New England Patriots Links 10/20/09 - The Galloway, Thomas, Banta-Cain Mystery Series Continues

Monique Walker tries to figure out why Adalius Thomas was inactive on Sunday.

Thomas has not been available for comment since Sunday, but NFL Network analyst Deion Sanders, who played with Thomas while with the Ravens in 2004-05, said on the "GameDay Final’’ show that he spoke to Thomas and, "He’s upset. He’s going to work it out with his coach, but he’ll be back.’’

"I’ve said many times, I think he’s a good football player,’’ Belichick said. "He’s versatile. He’s made some big plays for us and he’s done a lot of different jobs and we have a lot of confidence in him. If that wasn’t the case, then he wouldn’t be here. I’m glad we have him. I think he can help us, I think he will help us, and he has helped us and I feel that way about our other players as well.’’

As for the future of Thomas, Belichick said, "I don’t know. It was one game. We’ll evaluate it this coming week against Tampa like we always do. This week’s different from last week.’’

Clay Travis (NFL Fanhouse) A fan's perspective of Tennessee's titanic crash.

The Patriots scored their second touchdown on a 40-yard flea flicker.  Let me repeat that, they scored on a flea flicker!

If you've ever sought play-calling evidence that one team doesn't respect the talent level of another, calling this play was the perfect example. It's snowing and players have been losing their footing the entire game. Yet the Patriots hand the ball off in the snow, run a man into the line of scrimmage, have him pause with defenders all around him, turn away from the defense, toss a wet football back to their quarterback, have the quarterback field the wet toss, reposition the ball, survey the field still without a defender near him, and throw a laser to a wide-open Randy Moss. Oh, and the Patriots are driving into the wind when they score.

Bill Belichick details the difference between preparations for the West Coast trips in 2008 and Thursday's trip to London.

I think those two trips last year were completely different from this one. Those trips were situations where we went out, we stayed, we took all of our preparation materials out there with us: the video systems, our copies - we rented them out there, obviously, but - we took our whole operation and moved it to San Jose, and we did everything there. We had our meetings, our game plans, our films and we did the preparation out there.

This is a situation where we'll do all of our preparation here and - once we travel to London, when we get on the plane - we will have covered everything that we're going to do for the game. Schematically, we'll have practiced it, and then it's really just a question of making the trip and going through the usual day before the game and day of the game reminders, tying up some loose ends on a play here, a play there, if they do this, then how do we handle it, and that kind of thing. A great percentage of the work will be done when we get on the plane Thursday after practice to head out there and that's a lot different than the two West Coast trips we had last year where we did all of our preparation out there for the second game.

TEAM TALK

• Erik Scalavino Thomas' healthy scratch still a head-scratcher.
• Prepping the UK for American football.
• Monday Conference Calls:  Bill Belichick (17.06 min.), Dean Pees (11.01 min.), Nick Caserio (12.36 min.).  Plus Transcripts.
• WEEI Patriots Monday: Tom Brady (23.40 min), Ty Warren (19.05 min.), Vince Wilfork (12.36 min.), Bill Belichick (38.56 min.).  Christopher  Price's blog has all of the Transcripts.
  
• Patriots Today: Historic win in legacy game. (11.50 min. video)
• Locker Room Uncut: Pats react to onslaught.  (3.35 min. video)

LOCAL LINKS

• Karen Guregian says benching Adalius Thomas was the right move to wake him up.
• Ian Rapoport notes Belichick made a point to publicly cite confidence in Adalius Thomas.
• Ian Rapoport suggests there is a possibility the release of Tully Banta-Cain was procedural or related to his contract, and that he may return as soon as today.
• Christopher Price also thinks Banta-Cain may return and discusses trade possibilities for the Patriots.
• Robert Lee reports Laurence Maroney finally turns in a big game against the Titans.
• Boston Globe Patriots Notebook: Sources say Tully Banta-Cain released; Special teams captain/receiver Sam Aiken signed a two-year extension through 2011with a base salary of $760,000 in 2010 and $775,000 in 2011; Trading by the 4pm deadline today appears unlikely for the Patriots; WR Brandon Tate and T Mark LeVoir are available to practice for the first time today; No word yet on Sammy Morris's injury.
• Mike Reiss notes the Patriots soared in key statistical rankings with huge improvements in points scored and allowed, and turnover rate.
• Mike Reiss reports the Patriots four-receiver set worked wonders as an embarrassment of riches for Brady.
• Mike Reiss looks at and analyzes the snaps played by Patriots defenders Sunday.
• Mike Reiss wonders if the Patriots could possibly be interested in Deion Branch.  Unlike any other player (including Galloway), Branch already knows the system and was a favorite Brady target.
• Mark Farinella talks about CBS announcer Jim Nantz' annoying habit of referring to Vince Wilfork as "Wilfert."
• Ron Borges is generous with his As [he actually called Belichick's plan "brilliant"] when grading the Patriots in his weekly report card.
• Jim Donaldson chalks this win up as another snow job by the Pats.
• Globe 10.0:  Bob Ryan and Chad Finn debate who had a better day Sunday, Brady or Brees?  (2.17 min. video)  Bob Ryan and Chad Finn debate what did Sunday's win mean for the Pats? (2.28 min. video)
• Tony Massarotti offers his thoughts as the game progressed on Sunday, wondering if Belichick was trying to get back at Jeff Fisher for his spygate comments, and the Titans for the Bobby Wade hit to Rodney Harrison's knee back in 2006.  Belichick's response:

"When we put Brian in … look, we’re not trying to do anything but run our offense. And that’s what we wanted to give Brian a chance to do was to run the plays he’s going to have to run at some point if he plays, whether they’re passes, third-down plays, check-with-me plays, whatever they are. We went into the game with a game plan and I know the score got out of hand, but we were just trying to run our offense when Brian or whoever else was in there, whether it was Kendall [Simmons], Dan [Connolly], BenJarvus [Green-Ellis] - and all those guys got to play. When they were in there we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do. You’ve only got 45 guys for the game. Somebody’s got to play."

NATIONAL NEWS

• Phil Simms and Jim Nantz recap the Patriots record-setting day. (2.12 min. video)
• Tedy Bruschi (ESPN) Bruschi on tap: New England Patriots silence coach Bill Belichick.
• Albert Breer (Sporting News) Rout or not, Patriots remain NFL's great enigma.
• Sean Leahy (USA Today) Titans: Patriots were not running up the score in 59-0 victory.
• Dan Wetzel (Yahoo! Sports) Pats' record-setting rout likely no coincidence. Wetzel speculates this was revenge against Jeff Fisher, who issued a strong condemnation of Belichick for spygate. The question is, how did he get the entire Titans team to go along with his dastardly plan?
• Jarrett Bell (USA Today) Brady back to his TD-tossing roots in Pats 59-0 rout of Titans.
• Chris Chase (Yahoo! Sports) In the snow, Brady throws for five first-half touchdowns.
• Michael Lombardi (Nat'l Football Post) Diner morning news: Fire sale in Tennessee?
• Pat Kirwan (NFL.com) Six from Sunday: Prolific passing rules the day.
• Mike Florio (Pro Football Talk) Week Six morning aftermath: Patriots 59, Titans 0.
• Sean Leahy (USA Today) Week 6 bests and worsts: Saints' emergence, Patriots' rout highlight wild Sunday.
• Pete Prisco (CBS Sports) Prisco Grades: Week 6.

VIEW FROM TAMPA

• Rick Stroud (St. Petersburg Times) Game vs. Patriots no vacation in London.
• Bucs Beat (St. Petersburg Times) Raheem Morris stays positive in the face of adversity.
• Buccaneers.com  Ready for the next challenge.  "This week, Raheem Morris and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' staff will work on a plan to beat the New England Patriots, who barely slipped by the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, 59-0."