Just when you thought you knew all there was to know about the i-Pats we have a surprise for you. For 2007 the i-Pats come with a snooze feature. You are in control. You can set your i-Pats to sleep until you need them. You are in control. You are able to select the time that your i-Pats will sleep. All the way up to an amazing 51 minutes. You set it and you forget it. Until it wakes up. Right when you need it to. At this moment any and all functions will be fully available. Now your i-Pats will do what you programmed it to. You will be glad you chose the i-Pats. And you will feel like a winner.

What I can tell you about this game was that without question, of all the games that I have ever seen in person, this was the most rewarding. And there was certainly no snoozing going on in the RCA Dome this day. When the chips were down and things looked bleak they elevated their level of play and did what needed to be done. They needed fast scores and those scores needed to be touchdowns. And that is what they got. For me this game was so much greater than other wins because it did look so impossible. Tom Brady achieved his greatest comeback because he needed a lot more than a field goal and because the other team knew he was going to be throwing. And there was nothing they could do to stop him. It was a great win because I had spent so much on the ticket to get to the game and here I was questioning the sanity of my actions. I relearned a great lesson this day. Those who go through hard times are more appreciative of riches when they come. Or to put it another way, “You have to go through hell before you get to heaven.” And this game took me to a dark and evil place that certainly felt like the former. Because of this, the game was much more rewarding than a 52-7 blow-out. And in the end it was a great game because it actually meant something. Yes it was regular season and the loser lived to fight another day. But this game was for the protection of the unbeaten season. This game was for the home field advantage lead. And because this game was against our greatest rival, the Indianapolis Colts. Here was the game billed as the game of the century, living up to the hype, and I was on hand to see it happen with my own eyes. Man, it was wonderful.

And I was left with a lot of hope for a rematch. This despite the fact that the group of unknown and certainly lower ranked refs were allowed to officiate a game of this magnitude and actually had an impact on the game with bad or questionable calls. This, despite the fact that the Patriots helped the cause along with some poor play for much of the first 3 quarters. This despite the fact that the Colts clearly can play some really good defense. My hope stems from the fact that all of these things are unlikely to vector together in the rematch that seems certain to be slated for the end of January. Yes, I know that Colts were without Marvin Harrison and that in future he will likely be on the field. But the Patriots offense was self limiting in this game despite the skill of the Colts. And still there were many things to like about this game. This type of win was the first gut-check for this team and I am certain that it will do more to help the team focus and move forward than any lopsided win could ever have done. I hope Belichick’s baker has added some ovens because I think that this week there is going to be a lot of humble pies being backed. Because there should be servings for almost everyone on this team before it heads to Buffalo.

Immediate Interaction
I love the way players on this team get respect from the coaches. By way of example I submit the “catch” on the sideline on the Colts first drive. Immediately after the refs signaled that the ball was caught, Asante Samuel raced over to Belichick and told him that in no uncertain terms the receiver’s foot had come down out of bounds. And immediately the red flag was thrown to challenge the ruling on the field. If you watch the games you see a lot of this, with the players bringing things to the attention of the coaches and having their information being given high credence.

Intrigued
I was wondering why the sprint out to the sideline route was not run to Welker more often. Often the safety who was covering him was giving a substantial cushion. And in each case there was going to be a hole in the defense to the outside when Moss would clear out by running a fly pattern and dragging the corner downfield with him. Through out the game I kept looking at the defense and seeing the possibility of this pass. And they never went to it. Until, that is, late in the 4th quarter, finally hitting it twice. The first was the 3 yard TD that put the Patriots back into the game 20-17. The second was when he hit No. 83 to the right to get a first down with 2:00 left in the game and effectively winning the game. Were they saving the play for when they really needed it?

Injuries
For what seems like the 9th straight game of the season an opposing player has gone down with an injury that would prevent them from playing the whole game or being lost for the season. This time it was Colts TE Anthony Gonzales who dislocated his thumb on the first play of the game.

Incompetence
You just had to know that the officiating for this game was going to be like watching bricks fight when the referee dropped the coin while setting up for the coin toss. And it went down hill fast. Two refs blew a call on a catch on the first drive. Then despite Dallas Clark tackling Rodney Harrison in the end zone no offensive pass interference was called.

Invisible
Were you like me and did not even realize that Dallas Clark’s name was not called during the course of the game? Which was odd. I should have noticed as he was the one player that killed the Patriots in the 2006 AFC Championship game. And yet Belichick and Co. schemed the defense so well that we didn’t even realize that he was out of the game despite actually taking the field. On the opposite side of the field one our linebackers was pretty much MIA. Adalius Thomas was basically invisible. In the end it turn out that while he played he was only on the field for 19 plays. Why did the coaches scheme to have one of the fastest backers off the field when speed was going to be needed? It is hard to fathom.

Interesting
With 1:47 left in the first and the Colts having the ball on their own 1 yard line Patriots went to a defense which seemed completely geared towards allowing yards on the ground and nothing through the air. Even though backed up it was a veritable certainty that the Colts would run the ball here. The defense had only 1 true lineman, Jarvis Green, on the field. Other “down” players were Vrable, Colvin and Thomas. Clearly the defense was built for speed and not for stuffing the run.

Incomprehensible?
The Colts had the momentum from the huge score just before the half. Then, to add to this they stopped the Patriots on the first drive of the 3rd quarter. Then after Manning threw an interception the Colts defense drove the Patriots back and out of field goal range. So how did Indy take advantage of this chance to put the Pats away? By running the ball on 4 straight plays. Yes the first play went for 11 yards. But the next 3 went for minus 1, minus 9, and then on 3rd and 20 runs a draw for 11. It seemed that no matter how well the Patriots were going to stack the line against the run that the ball was not going into the air which is where the Colts have made their living. Were they that concerned about Peyton committing another turnover?

Incomplete
Is it wrong that I take a lot of satisfaction in the fact that Peyton Manning failed in his first bid to get his 100th career victory. And that he didn’t get it against us.

Incompletions
I know that in the minds of many that Randy Moss won the game for us, he owned some of the blame for the team getting into a hole. For most of this game, Moss was just not making catches that he had been making for most of the season. That long reception that set up the second TD, he caught with his body instead of with his hands. Was he channeling Reche Caldwell? On the first pass of the game to Moss, on the second drive, Moss juggled the ball and had to tip it to himself despite Brady delivering a perfect strike. It appeared that 81, as he was crossing the middle of the field, began to run before he had the ball. This happened again at 5:24 in the 2nd quarter when he puts up one hand to catch a pass from Brady and lets it fall to earth. This trend continued more times during the game resulting in at least 4 incompletions and one near interception. The one time this did seem to go his way was on the 17 yard one-handed catch at 8:00 in the 3rd. This was an amazing catch and in this case the ball was out in front and above him so that using 2 hands would have been nigh shy to impossible. But if he had used more conventional methods on the other passes, securing the ball and THEN began to run, he would have had more catches, and drives would not have stalled. And supposedly the Patriots would have been able to score more and control the game.

Coming to New England last spring, one of the supposed knocks on Moss was that he did not like to or would not go across the middle of the field. Over the first 9 games of this season he has shown that in fact he will go there and has made some impressive catches. That 17 yarder in the the 3rd springs to mind. Yet, his weakest efforts to haul in passes have also come on those crossing patterns. Whether or not these are the result of half his mind thinking about getting hit, I cannot say. Certainly Moss is at his most dangerous on a fly pattern or on a deep out. It seems that he most comfortable there too.

I am hoping that this was Moss’s “off” game and that he will be back to being in the zone, catching everything that is close to him, for the rest of the season.

Into the End Zone
Stephen Gostkowski continues to do all that he can to make use forget about that Adam guy. And it seems his favorite way of doing that is to hammer kick after kick on kick-offs into the end zone. Without checking the official stats I would wager to guess that this season alone, Ghost has put more shots into the paint than Adam did in his entire career in New England. But even he is not alone in performing great. Because whether or not the ball reaches the end zone when the return man brings that ball forward, the cover team is stopping him, on average, deep in their territory. Consider how our defense used to always take up shop around the 30 where as now they are doing so at the 20 or even at the 15. Pretty great.

Improvement
Certainly the one player who showed some real improvement from earlier in the season is Maroney. He made better use of the blocking schemes of the line and had 2 or 3 impressive cutbacks that changed losses into sizable gains. The most notable came on the first play of the 3rd quarter when he ran right into a pile and then cut left and picked up 5 yards.

In Game Adjustment
After Joseph Addai shredded the Patriots for 187 total yards in the first half, the Patriots stepped up measures to always have the Colt running back shadowed and covered closely. The result was that in the second half Addai had 1 catch for 7 yards and 11 rushes for 42 yards. By cokmparison to the first half, he disappeared. Ore was MADE to disappear.It was very nice to see in action this trait so often ascribed to Belichick being acted out when we really needed it.

Inexplicable
On the play at the end of the second quarter where the Colts scored the 73 yard TD, there was a reason that the defense broke down and that Addai was able to escape for the long score. With Addai still 4 yards from the first down he is being pursued by Vrable who is has a shot at catching the back. Seven yards down field Ellis Hobbs is to the outside and has broken off his coverage and is coming back towards the ball. At the first down marker, heading from the middle to the outside are Randall Gay with Rodney Harrison right behind him. And this is where the play breaks down. Harrison reaches out and pushes Gay from behind, seemingly in an effort to speed him up to get in front of Addai. This created 3 problems.
1) Gay is thrown off balance and falls flat on his face, making him unable to make any kind of play on the ball carrier.
2) The push off negates Harrison’s speed (remember your physics here. Inertia offsets the motion) and basically leaves No.37 standing with no movement. And. .
3) it creates a pile of bodies on the field that Vrable must navigate around and over in pursuit of Addai.

What I find interesting is how Vrable and A. Thomas never gave up on the play. They were still in pursuit when Addai cut inside to evade the last player in front of him, Sanders. Vrable almost made a tackle of No.29 at the Pats 15 yard line. Thomas was closing in despite rushing Manning on the play. Had Harrison not tried to stop Addai from getting the first down and pushed Gay, Randall would have been able to keep his feet and drive Addai further outside and into the path of Ellis Hobbs. Even if this had not stopped no. 29 here, the delay would have aided Vrable in stopping him. And it would have aided the team in the second half, despite a poor offensive showing in the first 30 minutes. They would have gone to the locker room up 7-6.

This is at least the second time this season that I have seen one of our defenders push a teammate in the name of making a play. Both times it did not work the way intended.

Interjection
Is it me or is Phil Sims watching a whole different game from what they are showing on my TV screen? He names the wrong players and says things that have no correlation to what I am seeing. And then he repeats it. Several times. The commentary was just ponderous. Another example of his babbling was at 3:55 in the 3rd when Brady threw to the deep right to Moss. Simms can be heard talking about how Moss was using his arm as a bar to push Hayden out of the way. Had Simms not been looking at his shoes and actually watched the replay monitor he would have seen that the reason Moss’s arm was against Hayden was that it was being HELD they by Hayden. THIS explains why Randy did not turn his body towards the ball and why he only used one arm to try to catch the ball. And why Moss was looking to the referee to imploring for a flag.

Incompetent Production
Apart from the fact that they built this game up to be the game of the Century only to then fail to show the beginning of the game, CBS made a shambles of this game. I counted at least 2 times that the crew were too busy showing off some prediction, or graphic and either failed to get back to the game until the ball was being snapped or worse after the play had already started. It is nice to have things like replays, analysis and extra information. But when the announcers, half commercials and extra’s prevent us from seeing how the teams line up or the plays then you are too detracting from the game. You are here to enhance the game, not kill it. Let the game speak for itself. Certainly on this occasion the game itself was enough.

Indianapolis
Apart from the merriment at the game I have to say that this is a fairly nice down town area and somewhat attractive city.I would not mind going there again. Maybe, say, next year?

As always thanks for reading
and

Go Pats!

Erdoboy
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