Patriots’ Pursuit of Perfection

Shouldn’t the Patriots chase for history be seen by all? I can understand if the Patriots were 14-1 or 13-2 this game would mean nothing but the Pats are chasing history. All football fans should be allowed to see it even if they do not have the NFL Network.

Pats fans who are not in the Greater Boston area and who do not have the DirectTV package will not be able to watch the Pats break numerous NFL records. Fans around the league, who want to see the Patriots fail, will not be able to.

The NFL is doing more harm than good for themselves. What they could do this week is make a network deal with CBS or Fox to broadcast the game so that more than just a select few can see the game. As much as fans outside New England abhor the Patriots, the league should love the Patriots. Not only could the Pats break records on the field, they have broken television ratings records:

• The Monday Night Game against the Baltimore Ravens drew in 1.6 million more viewers than the previous high Monday Night Game – Cowboys/Giants October, 2006. The game surpassed “Law and Order: Criminal Intent” (4), “Monk” (7), Disney’s “Hannah Montana” (10) and Nickelodeon’s “SpongeBob SquarePants (9) as well as becoming the highest viewed television program for 2007 – topping Disney’s High School Musical 2.

• CBS encountered a spike in ratings because of the Patriots – 30.3 million viewers who tuned in to see the highly touted Patriots-Steelers game on December 9.

• Before the Patriots-Steelers game, the Pats-Colts game recorded a 22.5 rating and the Patriots-Cowboys record a rating of 18.

Football fans want to see the Patriots. This is tough for a Boston fan to say, but the Pats are the Yankees of the NFL. The Yankees run the show in baseball the Patriots run the show in football. Face it football fans, the league would be in total turmoil if not for the Pats. The NFL needs the Patriots more than the Patriots need the NFL.

Only Jack Nicholson’s character from A Few Good Men can put the 2007 football season into context: “[Belichick’s] existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves [the NFL]…You don’t want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want him on that wall. You need him on that wall.”

Without the Patriots there has not been much to talk about. The Colts have struggled since losing Marvin Harrison and Dwight Freeney. Do you really believe the Cowboys are a story this year? Tony Romo threw five interceptions against the Bills in a game earlier this year. The other Manning, Eli Manning, and the Giants struggled against the Bills last week. The Vikings have come alive as of late but in the junior league (NFC). Can they really match up against teams like the Patriots, Colts or Steelers? I don’t think so. I will give you Adrian Peterson but that is all he is a sure fire to win offensive Rookie of the Year. There is nothing left to talk about if the Pats were not chasing history.

To all those conspiracy theorists out there: maybe Bill Belichick purposely defied NFL rules to give commentators and fans something to talk about. Just trying to stir up those conspiracy theorists out there. (Oh by the way, Belichick was the Umbrella Man on the Grassy Knoll, November 22, 1963.)

60-Minutes…..Tick…Tick…Tick…

With the Patriots, and Colts for that matter, playing meaningless games for the remainder of the season, it brings about the question of the two top teams in the AFC resting their starters.

The 2007 Pats and the 2007 Colts are two franchises looking in opposite directions. Indianapolis might be looking to rest guys, like Peyton Manning, Reggie Wayne and Bob Sanders, because of the injury-plagued season they had this year. But the Pats on the other hand are trying to make history and become the first team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins to go undefeated.

It has never been Bill Belichick’s way to ease up on opponents, especially this year. Tom Brady, Randy Moss and Asante Samuel are going to play all four quarters of Sunday’s game. Unless the Pats are up 45-0 at half-time then it might be different. But then again, last time they face the Dolphins, the Pats were up 42-7 at the half and Brady came out for the third.

After stripping the Patriots of their first round draft pick and making Belichick the league bully, the Pats have retaliated and punishing the NFL as payback. In the process, Brady and Moss have compiled gaudy numbers and are on pace to break the single-season records for touchdown passes and receptions.

Belichick is a football guy. He loves the game and he loves the history of the game. If one of his players can break a record he is going to let the player go after it. Look at Doug Flutie and the dropkick or Vinny Testaverde throwing a garbage time touchdown a few years ago on the last day of the season. When history can be made, Belichick knows it and will go for it.

If the Patriots are ahead 45-13 in the fourth quarter and Brady needs one touchdown to break Manning’s record, there is no doubt that Brady will still be in the game. Belichick wants to see him break the record. Records were meant to be broken.

Do not let any of the national football commentators fool you the Patriots are out to kill the remaining teams on their schedule. The Pats have a lot to play for. Belichick and Brady want that fourth Super Bowl ring. Moss wants his first. They are out to play and not sit on the bench. The Pats have come this far playing 60 minutes of smash-mouth football and they will continue to play for 60 minutes. There are no stopping these boys.

PATRIOTS 45
Dolphins 13

Brady ties Manning’s record and breaks it next week as well as Randy Moss breaking Jerry Rice’s receiving yards.

(I am currently working on a Patriots PowerPoint of statistics so write-ups might be slow the next couple of days but I promise you I will post as soon as I get the opportunity.)

The To Do List

Well we can cross one more thing off the Patriots To Do List for the 2007 NFL season.

- Win the AFC East Division
- Clinch a first round bye in the playoffs
- Clinch home field advantage throughout the playoffs
- Win AFC Division Game
- Win AFC Championship Game
- Win their fourth Super Bowl in seven years

How the Post-Season looks in the AFC after Week 15:

1. PATRIOTS 14-0 (East Division Champion)
2. Indianapolis 12-2 (South Division Champion)
3. San Diego 9-5 (West Division Champion)
4. Pittsburgh 9-5 (1st in the North)
5. Jacksonville 10-4
6. Cleveland 9-5

How the Post-Season looks in the NFC after Week 15:

1. Dallas 12-2 (East Division Champion)
2. Green Bay 12-2 (North Division Champion)
3. Tampa Bay 9-5 (South Division Champion)
4. Seattle 9-5 (West Division Champion)
5. New York 9-4
6. Minnesota 7-6

In the Hunt: New Orleans (7-7) and Washington (6-7)

Ugly Day = Ugly Win

When games are publicized so much throughout the week, the real thing never will live up to all the hype.

It is exactly what happened during Sunday’s 20-10 win against the J-E-T-S Jets, Jets, Jets. Fans and media expecting the Patriots to slaughter New York by at least 21 had to settle for a 10-point margin of victory. But a win is a win. There are no pictures in the standings, just another number added to the left hand column of the standings for the Pats.

Tom Brady was a non-factor in Sunday’s game, only completing 14 of 27 passes for 140 yards, one pick and zero touchdowns. It was Laurence Maroney’s time to shine but he did not shine so brightly. In the first quarter of the game, Maroney had two key mistakes that led to the Patriots have to punt in the first drive of the game.

(AP Photo)

Chris Hanson nicely punted the ball deep in Jets territory and downing it at the three yard line. On third down with pressure from Richard Seymour, Kellen Clemens threw the ball in the direction of safety Eugene Wilson who ran into the endzone for the first points of the game. After the hit by Seymour, Clemens was shaken up and taken out of the game and replaced by Chad Pennington.

(AP Photo)

After picking off Kellen Clemens, Eugene Wilson runs into the end zone for the first score of the game. The pick was Wilson’s first pick of the season. (AP Photo)

There were two rare events that happened in Sunday’s game, one of which probably will not happen again for a long time. The first was the Patriots going with the running, but this is not the even that will not happen again. (They will be running the ball more in the playoffs.) But the second strange event was witnessing TWO blocked punts in the same game. It is pretty odd to see even ONE blocked punt but two in the same game is just uncanny.

The first blocked punt was a punt attempt by Hanson which was run back 26-yards by David Bowens for the six point score, plus Mike Nugent’s PAT. But on the next Jets possession, after going three-and-out, Ben Graham was back to attempt a punt only to have it blocked by Kelley Washington. Maroney went on to give the Pats a 17-7 lead with his second touchdown run of the season. The Pats never turned back and went on to score three more points on a 34-yard field goal by Gostkowski.

Next week the Patriots welcome the 1-13 Dolphins to Foxboro. The Dolphins have finally got the monkey of their back and recorded their first victory of the season after beating the Ravens 22-16.

Athletes contemplate but choose wisely

This is an article that I wrote during my sophomore year at McDaniel College about collegiate athletes (mainly at McDaniel) and performance enhancement drugs. I talked to wrestlers, football, lacrosse and baseball players. This is what I found out from talking with these Division III student athletes.

At one point in time steroids came to the mind of all college athletes for the extra strength that they need so they can compete with that other linebacker, quarterback, pitcher or outfielder. McDaniel coaches, trainers, athletic director and Terror athletes are on different sides of the fence on the issue of steroid use in Division 3 and at McDaniel.

Green Terror athletes spend a lot of time in the weight room lifting weights and working hard to compete for roster spots and starting positions. Athletes can spend so much time in the weight room but there is only so much that they can do. By their competitive nature, athletes will try to gain an advantage over their teammates for playing time anyway possible.

“There comes a time when you can’t do anything more,” says sophomore defensive back Matt Lufkin. “There comes a time when you can’t lift any harder or do anymore.”

It is always tough to see that guy come into the weight room, spend an hour there, leave and still get playing time over the guy who was “the first one in and last one out.” No athlete wants to see that. So they look for a way to gain an advantage.

They are always competing with someone, no matter if it is during a game or during practice. They want playing time.

“No one likes to work hard and not get a chance to show it,” says senior wrestler Leon Checca.

Athletes will look for the easiest way to gain strength, become stronger or faster. That way usually leads to steroid abuse. With steroids athletes can lift harder and longer. Steroids have testosterone that allows athletes to work out for a longer period of time and cuts down on the recovery time of the athlete.

“[Steroids] decreases the recovery time,” explains McDaniel Athletic Trainer Gregg Nibbelink. “They will lift too much and never let the body heal.”

But the negative affects of steroids do not have any affect on athletes. They are thinking of the present and the near future.

“They want that $100 million contract,” says junior linebacker Jay Scott.

Neither Scott nor Checca has ever considered using steroids. Steroids are the easiest way to get bigger and stronger. They are the worst thing to ever happen to sports in this society. To put it simply steroids are the easiest way to cheat.

“They are an inevitable part of the game,” says Lufkin.

Athletes want to play. They want to show that they can play. They have worked so hard. Some coaches at McDaniel recognize that athletes my try or consider steroids for a roster spot. But other coaches such as the men’s lacrosse Head Coach, Jim Townsend, think just the opposite.

“If they have to compete for a roster spot then they have issues other than steroids,” says Coach Townsend.

Coach Townsend and football Head Coach Tim Keating do not believe that there are athletes at McDaniel who are using steroids. And they are right. There has been no evidence that suggested a Terror athlete had been using any type of performance enhancing drug, according to Athletic Director Jamie Smith.

“I haven’t seen athletes at McDaniel about steroids, so I can’t prove it’s being done [here] or not being done [here],” explained Nibbelink.

But Nibbelink is not saying that there definitely are no Terror athletes on steroids. It is possible that athletes can do steroids because the NCAA drug testing policy is not the same in division three as it is in divisions one and two. This has sparked the idea of having more stringent and random testing in division three.

Division one and two athletes have random drug testing but division three athletes are only tested if they make the playoffs. So it is possible for a division three athlete to be using a performance enhancing drug during the season. The only thing that athlete has to keep in mind is: what if the team makes the playoffs?

“If a player thinks they will go to the playoffs or nationals they won’t do it,” says Nibbelink.

Nibbelink, as well as Keating, is for random drug testing. Athletes will less likely to use any performance enhancing drugs if they know that they can be tested at anytime, according to Nibbelink. He also thinks that the NCAA should pay for the testing if they really want to drug free the college athletics.

    “McDaniel can’t afford to do random drug tests,” says Nibbelink. Drug testing can cost a school up to $1 million per year.

    But not everyone is for random testing. Checca is one who is against. It is not the answer to the steroid problem in division three. Testing doesn’t prove anything, according to him. As long as they get off the drug a few months before they have the idea they are going to be tested the drugs will be out of their system.

Division three athletes are different than division one and two athletes. Division one and two athletes are playing mostly for the chance to go to the next level (the professional level), says quarterback and lacrosse player Brad Baer.

“D3 athletes are playing more for the love of the game,” says Checca.

    Steroids do not make the athlete. The athlete has to already have some skill and talent level before he/she steps onto the field. The steroids are not going to do it for them. Athletes have to be willing to work and put in time in the weight room, says sophomore outfielder and quarterback Tom Weinrich. They have to be willing to be “one of the first ones in and one of the last ones to leave.”

    “You can take all the steroids you want but if you don’t lift nothing’s going to happen,” claims Coach Townsend.

"The Mariano Rivera Welcome"

NOTE TO THE 60,000-PLUS OCCUPYING GILLETTE NEXT SUNDAY:
Give Eric Mangini “The Mariano Rivera Welcome!”

The talk this week on Sportscenter and sports talk shows will be about how many points the Pats will score on the New York Jets and how badly Mangini will be booed. I say do the opposite.

On Opening Day at Fenway Park in 2005, the Red Sox were playing the New York Yankees. When Public Address announcer, Carl Beam, announced Yankee closer Mariano Rivera the Fenway Faithful broke into cheers. This is the treatment fans at Gillette should give to Mangini.

The national media will be expecting Mangini to be booed and it will show the creativity of Boston sports fans. After all, he did provide the ultimate motivation for the Pats going 19-0. The Patriots are winners; the Jets are whiners! And they are still doing a lot of whining today.

New York Daily News columnist Gary Myers is still whining about how the Patriots got off “easy” and should have been punished more harshly. Myers brings up the Pats first round pick obtained from San Francisco in last year’s draft day trade. He believes Roger Goodell should have taken away the better of the two draft picks. Myers also made a point to address his belief that Bill Belichick should have been suspended for the re-match next week.

It is the sour grapes talking. Myers is just bitter he is covering a poor 3-10 team with no plan for the future. There is no way Goodell could have known the 49ers were going to be so bad and it is not Belichick’s fault San Francisco traded their first rounder in April. You can not penalize the guy for making a trade last year.

But it would be nice to see the Patriots possibly winning the Super Bowl and having a chance to get Arkansas running back Darren McFadden. Or trading down to accumulate later picks. That would really put a dagger in the NFL and add another reason for people outside New England to hate the Patriots.

And regarding Myers’s stupid and idiotic comments about how Belichick should have been suspended for next week’s game, he is desperately trying to get a Jets win and it shows. Myers, green is not your color.

I have more news for you Myers: the Patriots could beat the Jets without Belichick. I will go as far as saying, the Pats could start Matt Cassel and still pull out a victory. Matt Ryan can drive down to Foxboro, spot start and beat New York. Okay I went too far but you get the picture. The Jets are just not good. If it was not for the Dolphins, New York would be the bottom feeders of the AFC East.

The To Do List…

Well we can cross one more thing off the Patriots To Do List for the 2007 NFL season.

- Win the AFC East Division
- Clinch a first round bye in the playoffs
- Clinch home field advantage throughout the playoffs
- Win AFC Division Game
- Win AFC Championship Game
- Win their fourth Super Bowl in seven years

 

AFC Playoff Picture

 

1. PATRIOTS 13-0
2. Indianapolis 11-2
3. Pittsburgh 9-4
4. San Diego Chargers 8-4

 

1. Jacksonville Jaguars 9-4
2. Cleveland Browns 8-5

 

In the Hunt: Tennessee Titans and Buffalo Bills (7-6)

The Sleeping Giant Has Awoke and It’s Not Happy

If the game this week was not hyped up enough for the New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers’ DB Anthony Smith gave the Pats added motivation to beat the Steelers.

A second year free safety, Smith told reporters that “People keep asking me if we’re ready for the Patriots. They should be asking if they’re ready for us,” guaranteeing a Steelers upset. He, then, went on to say “[Steelers teammates] will back me up. Everyone has the same attitude anyway, so it’s not like it’s a big thing.”

Even if the rest of the Steelers felt the same way, they would not be stupid enough to tell the national media. Speaking to the media only adds fuel to fire as ex-Eagle Freddie Mitchell learned before Super Bowl XXXIX.

I can hear the banging of Bill Belichick’s hammer on the doors to the Patriots locker room in Gillette Stadium. As if Rodney Harrison, Tedy Bruschi and Richard Seymour, did not have enough incentive to beat the Steelers, they now have ample ammunition to beat Pittsburgh.

When will teams learn that these kinds of childish acts only further motivate the Patriots to destroy you on the field? One would have thought that the rest of the league would have learned from Mitchell or ex-Colts kicker Mike Vanderjagt when he commented “[the Pats] were ripe for the picking,” before the 2004 AFC Championship game. Teams have not learned you should not make these comments because the Patriots will just throw them back in your face at game-time.

It is even more apparent this year with “Spy-Gate” giving the Pats motivation to crush and humiliate the rest of the league. Evidently Eric Mangini learned nothing during his days as a Patriots employee when he blew the whistle on Belichick that sparked the universal hatred of New England.

Smith also made the comment that Cincinnati had the best receiving corps in the game with Chad Johnson, T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Chris Henry. “[The Pats] got Walker and Moss, but they’re not like Cincinnati,” Smith said. Not knowing Wes Welker’s name is the ultimate slap in the face and resembles Mitchell’s comments about the New England’s DBs in 2005.

Looking at the statistics between the receiving corps of the Pats compared to that of the Bengals the Patriots have the slight edge. Combined Welker, Randy Moss, Donte Stallworth and Jabar Gaffney have given the Pats 142 first downs, 2,893 yards and 30 touchdowns. Compare that to the 127 first downs, 2,293 yards and 18 touchdowns by the top three receivers of the Bengals. Granted, I listed one extra Pats player it serves the point that Tom Brady has more weapons to use and does not have to rely upon either Moss or Stallworth.

So kids the moral of the story today is “Don’t awake the Sleeping Giant!”

The Toughest Game of the Year

If you thought last week against the Ravens was a tight ballgame you have not seen anything yet. If there is one team out there that can stop the New England Patriots it is the Pittsburgh Steelers this Sunday.

The Steelers have the necessary tools to stop the Patriots prolific offense, even though lately that offense has been far less than prolific. Pittsburgh has a good quarterback, albeit not as good as Tom Brady or Peyton Manning, in Ben Roethlisberger who is built more like a Tight End than a quarterback. They have a defense that can pressure quarterbacks and make them throw under duress better than the Ravens or Eagles.

There is a glaring weakness on defense for the Pats that the Steelers, out of all teams, have the best chance to expose. As good as Brian Westbrook and Willis McGahee are, Willie Parker and Hines Ward are far more dangerous. Parker has accumulated 1,093 rushing yards over the 2007 season on 285 rushing attempts averaging out to 3.8 yards per gain. Ward has become one of Roethlisberger’s favorite targets in the open field when under pressure and like Donte Stallworth, Ward can break a few tackles for a long gain.

But those times that Roethlisberger is under pressure are few and far between because the fine work of the Pittsburgh offensive line. Sean Mahan, Alan Faneca, Marvel Smith, Kendall Simmons and Willie Colon have been doing an excellent job of keeping Roethlisberger in the vertical position, only allowing him to be sacked 35 times and 16 times in the last four games. (That is how many times Brady has been sacked all season by opposing defenses; although it seems that those 16 times have come all in the past two games.)

The Pats defense will have their hands full with the Steelers offense but the Steelers offense is not the only thing that New England will have to worry about. There is also that little thing called defense where the Steelers are ranked 1^st in the league.

Troy Polamalu is still a safety for the Steelers who, I am pretty positive, wants a piece of the Patriots after the Pats defeated Pittsburgh twice in AFC Conference games. Along with Polamalu on defense are inside linebackers James Harrison and James Farrior. Combined these two have 148 tackles and 14.5 sacks. Brady has to keep an eye out for these two coming up the middle or he will have an unwanted, face-to-face meeting with either one of them.

The Patriots offensive line has to step up and do a better job at protecting the Pats crowned jewel. No Pats fan wants to see Brady go down. The Steelers will probably play Randy Moss on man coverage (probably Ike Taylor) with additional help from the safeties and from time-to-time double team him. Double teaming Moss will open up Wes Welker over the middle, as in the Eagles game, and Welker can run for additional yards after the catch. But they have to be very careful of an interception by Deshea Townsend or Bryant McFadden.

This game will be a full-out, 60-minute, grinder. Which ever team can play for 60-minutes will come out on top. We all know that Bill Belichick has prepped his players all season to play 60 minutes of football each week (we should know because there were those soccer moms complaining about the Pats running up the score earlier in the year), so the Pats will come out to play for the entire game. I have not seen much or read too much about the Steelers in this case so I can not comment on this part of the game but knowing Belichick, he will have his team ready to play 60-minutes of hard, pounding football come Sunday at 4:15.

The Steelers had stripped away the Patriots 21 game winning streak back in 2003-2004 with a 34-20 victory in Heinz Field. With another streak on the line it is a safe bet the Steelers are looking to do the same again.

If the Patriots were not playing at home on Sunday would also factor into the game but this season Pittsburgh has not faired to well on the road. They have won just two out of five games they have played on the road. Those two wins coming against Cleveland and Cincinnati, two teams the Patriots have beaten – one of which was on the road (Cincinnati). Remember this is the team that also lost to the New York Jets and the Arizona Cardinals but come Sunday, the Steelers will be focused on the Patriots and intent on giving the Patriots their first loss of the season.

It is just I do not see that happening but I have been wrong before.

Patriots 35
Steelers 32

 

Game ball goes to: Wes Welker.

Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger throws a pass against the Cincinnati Bengals last week. (AP Photo)

 

New book….

A spin off of the Harry Potter series……

“Bill Belichick and the rest of the National Football League”
Release Date was: 9/14/2007