New England Patriots Links 2/10/10 - Saints Provide Blueprint For Beating The Colts

Mike Reiss wonders if the Patriots would duplicate the Saints plan when playing the Colts.

The Patriots have adopted a similar plan against the Colts in recent years. In 2009, for example, they played mostly with a 4-2-5 package (with lighter defensive ends), which is a minor tweak to what the Saints adopted. The premise was still the same, however, by lightening the box against the run and giving yourself more flexibility on the back end of the defense against the pass.

In the end, the feeling here for the Patriots is that the next game against the Colts will be less about scheme, and more about getting better playmakers on the field (e.g. Jonathan Wilhite on Reggie Wayne is not a favorable matchup).

Jerry Thornton admits, "If hating the colts is wrong, I don't want to be right."

...one of the claims I keep hearing is that Peyton Manning’s epic failure doesn’t improve Tom Brady’s legacy at all. And this coming from the same columnists who had been arguing for weeks that Manning’s inevitable second championship was going to propel him ahead of Brady as the best QB of his era. So did it? Did it add one victory to Brady’s win total or give him another MVP Cadillac? No. But sports is like school. We grade on the curve. You might do all right on a test, but if some guy in the class skips the drunken bubble hockey tournament to study and does better, your grade doesn’t look so hot. Coming into this year, Brady was the valedictorian of his QB class. And Manning’s ill-advised throw widened the gap even further. Ron Borges and Dan Shaughnessy might not be happy about it, but I sure am.

So does that make me a bad guy? Does enjoying the suffering of other teams and their fans make me a bad Christian? More so than a lifetime of swearing, drunken debauchery, surfing dirty websites and stealing office supplies? Does it make me no better than Homer Simpson, resenting Ned Flanders’ happy homelife and rooting for the Leftorium to go belly up? Honestly, I don’t know and I don’t care. All I know is it’s fun. Not as much fun as actual winning, but it’ll do. After all, even in Boston not every team wins every championship every year. And we’ve got to do something to pass the time in between titles. So if I have to wait another 12 months to see Brady and Belichick hoisting the Lombardi, then taking pleasure in Peyton Manning’s pain is as good a way as any.

TEAM TALK

• Patriots.com has collected a wide-ranging sample of what the "experts" are predicting the Patriots will do in the first round come draft weekend.
• PFW Free agent preview: Offensive line and Defensive line.
• Ask PFW Part I: Where is the love?
• Ask PFW Part II: Tebow talk and more.

LOCAL LINKS

• Albert Breer offers his own mea culpa for getting Peytonized (Shaughnessy's term) and being so very wrong.
• Albert Breer reports Donte Stallworth worked out with the Lions yesterday.
• Albert Breer wonders which ex-Patriots wideout the Patriots might consider.
• Christopher Price notes Julius Peppers sounds finished in Carolina.
• Jim Donaldson details how Jerry Rice could have been a New England Patriot. A story you'd expect out of the Patriots' history books.
• Mike Reiss answers his weekly reader mailbag.  Lots of offseason insight here.
• Dan Shaughnessy picks up where he left off - picking at Belichick and other random pieces.

NATIONAL NEWS

• James Varney (Times-Picayune) Colts not offering any excuses for loss. Indy defensive coach says Saints 'played better.'
• Pat Kirwan (ESPN) Saints provide blueprint for rest of league to handle Manning, Colts.
• Gregg Easterbrook (ESPN) The New Orleans Saints were bold and unpredictable -- no wonder the football gods smiled on them, and lifted them to their first Super Bowl victory.
• Len Pasquarelli (ESPN) NFL avoids another PR disaster. Tracy Porter's interception potentially prevented the first OT in Super Bowl history.
• Peter King (SI) MMQB Tuesday edition: Saints dared to be great; Payton's gamble; HoF debate.
• Tom Sorensen (Charlotte Observer) Peppers started packing his bags after '07 season. Interesting interview.
• Gene Wojciechowski (ESPN) A look back at 44 Bold predictions about the NFL season, and how right he was(n't).
• Tim Graham (ESPN) Herm Edwards pencils in the Jets and Cowboys for Super Bowl XLV.