Shots Heard 'Round The Web - Patriots Links 11/28/08

by Marima on Nov 28, 2008 9:16 AM EST in New England Patriots News

TEAM SHOTS

LOCAL SHOTS

Chris Gasper notes Patriots have to be thankful for nose tackle Vince Wilfork, one of the best in the business.
Karen Guregian discusses Vince Wilfork, his value to the team, how he aims to stay a Patriot, and that there has been little contract talk so far.
Globe Patriots Notebook: Patriots are 31st in the league in red zone defense (ouch!); Richard Seymour didn't practice yesterday because of a knee injury; and Rothlisberger likes Mike Vrabel.
Shalise Manza Young reports Wilfork vows the defense will improve on defense against Pittsburgh, and notes Steelers will stick with tried and true.
Mike Reiss puts the Steelers in Focus, Patriots host 4 for workouts to fill practice squad roster spot, breaks down the Patriots spread formation, and gives us the Steelers vs. Patriots keys to victory and key matchups.
Sean Crowe takes a look at what the New England Patriots will be giving thanks for over the Holiday weekend.
Jim McBride reviews all of the games this Sunday and gives us his predictions - Pats over Steelers.

LONG SHOTS

AP Tom Brady says he's "doing well" in his recovery from knee surgery.
ESPN Sunday Countdown: Tom Jackson picks the Patriots?
Peter King (SI) reviews all of this week's games and picks the Pats - Steelers as his week 13 highlight. (hint, he picks the Pats to win.)
Adam Schefter (NFL.com) notes it's new faces but same old scheme in Pittsburgh.

VIEW FROM PITTSBURGH

Scott Brown (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review): Adversity making Ryan Clark stronger, and Steelers running on empty, and Anthony Smith disputes report of guaranteed win.
Gerry Dulac (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette): Wilfork will give Hartwig another huge test, Polamalu, Clark glad they will face the Patriots.
Ed Bouchette (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette): Ward gathers no Moss at WR.

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Comments

What’s your take on your injury situation?

Obviously the steelers have gotten much better. If both of our CBs I’d be surprised if someone could list a better dime in the NFL. News about them kind of dropped off though, so I’m not sold that both McFadden and Deshea will be a go. I’m not sure that willie parker playing makes that much of a difference since he’ll be playing injured, and doesn’t seem to do so very effectively. The pats have a decent run defense and the steelers suck at running the ball this year.

by steelguy99 on Nov 28, 2008 9:41 AM EST reply actions

Secondary injuries

Though every team wants to have its starting DBs healthy, in some ways I think it matters less who the opposing team (in this case, Pittsburgh) has at corner when scheming against New England. The passing offense is very timing oriented and thus disruptions of the pocket affect it a lot more than the coverage. Hurry Cassel, hurry the throw, and the secondary guys will all have a better shot at making the play, so the front four are really the key in my eyes.

While Matt was learning the system, we saw our opponents minimize Randy’s impact early this season if not neutralize him outright, and we faced a pretty broad spectrum of secondary talent in that time, not just elite guys. As Cassel’s gotten better at making fast decisions, the window of time the d-line has to get to him has gotten smaller, but as with any QB it’s still always going to be there.

by jctsai12 on Nov 28, 2008 3:16 PM EST up reply actions

Even if I accept your premise, than there’s still a very good reason to have our starting CBs due to YAC. There’s a pretty big difference in tackling ability from the #2 to #4. Given NE’s propensity to get heavy YAC having sounder tacklers at CB helps immensely I think.

Given that the past two 400 yarder games have been against exceptionally sack-heavy teams though, I think that coverage has something to do with it as besides being sack heavy, the jets and dolphins teams have poor coverage. The only other way to buy that coverage is less important would be if I accepted cassel as the second coming of jesus, which I’m not willing to do quite yet.

by steelguy99 on Nov 28, 2008 4:24 PM EST up reply actions

not overly optimistic

We need a healthy Seymour as he’s been huge this year, and I wasn’t too happy hearing about his knee injury. Ty Warren (groin) played less than half the snaps against Miami and I’m hoping he’ll be in again on Sunday. The defense has been ravaged a bit more than the offense, and it’s no coincicence that that’s where we’ve been getting killed the most with injuries. On Offense, having Lamont Jordan back would be great but we’ve been doing okay the return of Sammy Morris.

Keep the faith!

by Marima on Nov 28, 2008 10:45 AM EST reply actions

Seymour is definitely huge this game, but I was more wondering if it is a real issue or not. Mike Tomlin and Bellicheck both have a penchant for dicking with injury reports.

For a couple of weeks straight big ben practiced maybe once during the week and was always listed as questionable. We’ve had other players not practice all week but we knew they’d be good to go, so I guess I’m mainly wondering if this is one of those issues where Seymour will be good to go and fine, or if this is actually a legitimate injury where he might actually be out.

And don’t let our seemingly innocuous injury report fool you, we’re very banged up on offense. If the CBs go our defense will be the healthiest it has been since the first few games.

by steelguy99 on Nov 28, 2008 11:05 AM EST up reply actions