The Haphazard Blog

It started out well, but it didn’t end well.

The announcers said the Jets won the toss and elected to kick. I thought it couldn’t be true, because then the Patriots would also choose to receive in the second half, making the Jets idiots. The Jets got the kick-off in the second half, so the announcers were wrong.

Tom Brady is back. I was sure he was before, but after today, there’s no question. His ducking under Kyle Wilson avoiding a sack while keeping his eyes down field to hit Welker on the other side is classic Brady.

Stephen Gostkowski has missed 3 FGs in a row now. He’s a career 85% kicker, so that means he’d have to make the next 17 in a row to stay at 85%. His kickoff also seemed like they were short (he has been good at getting touchbacks) so it has me wondering if he’s injured.

The announcers seemed to say it was clear the ball hit the ground on Patrick Chung’s interception, but at least to me, there wasn’t indisputable visual evidence of it on the replay review. Regardless, they overruled it and what could’ve been something else to continue Mark Sanchez’s woes was for not. The Patriots did still get a 3 and out, so at the time, things were looking up. Also, Chung has made a very impressive improvement in his second year. He looks like the best guy on the defense.

Tully Banta-Cain continues with the stupid penalties. What a pointless late hit he made. This defense has an incredible ability to make opposing offense and QBs look so good. And to think, I was thinking this during the second quarter before the Patriots allowed the Jets to do whatever they wanted and see the resurrection of the Sanchize and Braylon Edwards catch everything thrown his way.

That TD catch by Randy Moss was simply amazing. I thought the ball was overthrown with him only putting one hand up to grab it, but he was just catching it with ease. Of course, Darelle Revis grabs his hamstring and isn’t seen from again. It’s kind of funny the game was going much better for the Patriots with him in then with him gone. $32M for 2 years. :)

Brady threw a great pass to Antonio Cromartie. Moss was more of a defender in the second half than a wide receiver. I have no idea what happened to the offense in the second half of this game. Where were all the receivers besides Moss? Wes Welker (I noticed he played sparingly after taking that hit), Julian Edelman, Brandon Tate, Alge Crumpler and Rob Gronkowski? It was just 3rd and long followed by deep pass after deep pass. There was nothing underneath? The Jets took away all the supposed weapons in New England’s offense without their best CB? If that’s the case, then there are big worries on offense now. Why did they wait so long to go hurry up and break out the screen passes? Was it only working because the Jets were playing soft with a 2 TD lead? I didn’t see them at least try (and fail). Did the Patriots quit at the end? They had 2 timeouts, the Jets were in 2nd and long. Stop the clock after 2nd and 3rd down, they punt, you have over a minute left. Sure it’s a long shot, but you don’t even try?

I figured the game was over on the second pass interference by Darius Butler. They weren’t stopping the Jets. I guess this is the defense I expected to see in the first game. I’m not going to panic (just as I didn’t anoint them after the win last week), but this was a bad loss. They were outplayed the last 3 quarters, especially the second half. It was the same problems as last year. Road collapses after halftime. It’s only week 2 and just between the Patriots and Jets games, it’s a nice circle. The Patriots beat the Bengals, the Bengals beat the Ravens, the Ravens beat the Jets and the Jets beat the Patriots.

Back to the drawing board, and it’s going to suck being the Buffalo Bills next week.

It seems like my todo list is endless now. I’ve been working long hours on a project with a tight time schedule. It’s a good project, but it does take a lot out of you to work so many hours a week. It makes me think about people who work two jobs to support their family. To do that week in and week out (and I’m sure at least one of those jobs is one they don’t particularly like) just shows their commitment to their family. It’s mentally and physically taxing. I’m fortunate to have a job that’s pretty much 40 hours a week the majority of the time.

I have yet to fully catch up after my vacation last month. My MacBook was buried under 3 weeks of mail and bills. I finally got through all that so my desk is actually clean. I hate when my desk is covered with stuff that needs to be taken care of or put away. I still need to go through all the pictures from my vacation and put some of those online.

My DVR still has shows on it from when I was on vacation. Between work and physical therapy, I’m recording more shows than I can watch. The positive out of it is I’m dumping marginal shows this fall. Hopefully between the canceled/ending shows last season, shows I dump this fall and the new shows this fall, I end up with less to watch.

I have managed to watch sports live at least. West Virginia is 3-0. They had an incredible comeback against Marshall (avoiding their first loss to them) last week. I thought they were done when they went down 14-3. I suppose I had some hope of a comeback because I did record the rest of the game and checked in between shows. I was able to tune back in on their TD drive to make it 21-13 and watch the rest of the game to see them pull off the win. I got to miss the suckitude in the middle. Yesterday, they looked better to start the game. Looking similar to the Patriots against Cincinnati to really jump on Maryland in the first half. Then Maryland was making a game of it before WVU had a 9-minute drive to put the game out of reach. It’s nice to see a QB who can pass the ball. It’s been a long time (since Marc Bulger I believe) since we had a guy who can throw the ball accurately and stand in the pocket.

Needless to say, I was surprised by how the Patriots played on defense last week. It was just one game, but they had a great game plan and the young guys executed it about as well as anyone could expect. It certainly adds a new level of anticipation and excitement about the 2010 team’s potential. Hopefully it’s not just a tease. A good test this week against a team with a very good, attacking defense. This will be a real test for the offensive line. If the game was in New England, I’d feel real confident the Patriots will win. I guess I’m still skeptical that the defense is as good as they were last week. I don’t think New England will try that whole whiteboard nonsense again this year. They will have Welker (he had a huge game in the only one he played vs. the Jets last year) and possibly Edelman who is a lot better than he was in week 2 last year. It’s going to be another test, but I think New England will win a close game because the Jets defense is better than Cincinnati’s.

The 2010 New England Patriots season is kicking off today. Predictions are fairly wide for them this season. Records from 8-8 to 12-4. Missing the playoffs, wild card or division winners. I didn’t see any predictions of them winning the Super Bowl or even making it there. It seems like the Patriots like it this way. I wonder if there are people in the locker room who can really pull off the “nobody believes in us/no respect” card as well as they did a few years ago.

Getting down to actual football, I think the offense will be better this year. Brady looks like he is standing tall in the pocket to start this season. There’s a lot of hope in the revamped tight end group (fans might remember Chris Baker had a good pre-season last year and didn’t do much in the regular season) and they looked the part so far. Is the pass catching tight end finally back in New England? They are pinning their 3rd/4th WR hopes on Brandon Tate.

There still isn’t a lead running back, so the hope is Sammy Morris and Fred Taylor stay healthy (not likely). Laurence Maroney simply han’t lived up to his draft position. Watching All-Access for this week, they had some clips of Bill Belichick teaching Chris Taylor techniques for running. He was saying he was making good decisions but was revealing the too early. He needed to make his move later to ensure the blocks hold up. By revealing his move early, the defenders are able to adjust. Made me wonder if that’s what Maroney does and why it seems like the defenders get to him quickly. I always thought it was the line and he had no chance (when he wasn’t dancing).

This leads to the offensive line. It was exposed in the worst possible manner in Super Bowl XLII. Now the best lineman (Logan Mankins) is staying away in a contract dispute. Dan Koppen has reportedly gotten stronger. We will have to see how they play in the regular season with a player who played a backup role in the past.

The defense is much more of a mystery this year. I’m encouraged that they are finally going with youth and a trial-by-fire (they didn’t have much of a choice with the injuries mounting during traing camp and pre-season). There are big question marks on the defensive ends. The Patriots were run all over by the Ravens to end the season and they are short another top lineman this year. How will the new defensive ends hold up?

There are also questions at outside linebacker. They have to have guys who can stand up to the run and keep the running backs from getting around the corner. That was another issue last year and a guy who was a backup 4 hears ago is starting along side a career special teamer. We have yet to see the rookie Jermaine Cunningham take a snap. A lot of hope is falling to him.

The secondary is the youngest in the league. This will be a true on the job learning for 3 of the 4 guys back there. It worked way back in 2003 for Eufene Wilson, but he had Rodney Harrison and Ty Law as teammates. I could see a lot of Cover-2 played while the corner backs get their legs under them playing man-to-man and bump-and-run coverage.

Finally, special teams should be improved in the kicking game this year.

I think if everything goes to plan, the Patriots will struggle to start the season, but won’t look like they don’t belong. They’ll get better and play their best football from Thanksgiving into the play-offs. The difference between this team and the 2009 team will be there is a higher ceiling for improvement, they are just starting at a lower level. It should make for exciting games this year, but a reduced level of frustration as the team improves. The second half/fourth quarter collapses should be a thing of the past.

I’ve watched the first three F1 races this season and there has been a good mix to this point.

The first race had three new teams (six cars) and some rules changes. They took out KERS (I wish they would’ve kept it as an option) and banned race refueling. I like the safety implications of banning race refueling. I’d complain that it makes all the cars have the same weight throughout the whole race, but I don’t think it really mattered since they went back to a single tire manufacturer. So the race felt somewhat like a parade. It was relatively boring at the front of the field. Most changes in position occurred via pit stop timing or attrition.

The second race was a rain affair. Rain always makes a race interesting. Somehow, the tool Jenson Button managed to win the race with pit strategy. Sebastian Vettel once again was leading the race before he had another problem. That is two races for him. That is the kind of problem that could cost a driver a championship.

Today’s race was the best of them all so far. Two of the top teams (McLaren and Ferrari) royally screwed up qualifying. They started near the back and had to get their way to the front. The driver I’m supporting this year (I seem to pick a team and/or driver to get behind a couple races into the season), Lewis Hamilton, was able to get through the field. He was able to pass guys that no one else could in the beginning of the race. I think this also displayed a huge flaw in the cars. We would see guys like Hamilton, Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso gaining up to two seconds a lap on the guy in front of them, but as soon as they caught them, they were unable to get past them. I feel like they should be able to get by with that kind of advantage. They still have work to do with the aerodynamics and get even more mechanical grip. My other (minor) complaint is that they warned Lewis Hamilton for excessive weaving. There’s no question he was weaving side-to-side, but he was the lead car. The FIA consistently lets people block by weaving with no warning. Hamilton wasn’t making the move in reaction to another car, so I don’t get the complaint.

In the end, Vettel finally got the win that alluded him in the first 2 races. I want to see a race where the fast guys qualify as expected and the race is dry to see if the first race was an aberration, or if that was a preview of what the majority races will bring in 2010. Also, I’m surprised we are 3 races in and there haven’t been any technical controversies.