Week 1: Patriots at Bills (1:00 PM EST)

[Geoffrey P]

New England Patriots (0 - 0) at Buffalo Bills (0 - 0)
Sunday, September 8th at 1:00 PM EST

It's finally football time

[alwayslovetheceltics]

Dobson and harmon (along with others) have been declared out tomorrow- but these two were small surprises. Will have to wait until week 2 to see brady to dobson jump ball in the endzone. That sucks.

tavon wilson better play better than he did during the preseason.

[Geoffrey P]

Along with Gronk (no surprise) Bolden, Svitek, and Ebner.

[Parliament10]

http://www.patriots.com/schedule-and-st ... 3/regular1

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/201309080 ... ab=preview

http://espn.go.com/boston/nfl/story/_/i ... falo-bills

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- As expected, tight end Rob Gronkowski was downgraded to out for the New England Patriots' season-opener against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.

Gronkowski, coming back from multiple offseason surgeries on his left forearm and one on his back, returned to full-pads practices six days ago and had been limited all week. The Patriots had officially listed him as doubtful on the injury report.

It's also unlikely Gronkowski will be ready for the Patriots' second game, Thursday against the New York Jets, according to a source.

Without Gronkowski, the Patriots will enter Sunday's game with just two tight ends -- four-year veteran Michael Hoomanawanui and rookie Zach Sudfeld. That likely means the team won't run a majority of its plays out of multiple tight end packages, instead relying on three-receiver groupings, or tapping fullback James Develin in two-back sets.

Hoomanawanui (6-foot-4, 260 pounds) would project to more of an inline blocking role, while Sudfeld (6-7, 260) is more of a "move" tight end.

In addition to Gronkowski, the Patriots also declared rookie receiver Aaron Dobson [hamstring], running back Brandon Bolden [knee], offensive lineman Will Svitek [knee], and safeties Nate Ebner [ankle] and Duron Harmon [hamstring] to out for Sunday's game.

In part to account for Bolden's absence in a reserve role, the Patriots also re-signed veteran running back Leon Washington on Saturday, while promoting rookie guard Josh Kline to the active roster.

Let's see what we got today.

[Celtics_Champs]

Here we go! I'd say Brady throws for seven but I don't see Buffalo pushing him to do so like Baltimore did. I want to see our defense eat Manuel up. LETS GOOO PATS!!!!!

[FlatearthZorro]

Did Ridley fumble again? I didn't watch all of the game so far and it seems like he fumbled again or something..

[Celtics_Champs]

He fumbled twice one les to a 74 yard TD. Brady threw a pick. Amendola is hurt.

Meanwhile, Edelman has played great and the defense looks great.

Weird game.

Brady's looked good but no gronk hurts

[Geoffrey P]

Amendola hurt himself running for gods sake...

[Parliament10]

So what do we got? 2 Fumbles/Interceptions each? 4 All-day... so far.

[Geoffrey P]

How the hell do you not score on that play?

[Parliament10]

Awww Man! This is not looking good. We should have gotten 14 points out of that, instead of 3.

[Celtics_Champs]

This teams got heart! We've seen it before in Buffalo, but this was full of new guys and they showed they can hang. Loved it. We only got 6 points out of 3 great drives, but each drive was terrific imo. So many clutch third down conversions.

I thought the defense hung in there and did a good job. They were great to start off the game, a few things happened and they suddenly saw Stevie Johnson and Robert Woods get behind them. Can't be too upset with them going forward. Maybe pass rush was still iffy, but that was a mobile QB.

Brady looked pretty good considering his options were a doubled DOUBLED julian edelman, and a limping amendola.

Can't say enough about Amendola and Edelmans effort.

Vereen played fantastic. first 100 yard game!

Gosto with two clutch kicks at the end.

Here's my bad
-We need gronk
-Thompkins? THOMPKINS? Lol that's who the media told us was doing well? Guarantee Dobson has a better year. He looked AWFUL.
-Of course Ridley, dude has got to get it together.

[alwayslovetheceltics]

Danny Amenf'ndola= beast.
Edelman showed a lot of heart.
thompkins will be fine- struggled today but if he cleans up his footwork on the sidelines - and the refs calls some of those holds that buffalo was getting away with- i bet he ends up with 50 catches this year.

Dobson needs to learn to take contact before he sees the field.
Did I miss it or was collins not out there much? I was expecting him to play atleast some spy against manuel.
while Manuel is somewhat mobile- our passrush needs to be better. I want to see more (some?) Hightower blitzing.

[alwayslovetheceltics]

on both of those plays- it looked like the cornerback (Talib on Woods, Arrington on SJ) redirected the receiver inside- and the safety (Gregory on Woods, McCourty on SJ) were just late. Those two need to play better. I expect McCourty will but i think Gregory- is already doing his best (he is just not that good). I am hoping Harmon or Wilson step up.

This teams got heart! We've seen it before in Buffalo, but this was full of new guys and they showed they can hang. Loved it. We only got 6 points out of 3 great drives, but each drive was terrific imo. So many clutch third down conversions.

I thought the defense hung in there and did a good job. They were great to start off the game, a few things happened and they suddenly saw Stevie Johnson and Robert Woods get behind them. Can't be too upset with them going forward. Maybe pass rush was still iffy, but that was a mobile QB.

Brady looked pretty good considering his options were a doubled DOUBLED julian edelman, and a limping amendola.

Can't say enough about Amendola and Edelmans effort.

Vereen played fantastic. first 100 yard game!

Gosto with two clutch kicks at the end.

Here's my bad
-We need gronk
-Thompkins? THOMPKINS? Lol that's who the media told us was doing well? Guarantee Dobson has a better year. He looked AWFUL.
-Of course Ridley, dude has got to get it together.

[FlatearthZorro]

Honestly, Thompkins was okay, he had a few bad plays, but was okay, the guy is new, he was undrafted rookie if I'm not mistaking. Good games from Edelman/Amendola and Brady.

Obviously, missing Hernandez and Gronk hurts a lot. Hernandez despite the thug he is, was a pretty darn good player. Imo him and Gronk were the 1st and 2nd best Tight ends in the game. Call me crazy, but Gronk and Hernandez were the best TE duo the league has seen in a while if not ever(yea, I mean that)... Too bad Gronk has been hurt for the better part of last year and into this year and Hernandez is a nutjob...

[Geoffrey P]

I think, and I hope, Thompkins will do better as long as he's not put in the doghouse. Ridley though... he's gotta get his crap together real quick or Vereen will take more and more touches away from him.

Woulda been nice if the Pats went after Boldin. 13 catches for 208 yards and a TD.

[sunshinekids99]

Well that surely was not pretty, but a win is a win. Really like what I saw from Edelman and Amendola. This team really needs Gronk back tho. I also thought the defense played very well.

[Celtics_Champs]

I suppose I was too hard on thompkins, but it was just seeing that 85 again being unable to understand what Brady wanted him to do. I thought I was watching Ochocinco all over again.

[15th overall]

Woulda been nice if the Pats went after Boldin. 13 catches for 208 yards and a TD.

That Boldin deal was fishy. The high bid for him was really just a 6th rounder? And it just so happens to be Harbaugh's brother? NFL equivalent of a Laker deal, wicked shady.

[alwayslovetheceltics]

just when things were looking up for vereen. Bolden- get back on those special vitamins and don't get caught this time.