Uninspired should stand out in that headline as well as here.  That’s what Sunday’s effort was by the New England Patriots against the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars.  The Jags sporting a now 2-13 record and an anemic defense and pathetic offense should have been cannon fodder for a New England team looking to regain it’s edge after last weeks loss at home to San Francisco.

But no, they barely slipped by a Jaguars team, 23-16 that at least tried.  They are severely outmanned both due to injuries and lack of talent.  Yet they tried and damn near won.  Now wouldn’t that have frosted some holiday balls back in New England?

I sit here writing this and I am not pleased, neither should the owners, staff, players and you the fans.  I’m sure it wasn’t pretty anywhere that hard liquor was available.

Maybe they’re just too ready for Christmas and time with their families.  Several players have new marriages and babies and that’s well understood but before you go about your holiday you’re expected to show up for your job.  They didn’t do that on Sunday it was like they were on a Florida vacation.  All of them.

I hope they soaked up some rays on their trip because they flat out sucked.  If I had paid to make the road trip and watch them in person I would serious consider calling the office tomorrow and asking them to give me a refund.

I don’t know how else to put it they flat out sucked Sunday and I hope they realize it and do something about it.

I don’t know what’s happened to this team but Sunday they were 4 of 12 on third down, against San Francisco 2 of 15.  That’s pretty pathetic by any standard.

This team has work to do Bill Belichick, Josh McDaniels, Mike Patricia and all the players nobody is excluded.  Enjoy your Christmas then get to work because the last thing I want to see is one of those half assed efforts against the Dolphins next Sunday.

Patriots at Jaguars Gamebook includes the box score, all the stats, play by play, drive charts and more.

Patriots at Jaguars Game Recap.

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Turning Point of the Game

S Patrick Chung’s second INT of the game in the end zone as the clock expired to seal the Patriots win.

Offensive Player of the Game

RB Stevan Ridley rebounded well and had 18 carries and gained 84 yards.

Defensive Player of the Game

CB Marquis Cole had 2 tackles for loss to lead the team. He also made 5 tackles (5 solo), had a pass defensed and 1 INT.  He added a 6th tackle on special teams.

Game Notes

Starters for the Patriots were:

On Offense:

LT Solder

LG Mankins

C Wendell

RG Connolly

RT Vollmer

TE Hernandez

TE Hoomanawanui

TE Fells

WR Lloyd

QB Brady

RB Ridley

On Defense:

DE Ninkovich

DT Wilfork

DT Deaderick

DE C. Jones

LB Mayo

LB Hightower

CB McCourty

CB Arrington

S Chung

S Gregory

DB Cole

Inactives for the Game:

Patriots

1. TE Rob Gronkowski (forearm/hip)
2. LB Brandon Spikes (knee/ankle)
3. CB Alfonzo Dennard (hamstring/knee)
4. DE Ron Brace (back)
5. OL Markus Zusevics
6. DE Jake Bequette
7. RB James Develin

Jaguars

1. RB Rashad Jennings (concussion)
2. RB Maurice Jones-Drew (ankle)
3. CB Antwaun Molden
4. RB Jonathan Grimes
5. LB Brandon Marshall
6. OL Eben Britton
7. DE Austen Lane

The spread (Patriots MINUS 15.5) WAS NOT covered.  The over/under (50.5) WAS NOT COVERED.  I GAVE the points (Patriots) and took the OVER.  I am now 3-12 vs. the spread and 10 of 15 calling the under/over.

Since 1999 the Patriots have the best record in the NFL at 158-65.

New England is 81-47-1 against teams in the AFC South.

Since 2001 the Patriots are 73-17 in games played on Thanksgiving or later.

Since 2001 New England is 44-6 in December games.

The New England defense has forced a turnover in 26 consecutive games dating back to Week 6 in 2011.

The Patriots lead the all-time series 9-1 including playoffs.

The Patriots are 3-1 on the road in the series, the lone road was a playoff game in 1996.

New England has won the last 6 meetings.

Bill Belichick is now 203-108 including playoffs in his career.

Belichick’s 203 wins are good for 7th all-time.

Bill Belichick is 6-2 vs. the Jags in his career including playoffs.  He is 6-0 with New England.

Tom Brady is 6-0 vs. the Jags including 2-0 in the playoffs.  Overall including playoffs he is 151-44.

Brady has 332 TD passes in his career he is now 5th all-time.  Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton is 4th with 342.

Brady has thrown at least 1 TD pass in 47 consecutive games.  That ties Hall of Fame member Johnny Unitas for the second longest streak in NFL history.

WR Wes Welker now has catches in 116 consecutive games including playoffs, 99 as a Patriot.  The last time Welker did not have a catch in a game was 12/24/05 as a Dolphin.

Welker led the team with 10 catches for 88 yards and 1 TD.

RB Danny Woodhead had the other TD catch.

RB Stevan Ridley had 84 yards on 18 carries.

CB Kyle Arrington led the team with 7 tackles (7 solo) and had 1 tackle for loss.

LB Dont’a Hightower had the lone sack for the Patriots.

Hightower, DE Trevor Scott and DE Chandler Jones each had a QB hit.

CB Marquis Cole had 2 tackles for loss to lead the team. He also made 5 tackles, had a pass defensed and 1 INT.  He added a 6th tackle on special teams.

S Patrick Chung had a pair of INT’s late in the game to help the team seal the win.

Chung (2), Hightower, Cole, LB Tracy White and DT Brandon Deaderick each had a pass defensed.

S Nate Ebner led the squad with 2 tackles on special teams.

Roster moves this week:

• Promoted WR Kamar Aiken from the practice squad.

The Patriots sacked Jacksonville QB Chad Henne 1 time, while Brady was sacked 3 times.

New England is PLUS 23 in turnover differential, 1st in the NFL. The offense has given up 9 INT and 7 fumbles, while the defense has 19 INTs and 20 fumble recoveries. 

The Patriots were 2 for 3 (66.6%) in the red zone.  They had 2 TDs and 1 FG.

New England was 4 for 12 (33.3%) on third down conversions and 0 for 0 on 4th down attempts.

Jacksonville has never beaten New England in the regular season, they are 0-6.

The Jaguars finished with only 1 win at home the fewest in the 17 seasons on the franchise.

Mike Mularkey is 2-13 in his first season with Jacksonville.  He was 14-18 in two seasons with Buffalo for an overall record of 16-31.

He is 0-5 vs. New England in his career.

Jags QB Chad Henne is 1-5 vs. New England in his career, 1-4 with Miami.  Overall he is 14-22 (1-4 with Jacksonville).

Jacksonville was 4 for 15 (27%) on 3rd down conversions and 1 for 2 (50%) on 4th down attempts.

The Jags were 1 for 4 (%) in the red zone.  They had 1 TD, 1 FG and 2 INT’s.

Jacksonville is MINUS 1 in turnover differential, 16th in the NFL. The offense has given up 14 INT and 9 fumbles, while the defense has 12 INTs and 10 fumble recoveries. 

Jeff Triplette was the game referee.  The temp at kickoff was 58.

Attendance – 70,251 at EverBank Field in Jacksonville FL.

Post Game Interviews

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and Patriots QB Tom Brady post game press conference via patriots.com

This Week in the AFC East

Dolphins beat the Bills, 24-10

Chargers downed the Jets, 27-17

AFC East Standings

Patriots                 11-4/5-0

Dolphins                  7-8/2-3

Jets                        6-8/2-3

Bills                        5-10/1-4

Next Week

The Patriots host the Miami Dolphins next Sunday at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro MA.  Kick off is at 1 p.m. on CBS.

Follow Steve on Twitter @SteveMichaelsII

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This Week

The New England Patriots visit the Jacksonville Jaguars at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, FL on Sunday at 1 p.m.

The Patriots		—-	The Jaguars
Overall	10-4		Overall	2-12
Road record	5-2		Home record	1-6
AFC South	3-0		AFC East	0-3
AFC	9-1		AFC	2-8

Jeff Triplette is the referee assigned to the game.

The Line/Prediction

As of Thursday the line on the game from 5dimes.eu via Yahoo Sports has the Patriots at minus 15.5.  The over under is 50.5. 

My Prediction is Patriots 48, Jaguars, 21.  Give the points (Patriots) and take the over.  I am 3-11 against the spread and 10 of 14 on calling the over/under in 2012.

Tickets

The Jags are reporting the game as a sell out. In fact in order to meet demand for tickets they have opened up additional sections of seats that are usually tarped off.

Jacksonville has not had a home game blacked on in over three seasons.  Their sell out streak sits at 25 consecutive games.

Tickets to the game, if available, can be purchased through Ticketmaster.  You can check the availability here.

Getting to the Game

If you’re lucky enough to be going to the game in Jacksonville make sure you check out the links.

Here is the up to date weather forecast from the Weather Channel for Jacksonville FL.

Click for all the game day information including stadium directions and parking information, parking map and an EverBank Field seating chart.

Tailgating

Here’s a bunch of different tailgating recipes from Tailgating.com.  There’s something there for everyone and every type of meal or snack.  I’ve tried some of the recipes and they’re very good. 

And with tailgating many people enjoy some adult beverages.  With that in mind check out Drink Nation for how to make all sorts of great drinks.  You can look things up by name, ingredient(s) or theme.

Whether it’s at the game, a bar or a friend’s house moderation is always the key to a great time.  Please don’t drink and drive and designate a sober driver.  Remember You Drink, You Drive, You Lose.

BROADCAST INFORMATION

Television

CBS in televising the game regionally and Kevin Harlan will do play by play while Solomon Wilcots will provide the game analysis.  You can look here for your local affiliate.

See if you’re getting the game courtesy of J.P. Kirby at the506.com.

The DirecTV designation is Channel 711.

Here are all the rules on NFL TV broadcasts including explaining the blackout rules, flex scheduling and commercial breaks.

Radio

The Patriots Radio Network broadcasts the game from flagship station WBZ-FM, 98.5 the Sports Hub in Boston. Gil Santos handles the play-by-play and former Patriots QB Scott Zolak will do the game analysis. It all starts with Gary Tanguay and Andy Gresh with the pregame show at 10 a.m. along the network. The post game starts after the final gun and continues for three hours along the network.

The Patriots radio network call is available on Sirius Channel 123 and on SiriusXM Internet Channel 818.

The Jaguars Radio Network has Brian Sexton calling play by play and former Jags DE Jeff Lageman doing the color via their flagship station WOKV-AM/FM. 

Their call is available on Sirius Channel 104, XM Channel 233 and SiriusXM Internet Channel 814.

Patriots All Access

Patriots All-Access features behind the scenes looks, interviews and breakdowns with head coach Bill Belichick and in depth features on the team.  It’s hosted by Steve Burton of WBZ-TV (Boston) and airs weekly in most New England television markets.

• Boston MA on TV 38 Friday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 9 a.m.
• Providence RI on WNAC Friday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 9 a.m.
• Manchester NH on WMUR Saturday at midnight
• Portland ME on WMTW Sunday at 5 a.m.
• Hartford CT on WCTX Saturday at 5 p.m.
• Springfield MA on WFXQ Saturday at 7 p.m.
• Bangor ME on WVII Sunday at 11 a.m.

You can also watch it anytime on the team website in the media section.

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Last Week

The Patriots lost at home to the 49ers, 41-34.  The Jaguars lost on the road to the Dolphins, 24-3.

History

• The Patriots lead the all-time series 8-1 including playoffs.
• The Patriots are 3-1 against the Jaguars in the playoffs.
• The Patriots are 2-1 on the road in the series.
• New England has won the last five meetings.
• Jacksonville’s lone series win was in the 1998 post season vs. a Pete Carroll coached team.
• The two teams last met in 2009 at Foxboro and the Patriots won 35-7.

Patriots Team Notes

Here is the Patriots roster, depth chart and injury report for the game.

2012 Patriots Schedule/Results

The Patriots overall franchise record is 424-369-9.  They have won three Super Bowls (XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX) in seven appearances.  Overall they are 23-16 in the post season.

They last appeared in the playoffs in 2011 when they beat Denver home in the AFC Divisional Playoff, 45-10 and defeated Baltimore 23-20 in Foxboro in the AFC Championship Game.  They lost Super Bowl XLVI to the New York Giants 21-17. 

The Patriots were 13-3 (2-1 in playoffs) in 2011 and are the defending four-time AFC East Champions as well as the defending AFC Conference Champions.  They have won the division 10 times (including this season) and the conference 5 times since 2000.

This is the Patriots final regular season road game and they return to the site where they won their last Super Bowl (XXXIX vs. Philadelphia).

The Patriots have played 6 of the 9 teams this season that have former NFL players as their head coach.

New England is the only NFL franchise to score 500 or more points in 4 seasons (2007, 2010-2012).  They join St. Louis (1999-2001) as the only teams to have done it three years in a row.

Even if the Patriots were to be shutout in the seasons final two games they will still average more than 30 points a game for the season. 

New England is 81-47-1 against teams in the AFC South.

Since 1999 the Patriots have the best record in the NFL at 157-65.

Since 2001 the Patriots are 72-17 in games played on Thanksgiving or later.

Since 2001 New England is 43-6 in December games.

The New England defense has forced a turnover in 25 consecutive games dating back to Week 6 in 2011.

The Patriots have seven non-offensive touchdowns in 2012. The 2010 Patriots and 1961 Patriots teams own the team record with nine non-offensive touchdowns. The NFL record for most non-offensive touchdowns is 13 by Seattle in 1998.

Date             Game                     Touchdown

9/9/12          at Tennessee           Dont’a Hightower 6-yd. Fumble Return

10/21/12       vs. N.Y. Jets            Devin McCourty 104-yd. Kickoff Return

11/18/12       vs. Indianapolis        Julian Edelman 68-yd. Punt Return

11/18/12       vs. Indianapolis        Aqib Talib 59-yd. Int. Return

11/18/12       vs. Indianapolis        Alfonzo Dennard 87-yd. Int. return

11/22/12       at N.Y. Jets             Steve Gregory 32-yd. Fumble Return

11/22/12       at N.Y. Jets             Julian Edelman 22-yd. Fumble Return

The Patriots are 1st in the NFL in points per game with 36.1.  While they allow 22.5 points per game good for 17th in the NFL.

The New England defense has sacked the opponents quarterback 29 times this season while their quarterbacks have been sacked 23 times.

New England is PLUS 22 in turnover differential, 1st in the NFL. The offense has given up 7 INT and 7 fumbles, while the defense has 16 INTs and 20 fumble recoveries. 

The Patriots are 98 for 198 (49.5%) in 3rd down efficiency and 6 for 9 (66.6%) on fourth down attempts.  Opponents are 73 for 177 (41.2%) in 3rd down efficiency and 8 for 19 (42.1%) on 4th down attempts.

New England is 44 of 64 (68.8%) in the red zone while opponents are 23 for 39 (59%) in the red zone in 2012.

In goal to go situations New England is 35 for 43 (81.4%) and opponents are 18 for 24 (75%).

Since Robert Kraft bought the team in 1994 they:

• Have the most Super Bowl wins, 3.
• Have the most regular season wins, 203.
• Have the most wins including playoffs, 222.
• Have the most conference titles, 6.
• Have the most division titles, 12.
• Have the most playoff wins, 19
• Have played the most playoff games, 29.
• Are tied for the most playoff seasons, 14.
• Have the best playoff win percentage, .671.
• Have drafted the most Pro Bowl players, 20.

New England set the following team records in 2011:

• Total yards, 6,848.
• First downs, 399.
• Net passing yards, 5,084.
• 100+ yard receiving games, 18.
• Games with 30+ points, 12 (tied for most in NFL history).

Patriots Staff Notes

This is the link to head coach Bill Belichick’s Wednesday press conference on the Jets.

Bill Belichick is 5-2 vs. the Jags in his career including playoffs.  He is 5-0 with New England.

Overall in his NFL career Belichick is 185-101 in his 18th NFL season.  He is 149-57 with New England and 36-44 with Cleveland.  He is 17-7 in the playoffs, 16-6 as head coach of the Patriots in the post season.  When you combine his regular season and post season records he is 202-108.

Belichick’s 202 wins are good for 7th all-time. 

Belichick is one of five head coaches in NFL history whose father (Steve Belichick) played in the league.  The others are former Kansas City head coach Todd Haley (Dick Haley), former San Francisco head coach Mike Nolan (Dick Nolan), former Cincinnati head coach David Shula (Don Shula) and former NY Jets head coach Joe Walton (Frank Walton).

Belichick is one of just four coaches to win three Super Bowls, joining Chuck Noll (4), Joe Gibbs (3) and Bill Walsh (3).  Those men are all in the Hall of Fame.

He is the only coach in NFL history to win three championship titles in four seasons.

He is the only coach in NFL history to have led his team to 10+ wins in 9 consecutive seasons.

Patriots Possible Starters

Offense:

• LT: Solder
• LG: Mankins
• C: Wendell
• RG: Connolly
• RT: Vollmer
• TE: Hoomanawanui
• TE: Hernandez
• WR: Lloyd
• WR: Welker
• QB: Brady
• RB: Ridley

Defense:

• DE: Ninkovich
• DT: Wilfork
• DT: Love
• DE: Jones
• LB: Mayo
• LB: Spikes
• LB: Hightower
• LCB: Talib
• RCB: Dennard
• S: McCourty
• S: Gregory

Patriots Players Notes

This Tom Brady’s 13th NFL season he is 5-0 vs. the Jags including 2-0 in the playoffs.

Overall Brady is 134-39 as a starting QB and is 16-6 in the playoffs for an overall record of 150-45.  Brady is a 7 time Pro Bowl QB; two time NFL MVP and has won 3 Super Bowls while twice being named the games MVP.  He is also listed as the 21^st Greatest Player in the History of the NFL according to the NFL Network.

He was ranked in the preseason by ESPN’s Ron Jaworski as the 3rd best quarterback in the NFL.

Brady has 330 TD passes in his career he is now 5th all-time.  Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton is 4th with 342.

Brady has 134 regular season career wins; he is 5th all-time.

Brady finished the 2011 season with 5,235 passing yards and joined Drew Brees (5,476 in 2011 and 5,069 in 2008), Dan Marino (5,084 in 1984) and Matthew Stafford (5,038 in 2011) as the only players in NFL history to reach 5,000 passing yards in a single season.

Brady has thrown at least 1 TD pass in 46 consecutive games.

The Patriots are 89-16 when Brady throws at least 2 TD passes in a game.

Brady has 53 games in his career with 300 or more passing yards he is 5th all-time.

On the season Brady is 355 of 560 (63.4%) for 4276 yards with 30 TDs and 6 INTs his QB rating is 100.1.

WR Wes Welker now has catches in 115 consecutive games including playoffs, 98 as a Patriot.  The last time Welker did not have a catch in a game was 12/24/05 as a Dolphin.

Welker leads the team with 100 catches for 1172 yards.  He is the 1st player in NFL history to do it five times.

Welker has the second most receptions (750) all-time among undrafted receivers. Rod Smith is the NFL’s all-time leader with 849.

WR Brandon Lloyd had a career high 190 receiving yards on Sunday vs. San Francisco.  It was the most in a single game by a Patriots receiver in 2012.

TE Aaron Hernandez and Lloyd each had 10 catches on Sunday marking the third time in franchise history the Patriots had a game with multiple layers having 10+ catches.

TE Rob Gronkowski has 37 receiving touchdowns and 38 touchdowns overall (1 rushing) since 2010. The NFL record for most receiving touchdowns in a player’s first three NFL seasons is 43 by Randy Moss and the NFL record for most touchdowns overall by a player in his first three NFL seasons is 47 by Barry Sanders (4 receiving and 43 rushing).

He is tied for the team lead with RB Stevan Ridley with 10 TDs.

Ridley leads the team in rushing with 1105 yards on 252 carries.

RB Danny Woodhead had 2 TD’s on Sunday night it was his 2nd two TD game of the year.

TE Mike Hoomanawanui’s 41-yard grab in the 3rd quarter was the longest of his career.

K Stephen Gostkowski has two field goals of 50 or more yards in 2012.  With one more he will be the first Patriots kicker with three field goals of 50 or more yards in one season.

Gostkowski (7 for 10) needs one more field goal of 50 or more yards to tie Adam Vinatieri (8 for 17) for most in team history.

DE Rob Ninkovich leads the team with 8 sacks, it is a new career high for sacks.

Rookie DE Chandler Jones and Ninkovich lead the team with 11 QB hits each.

Ninkovich and LB Brandon Spikes lead the team in forced fumbles with 5 each, which ties Mike Vrabel’s franchise record.

Ninkovich has 3 forced fumbles on sacks this season.  

Ninkovich and DT Vince Wilfork lead the team with 4 recovered fumbles each.

Mayo leads the team through 14 weeks with 170 tackles (105 solo).  Spikes is second with 123 tackles (79 solo).

S Devin McCourty leads the team with 5 INTs. Sunday night was the 3rd one that he has made in the end zone in 2012.

McCourty also has team high 13 passes defensed in 2012. CB Kyle Arrington is 2nd with 10 passes defensed.

WR Matthew Slater has a team high 19 tackles on special teams.  Rookie S Nate Ebner is 2nd with 15 tackles on special teams.

There are only three players on the team who played on at least one of the Super Bowl championship teams, Brady (3), Branch (2) and Wilfork (1).

Roster moves this week:

• 12/22 – WR Kamar Aiken promoted from practice squad.

LB Mike Rivera (ankle) was the only Patriot to miss both the Wednesday and Thursday practices. 

QB Tom Brady (right shoulder) missed Wednesday practice as a rehab day.  He returned on Thursday.

TE Rob Gronkowski (forearm/hip) most likely will be inactive again this week with a targeted return for Sunday December 23 in the season finale at home against Miami.

DL Ron Brace (back) did not dress against San Francisco and he is not on the injury report this week.

LB Tracy White (elbow) did not dress against San Francisco is listed as having had limited participation.

The Patriots captains for 2012 are QB Tom Brady, DT Vince Wilfork, G Logan Mankins, LB Jerod Mayo, CB Devin McCourty and WR Matthew Slater (special teams).

Patriots players with Jacksonville-area ties are TE Aaron Hernandez, LB Brandon Spikes and DE Jermaine Cunningham (suspended) who played at the University of Florida.

Former Jaguars returning as Patriots are LB Tracy White and G Dan Connolly.

The Patriots have 5 New England natives on the roster they are: TE Aaron Hernandez (Bristol CT); OL Donald Thomas (New Haven CT); DE Ron Brace (Worcester MA); LB Niko Koutouvides (Plainville CT) and OL Jamey Richard (Weston CT – IR). 

They have 11 players who played for a New England school or a Big East Conference member.  They are CB Will Allen (Syracuse – IR); DE Ron Brace (Boston College); RB James Develin (Brown); RB Tony Fiametta (Syracuse – Exempt List); DE Justin Francis (Rutgers); S Stephen Gregory (Syracuse); DE Chandler Jones (Syracuse); CB Devin McCourty (Rutgers); OL Donald Thomas (UConn); OL Jeremiah Warren (South Florida – Practice Squad) and NT Vince Wilfork (Miami).

The Patriots have 6 retired numbers: 20 – Gino Cappelletti, 40 – Mike Haynes, 73 – John Hannah, 78 – Bruce Armstrong, 79 – Jim Lee Hunt and 89 – Bob Dee.

Jaguars Team Notes

Here is the Jaguars roster, depth chart and injury report for the game.

2012 Jaguars Schedule/Results

Jacksonville’s all-time record is 140-146-0 and they are 5-6 in the playoffs with their last playoff appearance coming in 2007.  That season the Jaguars beat the Pittsburgh Steelers on the road in the AFC Wild Card game and lost in Foxboro to the Patriots in the AFC Division game. 

The Jaguars have never appeared in a Super Bowl.

The Jaguars have new ownership after Wayne Weaver sold the team to Sahlid Khan in January.  Khan had previously tried to purchase the St. Louis Rams.

This is the Jags final home game of 2012.

They have only 1 home win in 2012 the fewest ever in a single season for the franchise.

This is the fourth series meeting between the teams in Jacksonville, the Jags are 1-2 as the home team.  The lone win is a playoff win.

Jacksonville is one of four teams New England has never lost to in the regular season (5-0).

This is the Jags 4th game in a row against an AFC East team, they have lost the previous three games.

Since 2002 Jacksonville has 13-17 record against teams in the AFC East.

The Jaguars have had losing streaks this year of 2-, 3- and 7-games.

Jacksonville starters (offense and defense) have missed a combined 70 games due to injury this season.

The Jags lead the NFL with 6 two point conversion attempts they are 3 for 6 (50%).

Jacksonville has only lead after three quarters in 3 of the 14 games they played this season.

The Jags are only 1 of 3 teams in 2012 without a non-offensive touchdown.

The Jaguars are 31st in the NFL in points per game with 15.6.  While they allow 27.4 points per game good for 29th in the NFL.

The Jacksonville defense has sacked the opponents quarterback 15 times this season while their quarterbacks have been sacked 42 times.

Jacksonville is PLUS 1 in turnover differential, 16th in the NFL. The offense has given up 11 INT and 9 fumbles, while the defense has 10 INTs and 9 fumble recoveries. 

The Jaguars are 53 for 185 (28.6%) in 3rd down efficiency and 7 for 21 (33.3%) on fourth down attempts.  Opponents are 79 for 189 (41.8%) in 3rd down efficiency and 4 for 7 (57.1%) on 4th down attempts.

Jacksonville is 14 of 31 (%) in the red zone while opponents are 32 for 61 (52.5%) in the red zone in 2012. 

In goal to go situations Jacksonville is 10 for 14 (71.4%) and opponents are 22 for 28 (78.6%).

Jaguars Staff Notes

Read what Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Mike Mularkey had to say to the New England media about the match up.

Mike Mularkey is 2-12 in his first season with Jacksonville.  He was 14-18 in two seasons with Buffalo for an overall record of 16-30.

He is 0-4 vs. New England in his career.

Prior to coming to Jacksonville he was the offensive coordinator for 4 years with the Atlanta Falcons.

Mularkey is one of 9 former NFL players who are current head coaches in the NFL.

Mularkey replaced interim head coach Mel Tucker who replaced Jack Del Rio with 5 weeks remaining in the 2011 season.  Del Rio in nearly 9 seasons had a 73-63 regular season record.  He was also 1-2 in the playoffs.

Tucker remained as the assistant head coach/defensive coordinator.

Linebackers coach Mark Duffner was the head coach at the College of the Holy Cross from 1981-1991.

Defensive line coach Joe Cullen played at UMass from 1986-89 and he coached there from 1990-91.

Jaguars Possible Starters

Offense:

• LT: Monroe
• LG: Pasztor
• C: Meester
• RG: Nwaneri
• RT: Bradfield
• TE: Lewis
• WR: Blackmon
• WR: Shorts
• QB: Henne
• RB: Owens
• RB: G. Jones

Defense:

• DE: Babin
• DT: Alualu
• DT: Mosley
• DE: Mincey
• LB: Stanford
• LB: Posluszny
• LB: Allen
• LCB: M. Harris
• RCB: Cox
• S: Landry
• S: Lowery

Jaguars Players Notes

Chad Henne is 1-3 as the Jaguars starting QB.  Henne was 13-18 in 4 seasons with Miami.  Overall he has a record of 14-21 in 5 NFL seasons. 

Henne was the Miami Dolphins 2nd round pick in the 2008 NFL Draft out of the University of Michigan.

He is 1-4 vs. New England in his career all with Miami.

Henne is 112 of 216 (51.9%) for 1438 yards with 8 TDs and 5 INTs.  His QB rating is 75.7.

He replaced Blaine Gabbert who was placed on the IR prior to Week 12.  Gabbert was 5-19 as a starting QB in his 2nd NFL season. 

He was the Jaguars 1st round pick in the 2011 NFL Draft out of the University of Missouri.

RB Maurice Jones-Drew has missed the last 8 games with a foot injury.  Despite that he still leads the team in rushing yards with 414.

WR Justin Blackmon leads Jacksonville with 51 catches.

WR Cecil Shorts has four 100-yard receiving games this season.  He is 75-yards short of 1,000 yards for the season he would be the first Jacksonville receiver to have a 1,000 yard season since 2005.

Shorts' 925 receiving yards lead the Jaguars.

P Bryan Anger enters the game with 82 punts through 14 games, four shy of setting the single-season franchise record.

C Brad Meester is expected to start his 73rd consecutive game, the third most in team history. Meester owns the franchise record with 92 consecutive starts.

DT C.J. Mosley enters the game with a team leading 3 fumble recoveries in 14 games. He is one shy of tying the single-season franchise record.

LB Paul Posluszny enters the game with three interceptions, tied for the most of his career.

He is tied for the team lead with CB Derek Cox.

Posluszny leads the Jags with 207 tackles for the season.

DT Tyson Alualu leads Jacksonville with 3 sacks.

Jacksonville’s captains for 2012 are C Brad Meester, Gabbert, LB Daryl Smith, Posluszny and RB Montell Owens (special teams).

Jacksonville players with New England ties are:

• DT Terrance Knighton is a native of Hartford CT.
• LB Julian Stanford is a native of Bloomfield CT.
• RB Jordan Todman is a native of North Dartmouth MA.

Former Patriots DB Antwaun Molden is now playing with the Jaguars. 

DE Jeremy Mincey was originally selected by New England in the 6th round of the 2006 NFL Draft.

RB Rashad Jennings (concussion) and RB Maurice Jones-drew were the only two Jaguars to miss practice both Wednesday and Thursday.  Jennings has missed the last 2 games and Jones-Drew has missed the last 8 games.  I would expect both not to dress on Sunday.

The other Jacksonville players who did not participate on Wednesday all had full participation on Thursday and should be expected to play.

CB Aaron Ross (calf) was the only player to be limited on both Wednesday and Thursday.  All the others that were limited on Wednesday returned to full participation on Thursday.

The Jaguars have 6 players who played for a New England school or a Big East Conference member.  They are LS Jeremy Cain (UMass); RB Montell Owens (Maine); DE George Selvie (South Florida); RB Brock Bolen (Louisville – IR); G Jason Spitz (Louisville – IR) and RB Jordan Todman (UConn – IR)

Jacksonville has 1 retired number for Tony Boselli (71).

Next Week

The Patriots host the Miami Dolphins next Sunday at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro MA.  Kick off is at 1 p.m. on CBS.

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The Sunday night game in Foxboro was certainly a roller coaster for both teams and their fanbases but it was San Francisco fans who got to enjoy the last ride at the fair when they came away with a 41-34 win over New England at Gillette Stadium.

A few things stand out from loss to the 49ers.

► The weather.  It was miserable for both sides and it had a definite effect on the game but it was the Niners who were hurt less by what Mother Nature threw down.

► The weather did lead to several miscues, both teams had a tough time hanging onto the ball, but while San Francisco had 6 fumbles they only lost one.  A second fumble led to the Patriots taking over on downs when it resulted in a loss of yards on a 4th down conversion attempt.  New England only managed 3 points off the miscues.  Colin Kaepernick, the Niners QB, also threw an interception.

►The Patriots on the other hand had two fumbles and lost both and a pair of Tom Brady interceptions.  San Francisco turned the 4 turnovers into 14 points.

► Lack of a pass rush by the Patriots as they gave Kaepernick too much time to throw and allowed him to look for his second and third options on pass plays.  While people are mad at the play of the secondary and in some cases there was poor coverage or tackling, you can only cover someone for so long before they break free.

► San Francisco’s six biggest yardage plays led directly to four 49ers touchdowns, all on passes from Kaepernick.  24-yards to Randy Moss, 27-yards to Michael Crabtree, 34-yards to Delaney Walker and 38-yards to Crabtree for the game winning TD.

► The Patriots lack of quit.  They came off the canvas and with the heart of champion the rallied back.  In a game clock span of 18:38 they made a 28-point deficit disappear like a David Copperfield trick.  Danny Woodhead had two TD runs, Brady ran for one and threw to Aaron Hernandez for another and what just a short time before looked like game, blouses was turned into a dog fight.

► New England’s special teams which are usually so good let them down.  They got caught on a fake punt on 4th and 10 that went for a 31-yard gain.  Out of 7 kickoffs only one result in touchback despite four going into the endzone.  LaMichael James killed them on the other kickoff returns running out 4 for 133 yards including a long one of 63 yards that set up the game-winning touchdown.

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News and Notes

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick had his weekly day after conference call with the media on Monday.  (patriots.com)

Offensive snaps by skill players vs. San Francisco (ESPN Boston)

Defensive snaps played vs. Niners (ESPN Boston)

Confused by Ed Hochuli’s long-winded call following the punt? Try this for an explanation (ESPN Boston)

Patriots family honors Newtown victims (Boston Herald)

Belichick says loss doesn’t look any better after film review (Boston Globe)

Five takeaways from the Patriots loss to the 49ers (Boston Globe)

Ridley: I have to do better holding onto the football (Boston Globe)

The Patriots are 18-16 all-time on Sunday Night Football, 11-6 as the home team and 6-4 at Gillette Stadium.

The Patriots have eclipsed 500 points for the season for the 4th time. (NFL RECORD)

The Niners lead the overall series 8-4.

New England is 3-4 as the home team in the series.

Since 1999 the Patriots have the best record in the NFL at 157-65.

New England had its 7-game winning streak snapped.

Since 2001 New England is 43-6 in December games.

The Patriots are now a combined 21-1 in the second half of the season since 2010.  It was their first second half loss since Week 17 in 2010.

The Patriots lost their first December home game since December 22, 2002 when they were beaten by the New York Jets, 30-17.

The Patriots are 23-2 in December home games since 2002.

They are 18-4 vs. the NFC at Gillette Stadium.  The Packers (2002), Giants (2011) Cardinals (2012) and now the 49ers are the only NFC teams to have beaten the Patriots at home since 2002.

The New England defense has forced a turnover in 25 consecutive games dating back to Week 6 in 2011.

Bill Belichick is now 202-108 including playoffs in his career.

Bill Belichick is 3-1 vs. the San Francisco in his career (2-1 with the Patriots).

Tom Brady is 1-1 against San Francisco in his career.  Overall including playoffs he is 150-44.

He became the 5th QB in NFL history to throw for 4,000+ yards in a season five times joining Peyton Manning (12x), Drew Brees (7x), Dan Marino (6x) and Brett Favre (6 x).

Brady had his career high 4 rushing TD of the year.

Brady has 330 TD passes in his career he is now 5th all-time.  Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton is 4th with 342.

He has thrown 30+ TD passes for the 4th time in his career.

WR Wes Welker now has catches in 114 consecutive games including playoffs, 97 as a Patriot.  The last time Welker did not have a catch in a game was 12/24/05 as a Dolphin.

He went over 100 receptions for the season for the 5th time in his career. (NFL RECORD)

He leads the team in receiving with 100 catches for 1172 yards and is tied for 2nd with Brandon Lloyd with 4 receiving TD’s.

Lloyd had 10 catches for 190 yards with a long of 53 yards.  It is the highest single game total for a Patriots receiver in 2012.

TE Aaron Hernandez also had 10 catches on Sunday night for 92 yards and 1 TD.

RB Stevan Ridley saw limited action but still leads the team in rushing with 252 attempts for 1105 yards and 10 TD’s.

RB Danny Woodhead ran for two TD’s. He had 61 yards on 12 carries.

S Devin McCourty had his team leading 5th INT when he picked Kaepernick on the opening drive of the second half.

CB Aqib Talib had his first fumble recovery as a Patriot after S Steve Gregory knocked the ball loose from Delaney Walker.

LB Jerod Mayo continues to lead the team with 170 tackles (105 solo).  The team usually adjusts the counts based on coaches film study so in the Friday game preview we will have Mayo’s official total.

DE Rob Ninkovich had a sack it was Ninko’s 7.5 sack of the season he leads the team and it’s a career high.

LB Dont’a Hightower and Ninkovich each had 2 tackles for loss.

Hightower, Gregory and McCourty all had a pass defensed.

WR Matthew Slater had 2 special teams tackles.

CB Alfonzo Dennard (knee) and LB Mike Rivera (ankle) suffered injuries.

New England scored 4 TD’s on 16 possessions. They also had 2 FG’s, 5 punts, 2 INT’s, 2 fumbles and loss of downs.

San Francisco had 17 possessions.  5 TD’s, 2 FG’s, 1 missed FG, 5 punts, 1 fumble, 1 INT, lost ball on downs and end of game clock expired.

The Patriots sacked San Francisco QB Colin Kaepernick 1 time, while Brady was sacked 3 times.

New England is PLUS 22 in turnover differential, 1st in the NFL. The offense has given up 7 INT and 7 fumbles, while the defense has 16 INTs and 20 fumble recoveries. 

The Patriots were 4 for 5 (100%) in the red zone.  They had 4 TDs and 1 FG.

New England was 2 for 15 (13%) on third down conversions and 5 for 6 (83%) on 4th down attempts.

San Francisco is 4-3 all-time at New England and is 1-1 in Gillette Stadium.

The Niners snapped a three game series losing streak.

San Francisco is 13-9 on Sunday Night Football games, they are 4-4 as the road team.

San Francisco head coach Jim Harbaugh, is in his 2nd season, he is 23-6-1 in the regular season and 1-1 in the post season for an overall record of 24-7-1.

He is 1-0 vs. the Patriots.

49ers QB Colin Kaepernick is in his 2nd NFL season.  He is 4-1 in the regular season and 1-0 vs. New England.

Kaepernick had 4 TD passes and 4 fumbles (0 lost).

San Francisco was 5 for 14 (36%) on 3rd down conversions and 1 for 2 (50%) on 4th down attempts.

The Niners were 1 for 4 (%) in the red zone.  They had 1 TD, 2 FG’s and a fumble.

San Francisco is PLUS 8 in turnover differential, tied for 11th in the NFL. The offense has given up 7 INT and 7 fumbles, while the defense has 12 INTs and 10 fumble recoveries. 

Next Week

The Patriots visit the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday at Ever Bank Field in Jacksonville FL.  Kick off is at 1 p.m. on CBS.

Follow Steve on Twitter @SteveMichaelsII

Here are the highlights from the San Francisco 49ers 41-34 win over the New England Patriots on Sunday night at Gillette Stadium.

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The San Francisco 49ers came into Foxboro to face the New England Patriots in a much anticipated Sunday Night Football game between two of the NFL’s dynasty teams.

What we witnessed looked like it came out of a Pop Warner league on a Sunday morning in more ways than one.

Playing in a driving New England rainstorm early on it was a sloppy game on both sides.  In just the first quarter alone New England had two fumbles, one was ruled down, and an interception of Tom Brady.  S Carlos Rogers returned the pick all the way to the 5-yard line before Brady threw the first hip check of the season to make the touchdown saving tackle.

San Francisco wasn’t much better as they had three fumbles (two by QB Colin Kaepernick), losing only one (by RB Delaney Walker), and a missed field goal but they still managed to take a 7-0 lead on a Kaepernick pass to former Patriots WR Randy Moss.

The 2nd quarter didn’t start any better for the Niners, on a 4th down conversion Kaepernick had his 3rd fumble of the half (he retained them all) and San Francisco turned the ball over on downs in Patriots territory.

New England was able to march down field and come away with a 32-yard field goal by K Stephen Gostkowski to cut the lead to 7-3.

San Francisco responded by moving the ball through the rain and drove down field with the help of a pass interference penalty on Patriots CB Aqib Talib.  They capped the 80-yard drive with a Kaepernick TD pass to Walker to increase their lead to 14-3.

After an extremely confusing explanation of a possible muffed punt that also included a penalty (eventually assessed on the Niners) Kaepernick once again led a drive down field using both his arm and his legs.  He had a big pass to WR Michael Crabtree, RB Frank Gore had a couple of good runs and then Kaepernick himself tore off a 19 yard run as the clock wound down on the half.

After Gore got stopped on 2nd and goal with just 3 ticks left on the clock San Francisco settled for a 20-yard field goal by David Akers the lead to 17-3 at the half.

The Niners ended up jumping out to a 31-3 lead midway through the third quarter when they tacked on TD’s by Gore on a recovery of Kaepernick’s 4th fumble of the night.  They added another after Brady was intercepted for the 2nd time in the ensuing drive.  On the very first play post turnover Kaepernick threw his third TD pass of the game to Crabtree and it was 31-3 San Francisco.

New England though didn’t stay down they climbed back into the game with a 6-yard Danny Woodhead TD run, a Brady one-yard sneak, a TD pass from Brady to Hernandez and then another short run by Woodhead and suddenly it was 31-31.

With it looking like a game of Madden 2013 had broken out at Gillette Stadium, 49ers KR LaMichael James got a big return for the Niners into Patriots territory.  Kaepernick then hit Crabtree along the sideline and he went all the way into the end zone as San Francisco regained a 7-point lead.

After getting the ball back on a punt the Patriots ended up going four and out deep in the their own territory. And after a wild comeback to tie the game the Patriots fell short in the end as they lost to San Francisco, 41-34.

Niners at Patriots Gamebook includes the box score, all the stats, play by play, drive charts and more.

Niners at Patriots Game Recap.

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Turning Point of the Game

LaMichael James runs back a kickoff into Patriots territory after New England had tied the game.  San Francisco scored on the next play.

Offensive Player of the Game

Niners WR Michael Crabtree had 7 catches for 107 yards and 2 TD’s.

Defensive Player of the Game

San Francisco LB NaVorro Bowman had 12 tackles (8 solo, 1 special team); 1 tackle for loss and a forced fumble.

Game Notes

Starters for the Patriots were:

On Offense:

LT Solder

LG Mankins

C Wendell

RG Connolly

RT Vollmer

TE Hernandez

TE Hoomanawanui

WR Welker

WR Lloyd

QB Brady

RB Ridley

On Defense:

DE Ninkovich

DT Wilfork

DT Deaderick

DE C. Jones

LB Mayo

LB Rivera

LB Hightower

CB Talib

CB Dennard

S Gregory

S McCourty

Inactives for the Game:

Patriots

1. TE Rob Gronkowski (forearm/hip)

2. S Derrick Martin

3. LB Tracy White

4. DE Ron Brace (back)

5. OL Markus Zusevics

6. DE Jake Bequette

Niners

1. S Trenton Robinson

2. RB Jewell Hampton

3. LB Tavares Gooden

4. G Joe Looney

5. WR Mario Manningham

6. NT Ian Williams

The spread (Patriots MINUS 5) WAS NOT covered.  The over/under (46.5) WAS COVERED.  I GAVE the points (Patriots) and took the OVER.  I am now 3-11 vs. the spread and 10 of 14 calling the under/over.

The Patriots are 18-16 all-time on Sunday Night Football, 11-6 as the home team and 6-4 at Gillette Stadium.

This was the 12th meeting between the Patriots and the 49ers since the merger in 1970.

The Patriots had won the last three meetings between the teams before Sunday night’s loss.  

This was the second meeting between the teams at Gillette Stadium and 7th overall in Foxboro.

The Niners lead the overall series 8-4.

New England is 3-4 as the home team in the series.

Since 1999 the Patriots have the best record in the NFL at 157-65.

New England had its 7-game winning streak snapped.

Since 2001 the Patriots are 72-17 in games played on Thanksgiving or later.

Since 2001 New England is 43-6 in December games.

The Patriots are now a combined 21-1 in the second half of the season since 2010.  It was their first second half loss since Week 17 in 2010.

The Patriots lost their first December home game since December 22, 2002 when they were beaten by the New York Jets, 30-17.

The Patriots are 23-2 in December home games since 2002.

The Patriots had a 13 game December win streak snapped dating back to 2009. 

Since Gillette Stadium opened in 2002, the Patriots are 72-15 at home in the regular season.

They are 18-4 vs. the NFC at Gillette Stadium.  The Packers (2002), Giants (2011) Cardinals (2012) and now the 49ers are the only NFC teams to have beaten the Patriots at home since 2002.

The New England defense has forced a turnover in 25 consecutive games dating back to Week 6 in 2011.

Bill Belichick is now 202-108 including playoffs in his career.

Belichick’s 202 wins are good for 7th all-time.

Bill Belichick is 3-1 vs. the San Francisco in his career (2-1 with the Patriots).

Tom Brady is 1-1 against San Francisco in his career.  Overall including playoffs he is 150-44.

He became the 5th QB in NFL history to throw for 4,000+ yards in a season five times joining Peyton Manning (12x), Drew Brees (7x), Dan Marino (6x) and Brett Favre (6 x).

Brady had his career high 4 rushing TD of the year.

Brady has 330 TD passes in his career he is now 5th all-time.  Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton is 4th with 342.

He has thrown 30+ TD passes for the 4th time in his career.

Brady has thrown at least 1 TD pass in 46 consecutive games.

WR Wes Welker now has catches in 115 consecutive games including playoffs, 98 as a Patriot.  The last time Welker did not have a catch in a game was 12/24/05 as a Dolphin.

Welker went over 100 catches for the season for the 5th time in his career.

RB Danny Woodhead had 12 carries for 61 yards and 2 TD’s.

TE Mike Hoomanawanui’s 41-yard grab in the 3rd quarter was the longest of his career.

WR Brandon Lloyd had 10 catches for 190 yards with a long of 53 yards.  It is the highest single game total for a Patriots receiver in 2012.

S Devin McCourty had his team leading 5th INT when he picked Kaepernick on the opening drive of the second half.

CB Aqib Talib had his first fumble recovery of the season.

S Steve Gregory forced a fumble.

LB Jerod Mayo had a team high 12 tackles (5 solo).

DE Rob Ninkovich had a sack he now has a career high 7.5.

LB Dont’a Hightower and Ninkovich each had 2 tackles for loss.

Hightower, Gregory and McCourty all had a pass defensed.

WR Matthew Slater had 2 special teams tackles.

Roster moves this week:

• WR Donte Stallworth was placed on IR.
• TE Visanthe Shiancoe was released.
• WR Deion Branch was re-signed by the team.
• Signed WR/PR Tony Logan to the practice squad.

The Patriots sacked San Francisco QB Colin Kaepernick 1 time, while Brady was sacked 3 times.

New England is PLUS 22 in turnover differential, 1st in the NFL. The offense has given up 7 INT and 7 fumbles, while the defense has 16 INTs and 20 fumble recoveries. 

The Patriots were 4 for 5 (100%) in the red zone.  They had 4 TDs and 1 FG.

New England was 2 for 15 (13%) on third down conversions and 5 for 6 (83%) on 4th down attempts.

The Niners also had the NFL’s best record in the 1990’s going 122-54.

San Francisco is 4-3 all-time at New England and is 1-1 in Gillette Stadium.

The Niners snapped a three game series losing streak.

San Francisco is 13-9 on Sunday Night Football games, they are 4-4 as the road team.

San Francisco head coach Jim Harbaugh, is in his 2nd season, he is 23-6-1 in the regular season and 1-1 in the post season for an overall record of 24-7-1.

He is 1-0 vs. the Patriots.

49ers QB Colin Kaepernick is in his 2nd NFL season.  He is 4-1 in the regular season and 1-0 vs. New England.

Kaepernick had four fumbles and San Francisco lost none of them.

San Francisco was 5 for 14 (36%) on 3rd down conversions and 1 for 2 (50%) on 4th down attempts.

The Niners were 1 for 4 (%) in the red zone.  They had 1 TD, 2 FG’s and a fumble.

San Francisco is PLUS 8 in turnover differential, tied for 11th in the NFL. The offense has given up 7 INT and 7 fumbles, while the defense has 12 INTs and 10 fumble recoveries. 

Ed Hochuli was the game referee.  The temp at kickoff was 34, cold and raining.

Attendance – 68,756 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro MA. 

Post Game Interviews

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and Patriots QB Tom Brady post game press conference via patriots.com

This Week in the AFC East

Seahawks ripped the Bills, 50-17

Dolphins beat the Jags, 24-3

Jets face the Titans on Monday night.

AFC East Standings

Patriots                 10-4/5-0

Jets                        6-7/2-3

Dolphins                  6-8/1-3

Bills                        5-9/1-3

Next Week

The Patriots visit the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday at Ever Bank Field in Jacksonville FL.  Kick off is at 1 p.m. on CBS.

Follow Steve on Twitter @SteveMichaelsII

photo credit: ap photo

This Week

The New England Patriots host the San Francisco 49ers at Gillette Stadium on Sunday at 8:20 p.m.

The Patriots will be honoring the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting by wearing the decal above on their helmets. They'll also be lighting 26 white flares during a moment of silence before the game.

The 49ers		—-	The Patriots
Overall	9-3-1		Overall	10-3
Road record	4-2		Home record	5-1
AFC East	3-0		NFC West	1-2
AFC	3-0		NFC	1-2

Ed Hochuli is the referee assigned to the game.

The Line/Prediction

As of Thursday the line on the game from 5dimes.eu via Yahoo Sports has the Patriots at MINUS 5.  The over under is 46.5.

My Prediction is Patriots 31, 49ers, 24.  Give the points (Patriots) and take the over.  I am 3-10 against the spread and 9 of 13 on calling the over/under in 2012.

Tickets

The Patriots are reporting the game as a sell out. It is the 202nd consecutive sell out dating back to the 1994 season opener.  The record includes preseason, regular season and playoff games.

Tickets to the game, if available, can be purchased through Ticketmaster.  You can check the availability here.

After market tickets are available through the Official Patriots Ticket Exchange where season ticket holders can sell their unused seats to fans on the season ticket waiting list.

Getting to the Game

If you’re lucky enough to be going to the game in Foxboro make sure you check out the links.

Here is the up to date weather forecast from the Weather Channel for Foxboro MA.

Click for all the game day information including stadium directions, parking and information and map and a Gillette Stadium seating chart.

Tailgating

Here’s a bunch of different tailgating recipes from Tailgating.com.  There’s something there for everyone and every type of meal or snack.  I’ve tried some of the recipes and they’re very good. 

And with tailgating many people enjoy some adult beverages.  With that in mind check out Drink Nation for how to make all sorts of great drinks.  You can look things up by name, ingredient(s) or theme.

Whether it’s at the game, a bar or a friend’s house moderation is always the key to a great time.  Please don’t drink and drive and designate a sober driver.  Remember You Drink, You Drive, You Lose.

BROADCAST INFORMATION

Television

NBC in televising the game nationally and Al Michaels will do play by play while Cris Collinsworth will provide the game analysis.  You can look here for your local affiliate.

Here are all the rules on NFL TV broadcasts including explaining the blackout rules; flex scheduling and commercial breaks.

Radio

The Patriots Radio Network broadcasts the game from flagship station WBZ-FM, 98.5 the Sports Hub in Boston. Gil Santos handles the play-by-play and former Patriots QB Scott Zolak will do game analysis. It all starts with Gary Tanguay and Andy Gresh with the pregame show at 5:30 p.m. along the network. The post game starts after the final gun and continues for three hours along the network.

The Patriots radio network call is available on Sirius Channel 92, XM Channel 226 and on SiriusXM Internet Channel 818.

The 49ers Radio Network has Ted Robinson calling the game while former Niners All Pro DB Eric Davis provides the game analysis and Rod Brooks covers the sideline via their flagship stations KNBR and KSAN-FM.

Their call is available on Sirius Channel 92, XM Channel 225 and SiriusXM Internet Channel 827.

Dial Global Sports is carrying the game nationally via their affiliate network.  Dave Sims, James Lofton and Steve Tasker will call the game starting at 8 p.m.

Their call is available on Sirius Channel 94, XM Channel 227 and on SiriusXM Internet Channel 968.

Patriots All Access

Patriots All-Access features behind the scenes looks, interviews and breakdowns with head coach Bill Belichick and in depth features on the team.  It’s hosted by Steve Burton of WBZ-TV (Boston) and airs weekly in most New England television markets.

• Boston MA on TV 38 Friday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 9 a.m.
• Providence RI on WNAC Friday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 9 a.m.
• Manchester NH on WMUR Saturday at midnight
• Portland ME on WMTW Sunday at 5 a.m.
• Hartford CT on WCTX Saturday at 5 p.m.
• Springfield MA on WFXQ Saturday at 7 p.m.
• Bangor ME on WVII Sunday at 11 a.m.

You can also watch it anytime on the teams website in the media section.

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Last Week

The Patriots routed the AFC leading Texans, 42-14 at home.  The 49ers beat the Dolphins at home, 27-13.

History

• This is the 12th meeting between the Patriots and the 49ers since the merger in 1970.
• The two franchises have combined to win 8 Super Bowls between them in 12 appearances.
• After a six game losing streak in the series, the Patriots have won the last three meetings.
• This is the second meeting between the teams at Gillette Stadium and 7th overall in Foxboro
• The Niners lead the overall series 7-4.
• The Patriots won the last meeting in 2008, 30-21 in San Francisco.

Patriots Team Notes

Here is the Patriots roster, depth chart and injury report for the game.

2012 Patriots Schedule/Results

The Patriots overall franchise record is 424-368-9.  They have won three Super Bowls (XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX) in seven appearances.  Overall they are 23-16 in the post season.

They last appeared in the playoffs in 2011 when they beat Denver home in the AFC Divisional Playoff, 45-10 and defeated Baltimore 23-20 in Foxboro in the AFC Championship Game.  They lost Super Bowl XLVI to the New York Giants 21-17. 

The Patriots were 13-3 (2-1 in playoffs) in 2011 and are the defending four-time AFC East Champions as well as the defending AFC Conference Champions.  They have won the division 10 times and the conference 5 times since 2000.

This is the second year in a row the Patriots have back-to-back prime time games.  In 2011 they beat the Jets on SNF 37-16 on November 13 followed by a MNF win over the Chiefs, 34-3 on November 21.

Patriots have won 10 games for the 10th consecutive season only San Francisco has more consecutive 10 win seasons when they did it for 16 consecutive years from 1983-1998.

The Patriots are 18-15 all-time on Sunday Night Football, 11-5 as the home team and 6-3 at Gillette Stadium.

New England is 3-3 as the home team in the series.

Since 1999 the Patriots have the best record in the NFL at 157-64.

New England now has a 7-game winning streak after starting the season 3-3.

Since 2001 the Patriots are 72-16 in games played on Thanksgiving or later.

Since 2001 New England is 43-5 in December games.

The Patriots have not lost a December home game since December 22, 2002 to the New York Jets, 30-17.

They are 21-1 at home in December since Gillette Stadium opened in 2002.

The Patriots have won 13 consecutive December games dating back to 2009.  They are the fourth team to have won at least 12 consecutive December games.  San Diego won 18 (2006-09); Dallas 13 (1968-72) and New England 12 (2006-08).

Since Gillette Stadium opened in 2002, the Patriots are 72-14 at home in the regular season.

They are 18-3 vs. the NFC at Gillette Stadium.  The Packers (2002), Giants (2011) and Cardinals (2012) from the only NFC teams to have beaten the Patriots at home since 2002.

The Patriots are now a combined 21-0 in the second half of the season since 2010.  Their last loss in the second half was in 2009 in the season finale at Houston.

The New England defense has forced a turnover in 24 consecutive games dating back to Week 6 in 2011.

The Patriots have seven non-offensive touchdowns in 2012. The 2010 Patriots and 1961 Patriots teams own the team record with nine non-offensive touchdowns. The NFL record for most non-offensive touchdowns is 13 by Seattle in 1998.

Date             Game                     Touchdown

9/9/12          at Tennessee           Dont’a Hightower 6-yd. Fumble Return

10/21/12       vs. N.Y. Jets            Devin McCourty 104-yd. Kickoff Return

11/18/12       vs. Indianapolis        Julian Edelman 68-yd. Punt Return

11/18/12       vs. Indianapolis        Aqib Talib 59-yd. Int. Return

11/18/12       vs. Indianapolis        Alfonzo Dennard 87-yd. Int. return

11/22/12       at N.Y. Jets             Steve Gregory 32-yd. Fumble Return

11/22/12       at N.Y. Jets             Julian Edelman 22-yd. Fumble Return

The Patriots are 1st in the NFL in points per game with 36.3.  While they allow 21.0 points per game good for 11th in the NFL.

The New England defense has sacked the opponents quarterback 28 times this season while their quarterbacks have been sacked 20 times.

New England is PLUS 24 in turnover differential, 1st in the NFL. The offense has given up 3 INT and 5 fumbles, while the defense has 14 INTs and 18 fumble recoveries. 

The Patriots are 96 for 183 (52.5%) in 3rd down efficiency and 1 for 3 (33.3%) on fourth down attempts.  Opponents are 68 for 163 (41.7%) in 3rd down efficiency and 7 for 18 (38.9%) on 4th down attempts.

New England is 40 of 59 (67.8%) in the red zone while opponents are 22 for 35 (62.9%) in the red zone in 2012.

In goal to go situations New England is 31 for 38 (81.7%) and opponents are 17 for 21 (81%).

Since Robert Kraft bought the team in 1994 they:

• Have the most Super Bowl wins, 3.
• Have the most regular season wins, 203.
• Have the most wins including playoffs, 222.
• Have the most conference titles, 6.
• Have the most division titles, 12.
• Have the most playoff wins, 19
• Have played the most playoff games, 29.
• Are tied for the most playoff seasons, 14.
• Have the best playoff win percentage, .671.
• Have drafted the most Pro Bowl players, 20.

New England set the following team records in 2011:

• Total yards, 6,848.
• First downs, 399.
• Net passing yards, 5,084.
• 100+ yard receiving games, 18.

• Games with 30+ points, 12 (tied for most in NFL history).

Patriots Staff Notes

This is the link to head coach Bill Belichick’s Wednesday press conference on the 49ers.

Bill Belichick is 3-0 vs. the San Francisco in his career (2-0 with the Patriots).

Overall in his NFL career Belichick is 185-100 in his 18th NFL season.  He is 149-56 with New England and 36-44 with Cleveland.  He is 17-7 in the playoffs, 16-6 as head coach of the Patriots in the post season.  When you combine his regular season and post season records he is 202-107.

Belichick’s 202 wins are good for 7th all-time. 

Belichick is one of five head coaches in NFL history whose father (Steve Belichick) played in the league.  The others are former Kansas City head coach Todd Haley (Dick Haley), former San Francisco head coach Mike Nolan (Dick Nolan), former Cincinnati head coach David Shula (Don Shula) and former NY Jets head coach Joe Walton (Frank Walton).

Belichick is one of just four coaches to win three Super Bowls, joining Chuck Noll (4), Joe Gibbs (3) and Bill Walsh (3).  Those men are all in the Hall of Fame.

He is the only coach in NFL history to win three championship titles in four seasons.

He is the only coach in NFL history to have led his team to 10+ wins in 9 consecutive seasons.

Patriots Possible Starters

Offense:

• LT: Solder
• LG: Mankins
• C: Wendell
• RG: Connolly
• RT: Vollmer
• TE: Hernandez
• WR: Branch
• WR: Lloyd
• WR: Welker
• QB: Brady
• RB: Ridley

Defense:

• DE: Ninkovich
• DT: Wilfork
• DT: Love
• DE: Jones
• LB: Mayo
• LB: Spikes
• LB: Hightower
• LCB: Talib
• RCB: Dennard
• S: McCourty
• S: Gregory

Patriots Players Notes

This is Tom Brady’s 13th NFL season he is 1-0 against San Francisco in his career.  He missed the last meeting while recovering from ACL surgery in 2008.

Overall Brady is 134-38 as a starting QB and is 16-6 in the playoffs for an overall record of 150-44.  Brady is a 6 time Pro Bowl QB; two time NFL MVP and has won 3 Super Bowls while twice being named the games MVP.  He is also listed as the 21^st Greatest Player in the History of the NFL according to the NFL Network.

He was ranked in the preseason by ESPN’s Ron Jaworski as the 3rd best quarterback in the NFL.

Brady has 329 TD passes in his career he is now 5th all-time.  Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton is 4th with 342.

Brady has 134 regular season career wins he is 5th all-time.

Brady finished the 2011 season with 5,235 passing yards and joined Drew Brees (5,476 in 2011 and 5,069 in 2008), Dan Marino (5,084 in 1984) and Matthew Stafford (5,038 in 2011) as the only players in NFL history to reach 5,000 passing yards in a single season.

Brady has thrown at least 1 TD pass in 45 consecutive games.

The Patriots are 89-16 when Brady throws at least 2 TD passes in a game.

Brady has 52 games in his career with 300 or more passing yards he is tied for 5th all-time with Kurt Warner.

On the season Brady is 319 of 495 (64.4%) for 3833 yards with 29 TDs and 4 INTs his QB rating is 104.2.

WR Wes Welker now has catches in 114 consecutive games including playoffs, 97 as a Patriot.  The last time Welker did not have a catch in a game was 12/24/05 as a Dolphin.

Welker leads the team with 95 catches for 1116 yards.

Welker has the second most receptions (745) all-time among undrafted receivers. Rod Smith is the NFL’s all-time leader with 849.

TE Rob Gronkowski has 37 receiving touchdowns and 38 touchdowns overall (1 rushing) since 2010. The NFL record for most receiving touchdowns in a player’s first three NFL seasons is 43 by Randy Moss and the NFL record for most touchdowns overall by a player in his first three NFL seasons is 47 by Barry Sanders (4 receiving and 43 rushing).

He is tied for the team lead with RB Stevan Ridley with 10 TDs.

Ridley has scored in 6 consecutive games.

Ridley leads the team in rushing with 1082 yards on 243 carries.

K Stephen Gostkowski has two field goals of 50 or more yards in 2012.  With one more he will be the first Patriots kicker with three field goals of 50 or more yards in one season.

Gostkowski (7 for 10) needs one more field goal of 50 or more yards to tie Adam Vinatieri (8 for 17) for most in team history.

TE Aaron Hernandez had the 3rd two TD game of his career on Monday night.

DE Rob Ninkovich leads the team with 6.5 sacks, it is a new career high for sacks.

Rookie DE Chandler Jones leads the team with 11 QB hits.

Ninkovich and LB Brandon Spikes lead the team in forced fumbles with 5 each, which ties Mike Vrabel’s franchise record.   

Ninkovich and DT Vince Wilfork lead the team with 4 recovered fumbles each.

Mayo leads the team through 13 weeks with 158 tackles (100 solo).  Spikes is second with 116 tackles (76 solo).

Rookie S Tavon Wilson and S Devin McCourty lead the team in INTs with 4. Wilson now has more INTs in his rookie NFL season than he did in his college career at Illinois.

McCourty also has team high 12 passes defensed in 2012. CB Kyle Arrington is 2nd with 10 passes defensed.

WR Matthew Slater has a team high 18 tackles on special teams.  Rookie S Nate Ebner is 2nd with 14 tackles on special teams.

There are only three players on the team who played on at least one of the Super Bowl championship teams, Brady (3), Branch (2) and Wilfork (1).

Roster moves this week:

• WR Donte Stallworth was placed on IR.
• TE Visanthe Shiancoe was released.
• WR Deion Branch was re-signed by the team.
• Signed WR/PR Tony Logan to the practice squad.

Patriots players with San Francisco area ties are: Brady who is from San Mateo; TE Daniel Fells played for UC-Davis; G Logan Mankins is from Catheys Valley and went to Fresno State; RB Shane Vereen attended University of California and WR Donte Stallworth (IR) is from Sacramento.

WR Brandon Lloyd is the lone former 49ers player with the Patriots.

The Patriots captains for 2012 are QB Tom Brady, DT Vince Wilfork, G Logan Mankins, LB Jerod Mayo, CB Devin McCourty and WR Matthew Slater (special teams).

The Patriots have 5 New England natives on the roster they are: TE Aaron Hernandez (Bristol CT); OL Donald Thomas (New Haven CT); DE Ron Brace (Worcester MA); LB Niko Koutouvides (Plainville CT) and OL Jamey Richard (Weston CT – IR). 

They have 11 players who played for a New England school or a Big East Conference member.  They are CB Will Allen (Syracuse – IR); DE Ron Brace (Boston College); RB James Develin (Brown); RB Tony Fiametta (Syracuse – Exempt List); DE Justin Francis (Rutgers); S Stephen Gregory (Syracuse); DE Chandler Jones (Syracuse); CB Devin McCourty (Rutgers); OL Donald Thomas (UConn); OL Jeremiah Warren (South Florida – Practice Squad) and NT Vince Wilfork (Miami).

The Patriots have 6 retired numbers: 20 – Gino Cappelletti, 40 – Mike Haynes, 73 – John Hannah, 78 – Bruce Armstrong, 79 – Jim Lee Hunt and 89 – Bob Dee.

49ers Team Notes

Here is the 49ers roster, depth chart and injury report for the game.

2012 49ers Schedule/Results

San Francisco’s all-time record is 531-426-16 they are 27-19 in the post season with their last post season appearance coming in 2011 when they beat the New Orleans Saints at home in the NFC Divisional game and lost at home to the New York Giants in the NFC Championship game.

The 49ers have won 5 Super Bowls (XVI, XIX, XXIII, XXIV, XXIX) in 5 appearances.

They were the NFL’s Dynasty of the 1980’s with 4 titles in the decade.

The Niners also had the NFL’s best record in the 1990’s going 122-54.

San Francisco is 3-3 all-time at New England and is 0-1 in Gillette Stadium.

The Niners have lost the last three games in the series.

San Francisco is 12-9 on Sunday Night Football games, they are 3-4 as the road team.

In the last two seasons the Niners are PLUS 34 in turnover ration second in the NFL to only the Patriots who are PLUS 41 in the same time span.

The 49ers and Patriots are the only two NFL teams to ever win 18 games in one season (San Francisco was 18-1 in 1984; New England was 18-1 in 2007).

This is the first of two consecutive Sunday Night Football games for the Niners who play at Seattle next week.

The Niners are 13th in the NFL in points per game with 24.3.  While they allow 14.2 points per game good for 1st in the NFL.

The San Francisco defense has sacked the opponents quarterback 32 times this season while their quarterbacks have been sacked 38 times.

San Francisco is PLUS 6 in turnover differential, tied for 11th in the NFL. The offense has given up 6 INT and 6 fumbles, while the defense has 10 INTs and 8 fumble recoveries. 

The 49ers are 56 for 155 (36.1%) in 3rd down efficiency and 4 for 7 (57.1%) on fourth down attempts.  Opponents are 55 for 175 (31.4%) in 3rd down efficiency and x for x (42.9%) on 4th down attempts.

San Francisco is 24 of 43 (55.8%) in the red zone while opponents are 14 for 25 (56%) in the red zone in 2012.

49ers Staff Notes

Read what San Francisco head coach Jim Harbaugh had to say to the New England media about the match up.

San Francisco head coach Jim Harbaugh, is in his 2nd season, he is 22-6-1 in the regular season and 1-1 in the post season for an overall record of 23-7-1.

He has never faced the Patriots.

Harbaugh led the team to the NFC West Division title and the NFC Championship Game in his first season.

He was the NFL Coach of the Year in 2011, succeeding Patriots Bill Belichick with that honor.

Harbaugh’s brother John is in his fifth season as the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens.

The brothers each ended up one win away from facing each other in the Super Bowl last year.

He is one of nine head coaches who had NFL playing experience.

Former Patriots coach Brad Seeley is the 49ers assistant head coach/Special Teams Coordinator.

49ers Possible Starters

Offense:

• LT: Staley
• LG: Iupatti
• C: Goodwin
• RG: Boone
• RT: A. Davis
• TE: V. Davis
• WR: Crabtree
• WR: Manningham
• QB: Kaepernick
• RB: Gore
• RB: Miller

Defense:

• DT: McDonald
• DT: J. Smith
• OLB: Brooks
• ILB: Bowman
• ILB: Willis
• OLB A. Smith
• CB: Rogers
• CB: Brown
• CB: Culliver
• S: Goldson
• S: Whitner

49ers Players Notes

49ers QB Colin Kaepernick took over the starting job in Week 11 after Alex Smith suffered a concussion in the Week 10 24-24 tie with St. Louis.

Kaepernick is in his 2nd NFL season.  He is 3-1 in the regular season and has never faced New England.

Kaepernick was San Francisco’s 2nd round draft pick in the 2011 NFL Draft out of the University of Nevada.

He is the only QB in NCAA history to throw for 10,000 yards and rush for 4,000 yards.

He has the two longest runs by a QB in Niners history both were for 50 yards breaking Steve Yong’s record 49-yard run.

Kaepernick is 87 of 129 (67.4%) for 1073 yards, 3 TDs and 1 INT for a quarterback rating of 97.4.

RB Frank Gore leads the team in rushing yards with 1035.

Gore is in a three-way tie with Roger Craig and Joe Perry for most rushing TD’s in franchise history with 50.

He is 3rd in franchise history in yards from scrimmage with 11, 236.  He trails Roger Craig (11,506) and Jerry Rice (19,872).

Gore is the Niners all-time rushing yards leader with 8,660.

WR Michael Crabtree leads San Francisco with 66 catches for 761 yards.

TE Vernon Davis ranks first in franchise history among tight ends in TDs (40) and second in receptions and receiving yards.

S Dashon Goldson leads the Niners in INTs with 3.

LB Aldon Smith has 19.5 sacks to lead the NFL he also set a new San Francisco franchise record.

He also has a team high 3 forced fumbles.

He has 5 games in his career with 2 or more sacks.

Smith’s 33.5 career sacks are the highest total in NFL history in a players first two seasons.

NaVorro Bowman leads San Francisco with 150 tackles (76 solo).

DT Justin Smith has a team high 52 QB hits for the season.

CB Carlos Rogers has 3 fumble recoveries to lead the team.

CB Chris Culliver leads the Niners with 13 passes defensed.

There is one former Patriot returning to Foxboro on Sunday and that is WR Randy Moss.

San Francisco captains for 2012 are QB Alex Smith, DT Justin Smith, RB Frank Gore and LB Patrick Willis.

There are 2 players on the 49ers roster from Big East universities.  They are P Andy Lee (Pittsburgh) and T Anthony Davis (Rutgers)

The Niners have 12 retired numbers.  They are 8 – Steve Young; 12 – John Brodie; 16 – Joe Montana; 34 – Joe Perry; 37 – Jimmy Johnson; 39 – Hugh McElhenney; 42 – Ronnie Lott; 70 – Charlie Krueger; 73 – Leo Nomellini; 79 – Bob St. Clair; 80 – Jerry Rice and 87 – Dwight Clark.  In addition former owner Ed DeBartolo Jr. and former coach Bill Walsh have their names up as honorees within the retired numbers.

Next Week

The Patriots visit the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday at Ever Bank Field in Jacksonville FL.  Kick off is at 1 p.m. on CBS.

Follow Steve on Twitter @SteveMichaelsII

Not the Epic Battle We Expected

Going into Monday night’s game I thought it’d be much closer than what the game and the final score indicated.  Houston has been playing very good football for a year and half now and I was expecting a battle.  I should have known better.

Houston seemingly tends to sputter when it meets up with a veteran team who has “been there, done that.”  It happened earlier this season when they were manhandled by the Green Bay Packers and on Monday night the Patriots made them their bitch and did it in front of a national television audience and many NFL pundits who expected the Texans to go into Foxboro and win.

Silly, silly boys.

The New England Patriots are the big bad bully of the NFL and have been for a decade.  When you play them you better be wearing your big pants and be prepared for anything.  Very few teams match up to New England and without rehashing some stuff we all know who they are.  Others can get lucky or catch some breaks on any given Sunday as well.  How would you like to see the three losses this team has replayed NOW.

If it weren’t for a bullshit holding call and missed field goal in Week 2, a field goal I am still not sure went over the upright in Week 3 and some awful late game pass defense in Week 6 this team is unbeaten.  That’s how close it is between 10-3 and 13-0.

Now that the calendar has flipped to December this team is even harder to knock off.  They have won 23 of the last 24 December home games at Gillette Stadium, including 20 in a row.  They last lost at home in December in the year 2002 to the Jets who were coached by Herm Edwards.  That’s ten seasons in which they have not lost a December home game.

Now lets look at the Patriots on the road in December they are 20-4 in the same span.  How many teams can go on the road late in the season with big games on the line and fly home happy?

Last night you saw a veteran been there, done that team absolutely dismantle a team that made the game too big for what it was.  Regardless of the outcome Houston still was going to be sitting as the #1 seed in the AFC.  For some reason the players decided the game was really big for the franchise.  Maybe because it was the Patriots with the history, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.  Sure they could use the game as a measuring stick but if they did it quietly in house and shut out the hype they may have been able to play their game.

They better hope they learn an awful lot from Monday night because now they have to hold off the Indianapolis Colts twice in the last three weeks and then regroup for the playoffs.

Now is the time of year when you see what teams are made of.  In New England we know about our team, in Houston they’re still hoping to find out.

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News and Notes

The Patriots have placed WR Donte Stallworth on the season ending IR with an ankle injury and have released TE Visanthe Shiancoe.  They also re-signed WR Deion Branch who despite being recently released had his locker remain intact for a possible return.

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick had his weekly day after conference call with the media on Monday.  (patriots.com)

QB Tom Brady had his weekly Patriots Monday call in. (WEEI)

Offensive snaps by skill players vs. Houston  (ESPN Boston)

Defensive snaps played vs. Texans (ESPN Boston)

Defensive coordinator Matt Patricia says you can’t quantify Wilfork’s value. (ESPN Boston)

Patriots defense is coming together at the right time (ESPN Boston)

Best and Worst Patriots vs. Texans (Boston Herald)

Brandon Lloyd finds place in end zone (Boston Herald)

Belichick doesn’t care about the statement, just the bottom line (Boston Herald)

Five takeaways from the Patriots win over the Texans (Boston Globe)

A game of Texas fold ‘em (Boston Globe)

Kubiak: “They make you look really bad” (Boston Globe)

New England is 22-22 all-time on Monday Night Football.

The Patriots are 11-8 at home on MNF.

Since 1999 the Patriots have the best record in the NFL at 157-64.

New England now has a 7-game winning streak after starting the season 3-3.

Since 2001 the Patriots are 72-16 in games played on Thanksgiving or later.

Since 2001 New England is 43-5 in December games.

The Patriots have not lost a December home game since December 22, 2002 to the New York Jets, 30-17.

The Patriots are 23-1 in December home games since Gillette Stadium opened in 2002 and 72-14 overall at home in the regular season.

The Patriots are now a combined 21-0 in the second half of the season since 2010.  Their last loss in the second half was in 2009 in the season finale at Houston.

New England is 81-47-1 against the teams that make up the AFC South. 

Bill Belichick is now 202-107 including playoffs in his career.

Belichick’s 202 wins are good for 7th all-time.  He surpasses Dan Reeves on the list with the win.

Belichick coached teams are 3-1 vs. Houston.

Belichick is 16-8 on Monday Night Football, 15-5 as the Patriots head coach.

Tom Brady is 3-1 vs. the Texans. Overall including playoffs he is 150-44.

Brady is 13-4 all-time on Monday Night Football.  He has won his last 5 appearances and 10 out of the last 11. 

Brady has 329 TD passes in his career he is now 5th all-time.  Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton is 4th with 342.

Brady has thrown at least 1 TD pass in 45 consecutive games.  It is the 3rd longest streak in NFL history Hall of Famer Johnny Unitas is 2nd with 47 games.

The Patriots are 89-16 when Brady throws at least 2 TD passes in a game.

Brady has 14 games with 4 TDs and 0 INTs in his career it is the most in NFL history.

WR Wes Welker now has catches in 114 consecutive games including playoffs, 97 as a Patriot.  The last time Welker did not have a catch in a game was 12/24/05 as a Dolphin.

His first quarter punt return for 31-yards was his longest since 2009.

RB Stevan Ridley leads the team in rushing with 1081 yards on 243 carries and his 10 TDs are tied with TE Rob Gronkowski for the team lead.

TE Aaron Hernandez had his first 2 TD game since his rookie year in 2010.  He now has 4 TD’s on the year.  He had a team high 8 grabs on Monday night for 58 receiving yards.

WR Brandon Lloyd had a team high 89 yards receiving on 7 catches.  He had 2 TDs, 1 on a 37-yard pass from Brady the other was a recovery of a Danny Woodhead fumble in the end zone.

Veteran WR Donte Stallworth who was just re-signed this week caught his first TD pass of the season a 63-yard bomb from Brady in the 3rd quarter that he one handed.

That was the teams 2nd longest pass play of the season only the 83-yard pass to Shane Vereen against the Jets in Week 11 is longer.

Back up QB Ryan Mallett played the last minutes of the blow out win he attempted one pass to Shiancoe who tipped it and it was intercepted.  The turnover lead to the Texans final score.

Since the acquisition of CB Aqib Talib the Patriots secondary is allowing only 4.5 points per game on pass plays down from 13.7 per game.

LB Jerod Mayo had 7 tackles (6 solo) on Monday night.  

Mayo continues to lead the team in tackles.  Unofficially he has 156 tackles (100 solo).  The team usually adjusts the counts based on coaches film study so in the Friday game preview we will have Mayo’s official total.

DT Vince Wilfork had his 2nd forced fumble of the season when he swatted the ball free from Texans QB Matt Schaub in the first quarter even though Houston recovered the ball.

Wilfork also was credited with his 2nd sack of the season on that play because of the QB fumble.

DE Rob Ninkovich shared a sack with DE Trevor Scott.  It was Ninko’s 6.5 sack of the season he leads the team and Scott has 2.5 sacks this year.

The team had 7 tackles for loss in the game LB Dont’a Hightower had a team high 2 while DE Chandler Jones, DE Brandon Deaderick, S Devin McCourty, Mayo and Wilfork each had 1.

The Patriots hit Schaub 8 times 2 times each by DE Justin Francis, Mayo and Hightower and once each for Scott and Ninkovich.

McCourty had his 4th INT on the season Monday night he is tied for the team lead with S Tavon Wilson.

The defense had 7 passes defensed on Monday night against Houston.  CB Alfonzo Dennard (7th), McCourty (12th), Wilfork (6th), Talib (2nd), Jones (3rd) and Kyle Arrington (9th, 10th) all knocked down passes.

Arrington (5th, 6th) had a team high 2 tackles on special teams, DB Marquis Cole (5th) and LB Mike Rivera (6th) each had 1.

New England scored 6 TD’s on 13 possessions. They also had 5 punts, an INT, and the end of game clock expired.

Houston had 13 possessions.  2 TD’s, 7 punts, an INT, lost ball twice on downs and end of half clock expired.

The Patriots sacked Houston QB Matt Schaub 2 times, while Brady was sacked 1 time.

New England is PLUS 24 in turnover differential. The offense has given up 5 INT and 5 fumbles, while the defense has 15 INTs and 19 fumble recoveries. 

The Patriots were 3 for 3 (100%) in the red zone.  They had 3 TDs.

New England was 6 for 12 (50%) on third down conversions and 0 for 0 on 4th down attempts.

The Texans are 12-11 all-time against the AFC East.

Houston is 2-5 on Monday Night Football.

Texans are 20-26 all-time in December.

They had a franchise record 6-game road win streak snapped and 6-game winning streak overall snapped as well.

Houston was the last undefeated road team in the NFL.

The Texans were shut out in the first half for the first time this season.

Houston head coach Gary Kubiak, is in his 7th season, he is 59-52 including playoffs.

Kubiak is 1-2 vs. New England.

He is 2-4 in Monday Night Football games.

Texans QB Matt Schaub is 43-36 in his career.

He is 1-2 vs. New England in his career, 1-1 with Houston and 0-1 with Atlanta.

Houston was 4 for 14 (29%) on 3rd down conversions and 0 for 2 (0%) on 4th down attempts.

The Texans were 2 for 2 (100%) in the red zone.  They had 2 TDs.

Houston is PLUS 14 in turnover differential. The offense has given up 11 INT and 2 fumbles, while the defense has 15 INT and 12 fumble recoveries.

Next Week

The Patriots host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday night at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro MA.  Kick off is at 8:20 p.m. on NBC.

Follow Steve on Twitter @SteveMichaelsII

Here are the highlights from the New England Patriots 42-14 thrashing of the Houston Texans at Gillette Stadium on Monday night.

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In the history of Monday Night Football never had two teams this good matched up this late in the season.  The problem was one team clicked in a well rounded team effort between the offense and the defense while the other team struggled mightily.

We’ve seen this late season act in Foxboro many times but in the past it was the New York Jets or the Indianpolis Colts or the Denver Broncos on the other end of a beat down.  This time it was the Houston Texans, who came in at 11-1, who got a dose of Belichick football in a 42-14 loss to the New England Patriots.

The Texans were looking at this as the biggest game in the history of their franchise, despite having played a pair of playoff games last year.  Maybe the hype caught up to them.  For the Patriots, under Belichick, this is old hat this team lives for games like this.

Offensively New England struck early and often with Tom Brady throwing three TD passes in their first three possessions two to TE Aaron Hernandez and one to WR Brandon Lloyd.  Then Brady and the offense sputtered a bit but in the third quarter Brady found WR Donte Stallworth on a 63-yard bomb that he one handed and deked and juked Texans defenders into the end zone.

After an Arian Foster TD got Houston on the board, the Patriots came back to score again early in the fourth quarter when RB Danny Woodhead after hauling in a screen was caught from behind by Texans DE J.J. Watt who punched the ball loose.  But it was hardly the turnover that Houston was looking for as the ball bounded into the end zone into the awaiting hands of Lloyd who was ahead of the play blocking.

RB Stevan Ridley then made the blow out official as he scampered for a 14-yard TD as the Patriots increased their lead in the 4th quarter to 42-7.  Houston got a garbage time TD from back up QB T.J. Yates on a one yard sneak for the final score and to cover the spread.

The story thought for the Patriots was the strong play of the defense.  The front line was stout doing a good job on the run game, the linebackers helped with pass coverage and pass rush and the secondary was absolutely wonderful with several batted passes, an interception and some good tackling after the catch.

DT Vince Wilfork was a monster in the middle, LB Jerod Mayo kept blitzing Schaub and putting hits on him and busting up plays in the backfield while CB Aqib Talib, CB Kyle Arrington, CB Alfonzo Dennard, S Steve Gregory and McCourty all had big plays in the secondary to break up passes.

The defense held Foster to a mere 46 yards rushing on 15 carries he also had 39 yards receiving and WR Andre Johnson was held to under 100 yards as he had 8 grabs for 95 yards.

When the offense lulled the defense picked the team up.

Once again it’s December and the Patriots are playing football exactly as Bill Belichick has drawn it up.

At least the Texans will look good in those letterman jackets on the flight home.

Texans at Patriots Gamebook includes the box score, all the stats, play by play, drive charts and more.

Texans at Patriots Game Recap.

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Turning Point of the Game

Patriots S Devin McCourty picked Matt Schaub at the goaline on the Texans second drive.  It lead to a Patriots TD and 14-0 lead.

Offensive Players of the Game

Patriost WR Brandon Lloyd (7 catches for 89 yards and 2 TDs – 1 on a fumble recovery) and TE Aaron Hernandez (8 catches for 58 yards and 2 TDs) combined for 4 TDs (3 receiving, 1 fumble recovery), 15 catches and 147 yards to lead the Patriots offense.

Defensive Player of the Game

Patriots DT Vince Wilfork had 4 tackles (3 solo), 1 sack, 1 forced fumble, 1 tackle for loss and 1 pass defensed.

Game Notes

Starters for the Patriots were:

On Offense:

LT Solder

LG Mankins

C Wendell

RG Connolly

RT Vollmer

TE Hernandez

TE Hoomanawanui

WR Welker

WR Lloyd

QB Brady

RB Ridley

On Defense:

DE Scott

DT Wilfork

DT Deaderick

DE Ninkovich

LB Mayo

LB Spikes

LB Hightower

CB Talib

CB Dennard

S Gregory

S McCourty

Inactives for the Game:

Patriots

1. TE Rob Gronkowski (forearm/hip)

2. S Derrick Martin

3. RB James Develin

4. DE Ron Brace (back)

5. OL Markus Zusevics

6. DE Jake Bequette

7. G Nick McDonald (shoulder)

Texans

1. CB Alan Ball (foot)

2. LB Brooks Reed (groin)

3. G Antonio Caldwell (hamstring)

4. G Cody White

5. T Derek Newton (knee)

6. TE Garrett Graham (concussion)

7. NT Terrell McClain

The spread (Patriots MINUS 3) WAS covered.  The over/under (51.5) WAS/NOT COVERED.  I TOOK the points (Texans) and took the OVER.  I am now 3-10 vs. the spread and 9 of 13 calling the under/over.

New England is 22-22 all-time on Monday Night Football.

The Patriots are 11-8 at home on MNF.

This was the second meeting between the teams at Gillette Stadium.

The Patriots lead the overall series 3-1.  They are 2-0 vs. Houston at home.

Since 1999 the Patriots have the best record in the NFL at 157-64.

New England now has a 7-game winning streak after starting the season 3-3.

Since 2001 the Patriots are 72-16 in games played on Thanksgiving or later.

Since 2001 New England is 43-5 in December games.

The Patriots are now a combined 21-0 in the second half of the season since 2010. 

Their last loss in the second half was in 2009 season finale at Houston.

The Patriots have not lost a December home game since December 22, 2002 to the New York Jets, 30-17.

The Patriots are 23-1 in December home games since 2002.

The Patriots have won 13 consecutive December games dating back to 2009.  They are the fourth team to have won at least 12 consecutive December games.  San Diego won 18 (2006-09); Dallas 13 (1968-72) and New England 12 (2006-08).

Since Gillette Stadium opened in 2002, the Patriots are 72-14 at home in the regular season.

New England is 81-47-1 against the teams that make up the AFC South. 

Bill Belichick is now 202-107 including playoffs in his career.

Belichick’s 202 wins are good for 7th all-time.

Belichick coached teams are 3-1 vs. Houston.

Belichick is 16-8 on Monday Night Football, 15-5 as the Patriots head coach.

Tom Brady is 3-1 vs. the Texans. Overall including playoffs he is 150-44.

Brady is 13-4 all-time on Monday Night Football.  He has won his last 5 appearances and 10 out of the last 11. 

Brady has 329 TD passes in his career he is now 5th all-time.  Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton is 4th with 342.

Brady has thrown at least 1 TD pass in 45 consecutive games.

The Patriots are 89-16 when Brady throws at least 2 TD passes in a game.

Brady has 14 games with 4 TDs and 0 INTs in his career it is the most in NFL history.

WR Wes Welker now has catches in 114 consecutive games including playoffs, 97 as a Patriot.  The last time Welker did not have a catch in a game was 12/24/05 as a Dolphin.

His first quarter punt return for 31-yards was his longest since 2009.

TE Aaron Hernandez had his first 2 TD game since his rookie year in 2010.  He know has 4 TD’s on the year.

WR Brandon Lloyd caught a 39-yard pass for his 4th TD of the season.  He added a fumble recovery for his 5th TD later in the game.

Veteran WR Donte Stallworth who was just re-signed this week caught his first TD pass of the season a 63-yard bomb from Brady in the 3rd quarter that he one handed.

That was the 2nd longest pass play of the season only to the 83-yard pass to Shane Vereen against the Jets in Week 11.

RB Stevan Ridley had his 10th rushing TD of the season.

DE Rob Ninkovich had his team leading 7th sack in 1st quarter.

DT Vince Wilfork had a forced fumble (2nd) on a strip sack in the first quarter and a pass defensed (6th) in the second quarter.  He also had a sack (2nd).

DE Chandler Jones returned to action and had his 3rd pass defensed of the season in the second quarter.

CB Kyle Arrington had his 9th pass defensed on the season in the second quarter on a 4th down attempt by Houston.  He added his 10th pass defensed on a 3rd and 3 late in the 3rd quarter.  He is 2nd on the team in passes defensed.

Arrington also led the team in tackles on special teams with two.

CB Aqib Talib had a pass defensed, his second as a Patriot late in the 2nd quarter.  Talib was hurt on the play (hip) and missed the rest of the game.

S Devin McCourty had his 4th INT of the year at the goal line in the first quarter.  He is now tied for the team lead with rookie S Tavon Wilson.  He also had a pass defensed his team leading 12th.

Rookie CB Alfonzo Dennard had a big defensed pass (7th) on Andre Johnson in 3rd quarter.

LB Jerod Mayo (4, 5), LB Donta Hightower (6, 7) and DE Justin Francis (3, 4)each had 2 QB Hits while Ninkovich (10) and DE Trevor Scott (3) had 1 each.

Hightower had 2 tackles for loss while DY Brandon Deaderick, Wilfork and Jones, Mayo and McCourty had 1 each.

Roster moves this week:

• RB Brandon Bolden rejoined the 53-man roster after serving a four game NFL suspension for violating the drug policy.
• WR Julian Edelman broke his foot against Miami and has been placed on the season ending IR.
• Signed WR Donte Stallworth.
• Waived G Mitch Petrus.
• Signed OL Tommie Draheim and OL Colin Miller to the practice squad.

The Patriots sacked Houston QB Matt Schaub 2 times, while Brady was sacked 1 time.

New England is PLUS 24 in turnover differential. The offense has given up 5 INT and 5 fumbles, while the defense has 15 INTs and 19 fumble recoveries. 

The Patriots were 3 for 3 (100%) in the red zone.  They had 3 TDs.

New England was 6 for 12 (50%) on third down conversions and 0 for 0 on 4th down attempts.

The Texans are 12-11 all-time against the AFC East.

Houston is 2-5 on Monday Night Football.

Texans are 20-26 all-time in December.

They had a franchise record 6-game road win streak snapped and 6-game winning streak overall snapped as well.

This was the final game of three consecutive road games for the Texans, they had won the previous two.

The Texans have allowed the fewest sacks in the NFL this season, 16 (tied with New York Giants).

Houston was the last undefeated road team in the NFL.

The Texans were shut out in the first half for the first time this season.

Houston head coach Gary Kubiak, is in his 7th season, he is 58-51 and 1-1 in the post season for an overall record of 59-52.

Kubiak is 1-2 vs. New England.

He is 2-4 in Monday Night Football games.

Texans QB Matt Schaub is 43-36 in his career.

He is 1-2 vs. New England in his career, 1-1 with Houston and 0-1 with Atlanta.

RB Arian Foster scored his 16th TD of the season, 14th rushing in the 3rd quarter.  He leads the NFL in TD’s.

Houston was 4 for 14 (29%) on 3rd down conversions and 0 for 2 (0%) on 4th down attempts.

The Texans were 2 for 2 (100%) in the red zone.  They had 2 TDs.

Houston is PLUS 14 in turnover differential, tied for 2nd in the NFL. The offense has given up 11 INT and 2 fumbles, while the defense has 15 INT and 12 fumble recoveries.

Terry McAulay was the game referee.  The temp at kickoff was 59, rainy and warm.

Attendance – 68,756 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro MA. 

Post Game Interviews

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and Patriots QB Tom Brady post game press conference via patriots.com.

This Week in the AFC East

Jets beat the Jaguars, 17-10

Rams edged the Bills, 15-12

49ers downed the Dolphins, 27-13

AFC East Standings

Patriots                 10-3/5-0

Jets                        6-7/2-3

Dolphins                  5-8/1-3

Bills                        5-8/1-3

Next Week

The Patriots host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday night at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro MA.  Kick off is at 8:20 p.m. on NBC.

Follow Steve on Twitter @SteveMichaelsII

photo credit: getty images

New England Patriots QB Tom Brady sat down with ESPN's Mike Tirico to talk about a myriad of things before Monday night's matchup with the Houston Texans.

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