How do you stop a Rhino from Charging?
You take away his Credit cards.

Old, very bad kids riddle. But the similarities of that word game to this game were numerous and warranted.

First, LaDanian Thomlason has been so valuable to the team from San Diego that he has been in a matter of speaking as strong as a rhino and also the Chargers Platinum card of late. Of this game, the job of the Patriots was clear. Take LT out of the game and they would be without power. They would be without the electricity that drives the team. The defense did just that. Holding LT to a historic low of 43 yards in a performance against the Pats. With this accomplished the Philip Rivers lead team quickly fell behind a New England team that was just mental to show a national TV audience that they did not need video tapes and that they were not cheaters.

Suddenly we are all agape at the idea that this could be the most complete Patriots team ever. Certain of those in the media have even gone so far as to suggest that this team has been given motivation to do the thought to be impossible: go…and 0. Run the table. Sweep the floor with their all their opponents. Yes, we are giddy from the fumes of the ritual sacrifice that became of the Chargers on Sunday evening, a team that was touted to be one of the 2 that could give the Pats a run for their money. But may not have been the most demanding test for our team. And I give you this one suggestion. Rather, make it three.

At the end of last season, the San Diego Chargers lost all 3 of their top coaches. Head coach and both coordinators. With a whole new scheme in place, it is going to take time for the players to get their heads around what is going on and it might even take the whole of the season before the season really gets on the same page. How card can it be? Just hand off to LT and hand off to LT and while you are at it, maybe even hand off to him some more. Yeah, well, I’ll believe that our team is the monster that some are extolling when I see it over a few more weeks. And after the Indy game on November 4. But,…I do hope I see it

Back-peddling
Was it not hilarious how so many of the talking heads on TV spent most of the week talking about how this taints the legacy of BB and about how it makes lessens the accomplishments of the team, the players. It was even made out to be that the players might not really be as good as anyone thought. But come Monday morning suddenly all the writers were falling all over themselves to sing the praises of the players in what was being touted as one of the most complete dismantlings of a quality football team in recent memory. Too late my friends. You disrespected the players and they had, and many believe still have, a major chip on their collective shoulder. Suddenly the story of tape gate or video gate is becoming a distant image in the rear view mirror of the publics mind. If the Patriots win Home Field Advantage for the playoffs the whole video camera fiasco will be seen as the moment where the team shoved the machine into overdrive.

Back for more
Do you remember how in the off season there was a lot of speculation from the talking heads around the league about the idea that this might be Belichick’s last season with the Pats. Reason after reason was sighted for why Bill was loading up for one final run at the Lombardi with this team before he would move on to the NY Giants job that looked like it might be available (and now REALLY looks to be opening up). Finally in August I read the book Education of a Coach, about BB’s rise to the position of head coach of the New England Patriots. At the end of reading that, I was even more convinced of what I already believed; that Bill was not going anywhere. Well this week it became official. Belichick signed a contract extension that would carry him through the year 2013. So unless Bob Kraft finds a bigger reason from the video tape fiasco than the one he has now, don’t look for Belichick to be going anywhere soon. He has worked with too many bad owners and supervisors to look this gift horse in the mouth. And with regards to his eventual induction into the Pro Football HOF, winning the next 3 super bowls might just make people forget about the video tape thing.

Boots?
What is going on with our kicker, Ghost?
Did BB tell him to not hit the Kick-offs out of the EZ? I remember in the past that BB replied to a reporters question regarding Adam V.’s lack of ability to get the ball into the end-zone for touch backs as not necessarily a bad thing. Of course in this game there was the one obvious kick that almost hit the moon before falling down about the 34 yard line. So odd was it, and to a player so far up field that he actually called for a fair catch on a kick-off, that this had to be a planned thing. Think about it. When was the last time you saw a fair catch on a kick off? I am not even sure that it is a valid option for the receiving team. But as the game wore on it seemed that every time the Pats kicked after scoring, and there was a lot of scoring, that the ball fell to earth further and further from the end zone.

So the question is: Short kicks: Planned or Problem.

Bruised
Close to the end of the game the camera cut to a shot of Philip Rivers on the sideline without his helmet. What I saw was a tapestry of what looked like bruises and marks all over his face. He certainly gave the impression of a man who had spent the evening being roughed up and pelted from every side. Which is, more or less, what he was. For a number of plays it seemed as though the Patriots defensive players would always be so close but so far from getting a sack.

Brady Better? You better, you bet
In the Chargers game Tom Brady threw two touchdown passes to Randy Moss. On the first one, something about the way Brady threw the ball caught my eye. On the next pass I again felt as if something different was happening when he threw the ball to Moss. And then on the second one to Moss I saw it for sure.
Brady throws the ball in a completely different manner to Moss than he does when to the other players on the offense.
His release is more clearly over the top, his form is tighter and more refined. It is as if he is throwing for an instructional video. “Hello. I am Bill Parcells and today we have Tom Brady to show you how to throw a pass.” It is a better, more mechanically correct throw. I would bet that if you contacted his throwing coach from San Mateo, California that he would verify this. I can only offer that this action, that this impression, based no doubt in my keen awareness and new pair of contact lenses, stems from the fact that Tom Brady need not put as much air under the ball as he does with some of the other pass catchers. And that could be a big part of it. He is just zinging the ball to get there as fast as possible because the player that wears number 81 is just lighting up the secondary with his speed. All I can say is that apart from the fact that those TD passes continued to keep the boot on the throat of the Chargers, those were some of the most prettily thrown passes I have ever seen come off the hand of a New England quarterback.

Don’t believe me? Go back and watch the tape.

Bite on it. Go ahead I dare you.
Or “Back the Backer”
How do you hide a player the likes of Pro-Bowler Adalius Thomas? You line him up 5 yards directly behind much smaller Junior Seau who is so close to the ball and the center that he appears to be larger than he really is. This is called perspective.

The defense is shifted to that the nose tackler Wilfork is over the guard leaving the center to be covered by Seau who comes to the line, standing and showing blitz, as he has done so many times already this season. In this position, directly in front of San Diego QB Philip Rivers, he is able to obscure quite a bit of the defensive landscape behind him. So much so that when Rivers releases the ball to a spot 7 yards up field that he has no idea that waiting 4 yards up field is a 275 pound wild man wearing No.96. Normally the defense tries to disguise the scheme or coverage. In this case they disguised a player to look like he wasn’t even there. And it worked to a T. Or to an A.T.

Battery
All in all, this was a game that the Patriot fans wanted the team to win in a big and powerful way. I had told others that as a result of the continued running at the mouth of LT that could only hope for a final score victory that had the team breaking our record for point output (55 points against the Jets in 1979). We all hoped that the team would turn the dogs loose and not let up no matter what. Well, the team did not score 55 points, but most would agree that the contest was over by half time with the Flying Elvii up by a score of 24-0. And in the end, it did seem that Belichick was going to hold the throttle down and fire the guns again and again and again as he did not call for a field goal on 4th and 2 at the Chargers 3 late in the game. The final result was no way in question, but BB seemed to want to make it clear that if San Diego wanted a reprieve from the shelling it had been taking that it would have to stop it. Belichick was not about to call it off. There had been too many attacks fired at the Patriots over the last 7 days for the team to ever let up. But then again, maybe it was just a matter of fear that Ghost might miss the kick, even from that close in.

Bear Hug
My most memorable moment in this game came just before the final gun sounded. On the sideline, Tedy Bruschi came over to BB and hugged him strongly and said something to him to the effect of, You are our coach and we stand behind you all the way. And then one by other players, who were not actually on the field decimating the Chargers took their chance to give their coach a hug as well.

In the end this was one game that many of the fans feared the team might lose. Could close. The subject of distraction came up and we all wondered how the team might deal with their head coach making decisions that broke league rules. And we saw that they are a team, and that Bill Belichick remains an important part of that team.

The rest of the NFL better ready, because the dragon in the North East has been awoken.

Bring on the Buffalo Bills and

Go Pats!
Erdoboy
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