Knee Jerk Reactions to Week 10: Pats vs. Bills
Things to consider while wondering if BenJarvus Green Ellis qualifies as a running back tandem:
*After the Blue Windbreaker Fiasco in Indy, I get physically nervous now at the start of the telecast that Belichick will be wearing something other than a gray sweatshirt. It's the same feeling as when I'm going be with my wife's family and I start dreading that my mother-in-law might be showing cleavage again.
*If you had "3rd minute of the 2nd quarter" in your "At What Point Will a Buffalo DB Knock the Ball Out of Ben Watson's Hands?" Pool, come to the courtesy desk to claim your prize.
*There's one thing seriously don't get. Why would anyone go the Gilletteside Krafteria Mall on game day? Maybe CBS Scene is the greatest sports bar on Earth, but wouldn't that mean you're paying $45 to park just so you can eat burgers and wings?
*I don't ask much of the announcing team, honestly. But is too much to ask that they stay on top of the injuries as they happen? Pierre Woods went in for Adalius Thomas sometime in the late 1st quarter, and not a mention was made of it until the middle of the 3rd. That would be the same Adalius Thomas who's been the best player on the Patriots defense for long stretches of the season and it doesn't merit a mention. Meanwhile they can't stop talking about Tom Brady's 7 minute season.
*Though Dick Enberg more than made up for it with that hilarious hambone about Reggie Corner and Freddie Fullback. Imagine the laughs he could've had with Patrick Pass. That's the kind of weak cheese that gets you saddled with Randy Cross as a sidekick.
*Taking away nothing from proven NFL tough guys, but you get an ice cold bucket of Industrial Strength Perspective dumped over your head when you see all those active military people standing on the sideline. There's not a man or woman among them that couldn't kill the toughest guy in football with a facial expression.
*That said, would it have killed someone to fetch them some folding chairs?
*I'd like to see the Patriots someday erect a statue of Brady like the one BC put up of Doug Flutie. They could also do one of Drew Bledsoe, but it would more mobile in the pocket than Drew was.
*The proof that Matt Cassel is rounding out into a legitimate NFL QB is that when he takes a 5 step drop, you actually assume good things are going to come out of it, which was definitely not the case as recently the San Diego game. They've reduced their ratio of negative plays per pass attempt probably in half if not more so.
*The play most indicative of Cassel's progress was a 3rd & 1 from Pat 26. Out of the shotgun they put in Moss motion to the strong side, with Wes Welker stacked on the weakside behind Jabar Gaffney. The Bills show blitz and brought five. Ryan Denny beat Watson on a speed rush to the outside, preventing Cassel from hitting Moss who was his first read. But rather than force it or eat the ball, he rolled to his right and found Welker for 13 yds. The play won't make it on "America's Game: the 2008 Patriots," but it did show that he's developing that pocket sense and the ability to see his 2nd and 3rd options.
*If Cassel keeps it up, the city of Boston should name an island after him. Oh, wait...
*But a good example of why he was taking so many sacks came on his fumble when he was trying to get the ball out to Kevin Faulk in the flat instead of just eating it. Taking a sack is no one's first choice, but Cassel is about 100 TD passes away from getting Favrian credit for bad decisions because he's "trying to make a play." The people who bitch about him protecting the ball by taking the sack are the same people who bitch about Brady not being on the sidelines.
*What is the point exactly of Josh McDaniel covering his mouth with his playsheet? Is there really a coach in the league who can look across a 45 yard-wide field and say "Oooh! I just read McDaniel's lips! He called 'Z to Trips RT 42 Dive Chili 860'!!!" I can't get a bartender in a noisy club to read my lips when I say "Two Bud Lights."
*Tedy Bruschi has settled nicely into the Ted Johnson role of run stopping Mike LB specialist. Which is sort of ironic because for a few years there, he was the all purpose LB who subbed in for Johnson on passing downs. But Tedy is flourishing in the role. On one 1st down play, Corey McIntyre hit Bruschi with a full head of steam and didn't even slow his momentum. Tedy bounced off Fred Jackson in backfield and dropped him. For hardcore Bruschi fans, you're sorry he's just a specialist now but it beats the hell out of watching backs and Tight Ends picking the Pats apart underneath with Tedy two steps behind in coverage.
*And Gary Guyton continues to solve the Pats backs-catching-passes problem. He's staying on the line, spying the back and on the odd chance they get open on him and make a catch, he's fast enough to limit the damage.
*They also completely missed Mike Richardson coming out of the game. Out of nowhere the Pats had a No. 23 in pass coverage and I was stymied trying to figure out who the hell he was as he didn't appear on any roster, including the team website. My guess is it was Jason Webster, but for all we know they brought back Willie Andrews. (If so, I hope they had a drug sniffing dog give him the once over first.)
*Of course it wouldn't be football season if the Pats weren't signing defensive backs off the street. The jobs with the highest injury/ mortality rate:
5. Body building Boston firemen
4. Spinal Tap drummers
3. Guys in war movies who show the other soldiers pictures of their sweethearts back home
2. Anonymous Star Trek crewmen
1. Patriots DB.
*I'm addressing this to the members of the Football TV Analysts Guild: Is it possible for a quarterback to dink without then immediately dunking?
*This was just another dominating performance by the Patriots D-lineman. Ellis Hobbs interception was created by Vince Wilfork who split a Kirk Chambers/Duke Preston double team and got in Trent Edwards face to force a terrible throw. And when you've beaten a guy named Kirk and a guy named Duke, you've earned your man pants.
*And the O-line matched them. For the second week in a row the Pats owned the trenches on both sides of the ball. Aaron Schoebel being out was the best thing to happen to Matt Light since Jason Taylor Mamboed his way out of Miami. There was one play where Marcus Stroud ragdolled Russ Hochstein to blow up a Green-Ellis run on 3rd & 1, but beyond that I can't recall a single play where a Pats linemen got beaten bad on a block.
*And Heath Evans is quietly putting together a monster season. Watch him every time he's a lead blocker and his guy never defeats the block. Honestly, the first half season he was here I didn't think he was a legit Fullback. That he was a victim of racial profiling. I stand corrected.
*I'd like to thank the broadcast partners at CBS and the NFL for the touching family moment I had watching the Viagra ad at 1:30 in the afternoon. Especially since this wasn't one of those metaphor-laden ones with the guy tossing a football through a hoop. I admit I wasn't prepared. So I'm not sure that when my son asked "What do they mean by 'a 4 hour erection'?" I'm not sure "That's what daddy had after the Pats won Super Bowl XXXVI" was the best way to handle it.
*But again, thanks for providing me with a nice teaching moment. Next time why not just run that SNL ad for "Dr. Porkenheimer's Boner Juice"?
*This is a direct quote from Randy Cross: "If time is like oxygen, then Buffalo has nothing left to breathe with." Who said time is like oxygen? If the '80's taught me anything, it's that time is a like a clock in my heart and love is like oxygen. Wasn't Randy paying attention?
*I suppose we should congratulate Mrs. Green Ellis on her restraint for only giving BenJarvus one middle name.
*Now that we're past the halfway point of the season with the Pats in first place, it would be wise to heed the advice of noted pigskin orator Emmitt Smith: "Let's not judge them until we're in the bottom half of the season... The bottom half of the schedule get much tougher". So true.