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.

9-0

The game of the century lived up to the hype - for once. Who would have thought it? Certainly not I. I knew the Colts D was good, but I never imagined they were THAT good. After the game, most experts were crowning the Pats as superbowl champion, giving the Colts no chance to win in Foxborough in January. They are dead wrong. What wins games in January? Good defense and a good running game. It's pretty obvious that the Colts possess both and pretty obvious that the rematch not only will happen, but also that it will be another close game. As good as the Colts were running it and playing D, let's face it the Pats weren't on their game and were still able to pull it out against it all.

I already know what the league will do about rookie referree John Parry and his officiating crew. Nothing. The league needed this to be a close game. That's why the Pats got a franchise record 146 penalty yards to a mere 25 for the Colts. I'm not a math whiz, but that's about 121 free yards for the Colts. Add that to the 329 yds the Colts 'earned' and you get a total of 450 yds. Yet, somehow the Pats D was fantastic and quite simply they won this game by overcoming Manning and the officials and keeping the Pats in the game long enough for the offense to mount it's comeback.

How good was the Pats defense? Take away the bullshit pass interference calls and a flukey 73 dump off to Addai before the half and the Colts would have a total of 7 points. Yup, a 24-7 blowout of the mighty Colts AT Indy. Not only did they hang tough early, but they closed the game out in the fourth. When the Pats pulled within three, the D forced a punt. When the Pats went ahead leaving Manning 3+ minutes to score the winning TD, the D stepped it up and made Manning turn it over. Ballgame.

The difference Rodney Harrison makes can not be overlooked. He held Dallas Clark to 2 catches, picked off a pass and finished with 6 tackles.

Oh and don't forget that the Pats D had one other obsticle to overcome, perhaps the biggest of all. One Josh McDaniels. I've had no reason to get on Joshy yet this season, but that's just because the talent on O has been enough to win games so far. In a game where they needed some offensive strategy, the offense was feable for 51 minutes. That's a direct result of an inept offensive coordinator, my friend Joshy. Where do I begin? Moss catching balls inside of 5 yds while sending Stallworth deep for a jump ball. Not getting the ball to Welker until the fourth. If you want to or have to throw quick passes to the WR throw them to Stallworth and Welker, not Moss. How about Maroney running for nearly 5 yds/carry in the first half and then getting one touch in the second half - a 3rd and one that they refused to account for and block Bob Sanders. Good job Joshy. Did anybody know coming into this game that Dwight Freeney is a great pass rusher? Maybe we all should have told Joshy about Freeney. How many times was he in Brady's face, forcing an early throw or an incompletion or nailing Brady right after he threw it. Joshy, Matt Light needs help with Freeney before he kills Brady. Here's a suggestion for you. Line up Kyle Brady next to Light and let them beat down Freeney the entire first half. How about lining Rodney up in the slot and having him run down the line and smash Freeney a few times. Beat his ass into submission and THEN single him up with Light. A realistic way to slow the pass rush is to use the screen pass. Joshy used the screen pass once. ONCE! Take notice Joshy, I'm not letting you off the hook for the rest of the season.

The fact is, that this game was won in the offseason. When it came down to it Brady hit Moss, Moss Moss, Stallworth, Moss, Welker, Moss and Welker. How about the one handed grab that Moss made? I've never seen a catch that good. Moss had his second TD of the game taken away on another bullshit call, offensive pass interference on Moss who never even touched the defender. Moss was unstoppable, but it was Welker that made the difference in the game. His returns in the fourth set up the TD drives. And he made an incredibly smart play on his last catch. The Pats were facing 3rd and 7, if they didn't convert Manning was gettng the ball back. Welker runs a great route, makes the catch and then drops like he got shot before rinning out of bounds. If he runs out, the Pats need to make another first down. Instead, he flops, stays in bounds and the Pats take a knee the rest of the way. Genius.

In the postgame Manning said they need to get healthy. The fact is, in the fourth quarter with the game on the line and the Pats closing in, Manning had two chances to end the game. He choked. First posession 5 plays and a punt. Second posession 5 plays and a Manning 'fumble' into the hands of Colvin. Two drives that took a total of 4:50. Better get your team healthy Peyton. Good excuse but typical of Manning - blame everybody else.

But these Colts are very good and they'll be back, on January 21st as a matter of fact, in the AFC Championship game in Foxborough. Peyton's already got his excuse, it's gonna be cold.

Running it up. Top Ten

The Patriots have scored 48, 49 and 52 points in their last three games for a point total that hasn't been achieved in the NFL since the early 1960's. Clearly they are running it up. Clearly they are sending a message to the league. Clearly Belichick's players are just fine with his ruthless demand to go out and keep scoring. They were humiliated by videogate and their superbowls have been questioned. Now they are out to humiliate the rest of the league where it counts the most, on the field. Last week's version of a Patriots bludgeoning was on the Washington Redskins.

There is no doubt that Brady was left in too long. No doubt that Belichick was pissed off when Washington scored a meaningless touchdown. The evidence that the players are all for the blowout? Just watch how mad Brady got at his O-Line when they jumped off-side in the red zone, in the fourth quarter, up by a score of 38-0.

I think the amazing thing about this team is that the two players that effected the outcome most barely showed up on the stat sheet. First, Adalius Thomas. His acquisition has allowed Vrabel to move back outside. Vrabel might be the best Outside linebacker in the league. He dominated on Sunday, recording 3 sacks, 3 forced fumbles and 11 solo tackles. There is no way he does all that without Thomas in the middle.

Second, Randy Moss, who only showed up on the stat sheet with 3 catches for 47 yards and one TD. His presence on the field and the constant double and sometimes triple teams led to Welker's 9 cathces for 89 yds and a TD and Faulk's 7 catches for 57 yds, not to mention the space for Brady to run for his two TD's.

Overall it was a difficult game for me to watch. I mean, is Washington that bad or are the Pats that good? At one point int he fourth quarter I felt bad for Robert Kraft. The FOX broadcast was happy to show an uncomfortable Kraft when the Pats scored their 45th point and again when they put the 52 on the board. Yeah, it was nice to see the Pats score at will, but it did get a little uncomfortable for me when it became obvious that the Pats weren't going to stop scoring. Don't get me wrong, I'm in line with those that have said it's the other teams job to stop the Pats if they don't like the score. It's just that, I think 38 or 41 points would have been enough for me.

So now it's on to the team we'd all love to see the Patriots humiliate, the Colts. The problem is, we're not really sure if the Pats can even beat the Colts, nevermind doing so by a wide margin.

I'll have plenty more to post on this game later in the day today, (Thursday) and another post with my prediction on Friday.



TOM'S TOP TEN TEAMS:

1- Pats
2- Colts
3- Packers
4- Chargers
5- Cowboys
6- Steelers
7- Titans
8- Jaguars
9- Giants
10- Detroit

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.

Dominating the Chargers.

The Patriots showed the world the caliber of team they are on Sunday night when they dismantled the San Diego Chargers. Where do you begin with the suprelatives? The O-line was fantastic, Brady was very good (he's competing a whopping 80% of his passes), the running game was very good, the receivers were awesome. The D-line was dominating, the linebackers won the game, and the secondary was good especially in run support. The Pats coaches were playing chess and San Diego's coaches were playing checkers. That was the bigest mismatch of the night. The first drive of the game the Pats were in 4 and 5 WR sets. The Bolts stayed in a base 3-4 defense and never substituted extra DB's. HELLO? Even I know it's a mismatch to cover Moss and Welker with a line backer.

Speaking of line backers, how FAST is Adalius Thomas!?!!?

Moss watch:
Randy had 8 catches for 105 yds and 2 TD's. That brings his total to 17 catches, 288 yds and 3 TDs. He is on pace to break LEAGUE RECORD's in catches with 136, yds with 2300 and TD's with 24. Of course that's getting a little caried away, but you get the point. Sooner or later someone's going to try to cover him and that's when he'll have a huge impact. Did you see the first TD on Sunday, the one to Watson all by himself? Watch the replay. Moss was the outside receiver on that side and he ran an "in" route along the goal line. The CB, LB and Safety all followed Moss accross the middle while Watson slipped into the right side of end zone for the TD. IMPACT.

Short Bus:
It would be nice if the special teams were better. Gostkowski missed again and was inconstent with his kickoffs. I also saw a few missed tackles on kickoff coverage. Then there was the Hobbs fumble. There seems to be a lot of room for improvement on special teams. Personallly I'd rather not see Hobbs return kicks, secondary depth is a concern as it is.

Speaking of secondary, anyone seen Asante Samuel?

The Pats seem poised to be undefeated going into Indy on November 4th. Circle your calendars, it should be two 8-0 teams and it could be for homefield throughout the playoffs. What do you think, Pats 100 Colts 77?

Off to a Good Start

The Pats looked sharp and only had a couple of blunders on their way to dismantling the Jets. There were a couple of mistakes made and timeouts wasted because plays were not given to Brady in a timely manner, but that is to be expected in week one. All in all it was a great day in Patriots Nation.

First let's look at what went right:

The Randy Moss I told you about in training camp has officially arrived in the regular season. I was shocked to find out that his 183 yds is the most in one game in his career.

The O-line was FANTASTIC protecting Brady. If he gets that kind of time all year the Pats will go undefeated.

The D was stout against the run and did a pretty good job on the Pass rush.

Besides his drop, Welker showed his value.

Sammy Morris looked good running the ball and on special teams.

Dumb play by Hobbs to carry the kickoff out from 8 yds deep but it all worked out for him.


Was there any bad to speak of in this game?

Chad Pennington had his way with the Pats secondary, going 16 of 21 for 167 and 2 TD's. Thats 10 yds/completion and a whopping 76% completions. The Pats better improve that before the likes of Palmer and Manning come calling.

Some of the guys I watched the game with commented on something we saw last year that was evident again today. It weemed like the O-line didn't block well for Maroney, but when Morris got carries there were gaping holes. The same seemed true to us last season with Dillon getting holes. Regardless, Maroney was thoroughly unimpressive and I hope it ws a matter of the Jets gameplainning to stop him. He was not explosive, decisive nor impactful. I wonder if he's still a little hurt. Not much else was wrong with the Pats game today.



Let's not get carried away, it's one game and like I mentioned in my season preview, the Jets aren't that good. It was a good start, something to build on, something for the Bolts to think about for next Sunday.

One last tangent if I may.

Look, I'm the biggest opponent of Pennington when he's playing against us, but I've got to give the guy credit. He makes very accurate passes to make up for his lack of arm strength. He plays with heart and determination and today he even played hurt. The Jets fans are a bunch of Jackasses for cheering when Pennington got hurt and struggled to get to the sidelines under his own power. Then they cheered even louder when Kellen Clemens, his backup, took the field. That was absolutely classless of the Jets fans. Nobody wants to win more than Pennington and that's what he gets for it. Was it Pennington's fault the Pats put 38 on the board against Manjuvenille? Typical New Yorkers.