great piece on ghost
The best 16 minutes of the season - Peter King - SI.com
The best 16 minutes of the season - Peter King - SI.com
Stat of the Week
When the Patriots let the best kicker of his day -- Adam Vinatieri -- leave via free agency in 2006 after 10 stellar seasons, they were widely derided for allowing a few bucks to get in the way of keeping one of the best clutch players of the Super Bowl era. That year, they drafted kicker Stephen Gostkowski from Memphis in the fourth round.
As usual, the Patriots are having the last laugh on the fourth estate -- and the rest of the NFL too. In the last three years, Gostkowski, kicking outside most often, has been more efficient in field goals, with more touchbacks on kickoffs, for a quarter of the cost of Vinatieri, who's been kicking inside most often. Gostkowski was named to his first Pro Bowl this year. And Gostkowski is 24 years old. Vinatieri is 36.
"Nobody ever said anything to me here except be the best you can be,'' Gostkowski told me. "That's what I've seen around here since I got here. The only thing they're concerned about is what you can do now.''
Gostkowski, a very good pitcher in high school, is used to pressure. He threw 92 mph, once outdueled Matt Cain in a high school baseball game, and was a two-sport player at Memphis. Stunned to be picked so high in the draft -- he was expecting to sign as a free-agent -- he's responded well, as these numbers of the two kickers since 2006 show:
Player FG Made-Att. Pct. 20-29 30-39 40-49 50+ Touchbacks-Total Pct.
Gostkowski 77-90 .856 30-33 31-35 14-20 2-2 44-288 15.3
Vinatieri 68-82 .829 20-21 31-36 13-19 2-4 27-243 11.1
One more thing: Average cap numbers over the past three years: Gostkowski $470,000, Vinatieri $2,036,000.
This is not to say Vinatieri has not been very good for the Colts. In their Super Bowl season, his first in Indy, he scored every Colts point in a divisional playoff win at Baltimore and was 14 of 15 in field goals in a four-game playoff run. Rather, it's a tribute to Gostkowski being able to kick in high-pressure and weather-affected situations so early in his career, and to the Patriots for recognizing that change is essential in pro football for teams to stay on top.
f. I credit Matt Cassel for managing a game with wind gusts up to 55 mph -- and for a very big Sammy Baugh-esque 57-yard quick-kick punt in the third quarter, pinning the Bills at their 2. How about this stat line for the man who played 15 and three-quarters NFL games after not starting a game since high school: 11-5 record, .634 completion rate, 3,693 yards passing, 21 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, 89.4 rating. He may have played his last game as a Patriot, but he will have a long -- and I predict, glorious -- future in the NFL.
d. The Patriots are one of the best eight teams in football right now, but they shouldn't be in the playoffs. Fair is fair. No violins because they went 11-5 and didn't get in. If they hadn't allowed Miami to use a high school formation to knock them senseless in September, if they hadn't gotten a silly David Thomas unnecessary-roughness penalty or a Matt Cassel interception two games later at Indianapolis in November, if they'd stopped Brett Favre on a third-and-15 overtime pass play in November ... any of those things go the other way, and the Pats go 12-4, are the third seed in the AFC this morning, and face Baltimore this weekend.
