Patriots Fanatic

Well, it’s already tolled for Givens and McGinest (I expected the first, but not the second), and it may be tolling for AV and Troy Brown. Losing Adam would be tough, but I can’t get too worked up about losing Brown at this stage in his career. Sure, it would be sad for his last memorable play with the Pats to be fumbling away the Denver game, but he’s clearly lost many steps.

It’s been clear in interviews since the Givens signing that a large part of Givens leaving was that he wanted to be (and of course be paid for being ) a #1 receiver.

Since he wasn’t going to be a #1 in the Pats scheme, there was (a) no way the Pats would pay him #1 money, and (b) predispose him to go to a team where he’d be a #1 even if the offers were equal.

As for McGinest, while I’m sad to see him go, I don’t think it would have been wise for the Pats to cough up that sum.

Vinatieri is more interesting. I think there has definitely been some behind the scenes friction there for a few years. The Pats had to tag AV last year, and I think before that he was on a relatively short-term contract. So the parties haven’t been able to come to a long-term agreement for some time now. AV also brings up the question of do you (percentage-wise) hugely overpay AV to keep him on the grounds that even a big percentage overpay to a kicker is lost in the noise? Or will a big percentage overpay still cause pay-scale problems because then everyone will start saying “if he is so high percentage-wise, why not me?”

Finally, what has bothered me isn’t as much losing these guys (and potentially Troy Brown, too, though at this stage of his career that’s not a big loss) is that these guys’ agents have said the Pats haven’t even talked to them. Of course, I also wouldn’t put it past agents to make stuff to make the team look bad, either.

Free agency starts at 12:01am tomorrow morning.

I’m almost certain Givens will end up signing elsewhere. I have a bad feeling about Vinatieri and think he will end up elsewhere. I expect McGinest and Troy Brown to end up returning to the Pats. Not sure either way about Ashworth and Neal. I’d like to see us keep Dwight.

We’ll find out soon enough…

Maybe those of us who noticed that Brady seemed to be having some problems with throwing too high were onto something. From today’s Metrowest Daily News:

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady played half of the season with a
hernia and will have surgery to correct the problem, probably within two weeks, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

The hernia problem did not keep Brady from practicing or force him to miss any time, but he did throw some passes uncharacteristically high as the season went on, indicating the injury may have affected his
release.

Seattle, of course. Why would you expect anything else?

I can’t stand Cowher. I want to see him always fail. My ideal Superbowl would be for Pittsburgh to jump out to a big lead and then choke it away due to the usual Cowher stupidity.

Pittsburgh is dirty. Intentionally taking out Palmer (don’t give me that “the DLman was blocked into Palmer” garbage. That’s total BS as even a quick glance at the replay will show you. The DLman reached out with his arm, wrapped it around Palmer’s leg, and pushed his shoulder into Palmer’s knee). Dirty, dirty, dirty. And this isn’t the first time the Cowher’s cowards have tried to win a playoff game by taking out the opponent’s QB. Queue up the tape of the AFC championship four years ago. Lee Flowers twice rolled into Brady’s legs untouched and very late, succeeding in knocking Brady out of the game the second time. Cowher and his team are dirty and deserve to lose.

Pittsburgh has that idiot loudmouth Joey Porter.

Two Seattle players (Matt Hasselbeck and Lofa Tatupu) are sons of former Patriots.

Given all that, how could any Pats fan root for Pittsburgh??

From Brady’s press conference today:

“I think we’ve probably been disrespected more than any team in the league this year. I think we’ve been given up on by a lot of media people, a lot of fans, our own fans, other people around the league. I think if there’s one team that feels like they’re disrespected, it’s us. I don’t disrespect Jacksonville. It’s [hard] to disrespect a team that’s 12-4. If we were 12-4 it would be different. I think people gave up on us a long time ago.”

Two good seedings pages, one at NFL.com and the other at CBSsportsline.com. Sportsline also has a page detailing clinching scenarios.

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.

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!

Over the past few years of watching ESPN’s NFL Primetime I’ve realized that they always use the same background music for Buffalo Bill’s highlights (it happens to be my favorite piece of music on the show). I haven’t noticed any other team having a signature piece. So, people, how long has that piece been used with Buffalo and why does ESPN do it?

Reiss’s blog reports that Patrick Pass was seen at practice.