The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Kenosha: Media-Induced Mistrial?

Posted on | November 16, 2021 | Comments Off on Kenosha: Media-Induced Mistrial?

This disturbing report from Jack Posobiec (via Legal Insurrection, tipped from a commenter in today’s earlier post) shows exactly what can be expected when the media engages in deliberate misrepresentation of criminal cases. We live in an era of neo-Stalinism, where The Party organizes show trials preceded by propaganda that demonizes the accused as an “enemy of the people” (vrag naroda).

People can be taught to hate a person they never met if, as in the case of Kyle Rittenhouse, they are fed a controlled diet of lies and distortions, intended to portray someone in the worst possible light. There are people on the Left, cocooned inside the media echo chamber of hate propaganda, who sincerely believe that Rittenhouse is a sort of right-wing assassin, who went to Kenosha to kill “racial justice” protesters. This is the narrative of the Rittenhouse case created by CNN and MNSBC, and amplified by every propaganda organ of The Party.

Did I mention that actual Communists are in Kenosha?

In a sane world, killing Communists would not only be legal, it would be encouraged as a patriotic duty. Pray for America.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!




 

Category: Crime, Wisconsin

Kenosha: Expect a Hung Jury

Posted on | November 16, 2021 | Comments Off on Kenosha: Expect a Hung Jury

Kyle Rittenhouse should be acquitted, but he won’t be, because there are almost certainly two or three jury members in Kenosha who will vote for conviction no matter what the law or the evidence may be. Recall that it was Democratic voters who rioted in Kenosha, unleashing three nights of vandalism and arson because domestic abuser Jacob Blake got shot by a cop while violently resisting arrest. If you think it’s a bad thing for cops to shoot violent criminals, and if you think torching a used-car lot is an appropriate form of “peaceful protest,” you’re obviously a Democratic voter — the Kenosha riot was a Joe Biden campaign rally.

“This is case-closed self-defense. Democrats allow mob violence to rule the streets. Americans have the right to defend themselves.”

That’s what I said the day after the shooting, and I haven’t changed my mind, but the pro-riot/anti-police Democrats haven’t changed their minds either and, if there are just two or three Democrats on the Rittenhouse jury, that will be enough to block a “not guilty” verdict.

No Democrat cares about facts or the law:

“Why did President Biden suggest that Kyle Rittenhouse on trial in Kenosha is a white supremacist?” Fox News’s Peter Doocey asked the press secretary this week during a news conference.
Psaki let out a loud, long sigh, as if it’s tiresome to be asked about an issue the Biden team previously was very eager to discuss.
“What I’m not going to speak to right now is anything about an ongoing trial, nor the president’s past comments,” responded Psaki. “What I can reiterate for you is the president’s view that we shouldn’t have, broadly speaking, vigilantes patrolling our communities with assault weapons. We shouldn’t have opportunists corrupting peaceful protests by rioting and burning down the communities they claim to represent anywhere in the country.”
The Biden campaign tweeted a video on Sept. 30, 2020, with the accompanying caption, “There’s no other way to put it: the President of the United States refused to disavow white supremacists on the debate stage last night.” The video includes images of Rittenhouse taken on the night of the riots.

(Hat-tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.) The prosecution of this case was a circus sideshow from start to finish, and if you wonder why crime is rampant in America’s cities, just think of how much effort went into prosecuting Kyle Rittenhouse, and how little effort — in fact, no effort at all — Kenosha devoted to keeping the dangerous criminal JoJo Rosenbaum behind bars. If Rosenbaum had been in jail, where he belonged, nobody would have gotten shot that night, but Kenosha turned Rosenbaum loose and, as Tucker Carlson said, JoJo “died as he had lived, trying to touch an unwilling minor.” I’m glad he’s dead.




 

Category: Crime, Wisconsin

In The Mailbox: 11.15.21

Posted on | November 16, 2021 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 11.15.21

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

Some people won’t learn anything from history.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Examples Of Homemade Guns Found In The Wild
EBL: The Song of Lunch, also, Red Notice
Twitchy: Lefty Activist With “Over One Thousand Soldiers Ready To Go” Threatens To Come To Next School Board Meeting “Locked & Loaded”
Louder With Crowder: “You Think Sitting Back And Complying Will Get You By? You Are Wrong!”, also, Kyle Rittenhouse’s Mom Asked About Suing Joe Biden For Defamation, Gives Perfect Six Word Answer
Vox Popoli: What Is So Hard To Understand?, The Barbarossa Question, and We’re Not Locked Out By You

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Humility & Pride, also, Sexual Demons
American Conservative: Durham Indicts Danchenko, also, Time To Trust Bust Big Tech
American Greatness: Don’t Cede The Streets To Violent Communists, also, Federally Funded Nonprofits Are Running Illegal Immigrant Processing Centers In Nice Hotels, Helping Illegals Avoid Arrest
American Power: The Problem Of Loudoun County Schools, also, America Is Built On A Great Culture. Progressives Want To Abandon It
American Thinker: Why Are COVID Cases Spiking Again? also, Don’t Let Leftists Gaslight You On Critical Race Theory
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: Santiago De Cuba Teeming With Repressive Squads, Snitches, & Plainclothes Thugs, also, 15-N Begins With An Act Of Repudiation In Front Of Sally Gonzalez’ House
BattleSwarm: Did CRT-Pushing Ariz. School Board Prez Break Federal Law? also, Drone Swarm Boogaloo
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted American, SpaceX Launches 53 More Starlink Sats, and Russian Anti-Sat Test Creates 1500 More Pieces Of Space Junk
Cafe Hayek: Yesterday’s Left Vs. Today’s Left, also, I Do Not Understand How Some People Think
CDR Salamander: Time For A Maritime Department? Jimmy Drennan On Midrats
Da Tech Guy: Under The Fedora, The Ground Game In Virginia, and How Long Can MSNBC Viewers Fall For The Lies?
Don Surber: NYT – Censor Huck Finn But Not Porn, Flashback – January 12, 2017, and Why They Hate The 1950s
First Street Journal: A Few Real Journalists Challenge The Woke “Journolism” Of The Credentialed Media
Gates Of Vienna: Memorial To Samuel Paty Vandalized, Austria Locks Down The Unvaxxed, and Poland In The Spotlight
The Geller Report: Rittenhouse Defense Makes Closing Arguments – Comes Right Out & Calls DA Binger A Liar, also, The Great Divestment Wars So Far – Israel 8, Unilever 0
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, Callisto, and I’m Not Making This Up, You Know
Hollywood In Toto: How Billy Bathgate Shattered All The Gangster Movie Rules, also, Marc Maron – Cancel Culture Critics Are “Right Wing”, “Fascists”
The Lid: Iran-Backed Houthi Terrorists Plunge Biden Into SECOND Hostage Crisis, also, MSNBC Anchor Blasted For Cheerleading Biden’s Inflation Problem
Legal Insurrection: Students & Faculty Demand Revocation Of Prof’s Honorary Degree Because He’s Christian, also, North Dakota Becomes 13th State To Ban Critical Race Theory In Schools
Nebraska Energy Observer: Random Observations, also, Tragedy & Horror
Outkick: Party On In Starkville! Miss. State Beats Auburn 43-34 After Biggest Comeback In School History, also, Jayhawks Complete Upset Against UT 57-56, Crowd Chants “SEC!” At Embarrassed Longhorns
Power Line: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion – Does It Help?, Consumer Confidence Falls To 10-Year Low, and Crime In Progress
Shark Tank: Marco Rubio Slams Socialist Hypocrite Danny Glover Over Cuba
Shot In The Dark: Game On, Dereliction Of “Duty”, and Swallowed By The Cracks
The Political Hat: Microsoft Goes All In On Wokeness, also, Diagnosis – Climate Change
This Ain’t Hell: Stupid People Of The Week, NJ Gets Tougher On Stolen Valor, and Tulsi Gabbard Defends Kyle Rittenhouse
Transterrestrial Musings: The Left’s Bungled Revolution, Anti-Racism, and The Boring Company
Victory Girls: Inflation Will Take Joe Biden Down Regardless Of Spin, also, The Media Finally Admits Kamala Harris Is Terrible
Volokh Conspiracy: Why Did Judge Dismiss Weapons Charges Against Kyle Rittenhouse?
Weasel Zippers: Bad Orange Woman Claims Politics Are To Blame For Concern Over Rising Prices, also, Almost Half Of Americans Polled Say Biden Has Accomplished “Little Or Nothing” 
The Federalist: SNL’s Weird Joe Rogan Spoof Exposes The Show For What It Really Is, also, Former Lt. Gov Rebecca Kleefisch Sues Wisc. Elections Commission For Flagrantly Breaking The Law
Mark Steyn: Gold-Digger In Gold Lame – Claudette Colbert and Midnight, Beware The Jabber-Woke? and My Lady Nicotine

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Category: Linkagery

Patriots Dominate Browns, 45-7

Posted on | November 15, 2021 | Comments Off on Patriots Dominate Browns, 45-7

Mac Jones hands off to Rhamondre Stevenson.

On Saturday, I wrote that if the New England Patriots could “get a convincing win” against the Cleveland Browns, fans would begin talking about the team in Super Bowl terms. Sunday’s 45-7 win was about as convincing as could be and, having won four games in a row, the Patriots now have the second-longest current winning streak in the NFL (the Tennessee Titans have won six in a row). They now have just three days to get ready for a Thursday night game at Atlanta. The Falcons got beat badly by Dallas on Sunday, and New England will be heavily favored Thursday, where a win would put them at 7-4 with six games left to play.

The intriguing possibilities of which Mike Reiss speaks are obvious enough. At this point, is there any team the Patriots can’t beat? They’re two weeks away from a home game against the Titans, currently the best team in the AFC, and you can’t rule out a New England victory. No rookie quarterback has ever led his team to the Super Bowl, but Mac Jones is starting to look like he may be the first to do it:

Mac Jones looked like a seasoned veteran with his best performance of the season, raising the possibility this team could make a legitimate postseason run. Most promising for the Patriots is Jones had been grinding through a couple of so-so games the previous two weeks, sparking questions about whether he had possibly hit a rookie wall. He smashed through it against the Browns (19-of-23 for 198 yards, three TDs), displaying the accuracy and decision-making that had shown up more consistently earlier in the season, and he was poised and on-point in third-and-long situations. The Patriots have proved they can consistently run the ball, and with Jones and the passing game finding its groove, the offense looked the best it has all season.

See how the artful euphemism “legitimate postseason run” is used there to avoid what every Patriot fan is thinking: Super Bowl, baby!

The way New England played Sunday could convince any doubter:

A month ago, the New England Patriots were 2-4 and appeared headed for a second straight season of irrelevance.
Four games later, they are back in a familiar spot as a playoff contender in the AFC.
Mac Jones threw three touchdown passes, rookie Rhamondre Stevenson rushed for a career-high 100 yards and two scores, and the Patriots rolled to a 45-7 victory over Cleveland Sunday as the Browns lost quarterback Baker Mayfield to a knee injury.
The Browns (5-5) have dropped four of their last six and haven’t won at New England since 1992, when Bill Belichick was their coach.
Jones finished 19 of 23 for 198 yards passing. Hunter Henry added a pair of TD receptions as New England (6-4) went 7 of 9 on third down.
“That’s how you want to play the game of football,” Jones said. “It’s just a three-level game and when we click on all cylinders, we can be pretty good.” . . .
Cleveland got on the scoreboard first via a 2-yard TD from Mayfield to Austin Hooper.
New England responded with a 15-play, 83-yard drive on which Jones went 6-for-6 for 55 yards. The drive took 9:39 off the clock, concluding when Jones tossed a 3-yard touchdown to Hunter Henry, his sixth TD catch in seven games.
The Patriots then turned defense into offense. Kyle Dugger returned an interception 37 yards, setting up a 5-yard TD run by Stevenson.
J.C. Jackson dropped what would have been an interception on the Browns’ ensuing possession, forcing a punt that pinned the Patriots on the 1-yard line. It didn’t stop them from marching the length of the field in 11 plays and scoring on Jones’ 23-yard TD pass to Kendrick Bourne.
The Patriots added two more long drives in the second half. They marched 92 yards to Stevenson’s second TD, a 2-yard run in the third quarter. Backup quarterback Brian Hoyer led a 95-yard scoring drive in the fourth.

Putting together four long touchdown drives like that is what inspired the familiar victorious feeling Mike Reiss described. As in the glorious days of Brady — Saint Thomas of Foxborough — the Patriots cranked out first downs like a machine, converting on 7 of 9 third downs. Here are two of those conversions, from their 99-yard first half drive:

Being a ’Bama fan, naturally I want to brag on Mac Jones, but what about that rookie running back Rhamondre Stevenson? He was a fourth-round draft pick, and the reason he went so low in the draft — 120th overall — was because he’d gotten suspended at Oklahoma for some unexplained disciplinary infraction, creating “character” questions. NFL teams are reluctant to spend big money on a player who has off-field issues, but the Patriots took a chance with Stevenson, and he looks like a winner. Now, back to bragging on Mac, whose accuracy was amazing:

To hit that kind of pass against double coverage? Wow.

As Jones himself said, though, it was an all-around team effort, and if the Patriots can replicate that performance down the stretch, there is absolutely no limit to how far they can go this year. Even though the players constantly repeat they’re taking the season one day at a time, fans are under no such obligation, and if New England fans aren’t yet thinking ahead to Feb. 13, they should be. All the way, baby!




 

Category: Football

Rule 5 Sunday: Denise Richards

Posted on | November 14, 2021 | Comments Off on Rule 5 Sunday: Denise Richards

— compiled by Wombat-socho

This week, another actress from the hideously campy Starship Troopers movie. Denise Richards played the part of Carmen Ibañez, Johnny Rico’s high school classmate who gets selected for pilot training on account of her math skills. We see a lot more of Richards’ character in the movie than the book (in both senses of that word) and also unlike the Carmen from the book, she keeps her hair. Here she is in a revealing (sic) scene from the movie.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Lt. Ibañez, allegedly

Ninety Miles From Tyranny: Hot Pick Of The Late Night, The 90 Miles Mystery Box, Episode #1533, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns. 

Animal Magnetism: Rule 5 FTC Friday and the Saturday Gingermageddon.

EBL: Steve Bannon & The J6 Witchhunters, Gabrielle Aplin, “Comply Or Die”, Eliana Jones, Paige Clark, Yellowstone Season 4, Dexter: New Blood, The Duchess Of Cornwall Mocks Joe Biden, How Sweden Avoided COVID Disaster, and City On A Hill

A View From The Beach: Shailene Woodley Stands by Her Man, Every Year, Emrat Discusses Pros and Cons of Being a Sex Symbol, Fish Pic Friday – Christin Kruger, Demi Putting the “Q” in QAnon, Tattoo Thursday, The Wednesday Wetness, Blue Crab Genome Sequenced, It’s Masks Now, Masks Forever!, Tuesday Tanlines, The Monday Morning Stimulus and Sunday Sunrise.

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

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Category: Rule 5

FMJRA 2.0: Do You Wanna Hit It?

Posted on | November 14, 2021 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: Do You Wanna Hit It?

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Almost time for #BurnLootMurder to grab some more headlines…and shoes

Rule 5 Sunday: Dina Meyer
Animal Magnetism
Ninety Miles From Tyranny
EBL
A View From The Beach
Proof Positive

8 Killed as Houston Hip Hop Show Becomes ‘Mass Casualty Incident’
EBL

Aspiring Rapper Update: The Promising Criminal Career of ‘JayDaYoungan’
EBL
357 Magnum

Aspiring Rapper Update: Mom Shocked by the Unexpected Death of ‘Lil Theze’
The Pirate’s Cove
EBL
357 Magnum

The Mud Below
EBL
357 Magnum

13 ‘Republicans’ Hand Joe Biden a Win
EBL

FMJRA 2.0: Mental Door
EBL
A View From The Beach

Defense Wins Football Games
EBL

Guess Who’s in the NFL Playoff Hunt?
EBL

AOC Goes to War With James Carville
EBL
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 11.08.21
EBL
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

Miss Knoxville and ‘White Privilege’
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 11.09.21
EBL
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

CNN: Failure, Denial and Nostalgia
EBL
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 11.10.21
EBL
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

Let’s Discuss the Media’s Shameless Dishonesty in the Kyle Rittenhouse Case
EBL
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

Brooke Litchfield Is a Dangerous Whore
EBL

Nancy Pelosi’s Jan. 6 Witch-Hunt Committee Burns Its First Witch
Whatfinger
EBL
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 11.12.21 (Afternoon Edition)
EBL
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

In The Mailbox: 11.12.21 (Evening Edition)
EBL
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

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Category: FMJRA Award

When the ‘Progressive Bubble’ Bursts

Posted on | November 14, 2021 | Comments Off on When the ‘Progressive Bubble’ Bursts

Sarah Beth Burwick is an excellent example of how disillusionment occurs on the Left. Once you start questioning the narrative on some point — any point — you begin to distrust the narrative generally. In Burwick’s case, the breaking point was the “believe the science” COVID-19 nonsense, the narrative promoting eternal lockdowns, vaccine mandates, etc. Burwick is a concerned mother, and locking her kids out of school was the pin that burst what she calls the “progressive bubble.”

In a sense, Burwick is like David Horowitz, a lifelong leftist (indeed, a “red diaper” baby) who became disillusioned in large part because his proximity to the Black Panthers gave him direct knowledge that contradicted the radical myth. The Panthers literally murdered Horowitz’s friend, and got away with it — and this wasn’t the only such case. When a group is celebrated by the Left as the “vanguard of the revolution,” and you know for a fact that they are murderous criminals, this tends to make you question your commitment to the revolution. Such is the thumbnail summary of Horowitz’s disillusionment.

It astonishes me, but perhaps should not, that anyone interested in the Kyle Rittenhouse case wouldn’t have known the identity of the three rioters he shot. Within days of the Kenosha shootings, the basic biographical information was readily available, and blogged here:

Sex Offender Joseph Rosenbaum Taunted
Armed Civilians: ‘Shoot Me, N–r!’
— Aug. 28, 2020

Kenosha: Anthony Huber Was a Felon,
and Jacob Blake Was Dangerous
— Aug. 30, 2020

OK, so if all my blog readers knew the identity of the rioters Rittenhouse shot, how could anyone not know this? Mainly because the kind of “progressive bubble” that surrounds people like Sarah Beth Burwick is so omnipresent. She is Jewish and lives in Montreal, and it may be that not a single person of her direct acquaintance is conservative. In the United States, 71% of Jewish voters in 2016 voted for Hillary Clinton; we may safely say the Jewish community is two-thirds “progressive,” and in Montreal? Urban Canadian Jews? It’s easy to understand that anyone in such a “bubble” wouldn’t even know the rioters in Kenosha were white.

Horowitz has talked about how, for many Jews, devotion to tikkun olam leads to a nearly religious loyalty to leftism, and thus one becomes an apostate — a renegade, a heretic — by abandoning the Left. This sense of political loyalty as the basis of identity makes the “bubble” almost bulletproof in its impenetrability. And it’s a major reason why the Left so habitually employs accusations of “racism” and “white supremacy” against the Right, because this triggers a particular memory cascade among Jews: If Trump is a would-be Hitler and Republicans are crypto-Nazis, then the GOP is an existential menace which every member of the Jewish community has a moral duty to oppose.

So yes, it’s entirely possible that Sarah Beth Burwick never questioned the claim that Kyle Rittenhouse was a “white supremacist,” who aggressively targeted “racial justice protesters.” In fact, of the three people Rittenhouse shot, only Gaige Grosskreutz, a member of a Marxist group, was politically active. JoJo Rosenbaum was a criminal psychotic and Anthony Huber had a domestic violence record.

And all of them were white. Also, while we’re at it, how does “racial justice” justify arson and looting? Doesn’t the fact that Jacob Blake was terrorizing his domestic abuse victim matter? But asking such questions requires us first to be skeptical of the media narrative about what happened in Kenosha, and about the Black Lives Movement more generally, and skepticism isn’t permitted inside the “progressive bubble.”

Once you start questioning the narrative about anything — COVID-19, in Sarah Beth Burwick’s case — it’s like pulling the thread that quickly unravels the entire garment. A complete worldview can be shattered almost overnight, and I know this, because it happened to me, during the first two years of the Clinton administration, when I went from being a “yellow dog Democrat” to being a right-winger in a matter of months.




 

Category: Progressivism

If the Patriots Beat the Browns …

Posted on | November 13, 2021 | Comments Off on If the Patriots Beat the Browns …

Rookie defensive lineman Christian Barmore

Look, I don’t want to get too hyped up here. At 5-4, New England is still just one game above .500, but they’ve won three in a row after last week’s win over the Carolina Panthers and — interesting comparison — this is their first streak of three consecutive wins since Tom Brady led the Patriots to an 8-0 start in 2019. It is of course too early to compare rookie QB Mac Jones to Saint Thomas of Foxborough (for such is Brady’s status among Patriots fans), but if New England can get a convincing win in Sunday’s home game with Cleveland, fans will begin talking of the prospect of Roman numerals, IYKWIMAITYD.

Is that crazy? Perhaps, but after a 2-4 start, the Patriots have begun to gel as a team, integrating their rookies and free agents into Coach Bill Belichick’s system, and Sunday’s game will be a big test of whether they are serious playoff contenders. Most of the experts pick New England to win at home, but the consensus is a very close game with Cleveland, which is coming off an impressive 41-16 win over Cincinnati. The word “physical” is being used in a lot of forecasts for this game, as the Browns rely on their muscular offensive line to move the ball on the ground and, even with star RB Nick Chubb out of the lineup due to COVID-19, Cleveland’s running game is still very powerful.

New England’s defense has been impressive, and were crucial to last week’s victory over Carolina. Patriots cornerback J.C. Jackson — picked up by Belichick as an undrafted free agent out of Maryland three years ago — had two interceptions, including a pick-six. During this week’s “Belichick Breakdown” video, the coach explained how Jackson’s pick-six was made possible by the heads-up play of defensive lineman Christian Barmore and linebacker Matthew Judon. Barmore, a rookie out of Alabama — Roll Tide! — was not fooled by the play-action and was pursuing Panthers QB Sam Darnold, while Judon released from his coverage of the tight end to add more pressure on Darnold, who made a desperation pass that Jackson picked off and returned for the TD.

The Patriots’ defense has allowed only about 19 points per game, but that includes giving up 28 points in an early loss to New Orleans and 35 points to the Cowboys. Their past two road wins — 24-6 at Carolina and 27-24 at the Chargers — are more typical of how well New England is playing on defense, and most experts predict a score Sunday in the range of Patriots 24, Browns 21. Almost no one thinks Cleveland will get more than three touchdowns in Foxborough, and if the Patriots defense can hold the score down, it’s a winnable game. When you compare the Browns and Patriots in their games against common opponents (the Texans and Chargers), New England’s defense looks stronger. Cleveland gave up 21 points to the Texans, while the Patriots allowed 22, but the Chargers beat the Browns 47-42 — with Los Angeles QB Justin Herbert throwing for nearly 400 yards — which suggests that Cleveland’s secondary is vulnerable. That means it’s up to Mac Jones on Sunday.

Both of New England’s top running backs, Damien Harris and Rhamondre Stevenson, missed practice all week due to concussion protocols, and are listed as “questionable” to play Sunday. That means the Patriots will probably have only Brandon Bolden and J.J. Taylor in the running game, which would in turn put more pressure on Mac to have a solid performance at quarterback. You’ve got to think Jones has been watching a lot of film of that Browns-Chargers game, looking to rack up a 400-yard game against Cleveland, but Patriots fans would be happy if their rookie QB can just have an average game, since Jones currently ranks 15th among NFL quarterbacks, ahead of such veterans as Ben Roethlisberger and (ahem) Cleveland’s Baker Mayfield.

Early in the season, Jones had problems because the Patriots were rebuilding their offensive line. Mac’s been sacked 17 times, but still has managed to rank 9th in completion percentage and 10th in total completions. His yards per pass attempt is only 19th in the league, but that’s better than Roethlisberger or KC’s vaunted Patrick Mahomes.

So while Sunday’s game will be crucial in terms of New England’s chances for winning Super Bowl LVI making the playoffs, it is also likely to be a major test for Mac Jones. His performance as a rookie has been endlessly analyzed and critiqued by ESPN panelists and other commentators, but Jones undeniably has the ability to become a great quarterback. We have seen the evidence with our own eyes, as when Mac came back after throwing a pick-six against the Cowboys and, on his next play from scrimmage, hit Kendrick Bourne for a 75-yard TD.

If you watch the video, you’ll see Jones drops back to his own 15-yard line, and the pass hits Bourne at the Dallas 45, meaning it traveled 40 yards in the air — and yet critics say Jones has a “weak” arm?

That play just happened to be the longest TD pass by a New England quarterback since Tom Brady in 2017. And the week after their loss to Dallas, the Patriots hung 54 points on the Jets, with Mac throwing for 307 yards and two touchdowns. Everybody reacted to that the same way, “Yeah, but it’s the Jets.” However, the Patriots haven’t lost a game since, and return to Foxborough this Sunday just a half-game behind the Buffalo Bills in the AFC East. If they can avoid mistakes and play their best game, there’s no reason New England can’t dominate Cleveland. This game will get the widest national TV coverage of any Patriots game so far this year, and if they turn in a truly dominant performance? Well, I expect I won’t be the only one talking Roman numerals then.




 

Category: Football
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