4. General comments: I originally had 8 or nine of these before somehow I wasn't allowed to copy and paste.
I doubt I'll be able to or have the patience to recreate all of them, but that might be a good thing.
a. I don't have much confidence in the Pats for this next game. In the best of times this additional aberration that the NFL has perpetrated on the public in ANOTHER of their money grabbing schemes, takes away the biggest advantage the Pats consistently have, and that is game preparation.
No team in the league gives their team better game plans on a consistent basis than the Pats. You can count on both hands the number of times when they have been out coached in the last 16 years. However the short 4 day week, even in the best of times, eliminates that advantage. The is a game where the best athletes are more important, and a coach cannot overcome that with a great plan.
The Texan's under the best of conditions would be a tough out, even at home. They have multiple great pass rushers, plus the best defensive player in the league who is slowly rounding into shape for our game. They also have a good HC, who unfortunately, is intimately familiar with our system.
NOW add the adversity of the short week, the rookie QB, and likely no Gronk, Hightower and whoever else got hurt today, and winning this game would be a greater upset than the Cardinal win.
Jacoby is going to get one practice and a walk through to completely assimilate a game plan that even a guy like with Brady's experience needs 3 full practices to feel comfortable.
I assume that a great deal of the Houston game plan was already in place prior to this week, but STILL, while Josh might have a good idea, Jacoby won't have a clue until tomorrow at the earliest.
Given this scenario, if Gronk isn't 11o% healthy, I wouldn't let him sniff the field on Thursday, because I'm thinking that it is only about a 35% chance that JG will be back for Buffalo, and I want a Rob Gronkowski who is chomping at the bit for THAT one.
b. JG's price just went up. The good news is that it's not broken, time will heal what ails him. In fact this injury INSURES his price because it will protect him against a possible bad game. Right now, every frame of film on him, is a great one (except for the fumble). His poise and leadership will be unquestioned. How could you NOT give up multiple firsts for a QB that you don't have to train, and STILL have very cheap for the first year. Of course this assumes the Pats still want to move him, but JB did nothing in HIS 2+ quarter to make you think that with 3 years of hard work, he won't be a good NFL QB too.
c. For almost 3 quarters I thought the refs had done a really good job in this game. In fact I made a note to find out who these guys were. They kept the game under control and there were a bare minimum of calls being made, including one I didn't really like that went in the Pats favor. Then over the last quarter plus of the game those same refs made 3 very weak assed calls against the Pats while at the same time ignoring similar calls against the Dolphins or worse.
The worst of these calls was the PI against Ryan that helped lead to a TD. On this play, Ryan clearly got to the spot first and the WR simply fell down trying to run through him, while never even looking back to the ball. As far as I know the PI rules there is NOTHING in this play that came close to being a PI. I looked closely in the replay to see if Logan pulled him down or tried to grab him, and there was nothing.
But even though it was a horrible call that led to a TD, I was prepared to forgive this crew for one horrid miscue. THEN came the 2 weakassed holding calls that killed 2 JB drives that had started well. It wasn't so much that they made these calls, even if I disagreed. What REALLY pissed me off was that I was seeing the same thing AND worse being committed by the Phins OL with nothing being called.
The only thing I ever want to see from the refs is equity. If you are going to throw it on the Pats, you'd better call it on the opponents and for 2 straight weeks this hasn't been the case. The Pats ended up with close to 70 yds in penalties, while if you take away the PF they HAD to call, the Phins had 4 for 35 away from home
d. And if you really want to fire up your NFL hatred, I just read where Aquib Talib will NOT be getting any NFL punishment DESPITE carrying a weapon illegally and having it go off in a public place. Didn't Plaxico go to JAIL for doing the same thing. I just don't get it. Do I have my fact straight? Do the Jets and Broncos just get free passes on these things
e. I can't tell you how happy I was to hear the NFL's rating were down across the board in the first week plus Thursday night game. I can't express my hate for that totally corrupt, lying, and disgraceful group. It makes my vow to never watch anything that this league puts out beyond Patriot games even more important. If it was gone tomorrow and I had to go to HS games to get my football fix, I'd be fine with it. Because of who they have running it, the NFL doesn't deserve to exist. I know I'm not alone in this.
f. Now the Pats are going to HAVE to sign a QB for the next 2 games. That being said, if I am wrong about Jimmy and there is a good chance for him to be there for Buffalo, I wouldn't be shocked if they didn't sign anyone, and went with Julian as an emergency guy for Houston only. He knows the system, and you can't get ANYONE in here for one practice who would be better, unless the Titans want to let us borrow Matt Castle until for a week.
That being said, if there is ANY question about JG being ready for Buffalo, you HAVE to get someone. Even if its just to run the scout team.
f. I turned on channel 4 to watch 60 minutes and I happened to catch one play of the Denver Indy game. I figures that one play would be a critical PI penalty on Indy that was almost as bad as the one we had on Logan.
I couldn't turn it off fast enought