Peter King on the last Pats TD

[SVN]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/peter_king/10/16/eli/1.html

I'M NOT SURE I AGREE, RANDALL. From Randall Allen of Huachuca City, Ariz.: "What's with the Patriots running up the score on the Cowboys near the end of Sunday's game? It wasn't necessary, as the game was already decided. Were the Patriots trying to show something to the rest of the league at the Cowboys' expense?''

I thought that when I was watching the game on TV, Randall. And you never know. But here's my thought: The Patriots got the ball with 1:54 left and the ball at the Dallas 9. The score was 41-27. Bill Belichick put the last guy on the roster, running back Kyle Eckel, in the game for the first time all day, and clearly he was in there to run out the clock with two hands on the ball, running up the gut. I'm convinced the Patriots would have run the ball up the gut three times, taken the maximum amount of time on the play clock each time, run three plays, and gotten out of there.

But after first down, Dallas called a timeout, which was fine, because obviously they thought: "Maybe we can strip Eckel and have one more shot at a miracle.'' Once they did that, it gave New England a fourth play. I say Dallas knew the Patriots were going to shove Eckel up the gut as long as the clock had time left, and Dallas should have been able to crowd the middle of the line of scrimmage and stop New England from making nine yards in four plays anyway. To sum up, I think New England enjoyed the last touchdown because of the Dallas chatter during the week, but I don't think they tried to run up the score.

 

[sebman2112]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/peter_king/10/16/eli/1.html

completely agree with him here.

 

[BradyManny]

Whaaaa...Peter King making sense??

Still, call me a skeptic, but his sudden reasonable treatment of the Patriots might have something to do with SI having Brady and the Pats on the cover this week. Perhaps he had some pressure from above to lay off the BS for a friggin week and let the magazine ride some positive Patriots hype.

 

[Trot]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/peter_king/10/16/eli/1.html

Who gives a flying f*ck what this sanctimonious piece of garbage, this fat-as*sed muckracker thinks?

Not I.

 

[OhExaulted1]

Maybe the Patriots had videotape from the future and foresaw the Cowboys breakdowns inside.

Or maybe BB read their minds and used Jedi mind tricks on them.

Or maybe the Cowboys just suck.

You decide.

 

[Holy Diver]

Whaaaa...Peter King making sense??

Still, call me a skeptic, but his sudden reasonable treatment of the Patriots might have something to do with SI having Brady and the Pats on the cover this week. Perhaps he had some pressure from above to lay off the BS for a friggin week and let the magazine ride some positive Patriots hype.

I agree....I'm also surprised he didn't bring up 'spygate' again.

 

[Joker]

Things Peter Ding should bring up...

1) Smorgasbord Gate.."was that really 10 pounds of Alaskan King Crab I just ate, or processed pollock?"

2) Blubberguts Gate..."hey! I can't see my pee pee!"

3) University of Phoenix Online Gate..."I paid $49.95 for my degree...you WILL respect my opinion!"

4)Intergalactic Moron Gate..."No...I am NOT an illegal alien...I'm a space alien!"

 

[Razor]

While I agree completely with King on this one, I also love this explanation:

"Right after Junior Seau's interception clinched the Patriots' 48-27 victory in Dallas on Sunday, my BlackBerry vibrated with a six-word text from my friend Willy:

Don't expect to see Tom Brady "take a knee" anytime soon.
"Here comes the Eff You TD.""

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/bostonblog/071015

 

[He Ban Me]

Is "off tackle" considered the same as "up the gut"?? IIRC, the TACKLE plays outside the Guard, who plays outside the center. Not exactly "up the gut", is it?

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Whaaaa...Peter King making sense??

Still, call me a skeptic, but his sudden reasonable treatment of the Patriots might have something to do with SI having Brady and the Pats on the cover this week. Perhaps he had some pressure from above to lay off the BS for a friggin week and let the magazine ride some positive Patriots hype.

who cares what he thinks or why he thinks it?

 

[Double G]

Great point; if they had run behind a guard and scored, I'd say they did not try to run up the score, but the fact that they ran one hole over, behind a tackle, leaves no doubt they were trying to run up the score.

When they put in their 12th string fullback who was in street clothes a couple of weeks ago, I turned to my girlfriend and said "Baby, here comes the Eff you TD!" We'll show those Colts what they are in for in a couple of weeks, because that is why they did it.

See, EVERYTHING the Patriots do is all about the Colts. My next door neighbors cousins uncle whos brother owns a sub shop next to the coffee shop BB goes to said he walks out of there after stopping to get a cup of Joe on the way to the stadium every morning mumbling "Must do stuff to irritate the Colts and their fans at the end of every game."

Speaking of which, if it had been the Colts they would have passed for a TD on fourth down.

The smart thing to do AFTER DALLAS CALLED A TIMEOUT would have been to be good sports and simply take a knee, so they could take over on downs, heave a hail mary pass for a TD, try and succeed at an onside kick, recover and heave another hail mary TD. Yep, THAT would have been the right thing to do because football is a gentlemans game afterall, fair play and all that good stuff.

To expand on your point further, if they ran BETWEEN a guard and a tackle, is that running up the score or not?

Discuss.

 

[FlyingElvis75]

I could swear I saw a quote from T.O. saying he would do the same thing in that situation, but I can't find it right now.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Maybe the Patriots had videotape from the future and foresaw the Cowboys breakdowns inside.

Or maybe BB read their minds and used Jedi mind tricks on them.

Or maybe the Cowboys just suck.

You decide.

Beautiful...

Peter almost told the truth. I fixed that for him:

I thought that when I was watching the game on TV, Randall. And take it from me, I never know what to think. But here's what I think I thought once I read what a few of my actually football savvy collegues had to say on the matter...

Peter just doesn't know what to think, or say, or quote any more. And to think, all he had to do was STFU for a week when spygate broke and he could have thought what Bob Costas now thinks after a sitdown heart to heart with the Commish, whose cell phone # Peter King surely must have.... Peter King could have broken the story of the year - that there was nothing more to "spygate" than a rules violation.

 

[ALP]

umm, no, im pretty sure eckel was supposed to run rit up the "gut", but hes s natural football player...he saw an opening a hole over, so he went through it...wut did u expect? him to stand there until he gets tackled and leave the endzone all by itself? cmon now guys, we wanted to give eckel a TD, we were not trying to run up the score...

but even if we were...wut size dress do u wear?

 

[PatsFan#37]

This topic always gets me irritated. This is a sixty minute game. Put the game away and go home. If the NFL teams don't like the concept of sixty minute play, then they can institute a new rule allowing the losing team to concede the game to the winning team thereby ending the game.

 

[patsox23]

Outside of Cameragate, THERE IS NO BIGGER BILL-WALSHER OF THE PATRIOTS THAN PETER KING. Please stop pretending this isn't the case. I too think he's been a complete buffoon when it comes to the Estrella Incident, obsessed, uninformed, a complete LOSER. But the guy has a loooong history of total ASS-KISSING of all things Patriot.

Let's get real.

 

[He Ban Me]

Great point; if they had run behind a guard and scored, I'd say they did not try to run up the score, but the fact that they ran one hole over, behind a tackle, leaves no doubt they were trying to run up the score.

When they put in their 12th string fullback who was in street clothes a couple of weeks ago, I turned to my girlfriend and said "Baby, here comes the Eff you TD!" We'll show those Colts what they are in for in a couple of weeks, because that is why they did it.

See, EVERYTHING the Patriots do is all about the Colts. My next door neighbors cousins uncle whos brother owns a sub shop next to the coffee shop BB goes to said he walks out of there after stopping to get a cup of Joe on the way to the stadium every morning mumbling "Must do stuff to irritate the Colts and their fans at the end of every game."

Speaking of which, if it had been the Colts they would have passed for a TD on fourth down.

The smart thing to do AFTER DALLAS CALLED A TIMEOUT would have been to be good sports and simply take a knee, so they could take over on downs, heave a hail mary pass for a TD, try and succeed at an onside kick, recover and heave another hail mary TD. Yep, THAT would have been the right thing to do because football is a gentlemans game afterall, fair play and all that good stuff.

To expand on your point further, if they ran BETWEEN a guard and a tackle, is that running up the score or not?

Discuss.

I don't think they were running up the score at all. That doesn't mean I agree with you screwballs that they had no other choice, or that you've never seen a team take a knee on 4th down. Tell you what, don't waste your time trying to find a game where a team came back from 14 down, with 20 ticks to play, starting from their own 2. On the other hand, with a little effort, I think you might be able to find that a team somewhere at some point (Div.1 or NFL) has taken a knee on 4th down to end a game.

As far as the verbage "up the gut", folks make it sound like the guy took the handoff and made a bee line for the center, and fell forward. The fact is, the runs WERE NOT up the gut, the RB was in fact, trying to score. But good for him, might be his only shot. But certainly no one is fooled by the description of how the play(s) unfolded. AND, if you were REALLY concerned about a comeback, how much sense does it make to even HAND THE BALL OFF to a 4th stringer? A safer play would seem to be "kneeling" on it. OI don't blame the Boys for calling a TO, they had to. But once you take that knee on second and third, and that clock keeps ticking, the reality sets in, and the niceties take place.

As far as throwing for a TD on 4th, you have no idea what you are talking about. Let me know what you'd like me to disprove relative to that point.

 

[PatsSteve1]

Outside of Cameragate, THERE IS NO BIGGER BILL-WALSHER OF THE PATRIOTS THAN PETER KING. Please stop pretending this isn't the case. I too think he's been a complete buffoon when it comes to the Estrella Incident, obsessed, uninformed, a complete LOSER. But the guy has a loooong history of total ASS-KISSING of all things Patriot.

Let's get real.

I agree. It's the 1st time I recall he said anything negative about the Patriots. Sometimes reporters so things at the behest, suggestion, gentle nudge or whatever of thier sources or contacts. I don't really know what his motives are.

 

[Gumby]

He ban me: On the other hand, with a little effort, I think you might be able to find that a team somewhere at some point (Div.1 or NFL) has taken a knee on 4th down to end a game.

uhhh; check the clock buddy. The whole point of the argument is that once Dallas called their time out; even if they took a knee on fourth down they would turn the ball over to Dallas and give them 20-30 seconds on the clock to try and throw hail marys. And if you are BB do you really want our fragile secondary (seems like they all break like china dolls every year ) to go out there on 3-4 consecutive 50 yard pass patterns with collisions and jump balls all over the place.

Or is it your thought in your brain trust there that on 4th down they should put wes welker in the backfield and tell him. Wes, just run around out there dont step out of bounds and see if you can burn up 30 seconds on one single down.
..... That would be an even more brilliant way to get someone hurt.

All told once they called the timeout the only way to make sure Dallas threw in the towel was to put up 3 scores - 2 TDs and a FG or 3 TDs on them. That way Dallas would know they had NO HOPE OF getting 3 scores in 30 seconds. Anything less .....and HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL.

 

[DisgruntledTunaFan]

Over on the CMB-alot of them are crying sour grapes over BB supposedly running up the score.

Honestly-we also cried sour grapes when Sean Payton did an onsides kick on the 3rd qtr(yeah, they were up by 3 scores, but there was PLENTY of time left in the game nonetheless).

BB did nothing wrong, IMHO-I'm only crying sour grapes b/c we laid an egg in the second half of that game.