Sunday Fish Fry, Part I: This Chowda not "Dolphin Safe," but pulling in the nets no easy task
by JohnHannahRules on Nov 6, 2009 6:00 PM EST
27 comments
Well friends, we're in it now. With the bye week in our rear-view, the true meat of the schedule is here. In what promises to be an absolutely brutal five week stretch, New England will face, in order: Dolphins, Colts, Jets, Saints and Dolphins. If that doesn't look like a sphincter-clenching run through the briar patch of the AFC, then you must know something about football that I don't. Or you're clueless and at this point I'm prepared to go with that. Other than the Steelers, the Pats will have played the class of the Conference by the time all is said and done, plus the best the NFC has to offer. Right now, we're 1-1 against better teams, with a squeaker over Baltimore and an overtime heart-breaker at Mile High (I hate playing in Denver).
High School, college or pro, the best teams discipline themselves to focus on only the next game. It is for the fan to agonize and prognosticate over what the future holds. But that's all part of the fun and the media are more than happy to help us along. Below the fold, I've swiped wholesale Tim Graham's first half/second half graph, analyzing the relative strength of schedules for the AFC East. Under the heading of "it figures," the 'Phins have the easiest road the playoffs. The hardest row to hoe belongs to your New England Patriots.
Take a gander, but this week we face the first game of our annual series against Miami. Since that's what's on the menu, let's get out our tartar sauce and lobster bibs and look at how to catch some Phish. Part I is a look at the Dolphins on offense and some of the challenges they pose.
(Note: Part I may also be the only part I get to, as I need to be on the road this weekend. But if it isn't, I'll be taking a look at the Miami defense in Part II.)
27 comments | 1 recs |
Cole: Why are there so many bad teams around the league this year?
Belichick: Here’s the only thing I’ll say: I think to have a really good team in this league, you have to make a lot, a lot of good decisions. You have to have a lot of good people, players, coaches, whatever. You need a lot of those. Conversely, to not be competitive, you would have to have a lot of bad decisions. One bad decision is not going to do it, one bad player is not going to do it, one bad coach is not going to do it. You’re going to have to collectively, over a cumulative period of time, make a long series of bad decisions and accumulate a lot of players who are substandard for their position. There have to be a multitude of things that go wrong.
Cole: Because you can keep yourself average for a long time?
Belichick: That’s the system. If you don’t have good players, you have money to spend on players. If you have a bunch of good players, you eventually run out of money and you can’t keep them all and somebody else gets them. That’s the system, it keeps everybody average. We’ve seen teams be really good just on coaching. We’ve seen teams be competitive with just a few good players.
Q&A with the Hoodie. An excellent interview with Yahoo!'s Jason Cole, the kind of peek under the hoodie that makes you hope he writes it all down at some point.
The media are going to focus on the juice, things in here like "everybody is available at the right price." But even the context of that quote reveals the complexity of managing a roster. Comedic.sans had some excellent points about this in comments the other day, and they were borne out perfectly in the quote above.
There's more -- what makes a quarterback, what makes a team, competition, priorities. It's a jam-packed quick-shot -- go forth and read it.
Mad props to bforce3, whose fanshot scooped this and I failed to see it. Well done, Pulpiteer.
Pryor Experience: Rookie Myron Pryor logging time, clogging the line
by JohnHannahRules on Nov 6, 2009 10:15 AM EST
5 comments
Homegrown in Wormtown, Pats watchers looked forward to Springfield and Worcester product Ron Brace (by way of Boston College) making a big splash as a highly rated rookie. But while Brace has progressed, it is the unheralded rookie from Kentucky, Myron Pryor, who finds himself keeping the line warm for starters as the Patriots most reliable new substitute. With Jarvis Green about to go under the knife, the spotlight turns to shine more directly on the quiet kid from Louisville.
Pryor is low-slung at six-feet-one, and carries a solid 310 pounds. Belichick has described him as "kind of stocky." Yeah Bill, he's stocky. Pryor's size makes him nearly a matched set with all-league noseguard Wilfork, or it would if the 6-2 Wilfork were anything close to his listed 325. If Vince Wilfork is 325 pounds then I'm an Abercrombie torso model (I'm not). Active for 6 of the Patriots' 7 games so far (all but the opener with the Bills), Pryor has accumulated 9 tackles (5 solo) and a forced fumble -- very solid numbers for a second-string rookie.
5 comments | 2 recs |
New England Patriots Links 11/06/09 - Dolphins Coach on Single Covering Randy Moss Last Year: "That didn't work out so good."
by Marima on Nov 6, 2009 9:41 AM EST
in News
7 comments
Shalise Manza Young notes Jerod Mayo says discipline is the key to stopping the WIldcat.
Asked on Thursday what his thoughts were after that initial play, Mayo smiled. "Um…call a timeout," he said, laughing. "I know we came to the sideline and Bill (Belichick) just told everybody to calm down and made a couple of adjustments, but unfortunately they didn’t work out that day." It didn’t help that even Mayo mentioned that tackling was a big issue for the Patriots in that game. Mayo and the Patriots did a much better job the second time around last season, and they know what is required for them to be successful again on Sunday. "I wouldn’t say patience; I would say discipline," the defensive captain said. "If everybody does their job, I feel we’ll be OK."
Ron Borges captures Vince Wilfork's feeling that this will be a physical fight to the finish against Miami.
"One thing is sure, we’re gonna have to tackle," Wilfork said yesterday of the task that awaits Sunday in facing the NFL’s third-most productive rushing attack, one that attacks not only with Ronnie Brown or Ricky Williams but often with both of them in the hybrid, Wildcat offense that undressed Wilfork and his teammates when first unveiled a year ago. "They want to run the football. That’s the challenge for us. On Sunday, you’re gonna see a big-time match."
"We’re going to have our mind right," Wilfork said, smiling broadly. "That’s my style of game. They’re not trying to trick you. They’re going to try to run the ball."
"They’re strong, they can move, they’re powerful and they want to be physical," he said. "If we don’t have our mind right it’s going to be a long day for us, but I think we understand how we want to play this game. We’re looking forward to it and I’m sure they’re looking forward to it."
7 comments | 1 recs |
Ted Ginn: Not even the best receiver on his college team (but very, very fast)
by JohnHannahRules on Nov 5, 2009 5:00 PM EST
34 comments
Just to get it all out of the way up front: I know it's an amateur clipset and there's nothing scientific about it. But I'm going to ignore that and use it as one piece of evidence from a field of evidence that includes what I saw while watching Ginn on television in his college days and what I've seen of him (and his soon to be revealed former teammate) since they've entered the pros.
34 comments | 0 recs
"My feelings toward New England go back further," Porter said. "It goes back to my Pittsburgh days. I felt a certain way, after some things came out, way back when I was in Pittsburgh, some AFC championships I lost to them, couple times. Come to figure out a few months later why we lost. So yeah, I have a natural hate for them. Period. And that’s just gonna be with me forever."
Porter was critical of the Patriots in the wake of Spygate two years ago, and after some tap-dancing around it, he was asked directly: Do you feel like it cost you rings?
"We do this every year around this time when I do this conference call," Porter said. "You know exactly what I’m talking about. And they know exactly what I’m talking about. And that’s not gonna change."
2 days ago
JohnHannahRules
95 comments
0 recs
New England Patriots Links 11/05/09 - Brady, Patriots Up for Miami Challenge
by Marima on Nov 5, 2009 9:46 AM EST
in News
4 comments
Vince Wilfork on the challenges posed by the Miami Dolphins' offense.
“We put a lot of pressure on ourselves, just to be accountable,” he replied. “When you step on the field, you want to make sure you play at a high level. And this week is a challenge. The Dolphins run the ball well, they have a real explosive offense, good offensive line, good backs, a quarterback who doesn’t make mistakes. So, we need to do a good job of controlling the game up front.
“They’ll do what they do. They want to run the football. That’s a challenge for us up front. If we don’t have our minds right, it’s going to be a long day for us again. It’s another division game, and we want to get out of it with a win.”
Bill Belichick talks up the Miami running backs, Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown.
[Ricky Williams has] got good power. I think Ronnie Brown is the more powerful of the two, but they're both strong, they're both big. They have to be 240, 235 [pounds] - whatever they are. They're strong. They break a lot of tackles with their lower body. Ricky's fast. He's done a good job on the outside plays [and] the screens. He catches the ball well, as Brown does, too. I think either one of those backs could be the back for anybody. They have two of them and they use them both a lot. They run the ball as much as anybody in the league and they try to wear you down in the fourth quarter. I think either one of them could probably do it by themselves and they both have. And together it just puts more stress on the defense, whether they're both in there at once or not.
Only one guy can carry the ball, but fresh backs, running hard with that kind of skill are better than guys that are getting worn down a little bit. But those two guys could go all day and they run hard. They break a lot of tackles, make a lot of yards on their own and they have a good offensive line, too, don't get me wrong. They get them started and those guys break tackles and they pile up the yardage.
Tom Brady talks about what he could have learned about the team from the last two games.
When we execute well, we produce points, we move the ball, we get first downs. When we don't execute well and we don't move the ball, we don't convert on third down, we don't get the ball in the red area. If you're a quarterback, and you drop back, and you have guys open and overthrow them by about five yards, you know you're not going to score points. That's understanding plays that we had where we haven't done what we're coached to do. That's just not the way you can play football. In times that we go out and execute well, like what we did against Tennessee, what we did against Tampa, we scored points. I think it's just a much more concerted effort in practice and the concentration to get those things done.
4 comments | 1 recs |
Big Fish: Jake Long Leads Miami Youth Movement
by JohnHannahRules on Nov 5, 2009 9:00 AM EST
15 comments
In the history of the NFL draft, only three offensive lineman have been picked first overall:
In 1968, the Minnesotta Vikings made young Ron Yary the first pick. Coming from Chicago by way of Cerritos Junior College and USC, Yary anchored the right side of the Vikings' line for 14 years. Over a 15 year NFL career, Yary missed only two games due to injury. He was a seven-time pro-bowl selectee and would be enshrined in Canton in 2001.
In 1997, Orlando Pace was taken in the first slot by the St. Louis Rams. Pace came roaring out of Ohio State as the hands-down best offensive lineman in that year's draft and, by some writerly lights, one of the best young tackles in a generation. Starting 13 games in his rookie year, Pace is now under a 3-year agreement with the Bears in this, his twelfth season. Like Yary, Pace has been selected to seven Pro Bowls and, like Yary, will one day be given a very ugly yellow jacket to go with a bronze bust of his head and a place in the Hall of Fame.
Finally, in 2008 the Miami Dolphins made Jake Long from the University of Michigan the third offensive lineman chosen first overall. They also made him the highest paid offensive lineman in the game, with a five year, $57.75 million contract, $30 million guaranteed. He started immediately, helping to lead a resurgent Miami to an 11-5 record and the AFC East title. In his first year, he started every game and played in the Pro Bowl as an alternate selection.
Long's selection was the first big move by the Sparano-Parcells partnership, and it represented a commitment to youth that paid immediate dividends.
15 comments | 1 recs |
Secondary Sidebar
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recent FanPosts
Featured Poll
Certain photos copyright © 2009 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
