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A home underdog? Thats not a familiar role for Bill Belichick and Tom Brady but thats the reality for a struggling New England Patriots team getting ready to host what has been the best team in football, the Cincinnati Bengals. Catch the game on TSN with coverage starting at 7pm et/4pm pt. The unbeaten Bengals have allowed a league-low 33 points in 2014 and are the only team in the NFL to allow 16 points or fewer in every game. Offensively, Cincinnati quarterback Andy Dalton has piled up a solid 95.4 passer rating while distributing the ball to multiple threats. Three different Bengals have at least 12 receptions in the teams first three games -- wide receivers A.J. Green and Mohamed Sanu as well as and running back Giovani Bernard. This is nothing more than a good first quarter (of the season), said veteran offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth. You cant let up. October is a month for adjustments. Teams begin to find out who they are. October is a big month. The Bengals come into that big month off a bye week but when last seen in Week 3 the club was punishing Tennessee, 33-7. Bernard rushed for a pair of scores against the Titans and Dalton became the first Cincinnati quarterback to record a receiving touchdown. It was a good effort in all three phases, noted Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis. Probably our best effort of the season. We did a good job of handling the windy conditions offensively. Dalton finished 15-of-23 for 169 yards and one interception, but hauled in an 18-yard scoring pass from Sanu in the second quarter as the Bengals extended their franchise-record, home-winning streak to 12 games. Green returned from a toe injury to amass 102 yards on six catches against Tennessee and Bernard totaled 47 yards on 14 carries, while rookie Jeremy Hill chipped in with a rushing score. Things have been far tougher, almost uncharacteristically so, for the Patriots, who are coming off a 41-14 drubbing at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night Football. Dressed in a sea of red, the raucous crowd at Arrowhead Stadium set another Guinness world record as Jamaal Charles returned from a sprained right ankle and scored three touchdowns in the rout. The Chiefs fans reclaimed the record for loudest outdoor sports venue in the first half. Their noise level of 142.2 decibels broke the 137.6 mark that the Seattle Seahawks faithful set on Dec. 2. Kansas City previously set the record on Oct. 13. New England failed to crack the 300-yard barrier for the third time in four games in that noise after doing it just four times last season. The Patriots totaled 290 yards. Brady was 14-of-23 for 159 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions and Brandon LaFell caught six passes for 119 yards and a score for the Patriots, who suffered their worst defeat since losing to San Diego 41-17 in 2005. Couldnt really move the ball consistently on offense and turned the ball over in the second half, Belichick surmised New England holds a 14-9 advantage over the Bengals in the all-time series between the two clubs but Cincinnati topped the Pats, 13-6, last year by holding New England to 248 net yards. Were a totally different team and Im sure theyre a totally different team, said Bengals defensive end Wallace Gilberry. WHAT TO WATCH FOR There is some serious debate going on regarding Brady, who is just 60 passing yards shy of becoming the sixth player in NFL history with 50,000. Some believe the 37-year-old, three-time Super Bowl winner has reached what is an inevitable decline for any athlete and the one battle we all eventually lose, the fight against Father Time. Others insist Brady has plenty left in the tank but is struggling because the Patriots have failed him by not providing adequate threats outside the numbers or a competent offensive line. Whatever thesis you subscribe to, heres the reality: the Pats have the 29th-reanked offense in the NFL, Bradys 79.1 passer rating is a dismal 29th in the league and hes connecting on what projects to be a career-worst 59.1 percent of the passes. Things got so bad in Kansas City that Belichick lifted the long-time star for rookie second-round pick Jimmy Garoppolo, who promptly led New England on a late scoring drive. Like (coach Belichick) always says, ignore the noise and just stay focused on what we need to do, Brady said. Stay focused on what our process is to try to make the improvement. Weve got an important job to do this week and the clock is ticking. Opposing defenses no longer fear the Patriots and are jumping the underneath routes to Julian Edelman and Ron Gronkowski with no fear of getting beat over the top. The Bengals, on the other hand, are extremely balanced and can beat you in a multitude of ways offensively. They have a lot of good players, Belichick admitted. Theyre well-coached. Theyre tough, theyre physical. Its been a while since Ive seen a team thats as complete as they are. Dalton receives a lot of criticism and he is certainly not Brady in his prime but hes been tremendously consistent with 33 career wins since arriving as a second-round pick out of TCU in 2011. At the end of the day, youre not going against the quarterback, but everybody is going to compare you to the other quarterback, Dalton said. Anytime you can win against guys like (Brady), its big. It shows what this team is capable of doing. Ive got a lot of confidence. You go into those games expecting to win. OVERALL ANALYSIS The Bengals should expect to win. While the Patriots will remain in the postseason hunt for the foreseeable future simply because the AFC East is so bad, its looking more likely that the Bengals have replaced them as one of the few, true Super Bowl contenders on the AFC side of things. Cincinnati is just too well-rounded in all phases to lose to a Patriots team which cant seem to get out of its own way offensively. Sports Network predicted outcome: Bengals 27, Patriots 17 Blake Comeau Jersey . And once again, Team Homan emerged as the victor with the reigning national champions defeating Team Sweeting at the Pintys All-Star Curling Skins Game Friday night in the tournaments opening draw at The Fenlands Banff Recreation Centre in beautiful Banff National Park. Dino Ciccarelli Jersey . He insists hes not counting. "If youre thinking hits, youre not paying attention to wins," Altuve said Sunday after leading the Houston Astros past the Texas Rangers 3-2. http://www.authenticstarspro.com/Jon-casey-stars-jersey/ . Brad Malone had the other goal for the Monsters (1-1-0), while Elliott chipped in an assist for a three-point night and the games first star. Bryan Lerg also had two assists. Corban Knight and Max Reinhart scored for the Heat (1-1-0), who opened their season Friday with a 5-2 win over the Monsters in Cleveland. Esa Lindell Jersey . 3 seed Phillip Kohlschreiber from Germany. Defending champion Marin Cilic also reached the semifinals -- his fourth in Zagreb -- defeating fellow Croat Ivan Dodig. German qualifier Bjorn Phau beat Dudi Sela of Israel to reach his first semifinals in nearly five years. Brian Bellows Jersey . Paire broke Giraldo twice and lost his serve once in both sets to wrap up the win in 1 hour, 10 minutes. He will next face Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain, who advanced when Jurgen Zopp of Estonia retired with an injury at 5-5 in the first set.TORONTO - Connor McDavid will be out five to six weeks with a fractured bone in his right hand, an injury that could put his participation for Canada in the world junior championship in doubt. The Erie Otters announced Wednesday afternoon that McDavid suffered a fracture of the fifth metacarpal bone in a fight Tuesday night with Mississaugas Bryson Cianfrone when he missed and hit the top of the boards. The fractured bone extends from the base of the pinkie finger to the wrist. McDavid will not require surgery. The 17-year-old junior hockey phenom saw a hand specialist in Toronto after X-rays after Tuesdays game were not definitive. Six weeks from Wednesday falls on Dec. 24. We kind of thought that there was a chance it would be like that, Otters owner and general manager Sherry Bassin said in a phone interview. We were hoping theyd say four. McDavid will almost certainly miss Canadas world junior camp in mid-December. Hockey Canada must finalize its roster for the tournament Dec. 25, and the team plays its first game Dec. 26 in Montreal against Slovakia. Bassin told Hockey Canada he was confident McDavid would be ready to play in the tournament. Lets be honest, hes one of the best players in the world, Bassin said. Theyre pulling for him. They want him to be ready, all of Canada wants him to be ready. The whole country that follows hockey wants Connor McDavid to be ready. Reached by phone at his hotel in Regina before official word of a time frame, Canadian world junior coach Benoit Groulx said its too early to know about McDavids status for that tournament. He said Hockey Canada would stay in touch with the Otters and continue to monitor the situation There is several weeks before world juniors, so its too early to know, Groulx said. We hope that hell be able to be there, but I dont have that answer yet. Groulx said this isnt the first time the program has dealt with an uncertain injury situation. At the Olympic level, Hockey Canada wasnt sure if Steven Stamkos would play in Sochi after he broke his leg a year to the day of McDavids injury. McDavid was set to play for Team OHL in Thursdays Super Series game against a Russian junior team in Peterborough, Ont., but was removed from the roster as expected. Him being able to play in the world junior tournament is the bigger question. Is this bad timing for Hockey Canada? It is, Groulx said. Well see how it plays out. The day before a game in Buffalo, N.Y., last month, McDavid said he didnt consider himself a lock to make Canadas world junior team despite being a sure bet to go first in the draft and playing last year at the age of 16. Bassin explained that at the time as an example of McDavids humility. But he also wasnt buying it. If he isnt a lock to be on the world-junior team, I want to see that team play because if theyve got 20 players better than him, they dont even have to play in the tournament, Bassin said.dddddddddddd If theyve got 20 players better than him, they should give them the gold medal on Christmas Day. McDavid, who wears the C for Erie, is considered among the candidates to be Canadas captain. The Newmarket, Ont., native leads the Ontario Hockey League with 16 goals and 35 assists in just 18 games this season. The Otters lead the Western Conference with a 16-1-1 record. His injury ignited debate around hockey about whether star players should be fighting. This was officially McDavids second fight of the season, though he did not throw any punches. Thats in line with Otters protocol for McDavid, which Bassin said in multiple radio interviews was for him to hug opposing players and wrap them up rather than throw punches. We didnt instruct him not to fight, Bassin said on the phone. This is an action with a reaction. Popular CBC personality Don Cherry, normally a fan of fights, said on Global News that theres no way (McDavid) shouldve ever been fighting. He added that when he coached the Boston Bruins he wouldnt allow star defenceman Brad Park to drop the gloves. Current Boston coach Claude Julien said McDavid would have been praised for fighting had he not been hurt. I dont think this is a guy that goes out and does it all the time, Julien said at the Bruins morning skate before their game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Those things are going to happen, unfortunately. For a guy like him, hes trying to show that hell do whatever it takes to be a help to his hockey club. Leafs centre Nazem Kadri, himself a top prospect in the OHL a few years ago, knows what its like to get targeted. He called McDavids injury a freak accident. Obviously its unfortunate that that happened, Kadri said. Good for him for standing up for himself. ... You dont like to see it, but theres that compete level, especially in every young star, that enoughs enough and youre sick and tired of getting abused. Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly said the key was not to get caught up in fighting but that its what happens in hockey and you deal with it. Bruins defenceman Dennis Seidenberg said it was up to McDavid to decide to fight. Im sure he could have got out of it if he wanted to, but sometimes the ego takes over, and you just dont think about getting hurt, Seidenberg said. I mean, Im not a fighter, but once in a blue moon it happens. And you just dont think about getting hurt. McDavids injury hurts the Otters in the immediate future and could put a dent in Canadas chances of ending its world-junior gold-medal drought. But Bruins forward Milan Lucic isnt worried about McDavid in the long term. To be perfectly honest I dont think its really going to hurt his chances of going first or second in the draft, Lucic said. Hes got a long time still to recover and to get himself back to finish off the year. ' ' '