[Editor’s note: Tom Curran is in the press box tonight at Gillette Stadium for the game between the Bills and Patriots. (Lucky bastard.) He’ll post updates as events warrant.]
Before the first quarter was up in the 2008 season opener, the Patriots lost their best offensive player to a left knee injury.
Tonight, their best defensive player -- linebacker Jerod Mayo -- toddled to the locker room with a right knee injury before the first quarter had ended.
Mayo didn’t appear to suffer anything as catastrophic as Tom Brady had last year. He was able to walk to the sidelines, sit on the Patriots bench, and walk under his own power and without a limp to the locker room.
His return has been announced as “questionable.”
Still, with the turnover on the New England defense from last season to this (not to mention the early lethargy of their offense early on) the Patriots cannot afford to go without Mayo for long.
If they do, they won’t just be wearing those throwback jerseys. They’ll be more closely resembling those Pat Patriot Era teams.