Watch Rob Gronkowski's Epic Spike: Are the New England Patriots Arrogant?

This week's game was nothing more than a statement game for the New England Patriots—a team that had been on a two-game skid and was on the verge of losing three games in a row for the first time in 10 seasons. 

Following Rob Gronkowski's second touchdown on the night that gave New England a commanding 23-9 lead with 4:44 left in the third, Gronkowski went on to complete arguably the spike of a century—he literally threw that ball into the ground as if it was a statement saying "We're the New England Patriots, and we're going to destroy you."

Gronkowski was flagged on the play for spiking the ball in the face of Donald Strickland, who was simply no match for the second-year tight end on that play. In fact, not one of New York's defenders was a match for Gronkowski all game, as he caught eight passes for 113 yards to go along with his two touchdowns. 

Personally, I see nothing wrong with Gronkowski spiking the ball in that fashion—he earned the right to be as "cocky" as he wants. In fact, the New England Patriots proved to be an elite team in the NFL with Sunday night's victory and the entire team has every right to have their own sort of swagger. 

New England is the team to beat in the AFC and you simply cannot deny that fact. Despite starting 10 undrafted free agents, Bill Belichick's group showed up in a huge way and absolutely dominated Rex Ryan and the Jets.

Sunday's victory was a statement game for New England—there's nothing more to it. The 37-16 scoreboard clearly indicates that the Patriots are an elite force in the AFC and that teams should be worrisome before lining up to square off against them—even though New England may be rolling out with quite the handful of undrafted free agents playing significant roles.

Do you believe that Gronkowski should have been flagged on the play? Should the New England Patriots be considered "cocky" and arrogant? Or was this just simply a moment where Gronkowski and the Patriots were just so jacked up that the moment got the best of them?  

Either way, along with that play and the entirety of Sunday night's game just adds more fuel to the fire and just another epic chapter to the Patriots-Jets  rivalry. 

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