The New England Patriots should be getting a much needed boost to their offense this Sunday when the team travels down to New Orleans to take on the undefeated Saints in the Superdome as tight end Rob Gronkowski is likely to return after missing the first five weeks of the seasonrecovering from spinal surgery in June.
The Patriots (4-1) have a solid record so far this year, but the wins haven't come as easy as they usually do. Tom Brady hasn't been surrounded by his usual array of weapons but has still been dynamic enough to lead the Pats to a solid start to the year. Still, Brady has appeared frustrated at times due to the lack of depth the banged up Patriots have had, and getting his favorite go-to target back could offer a big lift for the team.
The Patriots were able to narrowly squeeze out two wins in the opening two weeks of the season when they topped the Buffalo Bills 23-21 in Week 1 and followed it up by beating the Jets by a 13-10 margin at home. Brady led them to a dominating victory over the winless Buccaneers in Week 3 before the team topped the Falcons 30-23 to start the season 4-0.
Last Sunday, however, things took a turn for the worse as the Pats dropped their first game of the season and only mustered up six points in a 13-6 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals that saw Brady lose his streak of 52 games in a row with at least one touchdown pass. The man who holds the record for most in a row is Brady's counterpart on Sunday in New Orleans' (5-0) signal caller Drew Brees.
If reports are true and Gronkowski is set to return, it would be a great time for him to do so as facing the Saints at home will be no easy task for the Patriots, especially with a thin roster.
The Patriots have been banged up this year with receiver Danny Amendola and running back Shane Vereen both just returning after missing time along with Gronk, and Brady knows the importance of getting some of these guys back.
"We've missed Danny for most of the season. We've missed Gronk for most of the season. We missed Shane for most of the season," Brady said on WEEI radio. "So, those are some pretty good players that we depended on going into the season to play a big role. And the fact of the matter is they haven't been out there. Those other guys are forced to do more and they've done a great job with it. We need to all get on the same page and we really haven't had a practice where we've had our whole offense out there yet. We gotta do that first of all and see what we can really do."
Gronkowski, 24, led all Patriots receivers last year with 11 touchdowns in 11 games while garnering 55 receptions for 790 yards just one year after scoring a personal-best 17 touchdowns with 90 receptions for 1,327 yards in his last full 16-game season in 2011.
Gronkowski enters his fourth season with New England and has developed a lot of chemistry with Brady. For his career, Gronkowski has appeared in 43 games and has 187 receptions for 2,663 yards and 38 touchdowns.
Facing Brees and the unbeaten Saints won't be a walk in the park, but the task of handing New Orleans its first loss would seem much less daunting if Brady has Gronkowski to throw to.
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