NOTES

Tomorrow is finally gameday, I will post you a thorough preview then. For now here are some things I've seen or heard in the last 24 hours.

DONTATE?
I never want to mix my beliefs into this BLOG, however I think I can tie this together nicely. If you are like me, you'd like to give support to victims of hurricane Katrina. But I have a hard time donating to some of these charity corporations whose CEO's make the big bucks. For example, The Red Cross paid their top person $651,957 in 2004. The Patriots have started their own Katrina relief fund which can be found at
http://special.patriots.com/Offers/index.cfm?UUID=HurricaneKatrinaReliefFundDonations92
One hundred percent of the proceeds will go directly to non-profit organizations directly supporting hurricane relief efforts. Yeah, so some of it may end up in the hands of a CEO, but I'd rather give it through the Patriots and think that 100% went to help people.

INJURY REPORT
The injury report came out for tomorrow night's game vs. the Raiders. Surprise surprise, Tom Brady is on the injury list for the 17th straight regular season game due to the 'right shoulder' problem. He is listed as probable to go tomorrow night. I don't understand what Belichick is trying to accomplish by listing Brady as probable for every game. It's not like he's missed practice or game action. As a matte of fact Brady has said this is the best he's felt going into a season since his rookie year.

Sports Illustrated Picks the Super Bowl Winner
Peter King of SI has his NFL season picks in this weeks issue. Low and behold, he agrees with this humble blogger that the Patriots will defeat the Vikings in super bowl XL. The issue also gives the concensus picks of all of the SI writers. As a whole, they have Carolina over Indy to win it all. Idiots.
The fact that Indy has an EASY schedule leads most pundits to believe they'll have the best record in the AFC and finally host the Pats for the right to go to SB XL. SI thinks the Pats can't beat Indy at Indy and justifies their pick that way.

Who's call is it anyway?
Typically the Patriots have their middle line backer call the plays in the huddle and then call out all the adjustments at the line of scrimmage. Watch closely tomorrow and you'll see weak side linbacker Monty Beisel calling the plays in the huddle and Chad Brown making the adjustment calls. It's a way to ease them both into the system by sharing the responsibilities.

No Corner
We still have no idea who will be the starting cornerbacks for the season opener. Gay and Samuel were tops in the beginning of camp. Poole and Gay started the garbage game vs the Giants. Scott and Samuel started the only game this preseason that the Pats 'tried' to win, vs Green Bay. Starks hasn't seen much action and is 'questionable' for the opener. Consensus seems to be that Poole has been the best corner so far, so he'll probably start. Samuel is a very good cover guy against 'slot' recievers which would lead you to believe he won't start, but be the nickel. However, Gay had a yellow scout team jersey tucked in his locker which leads you to believe he was on the scout team rather than with the starters. Maybe it's all a ploy to prevent the Raiders from gameplanning Moss to go against a particular corner.

Mankins In
Logan Mankins will get the start at Left Gaurd in his first NFL game.

Harrison is in mid-season form
Rodney Harrison was asked about playing against Randy Moss. True to Patriot fashion, he lavished Moss with praise. Then true to Rodney, he said, "Nobody thinks we can do it (cover Moss)" That usually seems to be all the motivation he needs.