New England Patriots Links 2/10/10 - Saints Provide Blueprint For Beating The Colts
by Marima on Feb 10, 2010 9:35 AM EST
in News/General
23 comments
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.
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That Thornton article was fantstic
On a side note, is Boston the only city in the USA where its biggest newspaper is filled with Boston sports haters? I look at the Indy Star and see that all their sports writers are massive Colts homers and then I go to Boston.com and read a Dan Shaughnessy article… then again the New York Post isn’t exactly flattering to their local sports teams either…
Boston and its inhabitants are notoriously self-loathing.
We bathe in our guilt and happily engage in proverbial self-flagellation. I think it’s rooted in our hybrid Pilgrim-Catholic cultural framework.
Boston sports writers
Many of them belong to the “look how smart I am by going against conventional wisdom and not being a homer” school, especially Borges and Shaugnessy. Mike Reiss, stolen away by ESPN, was/is the best. Karen Guregian of the Boston Herald is well balanced as is Shalise Manza-Young of the Providence Journal. Ian Rapoport of the Boston Herald is a newcomer this year and is good as well.
Blogger at SBNation's Patriots blog, Pats Pulpit
I'm also liking Albert Breer
who writes most of the Extra Points pieces for the online Globe. He’s a recent arrival from Sporting News and I’ve heard him as a call-in guest on The Sports Hub a few times. No one’s as good as Mike Reiss though, I agree he’s the gold standard.
Keep the faith!
I usually like Breer
especially on the radio and with what he writes in his articles.
But he lets himself get intimidated on the ‘panel’ shows by jerks like Felger into ‘agreeing’ with some of their crap even when it is completely off-base.
From what I understand
Bob Kravitz is no homer and can be pretty critical of the Colts. I know BBS and a lot of the Stampede Blue crowd don’t care for him that much (to put it mildly).
Keep the faith!
i always rec this
only bc Marima does this every day. hardest worker on this site nxt to MAPATSFAN. Hill provides great stats and anlysis and comedic sans just started recently.
but there are rarely any articles by SMP….laziest worker on this site???..well what do u expect..he is from Illinoissss.
:))…just kidding SMP…dont ban me lol
Non Sibi Sed Patriae.
i love my ZX-6r Kawasaki.....159mph is my top speed on the interstate
I bleed Scarlet and Grey...A Buckeye for Life
SMP has a different role
He’s the gunslinger of the crowd, aka: Moderator. He does the dirty work of “keeping the place clean” without getting a whole lot of credit. Kind of like a bouncer in a bar. Careful though; as a hobby, he punches things that are on fire.
Blogger at SBNation's Patriots blog, Pats Pulpit
Hey mathew.40, I posted a story (sort of) just for you.
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 Feb 10, 2010 2:54 PM EST up reply actions
i was jokingly taking a jab @ ya
Non Sibi Sed Patriae.
i love my ZX-6r Kawasaki.....159mph is my top speed on the interstate
I bleed Scarlet and Grey...A Buckeye for Life
I know. It's all good. Us NCO's have to stick together.
I started that thing awhile ago, but held off until the lull after the Super Bowl.
Between the engineering gig and teaching TKD, I barely have time to toss out a wisecrack here and there. I try to put my two cents in, clean up the trolls, and inject some humor here and there. It’s what I can do to help.
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 Feb 10, 2010 4:32 PM EST up reply actions
what was your rank when you retired?
Non Sibi Sed Patriae.
i love my ZX-6r Kawasaki.....159mph is my top speed on the interstate
I bleed Scarlet and Grey...A Buckeye for Life
"Corporal Badass"
It’s almost at the top.
by Richard Hill on Feb 10, 2010 5:21 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
Didn't retire, I did 5 and got out.
Just E-4. I was on the list for E-5 if I just re-signed…. Sorry, had a life that I had put on hold.
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 Feb 10, 2010 5:28 PM EST up reply actions
What's funny is I was in ROTC and did 2 1/2 years, went through field training and all.
Then I dropped out and enlisted and went through basic training. Much less BS on the enlisted side.
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 Feb 10, 2010 5:30 PM EST up reply actions
yes it is
i did rotc for 2 quarters…and i hated it…cadets think they know everything…once i’m done w. school…i’m going to ocs
Non Sibi Sed Patriae.
i love my ZX-6r Kawasaki.....159mph is my top speed on the interstate
I bleed Scarlet and Grey...A Buckeye for Life
OCS grads get alot more respect as junior officers.
They’re not so full of themselves. Senior officers are fine, they’ve figured it out by then.
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 Feb 11, 2010 8:10 AM EST up reply actions
Really?
Branch is old and has been perpetually injured the last few seasons – he hasn’t had a 16 game season since he left. He’d also be coming into an alien offensive system – he basically left under a Weiss scheme and would be coming back into a McDaniels/O’Brien one. I don’t see it, it’s a bit too far out there for my liking.
Token southern hemisphere guy - 14,688km from Foxboro. That's 9128 miles, for you heathens.
by Comedic.Sans on Feb 11, 2010 3:24 AM EST up reply actions
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