Idle thoughts - the late night edition.....

[VJCPatriot]

Spikes was great, I thought. Does a lot of what Seau did when he was here, shooting gaps and getting into the backfield to disrupt plays. He's coming along nicely, I feel.

Spikes is one of the players from the great 2010 draft class and I felt the Pats got great value where they got him. In fact I was a lot more excited about the Spikes pick than the Cunningham pick. I think we should have gone with Dunlap over Cunningham, but since that's behind us now, no need to rehash it.

Spikes used to be mentioned as a 1st round candidate in 2009. I don't know if injuries or whatever slowed him down in 2010 but his stock slipped a lot. Also the fact that he was coming out in the same year as Rolando McClain, well everyone downgraded him compared to that beast. But Spikes, despite his lack of speed, is a heady player, a solid tackler, very instinctive, and an emotional leader on the field. I think we will continue to see improvement from Spikes. He doesn't have the pure speed or athleticism of Guyton, but he is a much better overall FOOTBALL player. Can't wait to get Mayo back and see this linebacker combo gel for the final stretch of the season.

 

[DaBruinz]

Finally it is really encouraging to watch that defensive performance knowing that its only going to get better after Mayo, Dowling and Barrett get back, and Haynesworth keeps improving. Very Exciting

This was a great sentence until you said "Barrett". Sorry, but Barrett is addition by subtraction from what I've seen..

 

[DaBruinz]

I think his arm was hit. I don't have it to look at right now, but at the time I thought he was trying to go over the 4 defenders to someone about 10 yds further down field, but his throwing motion ws disrupted.

Someone mentioned that they thought that Brady was going for Branch, who was wide open down the sideline, but that the hit to brady's arm made the ball flutter short...

 

[VJCPatriot]

Someone mentioned that they thought that Brady was going for Branch, who was wide open down the sideline, but that the hit to brady's arm made the ball flutter short...

I remember seeing the ball batted on one of Brady's INTs. That definitely affected the ball. But the popup pick to Lee, was he hit on that one too? I'd like to see a replay of that throw from start to finish.