Most of the comments I’m seeing are saying that the patriots have problems on defense. I’ll admit , they have a few there (like the inability to get anywhere near the opposing team’s quarterback), but for me the real problem is Tom Brady and the offensive coordinator.
Brady just does not look comfortable out there. He’s shying away from contact, throwing off his back foot, and rushing his throws, which is resulting in a lot of really bad looking passes. Before his injury he was completing nearly 70 percent of his passes, and a lot of the passes that were incomplete were fairly risky ones that were either very close, or in a place where only his guy could make a play on it or it would be on the ground or out of bounds. Now he looks like he’s opting for the safest passes, and is still missing by a lot on many of them because he’s rushing them. Which is funny in a way, because before the play starts he is taking so much time off the clock that they had back-to-back delay of game penalties at one point, and routinely just get the ball snapped with one second left on the clock. There just seems to be no rhythm at all in to the offense. Which brings us to the offensive coordinator.
It seems pretty obvious by now that the guy calling the plays (the quarterback coach, who’s only experience calling plays was for Duke. DUKE!; a team that has lost more games than any other team in college football the past 10 years) has no idea what he is doing. Where are all the screens and misdirection plays that used to be called to slow down the blitz? Where are the quick passes to the wide receivers right at the line of scrimmage to allow them to make yards after the catch? Where are the draw plays? The play action passes. The offense has become too predictable. Losing Jerod Mayo was bad. So was losing Richard Seymour. And Mike Vrabel. But the loss of Josh McDaniels to the Broncos may be the biggest loss the team has suffered. When he called the plays defenses were kept off balance. There was a sense that he would call any play in the playbook at any time. THEY were the confused ones. Now it looks like the patriots’ offense is confused.
I was shocked to see Brady sitting alone on the bench when the defense was on the field, often not even looking at the game. He had his head down a lot, and looked dejected and confused. I’m used to seeing him sitting with the receivers, or standing on the sidelines next to the coaches.
I have a feeling that it could be a very long year. I’ve read stories about other quarterbacks who had the same injury as Tom, and they all say it takes a full year of playing to get back to where they were before. I assumed that because Brady was a better quarterback than the others (Carson Palmer, Dante Culpepper, Randall Cunningham) and didn’t rely on his legs as much (as his head) that he would be back to his old self a lot sooner. It appears I was wrong. My hope now is that the Pats can keep in the playoff hunt for the first half of the year while Brady gets his act together and the offensive coordinator gets a clue, and then they could make a run in the second half of the year. I was predicting 13 wins or better this year. Now I’m hoping for 10, and that 10 will be enough to get into the playoffs. They should be 0-2 now. I think next week they lose to the Falcons. Then they play Baltimore, which suddenly can score points as well as play terrific defense. They could be 1-3 easily after that game. Then they go to Denver. Another potential loss. They should still beat Tennessee and Tampa Bay before the Bye Week, but by then they could be 3-4, when I expected at least 5-2 and quite possibly 6-1. The second half of the year (always assuming that the offense gets it in gear) should be easier. Except for the games against Indianapolis and New Orleans, the rest of the games look winnable. They could go 7-2. That would put them at 10-6 and could get them in the playoffs. Whether they do anything in the playoffs will depend almost entirely on Tom Brady. Right now they don’t even look like a playoff team. And Tom Brady doesn’t look like Tom Brady.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
How Tom Brady Almost Got Me Killed
Here’s how. Monday Night Football. Patriots against the Bills. Things started poorly. There was not enough oil to make the buffalo wings and French fries, so I had to go back to the store for a second time (and we won’t be discussing the car fiasco from the first trip to the store at this time, or any other if I have my say). The fries ended up overdone too, although the wings came out just right, although just seconds before kickoff. From the beginning of the game it was obvious that things weren’t going well. Tom Brady looked like a guy who hadn’t played any real football (let’s not kid ourselves, the exhibition games were meaningless) for a year, and who was dealing with the physical and mental ramifications of a serious knee injury. He was indecisive. He was inaccurate. He looked uncomfortable. In other words, he looked like an average quarterback, instead of one of the ten best who’ve ever played. And the defense wasn’t helping any. They couldn’t get off the field, letting the Bills move the ball pretty easily on them. Had Jerod Mayo not been injured early in the game things may have been different. Things weren’t going too great while he was in there though, which does not bode well for the rest of the season. He never returned last night. Hopefully it is a minor injury, or things could be really bad. They’re going to have to score a lot of points anyway I think.
At halftime Jayne decided to go to bed. And in the second half things got even worse. Buffalo was making all the right plays, and the Pats couldn’t get any offense going. They had to settle for field goals, when they should have scored touchdowns. Tom continued to play, to be honest, mediocre football. He never threw the ball more than 10-12 yards. No bombs to Galloway or Randy Moss. No deep crossing patterns to Wes Welker. Just dinks and dunks (very much like how he played as a rookie in 2001, only back then they had one of the best defenses in the league and you KNEW they would get more chances). But they couldn’t get into the end zone. Tom just didn’t look like he had it. And when the Bills scored to make it 24-13 late in the 4th it seemed pretty hopeless. It was during that touchdown drive that point where I started yelling at the tv in frustration.
There were 5 and a half minutes left in the game. I still had a little hope, but I knew they had to score quickly, so that they could have a chance to get the ball back. They had 3 timeouts and the two minute warning to stop the clock. If they could score quickly the defense would have a chance to stop the Bills and get Tom the ball back with a minute or so. It was doable (although I had very little confidence that the defense would come through, and only slightly more than a little confidence that Tom would based on how he had been playing up until that point). So when Tom started the next possession by continuing to dink and dunk (3 yards here, 6 yards there, 2 yards more and a first down…..aaaarrrrggghhh!) I really started to lose it. “Moooooooove!!!! I screamed. We don’t have frelling time to do this!!!!” Time was slowly bleeding away. It was under 4 minutes…….then under 3 minutes, and yet Tom kept lollygagging around, as if he had all the time in the world. A pass to Moss for 8……….. another pass to Welker for 6……... Dink…………. Donk……….. Dunk.
“Yougottafuckingscorefasterthanthis!!!!!!!!!!” Finally, Tom throws a touchdown pass to Ben Watson to make it 24-19. But only 2:06 remains on the clock. All the bills would have to do is get one first down on their next possession and the clock would run out. Based on how things had gone up until then it seemed a foregone conclusion that the Bills would get that first down. But then fate took a hand. On the ensuing kickoff the ball was caught in the end zone…….and the runner ran out!!! All he had to do was stand there for a couple seconds and then kneel down for a touchback. The clock would have gone down to the two minute warning, taking away one of the Pats chances to stop the clock. And even had it not run down under two minutes their offense was almost sure to be able to get one first down and run out the clock. And even if they didn’t run out the clock, they could have run it down to about a minute even with the Pats taking all three time outs. A punt then would have left the Pats 70 yards or so to go to win the game. But he decided to come out of the end zone. And was hit hard at the 25. And then continued to struggle to stay on his feet instead of going to the ground! And then had the ball pulled out of his hands!! And recovered on the 30 yard line by the Pats!!! 4 plays later Tom threw another touchdown to Watson, making it 25-24 Patriots. Pandemonium. With 50 seconds left the Bills got the ball back, but couldn’t get close enough to try a field goal and the Pats had an improbable victory. After watching the press conferences I finally went to bed, completely spent emotionally. Jayne was awake, and I apologized for all the ruckus. “It’s a good thing you stopped when you did” she said “because I was just about to come down and kill you. You woke me up about 5 times”.
So, there you have it. How Tom Brady Nearly Got Me Killed. My wife would have been profiled on one of those shows on the We (women’s entertainment) network. Snapped, or something like that. And most women would have agreed she was within her rights to have killed me and buried me under the deck. But as I reminded her, she knew when she got into this marriage that I was a lunatic, especially when sports was involved.
Several players said that Tom predicted they’d win. That during the drive starting with 5:32 left in the game he told them in the huddle “ok, we’re going to go down and score before the 2 minute warning. Then we’re gonna get the ball back somehow, and win the game”. I wish he had let me in on this. It might have saved me some grief (and potentially my life, heh heh)
But still, if you’re reading this Tom, can you do me a favor and make the next few games a little less stressful? Thanks.
At halftime Jayne decided to go to bed. And in the second half things got even worse. Buffalo was making all the right plays, and the Pats couldn’t get any offense going. They had to settle for field goals, when they should have scored touchdowns. Tom continued to play, to be honest, mediocre football. He never threw the ball more than 10-12 yards. No bombs to Galloway or Randy Moss. No deep crossing patterns to Wes Welker. Just dinks and dunks (very much like how he played as a rookie in 2001, only back then they had one of the best defenses in the league and you KNEW they would get more chances). But they couldn’t get into the end zone. Tom just didn’t look like he had it. And when the Bills scored to make it 24-13 late in the 4th it seemed pretty hopeless. It was during that touchdown drive that point where I started yelling at the tv in frustration.
There were 5 and a half minutes left in the game. I still had a little hope, but I knew they had to score quickly, so that they could have a chance to get the ball back. They had 3 timeouts and the two minute warning to stop the clock. If they could score quickly the defense would have a chance to stop the Bills and get Tom the ball back with a minute or so. It was doable (although I had very little confidence that the defense would come through, and only slightly more than a little confidence that Tom would based on how he had been playing up until that point). So when Tom started the next possession by continuing to dink and dunk (3 yards here, 6 yards there, 2 yards more and a first down…..aaaarrrrggghhh!) I really started to lose it. “Moooooooove!!!! I screamed. We don’t have frelling time to do this!!!!” Time was slowly bleeding away. It was under 4 minutes…….then under 3 minutes, and yet Tom kept lollygagging around, as if he had all the time in the world. A pass to Moss for 8……….. another pass to Welker for 6……... Dink…………. Donk……….. Dunk.
“Yougottafuckingscorefasterthanthis!!!!!!!!!!” Finally, Tom throws a touchdown pass to Ben Watson to make it 24-19. But only 2:06 remains on the clock. All the bills would have to do is get one first down on their next possession and the clock would run out. Based on how things had gone up until then it seemed a foregone conclusion that the Bills would get that first down. But then fate took a hand. On the ensuing kickoff the ball was caught in the end zone…….and the runner ran out!!! All he had to do was stand there for a couple seconds and then kneel down for a touchback. The clock would have gone down to the two minute warning, taking away one of the Pats chances to stop the clock. And even had it not run down under two minutes their offense was almost sure to be able to get one first down and run out the clock. And even if they didn’t run out the clock, they could have run it down to about a minute even with the Pats taking all three time outs. A punt then would have left the Pats 70 yards or so to go to win the game. But he decided to come out of the end zone. And was hit hard at the 25. And then continued to struggle to stay on his feet instead of going to the ground! And then had the ball pulled out of his hands!! And recovered on the 30 yard line by the Pats!!! 4 plays later Tom threw another touchdown to Watson, making it 25-24 Patriots. Pandemonium. With 50 seconds left the Bills got the ball back, but couldn’t get close enough to try a field goal and the Pats had an improbable victory. After watching the press conferences I finally went to bed, completely spent emotionally. Jayne was awake, and I apologized for all the ruckus. “It’s a good thing you stopped when you did” she said “because I was just about to come down and kill you. You woke me up about 5 times”.
So, there you have it. How Tom Brady Nearly Got Me Killed. My wife would have been profiled on one of those shows on the We (women’s entertainment) network. Snapped, or something like that. And most women would have agreed she was within her rights to have killed me and buried me under the deck. But as I reminded her, she knew when she got into this marriage that I was a lunatic, especially when sports was involved.
Several players said that Tom predicted they’d win. That during the drive starting with 5:32 left in the game he told them in the huddle “ok, we’re going to go down and score before the 2 minute warning. Then we’re gonna get the ball back somehow, and win the game”. I wish he had let me in on this. It might have saved me some grief (and potentially my life, heh heh)
But still, if you’re reading this Tom, can you do me a favor and make the next few games a little less stressful? Thanks.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Is it Beer O'Clock Yet?
If it is, you're probably paying too much for it!
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/CompanyFocus/why-every-cold-beer-costs-you-more.aspx
I am glad to see that Guinness was not mentioned in that article. Guinness good. Anheuser-Busch bad (except for some of their advertisements. I still fondly remember my Bud Man tee-shirt). This is not to say that only dark beers (or ales) are the only good beers. In the right setting I enjoy lighter (not LIGHT, mind you, just lighter) beers. With Asian food I can enjoy a Saporo, or a Zing Tao. With Mexican food a Modelo Especial is a fine accompaniment. I’ve had Red Stripe from Jamaica and enjoyed it, as well as German style lagers on occasion. There are fine beers being made of all kinds all over the world. But yet most of what Americans drink is, in my opinion, undrinkable. Of course I freely admit to being a terrible beer snob (there will never be another ’87 Anchor Steam). I love good beer. Mostly dark beer. Particularly Ales. Brown Ales. Porters. Stouts. I will drink a pale ale now and then, and amber ale. But American Style Lagers are right out. Bud, Bush, Miller, Coors and the like are what a guy pees out after drinking real beer. Real beer should have flavor and complexity. It should not under any circumstances have the word Light in it, unless you’re talking about beer made by Lighthouse Brewery. Small batches of beer are better batches of beer. These truths we hold to be self evident. Sam Adams used to be a smallish brewery, but now they are a macro-brewer (a brewer who makes giant batches of beer). You can’t control the taste of beer as well when you make large batches (batches? We don’t need no stinking batches!! Heh heh.). Of course there are those who say that Guinness is a macro-brewer too. This is true, but it is a special exception. Guinness has been making the same beer, with the same recipe, for 250 years! I think they’ve got the recipe down by now. And they still make a LOT less of it than Anheuser-Bush makes of Bud. And, Guinness is Good for You! It says so right on their advertisements! I freely admit that I started my beer drinking with cheap, pale, flavorless stuff like Bud. But thanks to peer pressure from my friends I learned to first love slightly darker and richer beers like Bass Ale, and soon graduated to Samuel Smith’s Pale Ale, and mild brown ales like Newcastle (still an all-time favorite). Eventually I had the courage (not John Courage, although that too is a good beer!) to try Guinness. It was my destiny it seems, as I am nearly 100% Irish and have dreamt of going to Ireland almost all my life (a dream that, as you recall from my haiku post was finally fulfilled). It took a little getting used to, but my conversion to a Guinness fanatic was soon complete, and culminated in my first pint in Ireland (at Dirty Nelly’s) and the trip to St. James Gate Brewery (aka Mecca). If only more people would learn to truly enjoy a good pint, instead of swilling down the pale and lifeless brew that passes for beer in this country. The world would be a better place. Guinness teaches you patience, as you wait for it to settle. It’s rich and dark colour is soothing. The head gives you a beer mustache, which can be good for a laugh. It is lower in Alcohol, which is good for your liver. And, of course, it gives you strength, being what I like to call liquid bread. They may call whiskey “the water of life” in Ireland, but Guinness Refreshes Your Spirit!
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/CompanyFocus/why-every-cold-beer-costs-you-more.aspx
I am glad to see that Guinness was not mentioned in that article. Guinness good. Anheuser-Busch bad (except for some of their advertisements. I still fondly remember my Bud Man tee-shirt). This is not to say that only dark beers (or ales) are the only good beers. In the right setting I enjoy lighter (not LIGHT, mind you, just lighter) beers. With Asian food I can enjoy a Saporo, or a Zing Tao. With Mexican food a Modelo Especial is a fine accompaniment. I’ve had Red Stripe from Jamaica and enjoyed it, as well as German style lagers on occasion. There are fine beers being made of all kinds all over the world. But yet most of what Americans drink is, in my opinion, undrinkable. Of course I freely admit to being a terrible beer snob (there will never be another ’87 Anchor Steam). I love good beer. Mostly dark beer. Particularly Ales. Brown Ales. Porters. Stouts. I will drink a pale ale now and then, and amber ale. But American Style Lagers are right out. Bud, Bush, Miller, Coors and the like are what a guy pees out after drinking real beer. Real beer should have flavor and complexity. It should not under any circumstances have the word Light in it, unless you’re talking about beer made by Lighthouse Brewery. Small batches of beer are better batches of beer. These truths we hold to be self evident. Sam Adams used to be a smallish brewery, but now they are a macro-brewer (a brewer who makes giant batches of beer). You can’t control the taste of beer as well when you make large batches (batches? We don’t need no stinking batches!! Heh heh.). Of course there are those who say that Guinness is a macro-brewer too. This is true, but it is a special exception. Guinness has been making the same beer, with the same recipe, for 250 years! I think they’ve got the recipe down by now. And they still make a LOT less of it than Anheuser-Bush makes of Bud. And, Guinness is Good for You! It says so right on their advertisements! I freely admit that I started my beer drinking with cheap, pale, flavorless stuff like Bud. But thanks to peer pressure from my friends I learned to first love slightly darker and richer beers like Bass Ale, and soon graduated to Samuel Smith’s Pale Ale, and mild brown ales like Newcastle (still an all-time favorite). Eventually I had the courage (not John Courage, although that too is a good beer!) to try Guinness. It was my destiny it seems, as I am nearly 100% Irish and have dreamt of going to Ireland almost all my life (a dream that, as you recall from my haiku post was finally fulfilled). It took a little getting used to, but my conversion to a Guinness fanatic was soon complete, and culminated in my first pint in Ireland (at Dirty Nelly’s) and the trip to St. James Gate Brewery (aka Mecca). If only more people would learn to truly enjoy a good pint, instead of swilling down the pale and lifeless brew that passes for beer in this country. The world would be a better place. Guinness teaches you patience, as you wait for it to settle. It’s rich and dark colour is soothing. The head gives you a beer mustache, which can be good for a laugh. It is lower in Alcohol, which is good for your liver. And, of course, it gives you strength, being what I like to call liquid bread. They may call whiskey “the water of life” in Ireland, but Guinness Refreshes Your Spirit!
Friday, September 4, 2009
Oh Soap Opera Stars, Will You Ever Win?
The Fug Girls bring the funny re: the Daytime Emmys.
http://www.lemondrop.com/2009/09/04/the-fug-girls-look-at-soap-star-fashion/
http://www.lemondrop.com/2009/09/04/the-fug-girls-look-at-soap-star-fashion/
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
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