The last two weeks have seen the Patriots get back into typical form. And that form is losing. At least they haven’t been blown out or put up a whopping zero points in either of those games. While I anticipated a loss to the Dolphins in Miami, I held out hope that they would pull out a victory over the mediocre Washington Commanders. Unfortunately, an interception off the hands of JuJu Smith-Schuester during the final drive of the game saw the Patriots sadly come short with a final score of 20-17.

At this point, there is no hope for this team. However, this week they at least get to have the unique experience of traveling to Frankfurt, Germany to face off against the Indianapolis Colts.

Shipping Up to…Germany?

There will be no shipping up to Boston for any teams this week as the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts are headed to Frankfurt to play the NFL’s first-ever game in Germany. In recent years, the league has made attempts at expanding its audience by scheduling a few games in foreign countries. We have seen the likes of London and Mexico City, but now the international series has been expanded to Frankfurt.

As an avid NFL fan, I think these international games are a great way to captivate people around the world and generate an interest in football. Germany already boasts its own professional American football league that has been around for almost 50 years at this point, so I think those fans deserve to see the game played at its highest level. Unfortunately for them this year they got the dumpster fire that is the New England Patriots, but at least the sentiment remains.

Similarly to away games on the West Coast, the Patriots will need to make some special changes to their routines to combat any potential jetlag and the time difference. The last time the Patriots traveled overseas was in 2012 when they throttled the St. Louis Rams 45-7–that’s definitely not getting replicated this time–and the only player still left on the team is Matthew Slater, so this proves to be a new experience for the vast majority of the team.

With a unique challenge ahead, a few of the players have shared their plans for adjusting. David Andrews, the Patriots’ center, says he will avoid connecting to the in-flight WiFi in an attempt to get as much sleep as possible. As for Mac Jones, he has already moved his schedule to account for a decent portion of the six-hour time difference. The Patriots are slated to leave for Frankfurt on Thursday, November 9th, and will look to improve to 3-7 on the year.

The Injury Bug Strikes the Wide Receiver Room

A few weeks ago I highlighted how badly the Patriots had been affected by injuries. Since then, most of the positional groups have been on the surprise and we have seen better offensive line play, and gotten a few important defensive starters back into the lineup. However, the one position that seems to be constantly deteriorating is the wide receiver. Two weeks ago, Kendrick Bourne, one of the few bright spots of the offense, went down for the season with an ACL tear. On top of that major injury, the Patriots’ deep threat DeVante Parker has been sidelined on account of concussion protocol and is slotted to miss another game in Week 10.

If having the two top receivers out wasn’t bad enough, DeMario Douglas unexpectedly appeared on the injury report on Wednesday with an apparent ankle injury. Douglas is a promising rookie who is extremely talented and has shown flashes of his playmaking ability. He is an exciting replacement for Kendrick Bourne and shows a lot of potential moving forward. If he is unable to go this week, JuJu Smith-Schuester will be the only noteworthy receiver left, and he has been having quite the down year compared with his days in Pittsburgh and Kansas City.

These injuries just keep making a bad situation worse, and to be completely honest, I have no idea who will be the “weapons” for Mac Jones this week assuming Douglas cannot play. Hopefully, they can find some way to win and keep an undefeated record in Europe, but that would be a miracle.