The news on Patriots linebacker Brandon Spikes isn't good, but it's not all too bad either.
According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, MRI's on Spikes' knee have indicated that Spikes has suffered a strain to his medial collateral ligament (MCL) and will be "week to week" with the injury.
Spikes initially hurt his knee while breaking up a 3rd down pass in the red zone yesterday against the Giants.
In recent weeks, Spikes has really stepped up his level of play, recording 44 tackles in seven games, leading the defensive huddle with Jerod Mayo out, consistently disrupting run plays, and even improving in coverage.
While we won't have the Patriots' first official practice participation report until Wednesday, if Spikes does miss Sunday's game against the New York Jets, it will certainly be a big blow for the Pats. Linebacker Jerod Mayo is just getting back into the groove following a knee injury of his own, and Spikes' replacement, Gary Guyton, suffered his own undisclosed injury late in the Giants game.
Should Spikes miss Sunday's game, expect the Jets to try to run the ball up the throat of the Patriots defense. Gary Guyton, or whoever does replace Spikes, simply can't disrupt running plays up the middle like Spikes does.
If there's a silver lining to this situation, it's that Spikes seems to have dodged the bullet in terms of suffering a severe injury. In a worst case scenario, I couldn't envision Spikes missing more than two games with this injury. Nonetheless, the sooner Spikes is back in the line-up, the better for New England.