Pats 3-1

So the Patriots just beat the 49ers, in what was a good win overall. I wasn't in the mood to write about the Pats after Miami, for obvious reasons. Of course, New England sports fans have a well-documented tendency to panic a little too early. 

OK, the Miami loss was pretty bad, but the following wave of "season's lost without Brady" sentiment was a little overblown. If anyone was paying attention, it was the defense that was really to blame for the loss. When you give up 5 TDs to one player, keeping pace is too much to ask from a 2nd time starter. And as shaky as the offense looked, Cassel did complete 3/4 of his passes and showed good form. 

Now, the most satisfying part of the win over SF was the 70-yard bomb to Moss, mostly because it kills a couple birds at once. It shuts up the "vertical game is dead" pundits, and even better, it gives Moss another reason to be happy, and for the reporters to stop baiting him. The more substantial development, however, was that the D stood up and played like we're used to from the second quarter on. The only blemish was the ridiculous, ridiculous TERRIBLE pass interference call. Worst rule in football. I'll let it go for now. 

5 reasons for Patriots fans to hang on

So Brady is out for the season... everybody knows that by now. Like many Patriots fans, this has been the cause of serious emotional trauma for me. I definitely identified a few stages of grief over the last few days. 

But, now it's time to move on. So this changes the whole dynamic of the season for the Pats. They were a powerhouse team, and anything worse than 14-2 would have been a disappointment. Now we need to look back to the lesser days of Patriots fanhood. Remember what it was like before excellence was assured? We still loved football season back then, didn't we? Here are some reasons why 2008 might not be a total loss:

1. Bill Belichick is still in charge. This may sound trivial, but it's really not. This is the best NFL coach ever. He can get more out of a given group of players than anyone else. No other team's fans have ever had the luxury of this knowledge. BB won't be around forever. I'm going to enjoy every team he coaches, no matter what. In Bill I trust.

2. Now we can get excited about rookies/the pressure is off. Beforehand the thinking was "the rookies are going to hurt our chance of a perfect season". Now a perfect season seams pretty unlikely, so we can afford to develop these young guys. Now begins the Jerod Mayo ROTY watch. Now I can get pumped every time Terrence Wheatley makes a hit. Rookies are fun, remember... you never know how good they might be. 

3. Maybe, just maybe, Matt Cassell is good. Ok, so Tom Brady is coming off of the best season a quarterback has ever put forth. It's not like we're going to get another "surprise improvement" like the Brady/Bledsoe switch in 2001. But let's also remember that before the 2007 season, a lot of people were still calling Brady a "system quarterback". As Bill Belichick said the other day, the two most important skills in the position are making good decisions, and accuracy. There's never been as good of a decision-maker as #12, and Cassell has been working side-by-side with him for 4 years. Maybe Moss and Welker can pick up the slack a little bit, the passing game can go back to the old economical system of throwing hard short passes that are are tough to pick... we won two superbowls doing this, and our #1 tailback was Antoine Smith. Seriously!

4. Speaking of tailbacks... Last week, I discussed Belichick's odd decision of keeping around 5 different viable running backs. It sure makes him look prescient now. The running game looked really good last week, against a line anchored by Glenn Dorsey. The Maroney, Morris, Jordan (Morris looks particularly impressive) trifecta presents a real problem for defenses. The Pats can have a fresh back in every down, and these guys can bruise. If a lapse of concentration occurs, Maroney can cover a lot of ground awfully fast. 

5. The defense might be really good. So last year we were worried about the age of linebackers, and Jerod Mayo goes a long way to shore up that problem. The Pats have the option of running a 4-3 with Seymour, Wilfork, Warren, and Green (maybe the best D-line in football), and Mayo, Vrabel and Thomas to back them up. That's a fearsome front 7. Bruschi may be slowing down, but this coincides with the possibility that Eric Alexander (whose playing time gradually increased last year) is ready to take up the role. Obviously there's some concern with the secondary, because of youth. But this group might have actually gotten more talented than last year. Despite all the talk about losing Samuel, Wilson and Gay, two of the three were injured for large portions of their time with the Pats. Asante used to be a free 5 yard out, and  it was only last year that he really mastered the risk/reward of route jumping. Deltha is not that long removed from his pro bowl seasons. Hobbs and Sanders are maturing. Wheatley could be a stud... work with me here.... 

So it's been awhile...

and I sorta missed the olympics, which is pretty bad for a sports blog. 

But the NFL season starts tomorrow (except for that one game), and that's pretty exciting. It's been good to be a Patriots fan for the last few years, despite the rough end to last season. Some thoughts:

1. We can't judge this season by the standards of the last one. There's a lot of chance in the sport. Even if the team is better this year, it's pretty unlikely that we're going to see 16-0 again. I'm personally just going to hope for the playoffs, a healthy team, and some excitement. After all, this is an entertainment industry. 

2. There seems to be a lot of unrest amongst pats fans. A lot of talk is about the rookies filling holes at important defensive positions. Yes, that works against a perfect season, but I think it'll be more fun to watch athletic up-and-comers than players squeezing the last out of their aging limbs. Let's be honest, these fans had their hearts broken and they're not getting hopes too high. We still have Brady, Moss and Welker on offense, along with new depth in the backfield (a lot of it) and another healthy tight end in Dave Thomas. I've been waiting awhile to see what he's capable of. I know they were raving about him after his draft. 

3.  About that backfield: I think everyone outside the organization assumed that someone was going to get cut. How can they hold onto the young talent (Maroney), two veteran bruisers (Morris, Jordan), the jacknife (Faulk), and the blue collar guy (Evans), all at once? I knew it was going to be a tough call. LM is untouchable, Faulk is cheap and effective (and a lockerroom guy). Evans is the only true fullback, but definitely the least talented. And how can you cut Sammy Morris, when he was devastating last year, pre-injury. I guess BB's choice was all of them. I suppose RBs are sort of like starters in baseball, in that you ought to plan on one of them getting hurt. This might be excessive though. 

That is all.  

Favre in the AFC-E

Not particularly worried, but maybe it'll make things interesting. Good move for the Jets, they don't stand to lose much. 

Jason Bay, take one.

I was in the house last night to witness the Fenway debut of Jason Bay. Honestly I had no idea what to expect. There was a smattering of "I miss Manny" signs in the crowd, and hundreds upon hundreds of "24" shirts and jerseys. 

But when #44 stepped to the plate, all seemed forgiven. It really was spectacular. Not just your typical standing ovation, spreading for patch to patch. It was an explosion, erupting all at once an lasting for minutes. The fans brought the game to a halt. 

One trick?

Dear Andy H,

You may recall once calling Rapha Nadal a "one-trick pony". Looks like you've got one last chance to admit he's the real deal before he becomes the world's number one player. 

Manny gone?

Manny Ramirez, Craig Hansen, Brandon Moss (and cash?) for Jason Bay... if it's true, I'm stunned. Terrible deal, especially in the middle of a pennant race. 

I know Manny isn't exactly a prized clubhouse presence these days, but haven't we seen this before? They wait it out, let the media and fan furor die down, and then Manny is happy again. After all, isn't this when his trade value is the absolutely the lowest? When every team in the league knows about the feud? 

What will Ortiz think?