Patriots Win, However.....

I've been carrying his banner all year long, telling you to pay close atention because he is the best of all time. And Tom Brady didn't let us down. Brady had the best game any quarterback has ever had in the playoffs, completing 92.9% of his passes, 26 completeions on 28 attempts. Two drops. Brady should have, could have been perfect on the night. I can see Watson's drop being called for a penalty since the defender grabbed him at the line of scrimmage and never let him go. Welker's drop was inexplicable. Brady was poised, accurate, smart and he improvised well. He showed the world once again why he is the best to ever play.

I know you never thought you'd hear this from me, but Joshy actually had a solid game. The much maligned with good reason offensive coordinator had only one pathetic play call. A 3rd and two shotgun draw to Faulk for a loss of 3 yards. Other than that, he mixed the run and pass well and called screens at appropriate times, mostly. Of course it's got to be hard to screw up when you've got Brady executing (and fixing) your play calls. For instance, in the 4th quarter, when the Pats were only up by 8, (one possession) they faced a second and nine after Maroney gained only one yard on first down. Joshy's play call was a screen pass to the left. The Jags were all over it and blew it up before it could evolve. Bad call, best of all time executing. Without any panic and with unblocked defenders coming at him (as is necessar for a screen pass to work), Brady rolled to the backside of the play wher he knew he would have Stallworth in single coverage. The threat of the screen had drawn the cornerback slightly away from Stallworth. Brady made a great throw under pressure and on the run to Stallworth, who for his part made a very good catch. The drive eventually stalled when Welker dropped a Brady pass that would have hit him in the face and the Pats settled for their final points of the night on Gostkowski's field goal.

Offensively, the entire team gets a big A+ for this game, but I'd like to single out a few players:

Have I sung Brady's praise enough, or do I need to go on?

Stephen Neal is the main reason why Maroney had room to run. Losing him for 8 games this season hurt more than anyone realized. Here's Michael Felger's summary in the Herald: "As usual, Neal’s best work came pulling to his left, such as on the 5-yard gain by Maroney on the first drive of the second half in which Neal found linebacker Daryl Smith and carved out some space for the runner. Three plays later, Neal had an even better one, pulling around the left edge, hooking linebacker Justin Durant and clearing the way for a 22-yard Maroney run. The next series, Neal pulled left, found Smith and corralled him on a Maroney run that went for 29 yards. The next play, he sealed tackle Rob Meier to his own side, allowing Maroney to find the edge on an 11-yard gain. Great stuff all around by Neal, who reasserted himself as the team’s best run blocker."

Randy Moss was the ultimate team player. Many thought he might be outraged to have only one catch. Instead, he kept working, he kept running and more importantly he kept BLOCKING. How many times did you see Maroney run by him while he was blocking his guy? I saw at least 5 or 6 good blocks by Moss. After the game, he was spouting the company line about 11 guys on offense and a win.

Donte Stallworth. He's lost a lot of playing time to Gaffney during the last half of the season. He probably knows he's going to be cut this off-season or at the very least asked to re-negotiate to a lower salary. He wasn't thrown to all night. Yet on a play that he wasn't even supposed to be an afterthought, he went all out. And as it turned out, Brady hit him on the busted screen play. Had he quit or put his head down the Pats don't gain 53 yds. And don't forget, with time running out in the fourth and facing a 3rd and 7 it was his outstanding, individual effort that gained 8 yds diving for a first down on a simple wide receiver screen. I hope he'll be back next year, he is truly unique in his explosiveness.

Laurence Maroney, or the guy they're dressing in his uniform. Where the hell has this guy been all year? He's running hard, he's decisive in his cuts and he's exploding through the hole. He only danced in the hole one time that I saw. Great performance. Must have had something to do with the diapers his teammates left in his locker in about week ten that woke him up.

And now the other side of the coin, the swiss cheese er... I mean, the defense. Just bad. As a football player you are taught the proper technique for tackling every day of practice from 1st grade right through high school and even at some college programs. I am shocked that Bill Belichick's team is the least technically sound tackler's in the NFL. Bill always prides himself as first things first, before we scheme, we're going to make sure you know the fundamentals. It just baffles me that no one on the defense ever wraps up or hits a ball carrier around the legs. Instead they just run into ball carriers and hope they fall down. What the hell is that? I hope you noticed how the Jags tackled on Saturday night. They were text book. The Pats caught a ball underneath and were hit, wrapped and driven back for little to no gain after the catch. The Packer's do it, the Giants do it, the Charger's do it, Indy did it, the Steeler's did it. You get the point.

In addition to poor tackling, they are the most frustrating defense in the league to watch when they try to defend the pass. You'll notice that there are two schools to pass defense around the NFL. You blitz, or you cover. That is, the coverage can and should be loose and conservative if you go after the quarterback. Conversely, if you send only 3 or 4 after the QB, giving him time to throw, they you have to cover well or you'll get burned. You'd think that, with 7 or 8 defenders in coverage you could cover the 3 to 4 or even 5 receivers sent out on a given play. Why then, can the Patriots Defense do neither? There's never a pass rush, and my god did you see how wide open Jacksonville's receivers were? No wonder why Garrard had the best game of his career staistically, as did Eli, as did Feeley, as did Boller. It just blows my mind that the Patriots keep getting away with it. You just can't help but feel that, sooner or later the defense is just flat out going to lose a game for them. Yet somehow, they seem to make a play to win it in the end. Jacksonville put up only 6 second half points. Of course they were helped by a couple of drops by Jags receivers but drops happen, just ask Wes Welker and Ben Watson. If David Garrard and Eli and Feeley and Boller can put up those kind of numbers, what's Peyton Manning... nevermind.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA, I LOVE IT!!!!! I LOVE THE LOOK ON PEYTON"S FACE WHEN HE WALKS OFF A LOSER!!!

The Patriots are already installed as 15 point favorites over the Chargers.

Miami Game; Top Ten

I'd like to start by thanking Johnathon Birs of Capital City Financial for hosting me in his luxury box for the Miami game. Johnathon's generosity is second only to his skill in the Financial World.


What are we to make of our star quarterback being in love with his favorite receiver? We've gone over it before that Brady has become Moss happy and it's ugly when he forces the issue. I guess we can take some solace in the fact that, when the games have been close, Brady has played like Brady is supposed to. It is only when the outcome has been determined that Brady starts to force the issue. Still, this team preached 60 minutes of football all year and that shouldn't change just because they are nearing some records.

The Patriots put on a show in the first half on offense, defense and special teams. They were completely dominant. Brady was 14 0f 18 for 163 yds and 3 TD's. Maroney made the most of the 4 carries he got by turning in long runs of 51 and 59 yds and one TD. The Defense held Miami to only 103 yds to go along with 3 three and outs. So what the heck happened in the second half?

As for the offense in the second half it was the Brady Moss love fest. Brady was just 4 of 15 for 52 yds, got picked twice trying to force it to Moss and fumble once while waiting for Moss to clear a deep route. There were guys open on just about every force to Moss. The advantage of being at the game is you don't have to watch what the networks show you. I repeatedly watched Gaffney and Welker get open and to a lesser extent Stallworth. But the ball went to Moss. I think it's hard to get on the rest of the team for letting up a little against Miami. I mean, there was no way in the world Miami was going to put up 28 points in that game. The Pats new that too and they let up a little. The Defense gave up long drives, but as usual, for the most part didn't give up the score.


Game observations:

It seems like Gaffney has become Brady's go to guy on 3rd downs. He had three catches on 3rd down in the first half, all of which went for first downs.

It was nice to see the Pats making big hits, both in the secondary and on special teams.

I felt badly for Troy Brown when he muffed that punt. The place was electric when they introduced him pre game and he got a standing O every time he took the field. We were all hoping he'd get a TD catch to break the "most players on one team to score a TD in one season" record. The Pats have 21 players that have scored a TD.

Granted Miami stinks against the run but Maroney had 156 yds on 14 carries, 5 of which came with 3 minutes left in the game to kill the clock. Most importantly, Maroney found holes and ran hard.

Which gets me to Joshy. I had the whole luxury box screaming at him by the middle of the 3rd quarter. (Great fun for me!)
It started on the Pats second posession of the game. Incomplete pass, run Faulk around the right side for 7 yds then sprint to the line and run Faulk on the exact same play on 3rd and 3. The result was a loss of 2 and a punt. Good job Joshy. Then there was the 3rd quarter possession that started on their own 6 inch line. Joshy comes out with 5 wide empty backfield. Do you think Miami knew what the Pats were going to do? I'm happy with a pass from your own end zone, especially with Brady throwing it. But you've got to do it off play action. There HAS to be some THREAT of a run. Go 4 wide with one back, play action and throw or just throw, but at least there's a chance you MIGHT run if there's a RB in the backfield. Not Joshy. 5 wide incomplete, 5 wide incomplete and 5 wide incomplete - Punt. Maroney had 5 meaningful 2nd half carries with the Pats up by 28 points. Is it the passing game that needs work going into the playoffs or the running game? It's not like they weren't able to run the ball against Miami. It's not like they couldn't run it all the way down field and then throw it to Moss for his TD. Please Mr. Parcells, PLEASE hire Josh McDaniels and take him away from us!


TOP TEN

1 Pats

2 Colts

3 Cowboys

4 Chargers

5 Jaguars

6 Packers

7 Steelers

8 Seahawks

9 Titans

10 Browns

The Jets Game, Notes, Top Ten

JETS GAME

Well the Jets game was certainly ugly and not strictly because of the weather. I kept telling anyone that would listen to take the Jets and the points this week, I hope they listened. The worst thing that could happen to the Patriots happened when Seymour money knocked Clemens out of the game early in the first quarter. It seems that everyone knows Pennington is a better QB than Clemens except Mangina and jets fans. Pennington MUST be better than Clemens since he totally outplayed Brady on Sunday.

Let's hope Brady's performance was just an aberration. Given his track record, he'll be unbelievable this week against Miami. It's just discomforting to see him force the ball to Moss when he's got 2 or 3 guys open underneath. You know it's obvious when even the network picks up on it and shows replays of it. Brady was 14 -27 52%, for 140 yds, NO TD's and one interception. (Pennington finished 25-38 66% for 186.) Don't get me wrong, I'd never want Pennington over Brady, I'm merely illustrating my point that Brady is a much better QB when he's not forcing the issue. He threw to Moss on 13 of his 27 passes and only completed 5 (including that miraculous 46 yd catch late in the fourth) and one got picked off.
I'll just caution you to watch Brady this week. If he's still forcing it and continues to force it to Moss the Pats will be one and done in the playoffs. Good thing they have a running game.

Or do they? Maroney ran 26 times for 104yds against a Jets team ranked 30th against the run. In addition, the Jets were mostly playing Nickel and Dime defenses with only 2 or 3 D-Linemen. Still, Maroney only managed a long run of 11 yds. I'm very skeptical of this team being able to win at home in January.


NOTES

While were on the subject of the Pats running game, Mike Reiss of The Boston Globe posted some statistics on his Blog. As it turns out, my doubts about the Pats running game are unfounded. Here's how Reiss breaks it down, the Patriots are:

-averaging 4 yds per carry (they have only averaged 4 yds per carry once in the last 20 yrs-2004)

-gaining 4 yds or more on 47.5% of running plays, highest in the league this year.

-have had a 100 yds rusher 4 times this year (as opposed to only 3 last season)


Congratulations to the Pats 8 Pro Bowl Players:
Tom Brady, Dan Koppen, Matt Light, Logan Mankins,
Randy Moss, Asante Samuel, Mike Vrabel and Vince Wilfork.

I'm not sure I'd put Light on the list and I would have liked to have seen Welker and Warren go.



TOM'S TOP TEN TEAMS

1 - Patriots I would have put them 2nd, but the Colts nearly lost to Oakland.

2 - Colts Close to being overtaken by Jax, but they beat Jax twice.

3 - Jaguars - evidently they are the team no one wants to play in the postseason.

4 - Cowboys - Stumbling into the playoffs, GREAT!

5 - Packers - Another nice win this week, watch out for the Pack.

6 - Vikings - I had to put them above the 9-5 teams 'cuz they are a hot team right now.

7-10 Chargers, Browns, Buccaneers and Pittsburgh, all in a tie.
I can't make heads or tails of any of them.


Tell your friends you heard it here: JASON TAYLOR WILL BE A PATRIOT NEXT SEASON.

Tom's Top Ten Teams....and a bonus

I didn't have a chance to research this for the earlier posting today.


1. Pats good to see them play like they're capable

2. Colts going to be scary in January

3. Cowboys destiny's team?

4. Packers Favre's got a serious running game

5. Steelers can't drop'em too far for losing to the Pats

6. Jaguars Good D and nobody better to put here

7. Chargers Aweful win at Tennessee

8. Bucs I told you so!

9. Seahawks Win streak vs very bad teams

10. Browns Go Romeo



Here is a Brady comercial I've never seen before and it's rather appropriate for this week:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY4UwcokerE&feature=related

(Don't forget to watch the Brady f-bomb video on the "related videos" menu. THe Belichick one's not so bad either!)

Steelers Game

What a difference a half makes. The Pats looked shakey on Offense and beatable on Defense. In the first half it looked as though the Steelers would win this one. They had long scoring drives, held the Pats to 3 and outs and were even getting some breaks. How many times did you see Vrable come around the corner and almost get to Rothloesberger while being TACKLED by the O line? I saw one series of 5 in a row.

Take away the bomb to Moss and the Pats scored 7 first half points. Brady was pressured into hurried throws that became incompletions, they went 3 and out twice and failed to score when Pttsburgh muffed the punt. The Steelers had scoring drives of 59,77 and 36 yds in the first half. In the second half, Brady had time to throw and the Pats had scoring drives of 89,50 and 89 yds. All of those drives would have been TD's except that Moss dropped a Brady laser in the back of the end zone. (Brady later said that he was glad Moss dropped it, because he threw it as hard as he could and it was nice to know he's still got it.)

On Defense the half started with two punts. Then, as the Pats D usually does, it was bend but don't break. It was also very encouraging to see the Pats make some stops in the red zone, though they are still last in the league in red zone D, at least they're trending the right way. The Steelers drove for 56 and 57 yds twice, before being stopped on 4th down plays. It shows the difference in coaching. The Pats saw what blitzes Pittsburgh was using and adjusted the protection accordingly. Brady was hit only once and was not sacked. the Steelers, on the other hand, kept doing the same things on D and never adjusted. They could run the ball almost at will (see 32 rushes for 182 yds) yet at the goal line they call a shovel pass, a fade pass and a reverse to Ward. STUPID. JUST STUPID. Credit to Rodney for his text book coverage on the fade and then making the stop on Ward at the goal line, but those were just STUPID play calls. Maybe Joshy isn't the only incompetent offensive coordinator in the league.

So much for drafting McFadden with the first round pick. The Pats just don't need to run the ball. They called pass plays 37 straight times to take command of the game. The best example came on the drive that started at their own one yard line. They hit Welker 4 straight times to move into Steeler territory and there was no one getting anywhere near Brady.

Speaking of passing...has anyone seen Donte Stallworth? Looked to me like Gaffney was out there more than Stallworth in 3 wide receiver sets, not to mention Gaffney's production (7 catches 122 yds and a TD). Moss had 7 catches for 135 yds and 2 TDs, while Welker had 9 catches for 78 yds and a TD.



I think...

Stallworth is definitley OUT next season

Watson is the easiest tight end in the league to tackle

Rodney is back to the Rodney of old (HGH?)

Brady is the best QB to EVER play the game

The Pats will trade out of their high first round pick and draft a slew of Defensive players

Fans have no idea what they're doing when they vote for the Pro Bowl.
Eugene Wilson is 4th in votes at free safety
Bruschi is 1st in votes at ILB
Jarvis Green is 2nd in votes for DE
Chris Hansen is 1st in votes for Punters (he's the Patriot's punter by the way)

Moss has dropped way too many passes in the last 3 weeks (my unofficial count is 7)

The Pats won't beat the Jets by as much as people think. (see Nor'Easter)

My Return

Long time no post. I was out of the country last week for the Philly game, so I didn't get a good look at that one, but I did read up on it. Fortunately, (or unfortunately) I was back to witness the same thing this week against the lowly Ravens.


So what's up with this Pats team over the last two games anyway?

First, it's been a tough stretch since the bye week. A Sunday nighter in Buffalo, a physical battle against Philly again on Sunday night, then a Monday night war with Baltimore. Belichick admitted that his team is tired.

Second, two 'average at best' QB's played over their heads against the Pats.

Third, Two very physical teams with complicated blitz packages and very good secondary's gave their best games.

Fourth, my friend Joshy. In the last two games, the Pats have passed 92 times and run it only 30 times. Good balance Joshy. Worst of all, on most of those throws, there was never even the threat of a run (no RB or no play action). Haven't YOU been able to tell when they're going to run and when they're going to pass? Yet the Monday night guys are raving about how he's going to be a head coach someday because he's so good.

Fifth, poor play by the Pat's secondary. Bad angles on run plays, bad coverage, poor ball skills.


Ravens game

Were the Pats fortunate to escape with a win? Absolutely.
Were they given the game by the refs? Absolutely NOT.

So how can both the Pats AND the Ravens be upset about the officiating?
The simple fact is that the manhandling of the Pats by the Ravens was accomplished in part because the Ravens were breaking the rules. They were holding the Pats defenders and mugging Pat's receivers all game. That's why the Pats were so pissed off. The Ravens were steamed because the refs finally started throwing the flags. They had gotten away with it all game, why are they throwing flags at the end of the game?
It's the old adage that the refs can't call holding on EVERY play, so they let teams (in this case the Ravens) get away with it until the game is on the line. The shoe used to be on the other foot, remember the Pats manhandling Peyton's WR's in '03 and '04?

The Ravens game was the type of game we've grown accustomed to watching the Pats win. The fact of the matter is (AND YOU SHOULD APPRECIATE EVERY MINUTE THAT YOU WATCH HIM PLAY!) that Tom Brady is the best player in the history of football. Did he once show signs of panic or nervousness or confusion? No. He was poised, smart, and accurate no matter what was happening during the game. Kyle Boller threw a bad pick in the fourth, Brady drove the team for a win. Belichick made adjustments, Billick was busy blowing kisses to Rodney while his assistants were calling bad timeouts. It always adds up to a Pats win. As much as it looked like the Pats were going to lose from the very beginning of this game, you couldn't help but know that the Pats would find a way to win. It just that this time, it took a little luck too.


Colvin's Impact

Losing Colvin for the season is really going to hurt the Pats and it was painfully obvious on Monday. With Adalius outside replacing Colvin, Bruschi and Seau were the middle linebackers and that's where the Pats got gashed for huge yards. What's the difference? When a team runs the ball, the O lineman try to get to the linebackers by breaking through the D line. The D line, especially in the 3-4 and somewhat in the 4-3 are just supposed to get in the way of the Oline and let the LB's make the tackle. The LB's job is to take on that Olineman that breaks through and not let him break through, rather they must meet him at the line of scrimmage, thereby plugging the hole, giving the RB no place to run. Bruschi and Seau were unable to do that for most of Monday night's game. Instead the Raven's linemen were meeting them one to two yards deep, giving McGahee space to run through the hole and then make a cut behind the lineman's block of Seau or Bruschi. If you've got the game Tivo'd or DVR'd or taped, go back and watch Baltimore run, you'll see what I mean.

I don't know what the Pats are going to do to fix it. They tried the 4-3 early in the game and got torched by the run, then mixed the 3-4 in and still got torched. It wasn't until they called run blitzes with Rodney and or Sanders in th fourth quarter that they made stops and caused 3 and outs. The problem this week is that Rothlesberger and his WR's are too good to call run blitzes against. It will be interesting to see what the Pats do to fix their leaky D. Maybe the answer is to put Adalius back inside anyway, shifting either Brushi or Seau outside. Maybe the answer is in the 4-3, I don't know. Hopefully Belichick knows.


TOM'S TOP TEN TEAMS

1 Dallas
2 Indy
3 Pats
4 Pitt
5 GB
6 TB
7 SD
8 Jax
9 Seattle
10 Browns

You can't tell me the Pats would have beat Indy or Dallas last weekend. You can't tell me that the Pats would beat Indy or Dallas this weekend. I'm not even sure they're going to beat Pittsburgh. Are you?


San Fran's Pick

I'm not sure how the tie breaker's would work, but if the draft were this weekend, the Pats would be picking 3rd, 4th or 5th. With games against Minn, Cincy, TB and Cleveland, San Fran's probably not going to win again this season. More than' likely only Miami and or St Louis will be picking ahead of the Pats come April.

FIFTY SIX to TEN?!?!?!?!

The Patriots beat the Bills 56 - 10 on Sunday night. The Bills, a team that was 5-4 and had won 4 straight games playing at home on national TV. The game was over at the end of the first quarter. The Pats could have scored 80. When it mattered the Pats had 7 drives that went as follows: 2 plays 13 yds TD, 6 plays 63 yds TD, 8 plays 72 yds TD, 10 plays 84 tyds TD, 12 plays 72 yds TD, 12 plays 73 yds TD, 10 plays 75 yds TD, 1 play 35 yds TD. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I woudn't have believed it.

Not much to say about that one. Brady was awesome, Moss was unstoppable, the O-line was impenetrable, Adalius was dominating, Sanders had a great game at Safety. OK, Maroney's still dancing and got benched for it, but with the Offense scoring at will this team could win the superbowl with Kyle Eckel. The convincing margins they've posted in their wins have caused many to say that this might be the greatest football team EVER assembled.

Some of those calling the Pats the best ever include Madden, Banks, Felger, Collinsworth, King etc etc. Of course it goes without saying that the Pats have to win out and take the superbowl in February, but these guys don'y see anyone in the Pats way. Here's the numbers: The 85 bears are widely considered the best team in the modern football era. That year, going 15-1 they beat teams by an average of 16 points per game. The greatest show on turf, Superbowl champion 1999 Rams won by an average of 17.7 pts/game. So far this season the Pats have won by an average of 25.4 points per game. That's more than 26 teams in the league score per game! That's the largest avg margin of victory since the 1942 Bears wond by 34 points/game. Again I say, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

The 5-5 Eagles are coming to town this Sunday. The Pats are favored by 23.5 points, the biggest regular season spread (not including expansion teams) since the early 70's. I say that spread is not enough. The Pats will tell you it's not enough.

Bob Kraft told Madden and Michaels that in order to clear their name of videogate, the Pats will have to win every game this season convincingly. Tom Brady told Dennis and Callaghan that they're not trying to beat teams 42-28, they're trying to kill teams, trying to blow them out. Don't think the Pats will "kill" the Eagles? One of Philly's WR's at the time of videogate was quoted as saying that maybe the NFL should give them superbowl rings since the Pats cheated to win. Enough said.

Have a great Tanksgiving!!!

Tell your family and friends you heard it here!!

Catching Up, TOP TEN

Thanks for waiting patiently for me to return from my business trip to Chicago, the reason why I was unable to post last week. Looks like there wasn't much I could have said leading into the Dolphins game anyway, right?

There still isn't much to say about the Miami game. Miami is terrible. The Pats looked like they were playing against a high school team. After showing off receivers Stallworth and Welker for TD's, the Pats reminded the league not to forget about Randy Moss. His two TD catches were just unbelievable, especially the second one which he caught with the inside of his elbow because the defender grabbed his hands. Did you see the one he caught out of bounds on the fake spike play before the half? OMFG! (Can I say that in a blog?) The guys hands are like superglue.

The defense on the other hand, looks like crap. The Dolphins happless, Cleo Lemon led offense put up 21 points and averaged 6 yds per carry without Ronnie Brown for the majority of the game. Maybe it's too easy to let up when your offense is so dominanat. For me, it's two weeks in a row that the defense has been bad. If Cleo Lemon can put up three TD's, Manning & Co might put up six. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Tom Curran pointed out that, when Manning set the TD record in 2004, he threw 49 TD's and only 10 picks. Brady is on pace for 64 TD's and 5 picks. Frightening.


TOM'S TOP TEN TEAMS:

1 Patriots They may have the best offense ever.

2 Colts Winning with Defense (sound familiar?)

3 Cowboys I was very impressed with them against the Pats

4 Giants Purveyors of a 5 game winning streak with a great D.

5 Redskins That's right, the #5 team in the league will be a great test this Sunday.

6 Steelers Looked utterly average against Denver

7 Titans Winning with Kerry Collins says something about this team

8 Packers Need to find a running game. Gado is available....

9 Jaguars Too bad they lost Garrard against the Colts

10 San Diego I suspect they'll be climbing this list quickly.


Two divisions have 3 teams in the top ten. Obviously the best divisions in football are the NFC East (whom the pats play this season) and the AFC South.

Bills re-cap, Observations, Stats, Top Ten

I cannot for the life of me figure out why Belichick didn't kick that field goal in the fourth quarter, instead electing to run on 4th and 7 and turn the ball over on downs. Would have made one blogger look pretty smart had he just kicked the ball. I can live with a 38-7 win and relegating myself to have to start picking the Pats to score 38 points. Other than that, the Pats put on another show this weekend. Yes, they came out flat and it was nerve racking for one Bills drive (backup QB and all) in the first quarter. But the Pats did what great teams do, win when they aren't focused for the entire 60 minutes.

Of course, it helped that Wilfork esentially knocked Losman out of the game on Buffalo's first series. It was the most controversial play of the game. Losman thought it was a deliberate cheap shot. Wilfork swears he would never intentionally do something like that. To me, the video evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of Losman's argument. Wilfork was on his way down and just before he hit the ground, he throws his elbow out toward Losman, striking his left knee. Hard to argue with the video evidence. I'm quite sure Wilfork will be fined and with Goodell's record so far it wouldn't surprise me if he was even suspended for a game or two.

Getting on to the good news or maybe great news, the Pats have just been better than anyone could have imagined so far this year. I don't EVER remember them having the #1 offense and defense in the league. In addition, they are outscoring opponents 114-35, the biggest margin in the NFL by FAR. Their avg points scored per game is higher than the total points they've given up! They've only punted 4 times. The offense averages 441 yds/game and the defense is only giving up 207 per game. Brady's QB rating of 141.8 is twenty points higher than anyone in the league. His ten TD passes also leads the NFL. One wonders about Cincinnati in the upcoming Monday nighter: if the Browns put 51 points on the board against them what will the Pats put up? (38 again?)


Tom's Top Ten Teams:

1- Pats
The plethora of evidence is documented above.

2- Colts
They haven't been pretty, but they're winning and very dangerous.

3- Steelers
Winning almost as decisively as te Pats, though they've played no one that can play run defense.

4- Packers
Brett's playing like he's 28 and the D is equally impressive.

5- Cowboys
I'm still not sold on Defense and I think Romo will eventually be exposed as a streaky QB.

6- Texans
Can't fault them too much for losing a close one to Indy without having Andre Johnson.

7- Tampa Bay
My surprise team at the beginning of the season has even surprised me, I thought they'd start 0-4!

8- Titans
I know, this is probably too high for them but I love Vince Young's leadership. He's a winner and the
team believes it can win because of him.

9- Broncos
Still a scary team and a threat to win the AFC.

10- Chargers
Sooner or later they'll put it together?