Patriots win utterly meaningless game, I get super excited

Tonight, the Patriots beat the Saints in the first pre-season game.  It counted for absolutely nothing.  I hadn't even planned to watch it, in fact.

And yet....and yet.....I love those boys so much!

You know who was awesome?  Julian Edelman (who was also awesome in last year's playoff fiasco).  You know who else?  Randy Moss.

It was nice to see the team strong near the end and holding the Saints to a field goal when they were within 1st and goal.  Smooth play calling by the Saints, incidentally -- they almost pulled off a pretty good semi-QB-sneak (I don't know what to call it!).  But their 3rd-string QB evidently went to the Laurence Maroney School of Running Sideways Instead of Forward, which ended in basically naught.  Nothing like when your 3rd-string team can outplay the other 3rd-string team.  Final score was 27-24 for the Pats.

It's official: I am ready for some football!

Pats lose in first round for first time in Belichick's tenure. Game immensely ugly.

That was not a fun game to watch.

It wasn't enough that we gave up a 24-0 lead in the first quarter, it was even worse that we could get nothing together on the offense. Tom did not have a good day, but for the first half of the game, Baltimore's D was owning our O-line in awful ways. I mean come on. Dude almost didn't have time to hand the ball to Maroney at one point. That is not Brady's fault that he can't execute in such situations. The love-child of Peyton Manning and Joe Montana couldn't execute in such a situation.

The second half was better because they changed the snap count and it was effective. Fewer turn-overs. The turn-overs freaking killed us. And two of them bounced off someone and there just happened to be a Raven there (admittedly, we got one of those too, but three times in one game? When does that happen?).

Let's not even talk about the defense. I mean, full credit to the Ravens RBs (Flacco's QB rating was, like, 8.6 in the first half or something...Tom's was 32.something, which isn't exactly great either), who completely dominated our players, including that killer first run where we gave up, like, 833 yards (okay, it was actually 83, but it felt like ten times that). Wilfork was tied up most the time and contributed. TBC, bless him, picked off a ball that hit a Ravens' player. Not all was gloom and doom. No wait. The rest of the D was doom and gloom.

It was ugly. It was a horrible way to go out. It's time for Change. I'm torn because I think we desperately need new coaching staff, yet I think that part of the problem is the turnover in the coaching staff. Dilemma.

For you haters: Brady is not done (are you freaking kidding me?), Belichick is not washed up (he coached Matt Cassel to an 11-5 season last year!), and the Pats can be a strong team again. But there is a whole pile of work that needs to be done in this off-season. I have a laundry list:

1) Pass rush
2) Pass rush
3) Pass rush
4) Offensive coordinators whose plays are more exciting than 'Pass to Welker or, failing that, to Moss.'
5) Pass rush
6) Defensive coordinators who can teach how to rush the pass
7) BETTER FREAKING COACHING BY THE COORDINATORS
8) Pass rush
9) Running backs who can *hold* *on* *to* *the* *freaking* *ball*

That's all I've got.

Incidentally, who wants to take bets on when Adalius Thomas gets released? He can take his Jetson pack elsewhere, I think.

Pats win! Pats win! AFC East!!!

If everything was coming up Patriots last week, this week we are in full bloom. Great victory over Jacksonville today (35-7), which was marred only by the return of 'Who dropped the ball?' The answer: Maroney. But he was severely benched for it, as in he did not show up for the rest of the game, and this happened on the very first drive.

I liked Sammy Morris's post-game comment:

'“Regardless of stats, regardless of everything, getting the (AFC East championship) hat and T-shirt is what we’re out here for,” running back Sammy Morris said.'

As a runner, I kind of joke sometimes that it's really all about getting hats and t-shirts. Good to know that this is also a priority for professionals.

Who dropped the ball?

I am starting a new feature called 'Who dropped the ball?' It could be part of a song dedicated to the Patriots. All together now:

'Who dropped the ball?
You dropped the ball!
Who dropped the ball?
You dropped the ball!'

Well, or something like that.

Anyway, this feature is not meant to be metaphoric or a profound analysis of the previous game. It's just documenting which running back managed to drop the ball. I hope that by recording this, it will end.

November 15 (Colts): Maroney
November 22 (Jets): Maroney
November 30 (Saints): Maroney*
December 6 (Dolphins): Morris
December 13 (Panthers): Morris

*I know that they got it back right away, but that is not relevant. He still dropped the freaking ball.

UPDATE: It's the week of December 20 and no one dropped the ball this week. Fabulous.

Running backs about to go all Voltron

Here is Reiss to explain:

'Maroney compares running backs to “Voltron” cartoon. Drawing a large media crowd at his locker, running back Laurence Maroney talked about the team’s running back corps returning to full health. He compared the situation to Voltron, the cartoon character in which five pieces connect together to form one large robot. Sammy Morris went through a full week of practice for the first time since injuring his knee Oct. 18, and Fred Taylor is apparently making progress in his recovery from ankle surgery on Oct. 8.'

Things actually look relatively promising from the injury standpoint. TBC was seen back today (he was taken out in the Colts' game with a rib/groin injury) and apparently, we may have some running back(s) this week. Here's hoping.

Today was a good day for Maroney

Yes, he dances. Yes, he could get more yards. But today, he averaged 4.1 and that is just peachy keen. In fact, his average yards per carry is 4.3 on the season, which is certainly decent.

There were certainly some plays where I felt he could have gotten more (then you would watch those Miami RBs and want to cry from their ability to move the ball). But 4.1 is not bad. It is respectable. I'm still surprised that we only gave it to Faulk twice, though.