The New England Patriots travel to CenturyLink Field to face the Seahawks, their second game against an NFC West team this year.

This game is one that hasn’t had many headlines in the week with the verbal sparring taking place between the 49ers and the Giants but this game is an interesting one this gameweek.

The Seahawks are good, there’s no getting around that but the Pats are the class of the AFC. Brady and his O-line will be having restless nights leading up to this one with a Seattle defence that sacked Aaron Rodgers 8 times in one half earlier this year. The Pats line came in for criticism earlier this year with the lack of protection for Brady but since they have stepped up their game and have contributed nicely keeping Brady upright and making running lanes for New England running back quartet which has been more effective than anyone could have imagined.

The crowd in Seattle are loud and they will try and disrupt Brady and the best no huddle offence around which will be key in this game. With Belichick keeping quiet on whether versatile TE Aaron Hernandez will play Sunday I have a feeling he will get some action and this adds another dimension to this offence which is arguably the best around already so if Brady stays clean expect some plays with the likes of Gronk, Welker, Lloyd and company.

For me the key to this game is Marshawn Lynch. The Pats have been good against the run but Lynch presents a problem if Jerod Mayo and Brandon Spikes don’t bring their A game. This is why I don’t see the Patriots awful secondary been much of a factor.

Settles defence will keep them in this game but Lynch must make plays to give them a chance of walking away with a W. If the Patriots fly home with a win expect a Patriots run to materialise in the coming weeks.

Undoubtably the game of the week in the week 3 match ups has to be the New England Patriots travelling to the Baltimore Ravens a rematch from last seasons AFC Championship game which New England won after Billy Cundiff blew a gimme of a field goal with the last play of the game which would have sent the game into overtime.

When the schedules were released people were talking about the Patriots going 16-0 with one of (if not) the easiest schedules in the NFL and now people are talking about them starting 1-2! In reality this could happen to either team after the Ravens followed up their impressive opening win with a loss to the Eagles.

Some key things to watch in this game:

1. New Englands Offensive Line – with no Brian Waters or Matt Light and Logan Mankins plus Sebastian Vollmer not at 100% and not to forget Dan Connoly missing last week against the Cards there are real problems for this offensive line which has the job of keeping Tom Brady safe. The Baltimore pass rush isn’t the most fearsome in the NFL but after last weeks performance from the Pats Brady may be hearing footsteps with the slightest bit of pressure.

2. The Welker saga – WHAT ARE THEY DOING WITH WES WELKER?! Why the Pats are trying to phase Wes out of the offence is beyond most people including me. Sharing snaps with Julian Edelman and being targeted sparingly takes a huge part away from the offence that was so successful last year. With the unfortunate injury to Aaron Hernandez which will keep him out into October might pave a way for Welker back into this offence. Welker can be the difference in this game if he is used to his potential, no matter how good Ray Lewis was/still is he cant cover a guy with the speed of Welker from the slot if Brady gets the right protection and this would open up Gronk’s effectiveness.

3. What Joe Flacco will turn up? – Flacco outplayed Brady in the AFC Championship which shocked almost everyone who has an interest in the NFL, he followed that up with a near perfect display in week 1 against divisional rivals Cincinnati with a no-huddle type offence that he ran perfectly. Week 2 however was a different story especially the 2nd half where Flacco looked like Flacco of old throwing it underneath and not been very effective at all. Although the Pats defence looks a lot better than last year with the additions of 1st round draft picks Chandler Jones who has a look of Jason Pierre-Paul and Linebacker Dont’a Hightower I think they can still be dominated by a fast paced offence which the Ravens are capable of.

Whatever happens i’m sure this game will be very enjoyable and could be a preview of this year’s AFC Championship game.

Brendan Rodgers has left Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez, Pepe Reina, Glen Johnson, Martin Skrtel, Daniel Agger, Joe Allen and Martin Kelly at home on Merseyside for The Reds trip to Switzerland to face Young Boys in tonights Europa League clash.

Youngsters Samed Yesil, Suso, Andre Wisdom, Conor Coady, Adam Morgan, Jack Robinson and Dani Pacheco have all been included in the squad which gives the side an average age of 21 and includes seven teenagers. But I imagine Rodgers doesn’t intend on staring all of these young guns since he can call on the likes of vice-captain Jamie Carragher and also the young players that have featured heavily in Liverpool Premier League campaign such as Raheem Sterling, Jonjo Shelvey and the 20m pound superstar that is Jordan Henderson………

Rodgers has been quoted saying “There is no doubt the Premier League is our number one priority, I’ve made that clear from the off with the position with our squad.” I can understand this statement if it was solely meant for this week as Liverpool play Manchester United on sunday and what a game that would be for Rodgers to grab his first league win for his new side and also considering this is Liverpool’s worst start to a campaign in 100 years. Thinking on a broader scale I believe Rodgers must take the Europa League seriously this year as there is a huge expectation of European success at Anfield from their fans and although its not the Champions League they will take whatever they can get at this period of decline for Liverpool.

With the disappointment of the summer transfer window for Rodgers having missed out on key targets such as Clint Dempsey I believe Liverpool need a good firs half of the season to be able to attract the right kind of players in the January transfer window given the owners cough up some cash for him but that is a different matter all together.

If Liverpool lose tonight alarm bells will start ringing for the most loyal of Liverpool fans.

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After the awful start to Brendan Rodgers rein as Kop boss where everything that could go wrong did go wrong Liverpool responded with a very impressive performance against the champions where two defensive errors cost The Reds a thoroughly deserved 3 points and had to settle for a share of the spoils. Liverpool’s tough start continued at home to Arsenal who found their finishing touch through new boys Podolski and the very impressive Santi Carzola to up stage the home team who are still trying to buy into Rodgers pass and move style. In truth Liverpool trying to play that style of football against a pure footballing team like Arsenal is the wrong way to go as you need to bully Arsenal teams to be effective.

It has been an emotional last week for everyone connected with Liverpool Football Club after the families of the 96 won their 23 year battle to have the documents regarding the Hillsborough tragedy where 96 Liverpool fans died during the FA Cup Semi Final against Nottingham Forest on April 15th 1989. With the documents being made public the reports showed that the Liverpool fans were not to blame for the events which was what the police and certain newspapers claimed. In fact it came out that over 140 police statements were changed to portray the impression that the fans were to blame shifting the blame from the West Yorkshire Police who didn’t police the game as they should have. With all of this information being released most Liverpool fans would have expected to see a response from the players when they travelled to the Stadium of Light to face Sunderland for the Saturday tea time kick off.

Liverpool came out in custom made track suit tops with the number 96 printed on the back for the fans who lost their lives. The team continued the season as they started and failed to get the result after dominating the best part of the game. Opportunities fell to Liverpool time after time with Glen Johnson coming closest when he cut in off the left wing and curled a shot towards the top right corner to see it cannon back off the crossbar which is a sight far to familiar to Reds fans after they set a record for hitting the woodwork last season. One of the only bright sparks this season for Liverpool has been 17 year old winger Raheem Sterling and once again he showed why Brendan Rodgers rates him so highly with a flick around the Sunderland full back and whipped a dangerous ball across the box and with a bounce of a defender the ball fell to Suarez who tapped in to secure a point for his side.

There was a lot of positives to take from the game including Joe Allen’s continuing good form in the middle of the park next to inexperienced Jonjo Shelvey. Liverpool now find themselves in 17th position after 4 games without a win which is not how Rodgers would have wanted to begin his career at Liverpool and the fixture list only continues to make life difficult throwing a game with bitter rivals Manchester United this Sunday and with the tension still clear between the sides after the spat between Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra this could be a very ill tempered battle and is a game no one should miss!

JFT96