Patriots Fanatic

Looks like I’m not the only blogger to think injuries just aren’t the excuse anymore:

Up front, who was out against Kansas City? No one. Not a single significant player. They were all there. And don’t give me Ted Johnson. Again, lets be realistic. Johnson was a good, solid player and much admired. But missing him is not the answer to what is wrong with the Patriots defense. If anything, its allowed Roosevelt Colvin to get on the field more and Colvin has been one of the few defensive players who has been mostly good this year. The answer isn’t Johnson.

So is it Harrison? Surely in part. But its not the difference between a Super Bowl defense and the worst Patriots defense in their history, at least since I have been watching (30 years or so). It just can’t be. Its impossible. And there were signs things were wrong before Harrison went out. Think of the first drive of the year versus Oakland. Think of the long pass to Moss. Think of the long pass to Proehl against Carolina. Think of the eighty something yarder versus Pittsburgh before Harrison got hurt. Just those three passes alone would be out of character for an entire season of the past few Patriots defenses. Yet those three alone happened in the nine quarters Harrison WAS on the field early in the year. Something was wrong even then.

So what is it? To some degree, its everything. Its Harrison. It is Gay and Johnson and other injuries a little bit (but only to a limited extent as discussed above). Its the strong opponents. Its the lack of confidence. Its the injuries and non-production on offense. Probably a hundred other things as well.

But for all those things, its also the coaching. Eric Mangini simply has not done a good job this year. There is no other way to spin it. I doubt he feels he has. He can’t. The results are simply not there where anyone could be satisfied. Yes he has somewhat been a victim of the injuries and every other thing that has gone wrong this year, but he hasn’t found a way to figure it out or even to show much improvement or stability as the season has gone on.

(via)

I think this is an excellent point and is why I think the Pats are doomed to be one-and-done when the playoffs start.

At what point do I allow myself to think that it might be better for the Pats to miss the playoffs and leave Brady and Belichick’s playoff records intact than to make the playoffs and be bounced in the first round?

I’m losing faith that the team can get it together to do anything meaningful in the playoffs. As I said below, I’m coming around to believe there’s a problem beyond just the injuries (remember the “malaise” that Brady and Troy Brown referred to a couple of weeks ago).

Coming into this weekend, I was unsure on whether to root for or against Pittsburgh on Monday night. The case for rooting for is to want to see Indy lose for all the obvious reasons. The case for rooting against is to drop Pittsburgh into a tie with NE.

But with the Pats losing today and Denver and SD squeaking by their opponents, and Cincinnati also winning, the Pats are pretty much stuck with the #4 seed (let alone having any chance left of the bye). So with respect to NE’s playoff chances, the Monday nighter is pretty much irrelevant. So that means rooting for Indy to lose, lose, lose!

One or two times a year, every year, Brady has a meltdown game. Looks like this one was it. Too bad it didn’t come against an NFC team. Of course, that still doesn’t excuse the lack of a pass rush and the secondary being burned deep again and again.

I’m starting to come around to Felger’s view that we can’t keep blaming the injuries. Sure, losing Rodney was big in the secondary. But in the front seven the only people gone from last year are Ted Johnson and Keith Traylor. So I don’t buy injuries as a complete excuse for the execrable pass rush and the bad run defense.

Some disturbing remarks from retired lineback Ted Johnson over at patsfans.com.

Ick. Ick-ick-ick-ick-ick-ick-ick. Ick.

It pretty much went the way I had predicted it would.

I really wish I had been wrong.

If the Colts can’t win the game Monday night, they don’t deserve to ever beat the Patriots. I’ve been a Pats fan since 1976 and I still expect the Colts to have an easy win:

• The rumblings in the press are that Seymour still won’t be able to play. Bye-bye any hope of a pass rush.
• It’s looking more like Dillon and Pass will be out. Can re-signing Mike Cloud be anything other than an act of “my god, we need to have at least one theoretical running back” desperation?
• To sign Cloud, they cut safety Arturo Freeman. Ought to be interesting to see who plays alongside Wilson.

So let’s see — the Pats will have no running game, will have no pass rush, and won’t be able to blitz because there’s no way their secondary will be able to cover the Indy receivers one-on-one.

I never bought into any of the hype the past two playoff seasons of how the Patriots had no chance against the Colts, because the facts of how the team was playing didn’t support the hype. But it’s different now — the Pats D is clearly and unrefutably much degraded. Now add two rookies on the left side of the OL and that the starting RB will likely be someone signed a couple of days before the game…

The most likely result is a Colts win by at least two touchdowns (something remiscent of the San Diego debacle). The only way I can see the Pats winning this game is in a shootout. Now, from what we saw from STL before Bulger went down, the Pats certainly could win in a firefight, but, sad to say, it’s not likely.

Hey — I fervently hope I’m wrong, but it’s hard to ignore reality.

In addition to Seymour, I think another thing the Patriots have to get back for this game is the big play. I don’t mean long scoring strikes (though those would be nice). I mean things like getting INTs or forcing fumbles at key times, getting big punt and KO returns, etc. All of that has been sorely missing so far this year.

To win the Indy game we really need to get Seymour back. One of the keys in the past wins has been to get pressure on Manning and make him move, preferably without blitzing him. Since Seymour has gone down (and, to be fair, sometimes even before) the Patriots have gotten no pressure on enemy QBs. Manning cannot be allowed to have all day back there or the results will be disastrous. Blitzing isn’t the answer, either, as our secondary isn’t good enough to lock up the receivers during a blitz.

And then there’s Starks.

It appears he has two styles of play — attempt tight coverage and be beating long, or give a 7-10 yard cushion. If I were Dunghill, I’d tell Manning to throw for Starks’s man every time until the
Pats proved they could deal with it.

Bruce Allen over at Boston Sports Media Watch has an awesome piece on the garbage that is Boston sports coverage.