Patriots win the weekend

Patriots were big winners
By Albert R. Breer
November 2, 2009

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - If this season’s been a little weird in New England, then what happened yesterday makes all the sense in the world.

The Patriots established themselves as the favorite in the AFC East. Without playing.

First, you can forget about Buffalo, which took a 10-6 halftime lead at home and promptly blew it in a 31-10 loss to visiting Houston. Second, even after what became an exciting game at the Meadowlands, the Jets and Dolphins left with more questions than they possibly could have arrived with.

Can the Dolphins come up with the defensive backs to deal with a high-level passing game? Can they get the ball downfield on offense? Can Chad Henne mature in time to lead the kind of playoff drive Chad Pennington did last year?

And that’s the team that won the 30-25 thriller. As for the Jets . . .

Has the league caught up with Mark Sanchez? Do the Jets have a prayer of moving the ball offensively the way he’s playing, given the devastating loss of Leon Washington? What’s up with the special teams? Can this club do anything but play defense?

Most of what’s whipped New England into a frenzy recently - can the Patriots (5-2) find a third receiver; is BenJarvus Green-Ellis getting enough reps - seems pretty minor.

“Sometimes, things just don’t make sense,’’ Jets coach Rex Ryan said after the loss. “Statistically, this game is not going to look close. I truly feel our football team is good enough to beat anybody in this league. But we also can lose to anybody in this league if we spot a team three touchdowns. That’s about it. It’s a huge loss for us.’’

Truth be told, it’s not one to be making excuses after, either.

More: http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/articles/2009/11/02/patriots_the_big_winners_after_dolphins_jets_afc_east_clash/

:)

...it's caught up with Ryan.

Miami!

Seems strange when they both have their own stadiums.

The Pats still have to play Miami twice this year. The outcome of those games will almost certainly determine the winner of the division. Miami can beat the Patriots; when they get it going, they're an incredibly dangerous team, as evidenced by the first half of last week's Saints game. If they put together a full 60 minutes of that kind of play, they can beat anyone, and they *always* get amped up when they play the Pats. For a long, long, long time, Miami absolutely owned the Pats; the rivalry between the two teams was akin to the rivalry between a hammer and a nail. The Pats have turned that around in recent years, but Miami still gives us a lot of trouble. They killed us last year, and beat us 28-0 the year before in our own stadium.

So, yeah, trumad's correct. Gonna be a wild second half.

because of what I've seen them do.

And because the Pats can sometimes be a bit inconsistent.

Winning against tougher teams. Losing to teams they should have beaten.


Even during their whirlwind whipping of the league in 2007, I still wasn't absolutely sure they'd win ANY game until the games were over.

Yeah, they can.

But really good teams can come back and win after spotting three touchdowns.

Like the Pats. Like Indy. Like New Orleans.


Can teams claim injuries to key players as an excuse? Yeah, they can.


But good teams overcome injuries

We all saw what happened last season when Brady got injured and a mostly untested Matt Cassel stepped in, giving them a season markedly better than the 8-8 (or worse) that I expected.

Poor Jets...

If history is any indicator, they had better get their crying towels out now for when they meet up again with the Pats Nov 22. The Pats should be more in synch with each other by then, and (although they probably won't admit it publicly) I'll bet they're itching for a chance to beat the holy hell out of the Jets.

And at the risk of prodding the ire of the Football Gods, I'm going to say I don't want it to be a close game. I want it to be a full-scale massacre. I want to see Jets players sobbing like little schoolgirls on the sidelines.

Ryan didn't spot the Phins 3 TD's....

He's the head coach of the entire team and if his Special teams can't make a tackle on a kickoff, then maybe he needs to coach them a little better. The first game this season, Ryan's punter successfully faked punts twice which helped the Jet's to score 10 points.

So ---did the Phins spot 10 points in that game?

The 3rd TD this week was a fumble return by the Phins--(Jason Taylor)---the running back was annihilated behind the line which caused him to fumble. Perhaps Ryan needs to coach his O-Line a bit better.

Ryan is a little whiny ass titty baby who needs to shut his fat pie hole.

Now---as far as the Phins and the Pat's... it could go either way. The Phins have an uncanny knack for surprising the Pat's. Shit---AJ Feeley beat them the year they won the Super Bowl..... anything can happen.

OR--- the Phins will lose by 4 TD's. The Phins secondary is horrendous this year. Miami grinds a TD out for about 8 minutes---the opposing team retaliates in about 60 seconds. Been that way the whole season.

I'm telling you---if Miami had a good secondary, they would have beaten both the Colts and the Saints. Woulda shoulda coulda...I know.

I expect the Pat's coming off a bye week to win this one handily.

With that said Pitt... Avatars baby...Avatars.

Heh!

Wonder what is next sn will be when he pops in next week.