Everything has changed in New England.
At least for now. And at least when it comes to your new New England Patriots
They scored 33 points on Sunday in Miami, the first time they surpassed 30 or more points since Oct. 16, 2022 when they put up 38 points against the Cleveland Browns.
That’s nearly three full seasons of a scores in the teens and low 20s. A year ago, the high was 25 points in three point win over the Jets, which was Drake Maye’s first career win as a starter.
It was a far cry from the opener, a 20-13 loss to the Raiders 10 days ago in Week 1.
There were only four entries out of 326 that had the Patriots scoring more than 33 and only eight entries had 30 or more.
The key aspect of winning a “I Beat Burt” T-shirt this contest is being close to the Patriots point total, the first tiebreaker.
Remarkably, despite the Patriots poor showing in Week 1 against the Raiders, there were 65 percent of all entries picked Maye and Patriots to win in Miami, which was even a chore for Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.
I must admit I reluctantly picked the Patriots, more going against the slumping Dolphins.
It tells me the Patriots fans are betting on this young QB and his new coach, Mike Vrabel.
The Patriots are small underdogs (+1.5) on Sunday, hosting the Steelers. My guess is the Patriots will be the pick by more than 75 percent of entries.
Stay tuned.
As for Week 2, I had 10 winners out of the 15 games, which was decent, just above the average.
All of the T-shirt winners had 11 or more correct picks and were within six points of the Pats 33 points.
In fact, 25 entries had 13 wins. One had 14 .. not too shabby.
I believe the Steelers game in Foxborough will come down to the final seconds, like last Sunday did.