On Any Given Sunday

Miami just has New England’s number. The last time the Pats lost a regular season game was against the Dolphins back on December 10, 2006 at Dolphins Stadium. I vividly remember sitting in the Buffalo Wild Wings off Route 140 in Westminster, Maryland watching the Dolphins dismantle the Patriots in a 21-0 shutout.

Although the majority of people were picking the Pats to walk away the easy victory today, it was not surprising. Miami has always played the Patriots tough and they did it yet again on Sunday but there is one thing as a Pats fan you can not do. You can not blame Matt Cassel.

“[The Dolphins] did everything a lot better than we did,” Bill Belichick said in his post game press conference. “They out played us. The out coached us.”

Cassel was not the reason New England lost. Sure his 61 completion percentage did not help the Pats, the real reason they lost was the same reason they won last week. It was their defense. Here is my mea culpa for the day, I did not watch the entire game. But I had a very good reason. I was up in South Hadley, Massachusetts watching the McDaniel Green Terror women’s golf team shoot their lowest round of the season on the second day of Mt. Holyoke’s two-day invitational.

When I popped my head into the clubhouse to check on the score of the game, an all too familiar grin was on Belichick’s face. It was the same face that I saw on McDaniel’s coach Mike Diehl’s face, riding around watching the Lady Terror for 18 holes. (Congrats to Elyse Massa, Amy Glock, Val Saucier, Nicole Cristy and Jennie Weiner for the lowest McDaniel single day total of 349 since Spring 2005 in Kutztown.) For both the Green Terror and the Patriots there were many highlights but there were far too many lowlights.

One of those highlights came on special teams where Ellis Hobbs averaged accumulated 237 yards on six returns for an average of 39.5 yards a carry, setting a new Patriots record. Now here is the lowlight, those were on kick-off returns. It is a pretty safe bet that any time a team has six returns off kick-offs, they probably are not going to win.

The best coaches are the “Yes, but coaches.” These types of active-positive coaches do not just acknowledge where their team faltered but also where their team succeeded in the form of a “yes but” statement. Belichick did this in his post game press conference regarding the Patriots dominance on special teams behind one of Hobbs returns for 81 yards.

“Certainly dominated on offense and defense I thought,” Belichick said. “We were competitive in the kicking game but that was about it not on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.”

As a team when you only get the ball for 28 minutes of the game, it makes a cold, hard statement about your defense. The Pats can not expect to win if there defense is not at the top of their game. They will have a week to sit on this game as they head into their bye week before coming out on Sunday October 5 to face the San Francisco 49ers in the Bay Area.

“Try to be better for San Francisco,” Belichick said in his Monday afternoon press conference. “Correct mistakes on this one and put it to rest.” Because “on any given Sunday.”