Additional Shots for the Taking

by Marima on Sep 9, 2008 9:42 AM EDT in News Comment 4 comments

Friendly neighborhood reporter Mike Reiss comes through once again with more terrific pieces:

Only in New England Category: With our star quarterback down and only one back-up left on the roster, it's not really news that Belichick brought in seven players for tryouts yesterday. Funny thing, though. In pure Belichick-ian madness, not one of the players brought in was a quarterback. Made me laugh out loud.

Former NFL executive Mike Lombardi, writing for The National Football Post, is optimistic and reaffirms how important Belichick & Co. are to Matt Cassel and the Pats' success this season:

The Pats have one of the best coaching staffs in the NFL. They will know what they have and work a game plan that best utilizes their skill players. Don’t count the Patriots out just yet. They have talent and how they use it will determine their future.

Bruschi says ideally, Brady would always be their quarterback, but Cassel is their guy who is in a system that prepares backups to play. "Tom would tell you this, if Randy Moss was out and replaced by the third or fourth or fifth receiver, he expects them to step in and do the job. It's the same [situation] with Matt."
Following Belichick's press conference, Defensive tackle Ty Warren, one of the team's leaders explained the mood.

“This is the way the game is,” he said. “It’s move on, man. You mourn for a second then you have to move on. It’s life. I can understand from the outside looking in you have a guy like Tom get hurt, but it’s happened before where guys get hurt and teams move on.”

Noting how experts seem to be counting out the Patriots already he added, “I’ll say this: any person with their back against the wall, when there’s doubt out there against them, they try to fight their way out of that,” said Warren.

Linebacker Mike Vrabel was more succinct. “We’ve won a lot of football games around here. That’s not gonna change.”

Vince Wilfork is understandably upset on the seeming discrepancy of the League's reaction to Pollard's hit on Brady, versus the League's penalty and $12,500 fine of Wilfork after his hit on Bill's quarterback J.P. Losman last year.

Tom Brady emails Tom Curran of NBC Sports, says Pats not out.

“It will all be OK. I’m excited to see what our team is made of … I still like our chances,” wrote Tom Brady.

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I will not link to Gregg Easterbrook

…whom (in keeping with my theme of the day) I consider a douche of the first rank. But he has finally written something with which I cannot argue:

As for any predictions New England will collapse without Brady, bear in mind: Currently the Patriots are on a 24-2 run, with their only losses being defeats decided late by that year’s Super Bowl champion: the Colts and then the Giants. Even with Brady holding a clipboard all season the Patriots remain a monster team.

As Mr. Sloan always says, there is no "I" in team, but there is an "I" in pie. And there's an "I" in meat pie. Anagram of meat is team... I don't know what he's talking about. --Shaun of the Dead

by JohnHannahRules on Sep 9, 2008 2:33 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

ya know

I waded through his 2000+ words of unedited muck last week, gleaned nothing, and came out feeling dirty. I vowed not even to go there this week.

Keep the faith!

by Marima on Sep 9, 2008 2:43 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I skim him.

Simmons is terrible this week — embarrassing is the word, actually. Maudlin dreck.

It’s a shame. He used to be such a good writer.

As Mr. Sloan always says, there is no "I" in team, but there is an "I" in pie. And there's an "I" in meat pie. Anagram of meat is team... I don't know what he's talking about. --Shaun of the Dead

by JohnHannahRules on Sep 9, 2008 2:46 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs