Week 8 Something Fish in New England vs. Miami

6-2 smells fishy, doesn’t it? Doesn’t matter, because we were the only AFC East team to win yesterday giving us sole position of first, and a 2 win lead over the team that’s smelling our asses behind.

 Brady’s not playing 100% right now, and that could be because of his hand/shoulder injury. There were circulating of his hand before, and during the game.

 It looked pretty red and swollen. The way he was throwing, keeping it warm in the pocket warmer, the way he was snapping his chinstrap in and drinking water with his left hand only, you could just tell. The second half he looked better so maybe they gave him a cortisone shot, or some Tylenol or something. I don’t know. People seem to forget that Brady’s working with some rookies, new receivers, and obstacles that no other QB is really dealing with right now. Tom E. Curran who is a Patriots insider said it best when describing Brady’s situation, “It’s Beethoven being asked to conduct his Fifth Symphony to a bunch of first-graders playing kazoos. After they ate a pack of crackers. Or course his numbers suck.” It doesn’t get anymore accurate than that.

The run game was on point. The only thing I don’t understand is why we started off the game Blount. I think Ridley’s clearly earned the starting role again over the rest of them, and considering the way he played last year against the Dolphins, it was a no brainer. If you don’t remember, the Dolphins last year complained that the Patriots were running the same running play on them over and over… Yeah, that happened. Blount’s a good 4^th quarter back as he showed today. Hell even Brady had some rushing yards today, and even running for a first down.

The Wide Recievers and Tight End’s didn’t really get many targets. Dobson led the way with 4 catches for 60 yds, and a TD. Gronk had only 2 catches, and surprisingly Thompkins had 1 target the whole game. Don’t know what’s up with that, but the Patriots were really high on him a few weeks ago, and now all of a sudden the past two games he’s been silent. Interesting to see what happens with him in the next few weeks.

New England Defense was the star of the game  especially in the second half in my opinion. That interception combo where McCourty knocked the ball in bounds and Marquice Cole held onto it was amazing. AMAZING!!!. Hightower was in Mayo form  leading the team with tackles. The defense had 2 picks, and 6 sacks. Logan Ryan was probably my MVP on defense with 5 tackles and 2 sacks. Last week he had a nice pick 6 against Geno Smith. People questioned Bill’s draft picks when he goes after Rutgers players but in yesterday’s game Logan Ryan and Duron Harmon made some kind of impact. If the Pats young defensive players can stay consistent for all 4 quarters, then it’s surely going to be a good show.

This was another game where the refs were to blame for the opposing team losing. I understand the frustration by Dolphins fans. Unfortunately I didn’t have the volume up while watching the game on my laptop because I was with family, and I didn’t get a chance to see EVERYTHING so I missed calls. Every time the Patriots beat a team, they blame the refs for blowing it because for some unknown reason fans hate when their team loses to the Patriots. It gets sickening after a while. If the refs were 100% on the Patriots side, wouldn’t they have won a lot more Super Bowls? Wouldn’t they have had more calls on them? I mean the Pats only have 20 less penalties called on them in 8 games, and only 70 less penalty yards against them this year then the opposing teams. These things happen though. I’m almost positive if there were teams really paying the refs someone would’ve blown the whistle by now. That would be one of the biggest stories In sports ever. People complain Brady’s a crier because he gets hit all the time with out calls, but people say we get all the calls… I don’t get it.

I’ll have a piece done for tomorrow morning about potential trades, and pick ups before the deadline.

Masshole Sports

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/24148026/look-tom-bradys-throwing-hand-looks-swollen

CBS Sports

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/24148026/look-tom-bradys-throwing-hand-looks-swollen

Tom E Curran

http://www.csnne.com/blog/patriots-talk/curran-brady-and-his-no-good-6-2-pats-march

Week 7 2013 Pats @ Jets

For the record, we can't blame the WHOLE game on the refs. The call was correct. They made a call that actually happened. I don't have a great understanding of what the Patriots were trying to do, or the call that was made, but here's a link to help you get a better idea of what happened. www.cover32.com/just click the damn link  
Tony Santorsa the Beat Writer for the Pats on Cover32 explains it perfectly. In fact don't even read the rest of this blog, just read his. Plain, short, simple, and to the point.

I don't even know what to say. The first half really seemed like things were going our way. Rutgers alumni Logan Ryan had an awesome pick in which I thought (was hoping) would set the tone of how Geno Smith would play after that first good drive he had. There's no question that the Jets outplayed us. They came out swinging in the second half on both sides of the ball and it was just too much for the Pats to handle

I'm not throwing excuses out there. Realistically we had so many chances to get points, and it just didn't look like Brady was on target. We were given an extra life in OT, and the Jets defense just didn't leave us with very many options. I can't really think of anything positive to say other than Gronk showing that he's still Gronk. He had 114 yds receiving with 6 catches. .Every week it's a work in progress for Patriots as we develop some kind of rhythm. I think Collie is eventually going to be a solid guy for us. Once he learns the plays more, and once he gets on the same page as Brady we're going to see more out of him for sure.

There's no excuses for the loss other than we just sucked especially in the Secondary. Chandler Jones played a great game, as well as Wilson, and McCourty on some plays. I think Hightower was over matched by the Jets' tight end whose name I don't care to look up... okay I'm only saying that because Dan Dierdorf wouldn't shut up about it all day long. Dan Dierdorf just hated on Hightower all game. I think he said his name about 307 times. That's just a guesstimate.

The good thing about the next two weeks is we'll be at home. We have the Dolphins who are 3-3, and the Steelers who are 1-4 currently but they're beating the Ravens. The Steelers beat the Jets last week, and they only gave up 6 points and at the moment they've only let up 6 points to the Ravens. The Dolphins have lost 3 straight and they'll be looking to take advantage of the Pats' defense much like the Jets did today. Tannehill can run those QB draw plays when we're playing man to man. He was a WR before a QB. It's going to be a tough two games coming up but hey, I believe in this team.

We can beat the Saints, and not the Jets? The things that happen in football :).

Week 6 2013 Patriots vs. Saints

I wanted to post a rapid reaction to the game but I had to wait for my blood pressure to calm down as I'm sure many of you did the same. Get an ice cold drink, open the windows, and BREAAATHEEEE...



Feel better?

GREAT!

Now there's something I want to get off my chest before I talk about the game. Although I find it clever, the Patriots fans have to let go of the "DROPSON" thing. Sure it was funny at first, but it's getting old, and unfortunately it's getting more popular because of the Internet. I understand we're an organization that doesn't pay attention to the media, and Social Networking, but letting this "DROPSON" thing catch on from Pats fans can really hurt the mentality of Aaron Dobson who's without a doubt starting to catch on to the system. Any Pats fan would know that if they watched today's game. Sure he had a drop or two, but he made some nice catches which is what he's supposed to do. I applaud him on his effort.
The Saints are the Saints. When Sean Payton came back this year I was 100% sure that the Saints weren't going to be the Saints of 2012. Brees and Payton know how to work an offense, and surely know how to make defenses look weak. This was no different today. The Pats defense was only giving up around 14 points a game, and if the Pats needed to win today's game, we surely had to put up more than 14. We did just that.

Our main focus today was keeping Brees on the bench, covering Graham, covering Colston, and stopping Sproles from those large gains on short passes. Between Colston and Graham they had a combine 1 catch for 11 yards... You read that correctly. 4 Quarters, 1 catch, 11 yards. They were targeted 9 times total. I think it had to do with how well the Pats defense played against them in the beginning. Talib did a great job covering Graham. It shows how well our defense played, but it also shows how dominant of a quarterback Drew Brees is without his main targets. We almost lost that. Benjamin Watson had a phenomenal game against the Pats. He still looks good which makes you wonder if he'd ever come back as a Pat later on in his career. Every time I hear his name it brings me back to that Pats/Bills game where Brady threw 2 TD's to Watson in the last 5 minutes of the game? I don't remember it was 9 or 5 minutes but it was close. I'm gonna say 5 minutes because it was memorable for me. I also remember him chasing down Champ Bailey in that 2005 Playoff game that we lost where we made Jake Plummer look like a God.

Our defense right now is a little bit banged up. Talib hurt is hip by running? That's what it looked like to me. I don't know the severity of it right now, but I'm hoping it's nothing long term. Our schedule the next few weeks looks rather tough. I don't care who we play, there's no such thing as an easy team. It's the JETS, FINS, and STEELERS we go against before getting our bye week. Our Bye week ends on a Monday night in Carolina which gives us an extra day. The Jets are a 3-3 team right now, and Geno Smith is playing some good football right now. The Fins are a great team too. The Steelers came off a nice win in NJ today against the Jets and they're looking to rebound their season. We don't know what's coming our way right now, but all I do know is that...

...our offense is starting to click.

People are going to rip on Aaron Dobson for his dropped passes but if you look at the stats he had more catches than anyone in today's game, and the most yards. He's not going to catch every pass he makes, but today's a good sign that he and Brady are on the same page. It's progress 6 weeks in. If anyone had intended him to be Megatron as a rookie then please stop watching football. So our leading receiver today made some great catches early on. It was like watching a whole new receiver honestly. Thompkins I cant speak highly enough of. This guy can play, and I see him being a big threat in the near future, and by future I mean the upcoming weeks haha.

I'm going to complain about Josh McDaniels play calling. The 3rd and Goal to go ahead and you run with Bolden? I want to punch him. I hope he's not the future of New England.

I'm already tired of Amendola. His bodies just not made for football. I never really thought his injury prone body was this bad. His two injuries that he had coming in were just freak accidents really. But now I'm seeing it. It's a shame because he's a great player, but it sucks that he can't stay healthy.

Speaking of healthy... Gronk. I really have no say on the situation. All we hear about is how good he's looking at practice, and how he's playing full force. They even said on the television today they were lining him up against Aqib Talib... I mean c'mon, what's the deal? If they were waiting for him to play against a big team wouldn't today have been the day? I also heard he's not playing next week either against the Jets.

Who knows, hopefully this will be settled before it gets worse. I'd love to him back on the field.

Lastly. COLLIE!!!!! He made a crucial catch today! He was targeted twice, and caught the ball twice. If he can stay healthy, and away from concussions he'll be as good as Amendola, if not better.

That's all folks!

2013 Week 5 @Bengals

This page looks boring, doesn't it? It needs more of a design.

Anyways....

We finally lost one as expected. I'm pretty sure 100% of Patriots fans figured this would happen. I don't think anyone assumed we'd go 16-0 this year, but if you did then... well sorry. That didn't happen with our stronger offense in the past few years, and it certainly wasn't going to happen this season. We have flaws on both sides of the ball like every other team in the NFL. What annoys me is that people still after 6-7 years later (when they finally cared to know who the Pats were) still put us on this pedestal like we're the greatest team in the NFL. We aren't now, and unless we won the Super Bowl that season, we never were. Unfortunately, we can't get that through people's heads. We hear all this chatter about the Pats not playing a real team, and their schedule's easy, and it just gets really annoying. The biggest headline on sports pages right now is not that the Pats lost, but that Brady's record for the most consecutive games with a passing TD is done. Do you people really think Brady gives a s--t about that? I'm 94% sure he doesn't Brady just wants to score points, and win. Today he didn't do that.

This game was a sloppy one for the Pats. I think it was a positive sign to see Amendola play and not get hurt. I think it was a positive sign for the defense again. I think Spikes, Mayo, and Talib showed up. It was scary seeing Kelly go down but he got right back in there. I'm gonna say it right now...

Aqib Talib is the best corner in the game right now. I think he's better than Sherman, I think he's better than Revis. Bold statement? Sure is. He's been stopping big name receivers and that's important for our team right now. Just watching him play (drug free) is amazing. I'd really like the secondary to step it up with him now.

I can pick apart the negatives from our offense this game. Dobson made some nice catches, but he ran the wrong way! When he had that long run he decided to run in between players when he could've cut back right and had run past Amendola. Might've been Thompkins, not sure. But that was a touchdown waiting to happen, and it could've helped us win. Blount fumbling in the Bengals zone didn't help either. I think Brady just sucked that game. He wasn't on target at all. His accuracy was wayyyyyyy off.What the hell was Solder doing in the first quarter? It was like he just gave up blocking right away.

Overall the Pats offense sucked. We didn't execute anything all game. Bengals on the other hand played a great game. They came out, and just played a better game than we did. The Bengals are a good team despite what their record says. They found ways to win. It was good seeing the Lawfirm play some good ball.

Next week we have the Saints. That's more than likely going to be an extremely tough match up for us. We watched Gonzalez tear our defense up in Atlanta, imagine how well Graham will do next weekend. I think Gronk will finally be back next week. I think today was a good sign that we need the guy back on the field to open up that offense. Hopefully Collie will be of use next week at some point. Hoping Ridley's knee is getting better as well. I believe Vereen is out for 3-4 more weeks. Haven't really heard anything about his progress, but I think he has to stay on the IR til at least Week 8? I might be wrong. I'm not 100% sure.

Shout out to my buddy, Joel for making me a believer in Blount. Sure he had a fumble today, but that guy can run.