Not Going Anywhere

11.27.2008 1:37AM

To Trade Brady, or Not To Trade Brady
Hall of Fame QB Warren Moon, ESPN commentators think Pats should trade Brady
Written by: Boston Sports SID

Before reading this blog please take a minute to partake in brief game of Jeopardy. Please answer in the form of a question: (The answer will be at the end of the post.)
The single, stupid, idiotic, dumbest idea ever proposed by a national media conglomerate.

Bill Belichick has made bold moves in the past, such as trading Drew Bledsoe, releasing Lawyer Milloy as well as letting Ty Law, Adam Vinatieri and Asante Samuel walk when they reached their free agent years. But there is one thing that Belichick does not do. He does not make moves based on whim. Every decision the Patriots make is carefully calculated and bounced off other members of the Patriots staff to assure himself it is what is best for the football team. So to think Belichick would even consider the option of trading Tom Brady, as a big time media conglomerate brought up, is ridiculous.

Many national football commentators and fans outside New England will point to Bledsoe’s week two injury against the Jets in 2001 is what led to the emergence of Brady. Now after Brady went down with his ACL tear in week one, this might be the emergence of Matt Cassel?

Well here is the flaw in their argument. How did the Patriots do with Bledsoe at quarterback? They made it to the Super Bowl in 1996-97 against the Green Bay Packers and lost. With the Brady, the Pats became the first dynasty of the new millennium winning three championships in four years and were minutes away from winning their fourth last year. Plus Bledsoe was at the tail end of his career whereas Brady is still in the prime of his and at least five years left in his career.

To think that Belichick is going change his M.O. just so he can sooth his ego, as some commentators think, is absolutely absurd. Belichick is a CEO and like any CEO of a highly successful multi-national, million dollar corporation, he is going to do what is best for the company. Does he think he can win without Brady? Probably but does that mean he is going to drop the guy who brought him three championship rings and has potential for more?

Yes Brady is coming off a nasty ACL injury but people are making it sound like he contracted gangrene and had his left leg amputated. As of today, there has been a recent report from the quarterback himself telling Boston’s ABC affiliate on Tuesday, he is doing well in his recovery from surgery as well as a staph infection. The television station also noted that Brady appeared to be walking without a limp. This is all fans and media have to go because we know the Patriots treat injuries like state secrets. (Maybe the CIA should hire Belichick for their covert operations?)

What is getting the fans and commentators worked up, is the uncertainty of the future and the question of where is Brady going to be in eight months. But you know what? Brady does not have report to training camp until the end of July. It is not like July is going to come tomorrow. It is eight months away. Eight months is a long time in the sporting world. Eight months is two months short of many internships. Eight months is a baseball season that includes both Spring Training and the post-season. Many things can and will happen between now and the time Brady reports to camp. The future is always uncertain. When it is certain, people tend to call it the past.

Things always have a way of working out. Remember back to Spring Training 2006? The Red Sox had seven starters on their roster heading into Spring Training and they figured seven was too much so they traded Bronson Arroyo to Cincinnati for what they thought was young power hitter in Wily Mo Pena. Well as the season progressed and Matt Clement landed on the disabled list, Josh Beckett was having a hard time adjusting to the American League and David Wells was David Wells. They ended up finishing the season in third place behind the Yankees and Blue Jays with four-A guys making the starts in August and September. The Sox could have definitely used Arroyo at the tail end of 2006. But they learned that you can never have enough pitching because even if you have 20 starting pitchers in spring training, things always have a way of working out.

It is no different than what the Patriots are going through right now. What we need right now is a Rosevelt Colvin “calm down.” The Pats will have bigger questions in the off-season, mainly improving the secondary by stacking the deck with the defensive backs as well as re-signing nose tackle Vince Wilfork. The quarterback comes in third when it comes to the needs of the team.

Eight months is along way away and things have ways of working themselves out.

-- BOSTON SPORTS SID

ANSWER TO THE JEOPARDY QUESTION is:
Should the Patriots trade star quarterback Tom Brady?

Contenders v. Pretenders

11.23.2008 10:50:30pm

"Well Done Is Better Than Well Said"
Pats show they are contenders, exploit pretenders
Written By: Boston Sports SID

In a must-win game for both teams to keep their playoff hopes alive, the Patriots proved they are the contenders and the Miami Dolphins are the pretenders in a 48-28 victory Sunday afternoon. Hats off to the Dolphins, after finishing the season last year at 1-15, they had a marvelous 2008 season but are no where near the caliber of the Pats or Jets.

Joey Porter just does not know when to shut his yap. He got away with calling out the Patriots, then, inexperienced quarterback in Week Three so he thought he would run his mouth again before Week 12’s re-match in Miami. Unfortunately, Porter was not so lucky this time.

Late in the fourth quarter when the game was almost sign, sealed and delivered, Porter committed a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Matched with another Miami penalty on the play, it culminated with a BenJarvus Green-Ellis two-yard touchdown run to put the Pats up by 20 and really seal the deal. Thanks to Porter’s actions, the Patriots returned the favor of spanking the Dolphins at home in southeast Florida.

Not to long before that play after Stephen Gostkowski put the Pats up two scores with a 30-yard field goal, Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder went after offensive lineman Matt Light. After Light got in a few punches of his own, both he and Crowder were ejected and will be heavily fined or, worst case scenario, suspended.

This game just goes to show you that even though Miami has improved from last year, they are a young and undisciplined team. When they play teams such as the Patriots, Colts, Jets or any team who is rigorously disciplined, their fatal flaws are going to show. Or maybe it can be deduced that Porter is a cancer to any team he is on.

The guy is still running his mouth about how the Steelers should have been the dynasty of the 21^st Century because the Patriots cheated. Sounds like the sour grapes talking. Now this the reason the media relations staff likes to give players and coaches a 10 minute “cool down” time post-game, to prevent stuff like this. Hey Porter: It was seven years ago. Get over it. The day Joey Porter retires is the day the NFL will be better.

But you know who will not be retiring soon, Cassel. No longer an inexperienced quarterback, Cassel continues to impress and is sure to command a high price tag come free agency. You know that $50 million for four year price tag, Scott Boras is commanding for Jason Varitek? Well Cassel deserves that money more than the former Sox catcher catcher.

As devastating as last week’s loss to the Jets was, remember it Cassel who, in Brady-like fashion, drove the Patriots down-field and threw to Randy Moss, who made an extraordinary catch, to send the game to OT. Against the Jets, Cassel had his best game of the year, completing 30 of his 51 passing attempts for 400-yards including three touchdowns. It was hard to imagine that he could top last week’s performance this week. But it is exactly what he did.

The one time back up quarterback can but something on his resume that the legendary Tom Brady can not. For the second consecutive game, Cassel threw for over 400-yards including throwing three touchdowns one of his favorite targets, Randy Moss. Completing 30 of his 43 attempts, Cassel averaged nearly a first down every time (9.7) while finishing with 415 passing yards overall and a 114.0 passer rating. On the receiving end, Moss also had his best game of the season. He caught eight balls for 125 yards with his longest being a 29-yard reception for one of his three touchdowns in the second quarter.

Through all the trash-talking thrown the Patriots way this past week, the Pats showed once again that they do all their talking on the field because “well done is better than well said.” They could care less what you say in the week leading up to the game. All that matters is how the team plays for 60 minutes on Sunday.

-- BOSTON SPORTS SID

Bill has Bills number

11.9.08 11:30PM

BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Pats win another case against Bills
Patriots return to action on short week Thursday night v. Jets
BRIEF: Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker and rookie running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis were on top of their games as the Pats defeated AFC East Division foe the Buffalo Bills 20-10 for 10^th time since 2003 to put New England in a tie for first with the Jets in the division.

It was a game of firsts.

Wes Welker became the first wide receiver to catch at least six passes in his team’s first nine games of the season. The Pats wide out caught 10 of Matt Cassel’s 23 completions – including stealing a 21-yard completion in the first half – for 107 total yards.

Welker has become Cassel’s go-to-guy. When the Pats quarterback starts to feel the pressure, he always looks for the scrappy wide out who typically can be found running across the middle confusing defenders twice his size. If he was on the Red Sox, fans would refer to him as a Dirt Dog. But Welker was not the only Patriot that helped guide the team to their sixth win of the season.

After injuries to Sammy Morris, LaMont Jordan and Laurence Maroney forcing them to into the spectator role, the undrafted free agent out of OleMiss, BenJarvus Green-Ellis was thrown into the starting role. From the second he stepped on the field he has impressed Patriot coaches as well as the fans. Green-Ellis’s running style as a down hill back is an up-grade over the injury-prone, dancing Maroney.

Since making his debut against the Denver Broncos on Monday night, Green-Ellis has improved immensely. With his mother in the Gillette Stadium stands, the 23-year-old reached the century mark for the first time in his career. On 26 carries, Green-Ellis, also known as “The Law Firm,” accumulated 105 yards including one fourth quarter touchdown to seal the deal for the Patriots.

Along with Welker and Green-Ellis, Cassel also added to his short NFL resume with his first touchdown run of his career in the first quarter. On the Patriots first possession of the game, Cassel drove the team down field from their own 29-yard line to set up the game’s first score. With the ball on the 13-yard line, on second and six, the Pats QB could not find an open receiver so he tucked the ball and ran for the first down. Except there was one more thing, Cassel did not stop once he reached the three, he kept running before diving into the endzone to put the Patriots up 6-0. Stephen Gostkowski added the extra point to give the Pats the seven to nothing advantage.

The score may look close but it never really was in doubt. The Patriots had the game early on thanks to Homeland Defense and new Defense Secretary Jerod Mayo, who recorded four tackles in the game to increase his team lead in tackles to 59. The former Tennessee Volunteer is making an excellent bid at becoming the 2008 Defensive Rookie of the Year. The defense gets top billing for today’s game as Ty Warren sacked Bills quarterback Trent Edwards for a loss of five yards. It was Warren’s first sack of the season while fellow defensive lineman Richard Seymour recorded his fourth sack of the year early in the game for a loss of six yards.

Early in the season, Buffalo was on fire but it appears as if they have already peaked. Between the Bills and Patriots, we witnessed two teams heading in opposite directions.

It will be a short week for the Pats as they welcome their AFC East Division rivals, the New York Jets, to Gillette Stadium Thursday night. The Jets are coming off a 44-point win against the hapless St. Louis Rams on Sunday.

Pats Mental Errors leads to third loss

11.3.08 12:55AM

Christmas Came Early for the Colts

Pats defeated from the brink of victory

Entering the game the Colts had the edge because their season was on the line with a 3-4 record. If they lost this game, their chances of making the playoffs would fall further from slim to none. Coming into the game, the Patriots were leading the AFC East at 5-2 thanks to the Bills loss to the Jets earlier. Nothing was on the line for the Pats and it showed. The The Patriots had the game in the bag but gave the Colts an early Christmas present with mental errors leading to stupid penalties. Thus giving the Colts new life and bolstering their confidence for a strong second half push.

After last week’s 23-16 come-from-behind victory against the St. Louis Rams on the back of Matt Cassel, Cassel once again put the team on his back in Indianapolis.

After Adam Vinatieri put the Colts on top 18-15 with a 52-yard field, his longest in six years, Cassel drove the Patriots down field from their own 19 and into Colts territory. The Pats were rolling. Cassel was converting every third down the team was in and it looked as if the Patriots were going to get a touchdown on the 49-yard drive. There was no way the Colts were going to stop the Pats.

BenJarvus Green-Ellis rushed up the middle on second and two for a one yard gain but after the play, tight end, David Thomas, joined the likes of Grady Little and Terry Francona. Thomas made the stupidest play a player can make under Bill Belichick as he was flagged for unnecessary roughness after he charged into a Colts safety after the play had been whistled dead. Just as Little and Francona cost the Red Sox the game by leaving Pedro Martinez and Josh Beckett, respectively, in the game two long, Thomas’s brain fart cost the Patriots the chance to steal a win away from the enemy. There is no doubt that he will be in Belichick’s dog house tomorrow afternoon.

But Thomas will not be alone in Belichick’s dog house this week. Belichick might as well put himself in his dog house as he contributed to the Patriots’ three point loss. In unconventional fashion, the Patriots head coach made two key mistakes in the second half that ended up costing the Pats the win.

Early into the second half, on second and 10, Cassel tried to catch Indianapolis with two many men on the field but the 12^th Colt was able to get off before the Pats QB snapped the ball. Whoever gave Belichick the idea that the 12^th man did not get off the field fast enough and to challenge the play, probably does not have a job anymore this week.

The Patriots lost the challenge therefore also losing a crucial time-out. Later during the same drive, Cassel had to take the Patriots second time out as he could not get the play off before the play clock dripped down to zero. Even though the Patriots found the endzone on the drive, it cost them another two times, which would have come in real handy 30 minutes later. Well that is the benefit of 20-20 hind-sight.

At the tail-end of the third quarter Peyton Manning put the Colts back in the lead with a nine yard pass to Anthony Gonzalez plus a converting a two-point conversion. But Cassel, who in Tom Brady’s absence, really has improved as a quarterback and proved he can put a team on his back and lead them to victory. He was doing it again after Indianapolis took the three point lead. Once again it looked as if the Pats were going to get into the endzone but when Wes Welker came up one-yard shy on third down and the offense was still on the field, Belichick decided upon calling his last time out in favor of bringing out Stephen Gostkowski to tie the score at 15 all. Brain fart number two.

A team that prides itself on composure both on the field and on the sidelines certainly was not the team that took the field against the Colts on Sunday night, in front of a national audience. The rest of the country probably loved seeing Belichick shit his pants in front of the world but many Patriots fans threw up in their mouths when they saw the man who is worshipped as God in New England turn into Grady Little.

Now it is not fair to put the blame solely on Thomas and Belichick because there were a plethora of other mistakes made. Rookie cornerback Jonathan Wilhite got burned by opposing wide receivers for the second week in a row. After Peyton Manning completed a third and long to Reggie Wayne early in the first quarter, it became painfully obvious Manning was going to go to Wilhite’s side. Manning can make a veteran corner look silly but a first-year was way to easy for the former league MVP. It was Wilhite who was responsible for Gonzalez in the first quarter where the Colts wide-out walked uncontested into the endzone a caught the12-yard pass for an easy six points.

Matt Cassel did everything in his power to win the game for the Patriots. He threw for 204 yards completing 25 of 34 attempts (73.5) – better than Manning’s 21 for 29 (72.4). Even though he did throw one pick, the interception was because of Thomas’s egregious penalty that pushed the Pats well out of field goal range. Every week that goes by, Cassel has improved and is “leaps and bounds” above where he was even four weeks ago. He is no Brady but he has done a tremendous job filling in for some big shoes and you must tip your cap to him. If Cassel plays like he has in the past games and keeps improving, the Patriots will be in the playoff hunt in December.

This may sound like the bitterness talking here but the Colts did not the win the game. It was the Patriots beating themselves with the stupid mental mistakes and some bad coaching at critical times.

We all talked at the beginning of the season about Cassel looking like he regressed during his time in the pros but last night it was Belichick who regressed to his days with the Browns. So this is what the man who has a 15-4 post-season record was like in Cleveland?

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.”

Don't they ever learn?

What’s this? More material for the Patriots to put on their locker room bulletin board?

Miami Dolphins linebacker and representative loudmouth, Joey Porter finds himself on the Pats bulletin board once again. It seems as if we can not go one year without Porter opening up his big mouth. The Pats are all too familiar with the linebacker’s antics while with the Steelers in the playoffs and after last year’s asterisk’s comment regarding SpyGate. Doesn’t this guy ever learn?

Four days before the Pats host the last-place Dolphins at Gillette, Porter took some time out of practice to take a few cheap shots at quarterback Matt Cassel. He told ESPN blogger Tim Graham, “I just know he’s not Tom Brady. So if it’s not Tom Brady, it shouldn’t be that hard.”

Where to begin? That is the ultimate question. First, where is the logic in Porter’s statement? Secondly, thanks Joey I did not know Cassel was not Brady. Thank you very much for clearing that up for me. I would be lost without you. (Note the hint of sarcasm.)

And third, tell that to the Jets. New York fans were salivating at the idea of facing the sans-Brady Patriots would be a walk in the park and it would be their shot at redemption from last year, but they were harshly snapped back to reality by Adalius Thomas and the defense. If Porter thinks this Sunday’s game is going to be a cake walk, let me remind him that his Dolphins lost to the same Jets in their first game of the year.

According to Porter, the Dolphins are going to “treat [Cassel] like you treat a back-up.” This is their first mistake: thinking of Cassel as a back-up instead of a starter. Bill Belichick did not become a successful head coach treating opposing teams different. In the eyes of Belichick, every team is the Colts, every quarterback is Peyton Manning. Why? Because, it is cliché, “on any given Sunday” anybody can beat anybody.

Miami’s second mistake: letting Porter open his mouth to an ESPN reporter.

The Pats are the best team at playing the “Us vs. Them” card and using these one-liners as motivation. When the entire league accused them of cheating last year, the Pats only became the first undefeated team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins and were one win away from eternal glorification. Now, with Brady lost for the rest of the year, the national media called the Jets the team to beat in the AFC East, thus putting the chip was right back on the beast shoulder.

For the second consecutive year, Belichick does not have to re-create a “Disrespect” straw man like he has done in past years. Already feeling slighted why would a player from a winless team, come out and hurl more insults towards a team that handles it by doing all their talking on the field on Sunday? It makes no sense. So I end this blog with a Brady quote: “Well done is better than well said.”