The Haphazard Blog

What a difference  week makes!

The Patriots won their second coin toss of the year and chose to defer (I think this is a good strategy on the road since seats tend to be most empty at the start of the second half) and forced a 3 and out. Tom Brady went straight to Rob Gronkowski. It’s interesting how teams do this after a guy has a bad play and/or game. They’re professionals, but it seems like it makes a difference to confidence. I think this was the best opening drive of the season for the Patriots. They seem to start out slow this year, but this time, Gronkowski ended the drive with a touch down. People were very impressed with the pass Brady threw. At first I thought he made the pass tighter than it had to be, but seeing a replay of it today, I think it was either there or nowhere.

On the Steeler’s second drive, we saw a running theme appear. Zone defense and an easy 3^rd down conversion.  I think the zone defense is preventing big passing plays, but the players don’t quite have the instincts to make sure guys don’t easily find voids in the zones. It’s a good thing they’re good tacklers, well for the most part. Brandon Meriweather and James Sanders sometimes take some bad angles. Following this play, they played very well in coverage after the play broke down. They stuck to the receivers as they scrambled and kept Ben Roethlisberger in pocket getting 2 sacks in a row.

I thought it was odd that there were points (and even series) during the game where is Vince Wilfork wasn’t on the field. I wondered if he was injured and then he would be back. Not sure why he didn’t play as much considering he is the best defensive lineman they have. On the flip side, the defense played awesome for 3 quarters.

I think if  Brady leads Brandon Tate a little more on that deep pass, it’s a touchdown. Mike Rodak felt it was an accurate pass, but Tate had beat his guy and had to slow up in the end zone to catch the pass and the corner back was able to knock it away.

Brady was pissed at the end of a bad series. I thought they needed a lip reader and WEEI agreed. They didn’t really turn up much and Brady danced around it.

I don’t know why they Patriots are going for big hits instead of tackles at times. Bill Belichick should fine guys who go for the big hit and the opposing player gets away. Earlier in the game, Patrick Chung showed how to make a big hit and tackle by nearly stopping a first down.

Branch looks a lot healthier in this game. He looked really bad against the Vikings and still kind of slow against the Browns. Hopefully he’s back to 100% and will stay that way.

Coming out to start the 3^rd quarter, the Patriots had another good drive. The defense continued their stellar performance forcing a 3 and out and later getting another red zone stand. The only bad play I saw was the pass interference by Meriweather. I don’t think he is fast enough for the deep safety. He seems to be about one step late on a lot of deep throws. This time it cost him a lot of yards as he tried to go through a receiver for an interception. If he was faster, he could’ve beat him to the spot, but since he isn’t, he should’ve been smart enough to break up the catch instead.

Brady put together another good drive as the end of the 3^rd quarter approached to put them up 23-3.  He sneaked the ball in to score and Troy Polamalu (who was either invisible or guessing wrong all day) added some “extra sugar” as Matt Light called it with a hit to Brady after he scored. Brady got up and spiked the ball as hard as he could and stared down the fans. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen him this fired up. Somehow the new kicker missed the extra point. The long snapper and kicker are new, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. Better now that a real close game.

I think at this point, the Patriots let off on defense. Whatever they did, it wasn’t working. The Steelers moved the ball very quickly down the field to score a touch down. Fortunately a quick pick 6 and they opened the lead up again. I don’t know what they were thinking doing the stupid group celebration. It’s been banned since the Rams did the bob and weave. Who even thinks up or plans a group celebration?

One of my favorite plays of the game was Wilfork knocking down Emmanuel Sanders as he ran across the field. It shouldn’t have been a penalty since it was within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage. I thought it was a smart, heads up play by him.

In the end, the Patriots were able to win, but the Steelers scored 23 points in 15 minutes. That is very bad when you have Peyton Manning coming to town this week. Hopefully it becomes a lesson to play a full 60 minutes against the Colts.  It was a nice bounce back game from Gronkowski.

After moving to West Virginia from Massachusetts, I was surrounded by Steelers fans. Being a Patriots fan, I couldn’t stand them. The most annoying fans I’d ever met. Their obsession with getting one for the thumb (before they got 2 more) and the stupid “here we go” song. Hate them more than any other team in the NFL.

I thought their fans were whiners too, but it turns out after seeing this article today about “Spygate“, they’re really just mimicking the entire organization. The owners, coaches and players just love to whine. They’ve been whining for 5 weeks about fines and illegal hits and still crying about “Spygate”.

So somehow the Steeler’s defensive signals helped Troy Brown return a punt and block a field goal that was run back for a touchdown in the 2001 AFC Championship game. Or the Steeler’s defensive signals helped the Patriots defense intercept 3 Kordell Stewart passes. Those signals sure helped the Patriots stop Lee Flowers from injuring Tom Brady. Oh wait, he did injure him.

Or maybe in 2004 the Steeler’s defensive signals helped the Patriots intercept Ben Roethlisberger 3 times and run one back for a touchdown. Tom Brady was all world with 200 passing yards and the running game racked up 126yards (to the Steelers 163). It’s amazing how they did so well knowing all the calls.

What’s their excuse for the opening day beating in 2002? Same signals as 2001? When is it their fault the players can’t handle new signals. They’re out in the open for any team to obtain. It was only the video camera that was illegal. If the signs are the same all season, anyone with a ticket or in a coaches booth can take notes.

Just admit it. You got killed at home in the AFC Championship game. The Patriots went through you twice to win two Super Bowls. You didn’t have to beat the Patriots once to get yours in the 2000s. The Patriots were the better team last decade. Stop whining.

To all my friends unfortunate enough to be Steelers fans, I still like you (and you’re not whiners, well maybe a few of you are :)).

I saw a post on my favorite football site about the NFL’s ratings this year. It had me thinking about ratings in general. While it is something to be commended, I don’t find it surprising because viewership numbers have been dropping for years. Top TV shows 3 or 4 years ago were getting close to 20M viewers and 6 or 7 years ago 25M viewers. The shift can be attributed to many things like more choices (cable), DVRs, DVDs and online viewing. It’s probably a little of everything, but the one thing that pretty much has no alternative is sports. As a bonus, since they are live events, people who want to watch them will always prefer live to tape delay/time shifting. Which means more eyeballs on commercials.

So at least to me, this comes as no surprise that the NFL can be king without cracking 20M viewers. I think this trend will continue for live programming over normal prime time programming.

Special thanks to CBS for showing all of us at home Eric Mangini chewing dip and spitting on the field. I’m sure there is plenty of spit and blood on the field, but it would still suck to have your face smashed into some discraded dip.

It looks like the game ended up being as bad (for the Patriots) as the first play was.

21-Yard Completion on First and 10

The Browns completed a 21-yard pass and the picture above shows a corner back and safety nearby along with linebackers and safeties 6 yards behind. And it took 4 of them to actually touch the receiver down.

Four Patriots Couldn't Cover One Receiver

Rob Gronkowski had a horrible day. Poor Andy Hart. (Not to mention his other binky, James Sanders, was hurdled by Peyton Hillis.) Gronkowski calls for a fair catch and just stands there as it lands 3 yards behind him. Sammy Morris couldn’t corral it and the Browns got it. Then when the Patriots finally got the ball, he had 2 drops (1 was a low throw, but hit his hands). Later on, he had a killer fumble at the goal line to end the half. Patriots would’ve been 2^nd and goal at the 2 down 17-7. For good measure he got a holding penalty and tipped a touchdown pass up in the air.

Luckily, on that tipped ball, Aaron Hernandez was able to concentrate and pull the ball in for a touchdown in the back of the end zone.

Weird U.S. Air Force commercial. It continues the “it’s not science fiction” series, but they show that tag line after a cargo plane seemingly has vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) and transforming while flying capabilities.

By the midpoint of the 3^rd quarter, the game was quite embarrassing. The Browns were unstoppable. Peyton Hillis (nice trade Broncos!) was running anyone and everyone over, Colt McCoy was scrambling and making plays. To top it off, he ran for a 16 yard touchdown.

The Patriots kept trying to get in the game, but aside from not really being able to string together drives to score I noticed the Patriots receivers and tight ends are unnecessarily jumping to catch passes with their bodies. Makes running after the catch (if they don’t drop it) a lot harder.

As the game came to a close, somehow the Patriots looked worse. They loaded up to stop the run and played very undisciplined. The outside linebackers were not setting the edge. Hillis had no trouble running off tackle with 15 yard and 35 yards (a touchdown). The 15 yard one was after the defense got a 5 yard loss and had a 2^nd and 15. After that, Bill Belichick ditched the headset and put Brian Hoyer in and called it a game.

One last note on this debacle. The Browns, ex-Patriots in particular were celebrating like they won the Super Bowl. Considering they’ve actually been there, I can’t really say act like you’ve been there before. But keep in mind that Josh McDaniels went nuts after beating the Patriots last year and has proceeded to go 5-14 since. Beating the Patriots isn’t as big of an accomplishment as it used to be.

To completely ruin Sunday football, the Jets came back from a 20-10 deficit in the 4^th quarter to tie it, force overtime, win the coin flip and kick a field goal.  The Patriots and Jets are 6-2 at the top of the AFC East.

Looking forward, I don’t think losing is ever a good thing, but now the Patriots know they have to play a lot better if they want to have a chance against the Steelers (they couldn’t contain McCoy in the pocket, stop Hillis running and didn’t match their physicality) or Colts (porous pass defense against the Browns) in the next 2 weeks. The offense also has to execute at a much better and consistent level.

Happy Halloween!

This was a ho-hum kind of game. The teams went back and forth for a bit before the Patriots were able to capitalize on a turnover and then the Vikings came back and made it a one score game again late.

I just want to say again that I hate Sunday afternoon games. Missed the beginning of the game again because the local FOX station had to air some local commercials. Suddenly, the Patriots have the ball.  This may happen again for the Colts game, CBS has the double header.

Alge Crumpler seems to makes a lot of costly and/or stupid penalties for a veteran. This week, it was illegal motion negating a 1^st down followed by an incomplete pass to punt. Week 1 it was a false start and then a holding negating a 1^st down leading to a punt. Week 3 was holding again. All told, if you read the play-by-play, Crumpler has 3 penalties, 1 injury, 2 incomplete passed and 1 completed pass through 7 games. In all fairness to him, he has been a locker room leader, mentor to 2 rookie tight ends and a staple of the running game.

Blah. Blah. Blah. Brett Favre. Favre. Favre. That is all I hear the announcers saying. It’s like everyone gets paid by the compliment to Favre.

The Patriots offense seems to be getting worse by the week. Is it film study? Conversely, are the Vikings going to win by running all day? It seemed like it, but at the end of the game Adrian Peterson didn’t get 100 yards and the Patriots found a running game.

I really think that the Patriots defense stopped Peterson on that touchdown. I agree with the crowd, bull shit. If you combine the angles, Vince Wilfork stopped the ball and Jerod Mayo finished him off. No touchdown.

I couldn’t stop laughing after Brad Childress decided to challenge the Brandon Tate reception after the network showed 4 replays. I could see it with no replays, but after those? Total ineptitude. Then later he didn’t challenge a turnover. The referees aren’t your only problem Chilly.

The Patriots defense continues their bend, but don’t break ways with a goal line stand. They seem to be getting better, which is what I hoped to see.

I thought Tom Brady was throwing it away when he threw it to Tate for the 65 yard touchdown. But it was another one of those plays where you have no idea what Brady was thinking and it worked out. On the other side, when Brady had a lot of time it seemed like either there was no check down/dump off receiver or he couldn’t find the open guy.

Another awesome interception by Devin McCourty. He ripped that ball away from Percy Harvin as he was going to the ground and took off with it. I think that’s a play Childress has to challenge to see if Harvin was down by contact first.

Favre was knocked out with an injury. With stitches, he obviously was hit in the head by Myron Pryor’s helmet. It was a hit to the chest, but the helmet had to have slid up. By the rules (at least how I read them), that was a penalty (they got an illegal contact anyway, another bad call in my opinion). I’d expect a fine to come his way. On the topic of penalties, not sure how they missed the pass interference call against Welker later. It was a critical point in the game, fortunately, they got the 1^st down on the next play.

To end the drive, they ran 2 quarterback sneaks from 1 yard out. What were they thinking there? One yard for a touchdown to go up by 10 and they do that with the Vikings defense in with a goal line package and dug in for the run. Were they that confident that they could get a TD on 3^rd or 4^th down? Points seem a lot more important than the time left on the clock.

The Vikings had incredible kick and punt coverage teams.

And finally, I just want to echo Bill Simmons.

The Raiders went 29-83 from 2003 to 2009. Somehow, my Patriots have their No. 1 pick during the one year they’ll probably finish 8-8. This makes me angry. Really, really angry.

Right off the bat, I had to deal with NFL Sunday Ticket annoyances. If a game is scheduled to air on your local station, DirecTV blacks out the NFL Sunday Ticket broadcast. It really sucks when:

1. The early game you want to watch is on local TV and turns out to be a blowout. The local channel switches to another game and it’s also blacked out. It will take almost a whole quarter before DirecTV lifts the blackout.
2. The late game you want to watch is on local TV and another game they want to air to completion goes over. I’ve never seen them lift the black out in this case, you have to wait until the local station shows the game.
3. The late game you want to watch is on local TV and the team in/near your market goes over. If it goes to OT, they will usually lift the black out until half time, but not until a fair amount of the game has already been played.

So today, I was stuck with scenario #2. By the time they joined the game, there was 10:30 left in the 1^st quarter and there were already 2 possessions. What’s the point of getting “all the games” when this routinely happens across the country to fans who live outside their favorite team’s market? Can’t DirecTV do it the other way? Have a god faith agreement to black out a game after they confirm it is airing locally? How about at least having a phone number or e-mail address to alert them that a black out needs to be lifted. They charge $300 a season. Is it too costly to hire a guy to work every Sunday to handle black outs?

The last thing I’ll say is there are at least the Shortcuts so I can see the plays I missed tomorrow. Now, on to the game (at least what I saw).

Someone needs to remind Brandon Meriweather that while he did make a big hit, the guy still got a 1^st down. Quit celebrating like Ellis Hobbs. But a good job lowering his target after the dirty hit and big fine the week before.

The Chargers went for an onside kick early and the Patriots did a good job making sure they got it. Last year, they were caught not paying attention and just running back to cover, this year, while they were taking a step back, they were watching the ball. Dane Fletcher was able to fall on it while other guys made blocks to make sure he had the time to secure the ball. There was no panic.

The Patriots ripped of a 9 yard run on 1^st down, then threw 2 incomplete passes. This was a sign of a theme for the offense today, lots of ineptitude and inconsistency.

On the flip side, the defense played very well. They were stopping the Chargers on 3^rd down, and on a 3^rd and long were able to force a fumble and recover deep in Charger territory. It was another good play by Fletcher who seemed to be carrying over his good play from the Ravens game.

After the Patriots scored a touchdown, Richard Goodman pulled a somewhat common rookie mistake by just dropping a live ball after hitting the ground after the catch. I was yelling at the TV as he went down for someone to touch him because I knew he could get up and run. Instead he tossed the ball on the ground and James Sanders picked it up.

Once again, Matt Light did his best impression of a turnstile as Tom Brady was sacked. In general, the whole offensive line played poorly and Brady was under pressure all night. I’ll repeat it again, the Patriots will be drafting a left tackle. Light is useless. He gets beat routinely (but not often enough to be benched) and he can’t even play any other position.

The Patriots came out playing better in the 3^rd quarter. CBS showed a stat saying the last time the Patriots failed to gain more than 38 yards in the 1^st half was against the Giants (29 yards) in 2003. They also won that game, went 14-2 and won a Super Bowl that year.

Danny Woodhead continues to amaze. He has great instincts for running and he also perfectly timed a high step to avoid a guy who was behind him from making a shoe string tackle that allowed him to get at least another 10 yards on 2^nd and 17 to make it 3^rd and 1.

The defense started to look pretty porous in the 4^th quarter. On one play, they had a 3 man rush on 3^rd and long and the Chargers converted the 3^rd down with a pass. This is the opposite of how they played against the Ravens where they played their best in the 4^th quarter (and OT).  They were able to move the ball and score touchdowns at will it seemed. I felt like I could predict what was happening. Thy started to pass when Vince Wilfork was in for 1^st down, mostly as a checkdown to a wide open underneath receiver or running back. So New England countered with a similar plan to the Ravens last week having Fletcher spy the running back. Philip Rivers just went deep in the middle then. So then they decided to take Wilfork out and the Chargers would just run it. Antonio Gates really stepped it up in the 4^th quarter despite an injury.

The second onsides kick by the Chargers was perfectly timed. The Chargers player was at the ball just as it was crossing the 4o-yard line. The only chance the Patriots had was to try and go forward and get a hold of the ball, but without their best “hands” guys, would’ve been equally risky.

I thought it was a curious decision for Bill Belichick to go for it on 4^th and 1 from their 49 after the 2 minute warning. The Chargers still had 3 timeouts left and only need a field goal to tie the game. A punt gives them 2 minutes and a long field with 3 timeouts. If they fail to get the 1^st down, then the Chargers have the ball at midfield with 3 timeouts and need 15-20 yards to be in field goal range. If the Patriots get the 1^st down, they could force the Chargers to burn all their timeouts and then punt for a long field to get a field goal. And best case, they are able to run the whole clock out. My guess on Bill Belichick’s logic: I like our chances of getting a 1^st down on this play (It looked like the same play they used to get their last touchdown) over my defense stopping the Chargers with 4 downs on a long field.

So after not getting the 1^st down, the defense held enough. On the 3^rd down play I was hoping for short completion to set up a long field goal. An incomplete might’ve had them go for it on 4^th and long. They got a little more yards than I had hoped. They set up for a 45-yard field goal and has a false start! It moved them back 5 yards and I feared they may decide to go for it, but they went ahead with a field goal. My thought was where is Patrick Chung when you need him (someone else did come real close to blocking it), but to the Patriot’s fortune, the kick hit the right upright and was no good. Another tough win.

One final note. No idea if there is a correlation, but the Patriots 3^rd down offense has done a lot worse since the Randy Moss trade. And speaking of, next week he comes back to face the Patriots.

If it wasn’t said enough leading up to this game, it will be said even more now. The Patriots are going back to the style of play they had during their Super Bowl championship years. I can see where the sentiment comes from, but the defense has a ways to go.

The Patriots started out poorly on defense. They mirrored the Bills game by doing a great job on 1^st and 2^nd down and then let the Ravens convert a 3^rd and long. Then on the same drive they let it happen again before finally getting a stop in the red zone. I think Derrick Mason ran a bad route short of the sticks though. Either way, they held them to a field goal.

The reverse that the Patriots ran was really slick. Instead of the traditional hand-off, BenJarvus Green-Ellis tossed the ball up to a spot as Brandon Tate was coming across. It let tate grab the ball in stride from the air and quickly get the corner. It was a gutsy call when considering the timing and fumble risk. What I didn’t like was Tom Brady trying to block Terrell Suggs. He went diving at his knees and that kind of move by a quarterback reminds me too much of the concussion Trent Green suffered trying to do the same thing a few years back.

Brady was pretty angry in the 2^nd quarter following a couple of dropped passes. You could hear a “god damnit” and later saw him on the sideline still yelling. It reminded me of his anger with Joey Galloway last season. Brady later had some bad throws of his own.

The Gillette Stadium crowd had some pretty good moments making noise during the game. The 2^nd quarter and the end of the game stood out to me.

I have no idea why Julian Edelman didn’t let that punt bounce. It was a long punt and could’ve gone into the end zone for a touchback.

I think Bill Belichick made it clear he doesn’t have confidence in his defense when he didn’t use a timeout after they stopped the Ravens for 1 yard on 1^st and 10 with 1:39 left and didn’t expect much from the offense as he let the clock run after stopping them on 3^rd and 9 with 1:10 left.

The interception Brady threw was a poor throw. He was hurried (or at least felt the pressure) and overthrew Wes Welker who was also double covered. Poor decision on his part and the Ravens capitalized quickly with a touchdown.

I noticed there was a NFL shield screen bug added to the telecast. Watching the Red Zone Channel on DirecTV, I haven’t really seen it for other games. So it seems like DirecTV has added it to the individual games as opposed to CBS.

After the Patriots seemed to get most of their offense from unconventional plays, they have a good drive in the 4^th quarter to get a touchdown.

How good does the Patriots defense make opposing QBs look? During the broadcast, once Brady started to complete passes and get into a rhythm, they said Brady was starting to look like Joe Flacco.

Matt Light continues to have inopportune plays. Doing well for all but a couple plays just isn’t quite good enough. He got beat pretty bad a couple times and then got a holding penalty. Momentum killer, but somehow Brady finds Rob Gronkowski open for 24 yards on 1^st and 25. I really think if the Oakland pick ends up being real high and there is an elite left tackle, the Patriots pounce. Light is in the final year of his contract and you can almost always expect him to get beat at a critical point in a game. A left tackle is likely to be low risk choice with high value. Especially if there is a rookie wage scale and top left tackles (and top pick left tackles as well) get paid nearly $10M/yr.

On that big play to Gronkowski, Brady got up real mad. He pounded the ground while he was on his back and then was jawing with Suggs. My brother made a good observation, and watching the replay he was right. On the ground he looked bad towards the official and it seems he was real mad that Haloti Ngata (who’s a beast) wasn’t flagged during the play. It seemed clean, but he did fall on Brady taking him to the ground. I’ve seen it called before. Brady was actually yelling at Ngata and then Suggs joined. My brother said Suggs probably told Brady to stop whining and he”s probably right. :)

Weird play calling right before the two minute warning. They seemed to think they didn’t have to run a play before the two minute warning. They ended up calling a timeout and then couldn’t get the touchdown, settling for the tying field goal.

They opted for a hail mary over a 62-yd field goal attempt to win it in regulation. I wonder why Belicick chose not to take the shot. Most likely wanting to avoid a block, but how big of a risk is it being the last play of the game. They could end it right there before OT.

Aaron Hernandez had a pair of drops during OT that immediately put the Patriots in 2^nd and 10. They went 3 and out both times. A lot of credit to the defense from the 4^th quarter through OT. They forced the Ravens to punt on their last 5 drives letting the offense score 10 points to force OT and eventually win the game with a FG on their third possession of OT.

All in all, it did bring back memories of past Patriots close games and the ability to just make the plays needed to get the win.

October 18 Update: Somehow I didn’t even mention Deion Branch and all of his production in the 4^th quarter and OT. He was ready for the entire game and came up big. Also, Danny Woodhead’s continued production along with him taking Ray Lewis down on a blitz pickup. Someone joked if Lewis caught Woodhead, he might be accused of murder a second time, but Woodhead held his own.