New England Patriots Links 12/16/09 - Adalius Thomas Gets a Good Wrap
by Marima on Dec 16, 2009 10:48 AM EST
in News/General
18 comments
Adalius Thomas earned points with Robert Kraft and especially the kids, who adorned he and defensive lineman Titus Adams in gift wrap as part of the "Wrap-a-Pat" portion of the evening. Great photos of the event here.
"It was a little crazy being wrapped up with Titus. He's a little claustrophobic. I'm a little claustrophobic. I found out he's a lot more claustrophobic than I am," Thomas said earlier this evening. "But it was very interesting to see the kids do that. I don't know how much paper it was but that was a lot of paper. I could have used some of that. I need to wrap some gifts when I get home."
"Any time when it's about the kids, nothing else really matters. It's a game that we're playing," Thomas said. "That's truly what it is. But these kids are dealing with the game of life, which is a lot more important than football. You come out here, you try to put a smile on their faces, and hopefully they forget about any problems they may have or anything they may be going through. So if you can come out and lend a hand, spend a piece of your day and give them something to remember for a lifetime, I think that's a great trade-off."
Bill Belichick talks up Bills' WR Terrell Owens and if he's still the same threat he's been in the past.
Well, yeah. Ask Jacksonville, ask Miami. He does a great job on the vertical deep routes. He's obviously big and fast and he can go up and get the ball. But he's also very good on the underneath routes, like what happened last week on a catch-and-run play where he caught the ball underneath, broke a couple tackles, and got the ball in the end zone. He's dangerous. He made a nice play there against Kansas City, but he's also made nice plays down the field. They try to get him the ball underneath. They did that against us in the first game for a 20-something-yard gain, whatever it was.
So he's a guy that can hurt you in a lot of different ways - deep, intermediate, run after the catch. He had a real nice play that got called back against Miami. He had a real nice play where he took a reverse and they had him in the backfield for about a 10-yard loss, and he ended up gaining about 10, 12 yards on the play and broke three or four tackles along the way. I think he's still got plenty of skill.
TEAM TALK
- New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills - Broadcast info, series history, team connections and more.
- Ask PFW: What's up with A.D., Moss?
- Tuesday Conference Calls: Bill Belichick (13:19 min.), Dean Pees (9:09 min.), Nick Caserio (7:52 min.). Plus Transcripts.
- Patriots Today: Run game, playoff picture and more. (11:35 min video)
LOCAL LINKS
- Mark Farinella employs a lonely voice of reason regarding the press and its biased treatment of Randy Moss. Plenty of players have bad games without getting crucified, including Matt "turnstyle" Light and Tom "Channing Crowder isn't a Patriot?" Brady. But Moss is never allowed the luxury of a bad game or a slump without the old story lines resurfacing.
- Chris Gasper catches up with former Patriot WR Troy Brown, who weighs in on Moss and Thomas. Brown believes Moss has too much respect for Tom Brady and Bill Belichick to dog it.
- Mike Reiss offers ten things to know about the Bills.
- Karen Guregian looks for Brady to go to Moss early against the Bills, even though Buffalo has the NFL’s worst-ranked defense against the run.
- Albert Breer sees the Patriots shifting to a running game.
- Chris Gasper asserts Wes Welker is the MVP of the 2009 Patriots.
- Adam Kilgore looks at the fan portion of the Pro-Bowl voting and notes some of its silliness.
- Jeff Howe says winning doesn't cure everything, but a win over Buffalo on Sunday might.
- Mike Reiss reports Jarvis Green has seen a heavy workload after missing three games following knee surgery. His four tackles and one sack earned him a game ball Sunday.
- Albert Breer offers his final thoughts on the week that was.
- Christopher Price answers his weekly reader mailbag, with Randy Moss and Adalius Thomas topping the list. Price believes Moss has too much respect for Tom Brady to dog it and thinks the WR is hurting.
- Mike Reiss answers his weekly reader mailbag overflowing with questions, comments and concerns regarding the Patriots eventful week.
- Mike Reiss notes Greg Gumbel (play-by-play) and Dan Dierdorf (analysis) will call Sunday's game between the Patriots and Bills, which is the 100th in the series between the teams.
- Ron Borges issues his week 14 Report Card, granting a top grade to Welker and not much else.
- Steve DeOssie issues his week 14 Report Card, saying it's a good thing they were playing Carolina.
- Boston Herald Patriots Notebook: Robert Kraft provided some kind words for both Adalius Thomas and Randy Moss at yesterday's Salvation Army/Patriots holiday party at Gillette Stadium; James Sanders shared the team lead with seven tackles Sunday; Belichick sung the praises of T.O., whose team the Pats will be facing this week; Nick Caserio believes Laurence Maroney is evolving into the type of running back the team envisioned when it drafted him in 2006.
NATIONAL NEWS
- NFL Network The Coaches: Belichick defends Randy Moss. (3:39 min. video) Mike Martz and Steve Mariucci defend Bill Belichick's defense of Randy Moss. Nice.
- Allen Wilson (Buffalo News) Patriots' commitment called into question.
- Nolan Nawrocki (Pro Football Weekly) Moss' effort reflects bigger Patriots problem.
- Jeremy Lundblad (ESPN Stats & Information) Statistical guide to the New England Patriots' problems.
- Allen Wilson and Ian Rapoport (Sporting News) Patriots vs. Bills Preview.
- Rodney McKissic (Buffalo News) Bills' rookie safety Jairus Byrd has nine interceptions for the season.
- Don Banks (SI) Draft redux: Re-projecting the 2009 first round Draftt based on season-to-date performances.
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Anyone else read the Bob Ryan article on Boston.com?
Absolute garbage, I couldn’t believe what I was reading. It was nothing but poison.
I read it after posting the links
[For some inexplicable reason (to me anyway) Boston.com freezes my computer and it’s so frustrating.] Anyway, here is the link to Bob Ryan’s article, totally blasting not only Randy Moss but his teammates and coaches that defended him.
Do you know what the worst part of this Moss episode has been? It wasn’t, fortunately, the loss of a game, although if this de facto work stoppage of his continues that will be an inevitable consequence. No, it’s the fact that a coach and some well-respected players demeaned themselves in attempts to defend him.
Liking him or not is one thing, but I frankly don’t understand the all-out hate that Moss seems to bring out in people – especially members of the press. Can’t see it. The haters call Moss supporters blind, delusional or worse, yet they choose to dismiss altogether the opinions of the people that know him best, know what he’s supposed to do, and understand his reactions.
Belichick doesn’t go to bat publicly for just any player, and since when has he ever been accused of babying anyone? Moss would have been out of here if BB thought he wasn’t putting forth enough effort. Chad Jackson cost this team more than Moss – especially in whoever wasn’t drafted in his place that might have been useful here – and Jackson was benched and gone. No babying or keeping him on just because they moved up in the Draft to acquire him or because of his ‘potential’.
Keep the faith!
Most of the commenters pointed out that the Bob Ryan is a tool.
Some were quite clever. For instance Buds wrote:
Play-by-play Commentator: Wait, there’s a flag on the field!
Referee on a loudspeaker in an empty stadium: Dead ball foul. 15 yards — sportswriter. Piling on three days after the play was over and most people have moved on.
Color commentator: Pretty sad, the old veteran has lost a step or two and got to the point of impact way too late. He used to be one of a kind on the field, but the years have caught up to him. He needs to find a way to regain his reporting objectivity and look within himself to find both sides of the story.
Only a couple drones saying that Ryan was on the money.
My life has been a trivial pursuit. Trivia: where three roads meet.
The more you know, the more you know that you don't know.
by SlotMachinePlayer on Dec 16, 2009 11:47 AM EST up reply actions
Some other good questions from the comments:
Newtster wrote:
It is easy to pick on Randy Moss. Obviously Bob Ryan took the Moss route with his column today. Hypocrite.
Did arrogant Bob actually look at some tape and review the facts? Does Bob know when Moss is really taking a play off and when he is faking it? Can he tell us how he knows the difference? No – more Bob Ryan taking a day off with his “column” just as he accuses Randy Moss of doing Sunday. And how much of his column is original instead of being ripped off of sports talk shows?
Will we see Bob take the job seriously and watch some tape of Tom Brady’s play? Does Tom try to throw to Randy too much? Is Tom’s reliance on Moss and Welker hurting the offense? Is Tom be a wuss by not threatening to run sometimes and using that threat to lure coverage away from his receivers? Why doesn’t Tom throw to tight ends? Is it because they can’t catch the ball or is it because they are in on pass protection to save Tom’s rear end? How can they afford to do that? Is it because of Randy Moss and his ability as a pass catcher? Is that the best way to run an offense?
These are questions that require some work and expertise to answer. I don’t expect we will get the answers from Bob Ryan, graduate of the Randy Moss School of Junk Journalism.
Hypocrite.
My life has been a trivial pursuit. Trivia: where three roads meet.
The more you know, the more you know that you don't know.
by SlotMachinePlayer on Dec 16, 2009 11:52 AM EST up reply actions
I have to find the link,
but my brother told me he was listening to WEEI’s Dale and Holley Show, and heard that Greg Cosell reviewed the coaches tape of the Pats-Panthers game. Cosell found nothing to justify the “he dogged it” argument. He goes through the fumble, the ‘dropped’ pass (which was tipped by Julius Peppers by the way) and what was behind the interception. His conclusion was that he saw a lot of effort by Moss in that game and the haters have it wrong.
Keep the faith!
Found it
Ian Rapoport visits with Greg Cosell, the executive producer of Edge NFL Matchup, a show that puts a premium on watching film and examining the coaches tape. You could argue that Cosell, Ron Jaworski, and Merril Hoge watch more film than any guys in America. And he examined this one.
What’s the verdict?
"The general answer to your question is, I thought it was no different from Randy Moss than in any other game," Cosell told me this morning. "In fact, early on, I thought his effort on run blocking was very good. I think you have to see this game in the context of how the Panthers chose to play defense. Before the snap, the Panthers removed Randy Moss from the game, that’s why he wasn’t targeted, not because he ’shut it down.’ That had nothing to do with anything."
This is just a portion of his analysis, there’s more here and well worth the read.
Keep the faith!
Who wants informed expert opinion?
Give me more mindless conjecture, please.
My life has been a trivial pursuit. Trivia: where three roads meet.
The more you know, the more you know that you don't know.
by SlotMachinePlayer on Dec 16, 2009 1:03 PM EST up reply actions
Thank god for a little sanity.
Hopefully Jaws and Hoge will present this view of it on the show this week.
comments from Hoge on Mike Reiss' blog
Nice words from Merril Hoge:
http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/new-england-patriots
Check out the Dec 14, 12:25 and 12:49 entries.
Excellent analysis.
Another guy that would be good to hear from is Tony Dungy during halftime in the night game. He has a film break down session and I’m sure he would see the same thing.
My life has been a trivial pursuit. Trivia: where three roads meet.
The more you know, the more you know that you don't know.
by SlotMachinePlayer on Dec 16, 2009 3:34 PM EST up reply actions
Farinella's piece is the only balanced look at the Moss situation in the New England area.
He also points out the biggest problem for sports fans in New England: the media. It stinks.
Love how he basically labeled Felger a shrill, screaming pre-teen girl. Couldn’t have said it better myself. Combine that with Bob Ryan’s sustained bullspit career and the predictable recycling of old stories on Moss from Silver, et al, and you’ve got a bunch of useless vipers in one poisonous pit. Is it really that hard to find something to write about?
Wouldn’t it be more interesting to try to figure out what is really wrong with this team? Clearly there’s some kind of malaise, but that’s too nuanced. Why not just fall back on the red meat? What do they think this is? Politics? World affairs? The economy? C’mon! I want some depth, some subtlety, some understanding in my sportswriting! I’m certainly not getting it anywhere else…
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 Dec 16, 2009 12:18 PM EST reply actions
nah... too much effort
Hmmm… maybe the ‘dogging it’ label hits too close to home for some of these writers, as evidenced by the lack of depth and mail-it-in efforts on the subjects of both Moss and Belichick.
Keep the faith!
It's also a shame that after they had Adalius Thomas wrapped up,
they couldn’t just stick an Oakland address on him and be done with it.
Seems like a waste of paper and tape.
My life has been a trivial pursuit. Trivia: where three roads meet.
The more you know, the more you know that you don't know.
by SlotMachinePlayer on Dec 16, 2009 1:17 PM EST reply actions
well... Titus Adams was in the same package
the weight alone would make shipping it prohibitive
Keep the faith!
Be sure to slap a 'return to sender' on Derrick Burgess, too.
Token southern hemisphere guy - 14,688km from Foxboro. That's 9128 miles, for you heathens.
by Comedic.Sans on Dec 16, 2009 4:45 PM EST up reply actions
I was hoping he came over on a rather large boomerang, that is headed back.
My life has been a trivial pursuit. Trivia: where three roads meet.
The more you know, the more you know that you don't know.
by SlotMachinePlayer on Dec 16, 2009 5:01 PM EST up reply actions
It's only fair...
…we’ve robbed the Raiders blind in the past- it’s redemption.
by Richard Hill on Dec 16, 2009 10:36 PM EST up reply actions
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