession games while two were blowout wins. Almost one year ago to the day, the Patriots took on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week Five on a Thursday night. After taking a comfortable 16-7 lead in the fourth quarter. However, Tampa came back to make it a 16-14 game before Stephen Gostkowski gave the Patriots a 19-14 lead with just 1:10 remaining in the game. Tampa Bay quarterback Jameis Winston threw an incomplete Hail Mary to as time expired, and the Patriots emerged victoriously.
Even though that matchup was a close game, it pales in comparison to the Patriots-Jets Thursday night matchup from 2014. Facing off in Week Seven, the Jets gave the eventual Super Bowl champions all they could handle. The entire match was a back-and-forth affair, with the play of the game coming from Danny Amendola. On third-and-19, Tom Brady found the then-underutilized receiver to make it a 27-19 game with just 7:49 left on the clock.
The Jets rallied back, scoring a touchdown with 2:31 to make it a 27-25 game. After a New England three-and-out, New York actually made it to the brink of field goal range. With five seconds left on the clock, Nick Folk came on to attempt a game-winning 58-yard field goal. While a kick of that length is anything but a given, Chris Jones made sure the kick never stood a chance. Just one year after losing to New York on a bizarre illegal formation penalty, Jones blocked Folk’s kick to secure the New England victory.
Of course, there was a fair share of blowouts too. Back in 2015, the Patriots laid down a 36-7 beating on the Miami Dolphins. In that game, Brady threw for 356 yards and four touchdowns, finding Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman, and Dion Lewis for the scores.
Perhaps most impressive of all was the Patriots 27-0 win over the Houston Texans in 2016. With Tom Brady serving a suspension and Jimmy Garoppolo injury, rookie quarterback Jacoby Brissett was forced to make his first start on Thursday Night Football.
What was expected to be an easy Texans win turned into one of the most one-sided affairs of the season. In one of the best gameplans of Belichick’s career, the Patriots completely shut out the Texans offense while utilizing Brissett’s strengths perfectly. While he lacked touch on his passes, the Patriots put Brissett’s mobility on display, leading to one of the more exciting touchdowns of the season.
Why Does This Matter?
While looking at the past can be a fun history lesson, it doesn’t always have much bearing on the future. There’s only a small handful of players left from the 2013 and 2014 Patriots, so, in theory, what those teams did should have no effect on the 2018 Patriots.
However, the coaching staff from those teams from yesterday is still around. With such a short week, effective coaching and gameplanning is typically the difference between winning and losing. As long as the Patriots have Bill Belichick on their sideline, this trend should continue. While it may not be a blowout win, history says this coaching staff always does a fantastic job at getting their players ready for Thursday Night Football.
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