There's something to be said for the power of positive thinking -- and if you need further proof, look no further than Chase Winovich.
Not only was the second-year defensive player responsible for one of the Patriots' three forced fumbles on Sunday against the Raiders, Winovich had an inkling that it might happen.
“I don’t want to sound crazy. And this is one of those articles that is going to get written, and I don’t even mean it to be. So, I’m just going to preface it with that. But it is funny, so I’m going to share it," Winovich said after the game.
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“Literally last night I had a dream that I had a strip sack. So before I went out on the field for that series, I told one of the team doctors, I told him I had a vision last night. I had a dream that I was going to get a strip sack -- and two plays in I did. So in terms of crazy things that happened, that was definitely one of them.”
The forced fumble -- the first of his brief NFL career -- came when Winovich knocked the ball out of Derek Carr's hands in the second quarter. Lawrence Guy pounced on the ball for the Patriots' second fumble recovery of the game.
“It was just one of the things we had seen during the week. The stars aligned," Winovich explained. "I felt like I had an edge that I could get off. So I just worked the edge and it’s just a matter of finishing on the quarterback. I felt like where he was and what his position was, I could go for the ball and try to be a football player, make some plays and help the team.”
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Winovich hasn't been experiencing a sophomore slump in his second season, with four quarterback hits and 1.5 sacks over the past two weeks. Hopefully for the Patriots defense, he'll be able to manifest other dreams into on-field success as the season progresses.