Pats/Colts Thoughts

[Ring 6]

-Rodney Harrison played a tremendous game.
-Its nice to root for a team that can take winning or losing against the best teams out there, and put it in the hands of Tom Brady.
-Ellis Hobbs must have committed a crime in Indianapolis in a former life. That was possibly the worst pi call I have ever seen.
-the Moss off pi call probably bothered me the most, because there had been chatter that there was whining to the NFL (don't know if it was the Colts or someone else) that Moss pushes off in the end zone. Of course, they wait until the most critical point in the game, and throw in the obligatory call. I have absolutely no doubt that the officiating crew went into the game knowing they would call Moss for off pi in the end zone.
-Manning does a good job avoiding sacks, and his OL does a good job protecting him. He does not get sacked often. However, possibly because of that, he is not very good at protecting the ball in the pocket. He fumbles an awful lot when he is sacked. Our pass rushers have become more and more focussed on getting the ball out rather than just the sack. I think this will be a key factor if we meet again.
-Kevin Faulk just makes plays.
-Wes Welker is a great fit on this team. He wants the ball on big plays, he makes few mistakes, and he plays hard.
-Are we ready to say Gostkowski is a good NFL kicker? His kickoffs are excellent, he rarely misses a FG.
-I was concerned on Indys next to last drive, when they completed a pass on the sidelines and Baker was in coverage. Brought back memories of Janauary when we lost the AFCC game with a bunch of players on defense who had nothing to do with us getting there in the first place.
-We havent seen much of him, and he played sparingly yesterday, but I like what Mike Wright brings as an end of the bench DL. He plays hard and hustles. Made some plays, not great ones, yesterday. He has been a good st contributor in the past also, and I'd expect to see some st plays from him going forward.
-Kyle Eckel does a good job covering kicks.
-I would have been happy winning 79-78 or 3-2. In retrospect, I kind of like how we won this one. In our 3 SB Championships, my opinion was the one single factor that was more important in those teams than any other was their ability to play their best when the game was on the line. It doesn't look like we will get many chances to find out if this team has that ability this year, so today, it seems like a good test to have weathered yesterday.
-I felt BB was 'playing possum' with his defensive gameplan. I thought the newly created 4-2 nickel with Harrison as an OLB, and an OLB at DE was a gimmick that they would shift out of once the Colts defined a gameplan. I was telling BB thourgh my TV by the end of the 1st quarter it was time to get out of it. He never did, and you know what? After that, we stopped the run. I think it was an amazing effort by the D to hold Addai to 17 carries for 41 yards from the end of the 1st/beginning of the 2nd quarter (after his first 9 carries) without ever leaving the nickel base and using a 205 lb OLB who made Dallas Clark irrelevant while we were at it.
-My 9 year old son, crossed over yesterday into what will be a lifelong, live and die with the team Pats fan. Up until now, he has had a growing interest in the Pats. He has watched games, but not undividedly. He liked going to camp this year, but liked the food and autographs as much as actually seeing the team practice. Yesterday, he was into the game for 60 minutes. He was yelling and screaming along with me. (He has a new move. When we watch the game, Im in the recliner right near the TV, and he is 10 feet away on the couch. When the Pats do something good, he runs and does his own "Lambeau leap" into my lap to celebrate.) He is really understanding the game (he has played Pop Warner) sees more than I did when I was 9. His only flaw (hopefully corrected yesterday) is that he cheers every play the Patriots make, even the tackle made after a 15 yard gain. ("Yeah, but they didnt get a touchdown"). Absolutely even more fun watching the Pats with him so into it.

 

[oldrover]

I had fun watching the game with my 16-year-old, who's a casual fan, but saw how into it I was, and got into it as well. Good stuff.

 

[xTROx]

Thats awesome about your son!

Can't wait to watch football with my kids whenever I have them.

 

[Gumby]

-Kyle Eckel does a good job covering kicks.

On the one kick-off in the 2nd half (1st 4th qtr TD ?) I was just yelling in the bar "How the HELL does a FB!!! get down FIRST on KICKOFF coverage???"

Awesome player on ST. :rocker:

 

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

-Ellis Hobbs must have committed a crime in Indianapolis in a former life. That was possibly the worst pi call I have ever seen.

...right behind the faceguarding call on him in the AFCCG. I can't believe the refs forgot faceguarding was no longer PI. Even worse, Mike Perriea(sp?) defended the call later that week, saying there was contact. There was no contact.

Regards,
Chris

 

[nowayback]

explain to me how hobbs can cover a colt wr after the pi's called on him? he must be worried about getting near any of them.

 

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

-My 9 year old son, crossed over yesterday into what will be a lifelong, live and die with the team Pats fan. Up until now, he has had a growing interest in the Pats. He has watched games, but not undividedly. He liked going to camp this year, but liked the food and autographs as much as actually seeing the team practice. Yesterday, he was into the game for 60 minutes. He was yelling and screaming along with me. (He has a new move. When we watch the game, Im in the recliner right near the TV, and he is 10 feet away on the couch. When the Pats do something good, he runs and does his own "Lambeau leap" into my lap to celebrate.) He is really understanding the game (he has played Pop Warner) sees more than I did when I was 9. His only flaw (hopefully corrected yesterday) is that he cheers every play the Patriots make, even the tackle made after a 15 yard gain. ("Yeah, but they didnt get a touchdown"). Absolutely even more fun watching the Pats with him so into it.

I hope my 3yr old daughter eventually becomes a fan. When the Sox were one out away from winning the title last week, I picked her up in anticipation of giving her a "we win" kiss. The moment I picked her up, she goes "Put me down! I wanna read books!"*

Regards,
Chris

* Countdown to the non-Sox fans saying, "Yeah, I would have said the same thing" in three, two...

 

[Joker]

Thanx Andy

 

[Ring 6]

...right behind the faceguarding call on him in the AFCCG. I can't believe the refs forgot faceguarding was no longer PI. Even worse, Mike Perriea(sp?) defended the call later that week, saying there was contact. There was no contact.

Regards,
Chris

This one was far worse than the AFCC game call.
In the AFCC he was just running with his back to the ball and it hit him in the back. While not technically pi, he was beaten and scrambling. On this play, he played PERFECT TEXTBOOK defense. You cannot cover better than he did. He got inside position, he played the ball. The WR intiated the contact.
The only thing I will say, because I hate sounding like a 'the refs always screw us fan' is that they spotted the ball at the 5 and the pass was thrown into the end zone, so I want to go back and see what actually happened at the 5. I saw nothing in the replays, but didn't look for contact at the 5.
Interestingly, every highlight showed included the Samuel interference which was ticky-tack but something that is justified to call if you are calling it that close, but not a single one showed the Hobbs interference. Interesting in that not only was it a worse call, but it also was more critical, resulting in more yardage and a TD instead of a FG. That kind of tells me my eyes were right and it was a horrible call. The NFL Network has a tendency to ignore the highlights of big penalties that are bad calls, but show the ones that were defendable or easy.

 

[patsox23]

explain to me how hobbs can cover a colt wr after the pi's called on him? he must be worried about getting near any of them.

That sure would explain a lot.

 

[shmessy]

I hope my 3yr old daughter eventually becomes a fan. When the Sox were one out away from winning the title last week, I picked her up in anticipation of giving her a "we win" kiss. The moment I picked her up, she goes "Put me down! I wanna read books!"*

Regards,
Chris

* Countdown to the non-Sox fans saying, "Yeah, I would have said the same thing" in three, two...

one.

I would have said the same thing.

Actually, I was holding my, then 9 month old daughter when Ortiz hit the walk off homer to win the ALDS in 2004. My reaction is blamed today for the nervous tic she has.

 

[ALP]

all i gotta say is....so much for rodney losing a step...LOL

 

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

This one was far worse than the AFCC game call.In the AFCC he was just running with his back to the ball and it hit him in the back. While not technically pi, he was beaten and scrambling. On this play, he played PERFECT TEXTBOOK defense. You cannot cover better than he did. He got inside position, he played the ball. The WR intiated the contact.

The call yesterday was bogus, but here's the thing...there was contact. Granted it was initiated by Wayne, but this isn't the first time refs see contact, throw the flag and undeservedly nail the DB. It's BS, but it happens all the time and not just in Pats games, too. The league needs to do something about it because these mistakes give teams huge gains they don't deserve that can be game changers. Still, this is nothing unique to the Pats.

In the AFCCG, there was no contact. Who cares if Hobbs was beaten and scrambling...no contact is no contact. Yet the ref calls interference, ball on the one yard line and the Colts score a TD. In the AFCCG. With supposedly the top-notch reffing crew for the year. Forgetting that faceguarding is legal.

Regards,
Chris